Social Consciousness

Cimperman for Congress 2008 - Top Donors - featuring Charles Evans from Dominion Cleveland Thermal for $2,000

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 13:52.

Cimperman for Congress 2008 - Top Donors - featuring Charles Evans from Dominion Cleveland Thermal for $2,000 - I assume the DiSanto, Frederick D. of Ancora Advisors LLC listed here for $2,300 is the same Ancora of Grenwich, Connecticut that bought Cleveland Thermal from Dominion in 2004:

RICHMOND, Va., July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion (NYSE: D) announced today that it has agreed to sell Dominion Cleveland Thermal to Ancora Management LLC of Greenwich, Connecticut. Closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2004. Terms of the sale were not disclosed and the sale is subject to regulatory approval.

Look at all the other corrupting industrial and developer scum on Cimpermans buy-list who have been screwing Cleveland... wonder what each one wanted in return for their $1,000s... lucky Cimperman lost by a mile. Time to rid Cleveland of the power of all these self-serving, citizen-killing parasites forever!
 

Top 100 Donations/Contributions in the '08 Election Cycle to
JOE CIMPERMAN FOR CONGRESS

Name/
Location
Employer/
Occupation
Contribution
$ Amount
Primary/
General
Date
Adams, Al T.
Cleveland, OH
44114
Baker/Attorney $2,300 P 02/12/2008
Alexander, Anthony
Akron, OH
44308
FirstEnergy Corporation/President $2,300 P 02/28/2008

Cleveland Thermal Energy and The Plain Dealer Publishing Company... I know the Pieces Fit!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:12.

An ambient film of real NEO people walking, shot from outside the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper headquarters, featuring late afternoon activity in the newsroom as seen from Superior Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, realNEO... "Schism" by TOOL is playing in the background, accompanied by the sounds of realNEO..

I've often wondered why the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been so disrespectful and harmful to me - I believe the following documents will explain - The Cleveland Plain Dealer is a Cleveland Thermal customer and so Cleveland Environmental Justice criminal - I know the Pieces Fit!

Document Record

View Image
Date Filed:  Document Type:  Number of pages:  Case Numbers:  Summary: 
2/5/1997 7:20:03 AM
TX-Text
000012
89-0362-HT-AEC
Alternate energy steam service agreement between Cleveland thermal Energy and The Plain Dealer Publishing Company, filed on behalf of applicant by S. Howard. (12 pgs.)

How insulting is it for the Mayor of Cleveland to attack citizens for depression, when that is caused by HIS lead poisoning?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 16:26.

Mayor Jackson has been reported to believe the problems with Clevelanders and so his Great City are all in our heads - we're depressed and have a bad attitude... get over it. In response, Cleveland leaders have initiated a variety of "don't worry be happy" "Believe in Cleveland" programs, like their latest "Happiness Virus" initiative by a group of consultants associated with the Cleveland Clinic leadership.

Unfortunately, MEDICAL SCIENCE finds this ridiculous outlook and strategy ignores the cause of citizens' very real depression here - lead poisoning.

The real science of the Archives of General Psychiatry "looked at 1,987 adults ages 20 through 39, finding that those with the highest blood lead levels were more than twice as likely to suffer a major depressive disorder and nearly five times as likely to suffer from panic disorders as those without elevated blood lead levels. The study is a rare look at how lead exposure can affect adults, as most research to date has been focused on the side effects of lead on children."

Half of world’s population could face climate-driven food crisis in second half of the century

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 13:09.

From Climate Progress:

Half of world’s population could face climate-driven food crisis in second half of the century - Science study warns: “Ignoring climate projections at this stage will only result in the worst form of triage.”

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 06:41 AM PST

[I'm on travel, so I'm updating this timely 2009 post on food insecurity.]

The quote above is the powerful final sentence from a 2009 study in Science, “Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat.”  The University of Washington news release release explained:

Rapidly warming climate is likely to seriously alter crop yields in the tropics and subtropics by the end of this century and, without adaptation, will leave half the world’s population facing serious food shortages, new research shows….

“The stresses on global food production from temperature alone are going to be huge, and that doesn’t take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures,” said David Battisti, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.

