Moral Questions

A Moral Question from Sustainable Man on Vimeo.

"Externalities" (prepare to cry)

READ THIS, IT'S IMPORTANT:

"Externalities" from Sustainable Man on Vimeo.

"Economists say, if you clearcut the forests and put [the money] in the bank, you could make 6 or 7 percent. If you cut down the forests and put it into Malaysia or Papua New Guinea, you could make 30 or 40 perc

ent. So, who cares whether you keep the forest, cut it down [and] put the money somewhere else! When those forests are gone, put it in fish; when the fish are gone, put it in computers. Money doesn't stand for anything, and money now grows faster than the real world.

Economics is so fundamentally disconnected from the real world, it is destructive. If you take an introductory course in economics, the professor—in the first lecture—will show a slide of the economy, and it looks very impressive. They try and impress you, because they know damn well that economics is not a science, but they're trying to fool us into thinking that it's a real science; it's not.

Economics is [just] a set of values, and [they] use mathematical equations and pretend that it's a science. But, if you ask the economist, 'in that equation, where do you put the ozone layer? Where do you put the deep, underground aquifers? Where do you put top soil or biodiversity?', their answer is 'oh, those are externalities.' Well, then you might as well be on Mars! That economy's not based [on] anything like the real world. It's life, the web of life, that filters water, it's microorganisms in the soil that create the soil we can grow our food in…insects fertilize all of the flowering plants…nature performs all kinds of services…these services are vital to the health of the planet. Economists call these externalities; that's NUTS."

—David Suzuki

(★★★★) Must Watch Video ft. above quote:
http://vimeo.com/49953262

Check out Heartland Coalition - Forging a Sustainable Future | Living Green at Blue Sky Ranch

I want you to take a look at: Heartland Coalition - Forging a Sustainable Future | Living Green at Blue Sky Ranch 

Great Tax Subsidies for Carbon-Fuel Corps.

This week we came across this article from the OB Rag:"Among the 47% Who Pay No Income Taxes Is Mitt Romney Himself!" By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press / September 19, 2012

In response to the comments made by Presidential Candidate, Billionare Mitt Rmoney, John Lawerence notes that Rmoney has funneled his income through offshore corporations linked to bank accounts in no tax jurisdictions, and it has been taxed as capital gains, not income. Rmoney dismissed 47% of the American people who don’t pay income tax as slackers and deadbeats. Thanks to a loophole Romney pays US taxes as “carried interest” which is taxed at the capital gains rate of 15%. That figure would not only include Romney himself who pays no income tax, but also all those corporate persons (remember Romney said, “Corporations are people, my friend”) such as Exxon Mobil and GE who not only pay no income tax but get a generous rebate thanks to American taxpayers.

Here is a list of the top 10 corporate deadbeats and slackers (thanks to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont), note how many deal in the toxic carbon-fuel industry (and MICC):

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.

3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

6) Valero Energy (Koch Brothers), the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.

7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.

10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.

It's worth noting that three of the 10 are banks we bailed out in 2008, and that are part of the cartel that makes up the Federal Reserve. Bowing and G.E. are military contractors and profit from war spending.

Genetically Modified Organisms

Genetic Roulette
Watch this NOW! Only available online for a limited time! 

When you watch this Documentary: Genetic Roulette, please don't try to watch it all at once. If you feel symptoms of fear, panic, or depression, this is normal. Pause, eat some organic food. Rest. And return to the video when the symptoms pass. Video by Jeff Smith

There are only 9 Genetically Engineered FOOD crops:

1. Soy
2. Corn (not Pop-corn)
3. Cottonseed (for Oil)
4. Canola (for Oil)
5. Sugar Beets (for Sugar)
6. Papaya (Hawaiian and Chinese)
7. Zucchini
8. Yellow Crookneck Squash 
9. Alfalfa (for Hay) 

But their derivatives are found in 70% of the foods at the Grocery Store.
Buy foods that say Organic or Non-GMO!
http://www.nonGMOshoppingguide.com
http://www.nongmoproject.org/

Stay away from Aspartame when possible, it may or may not be harmful, but it is definitely unnecessary as a sweet.

