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• The UN defined sustainability in 1983 as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." See Brundtland Commission on Wikipedia. This issues covers literally all aspects of life including politics, where and how we acquire our food, how we get to work and how we build our buildings.

• Something that is sustainable can be used for generations without either running out (as a resource) or hurting our chances of survival by making the Earth uninhabitable. For example, crude oil is a finite resource that cannot be sustained as our primary transportation fuel source nor even as a lubricant in the millions of factories and robots that depend on crude oil for their existence. Therefore, our dependence on crude oil is unsustainable.

• To describe certain important cycles such as the nitrogen cycle and the creation and depletion of crude oil reserves, scientists can quantitatively analyze these sustainability issues using computer models.

• Another important aspect/example of sustainability is the idea, ‘think locally not globally.’

• Paul Reitan, of the University at Buffalo writes, “Successfully sustainable human societies must be as attuned as possible to their local and regional environments…each adjusted to fit their area, not a single dominant culture or way of living spread across the globe.” ejournal.nbii.org/vol1iss1/communityessay.reitan.pdf

• An example of thinking locally is shopping at locally owned shops versus multinational corporate chains which are unsustainable because of the massive amounts of fuel used to transport their products around the world. In many ways the whole idea of globalism and the politics involved is unsustainable because it does not focus on the unique needs of the individual local communities but attempts to rubber stamp the entire world with the same policy.

• Some economists argue that thinking about sustainability is good for business and the economy because if your factory is more efficient you will save money and be more productive. Another example is how aluminum manufacturers pay to recycle our aluminum because it’s cheaper to recycle aluminum than to mine bauxite and make new aluminum.

• Another aspect of sustainability implied by the definition is that unsustainable societies will eventually collapse.

• In “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” Pulitzer Prize winning author Jared Diamond claims that a society's own responses to its environmental problems is the number one factor leading to its collapse, and is even more important than war or loss of trading partners.

• The Pentagon has warned the President that climate change is a national security threat and will destroy us. Only thinking locally will save us.

• Check out Wikipedia’s sustainability entry for loads more information and links.

There exist a multitude of problems with Genetically Engineered foods: 1. Many plants easily crossbreed with plants of different species, meaning that other plants can quickly pick up the genes of the modified species. 2. Since the 1970s US law has allowed the patenting of genetic material. Thus a few giant biotech companies grabbed up all of the genetic material in all of the seed banks they could get their hands on. They patent life. 3. US foreign policy and IMF/World Bank policy under the influence of these multinational biotech companies influence third world countries (and others) to adopt and accept US patent law. 4. Corporations such as Monsanto then send their army of lawyers to sue small farms in the US and around the world and proceed to take their land and replace their diverse crops with one or two varieties. They accomplish this by claiming (1.-3.) that the farmer is in violation of patent law and file lawsuits even though genetic testing is never performed to determine if the biotech corporation’s claim is even true. Some farmers claim that Monsanto accelerates the process by driving truckloads of their GE grains down roads through the farm fields in question allowing their grain to blow out of the truck and into the fields. 5. Biodiversity, in other words lots of crop varieties protect us from large-scale famines such as the infamous Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s in which most of the population of Ireland died because they relied on one variety of potato. Yet biotech companies ignore science in the name of profit and only grow the most profitable varieties. This has resulted in a massive loss of biodiversity around the world. Historically more than 7000 varieties of crops have been grown worldwide yet currently only 15 plants & 8 animal species equal 90% of all food eaten around the world. It is estimated that the vast majority of species that can be domesticated have been domesticated therefore it is essential that we protect what diversity remains by not doing what Monsanto is doing. While I agree that technology can help farming, corporate farms do not bother to understand soil science. This has lead to a breakdown in the nitrogen cycle and other cycles essential for the longterm health of the soil. 6. There is a misconception that GE foods are very profitable and superior to non-GE varieties. This is completely wrong. The #1 source of profitability for multinational biotech firms is US government subsidies. Farming will never be profitable in and of itself. Furthermore the assertion that "GE foods are superior to the natural alternatives…” is not based on any evidence. The fact is, the primary GE varieties have only been modified to accept toxic pesticides (derived from Monsanto’s useless leftover stock of nerve gas and Agent Orange from their military contractor days) and toxic chemical fertilizers, not to be ‘superior’ in any other way. These fertilizers and pesticides are one of the primary sources of freshwater pollution and are unsustainable because they poison the soil, eventually lowering the crop yield and they are made out of petroleum, an irreplaceable ingredient, which, as you read is getting more and more expensive and is no longer a cheap ingredient. 7. As far as health issues, the only testing that has actually been conducted on the safety of GE foods is by the biotech companies themselves. The FDA does absolutely no regulation of this unknown food source. But we’ll know soon enough if they’re dangerous or not. If your food’s ingredient list includes high-fructose corn syrup or any of those unpronounceable ingredients that are modified forms of corn, it is probably GE. The largest biological experiment of all time is being performed on the masses. Enjoy being a lab rat.

According to a recent letter sent to representatives of the families of 9/11 victims by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), responsible for the official 9/11 investigation, (viewable here: http://www.911proof.com/NIST.pdf), "NIST did not find evidence that any of the recovered core columns experienced temperatures in excess of 250° C." For the fire caused by the airplanes to have weakened the steel structure enough to collapse the steel must have been exposed to temperatures greater than 500° C. How did the airplanes knock down the buildings if the temperature was less than half of what was required for structural failure? Note that 1000° C is required to melt steel. The NIST letter goes on to admit, "we are unable to provide a full explanation- of the total collapse." Yet, denying the request of the 9/11 victims' families the "NIST did not test for the presence of explosive residue..." Insert into pipe and smoke.

Merriam Webster defines treason as, "1 : the betrayal of a trust : treachery 2 : the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family" I define treason as leaking the name of an active CIA undercover agent to the media for the purpose of revenge. In June 2003 top Bush Administration officials leaked the name of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent, to the media. This was an act of revenge against Plame's husband who was not complying with the Bush Administration's pressure to create false evidence for the purposes of invading Iraq. Sadly the only conviction to come out of this whole affair was for the minor issue of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's obstruction of justice etc. According to Dennis Collins, a member of the jury, the jury was asking themselves continuously, "what is [Libby] doing here? Where is Rove and all these other guys. I’m not saying we didn’t think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of. It seemed like he was, as Mr. Wells [Ted Wells, Libby’s attorney] put it, he was the fall guy.". Collins went on to say, "What we’re in court deciding seems to be a level or two down from what, before we went into the jury, we supposed the trial was about, or had been initially about, which was who leaked [Plame’s identity]." Sadly, while it was admitted in court that Vice President Dick Cheney and Karl Rove took active roles in this treason there have been no further investigations and Valerie Plame's civil suit is appealing dismissal. Unfortunately, before moving on, Congress only got so far as to quibble about the meaning of "undercover" and "covert".