Yes, this 2009 study is a serious underestimate of the speed and scale of likely impacts for two reasons.

Dear Sierra Club President: Please Add Cleveland State University to your "Campuses Beyond Coal" Campaign and Begin Organizing!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 10:47.

Dear Sierra Club President and Nachy Kanfer - Campuses Beyond Coal:

Please Add Cleveland State University to your "Campuses Beyond Coal" Campaign and begin organizing against their primary energy provider, the astoundingly deadly, coal-polluting, private-investor-owned Cleveland Thermal coal furnace in the Cleveland Flats!

Cleveland State University (CSU) is the largest customer of Cleveland Thermal, and so must take a lead in moving this community beyond coal.

I don't imagine President Obama realized this sad situation, prior to his recent visit to Cleveland to meet with small business leaders and government representative at CSU about "jump-starting" our local economy, killed by pollution. I'm sure if he knew he was supporting environmental injustice here, in that way, he would have chosen a more socially-just venue to promote. Cleveland State University is not included in your "Campuses Beyond Coal" campaign, and should be added and activated immediately - Cleveland Thermal is one of the largest polluters in America - we must bring this to light and move them beyond coal to protect Clevelanders.

From realNEO:

Shock and Awe: House votes to eviscerate 40 years of bipartisan environmental safeguards

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 10:30.

From the Environmental Defense Fund:

Shock and Awe: House votes to eviscerate 40 years of bipartisan environmental safeguards.
Fight moves to the Senate next week.

Please email your Senators today urging them to reject the polluter assault on our clean air and climate future.

Dear Friend,

You're going to breathe dangerous air, drink dirty water, be exposed to toxic pollution… And you're going to like it.

Oh, and you can forget about a safer climate future.

Example of Follow-up from President Obama visiting Cleveland: US Department of Energy Business Opportunity Sessions (BOS)

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 01:58.

 

February 22, 2011, President Obama and senior staff visited Cleveland - joined by Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu - to discuss how the Federal government may help small business grow... including in the energy sector. As an example of what small business owners may expect as next steps, you should subscribe to relevant U.S. government mailing lists like for the US Department of Energy Business Opportunity Sessions (BOS) - see link below. If you own a Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB) interested in energy, and government support, the following message is FOR YOU! This should be an exciting session and opportunity.

As you'll see, if you are a Small Disadvantaged Business, HUBZone;8(a), or Service-Disabled Veteran Owned small business, the DOE has specific Energy Business Opportunity Sessions (BOS) for you as well - subscribe for updates and good luck!

Cleveland Confidential coming to Cleveland... David Thomas along for the ride for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Grammy Museum

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 19:33.

Cleveland Confidential Book Cover

CLEVELAND CONFIDENTIAL BOOK TOUR ADDS  DAVID THOMAS (PERE UBU AND ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS) TO CLEVELAND ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME 4/11  AND LOS ANGELES GRAMMY MUSEUM 4/14 EVENTS - MIDWEST/EAST COAST TOUR RUNS APRIL 2 - 14, 2011

Chicago, IL, February 23, 2011 – Smog Veil Records announces Cleveland Confidential Book Tour returns to the road in April.  David Thomas (Rocket From The Tombs and Pere Ubu) is along for the ride for two dates on April tour.  Thomas takes part at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH on April 11th and at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on April 14th. For all other stops the tour features three author-musicians also from Cleveland, Ohio including Cheetah Chrome (Rocket From The Tombs, Dead Boys, Batusis), Mike Hudson (The Pagans) and Bob Pfeifer (Human Switchboard, Tabby Chinos, former Senior Vice President A&R/Epic/Sony Records and President of Hollywood Records). Each will read excerpts from their book, answer questions from the audience and discuss their books and careers with each other. Authors will be available to sign books at each appearance.

Why This Cop Asked the President About Legalizing Drugs - and What Obama Said In Response

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 16:56.

Why This Cop Asked the President About Legalizing Drugs

You might not think a 65-year-old retired cop would take to the Internet to ask the president of the United States to consider legalizing drugs, but that's just what I did recently. The answer I got from President Obama in YouTube's "Your Interview with the President" contest pleasantly surprised me.

