This was a comment posted on a website, as part of a week of chatter, regarding the possibility that BP/Halliburton/Transocean and the government may never be able to stop and/or clean up the Gulf oil spill. This anonymous person, known only as gristswat, said it all.
“Hmmmm....well this is interesting. Normally, mindless consumers funnel their money to some big corporation so they can rape the Earth of its (finite) natural resources on their behalf. Then, KABOOM!.... and suddenly the consumers want the money funneled the opposite way, to try and clean up a violated environment. Here are three enormous problems with this formula: 1) It is generally based on the assumption that the Earth's natural resources are infinite, and they are not. 2) It assumes that with enough money we can fix anything, and that is also not true, and 3) Too many people on this planet flat out do not understand, or care about, what it means to lose something INTANGEABLE: there are things/conditions which, once gone, are fone forever and can not be replaced.
Newsflash!...Breaking Story!....This Just In!......World War III has begun! It is not going to be waged with nuclear weapons, like everyone thought. Also, the combatants are a surprise: They are Mother Nature and Father Time in one corner, and Stupid Humans on the other side. The weapons: Ma & Pa have control of the life support systems. Humans have money. Strategy for Ma &Pa; give the Stupid Humans plenty of rope, then just sit back and watch and wait while they hang themselves.
This is a profound turning point in our very existence. We are faced with two extremely difficult options: Either we adapt to living SUBSTAINABLY, or we are going EXTINCT.”
This person’s message will be lost on those who believe dispersants applied to the oil on the ocean’s surface actually make it disappear; those who do not see pesticides on cheap food but trust somebody has made sure it is safe to eat; and those unable to relate the overwhelming amount of plastic in our lives, to the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.
While under the surface, World War III, as this person so eloquently describes, is fully engaged, as we close our eyes, hearts and minds, and pass the true cost of our folly on to future generations.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Earth Day - 40th Anniversary
Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. In those forty years, environmentalists have pressed for change. There are now more organically grown vegetables available and resurgence in farmer’s markets around the nation. Many farmers realize that they can make more money and keep their farms by rejecting pesticide/herbicide farming. Farmers are beginning to understand that factory farming sterilizes the soil and contaminates the water, causing municipalities to commit billions of tax dollars to provide clean drinking water. Often the process is ineffective, as is the case for Atrazine. Studies are revealing that the despoiled water also negatively affects the farmer’s own livestock. Change, however, comes slowly.
There is a surge of restaurants serving small plates and a Chef, Jamie Oliver, who has begun a “Food Revolution,” using the media to bring America’s unhealthy school lunch system, directed by the USDA, to the front of the public’s consciousness. American food portions have increased three fold and the use of processed foods, high in corn syrup and chemicals, has quadrupled. Obesity, food induced illnesses and allergies have spread, threatening the American segment of the world’s population. Change will come, however slowly.
There is hope, however. Europe and Asia are withstanding the pressure from America’s monolithic agri-businesses intent to export of their destructive farming methodologies and genetically modified foods. Government’s leaders are beginning to question why Americans suffers so much food contamination and it is getting harder for the producers to hide their tainted production processes. Slowly, the American eater is awakening. Slowly, change is coming.
Gluttonous use of fossil fuels has been identified as a possible human cause for ‘unusual’ warming trends on the planet, which are adversely affecting species from insects to whales, globally. Yet, there are some, fearing their wealth will be diminished if action is taken to stop the trend, who rail against the science. These same individuals, it should be noted, support action against countries that demonstrate a less than one percent chance of having nuclear weapon capabilities. They protect themselves against a less than five percent statistical chance their house will burn. They insure themselves for the less than twenty percent chance they may get sick. The question is what if the global warming skeptics are wrong and the scientists are right? If there were even a less than one percent statistical chance that humans might not survive the damage done by global warming, why would we not choose to take action? After all, currently, there is no other spaceship but Earth in this galaxy. There is no option to be transported to Pandora for safe refuge. If nothing is done, change could come too late.
While we celebrate this fortieth anniversary of Earth Day, America’s leadership is flirting with micro-sized solutions. Some are meandering toward thinking about, while others are researching, America’s contribution to the global problem. While Earth Day participants have learned to celebrate baby steps, over these forty years, baby steps may not be enough this time.
Our choices, action or lack of action, will be our gift or curse for future generations. Earth Day calls us to commit to the three R’s, “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.” For some it will mean they purchase locally grown vegetables, grass feed beef, or buffalo burgers instead of factory farm provided ‘value meals.’ For other, they will eat smaller portions or try to save 4 gallons of water a day by turning the water off while brushing their teeth. Many will pressure their legislators to take legislative action. Small changes, made by a multitude of people, will accelerate the change needed to insure Earth and her future inhabitants. Happy Earth Day!
