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Let me say first of all, I love the environment. In fact, I spend most of my time in some environment or other. My family lives the low-packaging, low carbon, tedious recycling lifestyle. My wife is so committed to recycling that I'm convinced that when I'm gone, my body will be dragged to the curb on Wednesday night. So I have to say in a quiet voice that I'm sick and tired of hearing about carbon footprints, offset credits, green shift and global warming. Don't get me wrong -- I think looking after the Earth is a good thing. I...

Earth emits an ear-piercing series of chirps and whistles that could be heard by any aliens who might be listening, if they're out there. The sound is awful, a new recording from space reveals. Scientists have known about the radiation since the 1970s. It is created high above the planet, where charged particles from the solar wind collide with Earth's magnetic field. • Click here to hear the sounds. It is related to the phenomenon that generates the colorful aurora, or Northern Lights. The radio waves are blocked by the ionosphere, a charged layer atop our atmosphere, so they do...

A desire to understand the universe seems to be hard-wired into our brains.  However we need a worldview (from the German Weltanschauung which means, literally, "world view").  Continuing with the computer metaphor, a worldview corresponds to a disc operating system, a framework for receiving and processing data. Worldviews have changed over the course of history.  The ancient Greeks thought that otherwise inexplicable events such as thunderstorms and falling in love were the results of whimsical actions of Zeus and Cupid, respectively.  Shakespeare and his contemporaries believed in a heavenly harmony that was replicated here on earth.  Thus the sun ruled...

Yet with Mr. Ehrlich, as with Mr. Miller, it is the psychology of the duped disciples that raises the most questions. Ms. Mills, at least, demonstrates exactly the same ideological frenzy and moral vanity, the hatred of elders and the past, as a Red Guard denouncing his teachers in the Cultural Revolution. Even today, her speech has the power to frighten with its self-righteous malice. For while Ms. Mills is talking about the end of civilization, she is no more able than a Mao or a Savonarola to disguise her satisfaction at the prospect.

PLANTS deserve respect, a group of Swiss experts says, arguing that killing them arbitrarily is morally wrong - except when it comes to saving humans or maybe picking petals off a daisy. In a report on "the dignity of the creature in the plant world", the federal Ethics Committee on non-human Gene Technology condemned the decapitation of flowers without reason, among other sins. Still, commission member Bernard Baertsche suggested the body weighed such cruel acts on a case by case basis, noting "the simple pleasure of picking the petals off a daisy might suffice as a reason". Similarly "all action...

"...nvolve your congregation in Earth Ministry. Ask them to support us by taking our Membership Challenge, and maybe you will win a special workshop for your congregation. And what better day to support our work by taking a special collection or shared plate offering? These congregational gifts are a significant source of support for our work. The enclosed Celebration resource package gives you all you need to get started. As you celebrate Earth Day 2008, rejoice in the knowledge that you do so in spiritual community committed to the interdependent web of all existence. In Faith, Claudia Kern for the...

It’s not a script for the next science-fiction thriller, but renowned British scientist James Lovelock is giving human civilization less than 32 years before all hell breaks loose because of the effects of global warming. Lovelock said the impact of climate change is irreversible regardless of what mankind does. “By 2040, the world population of more than six billion will have been culled by floods, drought and famine,”

Over the past year, a remarkable cooling trend has brought ocean surface temperatures down to temperatures reached in the 1940s. Now, land temperatures have followed. Planet-wide land temperatures were actually significantly *below* the 20th-century average. This is not a refutation of global warming by an attempt to debate how sound the alarmists' dataset is. This is based on the same data sets used by Al Gore, Dr. Hansen, and the IPCC: Global Warming is, for now, history. Global temperatures are about the coolest measured since 1994, about the same as the phenomenally large "La Nina" of 2000. By 1994, climatologists...

"Aretha Franklin performs at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, in Los Angeles."

Scientists want rewrite of Earth's time line By Leigh Dayton January 29, 2008 02:00am Article from: The Australian A HEATED scientific row is brewing as British geoscientists lead a push to establish a new chapter in the history of Earth - one based on human activity. Led by geologist Jan Zalasiewicz, of the University of Leicester, the rabble-rousers argue that changes wrought since the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago are so profound they are now visible in the physical and living fabric of the planet. As a result, they have called for the creation of a new Epoch in the...

I was searching Sanyo USA's website for warranty information earlier today when I spotted a Think Gaia link on their main page. It's worth clicking on just to read the new age nonsense Sanyo is endorsing on their website.

