| Striper Wars Eye of the Whale The Man who Knew Too Much
Black Genius Jesse Ventura Recently Posted
Dick Russell's talk at McNally-Jackson's in New York
on YouTube |
 | Recently I gave a talk on my new book "American Conspiracies," co-authored with Jesse Ventura and seven weeks on the NY Times best-seller list this spring, at the McNally-Jackson Bookstore in New York. YouTube has posted this video of the talk, introduced by Mark Crispin Miller.
Dick Russell |
| YouTube video
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July 1 Update: Authors Bruce Fein, Dick Russell
on Kagan, Gulf Disaster
Washington, DC (July 1, 2010) – DC Update guests today were authors Bruce Fein, speaking about the potential loss of important freedoms under a changed Supreme Court and Dick Russell, speaking about the implications of the BP Gulf oil disaster. Russell called it the worst natural disaster in recorded history.
Each guest is the author of an impressive book this year. Their comments were Live! nationwide at noon (ET), and can be heard on archive on My Technology Lawyer Radio with Update’s hosts Andrew Kreig and Scott Draughon at: www.MyTechnologyLawyer.com/update
Fein wrote American Empire Before the Fall after a career that included the high-level Reagan administration posts of Justice Department associate deputy attorney general and Federal Communications Commission general counsel. Earlier, he worked in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel during the Nixon Administration, where a key part of the job was working with his colleagues to provide independent advice on the limits of presidential power.
Fein predicted Senate confirmation of DOJ Solicitor General Elena Kagan to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, but criticized the nomination for what he called her “ridiculous” arguments extending presidential power and endangering historic U.S. civil rights.
“Kagan will cast a vote in favor of, rather than against, continued expansion of executive power...and the likelihood of her shifting under a future Republican administration is not great," said. “The executive branch teaches you to think in terms of presidential executive power and inculcates a sneer and scorn of Congress. Never having worked with Congress, it will be very hard [for Kagan] to deepen respect of Congress.”
Next, Russell provided an expert view that the Gulf oil catastrophe is far worse than commonly believed. His seven books have ranged from natural history to the assassination of President Kennedy. His most recent, American Conspiracies, was co-authored with former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura and was a New York Times best-seller this spring. The primary focus of Russell’s magazine writing and personal energies has been the environment. Even before BP’s Gulf oil spill, he has warned about “the crisis impacting the world's fisheries and oceans.”
"It is completely not under control,” Russell said of the clean-up, adding, “We have the busiest hurricane season this summer since Katrina.”
He said the correct description is an oil “volcano,” not a “spill” or “leak.”
“A dead zone is being created in the entire Gulf of Mexico,” he said, regarding health dangers. “The dispersant, Corexit, is a health hazard and will cause tremendous health problems for the clean-up workers and for residents. BP is using Corexit to ‘hide’ the oil spill so the full extent of the massive oil spill can't be seen, despite [BP] being warned against using it."
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Dick Russell has just been added to the roster of clients of the AEI Speakers Bureau. For anyone interested in booking a speaking engagement to hear Dick on any of several topics, here's a link to their website: www.aeispeakers.com
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Dick Russell’s speech
at “Save the Whales Day” rally,
Santa Monica, Calif., May 22, 2010
What is the International Whaling Commission thinking? How can they be on the verge of legitimizing rogue whaling, and how come the United States seems to be going along with this?
The global moratorium on commercial whaling that took effect almost 25 years ago has WORKED. The number of great whales being slaughtered each year has gone from about 38,000 down to between 1,000 and 2,000. That’s still too many, of course, under the guise of so-called “scientific whaling” by Japan, and flagrant violation of the moratorium by Iceland and Norway.
Every year, Japan has lobbied to include more species of whales in its quota, and they’ve succeeded in being allowed to take humpbacks and fin whales, sei whales and sperm whales. Every year Japan has continued to bribe small countries with big money grants, in exchange for their joining the IWC and voting with Japan.
Now the 88 member nations are likely going to vote in June on a so-called “compromise proposal” that, over the next decade, is supposed to reduce the total number of whales killed. That’s because right now those three rogue countries set their own limits, and under this plan they’d supposedly agree to IWC limits on their catches and do better monitoring and practice more humane whaling.
