Things won't get back to normal

SUBHEAD: I hope we can climb down from our suicidal perch on top of the flagpole.

By Juan Wilson on 10 February 2014 for Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2014/02/things-wont-get-back-to-normal.html)


Image above: Alvin Shipwreck Kelly does a handstand while eating a donut on a flagpole at 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, across from the Chrysler Building in New York in October of 1939. From (https://gardnermodernism.pbworks.com/w/page/65588675/Flagpole%20sitting).

As a civilization we are coming to a realization.
Things are not the way they used to be. 

And the corollary:
Things won't get back to normal.

This is the unavoidable consequence of running up our human numbers while increasing our per capita demand for more industrial stuff. We are simply running out of Mother Earth. When she's gone - so are we.

In the meantime there are actions we could take that will take us down some different path with a gentler grade than the one we are on now, but is seems that we are excited about the cliff ahead and want to see over its edge.

Even some of the most influential councils I have heard in the past few decades are flailing to find a way back to the "good old days". I can understand why techno-optimist Bill Gates - Founder of Microsoft - would be trying to keep all the juice flowing but why would these guys be turning to cranking up the dial on nuclear power?

Stuart Brand - Creator of the Whole Earth Catalog
James Lovelock - The discoverer of the Gaia Principle
James Hansen - NASA scientist who warned of Global Warming 

All have become enthusiastic supporters of replacing fossil fuels by building nukes. They argue (successfully) that we cannot support the lifestyle we have become accustomed to with alternative renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydro, wave, etc.

What that tells me is that they are not ready to simply live with less. That is what is happening. We are experiencing an impoverishment that is the result of dirtier, more expensive and harder to get energy.

Fighting to maintain our lifestyle will be a situation that can lead to very bad human behavior. Turning to nuclear energy to charge our iPad and Prius is one very bad behavior.

It should be pretty obvious that with dirty, high-cost and attenuating supply of petrochemicals we will have no ability to build, maintain, decommission or mitigate disasters regarding nuclear power plants. You cannot fix the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster by building more nuclear plants.

In fact it would appear that Japan has no way to fix Fukushima even with an highly developed industrial base fueled by peetrochemicals.

Worse yet, we are three years into the ongoing disaster and no effort by the First World club of nuclear powers (including America, France, Britain, Russia and China) have revealed they will bring a solution to the table or have the means of doing so.

They are all just praying that diluting the mess into the Pacific Ocean for the rest of the cenetury (and beyond) is the best we should expect.

All the while Japan's leadership and industrial partners are pushing hard against a resistant public to get its nuclear plants restarted.  They know that the Japanese high-tech economy cannot be operated successfully on expensive imported fossil fuels or renewable energy sources.

As James Kunstler pointed out in late 2012:

Finally, I have one flat-out prediction, one I have made before but deserves repeating: Japan will be the first society to consciously opt out of being an advanced industrial economy.

They have no other apparent choice really, having next-to-zero oil, gas, or coal reserves of their own, and having lost faith in nuclear power. They will be the first country to enter a world made by hand. They were very good at it before about 1850 and had a pre-industrial culture of high artistry and grace - though, granted, all the defects of human psychology.     

I don't think the US can make that transition in an orderly way. We're too stricken with techno-narcissism and grandiosity. What troubles me is how we will greet the epic disappointment that waits for us when we discover that the journey to WalMart is over.

My guess is that being predisposed to superstition and religious fanaticism, the American public will violently reject science and rationality and retreat into a world of shadows. We're already well on our way.

I hope Kunstler is wrong - not about Japan, but about America. I'm just hoping we can climb down from our suicidal perch on top of the flagpole.

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Are nukes the cure for climate change?=

By Richard Schippmann on 10 January 2014 for Reuters Blogs - 
(http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/01/10/is-nuclear-power-the-answer-on-climate-change)

James Hansen’s latest press conference was positively scary.

NASA’s former chief climate scientist (he recently left government to pursue a more activist role) met with environmental journalists last month at Columbia University to release a new study with the ominous title, “Assessing Dangerous Climate Change: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature.”

Hansen and his co-authors contend that the agreed-to goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Farenheit) above pre-Industrial levels prescribed in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is still too high to prevent “long-lasting, irreversible damage” to our planet — including raising sea levels, submerging coastal cities and turning vast tracts of the earth into virtual furnaces.

Hansen departs from environmental orthodoxy, however, in arguing that there is no way to cut greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently by relying solely on green alternatives like solar and wind power.

“Suggesting that renewables will let us phase rapidly off fossil fuels in the United States, China, India, or the world as a whole” Hansen writes in an essay, “is almost the equivalent of believing in the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.”

Hansen’s controversial conclusion is that we need to build a new generation of nuclear power plants. Nuclear alone, in Hansen’s view, has the potential to produce “clean” (carbon-free) electricity in the prodigious amounts that we will need it in the decades ahead.

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The unavoidable economics of nuclear power

By Mark Cooper on 6 February 2014 for Corporate Knights
(http://www.corporateknights.com/nuclear_economics) The Company for Clean Capitalism

The Bottom Line (excerpted from article)

If the direct costs of low-carbon alternatives were roughly equal, the systems costs might tip the balance toward nuclear power, but social costs would tip it strongly back toward efficiency and renewables. Given the rapidly falling cost and potential of efficiency and renewables, the speed with which they can be deployed, as well as the availability of gas as a transition and complementary resource, the economically rational path for the next quarter century is crystal clear: New nukes aren’t necessary.

Shifting the debate to focus on an expensive, slow-to-build and inflexible “climate” solution like nuclear power, at least at this point in the game, is counterproductive when so many better alternatives are available to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and air pollution.

• Dr. Mark Cooper is a senior fellow for economic analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at the Vermont Law School. As you may know, Dr. Cooper is the author of an influential 2013 report showing that 38 nuclear reactors in 23 states are at risk of early retirement.   (See http://216.30.191.148/atriskreactors.html.) 

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Equality

A poem by Juan Wilson on 10 February 2014 for Island Breath  -

Money = Credit
Credit = Debt
Debt = Capitalism
Capitalism = Industrialism
Industrialism = Growth
Growth = Death

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Oppose SB111 - Support SB2521

SUBHEAD: Two food labeling bills are in Hawaii Senate. One genuine and one scripted by GMO companies.

By Michael Schoolz on 10 February 2014 in Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2014/02/oppose-sb110-support-sb2521.html)


Image above: Can European requirements for labeling GMO foods survive US trade negotiations?  From (http://www.bilaterals.org/?will-european-requirements-for).

 You really shined last week in supporting the defeat of SB 110. I believe we are all feeling the sense that we are at a "tipping point" around so many issues. There is so much in the balance right now. The defeat of SB 110 was a wonderful success since

We the People had less than 24 hours to respond prior to the hearing. And that success was also very illustrative of the very fragile tipping point that we have entered here in 2014. It would have required a majority vote of the Agriculture Committee to pass SB 110.

The bill was defeated by a vote of 3 to 3. It was such a very, very clear example of just how important it is right now for us all to let our voices be heard. It was clear that it was our combined voices that allowed us to achieve that victory. It was YOU, showing up, that made the critical difference and made success possible.

And now, the very same people, led once again by Sen. Nishihara, and influenced by the Chemical Companies are trying the very same sneak attack tactic again this week. They have introduced another "short bill", SB111, in an effort to thwart a genuine labeling bill, again taking no testimony on short notice.

Rather than being a genuine labeling bill, SB 111 states that there will be some, yet to be determined, labeling rules put in place over a year from now. The language of SB 111 is as follows:

Agricultural commodities; labeling requirements; penalties.

(a)  Retailers, distributors, farmers, producers, and producer-distributors that sell agricultural commodities for purchase or consumption by consumers shall be subject to labeling requirements pursuant to law or adopted by the board of agriculture through rules.

(b)  No later than July 1, 2015, the board of agriculture shall adopt rules in accordance with chapter 91 to implement this section.

