The Fascist State of America

#IStandWithEdwardSnowden because free nations don't spy on and murder their citizens. Democracies don't terrorize sovereign nations and their peoples with torture, false imprisonment, and drone-based perma-war. It is time to stand up against the oil oligarchy’s police state that is stifling social change required to achieve universal human rights, justice, equity, and global ecological sustainability.

By Dr. Glen Barry

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

“If living unfreely but comfortably is something you are willing to accept… it is going to get worse with the next generation… The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The greatest fear I have for the outcome of these disclosures is that nothing will change… [that people] won’t be willing to stand up and take the risks to fight. I am not afraid, because this is the choice I've made.” – Edward Snowden

The Bush administration "puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide." – Candidate Barack Obama 2007

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." – George Orwell

“With American spying and drone perma-war we are witnessing the end of democracy, the failure of a fragile experiment that governments are derived from the people.” – Dr. Glen Barry

“We the People" are not enemies of the state and deserve and need to know what our government is doing. The truth matters – particularly when human freedom is at stake, and our shared environment is collapsing, with both at risk of being lost forever. America’s civil liberties have been trampled on, and sadly, most don’t seem to care, failing to understand the full implications of big brother’s ascendancy. Defending freedom from government tyranny is not a left-or-right, conservative-or-liberal matter; it is the difference between right and wrong, truth and lies, liberty and enslavement, life and death.

Edward Snowden has revealed the extent to which America has become a total surveillance police state – with wholesale spying upon its own citizens – adding to revelations since 9/11 of the murder of U.S. citizens as well as torture, indefinite detention, and pursuit of drone perma-war, terrorizing entire nations. All of these acts are occurring upon the basis of suspicion alone – without due legal process, violating international law and the U.S. Constitution – in an unprecedented expansion of government powers in the name of a war on terror, when in fact they are being used to control dissent and access oil.

President Barack Obama is a profound epic failure, in many ways worse than Über-fascist Bush, just a new black face on the American oil oligarchy’s long history of tyranny and warmongering. What a feeble, sellout, murdering, cynical disappointment Barack Obama has turned out to be. After killing a million Arabs and Muslims, Bush policies continued with vigor under Obama, has the U.S. avenged 9/11 yet? Or does America need to spy, torture, falsely imprison, and wage perma-war for years longer? Perhaps forever?

America is poised upon the precipice of becoming a totalitarian police state overseeing final global environmental collapse. As America is at risk of becoming a third-rate police state, all lovers of liberty – from the Tea Party to progressives – must come together to resist oppression, remain free, embrace justice and equity for all, and sustain our shared global environment. One can feel a libertarian–progressive alliance building to stop big nanny government from enslaving us while destroying our environment. A commitment to Green Liberty is the human family’s only path to sustained well-being.

What has America become? It is well past time the U.S. re-examines its incautious, militaristic and totalitarian response to 9/11 and re-embraces liberty, justice, and freedom. The US corporate owned government threatens global liberty and human rights; making global equity, justice, and sustainability impossible. Big nanny government is in bed with the oil oligarchy and corporate elite to threaten American and global liberty and ecosystems.

What other unethical, illegal, violent and unauthorized acts have the U.S. government carried out in secret to keep us "safe"? 9/11 trauma does NOT justify spying, torture, murder, and perma-war – along with corporate rule – the textbook definition of fascism. Real Americans that honor the constitution and American values don't spy upon, torture and murder their own citizens. And they don’t wage perma-war terrorizing others. Rather, they gracefully understand that minimizing the frequency and withstanding occasional acts of random terror is the price of freedom.

America folded like wet towel after 9/11 crimes - lashing out militaristically, murdering hundreds of thousands of innocents, as it needlessly gave up Yankee liberties acquired over hundreds of years in what had been the biggest expansion of political freedoms ever. Instead the United States should be engaging with the world to address justifiable grievances, weaning itself from its oil addiction, demobilizing the military and police state, and building international criminal courts to charge and imprison terrorists.

Do we want the Executive branch of government to know every detail of each citizen’s life? Never has a government been granted powers that don’t end up being expanded upon and misused. The slippery slope of good intentions guarantees that spying as a shortcut for security means dissidents, oddballs, artists, and ordinary citizens that threaten the political and economic elite will be targeted next. The military-industrial-Congressional complex has morphed to include the National Security Agency and Homeland Security’s fascist state of perma-war and spying.

What Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton have done to rollback civil liberties may not seem so terrible to some at first sight, but what will subsequent Presidents do with these powers to spy, torture, imprison, and murder at will? What further will be lost the next time criminal terrorists strike? President Barack Obama took our hunger for hope and change, and gave us a totalitarian police state in what can only be characterized as an epic failure, a grand bait and switch, that is the most recent fascist coup waged upon American liberty.

A truly great nation refuses to falsely trade liberty for security, which assures neither, and only enslaves you in pervasive terror.

With torture, spying, murder, and perma-war the U.S. government – the President, Congress, and courts – has abused the constitution and is no longer legitimate. From this point forward, it is only a hop, skip and a jump to an iron fisted Authoritarian dictatorship. The entire American and global citizenry is now assumed to be guilty and monitored for evidence on the assumption that everyone is a terrorist until proven innocent.

Something has gone terribly wrong with the American project – the greatest expansion of liberty and well-being in history (albeit that always existed upon a shaky economic and ecological basis). Meaningless American political rhetoric’s reference to liberty, exceptionalism, and equality are at odds with the reality of spying and murdering in the name of security. At this juncture in America's ongoing transformation into a police state, it is essential that all lovers of liberty from tea party to progressives come together to resist oppression.

Edward Snowden is an American patriot further revealing the extent to which America has become a fascist police state that spies, tortures, murders, and wages perma-war to keep us "safe". His observation that “"the government has granted itself power it is not entitled” is spot-on. Whistle-blowers against militarism, civil liberty abuses, and ecocide are global heroes – and acting upon their courageous disclosures – provide humanity’s last chance for a just, free, equitable and sustainable future.

A technological security state has been established that fundamentally threatens civil liberties and environmental sustainability. The necessary protest and regime change required to address fossil fuel addiction and abrupt climate change – and other social change necessary to bring about a just, equitable, sustainable, and universally free world - are being violently suppressed by the police state, as social change of any sort that threatens the unjust status quo is labeled terrorism.

Who protects us from the government? America has become a two party fascist state. President Obama's message of progressive hope has collapsed into a totalitarian nightmare – as the government he leads spies on and murders its own citizens; while torturing, falsely imprisoning, and waging drone based perma-war terrorizing innocents. Critics are harassed by the IRS, as the media is bullied into silence. This failed Presidency has further laid the groundwork for final collapse of US liberty under the guise of security, while ignoring immediate threats posed by abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse.

President Barack Obama's drone perma-war is terrorism, traumatizing innocent populations, murdering thousands to keep the oil flowing, and America over-consuming its unfair share of global resources. The lack of major terrorist attacks since 9/11 is due more to the small number and weakness of terrorist whackos, than the incautious military and anti-democratic response.

Now that President Barack Obama has set the precedent that Presidents can murder U.S. citizens without trial, what can we expect from successors? Given the steady erosion of civil liberties by Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama; how long until drones circle U.S. cities murdering citizens on suspicion alone? It's not as unlikely as it may once have seemed.

Social media and the Internet in general fundamentally threaten the system of coercion and misinformation upon which the ruling oligarchy depend to stifle dissent in order to continue to plunder the planet. That is why President Obama and many other petty dictators worldwide seek to monitor and control it.

Until now the Chinese government has set the standard for repressive, tyrannical, and ecocidal regimes. Now it is clear that when President Obama and Chinese President Xi next meet, they can compare and share citizen spying and repression tools, ways to avoid cutting emissions to urgently limit abrupt climate change, and how best to control and murder opponents of the police state.

Collapsing ecosystems and the inability of the perpetual growth paradigm to meet ever growing population’s consumption desires are leading to fascism to prop up the system. A free and un-wire tapped Internet is key to humanity's chance to remain free, achieve equity and justice, and avoid global ecosystem collapse. In an age of Democratic police states – where speaking freely and calling for regime change are thought crimes – it is hard to imagine a way to full spectrum sustainability sufficient to avoid ecosystem collapse.

