Ironically, while populationist groups focus attention on the 7 billion, protestors in the worldwide Occupy movement have identified the real source of environmental destruction: not the 7 billion, but the 1 per cent, the handful of millionaires and billionaires who own more, consume more, control more, and destroy more than all the rest of us put together.
via Population crisis: blame the 1 per cent – The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
Frugality vs conspicuous consumerism, the hav it all now mentality that certainly is a porton, way upgraded to large portion, of obesity crises in western countries…
In Australia and just about every other country in the world the proportion of overweight and obese people increases year-on-year. Sixty-seven per cent of Aussies are overweight as are 74 per cent of Americans. The one ray of light in this is that the New Zealanders have managed to trump us with 68 per cent – it’s good to hear the fat hobbits across the Tasman Sea can beat us in something other than Rugby, but still, we’re all getting too large.
Not only are we eating more meat, our food portions generally are expanding in size. In the US 20 years ago, the average cheeseburger had 330 calories, now the average is 590; the average portion of spaghetti contained 500 calories, now it comes in at 1020; and a can of fizzy drink had an average of 82 calories, now it has ballooned out to 250. Now, none of us were starving 20 years ago, but a hell of a lot of us weighed a lot less. Added to this we are chucking food out at a rate never before seen – in Australia we throw away 5.2 billion dollars worth of food each year, including 1.1 billion of fresh fruit and vegetables. That’s around 600 dollars per household. There are charities popping up around Australia now whose sole purpose is to take the food we want to throw away and give it to hungry families.
So we’re getting fatter and fatter, eating more and more, and to top it all off we are throwing tonnes of it away. Six hundred dollars worth per household thrown into landfill – think about that. You know what is going to cost that much? The carbon tax. Actually, it’ll cost a bit less – around 500 per household. And that is putting aside the Treasury estimates that show nearly 70 per cent of Australians will be fully compensated.
via The fat of the land – The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
The LlewBlog – Bloggage – Heads, Sand and a bit of Regret.
This touches on something my generation (born 1967 makes me Gen X, i believe) contends with – we should have started trying to fix theenvironmental issues earlier. The warnings were all there, but we inherited the Baby Boomers‘ “let the good times roll” mantra. Oh, ho we rolled. Some people blame the Baby Boomers for the entitlement generation, a malaise which we were infected with. No, that is too easy.
The Boomers grew up with the relief of WW2 being over, things seemed full of promise, in a way they never felt after WW1. There was a sense of promise, not the economic malaise of post WW1, of uneasy unfinished business. WW2 finished it, a new world order, he United Nations, a time of plenty, of change. That carried into the sixties, when rights became the big issue. People looked at the rights of our fellow humans – gender, race, etc, and saw changes needed to be made. Then, like all societies after big change, people went into selfish, introspective backlash mode. Societies can only take so much before the need to sort of let all that upheaval that settle a bit. Conservative attitudes rise – consolidation is really what is happening.
Then the next generation, my lot, came along. As part of all those changes, we were offered the world. We were all taught we could do anything. No limits. We believed. We grew up and chanted greed is good. Excess was a sign of success, and to succeed is a sign in and of itself that all is well. We piously donated to charities. Sang along to BandAid – and told ourselves we were making a difference, same as the Sixties. Yeah, we were, but not in the same way. Ours was less innocent, more brittle, more consumer driven change.
Then Gen Y came along. Darker, raised n the hangover of having it all, into the era of devices and goods, consumer delights cheaply available on a scale never dreamt of. Aspirational societies able to access the dream of consumer heaven now, too – production of these devices seemed limitless. Middle class – hell, lower class could be as full of consumer aspirations as the upper class. Having became easy – as long as it was rated by consumer goods, especially electronics. Entertainment for all. Ebread and icircuses. The Internet. Burring world boundaries. Social networking. Smart phones. Not bad in and of itself.
But we were ignoring the costs. There is always a cost. We haven’t just been running our consumer driven world on borrowed economies, as the repeated crashes remind us harshly. For too long, we have run our planet the same way. And the interest is way overdue. We have treated our beautiful home as a commodity. Someone else could tidy it all up, deal with the consequences. We have left the environmental bill for the next generation.
Like Robert says, in the article that started this thought, we had our heads in the sand. We cannot afford to do so. Hell, we cannot ignore what is happening. So many try to deny, because that is easier. Ultimately futile. The bill is due. Foreclosure of the environment looms.
To my children, my future grandchildren, i am sorry about the inheritance we squandered. I wish we could give you the planet we should have given you, the birthright we spent in our pursuit of – stuff.
I wish I knew what the future holds. But i am deeply worried. I think we took our heads out of the sand too late. And that the coming bill will be a price too high to pay.
As regularly as i manage, at least, this is a start of something new. An experiment, by me, in using this blog as a small outlet for updates and quick thoughts.
Today i am watching the increasing horror of the flooding in Queensland, and feeling terrible for those people trapped in bewildering sense of unreality as disaster unfolds before them. People who, a week ago, were living normal lives (by their standards of normal, whatever they may be). We have disasters here in Australia but not as frequently as some parts of the world, and certainly not often (thankfully) on this scale. And the scale is immense, by our standards at least. From world reporting, one cannot help but think either it is a need to fill 24 hour news cycles, or it is,indeed, an immense thing globally. Perhaps the world is shocked, like us, that relatively well behaved Australia is being a disaster. Usually, our struggles are more drawn out, under the radar. Drought, for example. Lingering for decades at times, slowly slowly.
