at least it seems to be in their adults

I have to tell you that I was extremely surprised to find this article, because I really had no idea.

medical clinic in India

India Battles Diabeties “Epidemic”, via BBC

And, yes, it is Type 2 Adult Onset Diabetes. And, yes, it is because of the food they eat and a shift to a sedentary lifestyle. But the figures are staggering… 3 million a year die from it and 250 million are affected.

What worries the health professionals is that type 2 diabetes, which is the variety that is spreading so fast, is on a seemingly unstoppable rise in villages and rural areas.

It just reminds me of a conversation I had and article I wrote once, about how the United States only export is our lifestyle and it’s what is killing all of us. We have marketed ourselves so well, that people give up their traditions and change how they live and eat and it turns around and kills them.

This disease used to exist in such small numbers. Now, it is the leading killer of many nations. All because of what people eat. It’s really quite sad.

won’t you be glad when I stop posting news like this?

It starts off really, really well:

Looking to bolster the fight against childhood lead poisoning, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month approved a tough new rule aimed at clearing the nation’s air of the toxic metal. A key part of the initiative is a new network of monitors that will track lead emissions from factories.

But then… it takes a turn:

But the Bush administration quietly weakened that provision at the last minute by exempting dozens of polluters from scrutiny, federal documents show.

I have to be honest, I don’t even know how to write about this anymore. Scientists determined that even low levels of toxic metals in children lead to learning disabilities, aggression and even criminal behavior. So, they sought to lower acceptable levels in air. I am unclear, because I don’t know where the air is tested, but I imagine outside of factories that use lead in their processes.

The reason this is important is because the lead leaves the air, by falling to the ground and embedding itself in the soil. It stays there for years, while children play and dig and kick up all that contaminated soil and breath it in.

The new levels were about to be put into place and mandated before the Bush Administration stepped in and supported corporations instead of the people.

There is much more information in the article. I recommend reading it. The one thing it states is that it will take many, many months for the “new” EPA, under Obama, to be able to overturn this decision. You can find the article HERE.

HERE’S a link to lead poisoning on Wikipedia

Congratulations Sierra Club

Good news from the Sierra Club: Ruling, Coal Plants MUST limit CO2

In a move that signals the start of the our clean energy future, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) ruled today EPA had no valid reason for refusing to limit from new coal-fired power plants the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming. The decision means that all new and proposed coal plants nationwide must go back and address their carbon dioxide emissions.

“The EAB rejected every Bush Administration excuse for failing to regulate the largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States. This decision gives the Obama Administration a clean slate to begin building our clean energy economy for the 21st century,” continued Spalding

I don’t think there is much more I can add to this…. it is a HUGE win for the environmental movement and HUGE loss to the Bush Administration’s EPA stranglehold on the progress of change.

Hey, Cali, listen up

California is going to be really affected by climate change

California gets dire warning on global warming, via Environmental News Network

Roads and bridges, the water supply, agriculture, public health and even winter skiing all will be affected by global climate change, said the report by University of California-Berkeley agricultural
and resource economics professors David Roland-Holst and Fredrich Kahrl.

This is the first time a major academic institution has studied the link in economy and environment, and the results are not good. It was already announced that we spend $28 Billion per year in health issues due to poor air quality. This however is estimating that real estate losses could be in the trillions due to sea level increases.

I know we are a state that cares about this and does the right thing, but this is a proverbial diagnosis from the doctor that we have to change NOW!

delayed

in my last post I said I might be down… well, I am delayed in the transfer, so I will post today.

not sure

…what the next few days will be like with the site. I am switching to a new web-host and there will be a learning curve. I am hoping it will be seamless, but because I just don’t know, I am giving myself a three day weekend.

Wish me luck.

And, maybe it will be seamless and I can get going again right away…. we shall see

what is this?!?!?

So I just saw this commercial and it kind of freaks me out. And this is just one of two that I have seen.

First off, what is this game? Do I even call it that? Second, why are grown women playing this game? And last, why are grown women playing this game instead of participating in their lives. It looks like they are making up lives to be in… but can stay in their homes.

I know this has nothing to do with my normal writing, but in a way, it does. If we don’t care about our communities and be a part of them, then we have no vested interest in caring about our neighbors and politicians and anything outside of our own homes. It makes us stick to our individualism and become unwavering and intolerant. I know the commercial makes it seem fine and dandy, but it isn’t and it won’t be.

If someone can explain to me the point of this ‘game”, that’d be great, I guess. Does it have any added value?

how does one say “I told you so” without sounding like a jerk?

and maybe I just don’t care….

Why eating GM food could lower your fertility, via Daily Mail, UK.

In an article published today, something I knew all along was verified: GM food affects us.