There is NEVER any justification in a democratic society to spy on, torture, murder, or wage perma-war upon citizens and sovereign nations to keep us “safe”. Free speech and privacy are human rights that must be made universal and defended at all cost. Without the liberty required to change governments as necessary, there is no path to avoid global ecosystem collapse.

The United States must repeal the Patriot act and other post-911 rollbacks of civil liberties, dismantle the nascent police state including the NSA, stop spying upon and murdering citizens, end the state of perma-war terrorizing the world while killing innocents, and address the real and immediate security threat to us all of abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse. Otherwise there is going to be a revolution.

America must never give up its freedom because of terrorists, inside and out of government. It is time for the U.S. and world to recommit to justice, liberty, peace, ecological sustainability, and the rule of law.

Freedom Isn’t Free, Terrorism Is Pervasive

Enduring occasional acts of random terror is the cost of living in a free society. Giving up civil liberties does not provide security, but rather enslaves you in a state of pervasive terror. The human family is threatened by systematized eco-terrorism and other assaults by the elite upon the poor far more than by infrequent criminal acts which the courts can and should handle.

By Dr. Glen Barry, EcoInternet
Earth Meanders

Eco-terrorism

PERVASIVE TERROR

Terrorism is the act of inspiring terror in others by harming presumed innocents. For many, unjust postmodern life on a dying planet is full of PERVASIVE TERROR. The term terrorism has been usurped by the nanny military state to mean only politically motivated violence that targets the public. While such murder is never justified, in fact it occurs rarely and is not a high-profile threat to most. It is one of the manageable costs of being free.

Infrequent criminal acts, of the sort that recently occurred in Boston and occur much more frequently around the world, are tragic but best handled by the criminal justice system. America has become such a drama-queen nation that it continues to incautiously react to such dastardly acts with endless pundit pontificating, needlessly giving up hard-earned revolutionary civil liberties, and lashing out militarily in a counterproductive manner. Doing so breeds the next generation of criminal terrorists and ensures further blowback.

America is not special. In fact, many acts of terror occur around the ecologically and socially collapsing Earth for which America is responsible. The far greater threat issues from systematic targeting of the poor and of nature by America’s and other nations’ privileged elite. The rich and their corporations, police, and military routinely practice systematic terrorism that is much grander in scale, with devastating impact.

To name but a few: two billion people live on less than $2 a day, at least 3,000 kids die daily from bad water, and millions of innocents fear random drone attacks. Where are the outrage and the manhunts to bring those responsible for these preventable tragedies to justice? Their terror is no less heartfelt than that of the pampered elite.

Imagine the terror of an indigenous tribe suddenly finding a logging, mining, or oil company entering their ancestral land, where they have lived from time immemorial, telling them it does not belong to them. Instead, their forests will be cut, they must go to the cities, and their women are whores to service their needs. Or please consider the heartfelt terror of innocent communities hearing the incessant buzz of drones over their heads, not knowing when or whether they will be targeted as “collateral” damage – meaning murder victims. Or feel the everyday terror of the working poor, serving as slaves to the elite and then going home to unfed families and uneducated children, devoid of hope. What of the terror felt by kindred wildlife species as their habitat is razed and their young slaughtered in the name of “progress”?

Such systematic terror arising from pervasive inequity, lack of human rights, militarism, and other injustices have been endured for far too long. Many acts of criminal terror result from these social ills, and we will not achieve a lasting reduction of violence until they are addressed. Working to resolve the terror pervasive in our social and economic structures may well be the only way that an unlikely, albeit possible, large scale act of biological or nuclear criminal terrorism can be avoided. Further stripping our civil liberties, establishing a police surveillance state, and waging perma-war certainly won’t do so.

TIME OF GREAT DYING

Earth’s ecosystems are collapsing and dying as all life and the biosphere are murdered for industrial economic growth. Just like a cancer cell, exhibiting profound personal and societal sickness, humanity is systematically destroying billions of years of naturally evolved ecosystems for a few generations of excessive consumption for some, to be followed by biosphere collapse and unimaginable terror for all.

A time of great suffering and dying is upon us as global ecosystems – water, land, oceans, air, and food – are routinely destroyed by the industrial growth machine. Everywhere on Earth species, ecosystems, economies, communities, climate, and our one shared biosphere are being liquidated.