This is a clear effort to confuse the public and distract us from the benefits of another, real labeling bill described below, by promising to implement some yet to be determined rules months from now. To further confuse the issue they have scheduled the hearing for SB 111 at virtually the same time as a real labeling bill.

FIRST ACTION REQUEST:
Please submit your emails OPPOSING SB 111 now!!
You can use the following email addresses.

Sens@capitol.hawaii.gov
Reps@capitol.hawaii.gov

SECOND ACTION REQUEST:
Please submit your emails in SUPPORT of SB 2521. This is a real GMO labeling bill which has substance and merits our support.

You can read the bill at this link:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2014/bills/SB2521_.HTM

Both of these bills are scheduled for hearing on Monday February 10 between 1:45 and 2:00 PM. So please submit your testimonies ASAP at the following links:

Sens@capitol.hawaii.gov
Reps@capitol.hawaii.gov

 Mahalo All!! This time of "Tipping Points" is critical. It's a time for us to come together and let our combined voices Shine Out brighter than ever.....strongly and consistently!!

Shine on Hawaii!!

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Deflation Shock Wave

SUBHEAD: SocGen bear growls that deflation shock-wave from Asia will trigger global recession.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on 6 February 2014 for the Telegraph -
(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100026574/socgen-bear-growls-deflation-shock-wave-from-asia-to-trigger-global-recession/)


Image above: Albert Edwards photographed in his officin 2011 by Tim Foster. From (http://timfosterphotographer.blogspot.com/2011/02/albert-edwards-societe-generale.html).

Albert Edwards from Societe Generale has returned from two weeks holiday in a completely foul mood.

"The ongoing emerging market debacle will be less contained than sub-prime ultimately proved to be. The simple fact is that US and global profits growth have reached tipping point and the unfolding EM crisis will push global profits and thereafter the global economy into deep recession."

What we are seeing is a "direct replay" of the East Asia crisis of 1997 but on a bigger scale. A strong dollar/weak yen world is an "incendiary mix" for emerging markets. It tightens liquidity while delivering a trade shock to weaker economies.

Analysts are slashing their forecasts at an "all-time record rate – this is wholly inconsistent with talk of economic acceleration".

"The dire profits situation will only get worse as EM implodes and waves of deflation flow from Asia to overwhelm the fragile situation in the US and Europe."

This week's slump in America's ISM manufacturing gauge is the "straw in the wind" of what is to come. "Even if the Fed resumes massive QE at some point as the world melts down, and markets desperately attempt their return to the dream trance, they will instead find themselves locked into a Freddy Krueger-like nightmare in which phase 3 of this secular bear market takes equity valuations down to levels not seen for a generation."

Albert and SG's Andrew Lapthorne say profits have already slumped to near zero growth if you use MSCI reported earning rather than the "made-up" pro-forma IBES data.

EM profits have been negative for two years already. The global equity rally has been driven by QE fumes.

I hate to think what would happen if Albert were right. The world cannot take such an outcome in its present enfeebled condition.

It would push China into a dangerous crisis, greatly raising the risk a diversionary military clash with Japan, which would in turn embroil the US in a Pacific War.

It would doom any chance of recovery in southern Europe, sending debt trajectories and jobless rates through the roof. The European Project would disintegrate in acrimony, with a chain of sovereign defaults pushing Germany into depression.

Britain would spin into another financial cataclysm, this time having to rescue banks with huge exposure to emerging markets and China (through Hong Kong). This would be hard to explain to long-suffering British taxpayers a second time. The retribution that bankers deftly avoided post-Lehman would be crushing.

Much of the world would revert to capital controls, locking down trillions of foreign wealth much as the Bolshevik revolution wiped out French investors. Western pensioners would face a greatly impoverished old age.

It would cause the further implosion of Argentina, risking a fresh Falklands War with Britain. It would endanger Brazil's democracy, and tempt military coups in several Latin American states.

It would lead to the economic collapse of Russia, with fearsome implications for Ukraine and ex-Soviet sphere.

I could go on,

But in the end I am not as gloomy as Albert — though I share his fears over the gravity of the EM crisis, and the implications of Fed tightening.

The financial world is ultimately smoke and mirrors. Debt is a mirage. Creditor claims can be "re-arranged" at the point of a bayonet if need be, and often are.

You can conjure all kinds of tricks, and wave all kinds of magic wands. A determined central bank – backed by a credible government and a cohesive society – can achieve miracles. Any deflationary shock can overpowered.

Political will can always triumph over these setbacks. To borrow from the Habsburgs, the situation may be desperate but it is not serious. So waltz on, and keep the champagne flowing.

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Bill for Fukushima monitoring

SUBHEAD: Hawaii Senators introduce bill to require Fukushima radiation monitoring for at least next 5 years revealed to public.

By Juan Wilson on 9 February 2014 for Island Breath -
(http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/Hawaii-lawmakers-address-resident-radiation-fears/-/8905354/24364460/-/153la9u/-/index.html)


Image above: State workers monitoring radiation on beach in Hawaii. Still from KITV video article below.

A Hawaii State Senate Bill SB-3049 (click on link to testify) is currently under consideration. This bill would require the State Department of Health (DOH) to implement a pilot project to monitor radiation levels over the next five years and to post periodic reports on its website.

This is an obvious thing to do since the Federal government (NOAA, EPA, DOE, NRC, etc) are not revealing what has happened or will be happening regarding our health and safety in Hawaii due to the Fukushima Daiichi Disaster.Support this bill!


SB3049       (?)

Measure Title:	RELATING TO RADIATION LEVELS.
Report Title:	DOH; Pilot Project: Radiation Level; Appropriations ($)
Description:	Requires DOH to implement a pilot project to monitor radiation levels over the next five years and to post periodic reports on its website.
Companion:	HB2600
Package:	None
Current Referral:	HTH/ENE, WAM
Introducer(s):	GREEN, Ruderman

Sort by Date		Status Text
1/23/2014	S	Introduced.
1/23/2014	S	Passed First Reading.
1/27/2014	S	Referred to HTH/ENE, WAM.
2/4/2014	S	The committee(s) on HTH/ENE has scheduled a public hearing on 02-07-14 1:15PM in conference room 229.
2/7/2014	S	The committee(s) on HTH deferred the measure until 02-12-14 1:00PM in conference room 229.
2/7/2014	S	The committee(s) on ENE deferred the measure until 02-13-14 2:45PM in conference room 225.

S = Senate | H = House | D = Data Systems | $ = Appropriation measure | ConAm = Constitutional Amendment

Some of the above items require Adobe Acrobat Reader. Please visit Adobe's download page for detailed instructions.

There were 25 written testimonies were submitted — 25 support bill, ZERO are opposed. Read the testimonies here (pdf)

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State addresses radiation fears
By Catherine Cruz on 7 February 2014 for KITV News -
(http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/Hawaii-lawmakers-address-resident-radiation-fears/-/8905354/24364460/-/153la9u/-/index.html)


TRANSCRIPT OF BROADCAST

It has been almost three years since an earthqauke devastated Japan and crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant. But Hawaii lawmakers say they are still hearing from residents who fear some of the radiation will end up here in the islands. KITV-4's Catherine Cruz has the LATEST developments...

- Catherine Cruz, reporter:
Radiation fears have resurfaced and now residents are asking whether the state's doing enough to be sure there's nothing from Fukushima hitting our shores.

- Adrian Chang, retired nuclear engineer:
I just want to make sure what we consume is going to be safe," Adrian Chang is a retired pearl harbor nuclear engineer. He turned out to support a bill calling for radiation testing and voiced his concerns before members of a joint health and enviroment committee. State health officials assured that it has been monitoring our shores since before the earthquake. The testing happens quarterly on Oahu, Kauai and the Big Island.

- Jeff Eckard, Indoor and Radiological Health Branch, Department of Health:
"We have equipment that is so sensitive so we can detect it as miniscule levels that is far far below any public health concern.But the fact we can detect it throws fear into individuals as you are well aware," The state is also regularly testing our air,rain, milk and drinking water. And says levels of any radiation found in fish have been extremly low. But Senator Josh Green wonders if part of the problem is the lack of reliable information for the public.

