Earth Intelligence – Page 200 – Public Intelligence Blog

US to build $120m rare earth research institute

By Katia Moskvitch

BBC News, 11 January 2012

The US Department of Energy is giving $120m (£75m) to set up a new research centre charged with developing new methods of rare earth production.

Rare earths are 17 chemically similar elements crucial to making many hi-tech products, such as phones and PCs.

The Critical Materials Institute will be located in Ames, Iowa.

The US wants to reduce its dependency on China, which produces more than 95% of the world's rare earth elements, and address local shortages.

According to the US Geological Survey, there may be deposits of rare earths in 14 US states.

Besides being used for hi-tech gadgets, the elements are also crucial for manufacturing low-carbon resources such as wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars, said David Danielson, the US assistant secretary for renewable energy.

“The Critical Materials Institute will bring together the best and brightest research minds from universities, national laboratories and the private sector to find innovative technology solutions that will help us avoid a supply shortage that would threaten our clean energy industry as well as our security interests,” he said in a statement.

Rare earth elements are also used for military applications, such as advanced optics technologies, radar and radiation detection equipment, and advanced communications systems, according to a 2011 research report by the US Government Accountability Office.

Recycling issue

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Phi Beta Iota: An Open Source Agency (OSA) at IOC $125M and FOC $3B, would be a vastly better investment. Once again pork finds a home and a new stove-pipe is being built.

Rare earths

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: US to Fund Rare Earths Institute — Doing the Wrong Thing Righter Once Again”

2013/01/102013/01/10

Berto Jongman: Eight Paradigm Shifts — Starting Now…

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Are We on the Verge of an Interspiritual Age?

By Bernard Starr (about the author)

EXTRACT

The horrific events that we read about and view in vivid television reports hardly testify to an imminent state of spiritual elevation. Conflict, greed, self-interest, divisiveness, warfare and even genocide are as prevalent on the world stage today as they have ever been. Even religions and sects of religions that worship the same God are torn by strife and violence.

So when I first heard about the new book by Kurt Johnson and David Robert Ord, The Coming Interspiritual Age, I was understandably skeptical. But when I read the endorsements by notables like Ken Wilbur, Andrew Harvey and Matthew Fox, I thought, “Maybe Johnson and Ord are on to something.” And indeed they are.

Kurt Johnson, a monastic for more than a decade who later became an evolutionary biologist, and David Robert Ord, a Presbyterian minster bring both a spiritual and scientific perspective to their vision of a new spiritual age. Inspiration for their book was sparked by the teachings and writngs of Catholic Brother Wayne Teasdale. Johnson was a close associate of Teasdale, who coined the words “interspirituality” and “interspiritual age” in 1999 in his now classic book The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions. Teasdale, Thomas Merton, Raimon Panikkar, Matthew Fox and other western ecumenical thinkers began their work in response to the call of the historical Vatican II Council (1962-1965), which spawned a new dialogue across all of the world's religions, a process richly described by Johnson and Ord.

. . . . . . . .

Contributing to the likelihood of this new age is that fact that science is loosening its long-standing commitment to rigid materialism and reductionism in favor of “an all-inclusive quantum reality in which everything is made of the same thing.” These changes are moving human consciousness toward a we-oneness universal state and away from the I-me consciousness that has hampered our spiritual growth.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Eight Paradigm Shifts — Starting Now…”

2013/01/102013/01/10

16 Jan 2012 Washington DC Global Futures Intelligence System and the Millenium Project

Earth Intelligence

The Millennium Project to Launch the ‘Global Futures Intelligence System' at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., January 16th

A demonstration of how this pioneering system could help top executives, experts, and the general public monitor and better anticipate future change. The event will be webcast live at: http://www.mga-media.net/Guest-Live.html from 12:30 – 1:30 PM on January 16, 2013.

The Global Futures Intelligence System (GFIS) is The Millennium Project's unique integration of critical intelligence for the global future. This groundbreaking system, continuously updated and improved by world experts, is being made available to the public.

“The world is in a race between implementing an ever-increasing set of ways to improve the human condition and the seemingly ever-increasing complexity and scale of global problems, states the 2012 State of the Future report by The Millennium Project. The report goes on to say that, “After 16 years of The Millennium Project’s global futures research, it is increasingly clear that the world has the resources to address its challenges, but it is not clear that right decisions will be made on the scale necessary to address our global problems. The velocity, volume, and complexity of change and challenges are increasing exponentially. The data, information, knowledge, and intelligence explosions are also accelerating.” Jerome Glenn, The Millennium Project's CEO states that, “The world needs a way to think together about the future, drawing on the collective intelligence of humanity. Google and Wikipedia are great advances, but they do not provide a framework for understanding the global changes resulting from social and technological advances and other long-term trends and possible events. The GFIS is designed to do this.”