Drone perma-war, tar sands and coal, old-growth logging, inequity, ecocide, lack of justice, poverty, and human rights abuses are all terrorism and need to end.

These acts of ecocidal and genocidal terror are waged upon Earth and her ecosystems every day by the industrial growth machine and by our unfair consumption. Ecosystems and their life – that together power Earth’s biosphere – are being methodically plundered by this growth-at-all-costs mentality, which can only end in ecological collapse and the end of being for most or all life. As ecological thresholds are surpassed and climate and ecosystems are in the process of collapsing, this means continued economic growth without destroying the biosphere is not possible, and the continuation of an economic system that tries is itself an act of unspeakable terrorism upon all being.

It is time to passionately love all life and end the burning, cutting, and pillaging. Out-of-control human growth in industry, economies, and population is steadily stripping Earth of its ecosystems – meaning the end is near unless we stop.

ECO-TERRORISM

The real, worst sorts of terrorists are eco-terrorists, the corporate elite and their minions ravaging ecosystems and climate. Every day, eco-terrorism by the industrial growth machine and nanny government is waged against Earth’s ecosystems and all species, killing billions (including humans) and destroying the biosphere as habitats essential to life are weakened and killed.

Because the ruling oligarchy holds the wealth, power, and guns, such terror is nonsensically called progress and rarely questioned. Yet the terror of ecocide is unmatched in human history.

Postmodern humanity shows utter contempt for other species – terrorizing all other life forms before murdering them – as we cut down and burn our own and all life’s ecosystem habitats, filling them with waste and perversely calling it development. Earth’s ecosystems are being scoured of life to “develop” as if air, land, water, oceans, and other species are worthless. Animals certainly are terrified as their habitat is cleared and their young massacred.

Eco-terrorism is the oil oligarchy and corporate elite ravaging ecosystems and climate, destroying our one shared biosphere and all life’s well-being, for a bit more growth in stuff for a while; what will follow are apocalyptic collapse and the end of being. Where are the outrage and government resources to stop this preventable corporate terrorism? Oh wait, that’s right, they aren’t affluent Americans so they don’t matter.

If you train yourself to listen, you can hear Earth wailing in pain, speaking of and mourning her and all life’s death as ecosystems are lost.

TERRORISM IS TERRORISM WHEREVER IT OCCURS

It is time for President Barack Obama and America, after triumphing over the horrific Boston Marathon terrorism, to stop terrorizing and murdering other innocents with drone-based perma-war worldwide. Terrorism is terrorism, whenever innocents are killed, whoever pulls the trigger. After an estimated million revenge killings, how many more must be murdered to avenge 9/11?

Exaggerated fear of criminal acts of violence continues to be used as a straw man – in a misconstrued “war on terror” (though no longer referred to as such, remains nonsensical against a tactic) – in order to enslave us, and wage eco-terrorism upon the planet and the poor.

The amount spent on “defense” and “homeland security” by America is obscene. A one-time expenditure of twenty billion dollars could provide clean water for the world and save a million children a year from a preventable and terrible death. Yet America spends 30 times as much yearly to dominate the world and continue to extract an unfair share of everyone’s resources.

Again, giving up freedom does not make you secure. I sense from the Boston Marathon tragedy an America slowing becoming recommitted to justice and freedom, rather than cowering in fear and lashing out. Terrorism is a criminal act and not well addressed through military force. America must never give up its freedoms because of terrorists – and its very soul and well-being depend upon again committing to justice, freedom, sustainability, and the rule of law.

Billions of people overconsume every day, as billions of others are in excruciating pain and suffer with unmet basic needs. Each in their own way – through a combination of sheer numbers and inequity – are destroying the ecosystems necessary for life. There is no surviving such exponential industrial growth that feeds upon itself. The overdeveloped world must stop being so self-absorbed and face the daily terror borne by much of the world.

STOP THE LIES: WE ARE ONE

Going forth we must base our actions upon ecology truth. We are one human family utterly dependent upon ecosystems, climate, and kindred species for life. Nations, gods, and economic growth are passing fables; only billions of years of natural evolution reflected in life-giving ecosystems, their species, and the biosphere in sum are real and truly indispensable.

