Change the World Wednesday – 12th Nov

Oh boy, the year has all but gone.

One minute it was January and now we are facing Christmas.

Gone is the brief rains of last week, we are back to hot. The plants in the praça had a brief respite, but are already wilting sadly. I am still watering Clorinha’s guava tree daily; it is the only perky plant there.

São Paulo had enough rain last week to maintain the low reservoir levels, but not to raise them

I haven’t been posting here as regularly in the past, I have had a heap of things to keep my mind occupied.

But last Friday, I moved some of my plants from the backyard to the front of the botequim beside my place. I felt that while the bar sold beer which is in itself inviting, it needed to be more inviting.

The new face of the bar

I always thought it looked a bit bare, now it has a new face, and one that has been welcomed by the locals. The tins are a bit grotty, but they will be painted.

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On with this week’s CTWW.

Unhealthy Things

This week, opt for products which come with no unnecessary additions. For example, rather than buy processed foods (like canned soup) which contain added salt, preservatives, etc., make your own using whole foods. If a cleaning product has a “freebie” attached to it, be sure it meets your environmental and health standards before adding it to your shopping basket. The idea, this week, is to examine everything we buy to ensure that it comes free of unnecessary “extras”. While packaging certainly falls into this category, it is not our focus this week. We’re looking for added ingredients or free samples which will make the original product less than desirable.

OR …

Are you already avoiding ALL unhealthy, unsafe ingredients and products? If so, let’s kick this challenge up a bit. As companies sell out and/or change their products, things which we once considered Eco-friendly are no longer safe and healthy. For example, a popular lip balm company (I won’t mention the name here) sold out to a big conglomerate. Their lip balm, which had been natural and safe, was modified to include unhealthy ingredients. Unless consumers continued to read the label, they wouldn’t know about the change. So this week, re-evaluate everything you believe to be safe and Eco-friendly to determine if it remains so. This part of the challenge is all about diligence and ensuring that our favorite products remain worthy of our shopping baskets.

I very rarely buy products that have special offers or novelties attached. In recent times I can remember two. One was a bottle of Cointreau with a piddly little totally useless shocking pink cocktail shaker; it was the only one there and the price was a genuine special. The cocktail shaker never got used, it went out for recycling. Similarly, Ovalmatine came with a plastic milkshaker, once again I got it because the price was much cheaper than the original product, and the shaker also went out for recycling unused. I mean, what’s wrong with a spoon? Or, if you want a fluffy milkshake, what’s wrong with the blender?

Freebies and knick-knacks to not interest me, nor influence me to buy a product. And I can’t understand why people are so weak that they buy them. It is really another sad indictment on the consumer society that we have become.

I don’t buy canned products, not even soft drinks (sodas).

Lunch for example today. I could buy a ready packaged frozen paella. Instead I bought the frozen seafood, mussels, squid and shrimps and have just made a white sauce, added black sesame seeds, chopped parsley (from the garden) and tumeric, pepper and salt to taste. The whole process took 15 minutes and it’s getting cold while I am writing here. What I can’t understand is that people buy the frozen option to reheat in the oven or a food destroying microwave and that actually takes longer.

People need to get real. They need to understand that preprepared products are not time-savers. And, they certainly aren’t as healthy as a good home cooked meal.

That’s my offering, I’m off to enjoy lunch.

Next week folks.

Change the World Wednesday – 18th Jun

The world is in the grip of Cup fever

Everything is football or soccer.

Today finishes the first week; a week full of surprises and disappointments.

Australia vs Holland is due to start soon and I’ll be in front of the TV, although after Holland’s performance against Spain, I don’t hold much hopes for Australia. Still the world is full of surprises.

My first tennis ball sized guava came off the tree this morning, it’s a handsome brute and will make a full glass of juice.

Today’s CTWW, is about water, grey water.

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This week, find creative ways to use grey water. For example, Agnes, a true “greenie” and CTWW participant, uses bath water to flush the toilet. Some people take shower water and use it to feed their plants. My grandmother (way ahead of her time) diverted rinse water from her washing machine to a tub. Then, the water was sucked back into the machine for the next load’s wash cycle. The idea, this week, is to prevent as much water as possible from going down the drain.

After having my roof-top water tank fixed last week, finally; it has developed a slow drip. I am waiting for the plumber to come back and fix it. Meanwhile, the drip off the roof is falling into a bucket to be used on my plants.

Does yours just go down the drain?

