Would You Take Advice from This Man? A Country Did, and they Ended Apartheid Desmond Tutu to the World: “We need an apartheid-style boycott to save the planet.”*

Image: Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Source: theguardian.com: The Guardian >>environment>> Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“We must stop climate change.
And we can, if we use the tactics that worked in South Africa against the worst carbon emitters”
~ Desmond Tutu, The Guardian, 10 April 2014

With the death of Nelson Mandela, a nation saw their Father of Freedom pass into the annals of history. But Mandela was not alone in his struggle against apartheid. Desmond Tutu’s efforts emerged as a loud and steady voice against the forces of freedom and inequality. They worked.

Now, Desmond Tutu is at it again, only this time, he is turning his voice to the cause of ending climate change. And his opening salvo was directed squarely at Canada and the U.S. who is as we speak:

“debating whether to approve a massive pipeline transporting 830,000 barrels of the world's dirtiest oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Producing and transporting this quantity of oil, via the Keystone XL pipeline, could increase Canada's carbon emissions by over 30%.”*

And, as he did versus Apartheid, he is calling on the people of the world listen and take action. Whereas apartheid was, it could be argues, a regional struggle, the negative impacts of climate change “affect the whole world, our shared world, the only world we have.”*

Citing his believe in “the only just response to injustice,”* Mahatma Gandhi’s passive resistance, Tutu suggests using boycotts, divestment and sanctions, as in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.

“It is clear that those countries and companies primarily responsible for emitting carbon and accelerating climate change are not simply going to give up; they stand to make too much money. They need a whole lot of gentle persuasion from the likes of us.”*

So what does an Apartheid-Style anti-climate change strategy look like?

“We cannot necessarily bankrupt the fossil fuel industry. But we can take steps to reduce its political clout, and hold those who rake in the profits accountable for cleaning up the mess.”*

Tutu believes serious economic and moral pressure is needed. “People of conscience need to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change.” *

Here are some anti-climate change tactics taken from the pages of Tutu’s anti-apartheid playbook:

• Boycott the events, sports teams and media programming they sponsor and/or produce
• Demand energy company advertisements come with health warnings
• Encourage universities and municipalities to cut ties with these companies
• Organize car-free days
• Build social awareness
• Ask religious leaders and their communities to take a stand
• Encourage energy companies to invest more in the development of renewables
• Reward companies who invest in new clean technologies by buying their products
• Install solar panels (and other renewable energy sources) where possible

Tutu suggests all this because “It makes no sense to invest in companies that undermine our future.”*

On a bit of good news, the article suggests that “General Synod of the Church of England voted overwhelmingly to review its investment policy in respect of fossil fuel companies;” and, “colleges and pension funds have declared they want their investments to be congruent with their beliefs.”*

On another bit of good news, he suggests that young people are leading the charge on climate change and that “The fossil fuel divestment campaign is the fastest growing corporate campaign of its kind in history.”*

* From Desmond Tutu’s Editorial in The Guardian, Thursday 10 April 2014 17.00 BST;
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/10/divest-fossil-fuels-climate-change-keystone-xl

Ecosystems: the BEST way to feed the world & reverse climate change

Image: Living Wall EcoSystem above Turtle Pond

Why biomimicry is essential for human beings to restore vital habitat

PeapodLife has been expounding the virtues of taking a biomimetic, ecosystems approach to solving problems related to improving habitat for human beings, food production, cleaner air, more amicable environment, etc.

But it’s important to note that we aren’t the only ones advocating this approach to solving some fairly major social, environmental, climatic problems:

YouTube Video: Allan Savory: How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change 

Published by TEDtalksDirector on Mar 4, 2013 

Of course, for every good approach there will always be the naysayers, the contrarians, the hyper-sensitive reactionary views. In this case, from those living in or around deserts. In this article by Chris Clarke, posted on KCET East California, he vehemently opposes and dismisses the notion of biomimicry as proposed by Savory, claiming that the Ted Talk “teaches us to disparage the desert.”

Nonsense. No one is saying that established deserts or even ones created by man due to short-sighted approaches to land management don’t have their own thriving ecosystems.

There is nowhere on the planet that lacks an ecosystem. From Arctic tundra to desert to underwater volcanic vents, everywhere on this planet is a vibrant habitat for some kind of life, even if it’s just a community of single-celled organisms.