In 2000, when scientists declared that the Earth's temperature was rising, much anxiety ensued, even though the increase was only half of a degree over sixty years. In just the past year, however, the Earth's temperature has reversed, yielding back one-half of that increase. Last month, I wrote that the past month's (November's) global oceanic data from the National Climatic Data Center was .2548 degrees warmer than the 1880-2007 average. That was down from .5250 last year and .5597 roughly a decade ago. Well, they have dropped even further. This past month's average reading, .2493 degrees above average, is the...

Panelists discuss climate changes, peak oil By Jake Palmateer Staff Writer http://www.thedailystar.com/local/local_story_340040035.html ONEONTA _ "Kill your lawn." That was one of the recommendations from a panel discussion based around peak oil and climate change held Wednesday night at the First United Methodist Church. Angelika St. Laurent of Cornell University promoted growing more vegetables and fruits locally _ including on lawns _ as a way to mitigate food-supply problems related to peak oil and climate change. ... ...Hubbert [in the 1950's] accurately predicted that American petroleum production would peak in less than two decades. ... a global peak, which Fleisher said...

Klara Tammany's mother didn't want a typical American funeral. No embalming, no metal casket, not even a funeral home. When she died after a long illness a couple of years ago, family members and friends washed and dressed her body and put it in a homemade wooden casket, which was laid across two sawhorses in the dining room of her condo in Brunswick. Then, for two days, friends and family visited, brought cut flowers, wrote messages on the casket's lid and said goodbye. "We had this wake, and it was wonderful," Tammany said. The home funeral is part of an...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama said Sunday that his religious beliefs influence his plans for how to protect the environment. Speaking before religious leaders and others at what he called an "interfaith forum on climate change," the Illinois senator said God has entrusted humans with the responsibility of caring for the earth, and "we are not acting as good stewards of God's earth when our bottom line puts the size of our profits before the future of our planet." "It is our responsibility to ensure that this planet remains clean and safe and livable for...

A series of giant pipes in the oceans to mix surface and deeper water could be an emergency fix for the earth's damaged climate system, says the scientist behind the Gaia hypothesis. Professor James Lovelock, whose hypothesis says earth is a kind of superorganism composed of living and non-living elements, has fuelled controversy for three decades. He thinks the stakes are so high that radical solutions must be tried to fix our climate, even if they ultimately fail. In a letter to the journal Nature, he proposes vertical pipes 100 to 200 metres long and 10 metres wide be placed...

“Mankind’s blind pursuit of convenience and material comforts threaten to upset this fragile balance of co-existence sustaining life on Earth, creating such problems as environmental destruction and the break-down of societal values.”-Sanyo.com Sanyo has chosen to think “GAIA” In respecting that all life on earth is organic and interconnected, Sanyo intends to use it’s technological resources and know-how to propose global solutions in harmony with our new understanding of Gaia- Earth. The company’s ultimate goal is to help restore a beautiful Earth for future generations. I think it does help the world when we seek out companies whose mission statement...

Environmentalists are quick to lecture the rest of us about the ways of nature. Don't clean the dead trees off the forest floor, it's natural. Cattle and horses on the range aren't native, so let the grizzlies and wolves devour them, it's natural. Man isn't part of the ecology, lock him out of vast areas of land, it's natural. It's interesting to note how the "natural" argument only applies when it is used to impose the radical environmental agenda. Case in point, the Northern Spotted Owl. Spotted owls, we were told a decade ago, were disappearing because big bad timber...

Since the secular left has embraced the environment as their religion they should be referred to in a way that has religious overtones. Climate Fundamentalist orthodox gorians Anyone got any good ones.

A new way to examine humanity's impact on the environment is to consider how the world would fare if all the people disappeared Editors’ Introduction It’s a common fantasy to imagine that you’re the last person left alive on earth. But what if all human beings were suddenly whisked off the planet? That premise is the starting point for The World without Us, a new book by science writer Alan Weisman, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Arizona. In this extended thought experiment, Weisman does not specify exactly what finishes off Homo sapiens; instead he simply assumes...

From New Hampshire to California, American Indian leaders are speaking out more forcefully about the danger of climate change. Members of six tribes recently gathered near the Baker River in the White Mountains for a sacred ceremony honoring "Earth Mother." Talking Hawk, a Mohawk Indian who asked to be identified by his Indian name, pointed to the river's tea-colored water as proof that the overwhelming amount of pollution humans have produced has caused changes around the globe.

