http://democracynow.org – In Arizona, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces the possibility of jail time, after federal prosecutors announced they are charging Arpaio for criminal contempt of court over his refusal to end unconstitutional immigration patrols in Arizona. Arpaio has long been under fire for his immigration policies, which have included racial profiling and detaining immigrants in a scorching outdoor Tent City jail, which Arpaio once referred to as his own “concentration camp.” Arpaio has also been a key supporter of Donald Trump, appearing at rallies alongside the Republican presidential candidate, and where he’s joked that both he and Trump have been key members in the “birther” movement, which refuses to acknowledge President Obama was born in the United States. Arpaio now faces up to six months in jail if he’s convicted on contempt of court charges. Activists are also organizing for him to be voted out of office in this November’s election. We speak to Carlos García, executive director of Puente Arizona, a grassroots human rights movement for migrant justice.
http://democracynow.org – A flotilla bound for Gaza carrying food, medicine and other humanitarian aid was intercepted and seized last week by the Israeli Navy. The Women’s Boat to Gaza had set sail from the Spanish port city of Barcelona in mid-September in efforts to break the ongoing Israeli blockade. Organizers say the Israeli military seized the boat and detained the 13 human rights activists aboard in international waters about 40 miles away from Gaza’s shore. The Israeli military towed the boat to the Israeli port of Ashdod and detained the women for up to four days before deporting them. We speak to passenger Ann Wright, retired Army colonel and former U.S. diplomat. Her recent article is titled “Women’s Boat to Gaza Participants See the Israeli Imposed Perpetual Darkness on Gaza.” Wright spent 29 years in the military and later served as a high-ranking diplomat in the State Department.
http://democracynow.org – Ten climate activists were arrested Tuesday for attempting to shut down all tar sands oil coming into the United States from Canada by manually turning off pipelines in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Washington state. The group, which calls itself Climate Direct Action, includes five activists and five other supporters and videographers. They posted pictures and videos online that showed them cutting chains and turning the manual safety valves to stop the flow through the pipelines. The activists issued a statement on Tuesday saying the action was in support of the call for International Days of Prayer and Action for Standing Rock. They also called on President Obama to “use emergency powers to keep the pipelines closed and mobilize for the extraordinary shift away from fossil fuels now required to avert catastrophe.” While all 10 activists remain in jail, we speak Jay O’Hara, co-founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, and Afrin Sopariwala, a member of Climate Direct Action and a part of Women of Color Speak Out, a climate justice collective.
http://democracynow.org – On Friday, WikiLeaks began releasing thousands of John Podesta’s emails, including excerpts of Hillary Clinton’s paid remarks to Wall Street firms. The emails showed Clinton’s closed-door remarks were starkly at odds with many of her public positions. In one speech to a housing trade group in 2013, Clinton spoke of needing “both a public and a private position” when crafting laws. In other speeches, Clinton largely absolved Wall Street firms for the crash of 2008 and said financial reform “really has to come from the industry itself.” The leaked emails also show Clinton openly boasted about her support of fracking while secretary of state. In a speech to Deutsche Bank in 2013, she said, “I’ve promoted fracking in other places around the world.” We speak to Lee Fang of The Intercept, co-author of the recent piece, “Memo Shows What Major Donors Like Goldman Sachs Want from Democratic Party.”
Andrew Kimbrell is an internationally recognized public interest attorney, public speaker and author. He is founder and Executive Director of Center for Food Safety. He also is Director of the San Francisco based Center for Technology Assessment, co-founder of Foundation Earth and President of the Board of Humane Farm Animal Care (that administers the Certified Humane label).
Andrew Kimbrell is an internationally recognized public interest attorney, public speaker and author. He is founder and Executive Director of Center for Food Safety. He also is Director of the San Francisco based Center for Technology Assessment, co-founder of Foundation Earth and President of the Board of Humane Farm Animal Care (that administers the Certified Humane label).
As an attorney, Kimbrell has successfully challenged federal agencies in several historic court cases, including initiating a U.S. Supreme Court victory forcing, for the first time, EPA regulation of Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change and a recent Supreme Court ruling holding that DNA is not patentable due it it being a “product of nature.” He also through his leadership at CFS has been at the forefront of legal challenges to approvals of genetically engineered crops, maintaining the integrity of the organics standards and winning a legal battle to force the FDA to adopt new food safety regulations.
As an author and public speaker Kimbrell has been a leading proponent of regenerative forms of agriculture and organic policies. He is the editor of the nationally renowned book Fatal Harvest, The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture and the author of Your Right to Know: Genetic engineering and the Secret Changes in Your Food. Kimbrell’s articles and editorials have appeared in the New York Times, Harpers, USA Today and numerous other print and social media publications including being a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. He has testified numerous times before the UI.S. Congress and has been a featured speaker at dozens of colleges and universities around the country and other public forums including Google Author Talks, Slow Food Nation, Bioneers and Ecofarm. He is featured in several documentaries including “The Future of Food,” “FRESH,” and a critique of genetic engineering, “Life Running out of Control.”
Kimbrell is also a noted expert on a wide range of technology and economic issues. His works in this area include his international best-selling book “The Human Body Shop: the Engineering and Marketing of Life” and the printed versions of his influential E.F. Schumacher lectures, “Cold Evil: Technology and Modern Ethics,” and “Salmon Economics.”
In addition to his legal degree Kimbrell also has a graduate degree in Psychology and has often written in the field including his book,”The Masculine Mystique.” Besides his public interest work Kimbrell’s passions include his love of piano (stemming from his earlier career as a concern pianist), poetry, baseball and wilderness flyfishing.
Kimbrell’s many accolades include a spot on Utne Reader’s list of the world’s leading 100 visionaries, and The Guardian recognizing him in 2008 as one of the 50 people “most likely to save the planet.”
(Presented during the 2nd Soil Not Oil International Conference on August 5-6 at the Richmond Memorial Convention Center, CA) http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/
Organized by http://soilnotoilcoalition.org/
Pro Bono video courtesy of http://TheClimateMobilization.org
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We are embarking in an agro-ecological project in which we would like to apply everything that we have learned and we had promoted during the past years in order to keep building a movement for a livable climate and environmental justice.
President Barack Obama says the United States is partnering with commercial companies to build “new habitats” to try to send humans safely to Mars within two decades. CCTV America’s Jim Spellman reports.
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
This weblog explores the transition to a sustainable future on our finite planet. It provides links to current news, key documents from government sources and non-governmental organizations, as well as video documentaries about climate change, environmental ethics and environmental justice concerns.
The links are listed here to be used in whatever manner they may be helpful in public information campaigns, course preparation, teaching, letter-writing, lectures, class presentations, policy discussions, article writing, civic or Congressional hearings and citizen action campaigns, etc. For further information on this blog see: About this weblog. and How to use this weblog.
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