- Hawaii State Senator Josh Green:
"I had a difficult time finding it and the lastest update was seven or eight months ago"

- Cruz
State health officials say, "Duly noted.".

- Eckert 
"We are still at normal background radiation levels. We are considering posting the results because of the requests we have been getting from the public. So that is something we are looking into,

- Green
"Sometimes fear is the greatest harm that we have. The impact of psychological concerns that persist if you cant get good answers can actually be more damaging than the tragedy itself," A similar bill introduced in the house was also heard today. The senate committee is to take a vote next week. Back to you.

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Tepco under reporting of radiation

SUBHEAD: Fukushima operator to review its massive erroneous radiation data. What a surprise!

By Staff on 9 February 2014 for NHK -
(http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140209_80.html)


Image above: Photo looking into Fukushima Well No. 1-2 showing water gushing in behind iron gate directly from Reactor #2 on 4/5/11. At that time water at the crack, outside the pit: 5.2 million becquerels/cubic centimeter of iodine-131. From (http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2013/07/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-radioactive.html).

The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has decided to review radiation data after finding the initial readings may be much lower than actual figures.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says it has detected a record high 5 million becquerels per liter of radioactive strontium in groundwater collected last July from one of the wells close to the ocean.

That's more than 160,000 times the state standard for radioactive wastewater normally released into the sea.

Based on the result, levels of radioactive substances that emit beta particles are estimated to be 10 million becquerels per liter, which is more than 10 times the initial reading.
TEPCO initially said it had detected 900,000 becquerels per liter of beta-emitting substances.

The utility attributes the error to the improper measuring method that had been used until last October. It says the readings of radioactivity can be measured as being lower than they actually are in the highly contaminated water.

TEPCO plans to review other data measured with the improper method, including the radiation level of around 300 tons of waste water that leaked from a storage tank in August.

An initial test of the leaked water found it contained up to 80-million becquerels per liter of beta-emitting substances, including strontium.

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Tepco admits error 7 months late

By Arevamipal on 7 February 2014 for EXSKF -
(http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2014/02/fukushima-i-npp-tepco-admits-error-7.html) 

It may not just be about groundwater samples along the embankment. All the high-density all-beta/strontium analyses done at Fukushima I NPP, including the analyses of all-beta/strontium in the RO (reverse osmosis) waste water, may be wrong. Or TEPCO says they "cannot deny the possibility that the analyses were wrong." (from a tweet by @jaikoman who tweets just about every single TEPCO and NRA press conference)

Jiji Tsushin just reported the same thing. The information is from the press conference on February 7, 2014.

For more information about the RO waste water leak of August 2013, go to this link. Of that, strontium-90 alone turned out to be 5 million Bq/L.

The reason (excuse)? Wrong measurement method used.

Or something to that extent that even people who know a lot about nuclide analysis are scratching their heads trying to figure out how that happened.

Yomiuri Shinbun has the best summary of the situation (2/7/2014):

On February 6, TEPCO announced that 5 million Bq/Liter of radioactive strontium was detected from the groundwater sample taken on June 5 last year from one of the observation wells on the embankment of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant [the embankment is located between the turbine buildings and the plant harbor].

The density is 160,000 times that of the legal limit for release into the ocean, and it is about 1,000 times that of the highest density in the groundwater that had been measured so far (5,100 Bq/L). TEPCO didn't disclose the result of measurement of strontium alone, as the company believed there was a possibility that the result of measurement was wrong.

As to this particular sample, TEPCO had announced on July last year that the sample had contained 900,000 Bq/L of all-beta including strontium. On February 6, TEPCO explained that they had "underestimated all of the results of high-density all-beta, which [in fact] exceeded the upper limit of measurement." This particular sample may contain about 10 million Bq/L of all-beta, according to TEPCO. The company recently switched to a different method of analysis that uses diluted samples when the density of radioactive materials is high.

So this is the lowdown of the case of strontium more abundant than all-beta, all thanks to the faulty measurement by TEPCO.

Browsing through the documents released by TEPCO, the particular observation hole was No.1-2, which is no longer used as the result of waterglass injection into the soil in the embankment. It is close to where the extremely contaminated water from Reactor 2 turbine building had been found leaking in April 2011 (via the underground electrical trenches).

From TEPCO's document for the press (2/6/2014; English label is by me), the location of No.1-2 observation hole:

TEPCO inserted the newly disclosed 5 million Bq/L for strontium-90 but the number for all-beta remains uncorrected, at 900,000 Bq/L (which TEPCO now says 10 million Bq/L instead):

10,000,000 Bq/L of all-beta, or 10,000 Bq/cubic centimeter of all-beta. That's the same order of magnitude of all-beta in the water that gets contaminated after circulating through the reactors (see my September 2013 post), but the levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 in this sample water is too low for this water to be the contaminated water that is currently circulating the reactors.

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Two bills to rule Niihau

SUBHEAD: No official comments are being accepted on these bills which should be a heads up. 

By Lyn McNutt on 8 Ferbuary 2014 in Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2014/02/two-bills-to-rule-niihau.html)


Image above: Photo of charter fishing trip results to Niihau posted by Harry Rivera on 4/14/13. From (http://blog.fishinginkauai.com/2013/04/niihau-trip.html).

No official comments are being accepted on these bills which should be a heads up.

DANGER - DANGE - DANGER

HB 2357 combined with SB180 PD1 gives control of public waters around Niihau away to the Robinson Family (SB180), specifically, by law and then sets up the Aha Moku Advisory Council to do the dirty work (HB 2357).

These are very, very bad, and if passed in their present form will be open for legal action.

HB 2357
1. The suggested text leaves the door open for real abuse.  If you only have to "consult" with people, you are under no obligation to listen to them.  This is also one of NOAA's favorite terms---"in consultation with" means nothing unless it says, "in consultation and agreement with".  There needs to be an agreement clause or they have no need to care if you agree or not after they consulted with you.  This bill only says consultation.  Not good enough.


2. The Aha Moku Council has yet to fulfill the requirements of its own strategic plan as agreed with the Governor when the Bill was signed.  They are not authorized to take on additional roles until they fulfill their primary role given to them by the state and agreed in the strategic plan. The Governor stated this clearly before and after the Bill was signed and this was then presented to moku on each island!!

The Aha Moku councils on the islands are being neglected in favor of creating a centralized management structure in DLNR to bring the management of all konokiki and moku rights into DLNR to be decided and managed by one person who only has to consult with us, and not listen.   The Aha Moku Council on Oahu has sent a letter complaining about this.

3. The Aha Moku Council Advisor does NOT have the right to decide konohiki rights nor set policy based on her/his interpretation of those rights.  These decisions belong to the people and not a government employee.  The Government failed to pass the Aha Kiole Bill, which would have been the appropriate place for this discussion.

This bill scheduled to be heard by Agriculture Committee (AGR) on Monday, February 10th at 10:00am in House Conference Room 312.

AGENDA:
HB2357

WHEN:
Monday, February 10th, 2014 at 10:00am

WHERE:
Conference Room 312
State Capitol
415 South Beretania Street
Honolulu, Hawaii

SB 180 SD1
This is a bill written and modified to benefit one person, a private land owner, and sets a very, very bad, constitutionally questionable precent. The committee on ocean management (WTL)  recommended that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS and be recommitted.

HB 2357 along with SB 180 SD 1 gives away everything and I honestly have no idea what people are thinking in the Senate here.  This blatantly contradicts the constitution, and is tied directly to HB 2357 by giving konohiki rights SPECIFICALLY for Niihau (as if there were any doubt who is supposed to benefit from this) and then changing the Aha Moku Council Advisor's role to work directly with the newly crowned konohiki for Niihau to get what the Robinson's want.

