Rethos.com - kristawhite's News Feed

Down with EcoElitism

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:10:19 -0400

About four months ago, I started my blog. Determined to subject the public to my rantings, rather than keeping it a personal journal type of blog, Iâ€™ve been promoting it rather vigorously, partly by participating in conversations on other blogs and forums. And in doing so, Iâ€™ve noticed a very disturbing trend: militant and elitist environmentalism.

I have yet to come across a forum that doesnâ€™t have a thread to the effect of â€œWhat did you do for the environment today,â€ and invariably these threads go something like this:

â€œI put a water saver in my toilet...

Stand up for the Burmese People

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:46:58 -0400

Normally I write about climate change. But today I realized there’s not much point in trying to save the future when hostile military regimes are murdering innocent people in the present.

Today the Burmese Junta opened fire on peaceful protesters, including thousands of Buddhist monks, brutally gunning down at least nine people.

China, the country’s main weapons supplier, refuses to intervene, or to stop weapons supplies. Their only comment was that they hope “the situation there [in Burma]... does not get complicated.”

In my opinio...

UN Climate Change Meeting: Who Shone, Who Shirked

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:35:53 -0400

The UN dedicated an entire day yesterday to Climate Change talks prior to its General Assembly’s Annual Debate in New York. The world’s leaders took the opportunity to say absolutely nothing new.

My own Prime Minister for instance, Mr Harper, continued his record of telling us only that Kyoto won’t work, rather than telling us what will. He claimed that Canada is taking a balanced approach to acting about climate change. We Canadians would call it a non-approach, as it seems to be based on stalling any real action by blaming the previous government for thei...

The Climate-Cost of Coffee

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:06:02 -0400

If youâ€™re like me, you need a cup (or two) of coffee before the engines fire up in the morning. And, if youâ€™re like me youâ€™re always amazed at how empty your pockets are after a week of buying the coffee. But have you ever thought about the actual cost of that cup?

Coffee is the worldâ€™s second most traded commodity after petroleum. Among the problems associated with coffee production are: land use for production, deforestation to gain additional land, and mistreatment of coffee plantation workers. Not to mention transporting it from the tropical regions it grows in ...