International Rights of Nature Tribunal Finds Corporations, Governments Guilty of Crimes Against Nature

Convened in Paris parallel to COP21, the tribunal challenged the mainstream dialogue, exploring apartheid structures, alternative organizing and indigenous thought.
As the COP21 climate conference comes to its conclusion, many here don’t believe that the agreement to cut emissions will suffice to alter the catastrophic course of the planet. In fact, many will leave believing that what is most important is the continued work to pressure governments not only reduce greenhouse gases, but to also address the inequalities that continue and underly the problem.

"The deal that will be unveiled in less than a week will not be enough to keep us safe,” author and activist Naomi Klein told a crowd gathered for a labor and climate change event. “In fact, it will be extraordinarily dangerous.”

Klein and many others gathered for the COP21 conference believe that the agreement being reached is “going to steamroll over equity red lines, which means that wealthy countries that have been emitting fossil fuels on an industrial scale for a couple hundred years will continue to fail to do our fair share of emission reductions.”

More on Alternet - International Rights of Nature Tribunal

'Blood moon' brings prophecies of end times

On Sunday, millions of people around the world will enjoy the sight of a “blood moon”, as a lunar eclipse combined with a “supermoon” combines to make our natural satellite appear red in colour. Sales are emergency-preparedness retailers ahead of a combination of a lunar eclipse and a supermoon, but church says not to get carried away. Observers might not enjoy themselves quite so much, however, if certain prophecies turn out to be true and the phenomenon heralds the beginning of the apocalypse.

Sunday will be the fourth appearance of a blood moon over the last two years, in what is known as a tetrad series. The last time was in 1982; the next will be in 2033. If some religious leaders are to be believed, none of us will live to enjoy that next blood moon. Most such leaders are of groups on the fringes of organised belief, although this week leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints felt moved to reassure those among its followers who are worried.

Irvin Baxter runs Endtime Ministries in Plano, Texas. He posts regular YouTube videos speculating over whether this series of blood moons could signal the end of the world. “Some prophecy teachers are declaring boldly that this tetrad just ahead signals that something is getting ready to happen, which will change the world forever,” Baxter said on his website.

More at The Guardian

Who are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

After the greatest financial heist in history, the modern day 'Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse' continue to ride roughshod over the people whom can least afford it. One - a rapacious financial system, Two - escalating organized violence, Three - abject poverty for billions and Four - exhaustion of the earth's resources, gallop unchallenged because we are not encouraged to question the accepted norms.

Richard Dawkins

The Truth Behind Elephant Rides in Thailand

Throughout Thailand, there are countless elephant tourist parks and camps. The vast majority of these camps are commercial enterprises, making huge amounts of money from tourists keen to have their photos taken with elephant calves, bathing with the elephants or riding them, or watching them paint. Some elephants are used in performances, dressed up and forced to perform unnatural, painful and demeaning tricks.

The sad and devastating reality is that this tourist-driven demand is fuelling a huge and unsustainable illegal trade in baby elephants. Recent reports indicate that at least 50-100 calves and young females are removed from their forest homes in Burma every year and are illegally traded to supply tourist camps in Thailand. It is estimated that for every calf smuggled across Burma's border into Thailand, up to five adult elephants, including the calf's mother and other protective family members, are killed.

More at the AFA Coalition 

Cute Animals That Can Kill You

Hundreds of Dead Sea Lions Found - Fukushima's Damage Continues in Silence

As the world focuses on other things, billions of humans forget what the helpless animals still affected everyday do not: Fukushima is killing their home, their ecosystem, and, sadly – them.  Stories appear almost daily on alternative news sites about a new group of whales, dolphins, fish, or other sea creatures dying in the millions in some cases, yet those stories aren’t “hip” anymore, so the corporate controlled mainstream media tends to ignore them.

Thankfully, sites like Natural News still talk about the ongoing Fukushima disaster.  In a recent article entitled, “500 more dead sea lions; Fukushima radiation continues to spread across ocean” Natural News writer Jonathan Benson writes:Another mysterious wave of dead sea animals has washed ashore in Peru, the possible consequence of ongoing radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan. BBC News reports that 500 dead sea lions were recently discovered on Peru’s northern coastline, some 250 miles north of the capital city of Lima, with no obvious explanation as to why this occurred.

More at YourNewsWire.com

What is the Evidence for Evolution?

Last Hours

Green World Rising is a series of short films on the state of climate and solutions to the climate crisis.

Green World Rising is brought to you by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and produced by Tree Media. The series is narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio.

#GreenWorldRising – Part 1 - Carbon

The scariest inhabitant of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not what you think

When you think of terrifying monsters that might inhabit the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, what do you think of? Mutant sharks? Pissed-off squid? Rabid barnacles? (Well, ok, probably not rabid barnacles.)
Nope. The scariest inhabitant of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is this.

Meet Halofolliculina. It is a single-celled organism – a ciliate – about the size of a sesame seed with teeny tiny devil horns. (They are actually pericytostomial wings, not devil horns, but I won’t tell if you don’t.) My collaborators Hank Carson and Marcus Eriksen found these little buggers living on plastic debris floating way offshore in the western Pacific, which wouldn’t be terrifying in itself since a lot of strange critters live on plastic debris (see our paper for a complete list). But Halofolliculina is a pathogen that causes skeletal eroding band disease in corals, and this piece of debris was headed towards Hawaii.