This is all very clever, but some of the people involved in creating this legislation need to take a good long look into their souls and wake up.  What is worse is to be using others and the law to take things away while pretending to "protect" people and resources.  I would not want this on my own conscience.

STATE REP EMAIL:
State Senators
sens@capitol.hawaii.gov

State Represenetaivers
reps@capitol.hawaii.gov 
 
KAUAI REPS EMAIL:
Representative Dee Morikawa
House District 16
Hawaii State Capitol
Room 310
phone: 808-586-6280
fax: 808-586-6281
repmorikawa@capitol.hawaii.gov

Representative James Tokioka
House District 15
Hawaii State Capitol
Room 322
phone: 808-586-6270
fax: 808-586-6271
reptokioka@capitol.hawaii.gov

Representative Derek Kawakami
House District 14
Hawaii State Capitol
Room 314
phone: 808-586-8435
fax: 808-586-8437
repkawakami@capitol.hawaii.gov

Senator Ron Kouchi
Senate District 8
Hawaii State Capitol
Room 206
phone: 808-586-6030
fax: 808-586-6031
senkouchi@Capitol.hawaii.gov

TO TESTIFY:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=2357&year=2014

Submit your testimony:
If you don't have an account with (http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov), you can set one up easily and it is free. Click on "Register" button in the upper right-hand corner of page.

Return to HB2357 page and click on the blue "Submit Testimony" at top of page and it will take you to a page that looks like this form (for another bill):



You can fill out the information depicted in the above graphic.  Minimum, you only need to highlight the "OPPOSE" dot for SB2357, along with your acct. name and email.  If you want under "Additional Comments," you can write a few sentences or paragraphs

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Niihau and the US Military 2/7/14


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Niihau and the US Military

SUBHEAD: Wonder why the restricting access to Niihau public waters? Here are the federal military contracts that mention Niihau.

By Lyn McNutt on 5 February 2014 in Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2014/02/niihau-and-us-military.html)


Image above: Cover art for Ironhand's Niihau FSX scenery add-on used for military plane simulation environment. Could be used for drones, From (http://forum.avsim.net/topic/267219-hawaii-niihau-scenery/).

As part of  the on-going political hijinks surrounding developing the Robinsons' Exclusive Zone (the REZ) on Niihau, I went on line and dug out public info for Niihau Ranch LLC Federal contracts based on their DUNS number.  These are collated and attached.

Since the file export only recognized numbers as text, I had to hand calculate the NET funding received, so they need to be re-checked.  I write grants, and have been a program and project manager.  I look at these contracts with $0, and others with up to half of the estimated costs being returned to the funder, and those strange balloon payments in December of several years, and I get very intrigued.  Accounting may work this way in DoD, but not in the world the rest of us inhabit. 

Niihau Ranch LLC seems to be returning a lot of money to the Federal Government.  Look at the dollar amounts and many are negative, roughly at 50% of costs.  Why?  When costing out a military proposal I believe that there are some standard rates for wages for laborers, maintenance, etc.  We have been told that Niihauans receive a maximum of $12 an hour.

Does this account for the discrepancy?  Also public records indicate (but I do not have these exact numbers) that 2/3 of the Niihauans are on EBT and Welfare and over half are on disability.  If it is true that $12 per hour is the going wage on Niihau, and government contracts, that could be used to increase income, are being used to continue to pay the Niihau wage, while at the same time the residents need federal assistance, this seems to me, in my opinion, to not be very supportive of the Niihau people.  So why should we give control of public waters around Niihau to Niihau Ranch LLC?

So, the bills introduced lately are the latest in a loooong string of manipulations (glad to detail over the phone) to get the REZ.  The Robinsons tried the (in chronological order sort of): fishing ban, monk seals, sanctuary, then Hawaii Civic Clubs (what's on now) and are now setting up the Aha Moku Council as a back up, with a dose of Sanctuary on the side for insurance.

Many of the attempts have at their core the request for a REZ of 2-3 miles off-shore.  To get advanced training with Black Ops and support drone testing, a two-mile offshore REZ is needed.  So, if you cannot get the public waters into your private domain using the "critters" (the Feds) then why not use the State, DLNR and the Sanctuary together, get the State to declare the REZ, and watch the income grow?

These activities involve land and water, and I do not think there has been any environmental assessment of the impact of the facilities and infrastructure on Niihau.  I don't think there have been county permits issued for this TMZ, but I may be wrong here.

As a scientist, I can tell you that DLNR and the Feds have completely missed the point here,  The ecosystems, culture and economies of Kauai and Niihau are co-joined.  If Kauai suffers, Niihau suffers.

To separate out Niihau using the Conservation Hostages on Niihau to secure a private REZ,  in the name of "preserving" the "culture" on Niihau as an isolated entity, only serves to further fragment the people, the economy and compromises the health of the people on Kauai and Niihau.  There are more Niihauans living on Kauai than Niihau.  There is a reason for this.  Once you get kicked off, no come back.  Estimates are 35-40 full time Niihau residents currently. 

This whole thing smells--- pilau.

This is the real reason for all this activity.  If you have a restricted zone extending into the ocean (public waters) then this increases the level of military support contracts available since Black Ops and Stryker force training require restricted access.

Please note that most of these are sole source contracts through the US Government Accounting Office.  The sole source justification is based on the private ownership, restricted access and availability of a cheap labor force.

Some of the contracts are for $1, and those it would seem involve construction or renovation of facilities or the land, and this $1 fee places Niihau Ranch outside of laws governing payment to workers based on rates associated with Federal contracts.

There are TEN PAGES OF THESE CONTRACTS
(https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsportal?indexName=awardfull&templateName=1.4&s=FPDS&q=Niihau&x=17&y=9)

---

Some Background

By Lyn McNutt on 23 January 2014 in Island Breath -
(email to Dee Morikawa dmorikawa@hawaiilink.net)


Image above: Historic US military plane flying in simulation over Niihau. But it could be a drone simulation. From (http://forum.avsim.net/topic/267219-hawaii-niihau-scenery/).

I have passed this on to the folks who organize the fishers.  What really troubles me is the unethical behavior (again) of our State and Federal "partners".  We were promised 'transparency' and we get done deals with pre-written legislation.  I also object strongly to the game being played of 'protecting' Native Hawaiian rights of the Niihau people, when the Robinsons have been actively courting expanded military activity on Niihau for YEARS, which hardly seems to be compatible with the idea of 'protecting' the Niihauans. 

To my mind, all this legislation is a major sham, with a real goal of political maneuvering for financial gain from private individuals to Limited Liability Corporations to the Federal government, all based on emotions and NO DATA.  The Kauai/Niihau connections exist on so many levels, and this shows clearly that Native Hawaiians and modern Hawaiians recognize that both sides of the channel make up one ecosystem; that's why there are also so many cultural and economic connections.

Fish caught in Niihau waters (proposed for restriction) have Kauai shrimp in their gut.  How do we stop the fish from coming over from Niihau and 'harvesting' the Kauai resources?  See how silly this all is if you look at it in a larger picture?  The fish and marine mammals and seabirds and local residents ALL know this is one ecosystem and we depend on each other.  The real ecosystem does not approve of these legislative shenanigans.

You cannot take out parts of this and then "make them well".  The REAL problem is on the Kauai side.  I will say that again, the REAL problem is on the Kauai side.  If the Kauai ecosystem is weakened, including the connections to the land and fresh water, and it fails, then Niihau will fail, not matter how much public waters you give to Niihau Ranch, LLC., nor how many restrictions and regulations you put in place.  Kauai is the "source" and Niihau is "the Incubator" and both share in the abundance, and should be the caretakers.  BOTH.

To protect these resources requires a larger view of the ENTIRE situation, and collecting data NOW to make rational decisions.  This legislative assault of creating Bills to 'supporting' Hawaiian peoples' cultural needs, and legislating scientific restrictions without any scientific basis in fact is creating dissent and fostering resentment on the West side of Kauai with the PURPOSE (this is the purpose) of to dividing the people and giving away public assets to a private landowner.

