Censored 2014 (54 page)

▸ Nuclear, chemical, biological, and conventional weapons and their waste products;
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▸ Fossil fuels causing global climate changes, ocean acidification, and air and water pollution;
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▸ Nuclear power plants, their waste products, and the release of radioactivity into the air and water;
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▸ Genetically modified organisms in food, at factory farms, and released into the environment;
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▸ Toxic chemicals and poisons in building materials, clothing, furniture, foods, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals;
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▸ Toxic chemicals used for mining or extraction processes such as hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking);
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▸ Oil spills and “cleanups” using toxic chemicals to disburse the oil;
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▸ Electromagnetic waves and microwaves (e.g. wireless technologies and cell phones);
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▸ Nanotechnology;
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▸ Five ocean gyres of plastics and garbage, their tiny particles altering ocean ecosystems;
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▸ Destruction of entire ecosystems (e.g. mountaintop removal, tar sands oil, and navy testing of explosives in oceans);
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▸ Urbanization, urban sprawl, and impermeable surfaces.

Secondly, animals and plants are used and/or killed outright, without regard for the quality and significance of their lives or their role in their ecosystems, in the following ways:

▸ Deforestation and agricultural monocultures (plant and animal);

▸ Dams and the alteration of natural waterways;

▸ Factory farms, aquaculture, and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs);

▸ Massive extraction of sea life through factory fishing;
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▸ Killing animals for sport and/or profit (e.g. the gun industry, the hunting industry, bushmeat, the global trade in animals and animal parts, and the killing of predators by US Fish and Wildlife);

▸ Killing animals, insects, and “pests” for human convenience;

▸ Animal entertainment industry (e.g. zoos, marine parks, films, and puppy mills);

▸ Scientific experimentation on animals.

The above list provides only a partial accounting of the most egregious human impacts on other species, as well as on humans. Each by itself is worthy of intensive daily news coverage—and yet, because of conflicting interests, corporate media do little to cover these sto-ries. The real story, however, is in the confluence of factors. If all segments of the media do not begin informing the public of the serious imminent dangers the world now faces, the sixth mass extinction will be over before we know it, with untold suffering along the way.

WHAT HUMANS CAN DO

As gloomy as the above picture might be, key organizations, individually and in collaboration, are leading activism to address the sixth mass extinction. If they are able to gain substantial public support, they have a chance to ameliorate the extinction process, which includes human extinction. If we can reduce or reverse the activities and processes causing the harms listed above, we can possibly slow or arrest the extinction processes, diminish the threat of cascade and collapse, and thus moderate the dangers associated with the current
mass extinction. This means contending with all the forces driving extinctions simultaneously, so individual beings, species, and ecosystems might have a chance to heal. Some important steps humans can take are below.

1. Join and support organizations directly working on extinctions, working to prevent further damage to life systems, or working to bring the plight of animals to public attention: the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Endangered Species Coalition, World Wildlife Fund, Species Alliance, Izilwane, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Navdanya, 350.org, Earth First!, Idle No More, and many others.

2. Support international agreements related to environmental protections: for example, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity has been endorsed by every country in the world except the United States. Work in conjunction with organizations to pressure political repre-sentatives to support all legislation and international agreements that will help protect the environment.

3. Read and support independent news media that make it a point to include articles on plants, animals, ecosystems, and extinctions: Common Dreams regularly highlights and publishes articles on animals and plants. It provides an excellent platform for linking progressive organizations working tirelessly to save species, the environment, and the planet. Other outstanding sources of information are the Environmental News Network,
Yes! Magazine, E: The Environmental Magazine, Endangered Earth,
and
OnEarth Magazine.

Secondly, participate in pressuring corporate media to attend to their responsibility to keep the public informed about this very serious issue. Write letters to the editor on extinctions. Join and support organizations that monitor and hold corporate media accountable, like Project Censored, Center for Media and Democracy, Center for Public Integrity, Institute for Public Accuracy, and Free Press.

4. Initiate local activism to change local policies and stop harmful projects. Ultimately, everything happens in a local environment. When towns and counties refuse to let a large factory, mining operation, or retail chain disrupt their communities, they are practicing sound local ecological decision-making. If local communities effectively resist having their environments harmed, global problems could be mitigated considerably. One example is the Declaration on Local Authorities and Biodiversity, signed by many mayors and local politicians in a number of countries as a commitment to protect their local environments from harm.

5. Change our own lives to stop killing or harming animals, including bees, bats, spiders, and more. Stop killing animals in and around our houses. Stop using poisons of any kind. Stop or drastically reduce eating animals and/or animal products.
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Stop supporting the harming or killing of animals in the wild, in science, in entertainment, and elsewhere.

6. Participate in mass movements and demonstrations, to pressure governments to respond to the needs of the public and ecosystems rather than corporations, and to hold corporations accountable for their actions.