In stark contrast to when the president literally laughed off discussion of marijuana policy in a similar online question-and-answer session in 2009, Obama responded to me by saying that legalizing drugs is "an entirely legitimate topic for debate." Although he noted that he remains personally opposed to legalization for now, he acknowledged that "we have been so focused on arrests, incarceration, interdiction... that we don't spend as much time thinking about how to shrink demand." This welcome statement validated the viewpoint I developed over my 15 years of trying to enforce the drug prohibition laws.

EPA Establishes Clean Air Act Standards for Boilers and Incinerators - What is the Impact in Northeast Ohio? Who Knows?!?!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 13:28.

Cleveland Thermal Pollution, Cuyahoga River, Cleveland, Ohio

There has been considerable conflict in industry and government - and Federal courts - over the emissions from large boilers and incinerators in America, and so Northeast Ohio, leading to new Clean Air Act standards for boilers and certain incinerators announced by the EPA today. As all America now acts to implement these new standards, it will be interesting to see what branches of government in Northeast Ohio monitor or even are aware of all the boilers and incinerators in this region - their current emissions and control technologies - which are out of compliance with the new standards - what they need to do to comply - what costs are involved to comply with the new act - what reductions in pollution will result, where - who will see reductions in their ambient and point source pollution - what benefits to public health will result - and how that will improve the value of property in this area. The public should be provided with this information immediately so we may make long term plans about where we live and what property we choose to own.

Battles over such rules are at the root of all evil in industry and America today - the heart of the tea party efforts to corrupt government by the Koch Brothers and their billionaire murderers and fans and followers in industries like coal and oil - The Fossil Boys - and the harm they have caused activists for clean energy, clean social networks like realNEO, the American people, and global climate. Thank you Federal EPA for your good fight for the health of Americans.

And you thought the tea party was actually about ending gays, abortion and unions! It was always all about the right to pollute and kill Americans! Time to end the party and fix America, everyone!

EPA Establishes Clean Air Act Standards for Boilers and Incinerators  

Sensible standards provide significant public health benefits while cutting costs from initial proposal by nearly 50 percentWASHINGTON – In response to federal court orders requiring the issuance of final standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing final Clean Air Act standards for boilers and certain incinerators that achieve significant public health protections through reductions in toxic air emissions, including mercury and soot, but cut the cost of implementation by about 50 percent from an earlier proposal issued last year.

Mercury, soot, lead and other harmful pollutants released by boilers and incinerators can lead to developmental disabilities in children, as well as cancer, heart disease, aggravated asthma and premature death in Americans. These standards will avoid between 2,600-6,600 premature deaths, prevent 4,100 heart attacks and avert 42,000 asthma attacks per year in 2014.

No need for Cleveland citizens to worry their little heads about any of this....until you get your next Cleveland city tax bill

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 17:07.

Well, I believe the following article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer well introduces the ultimate clusterf**k in NEO - a bunch of CDCs, real estate moguls, industrialists, gamblers, Foundationoids, and councilpeople are booting the Flats CDC and taking over planning their turf... all the usual suspects in one room. Perhaps Mike White will even be there.

Let's play bail-out the developers.

Guy... do you have a way to bring on earthquakes? The Powerhouse would crumble like a sand castle...

I miss Ed Hauser so much... he would have dealt with this bullshit! Instead, we have the public relations agent for a chemical and coatings company running the show... when he's not too busy brainwashing our children.

Tell your industrialist bosses to get rid of the MITTAL STEEL MILL, CLEVELAND THERMAL COAL PLANT, and anything else that pollutes excessively in that toxic trench... freighters and all... and tell Sherwin Williams to clean up their lead poisoning mess everywhere. Your CDCs and politicians are too weak and cowardly to speak up for the health and welfare of the people they supposedly represent here... and polluters just want to pollute.

And if you had to pick a single “power plant” whose stack was spewing out the most smoke? U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 13:14.

Consider it a tale of two speeches and a grim parable for our American moment.