It should also be looked at critically by the governor, as this type of environmental politics at the expense of the Stakeholder is not at all the face to present to the local voters before an election.  Think about it a little.

All this conniving and conspiring needs to stop now. Who gave them the power to end local economies with the stroke of a pen without any real data and with no involvement at the local level?  It is your kuleana to protect us from this type of political nonsense. 

The assault tactic taken by our state government in partnership with NOAA Sanctuary Division is doomed scientifically, and socially before it starts: no buy-in, no consultation, no data, no agreements with the users, no stakeholder conversations, no consideration for real world relationships, just legislation to hide the glaring fact that DLNR has not done its job for years and THEY are really the root cause of this problem--not the fishers, not the local folks.  If you have made a mistake then correct it in a pono fashion.  Don't at like it is somebody else's fault.  Grow up and take some responsibility, and get on with fixing the error the right way.

But all this backroom planning and negotiation will get what they really want: 

• The precedent that they can even do this based on NO DATA and no local hearings.
  
• The precedent that they can legislate away control of public resources and give away rights to these waters to private landholders with no public hearings.
  
• Job security at the Federal level in particular Access to potentially lucrative military contracts to pay land taxes through promoting uses of the new legislatively restricted zones.
  
• The really bad precedent of giving up at the State level in these areas while ceding control to the Federal government and/or corporations because they have 'money' or 'resources' (once you give it away, you will NOT get it back until they have used it up, like Ko'olahawe).
  
• Dividing and conquering all the Native Hawaiians and local users until all of Hawaii is in the National Sanctuary System and becomes part of the International Marine Protected Area network in the Pacific.   We will become what they want, an manageable aquarium for tourists, with little or no local subsistence use, and sustainability based on tourism needs.

The end result a cute, NGO-friendly, totally unrealistic, happy sanctuary with souvenirs, while true subsistence use and sustainability to support life in Hawaii is gone, along with the local fishing economy.

 Tell it like it is Dee, please!  We need you Obi-wan Kanobi, you are our last hope!  The rebel alliance awaits your command.

.

HCDA and Oahu sacred site

SUBHEAD: An area designated as a very sacred burial site is being desecrated By HCDA in Kalaleoa.

By John Bond on 7 February 2014 for Kanehili Cultural Hui -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2014/02/hcda-and-oahu-sacred-site.html)


Image above: Aerial view of undeveloped area within Kalaleoa ahupuaa surrounded my military, suburban and industrial sprawl. From GoogleEarth by Juan Wilson. Click to embiggen.

An area designated as very sacred burial site being desecrated by the Hawaii Community Development Auhority (HCDA) in Kalaleoa. To see my testimony on HCDA plans see (http://www.islandbreath.org/2014Year/02/140207hcdatestimony.pdf).

The  Leina a ka 'Uhane site in Kalaleoa, listed in 2012 by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) Federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as National Register Eligible and very important native Hawaiian sacred site is being subject to bulldozing and toxic dumping under HCDA control.

Ancient Kanehili is a location where a cultural expert doing research for HART said there are hundreds if not thousands of native burials. Many very rare native plants can still be found in this Karst sinkhole and cave environment where much of the water flows through underground streams from the mountain to the sea.

These same Karst ponds are being destroyed and used for toxic dumping. The environmental destruction of 12,000 year old Ordy Pond, rated as a very important scientific site, and supposedly a "waterbird refuge" is directly next to a major dirt raceway.

Kanehili is a place where some of Oahu's earliest immigrants from Tahiti first landed, planting the first breadfruit trees, building trails from the shoreline to the vast highly productive kalo fields of Honouliuli which once sustained the largest population on the island of Oahu 200 years ago.

This top grade soil of immense agricultural productivity is now being paved over. Maximum greed plans says it must lie under concrete and asphalt in order to "save" some other place...

Another ancient Hawaiian pond is used to process highly toxic cancer causing chemicals from other industrial waste sites. The underground water carriers all of these pollutants down to the shoreline where people swim in and eat the remaining sealife from a once abundant coastal fishery that is being killed off.

The vast majority of the public has no idea of the industrial waste being processed and stored near popular Barbers Point beaches where all of the toxic chemicals seep into the ground and travel to the shoreline where children swim and play and gatherers
eat polluted fish and limu.

Lands in Kalaeloa originally intended for green open space and preservation have been zoned by HCDA for industrial development, including sites where very important historic and Hawaiian cultural sites exist in still nearly pristine condition.

The 2012 HART wahi pana EIS. designation doesn't deter HCDA Kalaeloa from industrializing the entire ancient Kanehili area. Department of Hawaiian Homelands also just recently approved their HCDA plans in Kalaleoa to fully industrialize areas of ancient cultural Hawaiian sites and rare native plants noted in the one thousand year old chants of Hi'iaka.

Future generations will find that one of the last and most sacred lands of Ewa has been completely polluted and destroyed under HCDA control. Pretending that a small "heritage park" preserves this area is equivalent to cutting down all but a few Redwood trees and proclaiming that the free trees leftover will be the "preserve" future generations will see. This same HCDA "heritage" area has also been used as an illegal dump site.

It is very sad that everything everywhere is headed for full on industrialization and pollution in Kalaeloa and West Oahu. Clearly, we live in a State where there will not be a "future for the keiki" that isn't covered in dumped toxic sludge, asphalt and concrete. The concept of historic and cultural preservation is mocked by those who can't wait to bulldoze it all and make a fast profit. This is our government today.

The full on rape of Hawaii is underway and clearly the people running the State do not believe in a real future, just a big concrete and asphalt profit to be made right now. They pretend one place has to be developed to "save" another place but we all know that the "other place" will be next on their list to pollute and pave over. It is all part of the big monster development machine eating up everything that once made Hawaii a wonderful place to live.

Corruption and Profit rules Hawaii. None of the State agencies protect anything in HCDA Kalaeloa. It is a lawless place made possible by a corrupt political system of government agencies and corrupt politicians with absolutely no real interest in the future, just the quick profits they can grab right now from a dispirited population who have become the disposable trash of the rich and powerful that the corrupt system caters to.

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The Degrowth Market

SUBHEAD: Phantom economies tend to give rise to gray and black markets in proportion to their deviance from reality.

By Charles Hugh Smith on 7 February 2014 for Of Two Minds -
(http://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb14/degrowth-market2-14.html)


Image above: Seems a bit heavy for this overtaxed donkey in Ethiopia. From (http://www.planetstillalive.com/africa/ethiopia/ethiopia-people/).

"Phantom economies tend to give rise to gray and black markets in proportion to the deviance of the phantom economy from reality." - Peter D.

College graduates around the world are discovering that getting a university diploma no longer guarantees the conventional success story of a secure job and a life of ever-rising consumption. Doing all the things that the Status Quo said would lead to success no longer yields success, for the simple reason that the Status Quo is failing on a structural/systemic level.

The system is rigged to protect the Status Quo mafia from competition. As noted in The Mafia State of Mind (February 6, 2014), the Status Quo is a set of overlapping monopolies/extortion rackets. The system needs a trickle of new technocrats and apparatchiks to manage the rackets, but there is no place for the tens of millions of college graduates who are flooding into the job market every year around the world.

New conventional enterprises face essentially impossible barriers: sky-high rents, absurdly lengthy and costly permitting processes, onerous fees and reporting requirements, and a host of other barriers reputedly imposed to "protect the public" but whose real purpose is to eliminate small-enterprise competition to corporate dominance.

Which organizations have the cash flow, financing, legal expertise and political influence to meet all the requirements and pay the insanely overpriced leases? Global corporations and the state--two sides of the same kleptocratic coin.

The high costs of launching and operating a legitimate Status Quo business serves two other primary purposes: maintaining high returns on capital for crony-capitalist financiers and funding the state's enormous cadre of functionaries at above-market-rate salaries, benefits and pensions. Recall that median personal income in the U.S. is about $40,000 for full-time workers, and compensation above $82,500 annually puts one in the top 10% of all wage earners.