Overall, it is important to remember that all social and environmental justice issues are interconnected—not just in an ecological sense, but
in a politico-economic sense as well. For example, working for peace in the world is one of the most important things you can do to slow down the sixth mass extinction. One of the best kept secrets is that the United States military is the greatest contributor to environmental harm in the world, and it makes this onerous “contribution” in a multitude of ways at home and abroad.
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Why isn't the corporate media continually reporting this extremely important piece of information? We arrive at the same answer as to the question of why they are not reporting the sixth mass extinction: the corporations that benefit from polluting are also primary benefactors of war. Ultimately, the public must hold the media accountable to its responsibility if we are to avoid the ultimate cascade and collapse that the sixth mass extinction holds before us.

JULIE ANDRZEJEWSKI, EDD
, is professor of human relations at St. Cloud State University, where she cofounded the Social Responsibility Program. Her recent publi-cations include coediting
Social Justice, Peace, and Environmental Education
(Routledge, 2009) and authoring “War: Animals in the Aftermath” in
Animals and War: Confronting the Military Animal Industrial Complex
(Arissa, 2013). She serves as one of Project Censored's international judges, and her students regularly contribute stories to Project Censored's Top 25 list.

JOHN C. ALESSIO, PHD
, is professor emeritus in sociology at St. Cloud State University, where he cofounded the Social Responsibility Program. He has taught at a number of universities and served as an academic dean at Marywood University, and Minnesota State University, Mankato. A widely published author, Dr. Alessio has published, most recently,
Social Problems and Inequality: Social Responsibility Through Progressive Sociology
(Ashgate Publishers, 2011).

Notes

^1.
“EU: Ban Bee Poison,”
Avaaz.org
, January 29, 2013,
http://www.avaz.org/en/hours
to save the bees. Introduction to the AVAAZ petition signed by 2.6 million people to the European Union to ban neonicotinoid pesticides made by Bayer and other giant pesticide producers that are implicated in killing bees.

^2.
World Wildlife Fund in collaboration with the Global Footprint Network and the Zoological Society of London,
Living Planet Report
(2012), accessed May 2, 2013,
http://awassets.panda.org/downloads/lpr
2012 summary booklet final.pdf.

^3.
“The Extinction Crisis,” Center for Biological Diversity,
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/pro-grams/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis
; and Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein, eds.,
Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

^4.
Andrea Germanos, “Report: Ecosystems in Upheaval, Biodiversity in Collapse,” Common Dreams, December 12, 2012,
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/12
. Ger-manos's article is based on Michelle D. Staudinger et al., “Impacts of Climate Change on bio
diversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services: Technical Input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment,” Cooperative Report to the 2013 National Climate Assessment, July 2012,
http://assessment.globalchange.gov
.

^5.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), “Global Biodiversity Outlook 3: Biodiversity in 2010,”
http://www.cbd.int/gbo3
.

^6.
Key reports available include US Geological Service with National Wildlife Federation and Arizona State University,
Emerging Consensus Shows Climate Change Already Having Major Effects on Ecosystems and Species,
December 18, 2012,
http://www.ugs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3483
; World Wildlife Fund in collaboration with Global Footprint Network and the Zoological Society of London,
Living Planet Report
(2012),
http://wwf.panda.org/about our earth/all publications/living planet report/2012 lpr/
; the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the
Red List of Endangered Species,
2013,
http://www.iucnredlist.org
; UNEP, especially the Convention on Biological Diversity,
http://www.cbd.int
and publications like
Nature
and
Science.

^7.
Species Alliance,
Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction,
2010,
http://calloflife.org/p-story.htm

^8.
UNEP, “Global Biodiversity Outlook 3.”

^9.
Anthony D. Barnosky et al., “Approaching a State Shift in Earth's Biosphere,”
Nature
486 (June 7, 2012): 52–58.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/hadlylab/_pdfs/Barnoskyetal2012.pdf
. See also UNEP, “Global Biodiversity Outlook 3.”

^10.
Species Alliance,
Call of Life.

^11.
Andrew H. Altieri et al., “A Trophic Cascade Triggers Collapse of a Salt-Marsh Ecosystem with Intensive Recreational Fishing,”
Ecology
93 (2012): 1402–1410,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/11-1314.1
.

^12.
Richard Pearson, “Are We in the Midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction?”
New York Times,
June 3, 2012, 5.

^13.
Seth Borenstein, “Panel: Problems with Oceans Multiplying, Worsening,”
Brattleboro Reformer
(Brattleboro VT), June 21, 2011.

^14.
Tom Harris, “We Need to Manage Climate Change, Not Avert Catastrophe,”
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
(Fort Lauderdale), August 15, 2012.

^15.
Gaylord Dold, “Are Humans Headed for Mass Extinction?”
Miami Herald,
July 29, 2012,
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/29/2915428/are-humans-headed-for-mass-extinction.html
.

^16.
Amina Khan, “Less Dire View of Extinction: Scientists Using a New Method to Calculate the Rate at Which Species Are Dying Out Say the Crisis Is Bad but Overestimated,”
Los Angeles Times,
May 21, 2011.

^17.
Faye Flam, “Mass Extinction: Humans Have Edge,”
Philadelphia Inquirer,
July 9, 2012, Ci.