The used water from the laundry and washing the bathroom and kitchen floors goes out into the yard to help scrub the yard clean before it goes down the drain.

I try to let only well-used or very dirty water to go down the drain.

The water that I rinse the dishes with also goes out for the plants. This is a new innovation for me. I now have a bucket under the sink and instead of rinsing the plates, etc under the tap, they get dipped in the bucket before going on to the dish rack.

With my steps at saving grey water, I now have more water than the plants need. It has been a long time since I have used the garden hose on the pot plants.

Even the water that I rinse the coffeepot with, goes on the plants in the living room.

Living alone, I don’t actually have a lot of grey water, but what I do have, I try to reuse.

Monday Moaning

We have become too bloody lazy!

Yes, laziness has become epidemic.

The vast majority of people just couldn’t get off their fat acre to save themselves.

Gadgets, are the bane of modern living and our lives are full of them, a great number of them totally useless, unneeded and a waste of the earth’s precious resources in the making.

Look at this…

Pathetic!

What ever happened to lift, tip and pour?

“Oh, but that requires energy.”

It’s bad enough that you buy processed juice at the supermarket, but to stoop to this level is beyond comprehension.

Why not BUY oranges and get fresh juice?

“But I do! I have one of these.”

Another bloody gadget!

Whatever happened to these?

It’s bad enough that it’s made from plastic, but it’s far more ecologically correct than any motorised gadget.

We go further into this laziness thing.

Celery

Here’s an example.

You buy your celery at the supermarket, and usually a bunch of celery is far more than you want; so some, if not most, finishes up in the trash or compost.

Celery off-cut

Celery, like many vegetables can be grown easily from off-cuts, no need for a garden or seeds or even getting your hands dirty.

Next time you buy celery, could be the last time you’ll ever need to do that again.

Trimming your celery, you have the root end as an off-cut.

Stand it up in a saucer of water, and watch what happens. Once you have green shoots growing from the centre, put it in a planter with potting mix or home compost so that just the green is above dirt level.

You want to see the results? Visit 17 Apart

Next time you need one stick of celery, just break one off, no need to buy a whole bunch.

Maybe you didn’t know you could do this. That’s because supermarkets have made you lazy! They’re just too damned convenient.

What could be more convenient than having your celery or other herbs on the kitchen window sill at your beck and call?

We have got ourselves into a rut, and we can’t see how to get ourselves out.

But we can, we just have to turn the clock back, back to grandma’s day.

Because, if we don’t, we are doomed to be getting fatter, lazier and more reliant on resource wasting gadgets.

*Jumps down off soap box*

 

Monday Moaning

Are we on the wrong track?

Have we missed the point?

Everybody is jumping on the bandwagon, bloggers, governments, environmentalist, but have we picked the wrong band?

It would appear so.

Whole cities are banning plastic supermarket bags or charging a small fee. Okay, this is good, but it’s not the answer. Plastic shopping bags are not the villain!

The villain is is the other 99,97% that we are not complaining about, or are, but not so loudly.

The plastic shopping bag is merely the most visible villain.

They are like roadside billboards, seen everywhere, seen in the garbage dumps, seen being blown by the wind in parks and countryside. They are a constant reminder and hence we see them as the villain.

But, here’s the surprise, the plastic shopping bag on makes for 0.03% of all plastic garbage, just 0.03% and we are howling ‘villain!’

Plastic bags: symbol of consumer waste may ignore worse offenders

Campaign to consign polluting carrier bag to the bin of history misses valuable point, say recyclers and packaging firms

Plastic bag use is still rising in England despite wholesale reductions of use in Northern Ireland and Wales. Photograph: Nigel Barklie/Rex Features

The greatest contribution that plastic bags have made to human society is their use as a toilet. In developing countries, the bags are commonly used as a repository for human faeces, where they end up hanging from trees. It is not pretty, and not particularly environmentally friendly, but it is better than the alternatives, of allowing detritus to make its way into drinking water supplies and thus spreading disease.

Still plastic bags are found polluting waterways and ending up in the sea, where they are a menace to marine life. Earlier this year, a whale was found to have died of plastic pollution, its guts clogged up with our packaging castoffs. The problem is so great that there is now a floating pool of rubbish in the Pacific, greater in extent than any other detectable man-made impact on the environment.