There is a surge of restaurants serving small plates and a Chef, Jamie Oliver, who has begun a “Food Revolution,” using the media to bring America’s unhealthy school lunch system, directed by the USDA, to the front of the public’s consciousness. American food portions have increased three fold and the use of processed foods, high in corn syrup and chemicals, has quadrupled. Obesity, food induced illnesses and allergies have spread, threatening the American segment of the world’s population. Change will come, however slowly.
There is hope, however. Europe and Asia are withstanding the pressure from America’s monolithic agri-businesses intent to export of their destructive farming methodologies and genetically modified foods. Government’s leaders are beginning to question why Americans suffers so much food contamination and it is getting harder for the producers to hide their tainted production processes. Slowly, the American eater is awakening. Slowly, change is coming.
Gluttonous use of fossil fuels has been identified as a possible human cause for ‘unusual’ warming trends on the planet, which are adversely affecting species from insects to whales, globally. Yet, there are some, fearing their wealth will be diminished if action is taken to stop the trend, who rail against the science. These same individuals, it should be noted, support action against countries that demonstrate a less than one percent chance of having nuclear weapon capabilities. They protect themselves against a less than five percent statistical chance their house will burn. They insure themselves for the less than twenty percent chance they may get sick. The question is what if the global warming skeptics are wrong and the scientists are right? If there were even a less than one percent statistical chance that humans might not survive the damage done by global warming, why would we not choose to take action? After all, currently, there is no other spaceship but Earth in this galaxy. There is no option to be transported to Pandora for safe refuge. If nothing is done, change could come too late.
While we celebrate this fortieth anniversary of Earth Day, America’s leadership is flirting with micro-sized solutions. Some are meandering toward thinking about, while others are researching, America’s contribution to the global problem. While Earth Day participants have learned to celebrate baby steps, over these forty years, baby steps may not be enough this time.
Our choices, action or lack of action, will be our gift or curse for future generations. Earth Day calls us to commit to the three R’s, “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.” For some it will mean they purchase locally grown vegetables, grass feed beef, or buffalo burgers instead of factory farm provided ‘value meals.’ For other, they will eat smaller portions or try to save 4 gallons of water a day by turning the water off while brushing their teeth. Many will pressure their legislators to take legislative action. Small changes, made by a multitude of people, will accelerate the change needed to insure Earth and her future inhabitants. Happy Earth Day!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
No Bee - No Food - No Honey
“Hmmm” Winnie-the-Pooh would say, “I love honey.” At our house, a steamy piece of cornbread is naked without honey. Pooh was regularly reminded that his honey came from busy bees. We humans, however, rarely think about bees or how much of our food depends on their hard labors.
It is but for the bees, busily foraging for nectar and transferring pollen from flower to flower, that we enjoy more than one third of all the foods we eat. Without their labors there would be no blueberries, cherries, tomatoes, apples, oranges, peppers, squash, watermelon, strawberries and the list goes on and on.
Though small, they have finely tuned brains allowing them to communicate to their hives, detailed directions to fields of sweet nectar they have found, a communication feat many humans find challenging. With this information, worker bees fly far away from home, returning to share their nectar with their hives and subsequently, with all of us who enjoy honey. So finely tuned are their small bodies that, just like humans, environmental poisons can devastate their immune systems causing them to forget where home is. They leave their homes but never return, a phenomena never seen before.
Between 2005 and 2006, the media’s hot story was about a “honeybee die-off.” Although there had been a notable decline for several years preceding that, that period of time seemed to be a waterloo for the bees. There were suspicions as to the cause, but it has been the worldwide community of beekeepers themselves, who have been able to determine the culprit. This catastrophic collapse of bee colonies, occurring in dozens of countries, simultaneously, was found to have one common denominator, a surge in the use of neo-nicotinyl pesticides, particularly their systemic use in seed treatments. An example would be the genetically modified corn seed. Modified, with a pesticide used to kill the corn rootworm, the pesticide is residual in the corn’s flower, pollen, dew, and water run off. It is also used in formulations for field spraying. Thus, bee contact is inevitable.
Neonicotinoids were in use, in smaller dosages, for several years prior to 2005. Beekeepers, puzzled by the affects they saw in their bees, were yet unaware of the pesticide connection. However, in 2005 the manufacturer drastically increased the amount applied and beehives collapsed in record numbers. This got everyone’s attention, even the media. Since industry in the U.S. can give EPA things environmentalists and small businesses cannot, such as contributions and high paying jobs, the message did not get through to them. Some European Union member countries, however, have taken action to ban use of these pesticides and have seen recovery begin in their honeybee colonies. Italy reportedly banned several uses of neonicotinoids with highly successful results.
