Synergistic Collapse -- What Happens Without A Plan

Imagine a tripod that's got one wooden leg, one iron leg and one stone leg. On top of the tripod rests our chances for survival. The wooden leg is rotting, the iron leg is about rusted through, and the stone leg has been mostly worn away by wind & waves.

Which one will crumble first? It's hard to say, and it doesn't really matter, since each leg depends on the other two. When one goes, they all go. That's how I think of "synergistic collapse."

The three legs upon which our survival depends are the Earth's environment, human economics and the integrated social structures human, plant and animal, that share this planet. Currently, all three legs are degenerating to the point of imminent, synergistic collapse.

Global warming and global broiling threaten collapse of the Natural Order, mankind's economy is in the final stages of imbalance, as evidenced by the degree to which the black markets have infected the global markets and compromised the integrity of political leadership and other social structures.(1)

Albert Einstein once predicted that if bees were to become extinct mankind could only survive for four years. Others have estimated it would take seven years. How long will our social structures last if the environment collapses? How long will our economy stay solvent once the toxicity of petrochemicals is recognized as not worth it? It may not matter if the bees die first.

What will happen once 'marijuana' prohibition is finally superseded by widespread realization of the true value of the Cannabis plant? My vision of the first thing that ought to happen, is identification of the people who have been promoting this idea the longest, to be celebrated as forward thinkers, capable of leadership. The politicians who continue to support prohibition will be seen as "drug war dinosaurs" who did not have the political courage or vision to see the truth about Cannabis, nor the destructive nature of prohibition itself.

It is critical to have a conversation about the promise of Cannabis and the urgency of ending the prohibition of all drugs. It is time to do what needs to be done in spite of the lack of political will.



1. "Organised crime: the $2 trillion threat to the world's security"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2167133,00.html

2. "Welsh urged to become beekeepers"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/6612513.stm

Organised crime: the $2 trillion threat to the world's security

Organised crime: the $2 trillion threat to the world's security
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2167133,00.html

"There is nothing stopping it," Mr Glenn said.
"There is no global strategy."

Yes, there actually is a global strategy. It's called drug policy reform, and one of the best reasons to implement it is the disempowerment of the black market.

André Fürst and the Cannabis industry under attack in the Swiss Confederation

Dear friends of freedom,

Please do what you can to raise active awareness of André Fürst's conviction and imprisonment in Switzerland. André Fürst is the founder of Chanvre Info, a Cannabis agriculture and manufacturing demonstration project in Morat Murten, Switzerland. A sincere gentleman and father, André and his son André, Jr. are dear friend's who have been generous supporters of my film in Europe and Mexico. André Fürst deserves international praise for his courage, vision and contributions to the common good -- not prison. A short film of Chanvre Info can be seen here, on You Tube:

"Return to Reason" short
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gImQUSvfGxI

André Fürst has done in Switzerland, what we could be doing in California by next spring.
As the California industrial hemp bill, AB 684 ripens in the governor's hands, the benefits of hemp agriculture and the therapeutic benefits of 'marijuana' are being repeatedly proven. The urgency of growing Cannabis is only becoming more acute as environment, economy, and social structures continue to fail. AB 684 - http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7363

It is simply a shameless violation of human rights, in the name of corporate protectionism, for government to interfere with the cultivation of any "herb bearing seed." (Genesis 1:29) The jurisdiction of the court has been extended far beyond moral accountability, inducing essential resource scarcity, while enriching the black market and increasing hard drug use, in a counter-productive effort to crimp the free agricultural and industrial markets.

The following letter was written by the Steering Committee of ENCOD (www.encod.org), of which André Fürst is the director, and is passed on to you all with the invitation to engage the effort to secure brother Fürst's immediate release.

Further, I trust that the Swiss authorities will protect the health and safety of people at the Chanvre Info demonstration project. The following is a recent account of attacks on the farm by an armed gang.

http://www.chanvre-info.ch/info/en/Attack-on-field-at-Chanvre-Info.html

Please see
http://www.chanvre-info.ch/info/en/sommaire.html

for additional information about André Fürst and the incredible strides in Cannabis agriculture and industry he has achieved, with the highest levels of product excellence, always demonstrating global cooperation and international statesmanship with a unique personal flair.

Please join with me in calling for André Fürst's immediate release, by sending word to the Canton of Fribourg, that the world is observing the suppression the Cannabis industry. In the US, we can begin coordinating ahead of the curve for a change, to plant hemp this Spring. It's the right thing to do, and regardless of what laws are passed at the state level, we have federal, Bill of Rights, Article One, individual freedom of religion, also afforded by international human rights treaties, if each of us claims it for ourselves, and each other.

With international Aloha, and a prayer for peace,

Paul
California Cannabis Ministry

Cannabis Agriculture vs. Global Broiling

Humankind faces a simple choice. Either we end prohibition of the world's most valuable plant, or the Earth will broil to extinction under increasing intensities of Ultra-Violet solar radiation.

Global broiling under UV is an immediate threat, yet compared with global warming, it is largely over-looked because the effects of increasing UV are more subtle than a shrinking glacier. Increasing levels of UV-B radiation, caused by erosion of the planet's ozone layer, are causing mutations, impairing immune systems and slowing growth rates in amphibians.(5) A generally accepted "indicator" species, what is obvious in amphibians is likely happening to people and other creatures, including plants.