Wake up, you foolish and deluded (you know who you are). Without ecosystems there can be no economy. Global ecosystems are collapsing. The end of being draws nigh because we won’t stop burning fossil fuels and destroying natural ecosystems. When we kill the planet, all other issues will be null and void.

Love Earth, humanity, and all species like close family and friends; and together we will end the terror and sustain Earth and well-being for all life.

It is time for a radical political center to come together globally and in each of our communities with answers to threats including climate, poverty, abuse, war, denied human rights, and ecosystem collapse.

Global ecosystems and all life’s one shared biosphere are collapsing and dying under the strain of the insatiable and ecocidal human industrial growth machine. Human well-being is inseparable from the health of land, air, and water, yet we devastate ecosystems for throwaway junk. To survive, let alone thrive, humanity must immediately power down fossil fuels, protect and restore natural ecosystems, and embrace justice, equity, and peace.

Abrupt climate change and ecosystem collapse are a global ecological emergency. Resistance to ecocide is self-defense yet must NEVER target innocents. The answer lies in loving life and using all possible other just means to achieve and maintain green liberty.

It is clearly time for global Earth Revolution to sustain land, water, and air and to achieve universal human rights and economic fairness. Let’s make it so together, firmly denouncing all forms of terrorism while clearly understanding that all other forms of resistance are legitimate when used to avoid global ecosystem collapse and end systematic terrorism upon the poor and nature.

What Would John Muir Say... About the Sierra Club?

What would Muir say about the Sierra Club being led by Michael Brune, Accountant-in-Chief and old-growth forest logging apologist? On the occasion of Muir's 175th birthday, we are certain he would not be pleased and would say so strongly. As we celebrate Earth Day, will Madison Progressives see through Brune's greenwash of logging ancient, sacred wildlands for toilet paper and books?

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." - John Muir

"Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed -- chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got..." - John Muir

"The battle we have fought, and are still fighting for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end of it." - John Muir

“By choosing to sell FSC-certified wood, The Home Depot is walking its talk.” - Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club

"...there is no such thing as ecologically sustainable old-growth forest logging." - Dr. Glen Barry


By Dr. Glen Barry
Earth Meanders

John Muir was one of the greatest protectors of forests and nature who ever lived. He was connected to my hometown Madison, Wisconsin, where he attended college. He later went on to drive the creation of the National Park system and to found the Sierra Club.

Most important, Muir took an uncompromising position that old-growth forest wildernesses must be protected for their intrinsic values. He was bold and brash, and he waged verbal and written warfare with the likes of Gifford Pinchot, the founder of the U.S. Forest Service, over the fate of old-growth forest wildernesses. Their battle over the relative merits of preservation versus conservation of natural wildlands continues to rage today as Earth's last remaining naturally evolved primary forests are industrially cleared and diminished.

Given Muir's absolute commitment to not logging primary forests, I am certain he would be deeply troubled over the ascendency of old-growth logging greenwasher extraordinaire Michael Brune as the head of the Sierra Club. Mr. Brune spoke Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, and was not expected to mention his years promoting old-growth forest logging.

Mr. Brune is an accountant who has built a record of success, first with Rainforest Action Network and now with the Sierra Club, of raising money from celebrities and foundations, without much ecological policy substance. His record is also one of unequivocally supporting "sustainable" industrial old-growth forest logging around the world for throw-away consumption.

Much has been made of the myth that Mr. Brune in the late 1990s forced Home Depot into using Forest Stewardship Certified (FSC) old-growth products (try to find any sold there now, not available in many stores). But as John Muir knew nearly 100 years - and is even more true today as globally old-growth forests dwindle to such a point that biodiversity, climate and the biosphere are collapsing - there is no such thing as ecologically sustainable old-growth forest logging [1].

Industrial desecration of primary forests through even selective logging irretrievably diminishes ecological function, form, structure, composition, and dynamics. You might as well cut out little squares from the Mona Lisa and sell them, claiming the whole has not been damaged. Choosing to work for better old-growth forest logging rather than outright protection is a bit like working to treat slaves better, rather than freeing them. Both slavery and industrial old-growth forest ecocide are irredeemable and must end.

