China’s love affair with the car has blossomed into a torrid romance. In April, nearly a million people poured into the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition to coo over the latest Audis, BMWs, and Toyotas. But China is in danger of making the same mistakes the United States made on its way to superpower status — mistakes that have left Americans reliant on foreign oil from unstable parts of the world, staggering under the cost of unhealthy patterns of living, and struggling to overcome the urban legacy of decades of inner-city decay.

by peter calthorpe, on foreignpolicy, 09.2012.

Key portions of the Kyoto Protocol are set to expire at the end of 2012. But many of the world’s major greenhouse gas emitters have already set national targets to reduce emissions, and they’re forging their own initiatives to meet those goals.

Some are focusing on curbing deforestation and boosting renewable energy sources. Several nations are experimenting with cap-and-trade plans: Regulators set mandatory limits on industrial emissions, but companies that exceed those “caps” can buy permits to emit from companies that have allowances to spare. In some cases, it’s not clear that countries are doing much to meet their stated climate goals. What is clear is that the pledges currently on the table aren’t legally binding, and they fall far short of what would be required to stabilize the planet’s atmosphere.

Here’s a look at what nations are doing.

npr, 09.12.11.

(Source: climateadaptation)

So Kim Kardashian is getting a divorce, 72 days after a wedding that is variously reported to have cost $10 million or more. Just to put that in perspective, that sum could have built 200 schools in poor countries around the world for kids who desperately want an education. Then Kardashian could have helped transform the world, not just entertain it. And the schools would have lasted incomparably longer than her marriage.

— nicholas kristof

Jolie, Bono, and Clooney look like gods/angels next to this joke of a human Kardashian.

We are seeing the inception of a global insurrection that will not end until the dominant system is overthrown and replaced through a planetary metamorphosis. The mainstream media continues to play down the Occupy phenomenon, critiquing its lack of specific demands. Specific demands are pointless, because the entire political, social, and economic system in which we exist has rotted out from the inside. Demands would suggest that there is a way to reform the present system, but no reformist initiative is possible.

..The technical genius of humanity needs to be redirected from creating state-of-the-art video games and stock trading programs to strengthening natural resilience, building self-sufficient local communities that grow their own food, and launching social technologies that support collaborative decision-making and nonviolent communication.

The consciousness movement has the sacred task of integrating our understanding of spirit and Psyche into the rapidly unfolding movement for planetary justice and social regeneration…

realitysandwich, 17.10.11.

climateadaptation:

Horrifying and eye opening. Five of the 10 are in the Middle East. The number one most polluted country? You’ll never guess. Hint: it’s not China, India, or in Africa.

cnbc, 10.10.11.

the hint made me worry it was going to be a US city..