But let’s think about what allowing commercial whaling again really means. It legitimizes Iceland and Norway expanding their fleet in the North Atlantic. They would now be able to legally trade whale meat to Japan. It yields to Japan’s long-sought agenda – after years of opposition – to being able to do whaling along its own coastline. And commercial whaling would be allowed in a designated IWC sanctuary, the Southern Ocean.
This comes at a time when Iceland is strongly considering ENDING its whaling as part of an agreement to join the European Union. It comes at a time when Japan already didn’t meet its own allowed take in the Antarctic Southern Ocean, because the Sea Shepherds got out there and did an “intervention” that saved the lives of more than 500 whales.
Japan has already said this year that it’s not interested in cutting back the whaling in the Antarctic in return for being allowed to start commercial whaling in its own waters. Iceland has also said they’re not satisfied with the quotas being proposed. So what happens? Does the IWC cave in to their demands?
Now, if this proposal passes, South Korea is talking about starting its own coastal commercial whaling operation. We are looking at invigorated markets for whale meat, when most people – including the Japanese – have long since abandoned the practice. It’s this “scientific whaling” loophole that must be closed – instead of opening a whole new door that puts these incredible marine mammals in even greater jeopardy.
Think of what happened recently not far from here, when a high-end sushi restaurant called The Hump at the Santa Monica Airport got busted for illegally selling whale meat to its customers. Well, they ended up going out of business, but supposedly these same kinds of operations are going on in other American cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and New York. And people think allowing commercial sale of whales again is going to make that go AWAY?
We should be imposing trade sanctions on Japan, Iceland and Norway for already violating international laws. But this hasn’t happened since the Bush Administration. I still love Obama, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why his administration isn’t taking a stand like THAT – instead of supporting the reopening of commercial whaling, which Australia and New Zealand are adamantly against.
The simple fact is: Whaling has no place in the 21st century. It is inherently, unacceptably cruel. A barbaric and unnecessary practice.
Because of human activity, the whales are already in jeopardy in our time. There’s the deafening Navy sonar that drives them ashore, that the NRDC is fighting so hard to keep in check. Recently a gray whale – the same gray whales that migrate along this shoreline - was spotted on the wrong side of the world. Off the coast of Israel! There haven’t been gray whales anywhere but the Pacific Ocean since the 18th century, when they were hunted to extinction in the Atlantic. So it’s likely this lone whale came down through the ice-free Northwest Passage looking for food and became hopelessly lost. Already gray whales have to search for their food further north because the little amphipods they eat can’t live in the warmer Arctic waters. So a 5,000-mile migration turns into a 6,000 or 7,000 mile migration. And this year, like last year, the number of newborn calves is distressingly low.
A generation ago, gray whales started coming up to humans at their birthing grounds in Baja, in the same lagoon where these same humans almost hunted them to extinction a century earlier. The mothers started introducing their newborns to boatloads of tourists, allowing us to actually pet them, in an incredible act of forgiveness. And I’d like to close by reading a brief passage from the conclusion of my book about them, Eye of the Whale:
“As the oceans go, so go we. Can we survive global warming? Noise pollution? The wanton carelessness about our habitats? Can we pretend to endure anything that the whales cannot? Can we come to grips with the suicidal tendency to destroy what sustains us? Is this what the gray whales are reaching out to communicate?”
Write to President Obama and tell him the U.S. needs to change its position and keep the moratorium on commercial whaling in place at the IWC! (The annual meeting will be held in Morocco, June 21-27. For more information, and to sign a petition to the President, go to: www.earthisland.org/immp/antiWhaling.html)
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 Dick Russell explores American Conspiracies (A Q&A)
Today, Harford Books Examiner talks alternative American history with Dick Russell.
Russell, who collaborated with former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura on the new book American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us (Skyhorse Publishing, $24.95), is a widely acclaimed author and environmental activist. Having written six previous titles (including The Man Who Knew Too Much, which Publishers Weekly called “a masterpiece of historical reconstruction,” and On the Trail of the JFK Assassins), he has also published prolifically in various periodicals from The Nation to Parenting. He is married with one child and splits his time between Boston and Los Angeles.
