As we enter 40 days plus in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, some people are still framing the BP oil disaster in economic terms.
So Nature is quietly upping the ante!
This link should be required reading for any semi-conscious human being on the planet. It's a post by Health Ranger Mike Adams who is reporting on location.
Yes, he is far more sensational and dramatic than I am generally comfortable with ... but in this case, the severity cannot be over-stated.
Here's the link.
Sunday 30 May 2010
Thursday 13 May 2010
Pig Farmers Rejoice!
I really struggled to come up with a suitable title for this post.
BBC Breakfast this morning ran a report on an NHS trust in Derbyshire that had gotten into bed with local farmers. On the surface it all made infinite sense ... buy local meat instead of importing from South America at a premium.
Millions of pounds would be saved by the NHS and local farmers with their backs against the wall would be given a new lease of life. That sounds like a "win-win" in anybody's book!
Ironically, it also underscores just how lost our health system has become.
Here on national television was an idea so apparently clever that it was perfectly logical to suggest that it be rolled out to NHS trusts across the nation. And yet virtually everyone that viewed the report would have missed the saddest irony of all.
Our "health care" system continues to feed its patients with the very same food that got most of them there in the first place.
Even our intrepid reporter apologised that his report was being filmed against a backdrop of two majestically beautiful cows. As I watched the scenes that followed, I could only shake my head at just how lost we have all become.
First, a pig farm, profitable now for the first time in a decade ... graphic scenes of pigs rooting around in the muck followed by workers slicing ham and tying off pork sausages.
Yum!
From there it was the precictable slow walk through first the abbatoir and then the butchery ... a team of human hyaenas grunting clinically amongst the quivering slabs of gore.
And all I could think about was that most people watching were absolutely unaffected, quietly stroking their panting labradors beside them, content in the knowledge that they could continue to receive the standard of care that was their due.
All was right in the world.
A new government was rising like a phoenix from the ashes of political confusion in the United Kingdom. And when (not if) they got sick, at least they could continue to depend on a hearty menu and a litany of drugs to mask their symptoms and prolong their vacant existence.
If your instincts are screaming at you too, I invite you to consider a cleaner, gentler, purer alternative.
BBC Breakfast this morning ran a report on an NHS trust in Derbyshire that had gotten into bed with local farmers. On the surface it all made infinite sense ... buy local meat instead of importing from South America at a premium.
Millions of pounds would be saved by the NHS and local farmers with their backs against the wall would be given a new lease of life. That sounds like a "win-win" in anybody's book!
Ironically, it also underscores just how lost our health system has become.
Here on national television was an idea so apparently clever that it was perfectly logical to suggest that it be rolled out to NHS trusts across the nation. And yet virtually everyone that viewed the report would have missed the saddest irony of all.
Our "health care" system continues to feed its patients with the very same food that got most of them there in the first place.
Even our intrepid reporter apologised that his report was being filmed against a backdrop of two majestically beautiful cows. As I watched the scenes that followed, I could only shake my head at just how lost we have all become.
First, a pig farm, profitable now for the first time in a decade ... graphic scenes of pigs rooting around in the muck followed by workers slicing ham and tying off pork sausages.
Yum!
From there it was the precictable slow walk through first the abbatoir and then the butchery ... a team of human hyaenas grunting clinically amongst the quivering slabs of gore.
And all I could think about was that most people watching were absolutely unaffected, quietly stroking their panting labradors beside them, content in the knowledge that they could continue to receive the standard of care that was their due.
All was right in the world.
A new government was rising like a phoenix from the ashes of political confusion in the United Kingdom. And when (not if) they got sick, at least they could continue to depend on a hearty menu and a litany of drugs to mask their symptoms and prolong their vacant existence.
If your instincts are screaming at you too, I invite you to consider a cleaner, gentler, purer alternative.
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Change?
As the "Big Three" parties do their best to woo last minute undecided voters I am reminded of the word on everyones' lips ... "change".
What will change?
Taxes will go up. Inflation will go up. The rift between the "haves" and the "have-nots" will widen further.
Our health will continue to degrade ... and the NHS will be in a position to pay for less and less. Progressive unsustainability!