Meteorologist Likens Fear of Global Warming to 'Religious Belief' By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer December 02, 2004 Washington (CNSNews.com) - An MIT meteorologist Wednesday dismissed alarmist fears about human induced global warming as nothing more than 'religious beliefs.' "Do you believe in global warming? That is a religious question. So is the second part: Are you a skeptic or a believer?" said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard Lindzen, in a speech to about 100 people at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. "Essentially if whatever you are told is alleged to be supported by 'all...

Former Vice President Al Gore is harshly critical of President Bush in his new book, "The Assault on Reason," in which he claims that "the current White House has engaged in an unprecedented and sustained campaign of mass deception." In an interview with ABC News, Gore goes one step further on the war in Iraq, calling it "the worst strategic mistake in the whole history of the United States." However, Gore refuses to place the blame squarely on Bush. "When our country made a decision to invade Iraq, it's too partisan to simply blame that on the current president," he...

With $20 billion per annum in public funding the modern earth cult can easily spend some nickels to attract cult members. I can well imagine that soon, on prime time TV, [or a gay sitcom], will be the tax-payer funded eco-cult recruitment, 'You must join us' advert. It will show a wide expanse of meadow populated by masses of automatons with arms outstretched resembling a fuehrer cult rally. Their laconic voices will repeat the intonation, 'save the earth goddess...save the earth goddess...' The camera will sweep in and out showing mindless, fixated faces with dilated pupils staring upwards, saliva seeping...

Al Gore's speech Saturday at the American Institute of Architects convention was closed to the media, but you can read about it in today's Express-News on Page 1B. How we cracked the former vice president's iron curtain is a mildly entertaining story, but more on that later. The why we crashed the speech is more important. Here is Express-News Editor Robert Rivard's reasoning in asking the paper's environmental reporter, Anton Caputo, to find a way to infiltrate the AIA confab: "Al Gore and his crusade to raise awareness about global warming and climate change are issues of great public interest,...

Playing equal parts visionary, cheerleader and comedian, Al Gore brought his message of how to fight global warming to a capacity crowd of receptive architects Saturday in San Antonio. The former vice president referred continually to a "new way of thinking" that is emerging in the country and offered hope in the battle to control the effects global warming will have on the planet. "It's in part a spiritual crisis," Gore told the crowd in the Convention Center at the American Institute of Architects national convention. "It's a crisis of our own self-definition — who we are. Are we creatures...

They call California the land of fruits and nuts for more than one reason. Proof is presented every day and front and center comes from a Bloomberg Report that details that visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming. Got that. If you want to read a bit before bed and get a little inspiration, instead of scripture you get to read some alarmist propaganda from a man that...

Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming. They'll also find the Gaia equipped with waterless urinals, solar lighting and recycled paper as it marches toward becoming California's first hotel certified as ``green,'' or benevolent to the environment. Similar features are found 35 miles south at San Francisco's Orchard Garden Hotel, which competes for customers with neighboring luxury hotels like the Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont. ``I'm not your traditional Birkenstocks...

Bloomberg.com article. Can't post. Here is the link. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=us&sid=afIESX3LdgnQ

<p>A fast-tracked congressional plan to add special protections for homosexuals to federal law would turn "thoughts, feelings, and beliefs" into criminal offenses and put Christians in the bull's-eye, according to opponents.</p> <p>"H.R. 1592 is a discriminatory measure that criminalizes thoughts, feelings, and beliefs [and] has the potential of interfering with religious liberty and freedom of speech," according to a white paper submitted by Glen Lavy, of the Alliance Defense Fund.</p>

Deep in the shadows of the New Age is an organization that is linked to the United Nations and striving to create a New World Order.  It is not the stuff of paranoia. It is not a conspiracy theory. It is a simple fact.  Recently, I called attention to Bohemian Grove, a clandestine meeting place for world leaders north of San Francisco, and now would like to call attention to this group on the other coast.  I'd like to know, once and for all, about Lucis Trust. I'd like to know what they want. I want to know why they...

