You are browsing the archive for Environmental Politics.

by E.

“Cool It” heats up the global warming debate

12:04 am in Environmental Politics, Uncategorized by E.

Cool It movie poster image(Originally published in Creative Loafing/Tampa edition; 11/11/10)  Cool It is a feature documentary indictment of the global warming issue. The film begins with a summation of the global warming meta-narrative. This introduction uses a child’s narration and stylized crayon drawings to effectively make this complex subject understandable and simultaneously, eerily haunting (i.e.: a child should probably never know so much about his planet being on the brink of destruction). However, this introduction is something of a red herring. Just when this reviewer was prepared for yet another environmental activist’s foray into why everyone everywhere should unplug everything immediately lest we all die, the film began to turn on itself.

A brief biography of Bjorn Lomborg, Danish author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, led to a crossfire examination of the relationship between humankind and the biosphere. This provides a thumbnail sketch of a plethora of global problems (disease, warfare, starvation, etc.) that each seems to dwarf the colossal problem of the introduction.

Then the grilling begins. Talking heads on both sides of the debate about global warming present opposing arguments on whether global warming is even a real phenomena and if so, what, if anything can or should be done about it. Lomborg, who’s quest is to get to the raw data concerning these global problems, is alternately called an environmental heretic by environmental activists and an alarmist, environmental nut by advocates of the industrial, free market establishment. Lomborg’s work challenges the contemporary consensus on both sides of the issue which makes him seem the lone man in the middle of the “green” storm. Read the rest of this entry →

by E.

“Apocalypse Near” Book Reviews

5:00 pm in Environmental Politics, Uncategorized, press releases by E.

The following reviews for my book “Apocalypse Near“, sorted from newest to oldest. Please post your review or comment below or & on it’s Amazon page.

Rip-roaring sci-fi adventure with a serious social conscience
by Cole Bellamy

The author’s self-described ‘metaphysical autobiography’ may just be the next big step in the arms race between fantasy and reality. This book has a strong sense of the fantastical while keeping an eye on the the impact that literature can potentially have on the real world. Filled with scenes of both the beauty and terror, Apocalypse Near is a novel that refuses to exist in a vacuum, it is unashamedly didactic, a book that has a clear and important message yet doesn’t skimp on solid, pulpy, action or original imagery. While the writing is slightly clunky at times, it hardly takes away from the overall experience of the book. I highly recommend it to fans of the social/political pulp sci-fi of the 60′s and the 70′s, authors like Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Keith Laumer and E.E. Doc Smith.

A Multigenre Multimedia Masterpiece!, April 26, 2010

By J. Temple

Apocalypse Near: A Metaphysical ODDyssey is truly a work ahead of its time, pioneering the genre of the hyper-real. (According to the author, “Hyper-reality is to reality what metaphysics is to physics.”) In this ultra personal memoir, author and protagonist “E” reveals to the reader that knowledge is the ultimate defence against the imminent annihilation humankind brings on itself– and fear, the ultimate enemy.

The story, unfolding from a first-person vantage point, begins with his looming death sentence under a freeway overpass and continues through rescue, recovery, and REVELution. Upon waking up following intensive emergency brain surgery, the protagonist finds himself with no memory of his former life, and the terrifying revelation of earth’s pending expiration date. This is his quest to simultaneously unravel the mystery of his identity and to reveal to the ignorant unknowing masses their own self-demise– and what might be done to stop it. In the midst of this significant task, he finds himself fighting a new enemy of his own making. In a story at some times comical and others terrifying, the dualistic settings are first described in terms of the physical “seen” and then what lies beyond sensory perception, relentlessly drawing the audience in and converting him from reader to spectator in this divine comedy. Read the rest of this entry →

by E.

Drill Baby Drill

12:13 am in Environmental Politics by E.

Drill Baby Drill

You’re Going To Need Those Holes For Your Corpses

[Tampa, FL 10/06/08] As seemingly mindless throngs echo the “drill baby drill” chant like so many corporate robots, I pour over reports of all the oil hurricane Ike poured into the nearby Gulf of Mexico. Ike caused at least a half million gallons of crude to pour into the Gulf (the worst Gulf spill since Katrina).

Living in Tampa, FL, I would be directly affected by the lifting of moratoriums to drill for oil off our coasts. I’m not crying “not in my backyard”, I’m crying that we move into the technologies of tomorrow rather than this incessant backwards thinking desire to continue to power the dirty old internal combustion engine.

The moment I heard the “drill baby drill” chant I fired up my laptop and wrote it as a line of dialogue delivered by my villian in part two of my “Apocalypse Near” book trilogy. Here’s the dialogue as it appears in the book between the inter-dimensional villian and the protagonist. My protagonist is on a mission to enlighten the humans to their oncoming doom and how they might avoid it: Read the rest of this entry →

by E.

Does Corporate America Compromise National Security?

8:29 pm in Environmental Politics by E.

An InfoTorial by E. Reporting for The United States Media Corps

Originally published on The Conscious Consumers’ Network on 07/24/04

The current enemies of the industrialized nations mostly recruit their soldiers from among the disenfranchised populations of largely non-industrialized nations. Some of their propaganda charges that Western, industrialized nations use disproportionate amounts of natural resources and the cheaper labor of the needy to produce their wealth which is in turn used to produce weapons to proliferate their policies, goods, services and politics. In the process, the biosphere (which all humans must share) is unfairly being exploited. These criteria (among others) are spun to hang the title of “The Great Satan” on the western industrialized nations. Perhaps the larger crime is that the industrialized nations are basically loading bullets into the weapons of their sworn enemies by buying their oil which also has the effect of destroying the environment. It’s a lose-lose situation for the U.S. If Big Oil & our government were really smart they’d be investing all the money we spend on Arabian oil into sustainable / renewable energy technology and selling that technology to the world. (A win-win situation). Read the rest of this entry →