So when Nick Clegg, depute prime minister, announced a charge for plastic bags at the Liberal Democrat annual conference, there was cheering among delegates hungry for a new way to emphasise the party’s commitment to the environment. The charge – if it comes about, and there are doubts as to how it will be implemented, and its efficacy as a result – should deter people from using the bags. And in the process, tackle a potent symbol of throw-away consumerism.

But plastic bags are only a small part of the problem. They account for only 0.03% of marine litter, according to the industry organisation Incpen.

The packaging that we all use, in day-to-day activities from buying food in supermarkets to our deliveries from online shopping centres, has a much greater – though less obvious – effect on pollution. A much greater percentage of non-biodegradable litter comes from food packaging such as the wrappers around food stuffs in supermarkets. Moves are afoot to cut that, supported by the retailers themselves, but there is still a long way to go.

Charges for plastic bags have already been introduced in parts of the UK, including Wales and Northern Ireland, so we already have an indication of how the policy could work in practice. Anna Beggs, from Northern Ireland, where the charge is already in force, told the Guardian: “I try to remember to bring my own bags so that I don’t have to pay. If most people do that it will cut down on the plastic bag blight, especially in the countryside.” The charge is 5p, compared with 25p in Ireland.

Charging for plastic bags demonstrably cuts down on their use. A Welsh Assembly official said: “Since we introduced our 5p carrier bag charge in October 2011, bag use in Wales has reduced by up to 96% in some retail sectors and over £4m worth of proceeds from the charge have been passed onto good causes, which include environmental charities such as Keep Wales Tidy, children’s charities and cancer charities. Since the introduction of the charge, people in Wales have changed the way they shop. It has encouraged shoppers to stop unnecessarily accepting new bags every time they are at the till and checkouts in Wales are now full of people reusing their bags.”

The charge is not technically a tax but is paid into a fund that goes to good causes.

Maggie Dunn, a Labour party activist, says that charging for the bags in England, as Clegg has suggested, is overdue. “I support this – it is unacceptable, how many bags we throw away. We need to think about the consequences – they are in the sea, they are harming nature.” Her view is that people will accept the proposed charges, if they are introduced, but that they need to be higher to people from using the bags. She suggests 50p would be more effective.

Despite its reputation as the epitome of extravagant waste, packaging such as plastic films and paper wrappings for food, also play their part in environmental pollution. Companies and retailers that routinely rely on packaging point out that when food is spoiled for lack of preservative wrappings, the environmental cost is much greater than the impact of bags. In India, for example, and other developing countries, the UN has calculated that the spoiling of edible foods means that as little as half of the quantity produced makes it to market in an edible condition. The lack of cold storage facilities and poor refrigeration accounts for some of that, but the waste is one of the biggest factors in making it hard for the world to feed itself – an increasing problem in the context of a global population estimated to top 10bn by 2050, and the need to increase food production by more than half to cater to that rapidly growing need, according to the UN.

“People equate plastic with waste and that is understandable, but what people don’t realise is that packaging has a job to do – ensuring that the product doesn’t get overheated on the dock, or in the lorry, or to deliver the goods in a good condition,” says Jane Bickerstaffe of Incpen.

Take a case in point – cucumber growers, who need to preserve their fast deteriorating food as soon as it is picked. “A cucumber wrapped in plastic needs only about 1.5 grams of plastic in its wrapper, but that extends the life of the product from about three days to at least 15 days, and when you look at the effort and environmental impact of growing a cucumber, the water and the fertiliser and all the rest, you can see we are preserving resources.”

Bickerstaffe is alive to the impacts of plastic packaging, but she urges people to take a broader view than the rubbish that they fill their household bins with. “It is understandable that people do not think beyond their own experience. They take it for granted. But they don’t realise that the vegetable wouldn’t have got to the shop without plastic.” Companies are also taking the lead in recycling plastics, reducing the amount of packaging they use – which also cuts their costs – and finding new materials that can be substituted for polymers. But Bickerstaffe admits: “I don’t think we have the answers yet.”

Read more

 

 

Change the World Wednesday – 3rd Jul

I love being woken in the morning by the dawn chorus. I do not like to be woken by a chorus of dogs! Somehow it doesn’t have the same musical quality.

It’s now 10am, and the little bastards are still at it. I have dogs in home theatre, one on each side, and the main barkers in the park.

It’s enough to make a saint swear.

Last Saturday my two students, who are brothers, brought me a present. it was their last lesson for two months. They brought me a half dozen farm fresh eggs. Now that doesn’t sound like much, does it? But it was a marvelous present, absolutely wnderful and welcome

50 Shades of Yellow

I had bacon and eggs for breakfast two days in a row.