Two centuries years ago, Voltaire proclaimed, “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.” Today, our free speech traditions are under assault. Colleges prohibit “offensive” or “politically incorrect” speech. Radical Islamists threaten to kill scholars, artists and even popes who “disrespect” the Prophet. And when we desperately need unfettered scientific debate, intolerant eco-activists have ushered in an era of climate McCarthyism and eco-Inquisitions. Al Gore seeks to muzzle anyone who raises inconvenient truths about climate alarmism. Greenpeace wants “climate criminals” pilloried and silenced. Grist magazine wants “Nuremberg-style war crimes trials” for...

The green fervour Is environmentalism the new religion?Joseph Brean, National Post Published: Saturday, February 10, 2007 In his new book Apollo’s Arrow, ambitiously subtitled The Science of Prediction and the Future of Everything, Vancouver-based author and mathematician David Orrell set out to explain why the mathematical models scientists use to predict the weather, the climate and the economy are not getting any better, just more refined in their uncertainty. What he discovered, in trying to sketch the first principles of prophecy, was the religious nature of modern environ-mentalism. This is not to say that fearing for the future of...

A new worldwide movement backed by celebrities, musicians, politicians and business leaders is aiming to reverse the effects of global warming over the next decade. Global Cool launched in London and LA today and is calling on one billion people to reduce their carbon emissions by just one tonne a year, for the next 10 years

Primitive man worshipped nature and imbued inanimate things with human qualities. So do environmentalists. James Lovelock, one of the movement's godheads, and the godfather of the Gaia hypothesis, imbued the earth with mystical powers. The Lovelock-inspired concept of "planetary consciousness" is really a philosophical excrescence of animism, "the belief that natural objects, natural phenomena and the universe itself possess souls." Nature worship is a form of this fetishism. Primitives worshipped idols and amulets but also conferred divine honor on the sun, moon, mountains, rivers, trees and animals; air, fire and water. Environmental animists à la Lovelock believe that to...

The Jesuits in Guelph, Ont., have a plan that's only going to take them 500 years to complete. The Jesuits are comparing their Old Growth Forest Project to such ambitious schemes as the medieval cathedrals of Europe, the pyramids and the Great Wall of China. The priests are setting aside land for a future forest ? a forest that won't qualify as old growth until a handful of centuries have passed. This forest starts with a web site, www.oldgrowthforest.ca. At the site, people are invited to donate. For every $20 gift the Jesuits will set aside a square metre of...

“Your son and daughter might be the next Hansel and Gretel,” should have been the warning label on the Guide to Paganism supplied to British prison governors by the Pagan Federation. Michael Spurr, director of operations of the Prison Service, approved the new norms, which allow pagan British inmates possession of incenses and an amulet, the services of pagan “chaplains,” and the practice of rites and chants in their cells, London’s Times reported on October 17th of last year.  Pretence of Antiquity Witchcraft and paganism have been growing worldwide, especially the practice of Wicca, for which courses one can now...

MOSCOW, JULY 4, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A Russian Orthodox Church official called for a "global union" in the world that respects various traditions, especially religious ones. Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, president of the Foreign Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, made that comment at the historic meeting of some 200 leaders of the world's religions. The leaders, from 40 countries, are meeting for three days in the Russian capital to discuss their positions on the problems that afflict contemporary society. The objective of the meeting was to influence politicians' decisions favorably and to favor a general change in the...

See for example this thread first. I first saw this in Chemical & Engineering News, lo! these many years ago (maybe 1984 time frame?), and claim no credit except for remembering it. A mosquito was heard to complain, "I fear they have addled my brain!" "The cause of my sorrow is para-dicholoro- diphenyl-trichloroethane!"

Since presiding over the fall of Communism, Mikhail Gorbachev has moved on to a different mode for the imposition of a utopian vision on humanity. Perhaps sensing that religious impulses remain far more powerful than the dreams of Karl Marx, he is working to harness religion to environmentalism, via his new nonprofit vehicle, Green Cross International . Beneath a veneer of conventional do-gooder environmentalism is a pathway to worship Gaia, the earth as a goddess. I only learned of Gorby’s new gig via Vasko Kohlmayer’s apt comment in The American Thinker a few days ago. Mr. Kohlmayer is quite correct...

Green TheologyAustin Ruse, President of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, the only Catholic lobbying group at the United Nations in New York, reports that there are a number of troubling groups circling around the UN. One such group is fairly new and as yet little-reported movement called the United Religious Initiative (URI), now active in 58 countries and 33 states in the U.S. It has been described as "an exclusive, decentralized organization, a spiritual partner of the United Nations." URI positions support population control, environmental extremism, and are radical on sexual matters. A new document signed by URI's...