As peoples' livelihoods come under increasing threat, so a fringe element will turn to crime, as they have always done. We will have more police officers ... but they will be burdened with red tape and powerless to take decisive action for fear of treading on delicate sensitivities.
In schools, teachers will still have to take abuse from spoilt children "who know no better". They will still have to neuter the outspoken, even as they embrace freedom of speech.
And we will still insist on "one man, one vote" in Africa, when, right here on our own doorstep we have cleverly manipulated invisible borders to divide votes in a system that few actually understand to the degree that would qualify them as responsible custodians of democracy.
People will still pass the buck and shift blame and cover their behinds. People will still revere the savvy entrepreneurial skills of those jokers on "The Apprentice" and admire the roguish spirit of historical legends that killed, stole and plundered with impunity.
And then those that vote will vote for a party because they've been a "life-long" supporter ... or because on TV their man ducked and dived less than the next guy.
Or because they needed a license to complain about the encumbent crew!
But what will really change?
We will still think it's alright to spend beyond our means. We will still think it's alright for someone else to pick up the pieces of our recklessness. We will still think it's right to have children, even as our planet creaks under the load of nearly 7 billion inhabitants.
We will cling to this right in spite of a clear message from Mother Nature telling us some of us are too sick to reproduce ... after all we have IVF! And China has a shocking record on human rights' violations.
Someone else will make it right. And if they horse it up, well at least there'll be someone to blame!
Wouldn't it be nice if we elected a government that actually could effect meaningful change?
For that to happen, we have to first rethink the way we view our own role. Right now a disaster of unprecedented magnitude is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. I say that because no-one actually knows the full extent and true cost beyond that which affects humans.
We have no other frame of reference. We are the center of the universe. The environment and other creatures are not our concern. We only care about the economy and the handouts. Those birds covered in oil are someone elses' problem.
Well, they are not!
They are yours and mine ... and until we see that and realize the true severity of the implications, we will get what we deserve.
What will change?
Taxes will go up. Inflation will go up. The rift between the "haves" and the "have-nots" will widen further.
Our health will continue to degrade ... and the NHS will be in a position to pay for less and less. Progressive unsustainability!
As peoples' livelihoods come under increasing threat, so a fringe element will turn to crime, as they have always done. We will have more police officers ... but they will be burdened with red tape and powerless to take decisive action for fear of treading on delicate sensitivities.
In schools, teachers will still have to take abuse from spoilt children "who know no better". They will still have to neuter the outspoken, even as they embrace freedom of speech.
And we will still insist on "one man, one vote" in Africa, when, right here on our own doorstep we have cleverly manipulated invisible borders to divide votes in a system that few actually understand to the degree that would qualify them as responsible custodians of democracy.
People will still pass the buck and shift blame and cover their behinds. People will still revere the savvy entrepreneurial skills of those jokers on "The Apprentice" and admire the roguish spirit of historical legends that killed, stole and plundered with impunity.
And then those that vote will vote for a party because they've been a "life-long" supporter ... or because on TV their man ducked and dived less than the next guy.
Or because they needed a license to complain about the encumbent crew!
But what will really change?
We will still think it's alright to spend beyond our means. We will still think it's alright for someone else to pick up the pieces of our recklessness. We will still think it's right to have children, even as our planet creaks under the load of nearly 7 billion inhabitants.
We will cling to this right in spite of a clear message from Mother Nature telling us some of us are too sick to reproduce ... after all we have IVF! And China has a shocking record on human rights' violations.
Someone else will make it right. And if they horse it up, well at least there'll be someone to blame!
Wouldn't it be nice if we elected a government that actually could effect meaningful change?
For that to happen, we have to first rethink the way we view our own role. Right now a disaster of unprecedented magnitude is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. I say that because no-one actually knows the full extent and true cost beyond that which affects humans.
We have no other frame of reference. We are the center of the universe. The environment and other creatures are not our concern. We only care about the economy and the handouts. Those birds covered in oil are someone elses' problem.
Well, they are not!
They are yours and mine ... and until we see that and realize the true severity of the implications, we will get what we deserve.
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