"Timcast" stream of the Occupy marches in NYC.
Protesting the arrests in Oakland on Saturday.

It got pretty hairy in California then, Jan. 28, 2012,
when the police were 'kettling' (i.e. cornering) people.

NYC People demonstrating solidarity with Oakland

on Solidarity Sunday.

"Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."  Spock

Environmental regulations create jobs, period.

Environmental regulation generally creates jobs, including lots of blue-collar jobs in construction and manufacturing.  Also permanent, professional work is made for scientists, as consultants.  This is easily demonstrable; in fact environmental industries are now suffering from a lack of enforcement, on the State level, often locally too.

Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.



Personal experience demonstrates that environmental regulations create all kinds of jobs.



And regulating toxins saves an untold number of people from diseases, especially cancer.

Those near and dear to you are not immune, neither are you.

Conscious, studied decision-making by Nebraska moved Keystone's pipeline.

 Lisa Song, InsideClimate News -  How do you feel about the pipeline bills that were passed during the special session?

Ken Haar, Nebraska State Senator -   I expressed this to the Omaha World-Herald when they were doing a wrap-up: I said "this has really been a f***ing miracle," and they said "well, we can't print that, but we'll use the word 'Christmas.'"

It's too late to be a pessimist.

It's too late to be a pessimist.

Our impact on Earth has grown enormously.  So much so that humans are now a geologic agent.  We move as much material every year as all the rivers, including their tributaries.  For the last 25 years, we've done that.  And the pace is increasing.

We must make substantial changes in how we "use" the planet, else become extinct.

Magnolia, 1876

Magnolia, Illinois, 1876

Ever since I found this old drawing (on ...il.gov or somesuch), I've been enchanted.  Apparently in pencil, this artistry also haunts my imagination.  They celebrate Morel (mushroom) Days here, every spring.  Yes, the town is still there but I'm not sure how much it's grown since the days portrayed. 

I drove into town out of curiosity at the end of Morel Days, a few years back.  Evidently, the house pictured on the left remains from these times!  If so, this view is toward the west in north-central Illinois.  And yes, the land is still very flat-lying, being a glacial melt outwash plain.

Black Gold

The fledgling U.S.A. had begun it's wartime campaigns for independence while American explorations continued.  In 1778, Thomas Hutchins was exploring the Illinois lands. 

He was amazed at the extraordinary bounty of natural growth, animals and forests of oak, walnut, etc. with huge trees.  Even the Illinois ground was "a superior soil to any other part of North America that I have seen."

Those of us who had the pleasure of gardening in Illinois know that this natural resource has been conserved.  While erosion due to primitive farming practices took a deep toll, there remain a few places where the original soil profile exists.  Personally, during geological investigations, I measured the thickness of black loamy topsoil at 13 feet deep.  This is extraordinary.  Most places on Earth have just a few inches of topsoil.  Rarely does it have so much organic humus to be naturally black and have such depth!

USDA Three Phase Diagram of Soil Types

Much more at:

Soil Science Society of America

Surface mining destroys habitats and fisheries but also impacts and contaminates water supplies for people.  We're a part of our planet.

These two photos are mines for low-grade, filthy coal.

We're also mining oil now, scraping bottom...





The Geology of Rare Earth Elements

The Geology of Rare Earth Elements

The biggest secret is that they are not very rare.

But there is going to be a lot of destruction of habitat, mining.

Because "economically-viable" concentrations of them occur in certain soils.

Strip-mining is about to make a comeback, probably on a scale not seen since the 1950's.

Coal is also making a comeback. http://comps.fotosearch.com/bigcomps/AGE/AGE003/F36-118830.jpg

They might as well have just bombed us.

But chose to be even more destructive.

Industrial Rot

150 acres of heavy industry,

125 years heritage of industrial use,

Destroyed by a decade of greed

(outsourcing).

Industry Abandoned

Rust

never

sleeps

Ye who enter here...

 Abandon all hope,

Recent capitalistic failures beg for solutions.

There is an implicit falsehood of using money as either a metric or means by which to advance. Perhaps only as a tool to check on usefulness, it may have a role. Otherwise, generalizing Darwinism to monetary systems is highly problematic, i.e.:

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~riczw/MEGliter/econ/hedoin.pdf - while attempting to link Darwinism and natural selection to economics, the author fails miserably, which is why this is cited. Try to find any clear analogies between money theory and evolution, post them here if there are any at all.