The question is, are these habitats low-order ecosystems or a high-order ecosystems? What is best for the planet as a whole? When we consider the transformation of solar energy into plant tissue, herbivore, carnivore and human, logic dictates that the evolution of high-order animals and ecosystems took place for the sake of the global ecosystem (called by many names, “Gaia,” Mother Earth, etc.)

Human beings require high-order ecosystems to thrive. As does the planet as a whole. We cannot subsist on desert plants and animals, nice though they may be, and the planet needs us, along with other high-order organisms, to do our part in the transformation of solar energy into ever more subtle forms before they can be absorbed by the planet body (which it cannot do directly).

This is the point Savory’s detractors are missing. He is not talking about stealing desert habitat away from nature. He is talking about cooperating with nature. He is advocating a biomimetic approach to assisting nature in reversing the adverse effects of short-sighted behavior of human civilizations past (and present).

If we can cooperate with nature to raise a "human-made" desert from a low order ecosystem to a thriving high-order ecosystem, creating habitat for tens of thousands of more species of plants and animals and reduce the suffering of hundreds of millions of human beings…?

All the scientists and naturalists out there crying foul on behalf of the desert need to hang their intellects up for a moment and spend some time in their hearts for a while.

Image: PeapodLife "Angolo" High-Order EcoSystem growing Moss and Orchids 

Self-Contained Living Wall Ecosystem Unit Supports Advanced Human Habitat "AHH...!"

Advanced Human Habitats will ease Stressed-Out Infrastructure in wake of Urban Intensification

Image: Peapod Life Advanced Human Habitat

From the “big machine” of crumbling infrastructure, a new, smarter way of doing things emerges: the BEST tools for the future modelled after the genius of nature: Peapod Life Advanced Human Habitat.

“Canada needs to be investing not only the right amount in infrastructure, but investing in the right infrastructure, in the right places, in the right way doing the right things,”

~ Casey Vander Ploeg,  Senior Policy Analyst at the Canada West Foundation.

Source: Global News | Infrastructure strains need long-term remedies: report

The right way of doing things. Now there’s a novel approach for government.

Toronto is all about urban intensification these days. The jungle of high-rise condos yanked skyward in the downtown core over the last few years is cause for concern where the city’s crumbling centennial infrastructure is concerned.

More than one voice has suggested the city’s aging infrastructure cannot handle the extra stress on our urban centre. The recent flooding of Union Station was evidence enough.

So what about the power grid? Water supply? Forget about traffic: it’s already hopeless. Work on the Spadina streetcar south of King St. have rendered the crumbling Gardiner Expressway West of Spadina functionally useless, with back-ups from the Spadina off-ramp stretching to Dufferin and beyond.

In his interview with Global News, Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst at the Canada West Foundation emphasized more funding is not enough. Not that Jim Flaherty is enthusiastic about what he called “dangerous and risky new spending schemes” in a recent speech to the Economic Club. (Read more on Global News: Global Toronto | Infrastructure strains need long-term remedies: report ).

There is an underlying “wrong way of doing things” at play here. It may have been “right for the times” in eras past, but the realities of life in the 21st century demand a fresh new look at the way things are.

Peapod Life is all about the right way, a better way, an advanced approach to human habitats. 

Urban intensification using an Advanced Human Habitat results in an alleviation of stress on existing infrastructure. AHH is the end result of Building EcoSystems and Technology: PeapodLife’s integrated platform for resilience, autonomy, sustainability and community.

Whenever an Advanced Human Habitat is designed and planned, it takes into account not only the triple-bottom-line of People, Planet and Profits defined today, it anticipates and incorporates broader and future value propositions. BEST integrates solutions which will deliver AHHs are adaptable, resilient, sustainable and self-sufficient.

Solar and geo-thermal power. Unique heating and cooling management. Integrated indoor and outdoor ecosystems for best quality air and carbon sequestering. Onsite water management. Health and wellness. Organic zero-input indoor and outdoor urban gardens. More.

Advanced Human Habitat makes good sense for government today, because present cost-prevention and risk-mitigation are paramount. AHH will literally come as a sigh of relief to future local policy makers, should any catastrophic effects of climate change, economic collapse, environmental hazard, or some other circumstance make centralized distribution of necessities of life impossible.

Advanced Human Habitats are designed to will always serve occupants as islands of tranquility and peace, even amidst the most stressful of situations.

From the “big machine” of crumbling infrastructure, a new, smarter way of doing things emerges: the BEST tools for the future modelled after the genius of nature: Peapod Life Advanced Human Habitat.