The California Public Policy Center has just posted its own searchable site of state and local employee wages and pension benefits, TransparentCalifornia.com. Some of the results were rather revealing – and should be shocking to taxpayers: There are 31,527 retired public workers in the "$100,000 pension club" and 582 who are receiving pensions of at least $200,000 a year. Including wages and benefits, there are 227,059 state and local workers earning total compensation of at least $100,000 a year.

Some may argue that these large figures apply to a relatively small portion of public employees, and that the average public employee receives modest compensation. However, a CPPC analysis revealed that even average compensation is startlingly high. Average compensation for full-time state employees was $93,851 for public safety employees and $68,282 for all other employees. Adding benefits boosted these totals to $129,388 and $90,402, respectively. The figures for city and county employees were even higher.  - Source: Public sector's growing $100K club

Two forces are disrupting this cozy interlocking mafia of financiers, corporate cartels and state functionaries: the End of (Middle-Class) Work and the rise of the peer-to-peer, self-organizing business models such as AirBnB, car-sharing, ride-sharing, farmers markets, etc.

See the following:
Russ in Redding: The Human Face of The End of Work (September 2, 2011)
America's Social Recession: Five Years and Counting (August 28, 2013)
The Ten Best Employers To Work For (Peak Employment) (March 28, 2013)
The Python That Ate Your Job (December 11, 2013)

The high costs of legitimate business (needed to keep rentier/financial profits and state functionary pay/pensions high) are effectively destroying middle-class jobs and pay scales: the only organization that can afford to pay high salaries and benefits, regardless of costs or the business climate, is the state.

Even the financial sector and global corporations can only pay middle-class salaries for technocrats and managers in what are effectively quasi-state agencies (sickcare, workers compensation insurance, the defense industry, etc.)

So what are the tens of millions of college graduates supposed to do for a livelihood if there are only a few slots open in the moated mafias of financiers, corporate cartels and the state? To answer, let's start with this obvious statement: that which cannot be paid will not be paid.

All the infrastructure of consumption depends on tens of millions of college graduates making enough money to pay high taxes, service their student loans, buy homes, autos, particle-board furniture, electronic gadgets, dozens of pairs of shoes, etc. etc. etc. If they can't make enough money to buy and own all that stuff, then they won't be buying and owning all that stuff.

And if they can't earn a living within the Status Quo mafia, they will do so outside the mafia in the gray and black markets.

This destruction of consumption is supposed to be a disaster, but it's only a disaster for the moated mafias of financiers, corporate cartels and the state that depend on tens of millions of workers voluntarily becoming debt serfs and tax donkeys. If young workers cannot make their student loan payments, those loans become worthless. As the old saying has it, You can't get blood from a stone. (Alternatively: You can't get blood from a turnip.)

If young workers can't make enough to buy autos, homes, etc., the market for those goods and services implodes. And if all the financial/debt churn generated by consumption goes away, so do the fees and taxes the state depends on to pay its armies of functionaries.

Rather than a disaster, this wholesale loss of middle-class incomes and aspirations is enormously liberating. Instead of the yoke of debt-based ownership, young people are finding sharing to be better than owning: one shared car can provide transport for 10 people. Ten people no longer need to own 10 cars to get around.

One way to grasp how deeply the mafia state of mind has taken hold is to ask: how many middlemen have to be paid to produce/buy a good or service? In Greece, liberation starts by eliminating the middleman, which of course includes the voraciously corrupt state: After Crisis, Greeks Work to Promote ‘Social’ Economy.

The state is naturally in full freakout mode, as self-organizing sharing/no-middleman enterprises are outside the debt-serf/tax donkey system that funds the state. In response, the state is frantically trying to impose the same fee structure that has crushed conventional small businesses on the sharing/no-middleman organizations.

The problem for the state is that its success in imposing exorbitant fees and taxes will simply drive low-income people scratching out a minimal living in the gray market to other networks that do not even have a corporate structure to tax. To wit: "The more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers."

If making a living in the gray market becomes untenable, then people will be forced into the black market, which is whatever trade can be done outside the reach of the state. As noted previously, that which cannot be paid will not be paid.

As correspondent Peter D. recently observed: "Phantom economies tend to give rise to gray and black markets in proportion to the deviance of the phantom economy from reality." If we believe that phantom economies of moated fiefdoms, mafias and cartels are "reality," then the rise of liberating degrowth networks is distressing and confusing.

But if we look past the propaganda and see the debt-serf/tax donkey system for what it really is, a predatory system of oppression and exploitation, then we can see how degrowth, de-consumption, de-debt, etc. is liberating.

See also:
TEDx Tokyo: The "De" Generation (8 minutes) (de-ownership, de-materialism, de-corporatism)
Degrowth, Anti-Consumerism and Peak Consumption (May 9, 2013)


.

Holmgren holds his ground

SUBHEAD: Many activists see Permaculture as just a sideshow, or maybe as something good, but not really important.

By DavidM58 on 5 February 2014 for Integral Permaculture -
(http://integralpermaculture.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/david-holmgren-i-havent-really-changed-the-message/)


Image above: Photo of David Holmgren in the woods in spring. From (http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/rob-hopkins/2014-01/holmgren-s-crash-demand-be-careful-what-you-wish).

I’m suggesting in my essay, the underling thing is an appeal to those people to come and join us in the positive side where we’re going to create the world we do want, whether or not it leads to a larger scale positive change, or whether or not it contributes to a crash.

- David Holmgren

It’s a great interview of David Holmgren by Steffan Geyer on his show “21st Century Permaculture!” broadcast by Shoreditch Community Radio. The “classic retro funk” mixed in is an added bonus. The interview is now being streamed at Mixcloud here (http://www.mixcloud.com/21stCenturyPermaculture/2nd-feb-2014/).


The interview focuses on the hubub that has surrounded Holmgen’s Crash on Demand essay, and I’m very pleased (and relieved) to report that my interpretation (What Is David Holmgren Really Telling Us?) was apparently spot on.

Here are a couple of excerpts I’ve transcribed from the interview:

David Holmgren:
I’m fairly pleased with the response [to the essay] – the fact that it’s created quite a lot of discussion, and triggered a lot of more nuanced thinking about ranges around ‘Future Scenarios.’ Albert Bates’ slightly  lighthearted work on this, where he shifted me from an optimistic ecotopian view to a pessimistic collapsnik. …well, I didn’t agree with that at all, in that I’ve always had a mixture of the two, and I don’t think I’ve particularly changed my position.

But in speaking of permaculture as a positive response of creating the world we do want, whether or not it leads to, if you like, ecological salvation for humanity, just that positive, can do, ‘we’re going to do this anyway’ – it sort of put me in a box, I suppose, naturally enough with Rob Hopkins, but also surprisingly techno-optimists like Amory Lovins, and even people imagining techno utopias.

Whereas, I’ve always had this permaculture view which has been framed against a fairly dark view of the state of the world and likely possibilities, but a positive view about what  personal, household, and community action can be in the context of that world.

Steffen Geyer:
Some people have actually commented that you’re advocating something very similar to what you advocated in Permaculture One, and that you’ve been doing that the whole time in your work, and there’s actually not much of a departure. It’s just a little bit more explicitly said.

David Holmgren:
Yeah, that’s pretty much it! I’ve always been skeptical about the ability to say “What we’re doing in Permaculture might be useful at some local scale, but it only becomes useful when it leads to some large scale societal change.”

Another step in that assumption is that large scale societal change will inevitably come by the powers that be, pulling the levers at the top of the system in the right way to give us the policies to restructure the economy and restructure things you can’t do at the household level. I’ve always seen that as a very limited, what I call “old fashioned” view of political change.

Because Permaculture’s never been cast as you say as a revolution, it’s really been cast as gardening; that a lot of the actions have then been acceptable to a lot of people, because you don’t have to buy in to an idealogical view of the world to see the benefit in some Permaculture strategies and techniques, and the common sense behind a lot of the principles.

