Sunday April 20, 2008, 6:24 pm
"Weeds" are a vital part of insect pollinator's existence. Without a steady diet, they starve. When they starve, so do their predators, birds, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians. So do their predators, the larger wild birds, mammals reptiles.
A world without wild beings, genetic variation; perhaps there are believers in fiction who feel this would be enjoyable or possible.

Monsanto, BASF, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, please add any more corporations that are adding unprecedented toxics into the environment, through chemistry and shotgun genetic modification.

Sunday April 20, 2008, 6:36 pm
You can listen to this video while working at other things, and switch to it when you wish to see visual material.
Please watch it - yes, 1:49 long, but comprehensive. Try to get it to your local public station.

Sunday April 20, 2008, 7:07 pm
Frightening! Norway http://www.ifpra.org/newsletters/march-2008.htm
“Doomsday” seed vault opened in the Arctic
www.aftenposten.no
The newspaper Aftenposten reports that a "doomsday" seed vault has been built deep within an Artic mountain on the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. "The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is our insurance policy," Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told delegates at the opening ceremony. "It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations." European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai of Kenya were among the dozens of guests who were well wrapped up for the ceremony inside the vault, about 130 meters (425 feet) deep inside a frozen mountain. "This is a frozen Garden of Eden," Barroso said. The vault will serve as a backup for hundreds of other seed banks worldwide. It has the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples from around the world and shield them from man-made and natural disasters. Dug into the permafrost of the mountain, it has been built to withstand an earthquake or a nuclear strike. Norway owns the vault in Svalbard, which cost about NOK 50 million (USD 9 million) to build. Other countries can deposit seeds without charge and reserve the right to withdraw them upon need. The operation is funded by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which was founded by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and Biodiversity International, a Rome-based research group.

Tuesday April 22, 2008, 7:01 am

This film can be bought via the Franco-German TV station, ARTE, which broadcast it about a month ago and showed it online -free- for a week or maybe a bit longer. Since many of those interviewed in the film speak English, there are French subtitles, which don't prevent following it in English.

This page is about the DVD which ARTE is selling in French, German, and English versions -
http://www.arte-boutique.fr/detailProduct.action?product.id=245754

They say that it is their No 1 Best Seller which is perhaps a hopeful sign for the world !