On March 24, 2010, Treasury Department Deputy Secretary Neil Wolin arrived for his lunchtime speaking slot at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's impressive headquarters, a short walk from the Treasury building and the White House. When his time came, Wolin strode onstage and, before hundreds of its members, tore into the chamber and its policies. As an organization, it was dishonest and "backward," he said. An ongoing three-million-dollar lobbying campaign was not intended to bolster badly needed financial reforms on Wall Street, as claimed, but "designed to defeat them."

A stunned audience mustered only the weakest of applause. At the time, there was no love lost between the White House and the chamber.  Later that fall, with the help of a crucial Supreme Court decision, the group would act on that animosity, spending a staggering $33 million in the 2010 midterms and ushering in the biggest Republican landslide in generations.

Fast forward to Barack Obama's address to the chamber earlier this month. The president's appearance was cast as an “olive branch,” an attempt to smooth over a tumultuous relationship.  It lived up to the billing. "I’m here in the interest of being more neighborly,” Obama began. “Maybe if we would have brought over a fruit cake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off on a better foot. But I’m going to make up for it.”

The toughest the president got was when he pled with the chamber's corporate membership to "get in the game" and use trillions of dollars of reserves piled up in the worst of times for American workers to create much-needed jobs.

Dear President Obama, Thank you for coming to Cleveland to bring attention to environmental injustice in Northeast Ohio.

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 11:30.

Dear President Obama,

Thank you for coming to Cleveland to bring attention to environmental injustice in Northeast Ohio.

I assume EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has briefed you that, in addition to being the most lead poisoned big city in America, we are one of the most polluted, unhealthy, and so undereducated places on Earth.

As you ride into Downtown Cleveland - the most lead poisoned big city in America (the world?) - you pass one of the most environmentally unjust industrial facilities in America - Arcelor Mittal's Cleveland Works steel production and processing superfund site (AKA the Cuyahoga River Valley) - and, as you meet with Ohio taxpayer-funded business development agents here, you sit in the shadows of the privately-polluting Cleveland Thermal district coal plant (owned by some shadow out-of-state investors, it appears) immediately downtown... providing excessively polluting heat to the very Wolstein Center where you shall hold your small business conference today... "Cleveland Thermal’s largest customer is Cleveland State University (CSU)" (and they don't care).

Don't breathe too deeply here.

EPA Administrator Jackson and Department of Energy Director Chu may certainly tell you there are better ways to make steel and warm citizens, business development agents and the President of the United States of America than burning coal within 100s of yards of homes, offices and you.

Dear President Obama: Reading Material For Your Flight Home From Cancer-causing Cleveland

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 09:08.

Research Article

Cannabinoid action induces autophagy-mediated cell death through stimulation of ER stress in human glioma cells

María Salazar1,2, Arkaitz Carracedo1, Íñigo J. Salanueva1, Sonia Hernández-Tiedra1, Mar Lorente1,2, Ainara Egia1, Patricia Vázquez3, Cristina Blázquez1,2, Sofía Torres1, Stephane García4, Jonathan Nowak4, Gian María Fimia5, Mauro Piacentini5, Francesco Cecconi6, Pier Paolo Pandolfi7, Luis González-Feria8, Juan L. Iovanna4, Manuel Guzmán1,2, Patricia Boya3 and Guillermo Velasco1,2

1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, School of Biology, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.
2Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Madrid, Spain.
33D Lab (Development, Differentiation, and Degeneration), Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiopathology, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
4INSERM U624, Campus de Luminy, Marseille, France.
5National Institute for Infectious Diseases, IRCCS “L. Spallanzani,” Rome, Italy.
6Laboratory of Molecular Neuroembryology, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia and Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata,” Rome, Italy.
7Cancer Genetics Program, Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center and Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
8Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital, Tenerife, Spain.

Address correspondence to: Guillermo Velasco, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, School of Biology, Complutense University, c/ José Antonio Novais s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Phone: 34-913944668; Fax: 34-913944672; E-mail: gvd [at] bbm1 [dot] ucm [dot] es.

First published April 1, 2009
Received for publication November 3, 2008, and accepted in revised form February 11, 2009.