The fact that those things are actually subversive to the sort of economy and power structures we have, is not necessarily self evident or important to most people. It does this work for them, it’s useful, it seems fairly benign, and it has multiple benefits. That is a real and true basis for Permaculture, but Mollison and I were never under any illusion that the widespread adoption of this would sort of overturn the power structures in society in the process of getting us in line with the limits that nature ultimately imposes on human systems.

Those limits will and are being imposed, and we can sort of go with the flow of that or we can resist it.  So I haven’t really changed the message, but in a public sense, and of course the blogosphere, the internet, allows one to be very public, and I did choose words fairly carefully with the Crash on Demand essay, and I can see how some people thought  I was advocating that the primary motivation for the sort of Permaculture strategies was actually to destroy the current economy.

That’s not the purpose at all, but it’s a bizarre situation that we’ve got to, where the possibility of the success of that strategy would hasten what is an inevitable process, because generally the view is that these personal things that we do don’t really have any impact.

I suppose I have, increasingly in recent years, started to articulate Permaculture as a political strategy back to people who are of that ilk – activists who are desperately trying to change the structures of society around both equity issues and environmental limits. A lot of them see Permaculture as just a sideshow, or maybe as something good, but not really important.

As their world is progressively unraveling… what I mean by ‘their world’ is the faith that it is possible to martial rational evidence, influence enough policy and powerful people that the inevitability and the logic of the changes that we’re proposing will prevail through some sort of orderly process. That is unraveling.

Large numbers of people in that field, I believe, will give up – are giving up – especially on the climate front. These are people who’ve had enormous energy and commitment, they’re not your average Joe-blow citizen, they’re people who are empowered, who’ve put massive personal energy into these things.

As that community and psychology falls apart, …I’m suggesting in my essay, the underling thing is an appeal to those people to come and join us in the positive side where we’re going to create the world we do want, whether or not it leads to a larger scale positive change, or whether or not it contributes to a crash.

But interestingly, when people have this belief that it’s possible to bring about this larger change, and that faith is lost, there’s a few places people go. One is toward a sort of catatonic disconnection and dysfunction, or just total burnout.  

Another place where a minority will tend to go is back to the old hard revolutionary movement -that we’ve got to have in the end violence to bring the system to an end.  I think people have, at a lot of levels, misunderstood my essay, because part of what I’m doing is appealing to those people to come and join us on this side of the fence. And one of the arguments is yes, one of the effects of a change in behavior by a small proportion of the world’s global middle class could actually bring the system down.

And that idea is attractive to people who have lost all hope for that sort of change. It’s not actually a motivation for me, and I don’t think it’s a motivation for most people involved in Permaculture. But for those sorts of people, it’s actually a safer place than ending up on the track of the Unibomber.

Because we don’t need many prominent ex-environmentalists and social justice advocates to end up in that active violence against the system to have really severe demonization and lockdown of the positive movements we’re talking about. And I think that’s an aspect that hasn’t so much come out in the discussion around the essay. Though I think there’s been some very good and useful discussion, and good points made by almost everyone who’s commentated on it.

A couple of things.  First, I really appreciate that Holmgren acknowledges that a lot of good points were made by almost everyone who’s commented on his essay.  I think it’s important to see all the posts as a friendly discussion sharing important perspectives, all of which are worthwhile to hear and to discuss – rather than framing this as an acrimonious debate.

Second, I appreciate the important point about the potential negative impacts of more violent responses.

In future posts I hope to explore both of these last two topics, and I hope to employ some examples of using PatternDynamics in the process.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Crash and Demand Pathways 2/3/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Response to Holmgren's scenarios 1/10/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Stabbing the Beast 1/1/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Crash on Demand 12/30/13





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Kokee threatened again

SUBHEAD: Death knell sounding for Kokee. State DLNR says it's not Kauai's mountain any more.

By Andy Parx on 1 February 2014 for Parx News Daily -
(http://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-knell-sounding-for-kokee-state.html)

[IB Publisher's note: As damning as this article is to Frank Hay (and this is not the only source) we must say that Frank led the charge ten years ago against the DLNR attempt to commercialize Kokee State Park. He fought the proposed gate and fee that would reduce access for many residents. He also fought hard for keeping the resort hotel operations the DLNR from becoming a reality, as fighting for a fairer lease arrangement for cabins. See article links below for some background. Although Frank was an engineer at the PMRF he worked well with progressives the island pushing back on Lingle's state government looking to monetize public land the way Abercrombie tried with the PLDC.]
  

Image above: What ever happened to the beauty of Niagara Falls in the age of modern commercialization? This! From (http://falls.com/client/contents/niagara_falls_hotels_travelodge_at_the_falls_on_clifton_hill.aspx).

It's hard to tell exactly what's going down up there from down here but one thing is clear, there is some bad mojo surrounding Koke`e these days, much of it at the hands of one Frank Hay, friend of the chemical companies, the military and other Westside abominations.

Not to mention the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) which, while the people of Kauai have always seen the trees and recreational opportunities, sees only dollar signs.

Hay, the  President of the Hui O Laka Museum's Board of Trustees, is the one who almost single-handedly removed long time museum Executive Director Marsha Erickson recently.

Many say that in part it's because she supported the pesticide-and-GMO-disclosing, buffer-zone-creating, study-enabling Bill 2491... that and her support of those who have opposed the massive commercial development of Koke`e that's been proposed by the DLNR for many years.

And Erickson may not have been the only one purged- others say they have been summarily removed from the mountain one way or another through various efforts of Hay, the DLNR and their minions.

But although Hay has attempted to obscure the reasons for Erickson's departure it may be becoming clearer with unconfirmed reports that the lodge has been taken over by Aston Resorts and the CCC Camp- which Erickson brought back from the dead during her Koke`e tenure- is the target of a takeover by the state's nebulous Agrobuniness Development Corporation (ADC).

The ADC is another one of those "Public Land Development Corporation (PLDC)-type state creations that leases "state" land (actually stolen Hawaiian land) and, perhaps unconstitutionally, bypasses local land use laws.

While the PLDC was repealed by the state legislature last year the ADC continues to operate under the radar of most activists, leasing out much of the land used by the chemical companies for their genetically modified (GM) foods and related restricted-use-pesticide (RUP) experiments, with sweetheart deals at outrageously low prices.

In addition the chemical companies' new best friend, Kokee State Representative Dee Morikawa- who has introduced and vehemently defended a bill in the state legislature to essentially overturn Bill 2491 (now ordinance 960) and a Hawai`i Island ordinance banning new open-air GM experiments- has introduced a bill to abolish the Koke`e State Advisory Council

At one time back in the 60's residents had to battle to stop plans for making Koke`e a national park and allowed the state to take over as an alternative. And ever since the state has eyed the Kaua`i playground as a cash cow.

Despite adamant opposition by that pesky advisory council and the near unanimous opposition by the island-wide community to plans that include concessions at the lookouts, turning the lodge into a hotel and putting a gate up to charge admission, the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) has, of late, unilaterally pushed forward with their commercialization plans which had been abandoned due to opposition over and over for decades.

It's been hard enough to keep the city and county at bay. They seem to have some kind of entitlement mindset that says that going in and taking whatever you want without asking is not just okay but that it's us that are exhibiting a lack of aloha for saying "no"- as the battles over the SuperFerry and the current undersea electric cable have so well crystallized.

But when Morikawa, the very one elected to protect Kokee, turns Benedict Arnold on us our chances at protecting what makes Kaua`i special approach zero.

See also:
Island Breath: DLNR Proposes gate fee and expulsion 11/18/04
Island Breath: Petition against DLNR gate to Kokee 11/30/04
Island Breath: DLNR Plan for Kokee incpmplete 1/9/05
Island Breath: BLNR has not reviewed Kokee testimony 1/11/05
Island Breath: BLNR Meeting on Kauai 1/14/05
Island Breath: Kokee Public Information Hearing 3/9/05
Island Breath: Kokee Reprieve by BLNR 8/29/05
Island Breath: State Betrays Kauai on Kokee 1/24/06
Island Breath: DLNR wants Kokee gated community 8/7/06
Island Breath: DLNR Retreat on Kokee 12/10/06

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SB 110 Defeated

SUBHEAD: Senate Ag Committee kills bill aimed at preempting county rights after getting thousands of testimonies.