Anyway, i am lying in my comfortable cave, tired and unwell (medication go round), and feeling that vague sense of guilt one feels for feeling unworthy of feeling bad, in the face of such suffering. Terribly middle class. Also goes against my generally stoic by inclination type mindset, (if not stoic by my untrained as yet emotional state).
One should help where one can. I am going to be quilting on the weekend, to make quilts to donate, and sorting through kidlet’s clothes, to send out good condition outgrown items, for when the call for such things goes out. Atm, cash is best used : http://telethon.smartservice.qld.gov.au/
Todays score is a 6.5, with mind tiredness due to last nights need to sleep medication. Hence overall well being of 5.
A SQUIRREL IN THE WINDOW?
In July of 2009, a female squirrel made its nest (called a drey) in the outer sill of one of our apartment windows.
We were privileged to be able to watch her birth and raise her babies over the next 8 weeks, until she took them all down to the ground for real-world training. More »
via The Squirrel in our Window | Pictures of a Brooklyn Squirrel and her Babies.
Space Hero Glenn: Save Our Space Shuttles
Newspapers Are Still Dying, But the News Is Not Going Anywhere.
Eco-Friendly Designs from New World Home
Work Smart: How To Avoid “The Busy Trap”
Infographic of the Day: The World’s Most Dysfunctional Countries, Ranked
Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog! has been doing an amazing job of keeping track of the disaster,( a global disaster, make no mistake), that is the BP oil spill – and the politics that are as oily and polluting as the spill itself.
Here are just a few posts.
Btw – look at the counter showing the gallons of oil spilt. Watch it update in realtime. Look at the speed of the update and the number of gallons. Try not to weep.
Oh, the GOP talking heads. If only the heads contained functional brain cells, the vestige of decency, and traces of conscience – they would be unrecognisable….Gingrich: Obama Extorted Money From BP, Glenn Beck Angrily Defends BP, and my personal favourite – Leave BP Alone!
These Are the Stakes and These Are the Stakes, Part 2.
Remember that a US Senator had the audacity, the awful awful grovelling insensitivity to apologise to BP because the Government demanded rightful restitution for affected people?
Well, every once in a while, Vice President Biden takes that foot out of his mouth and says something powerful and eloquent.
This response to Rep. Joe Barton is one of those times.
Jon Stewart takes us through the history of clean energy pledges from the last eight presidents.via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog! Go!: Promises, Promises.
While there, the ongoing horror that is the BP oil spill : this is not how an ocean should look, is it?
Appalling sycophantic, owned by a lobby group, you have GOT to be kidding me Quote of the Day from Republican Representative Joe Barton of Texas, on BP being forced to set up a $20 billion escrow account to pay out claims for the results of their outstanding endeavours in the field of oil catastrophes.
HTML5 is gaining bigger exposure with Apple making a lot of noise about it, especially with the release of Safari 5 (and i thought nothing would make me switch from Chrome – but this did. I even have my much beloved Developer Tools). So, as this is part of what i do for a living, expect to see more about it here, (though, tbh, i generally Evernote 98% of such things – but this is a good general article, not a developer guide or technique). Prepare For Catchphrase, “HTML5 it!”
I quite liked the idea that Twitter Is So 10 Minutes Ago…
BP has committed one of the most heinous acts of this century so far – and that is saying something, given our increasingly advanced ways of destroying, aiming, and generally damaging the planet and each other that we have to play with. Here is somethign to make you want to take the BP executives out for a swim, say, in hot oily water…Infographic of the Day: BP’s Horrifying Safety Record
While we are at it with Twitter and BP, ’according to The New York Times, Twitter contacted @BPGlobalPR on Tuesday to remedy the identity issue (@BPGlobalPR is a parody account created by an anonymous user in response to the massive oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico). The twitterer in question poses as a clueless BP PR person, offering scathing commentary about the manner in which the spill has been dealt with. And, it seems, this week BP had had enough with the charade.“BP requested that the account holder be asked to comply with Twitter’s guidelines regarding parody,” read a statement from Twitter issued today. “Twitter subsequently provided suggestions of best practices that are found on our parody policy page.” ‘BP and Twitter to @BPGlobalPR: Tell Them You’re Joking.
Mind you, BP has purchased sponsored links that appear at the top of Google and Yahoo’s search results for terms like “oil spill” in its attempts to improve its public image in the wake of its massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP Buys Top Google Result for “Oil Spill”.
With our increasing ability, and subsequent expecttion of being able to, stay connected jus about anywhere via wireless or 3G, what does one do when travelling? They guys at Endgadget have some possible solutions – and some gotchas too, in their How-to stay connected while traveling internationally.
One for my quilting side -6.9 Machine Quilter’s Showcase Pictures Part 2 from the delightful Scientific Quilter, fantastic podcast and ideas on quilting AND science, bliss:) (Check out part 1 while you are there, gorgeous…)
And last, but never ever least, a Doctor Who funny:
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