taosplaza.com

Climate Change Flooding

"The UN Climate Change Conference at Bali is considered the next step in fostering a new international treaty to combat global warming. After almost two weeks of open dialogue, the conference finds itself in a deadlock between the European Union (EU), the United States (USA), Canada and Japan. The EU is demanding that industrial nations lower their emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 to 40%, by the year 2020.

While the US, Canada and Japan are unwilling to accept concrete targets. Ben Wikler: ..."The US was behaving itself during the first part of these hearings and it was Canada that was doing most of the obstruction. There are a few different issues that are the center of contention at these nedogiations. One of them is these cuts by 2020 of 25 to 40 percent..."

Bhoditara Searles

The next stop on our Healing Quest is one of my favorite islands. It's home to a bunch of pioneers who work on global healing. The jungles of Hawaii hold many surprises. An experiment in permaculture. It's central tenet is that humans can ensured their own health only by joining with nature to foster healthy environments.

Permaculture supporters are deeply disturbed that the effects of urbanization, industry, and 'big agriculture'. They're trying to foster radical changes in how people produce food and shelter and think about their relationship with the entire planet.

Don May and Bhoditara Searles share some insights.

Denial & Delay Since 2000

"Instead of the mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases in the Kyoto treaty, Bush suggested weaker voluntary pledges from industry to cut emissions. And then launched an energy policy that heavily emphasized drilling and digging."

"This administration is good friends with the fossil fuel industry. Bush himself comes out of the fossil fuel industry. And there's been a concerted attempt by the fossil fuel industry to sow doubt about the scientific consensus on global warming"

Endangered Gorilla

There are only 720 of them left on earth. But nine of them have been killed since the beginning of this year. Tracking their footprints, Ndege ventured deep into the forest with a rangers' patrol to investigate the threats facing the mountain gorillas. The national park is the kind of habitat that gorillas need to survive.

But it's also the theatre of an intense battle between government troops and rebels fighting alongside the renegade general Laurent Nkunda. It's not just the recent fighting that's wreaking havoc on the gorilla population. Poachers set snares, illegal "invaders" and also people going into the park to cut down the trees to make charcoal.