By Michael Shooltz on 4 February 2014 for Kauai Rising -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2014/02/sb-110-defeated.html)


Image above: View of the Hawaii State Senate from the public gallery. From (http://mauifeed.com/state-of-hawaii/hawaii-house-of-representatives-committees-approve-same-sex-marriage-bill-despite-testimony-horrors/).

You are amazing!!! Please take a moment to acknowledge yourselves and your willingness to show up in support of We the People and our island homes. Your willingness to let your voices be heard carried the day!

Thought you might enjoy this little excerpt from the Hawaii State Legislature's website regarding the the Legislature's action with SB 110 today.

SB110 History

Sort by Date		Status Text
1/17/2013	S	Introduced.
1/17/2013	S	Passed First Reading.
1/22/2013	S	Referred to AGL.
12/18/2013	D	Carried over to 2014 Regular Session.
2/3/2014	S	The committee(s) on AGL will hold a public decision making on 02-04-14 2:46PM in conference room 229.
2/4/2014	S	The committee(s) on AGL recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS and be recommitted. The votes in AGL were as follows: 3 Aye(s): Senator(s) Nishihara, Dela Cruz, Slom; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 3 No(es): Senator(s) Kouchi, English, L. Thielen; and 1 Excused: Senator(s) Wakai.
2/4/2014	S	The recommendation was not adopted.

S = Senate | H = House | D = Data Systems | $ = Appropriation measure | ConAm = Constitutional Amendment

Some of the above items require Adobe Acrobat Reader. Please visit Adobe's download page for detailed instructions.


Of course constant vigilance will continue to be required. But when you show up like you have done over this past 24 hours we will succeed. Your voices let everyone involved know that the Light shining upon the dark is very bright indeed, even when they tried to sneak this bill under the radar.

Please also note above the names of those who voted for passage of the measure and you will recognize the usual names who ALWAYS support the chemical companies. And also note the names of those who voted against the bill. You might take a moment to express your appreciation to those who stood up and voted NO, particularly Kauai's Senator Kouchi. (and it always helps to add Kauai Rising beneath your signature!)

          senkouchi@capitol.hawaii.gov
          senthielen@capitol.hawaii.gov
          senenglish@capitol.hawaii.gov

Shine on Kauai!!  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

---

By Staff on 5 February 2014 for Stop Poisoning Paradise - 

As a result of thousands of email testimonies and phone calls from all Hawaiian islands to legislators in less than 24 hours, Senate Bill 110 (SB 110) was defeated in a 3-3 tie vote of the Senate Ag Committee.
Thanks to EVERYONE who took the time to send in testimony, show up, spread the word to friends, and take part.

Today's victory was because of you!

Again, the people of Hawaii showed that big change can happen when we unite and work together: 

Local farmers and ranchers continue to work with legislators to tell them that the Right to Farm does not mean the right to poison Hawaii's families, land and water. And that counties have the right to protect the health and safety of their residents.

Families living near gmo fields are working together across Kauai, Molokai, Big Island, Maui and Oahu, sharing their stories, and now realizing they are not alone in their experiences.

Medical professionals, parents, teachers, union members, surfers, scientists, first responders, artists and writers are exchanging information together on Facebook, in the halls of the State Capitol, and on the airwaves.

Those who malama aina - cultural practitioners, fishers, hunters, across generations, both Hawaii-born and raised as well as from every ethnicity and culture on our islands - are working together, building bridges, and continuing to submit powerful testimony in common kuleana.
 
Stay tuned for the next Call to Action, as Hawaii's people continue to cast sunshine on the inner workings of the State Legislature and its backroom processes.

Let's continue to work hard and joyfully, to protect our future generations, our land and our water!

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: State/Corporate GMO Regulation 2/3/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Right to Farm 1/26/14


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State/Corporate GMO Regulation

SUBHEAD: Local health and welfare pre-emption bill SB110 is the sneak attack by the GMO stooges in our state legislature.

By Brad Parsons on 3 February 2014 in Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2014/01/hawaii-gmo-labeling-bill.html)


Image above: The non-GMO Soup Stone. You have to start somewhere. From (http://occupy-monsanto.com/category/events/).

SUBJECT:   
Hawaii GMO Legislation Watch - SNEAK ATTACK - PREEMPTION

Aloha Petition Signers
Action Item as soon as possible.  A Hearing Notice went out 2 hours ago for a hearing on this tomorrow, Tuesday and needs quick testimony or sentiment against. See meeting details below.

URGENT:
PROTECT HOME RULE, HAWAII

• Preemption bill in new clothing (from a legislative 'birdie')
• New “County preemption bill” in disguise, - SB110, SD1,
• Scheduled for hearing TOMORROW - Tues, 2/4 Agriculture Committee
• This was formerly SB 3058. This is the sneak attack we've been expecting.
• Need LOTS of emails and calls ASAP! Need Lots of testimony and sentiment against.

STATE REP EMAIL:
State Senators
sens@capitol.hawaii.gov

State Represenetaivers
reps@capitol.hawaii.gov 
 
KAUAI REPS EMAIL:
Representative Dee Morikawa
House District 16
Hawaii State Capitol
Room 310
phone: 808-586-6280
fax: 808-586-6281
repmorikawa@capitol.hawaii.gov

Representative James Tokioka
House District 15
Hawaii State Capitol
Room 322
phone: 808-586-6270
fax: 808-586-6271
reptokioka@capitol.hawaii.gov

Representative Derek Kawakami
House District 14
Hawaii State Capitol
Room 314
phone: 808-586-8435
fax: 808-586-8437
repkawakami@capitol.hawaii.gov

Senator Ron Kouchi
Senate District 8
Hawaii State Capitol
Room 206
phone: 808-586-6030
fax: 808-586-6031
senkouchi@Capitol.hawaii.gov

TO TESTIFY:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=110

Submit your testimony:
If you don't have an account with (http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov), you can set one up easily and it is free. Click on "Register" button in the upper right-hand corner of page.

Return to SB110 page and click on the blue "Submit Testimony" at top of page and it will take you to a page that looks like this form (for another bill):



You can fill out the information depicted in the above graphic.  Minimum, you only need to highlight the "Support" dot for SB2736, along with your acct. name and email.  If you want under "Additional Comments," you can write a few sentences or paragraphs

WHEN:
Tuesday, February 04, 2014
TIME:
2:46pm

WHERE:
Conference Room 229
State Capitol
415 South Beretania Street
Honolulu, Hawaii

AGENDA:
SB 110
      Proposed SD1
      Status & Testimony
RELATING TO AGRICULTURE.
Proposed SD1:  Amends Hawaii’s Right to Farm Act to ensure that counties cannot enact laws, ordinances, or resolutions that limit the rights of farmers and ranchers to engage in modern farming and ranching practices. (SD1 Proposed) AGL.

SECTION 1. was all added into a previously empty bill:

SECTION 1.  Section 165-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
     "§165-4  Right to farm.  No court, official, public servant, or public employee shall declare any farming operation a nuisance for any reason if the farming operation has been conducted in a manner consistent with generally accepted agricultural and management practices.

There shall be a rebuttable presumption that a farming operation does not constitute a nuisance.  The right of farmers and ranchers to engage in modern farming and ranching practices shall be forever guaranteed in this State.

No law, ordinance, or resolution of any unit of local government shall be enacted that abridges the right of farmers and ranchers to employ agricultural technology, modern livestock production, and ranching practices not prohibited by federal or state law, rules, or regulations."

     SECTION 2.  New statutory material is underscored.
     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Right to Farm Bill 1/26/14

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