Autophagy can promote cell survival or cell death, but the molecular basis underlying its dual role in cancer remains obscure. Here we demonstrate that Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component of marijuana, induces human glioma cell death through stimulation of autophagy. Our data indicate that THC induced ceramide accumulation and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) phosphorylation and thereby activated an ER stress response that promoted autophagy via tribbles homolog 3–dependent (TRB3-dependent) inhibition of the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) axis. We also showed that autophagy is upstream of apoptosis in cannabinoid-induced human and mouse cancer cell death and that activation of this pathway was necessary for the antitumor action of cannabinoids in vivo. These findings describe a mechanism by which THC can promote the autophagic death of human and mouse cancer cells and provide evidence that cannabinoid administration may be an effective therapeutic strategy for targeting human cancers.

As Milan Kundera’s insight reminds us, the struggle against power "is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 02/21/2011 - 23:51.

Bill Moyers: America Can't Deal With Reality -- We Must Be Exposed to the Truth, Even If It Hurts
Many people inhabit a closed belief system on whose door they have hung the "Do Not Disturb" sign. - February 14, 2011

History Makers is an organization of broadcasters and producers from around the world concerned with the challenges and opportunities faced by factual broadcasting. Bill Moyers was the keynote speaker at the 2011 convention on January 27, 2011, in New York City.

Thanks to all of you for your welcome - and for the chance to be here among so many kindred spirits. Your dedication to factual broadcasting, to our craft and calling; your passion for telling stories that matter; for connecting the present to the past, has created a community whose work is essential in this disquieting time when "what is happening today, this hour, this very minute, seems to be our sole criterion for judgment and action." It is a sad world that exists only in the present, unaware of the long procession that brought us here. As Milan Kundera’s insight reminds us, the struggle against power "is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

I talked about this gathering when I was in California this past weekend and spent time with a good friend and supporter of my own work on television, Paul Orfalea. He's the maverick entrepreneur who founded Kinko's in a former hamburger stand with one small rented Xerox copier and turned it into a business service empire with more than two billion dollars a year in revenue. After selling Kinko's, Paul became one of the most popular, if unorthodox, teachers of undergraduates at the University of California/ Santa Barbara. When I told him what I would be doing today he applauded and understood immediately the importance of what you do. He described to me how he teaches history "backwards" to college students who have learned little about the past in high school, don't know that the past is even alive, much less that it lives in them and question its value today. He hands his students a contemporary story from some daily news source, tells them to begin with the "now" of it and to then walk the trail back down the chronology to trace the personalities, circumstances and choices that made it today's news. Their assignment, in effect, is to begin at the entrance to the cave and rewind Ariadne's thread in the opposite direction, back to the deep origins of the story. In an era marked by the lack of continuity and community between the generations, this strikes me as an inspired way to stretch young imaginations across the time zones of human experience.

"Teaching Cleveland" Historical Revisionism and Negationism by Journalists and Amateurs has NO PLACE in Education Programming

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 02/21/2011 - 03:42.

I've been stunned to find there is a movement in Cleveland, much like "Creationism" and psycho-conservative mind-control programs of the Koch Tea Partiers, called "Teaching Cleveland", that proposes a group of journalists from the Cleveland Plain Dealer (mostly now out-of-the-profession) and other amateur-historians are qualified to develop education programming for our children.

From "Teaching Cleveland": "The Teaching Cleveland Foundation is a pending 501 (3) (c) organization with a stated mission to develop Cleveland-centered curricula in area schools that deepen an understanding of Greater Cleveland’s rich history, foster an appreciation of its varied resources, and equip participants with the skills and capacities to connect, collaborate, and commit.  The future of Greater Cleveland depends on inspiring enthusiasm and a stronger sense and love of place to grow another generation of civic leaders."

Wrong - the Future of Greater Cleveland depends on providing an authentic, safe, healthy, desirable place for people to live.... not brainwashing people to stay.

Change "Cleveland" to "Fatherland" and you will realize the definition and concept for "Teaching Cleveland" is stolen from your typical fascist handbook... and this type of make-believe "story-telling" is defined as "Historical Revisionism" or "Negationism".

