Monday Moaning

Yes, I know it’s Tuesday… deal with it! I am. I’ve got coffee.

Nature Ramble on Sunday warned of illegal pets, or transporting species from one part of the planet to another.

Here’s another issue that runs parallel to keeping turles and other unusal pets.

Hewlett-Packard ad featuring runaway iguana ‘poses threat to native wildlife’

Invasive Species Council asks company to pull ad, saying ‘Ralph the iguana’ could encourage Australians to buy the illegal pet

Hewlett-Packard’s Australian advertisement features a boy whose pet iguana is on the loose.

Hewlett-Packard has been criticised for featuring a runaway iguana in its Australian advertising, as the animal is considered an environmental threat and is illegal to own as a pet.

The Invasive Species Council has said the use of “Ralph the iguana” in HP’s marketing campaign would encourage Australians to obtain iguanas as pets, only for them to be released into the wild, where they could cause significant damage to native flora and fauna.

The HP campaign is an online effort involving the tagline #HelpFindRalph. People can look at pictures of Ralph to guess his location in order to win various HP products.

So far, Ralph has been photographed alongside camels on the beach in Broome, looking sanguine in a South Australian vineyard and looming in front of Sydney town hall. The green iguana has also been shown at the Twelve Apostles in Victoria and the Whitsunday islands in Queensland.

“We don’t want to create a new demand for this species and for people to buy them on the black market,” Andrew Cox, chief executive of the Invasive Species Council, told Guardian Australia. “These things can grow up to two metres long and then people will dump them, which causes a major threat to northern Australia.

“Hewlett-Packard should have known better. They should have done their homework. They now need to make people aware that it’s illegal to have iguanas in Australia and that they are a threat to the environment here.”

Green iguanas, which can weigh up to 9kg, are considered a pest because of their broad diet, which may include native plants, animals and bird eggs. Their burrows can also disturb the environment.

A Queensland government analysis has warned the animals are considered “high-risk” to the natural environment and are prone to spread in that state because the climate is comparable to that of their native central America.

Although they are often kept as pets, the Queensland government warns: “Adult iguanas are large, powerful animals. When threatened they can bite, cause severe scratch wounds and deliver a painful slap with their tail.”

It is illegal to import iguanas or keep them as pets but 17 animals have been seized by authorities since 1999.

“We can only guess how many are in Australia, probably hundreds,” Cox said. “We don’t want that number to increase because once they are established, it’s a hard creature to dislodge. They can camouflage themselves in the wild, after all.”

The Invasive Species Council, which recently warned of an influx of pest species into Australia, has written to HP asking the company to scrap the advertising campaign and apologise.

But an HP spokeswoman told Guardian Australia it had no plans to alter the ads and that Ralph would continue appearing next to Australian landmarks.

Source: TheGuardian

Opinion:

I realise that Ralph is an invasive species and therefore a concern, but I wonder is this making a mountain out of a molehill?

Ralph makes an endearing ambassador for HP and understandably so.

Perhaps HP should have been a little more astute in their campaign and added an educational factor into the ad, therefore actually helping the powers that be.

But there is also the responsibility of parents in educating their kids about such issues and the matter should also be dealt with in schools.

Can you believe this?

Click to enbiggenate

Satireday on Eco-Crap

Make you Fink on Friday

Advertising like this, telling blatant lies should be illegal.

What do you think?

Is corn sugar (HFCS) the same as cane sugar?

If you answer ‘yes’ or ‘don’t know’ then you deserve HFCS

There is so much information out there that is not industry generated that tells the truth about HFCS.

Your body can tell the difference, and it doesn’t like it.

HFCS is linked to so many adverse affects on your body, it should be a BANNED SUBSTANCE!

Monday Moaning

With the world’s population growing at an exponential rate, so too are the uses of nature’s resources and we are running out.

Are we looking at another case of the tail wagging the dog?

We are trying to stem the population growth rate by preventing births, when in fact the problem is we have achieved such medical breakthroughs that not enough people are dying. But, that’s a separate issue

To me the obvious problem is consumerism.

We have become such a consumer society that each day our hunger for ‘more’ and ‘new’ has become outrageous. Our hankering for the ‘lastest’, ‘biggest’ and ‘fastest’ has driven our utilisation of resources beyond the levels of sustainable.

As a society our ethos has to change.

The existing paradigm is not working.

We are giving our kids the wrong message, they give their kids an even worse message, the problem is exacerbated with every generation.

Read a great message on: Stiff Kitten’s Blog a definition of what we have become.