Fortunately, there are mitigating measures that could be effective to heal the atmosphere, if they're implemented in time. A study published in Science Magazine last year, detailed the effects of atmospheric aerosols called "monoterpenes" on Earth's atmosphere.(1) The report concluded that

"This has important implications for...our future climate."

In essence, monoterpenes, (produced by some plants) mitigate global warming by reflecting solar radiation back into space and "seeding" cloud formation. Both solar reflection and cloud cover protect the Earth and its inhabitants from the increasing intensity of the Sun's rays.

It remains to be studied, what would happen if monoterpene-rich crops were grown in abundance, specifically to create a constant flow of monoterpenes into the atmosphere. I propose that this may be the most proximate and effective strategy for healing global warming and global broiling. Certainly, at the very least, the research needs to be initiated into the possible benefits of Cannabis agriculture, independent from the arbitrary limitations imposed by the drug war.

The Cannabis plant offers mankind a better opportunity for mitigating climate change than any other agricultural resource. Cannabis (hemp,'marijuana') produces 58 monoterpenes. It is also one of the most potentially abundant, useful and adaptable agricultural resources in the world.

In addition to effecting climate change by producing monoterpenes, Cannabis is one of the most efficient crops for sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.(4) Biodegradable construction materials made from Cannabis are the perfect carbon sink in which to store CO2 that's removed from the atmosphere by Cannabis farming.

Cannabis is also the world's most available source of organic vegetable protein and essential fatty acids (EFAs) making it a critical "strategic food resource." Mankind cannot afford to turn its back on the world's most nutritious seed, when we're facing a global food crisis, with the lowest stores of food in the last hundred years.(2)

Fields of hemp, grown to produce biofuels, food, and fiber, would also regenerate compacted, depleted and contaminated soils. Cannabis is a primary rotational crop, needed for expanding the world's arable base. Because hemp can be made into biogenic pesticides, it is a critical product for sustainable, organic agriculture.

For these reasons and more, a massive global planting of hemp is needed. Because time is the limiting factor in the equation for healing the planet, the Spring 2008 is the most critical planting season in human history. Will mankind overcome the "politiconomic" inertia that has blindly led us to the brink of extinction? Or will people abandon the viciously counter-productive "drug war" and make the most of the world's most healing agricultural resource? (6)

Now that people know Cannabis agriculture is the most effective solution to many problems, including environmental, economic and social imbalances, nothing can stop the eventual implementation of the solutions. It's merely a question of when. How do bad things have to get before all solutions are considered?

Paul J. von Hartmann
Mount Shasta, California
(831) 588-5095

California Cannabis Ministry
http://www.californiacannabisministry.blogspot.com/

Project P.E.A.C.E
http://webspawner.com/users/projectpeace/

ENCOD Member
www.encod.org

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References:

1. "High Natural Aerosol Loading over Boreal Forests"
Science 14 April 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5771, pp. 261 - 263
DOI: 10.1126/science.1123052
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/312/5771/261

2. "Lowest Food Supplies in 50 or 100 Years: Global Food Crisis Emerging"
Press Release - National Farmers' Union, May 11, 2007.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_5660.cfm

3. *Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Fourth Assessment Report
Working Group III
Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change
Summary for Policymakers
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM040507.pdf

4. "Carbon storage potential in natural fiber composites."
Author: Muhammad Pervaiz, Sain, M. M.
Author Affiliation: Faculty of Forestry, Advanced Wood Composite Group, Earth Science Center, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ont. M5S 3B3, Canada.
Document Title: Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2003 (Vol. 39) (No. 4) 325-340
http://www.cababstractsplus.org/google/abstract.asp?AcNo=20043048573

5. "Gloomy Prognosis For Amphibians"
Andrew Blaustein, Oregon State University. May 2007.
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2007/May07/amphibians.html

6. "U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure"
July 18, 2007
http://www.jointogether.org/news/features/2007/us-mayors-declare-drug-war.html


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from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Recommended Mitigation Strategies in Agriculture, Forestry and Waste

Table SPM 3, Page 14.

Agriculture [8.4]
Improved crop and grazing land management to increase soil carbon
storage; restoration of cultivated peaty soils and degraded lands;
improved rice cultivation techniques and livestock and manure
management to reduce CH4 emissions; improved nitrogen fertilizer
application techniques to reduce N2O emissions; dedicated energy
crops to replace fossil fuel use; improved energy efficiency
Improvements of crops yields

Forestry/forests
[9.4]
Afforestation; reforestation; forest management; reduced deforestation;
harvested wood product management; use of forestry products for
bioenergy to replace fossil fuel use

Tree species improvement to increase biomass productivity and
carbon sequestration. Improved remote sensing technologies for
analysis of vegetation/ soil carbon sequestration potential and
mapping land use change

Waste [10.4]
Landfill methane recovery; waste incineration with energy recovery;
composting of organic waste; controlled waste water treatment;
recycling and waste minimization.

Biocovers and biofilters to optimize CH4 oxidation.