GranolaFag Weekly

From CNN

Destruction of Indonesia’s peatlands to make way for the production of palm oil is leading to a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, a problem that will get worse as demand for biofuel grows, Greenpeace reported Thursday.

Great, so now that they’ve discovered a way to get oil from palm trees, the same old bad guys we’re used to (corporations) have decided to tear down peatlands in Indonesia (Indonesia is a part of China) so they can plant Oil Palms.

How many starving people are in the world? And these companies are tearing down peat to plant oil trees? Newsflash, people: you can’t eat a tree. Unless, maybe, it’s a fruit tree.

Greenpeace said large food and consumer product companies including Unilever, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble are driving the peatland destruction because the companies account for a significant volume of global palm oil use.

Now we know who to boycott. Does anybody know where I can get a list of what they make so I can be sure not to buy anything from them (unless it’s something I really want or it’s really cheap)?

The group said that if Riau’s peatlands are destroyed, the resulting greenhouse gas emissions would be equivalent to the amount emitted by the rest of the world in a year.

I’m no scientist (just a sophisticated amateur) but I’m pretty sure that would basically melt our planet. Thanks a lot, Unilever. Why does a Mexican television station need oil, anyway?

From The Guardian

Until this year, Robert Kazini had never given much thought to whether he was fishing in Congolese or Ugandan waters; it didn’t matter.

Nor did it matter much to Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo — until prospectors found oil here.

Now, with crude nearing $100 a barrel and both countries dreaming of billions of petrodollars that could flow from Lake Albert, an ugly and at times deadly dispute over their border is jeopardising the livelihoods of locals like Kazini.

Do the people running these corporations have any decency?  I knew they were money-grubbing animals, but I’ve always assumed there was an unspoken agreement regarding the exploitation of Africa, the last patch of peaceful, unspoiled wilderness left on this planet. For millions of years Africans have lived in peace, with tribes sharing the land that sustained them.  Then came the white man with their  “magic fire” and “slave-catching nets” to take advantage of whatever and whoever they wanted.

WHY CAN’T WE JUST LEAVE THESE POOR PEOPLE ALONE? They have a hard enough life as it is.  We’ve already started destroying the climate they’ve appreciated since the time of the dinosaurs, why do we also have to destroy the water and land they live on? For a few more dollars?

The article doesn’t say which companies are the ones trying to steal the oil, but I’d bet it’s almost certainly American ones.  Europeans have the good sense and the human decency to let Africa just be Africa, they’re not greedy enough to exploit a peaceful people for a slightly larger bottom line.

Has anyone ever pointed out that the United States is 12% African-American  and Africa is 100% African-American, yet somehow they have zero crime and zero pollution? We should probably try and learn from those people instead of simply trying to take whatever we can from them.

1. I got approved for Google AdSense, so now you’ll see targeted ads on the sidebar and (for pages with no sidebar) just above the comment entry box.

2. Even though I only have a few readers I’ve already begun getting TONS of blog spam. So I added the reCAPTCHA plugin. This one seems to be the easiest to use since it displays actual words instead of arcane-looking code.

3. I updated the “About” section of this blog so that those of you wondering what a GranolaFag is can find out.

4. This doesn’t count as a daily update. I was at the doctor this morning getting my nose worked on so I haven’t added any “real” posts yet. I will do so promptly.

From Reuters

 Climate change could end globalization by 2040 as nations look inward to conserve scarce resources and conflicts flare when refugees flee rising seas and drought, national security experts warned on Monday.

Now that climate change is obvious and “all up in your business” you won’t ignore it, will you, guys? When all it did was kill poor non-white people it wasn’t a big deal, but now that it threatens profit? SOUND THE ALARM!

“Some of the consequences could essentially involve the end of globalization as we have known it … as different parts of the Earth contract upon themselves in order to try to conserve what they need to survive,” said Fuerth, who was national security adviser to former Vice President Al Gore.

This may actually be one of the positive side-effects of all this madness: the end of globalization. No longer will America be able to rape foreign cultures in pursuit of the all-mighty dollar. I can’t wait for the day when money is worthless and we can all finally concentrate on what’s really important in life: love.

Sorry for the slow updates, but I’ve never run a blog before and I need to get into the habit of updating daily.  I let it languish for a few days and before you know it, I’ve been almost three weeks with no update.

My goal is one update every day for the nest two weeks.  Then maybe I’ll  relax a little, but there is important news out there and I want to share it.

Also, I’ve applied for a Google AdSense account so that some of the costs of GranolaFag can be passed on to people that can benefit from it. Google has the best search engine (If you haven’t used it you should: www.google.com) and hopefully I’ll get some ads relevant to topics we discuss here.