Are you ready?

They’re the government, and they’re here to help:

Ready.gov

photo by jjsala

Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip

WordPress won’t let me embed this very cool video on feedback loops and climate change, so you’ll have to click over to see it. I recommend it highly:

Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip

by Leo Murray

It’s much, much later than you think.

Read more here.

Top 10 natural disasters in a most disastrous year

Hurricanes and cyclones killed nearly 85,000 people this year

More than 220,000 people died in 2008 as a result of natural disasters, making it one of the deadliest and costliest disaster years in history. This was also the 10th warmest year since records began in 1850.

If you won’t listen to me when I tell you to get ready for the coming global climate change cataclysm, will you at least listen to your insurance company?

The world’s second largest insurer, Munich Re, blames climate change for the disasters. They’ve compiled this list of the Top 10 Natural Catastrophes for the year.

With billions of dollars worth of losses on the line, Munich Re is preparing for the cataclysm both within their business and in the global political debate:

“We – as a company – press for effective and binding rules on CO2 emissions, so that climate change is curbed and future generations do not have to live with weather scenarios that are difficult to control.”

They’ll do it for money. Will do it to save your life?

Happy 60th to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This Wednesday, Dec 10, marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you’ve never read it, you should. It’s an impressive document.

If nation-states should collapse after the global climate change cataclysm, we can just fall back on these rules.

Here it is, in English. To read it in your preferred language, click here.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948.

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

We’ll all celebrate Buy Nothing Day on Nov 28

This Friday, November 28, is Buy Nothing Day. Join me in celebrating my favorite holiday of the season.

Hell, if the economy keeps going like it is, I’ll be celebrating Buy Nothing Year in 2009.

Here’s a cataclysmic video to get you in the mood, called What a Way to Go.

(If you can’t see the vid, click here to watch it at Adbusters.)

Holiday gift ideas: local, organic, artisanal literature

Everyone knows that the best-tasting holiday cookies are the ones made from scratch with fresh ingredients and a lot of love. The same goes for gifts. Southern California’s indie presses are cooking up unique, reasonably priced poetry and fiction appealing to almost every taste. Check them out online or visit an indie bookstore, and enjoy the warm holiday feeling that comes from knowing you supported local artists and businesses instead of overseas sweatshops and multi-national retail chains.

Remember, buying local is good for the environment. Fend off the cataclysm, one book at a time!

Here are a few presses and stores we recommend.

Southern California-based Presses:

• Angel City Press: nostalgic yet cool illustrated books
• Arktoi Books: poetry and fiction that give lesbian writers access to “the conversation”
• Cahuenga Press: poetry that honors creative freedom and cooperation
• Cloverfield Press: books as visually beautiful as they are intellectually and emotionally stimulating
• Dzanc Books: literary fiction that falls outside the mainstream
• Gorsky Press: risk-taking books that encourage readers to re-examine society
• Green Integer: essays, manifestos, speeches, epistles, narratives, and more
• Les Figues Press: aesthetic conversations between readers, writers, and artists, with an avant-garde emphasis
• Make Now Press: contemporary works of constraint and conceptual literature
• Otis Books/Seismicity: contemporary fiction, poetry, essays, creative non-fiction and translation
• Red Hen Press: poetry and more by writers whose work has been marginalized
• San Diego City Works Press: local, ethnic, political, and border writing
• Santa Monica Press: offbeat looks at pop culture, lively how-to books, film history, travel, and humor

Independent Bookstores in L.A.:

• Book Soup, West Hollywood
• A Different Light, West Hollywood
• Eso Won Books, Leimert Park
• Family, Fairfax District
• IMIX Bookstore, Eagle Rock
• Metropolis Books, Downtown
• Skylight Books, Los Feliz
• Small World Books, Venice
• Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena

Happy holidays from the Future of Publishing Think Tank*!

*The Future of Publishing Think Tank is an ad hoc group of writers and representatives of independent publishers and bookstores, nonprofit literary organizations, and producers of public radio. Our task: to consider the changes occurring in publishing, distribution, and marketing of literary work and to envision new ways for writers to engage readers and build audiences for their work. Groups who that have been involved include 826LA, Arktoi Books, GuerrillaReads, the HeArt Project, Hol Art Books, “Indymedia on Air” (KPFK), the Lambda Literary Foundation, Les Figues Press, Poet Joi, Poets & Writers, Red Hen Press, Skylight Books, and Writers at Work.

What else can you do with locally-grown veggies?

After the cataclysm, we’ll all have to find unexpected uses for familiar things after the cataclysm. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra is already prepared:

Just be prepared – the veggies that grow in your ‘hood today may not grow there post-cataclysm. For related info to help you create your own veggie music, check out tips #8, #18 and #22.

Thank you, Cheryl, for posting the link!

The official blog52 status update

Regular readers of blog52 will have noticed I’ve been doing a Brownie-style heckuva job lately preparing you for the coming global climate change cataclysm. This is week 47, and I’m only up to tip #36. I never call, I never write, I know.

Apology by Jshei

Let’s see, what can I blame?

First there was the sudden realization in Washington, DC, that we’re in the middle of an economic cataclysm. They gave $700 billion to some executive from Goldman Sachs to take care of it, so at least that problem’s solved. But it did distract me for a few days.

Then there was that pesky election thing that had me up late, biting my nails and clicking back to HuffPost compulsively to see the latest poll numbers from North Carolina.

For a few days afterward I was so full of hope that I couldn’t even imagine the cataclysm. Then the fires broke out in Southern California and of all people it was Arnold Schwarzenegger who reminded us about climate change and what a mess it’s making for everyone.

On a more personal note, the hand crank on my wind-up radio broke, which really threw me off my cataclysm workout. Then, this morning, I’ve had to break down and admit that those radishes I planted just aren’t going to get any fatter no matter how long I leave them in their container.

Well I’m back to business now. I promised 52 tips for surviving the climate change cataclysm, and like it or not, you’re going to get them. Plus 52 podcasts of those tips, with music from 52 fabulous artists. It’s just going to take more than 52 weeks to get there.

Stick with me, and we might just survive the cataclysm yet. In fact, if you have any suggestions on how to survive, send them along. I’ve got a sweet sixteen more to go.

Cartoon: fan art by Jshei on Super Mega Comics

Get ready for the Great Southern California Cataclysm

Click for more on the Great Southern California Shakeout

Great Southern California Cataclysm

Please free Esha Momeni

For more information: Please Free Esha on MySpace and the For-Esha blog.