American Conspiracies, which currently sits at #6 on the New York Times bestsellers list, has already been to print three times since its release in March. Says Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic David M. Kinchen, “If you're not a believer in conspiracy theories, or governmental coverups and lies before you read Ventura's book, you'll probably experience a change in attitude following a close reading of the book…”
From the publisher:
In this explosive account of wrongful acts and on-going cover-ups, Jesse Ventura takes a systematic look at the wide gap between what the American government knows and what it reveals to the American people. For too long, we the people have sat by and let politicians and bureaucrats from both parties obfuscate and lie. And according to this former Navy SEAL, former pro wrestler, and former Minnesota governor, the media is complicit in these acts of deception. For too long, the mainstream press has refused to consider alternate possibilities and to ask the tough questions. Here, Ventura looks closely at the theories that have been presented over the years and separates the fact from the fiction.
Now, Dick Russell offers a behind-the-scenes look at this explosive book...
Complete article here
4/8/10 |
 American Conpsiracies: A Textbook for Alternative History
Reviewed by Joseph E. Green
In my recent review of Voodoo Histories by David Aaronovitch, I spent a lot of time explaining why the organization of the book destroyed its credibility. The topics it covered were dictated by media coverage rather than a serious study of history. Coming on its heels, just a month later, American Conspiracies by Jesse Ventura and Dick Russell, rushes right into the breach. Talk about good timing.
The first three sentences of American Conspiracies set the tone of what will be good in this book that was not good in Aaronovitch: "First of all, let's talk about what you won't find in this book. It's not about how extraterrestrials are abducting human beings, or the Apollo moon landing being a colossal hoax perpetrated by NASA, or that Barack Obama somehow is not a natural-born American citizen. I leave these speculations to others, not that I take them seriously."
And on that note we're off.
ORGANIZATION
So how are Ventura and Russell going to explain conspiracies to us? They take 14 separate topics, in order: the Lincoln assassination; the attempt to overthrow FDR; the JFK, Malcolm X, MLK, and RFK assassinations; the Watergate scandal (however, not the Woodward version but the Jim Hougan version); Jonestown; the October surprise; the CIA drug connection; the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004; 9/11; Wall Street; and the "secret plans" to end American democracy. As I noted in my Aaronovitch review, these are much closer to the topics that make sense for a political researcher to investigate – note the absence of reference to Princess Diana...
Complete article here
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Japan Blocks Ocean Conservation Measures
by Dick Russell |
Onearth | March 24, 2010
Protesters outside a Santa Monica restaurant charged with illegally serving whale. George Peper |
Pacific nation leads fight to stop bans on commercial whaling, sharking finning, and overfishing tuna
Not many filmmakers follow up an Academy Award-winning performance with an undercover sting operation. But in his continuing effort to stop the worldwide slaughter of dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals, Louie Psihoyos (who took home an Oscar this month for directing The Cove, about a secrect dolphin-killing operation in Japan) is prepared to expose renegade sushi restaurants across the United States for serving illegal whale meat. His first target -- a restaurant called The Hump outside the Santa Monica airport -- was forced to shut its doors on Saturday after Psihoyos' team filmed the sale of thick, pink slices of meat and smuggled out DNA samples confirming they belonged to endangered sei whales, prompting federal charges. (Importing the meat of marine mammals is illegal under U.S. law.) Psihoyos, founder of the Oceanic Preservation Society, is now going after restaurants in San Francisco, Seattle, and New York that are rumored to also serve kujira (whale). "Wherever you are," he said in an interview outside The Hump before it closed down, "we will find you."
Full article here
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"AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES" AT NO. 6
ON NY TIMES BEST-SELLER LIST
I was thrilled to learn this week that my latest book with Jesse Ventura is No. 6 on the New York Times best-seller list, based on sales nationwide during its first week of publication (through March 13). The list, currently on-line, will appear in the Sunday Book Review section on March 28.
Meantime, the controversy over the Huffington Post's removing a column that Ventura and I wrote about September 11th gained more traction, with Ventura announcing that he would no longer write for a news outlet that chose censorship over freedom-of-the-press. Also there was a follow-up about "conspiracy theories" that appeared on Mark Crispin Miller's News From Underground, posted here as well:
From Jonathan Simon:
Mark,
In light of certain of the comments on David Ray Griffin's post, I think it is time to come more fully
to grips with the term "conspiracy theory" as it has come to be used as the death ray of the "see
no evil" establishment. The term itself--far more, I think, than such other brilliant propaganda formulations as "death tax," "pro-life," and "surge"--"settles" arguments on the spot, packing
20 megatons of discredit without actually proving or disproving anything.
The problem of course lies in the nearly limitless breadth of the bounds of thought and imagination, such that one can concoct a conspiracy theory for just about anything, so that the question becomes where to set the bar of plausibility. Right now, courtesy mostly of the punditry and MSM, the bar is
set about an inch from the official story when that story is deemed necessary (by these elites) to preserve the public calm and social order. So--and there's a real mathematics to this--when
the conspiracy theory is a very, very disturbing one (e.g., 9/11 or computerized election theft in the US), the evidence required to trigger a serious official investigation has to meet so high a burden
of proof that it could only come from such a serious official investigation in the first place. Anything short of this "proof," no matter how plausible or indeed probative, is filed under "conspiracy theory" and promptly dumped in the toxic waste bin.
Unfortunately it is not always easy (as David Griffin says, it would require "an enormous amount
of research") to separate the wheat from the chaff among conspiracy theories. So the plethora of "bad" conspiracy theories (e.g., the government since 2003 secretly implants a chip in all American brains at birth) sort of ruin it for the "good" ones (massive steel and concrete structures don't collapse in their own footprint at virtual freefall speed without internal demolition; "glitches" in
election tallies can't always favor the same party by chance).
In dismissing virtually all "very disturbing" conspiracy theories simply by attaching the "conspiracy theory" label (which seems to have an automatic, quasi-Pavlovian inhibiting effect on the vast majority of those who hear it), the Republic can avoid a great deal of angst and distraction--
and certainly it would be quite distracting to have to pay attention to, and properly assess, every conspiracy theory that comes down the pike, including all the "bad" ones.
But then the question becomes, What of the percentage--and whatever it may be, we know
from history that it is certainly not zero--of very disturbing conspiracy theories that are "good" ones? How damaging would it be to face the truth? On the other hand, how damaging is living a collective lie?
These are not facile questions, though our MSM and punditry--both Right and Left--have provided what seems to be a reflex response and facile answer. Perhaps Ventura's book sheds some light on this (I have it on order). Perhaps Sunstein et al will man up and grapple with it
honestly.
Meanwhile, if you want something very disturbing not to be there, just call it a "conspiracy theory."
--Jon
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THE CONTROVERSY OVER
AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES
The new book that I collaborated on with Jesse Ventura, "American Conspiracies," was published this week by Skyhorse. Following Ventura's appearances on Larry King Live, The Today Show, and The View, along with other media, the book rose to No. 4 on the Amazon list yesterday. At the same time, there was a disturbing development with a series of articles that had been requested by the Huffington Post, which led me to question whether even the alternative Internet press is really "free" - as chronicled below by NYU Professor and author Mark Crispin Miller:
BREAKING NEWS Read all about it here.
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Battle to Preserve Baja’s Whale Nursery Celebrated, but Threats Remain
By Dick Russell - March 8, 2010 - www.onearth.org
"....for there is no splendor greater than the gray
when the light turns it to silver." -- Homero Aridjis, The Eye of the Whale
Gray whales break the water's surface in Laguna San Ignacio.
photo: George Peper |
Ten years ago this month, the Mexican government -- under intense pressure from environmentalists -- announced it was canceling a proposed industrial salt factory at Baja's Laguna San Ignacio. The lagoon serves as the last undeveloped birthing habitat for the eastern Pacific population of gray whales, which were hunted almost to extinction a century ago and continue to make a tentative recovery. (Their Atlantic cousins succumbed to overhunting and have disappeared from the seas.)
The sudden and surprising decision to scrap the saltworks was a landmark victory for U.S. and Mexican environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which had been fighting for five years to stop the joint venture between Mexico and Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation. When many of the key participants in that fight gathered last week for a reunion at the remote lagoon, it was clear that ongoing efforts to protect this unique part of the Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve were having a profound impact.
At game parks on the African Serengeti, humans go to view wildlife - but here in Baja, the wildlife comes to you. The gray whales were out to greet everyone, some 200 strong for twice-daily whale watches, exhaling a heart-shaped mist as they chuffed past the panga boats. They sometimes approached close enough for onlookers to touch or even rub the baleen inside their mouths. "A magical gift, transcending time," as Mexican poet and environmental leader Homero Aridjis described one two-hour visit on the water...
complete article here
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TOWARD A NEW POLICY FOR THE OCEANS
By Dick Russell - February 25, 2010
If a single message emerged from a symposium on Marine Sciences and Society at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego (Feb. 21, 2010), it was an emphasis on cooperation rather than competition.
Perhaps you’ve never heard of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). I hadn’t. It’s an idea conceived a decade ago in the North Sea, where a "super ring" of renewable energy to supply each country along its shorelines was first being considered. Given the many things going on in a particular area – commercial and recreational fishing, oil and gas development, transportation, military activities, mineral mining, conservation of nature, and the emergence of wind energy and wave energy – it became clear that a more integrated way of managing was required.
"Almost no ocean area is untouched by human activity," as Fanny Douvere of UNESCO’s World Heritage Marine Program put it. "So is a spawning area more valuable than a wind farm? How, with conflicts, do we measure cumulative effects on species, habitats and ecosystems, and make trade-offs? And how do we deal with uncertainty in our planning, like climate change?" MSP, which is currently underway in ten countries, is place-based and "a continuous adaptive process, not a one-time plan."
In the U.S., as Larry Crowder, Director of Marine Conservation at Duke University, said: "There are 140 laws and 22 ocean agencies that weren’t talking to each other." In June 2009, the Obama Administration sent a memo to every agency, saying that a more coherent framework had to be the top priority. "Right now the MSP plan is largely conceptual," Crowder said. "But it is nothing less than revolutionary, because to this point we’ve been doing everything sector by sector. Now you would manage a place with its various activities. MSP must be very future-oriented." ...
complete article here
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New Book With Jesse Ventura
 My latest book, American Conspiracies, is about to be published. This marks my second collaboration with former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, and it's based on research materials that I've gathered for many years as well as extensive conversations with the Governor. It's really an "alternative history," especially of the past nearly five decades in our country, and I hope it will open people's eyes to what's been going on behind-the-scenes but largely ignored by the media establishment. The book includes what I believe is ground-breaking new information on the Bush Administration's stolen elections, as well as the tragic events of September 11th.
Here is the first review of American Conspiracies, though I should clarify that the "Conspiracy Theory" TV show and this book came to fruition completely independently. One is not a "companion" to the other. Also, the book does not say that the 2008 election was stolen, rather that this was being considered by the Republicans as late as the day before Obama's victory...
Booklist 2/1/10
American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies That the Government Tells Us.
Jesse Ventura and Dick Russell
March 2010. 288 p. Skyhorse, hardcover, $24.95. (9781602398023). 364.1.
Former Minnesota governor, Navy SEAL, and pro rassler Ventura has a new truTV show investigating but not necessarily debunking conspiracy theories. This companion to the program, a sort of teaser, dissects such famed objects of unending speculation as the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations. Ventura concludes that none of those were twisted-loner crimes but rather resulted from conspiracies of varying vastness. Anent the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Ventura asserts that “our government engaged in a massive cover-up” and had “ties to the hijackers.” He ventures that “unanswered questions remain about how the towers were brought down and whether a plane really struck the Pentagon” and that the “Bush Administration either knew about the plan” or “had a hand in it.” Heady, paranoiac stuff, to be sure, but there are even more forthright charges regarding the assassination of Malcolm X, the Jonestown massacre, and the “stolen” elections of 2000, 2004, 2008, and, for that matter, 1980. Believable? Some of it. An action-packed read? You bet.— Mike Tribby
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Here is a link to the schedule of Governor Ventura's extensive book tour that begins on March 8th with appearances on The Today Show and Larry King - which I will update as more becomes available...
Dick Russell
2/14/10
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TWO FILMS
 I'd like to urge everyone to watch these two short documentary-style films, both around 15 minutes in length. "One of These Mornings" was created by Valery Lyman, a remarkable young film-maker whom I've known since she was a child. The subject is Election Day 2008, when Barack Obama became president of the United States. Valery had asked many friends and acquaintances, including myself, to call her that momentous day and leave messages about how we felt after voting. I think you'll find her combination of images with the voices-of-the-people inspiring. More than a year later, it brought tears to my eyes several times. Click on this link: One of These Mornings.
 The other film is an interview with a longtime close friend of mine, Ross Gelbspan, an award-winning journalist who has written two books on climate change ("The Heat Is On" and "Boiling Point.") Ross has been sounding the alarm about the planetary crisis for more fifteen years, and this film with him speaks directly to what we must do to prepare for a very uncertain future. I think you'll find it compelling, sobering, and timely viewing - something we all need to think about, especially in terms of what our children and grandchildren will be facing. Click on this link: The Heat Is Online.
- Dick Russell
1/29/10
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 | The following interview with Homero Aridjis, Mexico's ambassador to UNESCO and an internationally-acclaimed poet/novelist and environmental leader, is about closing down Mexico's UNESCO office in Paris.
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Cultural loss foreseen
Mexico will cease to have permanent representation at UNESCO in Paris and will conclude its work.
The office, currently directed by Homero Aridjis was created to serve as a liaison in matters of education, culture and science.
Closing of the UNESCO Embassy is “a blow against culture”
Cultural Supplement of Reforma, Sunday January 24, 2010
In Aridjis´opinion the measure impacts upon the country´s image, especially in times when there are daily reports of violence.
REFORMA/Staff
The closing of Mexico´s UNESCO office is a deplorable act, a blow against Mexican culture, its international reputation, and the leadership role it should provide for Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa, the poet Homero Aridjis states.
In an interview by email, Aridjis, the Mexican Ambassador to UNESCO, analyses the impact of this decision which they have not, as yet, been notified of.
What is your opinion about the closing of the delegation?
Faced with criticism, the Mexican Foreign Ministry says that it will not close its UNESCO offices, but that its various functions will be vested “in the person of the Ambassador of Mexico to the French Republic.” It claims that only half of the 182 member states (in reality there are 193) have a permanent and exclusive representative “as had been the case with Mexico”. He (Aridjis) agreed with the legislator Porfirio Muñoz Ledo when he said he was totally in favor of Mexico´s UNESCO office being autonomous, because it is extremely important, requiring attention, time and organization.
When Harry Belevan-McBride , the bilateral ambassador of Peru in France, learnt of the notice decommissioning Mexico´s delegation to UNESCO, he called me to say he was alarmed that Mexico was abandoning its role of cultural leadership overseas, since our country possessed the largest number and the most diverse cultures in the Americas. He urged me to recommend that the Mexican authorities do not commit the same mistake as Peru, when it abandoned its ambassadorship to UNESCO and left its representation in the hands of the bilateral ambassador, since (in light of his own experience) it is impossible to deal with UNESCO matters efficiently.
It is a deplorable act, a blow against Mexican culture, our international image, the leadership role that our country ought to fulfill in Latin America, Europe, Asia and even Africa. When representatives of member states accredited to UNESCO found out, some of them looked at me in consternation and asked, “What is happening to Mexico?” Irina Bokova, the new Director General, asked me that question. She asked me what the position of the Senate was...
(translated by Jeremy Greenwood)
complete article here
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TESTIMONY OF DICK RUSSELL
Author, Striper Wars H796, An Act relative to the conservation of Atlantic striped bass
Massachusetts Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources & Agriculture
January 14, 2010
I thank you for allowing me to testify today on what I believe is an urgent conservation measure, vital to preserving for our children and grand-children the most magnificent fish that swims our near-shore waters. I am an environmental journalist and the author of six books, including one called Striper Wars, about the fish that is the subject of this hearing. And today I hope to offer some historical perspective, along with the reasons why H796 needs to be passed during the current legislative session.
Striped bass have been called the aquatic equivalent of the American bald eagle. Without Native Americans having taught the Pilgrims about how to take striped bass, they would not have survived their first difficult winters in the Plymouth Colony. Protection of striped bass was the reason for America’s very first conservation law, in 1639, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony general court ruled they were too valuable to be ground up and used for fertilizer. The first fishery management measures, in 1776, were also drawn up on the striper’s behalf...
complete article here
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And read Dick Russell's Conference speech, "At the Brink of Disaster..."
"Climate Is Changing: Stories, Facts and People"A report on the 2009 Greenaccord Conference
by Dick Russell
December 6, 2009
 VITERBO, ITALY – “To do nothing is fatal.” That was the stark message of one speaker at the VII International Media Forum on the Protection of Nature, held during the last week of November in advance of world leaders gathering in Copenhagen to seek an agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The figures on how rapidly the earth’s climate is changing were more alarming than ever before. At the same time, new ideas on how to achieve a much-needed societal transition were not only thought-provoking but often inspiring.
Of the three conferences sponsored by Greenaccord that I have attended (see 2005), annually bringing together environmental journalists from around the world, this one carried a sense of intense urgency through all five days. Ten “climate witnesses,” coming from the Himalayas, India, Africa, and other regions, offered testimony that left no doubt about the devastating impacts already being felt. The lingering question was whether action to shift away from carbon-based fuels can happen quickly enough to avoid a chaotic, anarchic planetary future – one that could see as many as two billion climate refugees as sea levels rise, glaciers melt away, flooding and droughts accelerate.
The last time the polar regions of earth were significantly warmer than today for an extended period was 125,000 years ago. Should we not curb emissions fast enough and see a rise of six degrees Centigrade over the course of the 21st-century, as a group of scientists recently projected, this would be a temperature rise not seen for about 100 million years. A hundred million years….
complete article here
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At the Brink of Disaster, Finding Each Other
A talk given by Dick Russell, at the VII International Media Forum on the Protection of Nature, November 29, 2009, in Viterbo, Italy
(with acknowledgment to my friend Ross Gelbspan for allowing me to utilize his writings on the climate crisis: see www.heatisonline.org)
Recently I attended another conference, this one on “green building,” in the southwestern United States. More than 27,000 people came from all around the country, a very impressive gathering. And it was here that I learned about a little town in the heartland of America called Greensburg, Kansas. Probably you’ve never heard of it. I hadn’t. But it is an amazing example of people coming together to make a difference, following a natural disaster that devastated their community.
Like so many other places in rural America, Greensburg was struggling. The kids were leaving after high school, and the population of 1,400 was increasingly elderly.
Then, on May 4, 2007, everything changed. Storms are becoming more powerful as the climate heats up, and that night a 17-mile-wide tornado with winds exceeding 200 miles an hour damaged or destroyed more than 90 percent of Greensburg’s structures, including all the public buildings. Eleven of its citizens were killed. The rest had to disperse, as there was no place for them to live...
complete speech here
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Green Building: An idea whose time has (finally) come
by Dick Russell
November 18, 2009
 Anyone attending the Greenbuild 2009 conference and expo at the Phoenix Convention Center (Nov. 11-13) couldn’t help but come away impressed. First, there was the attendance – more than 27,000 people from all across the country, each paying to attend a variety of educational sessions, listen to numerous experts, and view sustainable products at close to 2,000 exhibits. To see a large room packed with General Contractors, eager for tips on how to “green” their job-sites and achieve LEED sustainable certification, was nothing short of inspiring. (A program established in 1998 by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.)
In order to stand a chance against the ever-increasing threat of climate change, we’ve got to move fast – and changing the way our offices, homes, and apartment complexes are built is the most immediate thing to be done. Greater energy efficiency alone could quickly reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs) by 40 percent. For the first time, legislation pending in Congress would establish a national building code, instead of state-by-state. The House version of the bill mandates that building codes need to be 30 percent better than 2004 by 2010, and 50 percent better by 2016. The Senate bill, at the moment at least, is stronger than the House’s. We’re going to need to retrofit every single one of more than 100 million homes and 65 billion square feet of commercial buildings over the next 20 years.
I learned of these things at a session titled: “Has the Change We Need Come to Main Street? How Green Building is Faring in the New Policy Environment.” A new federal Clean Energy Development Administration (CEDA) will contribute financing for retrofits. There will also be tax incentives and builder credits for homes built 50 percent stronger than existing code. The Department of Energy is expanding standards on appliances, and looking for the first time at energy consumption of our TV sets. “Smart grid” projects are moving forward, automation that for example will automatically dim your lights 40% at a given time, and let you know it’s a good time to unplug your computer and run off battery for awhile. HCFC refrigerants in chillers, air conditioning, and piping in grocery stores must be phased out (although it’s not yet known what will replace them).
Have you heard what’s happening to the Empire State Building, which dates back to the 1920s? It’s getting a major overhaul that will reduce its energy use by 38 percent. All 6,500 windows are being rebuilt for efficiency, some 50 a day at a factory on the fifth floor. That means no transportation is involved, and the same glass is being used. The retrofit is expected to save $4.4 million a year in operating costs...
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Archetypal Psychologies: Reflections in Honor of
James Hillman 
When populations of striped bass began plummeting in the early 1980s, author and fisherman Dick Russell was there to lead an Atlantic coast conservation campaign that resulted in one of the most remarkable wildlife comebacks in the history of fisheries. As any avid fisherman will tell you, the striped bass has long been a favorite at the American dinner table; in fact, we've been feasting on the fish from the time of the Pilgrims. By 1980 that feasting had turned to overfishing by commercial fishing interests. Striper Wars is Dick Russell's inspiring account of the people and events responsible for the successful preservation of one of America's favorite fish and of what has happened since...
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