Today We Have The Power http://todaywehavethepower.com Spirituality and the Seattle WTO protests Wed, 16 May 2012 12:57:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Species Extinction http://todaywehavethepower.com/species-extinction http://todaywehavethepower.com/species-extinction#comments Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:48:56 +0000 Christopher Timm http://todaywehavethepower.com/?p=358 The major animal rights issue that was at stake in during the 1999 WTO protest was the protection of Sea Turtles.   The United States had hard-won laws protecting sea turtles, an endangered species, which were being challenged by other nations because the laws prevented the US from importing shrimp that was fished without Turtle Excluding Devices.  The WTO ruling finally supported the US in its environmental protection laws.  However, the issue of species extinction proceeds at an unprecedented rate.  Furthermore, there is little debate about the fact that the problem is caused by the ethic of limitless consumption at the heart of the capitalist system, which is facilitated by organizations like the WTO.

Form more on sea turtles in particular go here.

For more on species extinction visit the World Wildlife Fund, or  Animal Planet.

]]> http://todaywehavethepower.com/species-extinction/feed 0 Deforestation http://todaywehavethepower.com/deforestation http://todaywehavethepower.com/deforestation#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:02:01 +0000 Christopher Timm http://todaywehavethepower.com/?p=354 At the time of the Seattle protest the biggest environmental issue at stake in the WTO was deforestation.  There was a deal on the agenda known as the “Global Free Logging” agreement, which gave timber corporations much more freedom to access old growth forests in the rest of the world.  It was stopped, but the process of deforestation is still taking place at an unprecedented level.   Every 2 seconds an area of a forest the size of a football field is lost due to logging or destructive practices.  Not only does this affect climate change, but it also marks the destruction of much biodiversity on the planet and is one of the leading causes of species extinction.

A couple of great places to learn more about deforestation are the Greenpeace website and the One World website.

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