As practiced, selective logging almost always means selecting all the high quality, large trees, and logging them. Such high-grading leaves behind trees but not an old-growth forest with all the soil organisms, wildlife, and naturally evolved genetic diversity. Such forests are on there way after two or three harvests to being a tree plantation, with much reduced or even lack of ecosystem services that make life possible.

Under Mr. Brune's leadership, Rainforest Action Network pursued a failed secret deal - along with pals Sierra Club of Canada, Greenpeace, and ForestEthics - which legitimized first time industrial logging of 2/3 of Canada's Great Bear temperate old-growth rainforest - the largest in the world - for vague promises of protection of the other third, which have since been broken. 

Mr. Brune has been a staunch supporter of "certified" old-growth forest logging by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Others and myself have estimated that some 200 million hectares of old-growth forests are threatened by the greenwash behind the FSC label - a massive area two times the size of Texas. Mr. Brune and successors' RAN market campaigns in support of FSC herald certified old-growth logging for books, furniture, and even toilet paper as being sustainable [2]. Such environmental NGO greenwash is critical to FSC's business model of dressing up business as usual old-growth plunder as being green.

Perhaps the saddest part of Mr. Brune's ascendency within the forest conservation community has been his unwillingness to dialogue with ecological scientists and others who question whether logging old-growth forests provide protection. Some five years ago my organization Ecological Internet approached Mr. Brune to discuss the matter of RAN, under his leadership, greenwashing old-growth logging and consumption. Mr. Brune didn't even know basic facts about RAN's forest positions - not knowing they falsely claimed FSC old-growth logging was "sustainable" - or that their Great Bear "victory" did not even achieve FSC standards, instead settling for meaningless promises of "ecosystem management".

Since then, tens of thousands of global forest conservationists wrote to Mr. Brune [3] asking for RAN to reconsider their position and resign from FSC to focus upon protecting and restoring old-growth forests. New York activists disrupted his book signing campaigns with protests. We simply asked for far more ecological science based policies; that Mr. Brune and RAN stop greenwashing old-growth forest logging, insist FSC limit itself to certifying secondary and non-monoculture plantations, and instead work for old-growth protection and small-scale community eco-forestry.

Mr. Brune and associates appeared outraged that their "Great Rainforest Heist" be questioned [4]. RAN first promised to review their FSC membership, then broke their promise, choosing instead to stonewall and vilify their critics - including his staff publicly calling me mentally ill. This after I had worked closely with RAN for 15 years, doing many action alerts together, and being granted a rainforest protection award by them. Apparently Mr. Brune is above reproach, and does not have to answer basic questions or account for his organization's public policies.

Mr. Brune is speaking today in Madison for Earth Day. I don't think John Muir would appreciate a bean counter running the organization he founded, his past reckless and clueless support for logging Earth's last naturally evolved forest wildernesses, or his remaining silent on old-growth forest logging since taking over Sierra Club. I would go and protest his presence if I felt he had any moral bearing or ecological prowess on the matter of old-growth forest protection. So instead I write ecological truths, hoping reason prevails before global ecological collapse engulfs us.

Even given this scathing critique, I have seen some reason for hope. Mr. Brune abandoned his similar reckless and misinformed promotion of natural gas as a bridge fuel upon moving to the Sierra Club, where he quickly exposed and dispatched their secret funding from the natural gas industry. He has been particularly effective on coal and tar sands campaigning, and getting Sierra Club board approval for civil disobedience against the Keystone pipeline. Yet this too little, too late, play it safe strategy isn't going to stop global ecosystem collapse.

Sierra Club doesn't really speak out much about protecting remaining large and connected old-growth globally, or working to end markets for FSC and other primary forest timbers. Sierra Club under Mr. Brune continues to support FSC on its web site and in public statements, without mentioning the majority of its products come from old-growth. And Sierra Club - and even 350.org - remain silent on the at least 18% of carbon emissions coming from old-growth forest logging, even as they take an important - yet at this time largely symbolic - stand on tar sands' 1% of global emissions.

At this juncture in converging ecological crises, it is more important to seek ecological polices that will actually prove sufficient to avert global ecosystem collapse if successful; than it is to pursue piece-meal reforms, that even if achieved, would prove inadequate. For the human family to thrive much less survive, together we need to end coal, tar sands, AND old-growth forest logging all at the same time. Large, connected, and ecologically intact old-forests power the biosphere and provide for local livelihoods forever; their loss threatens all life's existence.