Talk about 50 Shades of Yellow…

Normally I don’t have access to farm fresh free-range eggs, I have to do with the ones from the botequim (local bar), or the sacolão (fruit & vege shop).

I had forgotten what real eggs looked like.

I had forgotten what real eggs tasted like.

.

Just take a look at the difference, it’s unbelievable.

I don’t need to explain which is which, but just look at the insipid yellow, compared with the rich orange/yellow of real eggs.

Oh, bring back the days of real food.

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This week’s CTWW is different, it’s philosophical, most unlike Small’s usual challenges.

This week, imagine what a perfect green life would look like … or perhaps a perfect green world. Write down your ideas and then see if there are any on your list which you can turn into reality.

Think big … think wild … be creative.

I would begin by turning the clock back 50 years.

• Get rid of the dairy companies, go back to farm milk.
• Get rid of battery farming, go back to free range.
• Get rid of the pesticides and herbicides, go back to real (currently called ‘organic’) farming.
• Get rid of plastic, go back to paper, but recycled.
• Get rid of corporations, go back to small business.
• Get rid of artificial foods and additives, go back to the real McCoy.
• Get rid of TV dinner-style foods, go back to the kitchen.
• Get rid of canned & frozen foods, go back to preserves in the pantry (larder).
• Get rid of microwaves, go back to real stoves and ovens.
• Get rid of supermarkets and malls, go back to the corner store and butcher.
• Get rid of video games and social networks, go back to talking and playing outside.
• Get rid of concrete jungles, go back to dirt.
• Get rid of fashions, go back to functional clothing.
• Get rid of infant formula, go back to breastfeeding.
• Get rid of Wall Street, go back to honest banking (is that an oxymoron?).
• Get rid of antidepressant medications, go back to getting on with life.
• Get rid of psychologists, go back to dealing with it.
• Get rid of BigPharma, go back to natural remedies.
• Get rid of junk food, go home and eat.

The list could go on and on

Half my list will never happen, because the corporations own the government.

But you can make a difference.

There are small things that I do to make my life better, there are other things that I would do if I was more mobile and had transport, there are things that I would dearly love to do.

How many of you have a bank account? I have one, but by necessity to transfer my modest funds from one country to another. But I don’t have a local bank account. Basically, I don’t trust banks. I get my pay in cash and keep it ‘under the mattrass’. I go and pay my bills personally, I don’t have to go to the bank to get my money.

How many of you grow something for food? I imagine many that read this type of blog do. I live on concrete, but I have a modest garden.

How many of you cook or make preserves? It is rare for me to buy pre-prepared food? How many of you preserve something for later? I currently have beetroot and pickled onions in the fridge.

How many of you have bought fast food in the last week? I haven’t bought fast food in over two years.

Fashion and models as useless as tits on a bull

How many of you buy clothing because it’s fashionable? I buy it because it’s functional.

How many of you Facebook, Pin or Tweet and spend hours doing it. I Tweet, yes, I’m a twit, but for me tweeting is automatic on my blogs, I don’t spend hours wasting my time.

How many of you shop at supermarkets or malls? I do, but only for things that I can’t walk to the store and buy. I much prefer the corner store and grocer.

I do little things, but I yearn for the days when those little things and more were normal everyday things.

I would love to see a world where the useless things like fashion were eliminated; but man is such a vain creature.

How much land is used to grow crops like cotton, how much petroleum is used to make fabrics, how much energy is used in manufacture and transport, how much time is wasted in fashion shows and the ilk, how much press and paper is dedicated to this absolutely despicable aspect of life?

My view is get these skinny, underfed, malnourished creatures off the catwalk and have them tilling the soil, doing something productive, getting their perfectly manicured hands dirty instead of poncing around the fashion world full of their own self importance. These are bludgers on society, the whole industry are leeches. There is nothing at all green about the fashion world, it is a total waste of resources.

The same could be said of many aspects of modern life, I just chose fashion as an example.

We need to become more pragmatic, we need to turn the clock back, we need to think about what we have lost in the name of ‘progress‘.

Monday Moaning

Reports that America, England and Europe waste about 50% of their food from the farm to the mouth.

Produce is not perfect or ripening correctly or not the right shape or not the right colour, so it is left to rot on the farm. Transport methods damaging produce on the way to market. Storage in shops and supermarkets. Waste in preparing the food in the kitchen. Throwing out prepared food at home when there is too much; and finally, simply buying too much and it ends up on the compost or rubbish cans.

