David Isenberg: CIA Closes Climate Center

Earth Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude
David Isenberg

CLIMATE: Amid budget scrutiny, CIA shutters climate center

Annie Snider, E&E reporter

Greenwire: Monday, November 19, 2012

With the U.S. intelligence budget shrinking, the CIA has quietly shut down its Center on Climate Change and National Security — a project that was launched with the support of Leon Panetta when he led the agency, but that drew sharp criticism from some Republicans in Congress.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the center said it closed its doors earlier this year, with its staff and analysis continuing under other auspices.

CIA spokesman Todd Ebitz confirmed the change.

“The CIA for several years has studied the national security implications of climate change,” Ebitz said in a statement to Greenwire. “This work is now performed by a dedicated team in an office that looks at a variety of economic and energy security issues affecting the United States.”

The CIA launched the climate change center in September 2009 after a spate of reports linking climate change and national security that drew interest from some members of Congress seeking political action on climate change.

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Berto Jongman: Integral Life Video and Book on Evolution’s Purpose

Earth Intelligence
Berto Jongman

Evolution's Purpose: A Creation Story for Our Time

August 31st, 2012

Steve McIntosh and Jeff Salzman discuss Steve's new book, Evolution’s Purpose: An Integral Interpretation of the Scientific Story of Our Origins—a powerful and exciting argument for the progressive nature of evolution in matter, life, culture and personal development. He demonstrates how these fundamental dimensions of life are called forward into more complex and intelligent forms by the gravitational pull of Goodness, Truth and Beauty. Ultimately Evolution’s Purpose reveals a radical spiritual teaching, and it succeeds not by relying on established religious lineages but by pointing out the profound creative forces that are demonstrably at work in our world and in our lives.

Two Short Videos

SmartPlanet: 1 Earth-Changing Idea, 9 Other Ideas

Communities of Practice, Earth Intelligence, True Cost

Scientific American’s list of 10 ideas about to change the world

6. A single sustainability index for products

How do you compare the environmental impact of, say, a bottle of laundry detergent versus an LCD screen? The Sustainability Consortium, a group of 10 universities, non-profits and 80 international companies including Walmart and Coca-Cola, are creating an index that includes every step of the supply chain. The group has already released the measure it will use to evaluate its first 100 products.

Right now, a similar rating system, Good Guide, is based solely on public information. The new system would take into account “emissions, waste, labor practices, water usage and other sensitive factors that will become available only as large corporate players exert pressure on suppliers to disclose them,” says Scientific American.

Read full article with 9 Other Ideas

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Berto Jongman: Western-Imperial Violence — Detailed Dismantling of Steven Pinker’s Apologetics

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence
Berto Jongman

Reality Denial : Steven Pinker's Apologetics for Western-Imperial Volence

By Edward S Herman and David Peterson

ZNET, Wednesday, 25 July 2012

It is amusing to see how eagerly the establishment media have welcomed Steven Pinker’s 2011 tome, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined,[1] which explains not only that “violence has been in decline for long stretches of time,” but that “we may be living in the most peaceful era in our species' existence.”[2] A professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University since 2002 and a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist in the general nonfiction category,[3] Pinker’s lovable theme coincides with the Nobel Peace Laureate’s current engagement in wars on at least four separate continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America); his regretful partial withdrawal from invaded and occupied Iraq; his victorious termination of the 2011 war in Libya; his buildup and threats to engage in even larger wars with Syria and Iran, both already underway with aggressive sanctions and an array of covert actions;[4] his semi-secret and ever-widening use of remote-controlled aerial gunships and death squads in global killing operations;[5] and his declaration of the right to kill any person anywhere for “national security” reasons—officially making the entire world a U.S. free-fire-zone.[6] The Barack Obama regime, and before it the Bush-Cheney regime, have also supported and protected Israel’s escalated ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and the hostile U.S. actions and threats involving Iran and Syria are closely geared with those of Israel.

Read full article with detailed notes.

Berto Jongman: Video Dr. Johan Galtung at World Peace Academy

Peace Intelligence

 

Berto Jongman

Prof. Dr. Johan Galtung at World Peace Academy

YouTube (59:48).  Conflict is a relationship, not an attribute.  Conflict is competing unresolved narratives.  Six case studies:  US versus Latin America on Cuba and drugs; Israel versus Iran; Israel versus the Arab World; Holocaust; Potential Anti-Semitism in USA; Debt Bondage (China versus USA; German versus Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Ireland; World Bank versus Third World.

Phi Beta Iota: Professor Dr. Galtung is one of the most educated moral people speaking in English, on the planet. This one hour video is worthy of watching — without distraction — by any educated person and most particularly the President of the United States of America.

SchwartzReport: Sanity in Seattle – Legalized Marijuana Ground Rules

09 Justice, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence

Marijwhatnow? A Guide to Legal Marijuana Use In Seattle

JONAH SPANGENTHAL-LEE – Seattle City Government

It is fascinating to watch what is happening with the vote in Washington and Colorado to legalize marijuana. Suddenly sensible policies are emerging; the hysterical misinformation purveyed by governments for decades is disappearing. This is the first announcement from the Seattle city government, Washington's largest city.

The people have spoken. Voters have passed Initiative 502 and beginning December 6th, it is not a violation of state law for adults over 21 years old to possess up to an ounce of marijuana (or 16 ounces of solid marijuana-infused product, like cookies, or 72 ounces of infused liquid, like oil) for personal use. The initiative establishes a one-year period for the state to develop rules and a licensing system for the marijuana production and sale.

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DefDog: Anonymous Attacks Israel

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Corruption, Ethics, Government, Hacking, IO Deeds of Peace, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence
DefDog

Anonymous takes down over 550 Israeli sites, wipes databases, leaks email addresses and passwords

When the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) this week began taking military action in the Gaza strip against Hamas (as the IDF announced on Twitter), Anonymous declared its own war as part of #OpIsrael. Among the casualties are thousands of email addresses and passwords, hundreds of Israeli web sites, government-owned as well as privately owned pages, as well as databases belonging to the Bank of Jerusalem and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Read comments, claims, and press release.

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