1,000,000s of lives will be bettered in very few years - and I appreciated your help accomplishing this

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 22:56.

 

MCCO near complete - next steps

Norm Roulet <norm [dot] roulet [at] gmail [dot] com>     Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 12:40 PM
To: Chris Ronayne <Cronayne [at] universitycircle [dot] org>
Cc: hershel daniels <hersheldanielsjunior [at] gmail [dot] com>

Chris,

I'm pleased to see posted to the MCCO site that they are now committed to shutting down their coal boilers and will add no more. You should feel great satisfaction for this - 1,000,000s of lives will be bettered in very few years - and I appreciated your help accomplishing this.

Anyone using the Internet Must Know: Denier-bots live! Why are online comments’ sections over-run by the anti-science crowd

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 20:20.

While I believe we do a good job of keeping spammers from contaminating realNEO, we do not have a way we verify the identity of users and so may be exposed to "sockpuppets". But members of realNEO attack and kill them upon discovery. On the other hand, a poorly managed online world like Cleveland.com is certainly fully occupied by such evil forces. Now you may know, for a fact, those "people" you are interacting with, when you discuss important issues to you, on these poorly managed portals like of your monopoly newspaper in Cleveland... or that silly little Facebook of yours... are aliens from another universe.

Denier-bots live! Why are online comments’ sections over-run by the anti-science, pro-pollution crowd?

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 06:38 AM PST

I’ve been reposting the ThinkProgress exposé on the head-exploding tactics of Chamber of Commerce hacks (henchmen?), like Aaron Barr who heads the private security firm HB Gary Federal (see “Chamber lobbyists solicited firm to investigate opponents’ families, children.”  Daily Kos has a stunning post on HB Gary’s tactics that I reprint in below, since it involves:

creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated “persona management” software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other.

Environmental History Resources - The Role of Wood in World History

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 02/19/2011 - 22:50.

Environmental History Resources - The Role of Wood in World History

By: K.J.W. Oosthoek

The destruction of the world's forests is a major concern in our age. According to the UN about 40 percent of Central America's forests were destroyed between 1950 and 1980 and during the same period Africa lost about 23 percent of its forests. A whole range of environmental problems is associated with deforestation, among them severe flooding, accelerated loss of soil, encroaching deserts and declining soil productivity1. Sometimes we get the impression that these problems are unique to our time, but vast areas of surface of the earth were stripped of their tree cover well before the modern period.

The ancient Middle East

Today it is hard to believe that in antiquity vast forests were growing in the Middle East. However, during the early part of the third millennium BCE, the mountain slopes of this region were covered with massive cedar forests. These forests disappeared in the millennia before Christ's birth about two thousand years ago. The destruction of the cedar forests of the Middle East is told in the oldest know, surviving written story in the world: The epic of Gilgamesh. The epic was written in Mesopotamia sometime during in the 3rd millennium BCE. The second episode of the epic is known as “The forest Journey” and is the story of deforestation in the Middle East2.

Humbaba
Humbaba

Sierra Club says We all need to call Senator Brown today with a single message: SUPPORT CLEAN AIR ACT

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 02/19/2011 - 18:24.
PO Box 476 | Avon, OH 44011 US
 
Dear Fellow Ohio Sierra Club Members,

At the start of this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally began using its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Already, however, powerful forces in Congress--including some Democrats--are working to strip that authority away or delay its long-overdue implementation. We need to make sure Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown stands firm in defense of EPA's authority to cut greenhouse gas pollution right away.

EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases is the only tool we have right now at the national level to start combating climate change. Taking it away--or delaying it after all these years of inaction--is absolutely unacceptable.

We all need to call Senator Brown today with a single message:

Mayor Jackson - This Is Your "Green" Legacy?!?!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 02/19/2011 - 05:08.
2011-02-17-Picture28.jpg

Balloon Over Coal-Fired Chicago: Mayor Daley, is This Your Green Legacy?

Posted by jeffbiggers on @ 12:07 pm

Only days before Chicago voters launch their city into a new era with a new mayor, Chicago activists greeted departing Mayor Richard Daley in the City Hall atrium this morning with a giant balloon question mark on his self-proclaim “greenest city in America” legacy.