UK supermarkets reject ‘wasted food’ report claims

The report said half the food bought in Europe and the US ended up in the bin

Britain’s biggest supermarkets have been defending their practices after a report suggested that up to half of the world’s food is thrown away.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers said the waste was being caused by poor storage, strict sell-by dates, bulk offers and consumer fussiness.

The British Retail Consortium said supermarkets have “adopted a range of approaches” to combat waste.

They also lobbied the EU to relax laws stopping the sale of misshaped produce.

According to the report – Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not – from the UK-based institution, as much as half of the world’s food, amounting to two billion tonnes worth, is wasted.

Its study claims that up to 30% of vegetables in the UK were not harvested because of their physical appearance.

‘Waste of resources’

The report said that between 30% and 50% of the four billion tonnes of food produced around the world each year went to waste.

It suggested that half the food bought in Europe and the US was thrown away.

Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today.

“It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.

“The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one-free offers.”

Read more

The human race really needs to get its act together. Wasting 50% of the world’s produce is a hideous example of our civilisation.

The you can add to that waste when food is discarded because it has reached its validity date.

We have a large percentage of the world crying out for food, and we just throw it away.

There are water shortages throughout the world, and we waste it growing produce that will never be consumed.

Humanity really needs to wake up its ideas and put our feet back on the ground. We have been namby-pambied for too long when we won’t eat fruit or vege because it is the wrong shape or colour.

This has to stop!

There is nothing wrong with this tomato!

It still tastes like a tomato!

There is no defence for waste!

Make you Fink on Friday

Is Thanksgiving a big waste of turkey?

USDA estimates Americans throw away 35 percent of the turkey they buy

Are you really going to eat it all?

Americans love Thanksgiving, they just don’t love turkey. It turns out that more than one-third of the turkey meat we buy each holiday gets thrown in the garbage. Blame it on bad planning, lack of leftover ideas or just a wealthy, slothful society.

“We love to have the big feast at holiday time,” said Dana Gunder, food and agriculture scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “That results in a lot more extra food. People do leftovers for a day or two, but people are sick by day three. I think it’s just basic math.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans throw away 35 percent of the turkey they buy, and that does not include bones. That’s compared to only 15 percent waste for chicken. What’s worse, throwing away turkey isn’t just bad manners or a big waste of money ($282 million), it’s also bad for the environment, according to Gunder.

Growing a pound of turkey meat uses 468 gallons of water and releases 12 pounds of CO2 emissions according to a report by the Environmental Working Group — equivalent to driving your car 11 miles and taking a 94-minute shower. Gunder says that nationwide, consumers will purchase around 736 million pounds of turkey this Thanksgiving, of which about 581 million pounds will be actual meat. Unless Americans change their ways this Thanksgiving, about 204 million pounds will be tossed, along with about 1 million tons of CO2 and 95 billion gallons of water.

Read more

Make you Fink on Friday, er Saturday

Question…

Do we really need this crap?

For the wine geek who has everything: the cork presenter

The Alessi cork presenter

Designed by graphic arts superstar Milton Glaser, Alessi’s new cork presenter is polished stainless steel and will set you back just $30.

Not for a casual meal at home, though.

This may be more appropriate for those engaged in a formal entertaining style. The Alessi cork presenter was, in fact, designed for Eleven Madison Park, the highly lauded New York City restaurant helmed by Daniel Humm who won Outstanding Chef at this year’s James Beard Awards. Outstanding service is one reason the restaurant did so well — in addition to Humm’s meticulously elegant American cooking.

Source: The LATimes

Opinion:

The Alessi cork presenter!

A variation on the theme

What a load of utter crap!

We don’t need crap like this in the world.

I have eaten in plenty of posh restaurants around the world. The cork has always been presented on a washable cloth napkin, perfectly satisfactory.

Now some over-paid twerp has designed another cork presenter.

Raw materials, mining, manufacturing, electricity, packaging, advertising, transport…

All so the 1% can have a friggin’ stainless steel cork presenter!

I get so riled.

Here we are struggling to save the planet, and it is really a case of “save the planet from us!”

We are squeezing it dry, trying to wring the last drop of blood from a dying dirt ball.

All the pomp and ceremony is not needed. The 1% don’t need a cork presenter.

Things like cork presenters are just one more nail in the coffin for the rest of us.

As useless as tits on a bull!