Mr. Brune personifies everything that is wrong with the corporate, PR, and image driven environmental NGOs. He is an accountant making decisions based upon maintaining his environmental bureaucracy rather than developing and implementing ecologically sufficient solutions to global ecosystem collapse. Sadly, he doesn't know what he is talking about.

John Muir would certainly call out Mr. Bruin as a clueless San Francisco hipster that managed to latch onto celebrity and foundation money, and incautiously promotes logging old-growth forests, while stifling the grassroots ecological sustainability movement that expose and resist his old-growth forest logging policies. There is no more treacherous betrayal to John Muir's legacy than greenwashing old-growth forest logging, and profiting personally from doing so.

Mr. Brune's emphasis upon style over substance is ill-placed to address looming ecological crises. He will however feel right at home with clueless Madison Progressives who preen and pose, without really knowing what they are talking about. Namely, that global ecological sustainability, and human and all life's well-being, depend critically upon protecting and restoring old-growth forests. Let's hope - for old forests and Earth's sake - that Mr. Brune and the Sierra Club are capable of self-reflection and turning over a new leaf that doesn't including logging old-growth. Until they do, they are legitimate protest targets.

The Green Liberty Party

The political philosophy: “Earth is dying if we let it. Stop burning and cutting, or die. Without ecology there can be no economy. We must work less and live more. Live free and green.”

Human growth in population and industry, at the expense of ecosystems is destroying the natural world, causing mass extinction, abrupt climate change, and economic as well as biosphere collapse. The challenge facing humanity, the greatest challenge of all time, is to foster a political, social, and economic transformation that realigns the human project with its ecosystem habitat.

The corporate-owned American two-party duopoly has proven to be corrupt, unethical, and profoundly ecologically unsustainable. It is time for a political agenda that values all species and ecosystems and plans for the long-term well-being of humanity and all life. It is time for global political Earth revolution to sustain land, water, and air and to achieve universal human rights and economic fairness.

By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet

ECOLOGY CENTRAL

Earth is collapsing and dying. Humanity is systematically destroying the biodiversity, ecosystems, climate, and biosphere upon which all life depends. Earth's ecosystems continue to be plundered for profit as if air, land, water and oceans have no intrinsic value. Climate change is an important yet singular part of a more widespread collapse of the global biosphere – the thin mantle of life arrayed in ecosystems surrounding the planet – as industrial growth destroys nature for stuff.

There remains only a short time to stop the industrial growth machine from irreparably destroying the biosphere. There is NO replacement, no backup biosphere. Either the human family comes together now to cut emissions and protect ecosystems, or being may well end – certainly well-being.

The central tenets of a Green Liberty political philosophy affirm that abrupt climate change, global ecosystem loss, and biosphere collapse threaten the well-being of the entire human family and of all life. This crisis is only survivable if we drastically cut emissions and move at once to protect natural ecosystems. Continued exponential human and industrial growth at the expense of life-giving ecosystems can only end in ecological and social collapse. We have met ecocide, and it is us. Yet not even this ecocidal state of affairs excuses loss of humanity's inherent rights, freedom, and duties.

Earth's people want and deserve universal democracy, political liberty, economic justice, and sustained ecology for everyone, for the whole world, and they want it now. It is time for a monumental global political realignment as lovers of ecology and liberty unite to topple the ecocidal nanny state and corporate oligarchy, at the ballot box and marketplace when possible, otherwise in the streets.

The human industrial growth machine is systematically liquidating the ecosystems upon which all life depends. At its root, abrupt climate change is one of many crises, others including overpopulation, ecocidal industrial growth, ecosystem loss and diminishment (especially the oceans and old-growth forests), inequity amidst plenty, and failed human development that equates advancement with ecocide.

Without ecology there can be no economy. Either the human family together invests in ecosystems and renewable energy, or else abrupt climate change and ecological collapse kill us. Industrial economic growth as it has widely been practiced by large corporations and individuals alike destroys ecosystems, collapses climate and biosphere, and destroys habitat, murdering all life.

Continue reading "ESSAY: The Green Liberty Party" »