Dave Pollard's environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays.
In search of a better way to live and make a living, and a better understanding of how the world really works.




 

  May 12, 2007


Shiled by WB Skinner
Photo: The Canadian Shield near Thunder Bay by WB Skinner

The Opposite of Poverty is Self-Sufficiency: That brilliant quip is from Sharon Astyk. Read why it's so. Excerpt:

We need to recognize that our food dependence affects not just what we eat, but the fundamentals of our democracy and our political power. We should not owe our lives to entities we deplore. And the only possible escape from that bind is to declare food independence - to meet as many of our basic needs as possible ourselves, and through small, sustainable farms with which we have real and direct relationships. And that means not just growing food, but ensuring a stable food supply, reasonable reserves and a dinner that depends on no one.

Sharon also explains the paradox that the first sign of acknowledgement of Peak Oil may be an increasing exodus from rural areas to the city. Thanks to David Parkinson for the link.

All the Plastic Ever Manufactured is Still With Us and Always Will Be: Plastic, the garbage that never goes away, is aggravating the already horrendous crisis in our oceans. Thanks to Craig De Ruisseau for the link.

Mothers' Day's Roots in Feminism: Long before it was co-opted by Hallmark, Mothers' Day was created as a rebellion by women against the elite of war-mongering, hate-mongering, heartless, pro-slavery males. Some women are trying valiantly to make it that again. Here's what they stand for:

We will be standing for the world's children and grandchildren, and for the seven generations
beyond them. We dream of a world where all of our children have safe drinking water, clean
air to breathe, and enough food to eat. A world where they have access to a basic education to
develop their minds and healthcare to nurture their growing bodies. A world where they have
a warm, safe and loving place to call home. A world where they don't live in fear of violence--in
their home, in their neighborhood, in their school or in their world.
This is the world of which we dream. This is the cause for which we stand

The Globalists' Rush to the Bottom Forces Us to Eat More Poisons: Despite recent US lip-service to the need for social and environmental protection in so-called 'free' trade agreements, the clauses of such agreements continue to require dismantling of such protections. The latest casualty -- Canada's prohibitions on toxins in foods imported from the US. The US has some of the weakest regulations on pesticides and other poisons in food in the world, and Canada is not much better. Under NAFTA, both countries will have to lower their standards to those of the lowest country in the agreement, or face massive fines and penalties. Current limits are up to 1400 times higher than those in Europe. Now, they will become worse still.

...But We Still Can't Match the Chinese as Deliberate, Deadly Poisoners: Every week it seems there is more and more evidence that the 'free' market in China is willing to do anything -- even kill -- for a profit. After last week's report on deliberate spiking of food with toxic melamine, a zero-nutrition fake substitute for protein, comes a report of Chinese corporatists' deliberate substitution of cheap and deadly diethylene glycol (antifreeze) for glycerine in medicines, killing thousands of unsuspecting patients, most of them children, most of them in struggling nations. We now have yet another reason to halt all imports from China.

11:57:49 PM  trackback []  comment []


Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website. © Copyright 2007 Dave Pollard.
Last update: 02/06/2007; 7:27:35 PM.

May 2007
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    
Apr   Jun

SEARCH BLOG How to Save the World

Click to see the XML version of this web page.
Subscribe to this blog by
Email:
leafMADE IN CANADA leaf trust your instincts

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Subscribe to "How to Save the World" in Radio UserLand.

Click to see the XML version of this web page.


I'm listening to:

Visit the David Suzuki Foundation




WHAT THE BLOGOSPHERE WANTS MORE OF

Blog readers want to see more:
- original research,surveys etc.
- original,well-crafted fiction
- great finds: resources,blogs,essays, artistic works
- news not found anywhere else
- category killers: aggregators that capture the best of many blogs/feeds, so they need not be read individually
- clever, concise political opinion consistent with their own views
- benchmarks,quantitative analysis
- personal stories,experiences,lessons learned
- first-hand accounts
- live reports from events
- insight:leading-edge thinking & novel perspectives
- short educational pieces
- relevant "aha" graphics
- great photos
- useful tools and checklists
- précis, summaries, reviews and other time-savers
- fun stuff: quizzes, self-evaluations, other interactive content

Blog writers want to see more:
- constructive criticism, reaction, feedback
- 'thank you' comments, and why readers liked their post
- requests for future posts on specific subjects
- foundation articles: posts that writers can build on, on their own blogs
- reading lists/aggregations of material on specific, leading-edge subjects that writers can use as resource material
- wonderful examples of writing of a particular genre, that they can learn from
- comments that engender lively discussion
- guidance on how to write in the strange world of weblogs


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.