Humanity has to change. The sooner the day of reckoning comes, the better for everybody.

Change the World Wednesday – 14th Mar

This challenge cannot wait for my round up next Wednesday. But, having said that, I am not sure that I can do justice to what I have to say.

War has been with us since the dawn of mankind

War – is surely the greatest blight on humanity that exists, there is none greater.

War is, without doubt, the most resource hungry, wasteful and polluting activity that mankind indulges in.

I’m going to ignore the political machinations of war, the reasons behind wars, the people who declare war and the minions that are sent to fight them because much has already been written by better people than I. I feel I could hardly add anything new, relevant or further; so I won’t even try.

But in all our talk of the environment, ecology and the ‘greening’ of the world, we continue to ignore war.

We are like the ostrich, we bury our heads in the sand and say “What?” as though we have absolutely no idea what the question was.

Reduce Footprints’ Lenten CTWW series has done a great service simply by adding this challenge.

War is harmful, costly and opposed to life in so many ways that its obviousness as a threat to a sustainable Eco-system makes it at once redundant to state and easy to overlook. Advocate for peace today by any life-affirming means which feels right to you. To learn more about the specific harm to the Eco-system caused by war, please see http://www.lenntech.com/environmental-effects-war.htm and http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/588.php

Most people are insulated from the war/s. They are something that happens over…. there. They are not a part of our repertoire, unless we have family who are militarily involved. The government deals with wars, we the people do not. We do not see the waste, the spending, the pollution and the death involved in wars. We do not see the raw materials that we waste simply so we can blow the other man further towards hell than he can blow us.

Most of us have seen films, Good Morning Vietnam (yes, war does have humour) and Full Metal Jacket (yes, war has pathos). We see these spectacles and laugh or cry along with the clowns and the heroes, but we do not see the cost of war.

The cost of war, historically, has always been measured in human lives. But while death is a terrible aspect of war, we do not see the real physical costs. The current round of conflicts in the Middle East are the first that we have really seen war monetarised in billions and trillions of dollars. But this is still not the real cost of war. The real costs are the resources that we are stealing from the planet, the pollution that we create and the carbon footprint of war.

How does that measure against a cow fart?

Greenhouse gases; we complain about the fact that cows burp and fart when we raise them for meat; that our cars emits carbon monoxide as we drive to work and the supermarket; we complain about coal-fired power stations and industry belching these gases into the atmosphere. But has anyone bothered to complain about the gases produced every time an infantryman fires his rifle, every time a hand-grenade explodes or a tank fires its murderous cannon? Do we complain about the jet exhaust of the fighters overhead, or the exhaust of the supply tucks that rumble along the war zone highways to take more gas producing weaponry to the front line? Do we complain about the need for air conditioning/furnaces on bases to keep the troops cool or hot? Has any one ever suggested to the military turn down your air conditioning/furnaces a notch to save power?

These are the costs of war. They don’t only affect the military, they affect every living being on the planet; whether they are at war or not.

Most discerning people declare themselves to be green, to some or other degree. We see some excellent examples of people really trying, you only have to browse amongst those that visit Reduce Footprints leaving their Meet & Greet Monday and blogs of a similar ilk; they are there, you can see them.

But we all sit back in our recliners, with our air conditioning/furnaces turned down a notch and the clean air filters, we look at the world through our double glazed windows, admire our ‘green car’ on the drive way, that we drive to the farmers’s markets for organic produce, knowing that we don’t have wasteful and poisonous products in our cleaning armoury and our rubbish is all nicely separated for kerbside recycling, we gloat over our beautiful gardens made all the more beautiful because we compost and produce our household veges. The world is wonderful, we are ‘green.’

But how green really?

Answer this question:

What have you done to prevent/avoid/diminish/eliminate war?

If you answer a meek “nothing!” Then you’re not as green as you thought you were. Your silence, your apathy makes you implicit in allowing war to continue;makes you implicit in adding to the greatest destroying, polluting, wasting activity of mankind.

Does that hurt?

I hope it does. Have you ever heard the saying “The truth hurts”? Well, it does.

How can you help? Write to your congressman, blog, make people aware of the true cost of war. A simple act can relieve your conscience and help make the world a better place. I post, or repost information on the world’s military infractions almost daily, not here, but I do it to make people aware of the insidious side of our world, it’s what I can do, so I do it; and you can too.

If you haven’t read the links in the original challenge, go and read them now, they will open your eyes.