Think about the useless products that are created that people don't need. If you can't crack an egg, stay out of the kitchen

With each new product, we have production increases, more materials used, more pollution, more problems with transport, more and more we find ourselves in the predicament of how do we dispose of the extra rubbish generated. The trash is the packaging and the the advertising. The advertising is polluting our media and the internet, sign boards are polluting our vision, light is polluting our skies, so that we can’t even see the stars at night in the cities. Then there is the dilemma of the disposal of outdated products and worn out components.

Society has to change. We have got to control our cravings. Our mentality is totally screwed up.

The scale of consumerism is closely linked to corporate greed. The corporations want to make more money, so they make more products; to sell the products they have to brainwash the consumer into needing them. The cycle is vicious and never-ending.

It is essential that we tackle consumerism before population control. We have to get the dog back in control of its tail.

 

 

Make you Fink on Friday

Full of products that we don't really need

One of the things that really makes me mad is that the world is full of products junk that we don’t really need.

We don’t think about it. We have been moulded into a consumer society.

Who benefits?

Not you, not me, not the supermarkets, not the manufacturers, it’s the corporations that benefit.

And, who are the corporations?

They are the 1% that the Occupy Wall Streeters are about.

Zuccotti Park, New York

That’s why I support the OWS, it’s why you should too.

You know you can enter the fray, yes, every one of us can, without ever setting a foot near Zuccotti Park.

You can begin by taking the need for certain products away from the corporations; out of the supermarkets and into your own kitchen, garage  or backyard.

Think about this, and think about it seriously.

1000s of beauty products

.

“Oh, I need beauty care…”

Sure you go to the supermarket, the drugstore, the beauty shop in your local mall and you are faced with thousands of beauty products at exorbitant prices. Facials,  moisturisers, powders, lotions, cremes that go here and there for this and for that and they are all expensive. But women pay, they have to if they want to look beautiful.

Why do they have to? Because the corporations tell them they have to; that’s what advertising is all about… it’s nothing more than brainwashing.

How much does a punnet of strawberries cost?

Let’s look a little further; for the price of a punnet of strawberries you can make many of the products that you need for skin care.

Now how does strawberry tie to organic skin care?

First of all, it is a natural exfoliant. Its gentle acidic nature can take care of all those flaky dead cells on top of the skin. It’s salicylic acid is a good combatant for acne and black heads. Strawberry also has antiseptic and skin lighting properties.

Plus it has all those wonderful vitamins and antioxidants. And don’t forget folic acid, which is essential for healthy new cells! No wonder strawberry is such a star in the do it yourself skin care department. 

So how to go about making a strawberry mask?

It really is easy.  You don’t even need any special skills or tools. In fact, it’s so easy and cheap that I still don’t understand why would anybody go to an expensive salon and pay hundreds of dollars for a skin mask…

If you have oily skin, all you need is strawberry and a fork. Just mush it up and apply on your skin for 15 to 20 minutes. Than rinse with lukewarm water.

If your skin is dry, add sunflower oil to the mush (1:1). Leave the mask on your face for 15 – 20 minutes. (You can also use olive or corn oil).

Strawberry juice is a great skin lightener. It’s effective for freckles and other spots. Just squeeze the juice out of the berries, then using a cotton ball spread the juice on the face.

And here are a couple of slightly more elaborate recipes:

Mix 5 strawberries with 1 table spoon of milk and one tea spoon of honey. Blend it into a state of purée. Spread the mixture on your face for 15 to 20 minutes. Gently wash off with warm water using a cotton ball.

For dry skin you may also try mixing a few strawberries with one teaspoon of sour cream and one teaspoon honey. This is especially good for flaky skin.

You can also use cream (2-3 teaspoons) and milk (1 tbl spoon or so).

Source: Organic Makeup and Skin Care Check it out, more great ideas.

You want more?

How much does a fresh cucumber cost?

What about the humble cucumber…

Cucumber’s flesh is mostly water, but it also contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and caffeic acid – these nutrients help soothe skin irritations and reduce swelling. Which is the primary reason cucumber has been a “skin care” product since the beginning of time.

Read more here from the same source; you’ll be surprised at how much use the cucumber can be.

That’s just a couple of samples from one site. If you take your time and do a little research, I’m sure that you can find plenty of others, with other, different, more ideas.

We (mankind) don’t need all this corporate bullshit. We don’t need companies brainwashing us so that the CEOs and stockholders of corporations can get rich. We don’t need the 1% controlling our every purchase, need or desire.

.

You – yes, you; don’t look around behind you, I’m talking to YOU! You can retake control. and you don’t have to set foot in Zuccotti Park to battle the 1%.

.

Ban the crap for a better world

The same applies to much of our household requirements. Cleaners, soaps, toothpaste, detergents, insecticides, etc. They can all be made at home, cheaper, easier and without dangerous additives like fluoride, stearates and stuff like triclosan.

The answer is entirely in your hands…

Think about it!