By Miriam Goldstein on Deep Sea News

NASA Proposes Spraying Stratospheric Aerosols Into Earths Atmosphere

It’s really amazing how many people are waking up to the fact that “chemtrails” are different from “con-trails.” What was once considered a conspiracy to many is now a fact, chemicals are constantly sprayed into our atmosphere and have been for quite some time now. Not long ago, NASA personnel gave a lecture (that was also streamed live) at their Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. It was a series of talks by scientists and engineers exploring the topic of Geoengineering and Climate Intervention. Some of you might be thinking, “Geoengineering, what is that?” Geoengineering encompasses strategies to combat and reduce the effects of global warming and climate change. It’s the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climatic system, and one of these methods, as illustrated in the lecture, is called Solar Radiation Management (SRM) by spraying stratospheric aerosols into the atmosphere. The lecture outlines how SRM would require the equivalent of airplanes spraying aerosols into our atmosphere for decades. You can see this at approximately the 32 minute mark. It seems it’s already happening. These programs are also considering spraying Aluminum into the atmosphere (if not already doing it).

“There might be some good reasons to think about aluminum. Aluminum has four  times the volumetric rate for small particles as does sulphur. That means you have roughly 16 times less the coagulation rate, and that’s the thing that really drives removal.” – David Keith, Canadian Environmental Scientists, Professor of Applied Physics at Gordon McKay, Professor of Public policy, Harvard University, President of Carbon Engineering.

The idea of spraying aluminum into our atmosphere goes way back, patents exist that clearly demonstrate the consideration of such materials that include the oxides of metals which have high emissivity. These include harmful substances like aluminum oxide and thorium oxide. A great patent example is one from the Hughes Aircraft Company that dates all the way back to 1990, that’s over twenty years ago. You can take a look at it here.

More on Collective-Evolution

Radioactive Wolves Of Chernobyl

Dolphins ‘deliberately get high’ on puffer fish

Dolphins are thought of as one of the most intelligent species in the animal kingdom – and experts believe they have put their ingenuity to use in the pursuit of getting “high”. In extraordinary scenes filmed for a new documentary, young dolphins were seen carefully manipulating a certain kind of puffer fish which, if provoked, releases a nerve toxin.

Though large doses of the toxin can be deadly, in small amounts it is known to produce a narcotic effect, and the dolphins appeared to have worked out how to make the fish release just the right amount. Carefully chewing on the puffer and passing it between one another, the marine mammals then enter what seems to be a trance-like state.

The Independent

Tools of the Trade

He has karate-chopped some of cinema's most fiendish adversaries in his 40-year film career. And now Jackie Chan is taking on his toughest challenge yet: changing the mindset of a billion Chinese citizens.

More on The Telegraph

Peace Doves Released By Pope & That's When All Hell Broke Loose

North Carolina Bans Use of Latest Science on Rising Sea Level

A new law in North Carolina will ban the state from basing coastal policies on the latest scientific predictions of how much the sea level will rise, prompting environmentalists to accuse the state of disrespecting climate science.

The law has put the state in the spotlight for what critics have called nearsightedness and climate change denial, but its proponents said the state needed to put a moratorium on predictions of sea level rise until scientific techniques improve.

The law was drafted in response to an estimate by the state's Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) that the sea level will rise by 39 inches in the next century, prompting fears of costlier home insurance and accusations of anti-development alarmism among residents and developers in the state's coastal Outer Banks region.

Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue had until Thursday to act on the bill known as House Bill 819, but she decided to let it become law by doing nothing.

ABC News

Blackfish

joblo.com - "Blackfish" - Official Trailer

Animals You Didn't Know Existed

The pink fairy armadillo is approximately 3.5-4.5 inches long, excluding the tail, and is pale rose or pink in color. It has the ability to bury itself completely in a matter of seconds if frightened. It is a nocturnal animal and it burrows small holes near ant colonies in dry soil, and feeds mainly on ants and ant larvae near its burrow. It uses large front claws to agitate the sand, allowing it to almost swim through the ground like it is water. It is torpedo-shaped, and has a shielded head and back.

More strange animals on seriouslyforreal.com

Atheists Rising: Wolf Blitzer Learns a Lesson

You’d think by now CNN would have learned to  stop treating their assumptions and as truths. But when Wolf Blitzer made a casual comment Tuesday, it turned out to be a teachable moment both for the newsman and television viewers.

Speaking live to a survivor of the deadly tornado in Moore, Okla., Blitzer declared the woman “blessed,” her husband “blessed,” and her son “blessed.” He then asked, “You’ve gotta thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?” But as she held her 18-month-old son, Rebecca Vitsmun politely replied,  “I’m actually an atheist.” A flummoxed Blitzer quickly lobbed back, “You are. All right. But you made the right call,” and Vitsmun graciously offered him a lifeline. “We are here,” she said, “and I don’t blame anyone for thanking the Lord.” Nicely done, Rebecca Vitsmun.

One in five American adults – and a third of Americans under age 30 — now  declare no religious affiliation. We are less religious now than at any other point in our history, and our secularism is rising at a rapid pace. Get used to it, Lord thankers.

More on Alternet

Unknown Skeleton of Sea Creature Found in Qingdao China