SchwartzReport: Canadian Oil Sands Destroying Nearby Lakes

05 Energy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, Earth Intelligence

Canadian oil sands pollute nearby lakes. Report is blow to Keystone pipeline.

Oil sands production in Canada has contaminated surrounding lakes with substances linked to cancer, according to a new study. The scientific findings may help the case against building Keystone XL, a pipeline that would connect Canadian oil sands with American refineries.

Production at the world's third largest source of oil has polluted surrounding waters with toxic substances, according to a new study. The findings add fuel to a fiery debate over a proposed pipeline connecting Canadian oil sands with US refineries.

Lakes as far as 56 miles away from production facilities near Fort McMurray, Alberta, show unnaturally high levels of substances linked to cancer. Researchers say they are the result of roughly half a century of development at the Athabasca oil sands.

While concentrations of carcinogens remain low compared with those found in urban lakes, scientists at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, called the findings, released Monday, “worrying” and warned of future effects from the spread of oil sands contaminants.

Read full article.

2013/01/082013/01/08

John Robb: Community Supported Agriculture — Farming as Service

01 Agriculture, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Farming is Becoming a Service. Here's How to Benefit From It

By John Robb

Farming is increasingly becoming a service.

The reasons for this are simple.

People want the freshness, quality, and meaning they get from buying local food from people they know. It's also great for the farmer, since it enables them to directly interact with customers again.

One of the ways this service is being provided is Community Supported Agriculture, or a CSA.

A CSA is essentially a subscription to a farm's output, usually delivered weekly. Here's what a good sized box looks like (via dirtandveggies):

The weekly delivery system works nicely to the benefit of both the resilient customer and the farmer. The customer gets freshly picked, locally procured, high quality produce, that is grown in a way that they approve of (this is going to become very, very important when the GMO bubble pops).

The farmer benefits from a predictable income stream. Income that is paid upfront (instead of being reliant of volatile commodity markets and government subsidies) by willing customers.

Continue reading “John Robb: Community Supported Agriculture — Farming as Service”

2013/01/062013/01/06

Berto Jongman: Jared Diamond’s Books Summarized

Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Focused on new book, but in passing provides very good summaries of past books.

Jared Diamond: what we can learn from tribal life

The west's dwindling connection with the natural world puts it in increasing peril, says the distinguished anthropologist in his new book. Many of the practices of tribal cultures can help us to rediscover our way, he argues – from respecting the environment to letting toddlers play with knives

EXTRACT

Since moving to LA, Diamond has produced a series of books that have propelled him to fame. The first, The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, appeared in 1992, its title referring to Homo sapiens, who are depicted by Diamond as a species of chimpanzee that is increasingly out of kilter with the natural world, particularly since the invention of agriculture, “a catastrophe from which we have never recovered”. With the arrival of farming, Diamond argues, women were subjected to domestic drudgery; people started to hoard resources and wealth; and our proximity to animals triggered disease epidemics that still threaten to overwhelm us. “With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence,” he states. The Third Chimpanzee won the Royal Society prize for science books that year.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Jared Diamond's Books Summarized”

2013/01/012013/01/01

SchwartzReport: Genetic Modication – Case Study in Fraud, Waste, & Abuse Starting with Corruption of Information and Falsification of Intelligence

Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Knowledge

Genetic Engineering and the GMO Industry: Corporate Hijacking of Food and Agriculture

“I recognized my two selves: a crusading idealist and a cold, granitic believer in the law of the jungle” – Edgar Monsanto Queeny, Monsanto chairman, 1943-63, “The Spirit of Enterprise”, 1934.

When rich companies with politically-connected lobbyists and seats on government-appointed bodies bend policies for their own ends, we are in serious trouble. It is then that our democratic institutions become hijacked and our choices, freedoms and rights are destroyed. Corporate interests have too often used their dubious ‘science’, lobbyists, political connections and presence within the heart of governments, in conjunction with their public relations machines, to subvert democratic machinery for their own benefit. Once their power has been established, anyone who questions them or who stands in their way can expect a very bumpy ride.

The power and influence of the GMO sector

Read full article.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Genetic Modication – Case Study in Fraud, Waste, & Abuse Starting with Corruption of Information and Falsification of Intelligence”