While it is widely thought that the EPA is hard at work in Washington, protecting the public from potential poisons and their affects on food supplies, this is not the case. Licenses to sell potentially lethal chemicals are approved through a simple process. A manufacturer tells the EPA their product is safe and good for agri-business. They show the EPA tests, which they have performed and which prove their claim of safety and efficacy, after which they collect their licenses. While it might be advantageous for justice to be blind, it is an obvious disadvantage for the EPA to be purposefully blind. It is a disadvantage for bees, the bee industry; those who eat the many foods bees help produce, and lovers of honey. That includes Pooh, who would sigh and say “Oh, my” and go back to his honey pot which would, on the next page, be magically full.
The alfalfa, which cows turn into milk and meat, requires bee participation. We cannot assume foods we enjoy will magically appear on our tables like a full Winnie-the-Pooh honey pot. In fact, if nothing is done they could all disappear. How, then, will our grand children describe that sweet juiciness of a watermelon on a hot summer’s day to our great-great grandchildren?
In the real world, we have to take action and tell the EPA that we are watching, concerned, and expect them to take the necessary actions to protect the honeybee industry and our right to clean, healthy, real food.
Learn more about the plight of the honeybee, a letter sent to the EPA on January 28, 2010, and the availability of the documentary film “Nicotine Bees” at www.nicotinebees.com
It is but for the bees, busily foraging for nectar and transferring pollen from flower to flower, that we enjoy more than one third of all the foods we eat. Without their labors there would be no blueberries, cherries, tomatoes, apples, oranges, peppers, squash, watermelon, strawberries and the list goes on and on.
Though small, they have finely tuned brains allowing them to communicate to their hives, detailed directions to fields of sweet nectar they have found, a communication feat many humans find challenging. With this information, worker bees fly far away from home, returning to share their nectar with their hives and subsequently, with all of us who enjoy honey. So finely tuned are their small bodies that, just like humans, environmental poisons can devastate their immune systems causing them to forget where home is. They leave their homes but never return, a phenomena never seen before.
Between 2005 and 2006, the media’s hot story was about a “honeybee die-off.” Although there had been a notable decline for several years preceding that, that period of time seemed to be a waterloo for the bees. There were suspicions as to the cause, but it has been the worldwide community of beekeepers themselves, who have been able to determine the culprit. This catastrophic collapse of bee colonies, occurring in dozens of countries, simultaneously, was found to have one common denominator, a surge in the use of neo-nicotinyl pesticides, particularly their systemic use in seed treatments. An example would be the genetically modified corn seed. Modified, with a pesticide used to kill the corn rootworm, the pesticide is residual in the corn’s flower, pollen, dew, and water run off. It is also used in formulations for field spraying. Thus, bee contact is inevitable.
Neonicotinoids were in use, in smaller dosages, for several years prior to 2005. Beekeepers, puzzled by the affects they saw in their bees, were yet unaware of the pesticide connection. However, in 2005 the manufacturer drastically increased the amount applied and beehives collapsed in record numbers. This got everyone’s attention, even the media. Since industry in the U.S. can give EPA things environmentalists and small businesses cannot, such as contributions and high paying jobs, the message did not get through to them. Some European Union member countries, however, have taken action to ban use of these pesticides and have seen recovery begin in their honeybee colonies. Italy reportedly banned several uses of neonicotinoids with highly successful results.
While it is widely thought that the EPA is hard at work in Washington, protecting the public from potential poisons and their affects on food supplies, this is not the case. Licenses to sell potentially lethal chemicals are approved through a simple process. A manufacturer tells the EPA their product is safe and good for agri-business. They show the EPA tests, which they have performed and which prove their claim of safety and efficacy, after which they collect their licenses. While it might be advantageous for justice to be blind, it is an obvious disadvantage for the EPA to be purposefully blind. It is a disadvantage for bees, the bee industry; those who eat the many foods bees help produce, and lovers of honey. That includes Pooh, who would sigh and say “Oh, my” and go back to his honey pot which would, on the next page, be magically full.
The alfalfa, which cows turn into milk and meat, requires bee participation. We cannot assume foods we enjoy will magically appear on our tables like a full Winnie-the-Pooh honey pot. In fact, if nothing is done they could all disappear. How, then, will our grand children describe that sweet juiciness of a watermelon on a hot summer’s day to our great-great grandchildren?
In the real world, we have to take action and tell the EPA that we are watching, concerned, and expect them to take the necessary actions to protect the honeybee industry and our right to clean, healthy, real food.
Learn more about the plight of the honeybee, a letter sent to the EPA on January 28, 2010, and the availability of the documentary film “Nicotine Bees” at www.nicotinebees.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)