Cambridgeshire, England Actress Jane Fonda said she was considering studying in Cambridge during a visit to the city on Tuesday. The Oscar winner, political activist and fitness guru was in the city as part of a visit to Britain to promote her autobiography, My Life So Far. In an interview with BBC Look East she said she was thinking about returning to study theology and feminism there. "It (Cambridge) is so beautiful that it is just breathtaking. I hope I come back," said Fonda, 67. "I am thinking about studying here if I can persuade my daughter and grandchildren to...

"It is difficult to resist the conclusion that there is a death wish at work at the heart of our civilization... our theologians dismantle the structure of belief they exist to expound and promote."  –Malcolm Muggeridge, Eternity, April 1972 Muggeridge, a world-famous English journalist who became a Christian late in his life, was prophetic as he saw the coming remaking of the core of the Christian faith by its very leaders. We might wonder if he could have imagined how far the faith could be taken apart!The problem is this: many of our modern theologians, clergy and seminaries are remaking...

The scent of sage fills the air as a light breeze blows through the leaves of nearby palm trees. Somewhere in the distance, a tractor is plowing a field. The chirp of an occasional bird breaks the calm hush for a moment. A bag of instruments is passed around, and a shrine with Neolithic goddess figurines, babushkas, photographs of goddess statues, and a ceramic plate painted with a spiral design is quietly constructed. Thirteen Israeli men and women are seated in a circle around the artifacts. The earth below is the archeological site of a civilization over 8,000 years old....

They’re no fans of Christianity, but the followers of Gaia have discovered a funding stream through the Faith-Based and Community Initiative of President George W. Bush. Disciples of 21st-century Gaia believe that all living things on earth are interconnected (except man) and that to damage or destroy even the tiniest insect is the equivalent of wiping out an entire ecological system. In layman understanding: Don’t swat that fly hovering around the pablum you’re feeding the baby.

They’re no fans of Christianity, but the followers of Gaia have discovered a funding stream through the Faith-Based and Community Initiative of President George W. Bush. Disciples of 21st-century Gaia believe that all living things on earth are interconnected (except man) and that to damage or destroy even the tiniest insect is the equivalent of wiping out an entire ecological system. In layman understanding: Don’t swat that fly hovering around the pablum you’re feeding the baby. Former Vice President Al Gore could be the most recognized disciple of Gaia. But even though he touted the organized environmental religion in his...

[ snip ] Recently, in doing some research on environmental extremist groups, I kept seeing a recurring theme...the notion that dear Mother Earth was not only something to be protected, but something to be worshipped. Something to be worshipped? This struck me as particularly ironic in light of the secular dismissing of the Biblical God I worship. So, I kept reading and searching until I found what I believe to be the most succinct statement of the environmental extremist mantra. This is from the beliefs statement of The Aetherius Society: The whole of the New Age movement is based not...

A druidic "women's eucharist" and a "divorce rite," both posted on the Episcopal Church's official Web site, have outraged Episcopal conservatives.     The "eucharist," subtitled "A Celebration of the Divine Feminine," was posted Oct. 8 on the denomination's Office of Women's Ministries page at www.dfms.org. It invoked "Mother God" and used a lighted candle, a vase of flowers, a chalice of sweet red wine, a cup of milk and money and a plate of raisin cakes to invoke images of sexuality, fertility and birth. The rite was attributed to the Rev. Glyn Lorraine Ruppe Melnyk, the pastor of St. Francis...

Children begin United Nations conference on the environment NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Mimicking a chimpanzee's shriek to the cheers and laughter of children from around the world, primate researcher Jane Goodall Tuesday opened the United Nations-sponsored Tunza International Children's Conference on the Environment. The four-day conference brings together 450 children from 50 countries to talk about environmental issues and the many small ways that children can work for environmental causes. At the end of the conference, the children will vote on resolutions that will be passed on to the United Nations' Environment Programme for possible consideration by the UN. "Not...

NEW LONDON Hundreds of young environmentalists from 40 nations will converge on New London later this month for a United Nations-sponsored conference on environmental issues. When the environmentalists, age 10 to 13, finish talking about water pollution, energy conservation, needs of indigenous people and other issues, their resolutions will be passed along to the United Nations for debate. The conference is the fifth held by the United Nations Environment Programme since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio De Janiero recommended involving children in environmental causes. It will be the first to be held in the United States. "It was shown...