Professor Dr Jurgen Zentek, Professor for Veterinary Medicine at the University of Vienna and lead author of the study, said a GM diet effected the fertility of mice.

GM expert at Greenpeace International, Dr Jan van Aken, said: ‘Genetically Engineered food appears to be acting as a birth control agent, potentially leading to infertility.

‘If this is not reason enough to close down the whole biotech industry once and for all, I am not sure what kind of disaster we are waiting for.

‘Playing genetic roulette with our food crops is like playing Russian roulette with consumers and public health.’

In the article they state something that I think should make everyone open their ears and eyes: Most studies of GM food has been done in the Biotech industry and with mega-corporations like Monsanto. This is the one of the first, allowed, studies from an independent laboratory. I think as we see more labs providing scientifically backed research, we will start to see the truth. Remember, if the truth will effect the bottom line of a corporation, why in the world would they want you to know it?

Also, in the country, labels are not required to state whether the food you eat is GM. Therefore, farmer’s markets, organic, CSA’s, grow your own… those are the best options. Most of all, try not to eat prepackaged food. I know it is difficult but these are your children and your children’s children we are talking about.

Bill McKibben

I don’t know how many times I can mention this man’s name and essays before you finally go pick up one of his books and read them.

I think he is one of the greatest topical writers of this generation, and fortunately, his topic is the environment. I don’t know how to most effectively explain it, but he doesn’t lecture about changing light bulbs and turning off your water. He helps you understand why we got into the mess and his suggestions for getting us out.

The first of his books that I read was “Deep Economy”. In it he “offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. For the first time in human history, he observes, “more” is no longer synonymous with “better”—indeed, for many of us, they have become almost opposites. McKibben puts forward a new way to think about the things we buy, the food we eat, the energy we use, and the money that pays for it all. Our purchases, he says, need not be at odds with the things we truly value.”

I also have read “Age of Missing Information” in which he juxtaposes a week in the wilderness to 2400 hours of television. Guess which one leaves you a more well-rounded, educated, critically thinking adult?

He has started the website 350.org which has lead a campaign to get President Elect Obama at a critical climate change conference in Poland later this year. (Sign the petition if you haven’t already.)

I bring this up because of another article that he wrote, The Most Important Number on Earth, via Mother Jones. In it, he writes about the necessity of bringing our carbon level back down to 350ppm. He makes it clear what we are up against with global warming and uses a metaphor that I think we can all agree would be true for us:

…the doctor has said, “Your cholesterol is too high. Scaring me. You’re in the danger zone. You need to change your diet and then you need to pray that you get back down where you’re supposed to be before the stroke that’s coming at you.” When that happens, you clean the cheese out of the refrigerator and go cold turkey.

But what stops us when it comes to the cholesterol of the Earth?

He writes about the challenges ahead, and in my favorite passage, really illuminates the kind of challenge it is:

The consensus must be broad, it must come quickly, and it must encompass the whole earth—they don’t call it global warming for nothing. The list of things on which we’ve achieved a broad and deep global consensus is pretty much limited to…Coke Is It. And that took billions of dollars and several decades, and it involved inducing people to drink sugar water. The odds against a strong global movement about anything tougher than that are low, with language barriers, religious barriers, cultural barriers.

I find in his writing a man who is passionate and compassionate. And, I think his final sentence states best the kind of moral and ethical challenge before us:

To be human in 2008 is to rise in defense of the planet we have known and the civilization it has spawned.

Please go and read the article. Pick up one of his books. I think it should be required reading for every human.

I believe in data

I didn’t know this, but, it has been hard to prove the effects of global warming in the arctic regions, since, although we have seen melting, the overall temperature has remained unchanged or gotten cooler.

Now, a group of scientists have been able to show that there is an overall temperature increase in those zones due to mankind’s influence over global temperatures.

The scientists created four computer models, including one that included the impact of greenhouse gases and one that did not. The model with the greenhouse gases produced predictions that matched actual temperature observations up to this point in time, according to their report, “Attribution of polar warming to human influence”, in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

Taking averages across all of Antarctica produced findings of “overall warming” of a few tenths of a percent, Gillett said.

But the team found temperature increases on the Antarctic Peninsula of up to 3 degrees Celsius since the 1950s, among the largest increases on Earth, Monaghan said. Still, the average monthly temperature is 1 degree to minus -15 degrees C.

The whole article can be found HERE, via Inter Press Service news agency.

Much of what we read about climate change does feel like a broken record… global warming, blah, blah, human caused, blah, blah. However, until recently science proving what we are seeing has been limited. Science takes time. Studies that were started at the onset of the change are just now seeing hard data that proves the original hypothesis. I think what people have always known to be true in their gut, are finally able to have the scientific backing.

This study was a major step in understanding a dichotomy that allowed naysayers to stay as naysayers. They will be hard pressed to stand by their argument, now.