Watch out for your milk, especially for kids. Don't buy milk that uses Bovine Growth Hormone, if you can afford it, buy only organic labels.

Solutions for San Diego

Please give us a listen, then post the link below to your facebook friends or email them: http://soundcloud.com/san-diego-speaks/sdsolutionsdemo

In this Program:

• Grant Writing Specialists - Penny Goforth
• East County Magazine - Director, Leon Thomson
• Ilan Lael Foundation - Marianne Gerdes 
• San Diego Brain Tumor Foundation - Connie Reeves Campbell

This has been a San Diego Speaks production of "San Diego Solutions". This is a demonstration project for a new one-hour, weekly talk-show about Non-Profit Businesses in San Diego and the solutions created by social-entrepreneurs to deal with local issues.

If you want to find out more about San Diego Solutions, and listen to extended interviews, go to our web site SDSpeaks.com 

There you can log-in and find ways to contribute to your local community, volunteer, become a citizen journalist, or submit a your favorite charity for an interview. 

The people of San Diego face many issues, If you would like to be part of the solution, then join the conversation online, and contact us with your thoughts about how we can improve this local show and create a better tomorrow. Together, there is nothing our community can't accomplish. 

Please, support our local Charities. Lean how to find worthy non-profit businesses in your area, and achieve results in your neighborhood. 

You can support San Diego Solutions through our web-site, simply subscribe to our email newsletter and listen to the podcast. You can listen to archived shows and extended interviews with local leaders about the challenges and opportunities we all face together. 

When you join our community, you'll find you are not alone, and that what at first may seem overwhelming is manageable when we share the work. Best of all you can express yourself, tell us your ideas, and propose your solutions to the issues you care most about. 

Thanks for listening, and welcome to "San Diego Solutions". 

Support CA Prop. 37

"After two decades fighting to force U.S. food companies to tell consumers when their products are made with genetically modified organisms, activists in California have mounted what is potentially their most promising offensive to date." - Ruters, Aug. 16, 2012

Labeling Genetically Modified Food is simple and makes sense, but in California Proposition 37 is under attack from corporations like General Mills and Monsanto who are spending millions of dollars to fight CA Prop. 37. The truth is almost everything we eat is Genetically Modified (GM) but corn, soy, and canola are among the transgenic food crops patented by corporations, so that they can maximize food production by splicing in genes that produce pesticide, growth stimulis, or help the crops survive in poor soil or a changing climate.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has put out a new report calling for a moratorium on Genetically Modified (GM) foods.

Food designed to produce toxin: GM corn and cotton are engineered to produce their own built-in pesticide in every cell. When bugs bite the plant, the poison splits open their stomach and kills them. Biotech companies claim that the pesticide, called Bt—produced from soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis—has a history of safe use, since organic farmers and others use Bt bacteria spray for natural insect control. Genetic engineers insert Bt genes into corn and cotton, so the plants do the killing. The Bt-toxin produced in GM plants, however, is thousands of times more concentrated than natural Bt spray, is designed to be more toxic,[10] has properties of an allergen, and unlike the spray, cannot be washed off the plant.

There is mounting evidence that some of the Genetic Engineering of Plant DNA can transfer to the myriad of bacteria flora in our gut.

Worst finding of all—GMOs remain inside of us:
The only published human feeding study revealed what may be the most dangerous problem from GM foods. The gene inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function.[26] This means that long after we stop eating GMOs, we may still have potentially harmful GM proteins produced continuously inside of us. Put more plainly, eating a corn chip produced from Bt corn might transform our intestinal bacteria into living pesticide factories, possibly for the rest of our lives.When evidence of gene transfer is reported at medical conferences around the US, doctors often respond by citing the huge increase of gastrointestinal problems among their patients over the last decade. GM foods might be colonizing the gut flora of North Americans. - Culture Change

Vote YES on CA Prop. 37!