Featuring a picture of the decrepit and deadly Fisk and Crawford coal-burning power plants in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods, the balloon loomed over the heads of city officials and visitors with the stark reality of Chicago’s ailing neighborhoods. The balloon banner read:

“Mayor Daley, is this your ‘green legacy’?”

On Air, Waters and Places - from the earliest work on human ecology, by Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC)

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/18/2011 - 09:43.


MCCO Coal Fired Steam Generation plant - polluting the poor, urban core of Cleveland Ohio since 1932

Regarding the fact that University Hospitals, of Cleveland, Ohio, gets its heat from a coal burning power plant on their urban campus - the Medical Center Company (MCCO), operated by US Senator Sherrod Brown's Brother - located in a largely poor, urban community, which has for over 70 years harmed the health of area and global citizens... and considering the fact no University Hospitals or other area physicians will publicly condemn this and such industrial practices in Northeast Ohio... I posted to realNEO: Doctors at University Hospitals Should Turn In Their Licenses to Practice Medicine, as Hypocrites.

As they do not practice medicine ethically, all Doctors at University Hospitals Must Turn In Their Licenses to Practice Medicine - including my Father - as they do more harm than good as they pollute this community with soot from burning coal that is unnecessary and that causes certain harm and death to area citizens - especially the young, old, poor, black and weak... and these supposed "doctors" know that very well now.

This lack of responsibility by physicians practicing "healthcare" in a geographic area with certain poor health from pollution - including unnecessary pollution from the doctors' own hospital - confirms findings of Alice Hamilton MD, in 1914... "There is here a great neglected field in American medicine and one of growing importance, for each year the number of industrial establishments which employ physicians increases, and the opportunity for expert hygienic control of our dangerous trades increases. But there will have to be a more general understanding of the problems of industrial hygiene before the service rendered by the majority of company physicians becomes of much real value."

The Environmental History Timeline reports "Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC), considered the father of medicine, notes the effect of food, of occupation, and especially of climate in causing disease. One of his books, De aëre, aquis et locis (Air, Waters and Places), is the earliest work on human ecology." This work, reproduced below, offers to all future physicians the guidance "when one comes into a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation". The first observation of any physician coming into Cleveland - Stranger or otherwise - should be this is an unhealthy place due to excessive point source polluting from industry, including the MCCO power plant at University Hospitals.

It is not so easy to understand why American physicians have neglected industrial plumbism - Alice Hamilton MD in 1914

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/18/2011 - 08:30.

Pathetic, unsafe public housing built at taxpayer expense in the pollution killing-fields of Mittal Steel Cleveland Works
Pathetic, unsafe public housing built at taxpayer expense in the pollution killing-fields of Mittal Steel Cleveland Works

As you read the following account of lead poisoning in America, you will come to realize physicians in America do not work for citizens, they work for corporations, and those corporations protect the interests of their owners, stockholders, and other corporations, rather than citizens, by using their physicians to hide from citizens the dangers of real environmental threats from industry, like lead poisoning. I brought this issue to the attention of realNEO readers with the publication of Perhaps the best way to eliminate bad climate science is to discredit bad lead poisoning scientists... starting with Dr. Schoen, and intend to provide the public with exhaustive ongoing analysis of this sad reality, harming all humanity.

Alice Hamilton MD was smart enough to understand this... very few American physicians have followed in her footsteps... none in Northeast Ohio, that I know of, ever. But if you've got a lot of money, or good corporate insurance, some doctors here may be able to repair your broken, polluted heart.

Her conclusion, from 1914 - "There is here a great neglected field in American medicine and one of growing importance, for each year the number of industrial establishments which employ physicians increases, and the opportunity for expert hygienic control of our dangerous trades increases. But there will have to be a more general understanding of the problems of industrial hygiene before the service rendered by the majority of company physicians becomes of much real value." That never happened - the "Tea Party" has been alive and well in America our entire post-Native history - humans physically and mentally polluted by Industry... the American Heritage... the unreal NEO way still today: