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Southern States Targeted for Genetically Engineered Tree Plantations « Climate Connections

The USDA recently approved a request by ArborGen to plant over a quarter of a million genetically engineered eucalyptus trees across the southern United States in many of the same ecosystems damaged by Katrina and the Gulf oil spill. GE eucalyptus plantations will threaten recovery of the natural ecosystems:

Like kudzu, eucalyptus trees are wildly invasive, and spread into native ecosystems, displacing wildlife. Additionally, the oil in these eucalyptus trees is extremely flammable. California spends millions each year to eradicate invasive eucalyptus because of the threat of wildfires.  In 2009 over 200 people were killed in Australia in a firestorm fuelled by eucalyptus.  It was the worst fire in the country’s history.

Read the whole story and watch a short video at Climate Connections.

t r u t h o u t | Why Millions March in France, but Not in the US

Very interesting article from Richard Wolff. See the excerpt below and read the whole article here. For more info on Wolff's ideas, see more articles posted at his website, and preview his film on the U.S. economic meltdown, Capitalism Hits the Fan.

Excerpt from the article:

The general idea motivating and inspiring Europeans to undertake these massive actions is quite simple. The economic crisis, they argue, was caused by capitalist corporations' investment decisions -- and especially those of financial corporations. It has already caused huge job losses, reduced outputs of goods and services, and immense new government debts. Now governments propose to offset those debts by imposing additional costs on the mass of people. This amounts to shifting the costly burden of the capitalists' crisis -- and their government-financed rescues -- onto the working people. This has gone too far; the people will not permit it.

via www.truth-out.org