Tracing the evolution of the human diet from our earliest ancestors can lead to a better understanding of human adaptation in the past. It may also offer clues to the origin of many health problems we currently face, such as obesity and chronic disease. This fascinating series of talks focuses on the changing diets of our ancestors and what role these dietary transitions played in the evolution of humans. Leslie C. Aiello (Wenner-Gren Foundation) begins with An Overview of Diet and Evolution, followed by Richard Wrangham (Harvard Univ) on Fire, Starch, Meat, and Honey, Steven Leigh (Univ of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) on Diets and Microbes in Primates. – Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny.
The Global Current is an independent, international news show, and is comprised of an all-student staff from Seton Hall University. The Global Current airs on WSOU 89.5FM every Saturday at 8:00AM. This week on the Global Current, we report on the new SARS-like virus, the opening speeches from the General Assembly, and the Venezuelan elections. We also speak with Akira Tokuhiro, professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering at the University of Idaho about the changing face of nuclear energy (30 September 2012).
On Tuesday, 24 July, NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce writes that ‘[t]op influenza researchers around the world published a statement back in January [2012] saying they would temporarily hold off on any work with contagious, lab-altered forms of a particularly worrisome form of bird flu. The unusual voluntary moratorium was supposed to last only 60 days, but it’s been more than six months. And scientists don’t agree on what should happen next. Some scientists and researchers say these mutant bird flu viruses could cause a devastating pandemic if they ever got out of the lab. Others argue that the work is vital to help public health officials get ready for the possible threat of a flu pandemic that might emerge naturally, as bird flu viruses mutate in the wild. Flu researchers are going to New York next week for the annual conference of the government-funded Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS). Researchers who made the mutant viruses will be there, plus others who signed the voluntary moratorium’.[1]
And to remind ourselves what we are talking about, let’s go back to 2006 and read Debora Mackenzie’s words: the “H5N1 strain of influenza – often referred to as bird flu – is first known to have jumped from chickens to humans in 1997. Since 2004 it has ripped through poultry and wild bird populations across Eurasia, and had a 53% mortality rate in the first 147 people it is known to have infected. Health authorities fear this strain, or its descendent, could cause a lethal new flu pandemic in people with the potential to kill billions. Flu has been a regular scourge of humanity for thousands of years. Flu viruses each possess a mere 10 genes encoded in RNA. All of the 16 known genetic subgroups originate in water birds, and especially in ducks. The virus is well adapted to their immune systems, and does not usually make them sick. This leaves the animals free to move around and spread the virus – just what it needs to persist. But sometimes a bird flu virus jumps to an animal whose immune system it is not adapted to. In chickens – originally a forest bird and not a natural host – it causes a moderate disease but can readily mutate to a more severe, highly pathogenic strain. Just such a strain of H5N1 flu, named after its surface proteins, began rampaging through large chicken farms in east Asia sometime before 2003”.[2]
Viruses are wily creatures, in fact there is some debate as to whether a virus lives or is a mere chemical reaction. The virology professor Vincent Racaniello explains on his blog that “Viruses are not living things. Viruses are complicated assemblies of molecules, including proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates, but on their own they can do nothing until they enter a living cell. Without cells, viruses would not be able to multiply. Therefore, viruses are not living things”.[3] It is a strange world we live in, as Racaniello explains: when “a virus encounters a cell, a series of chemical reactions occur that lead to the production of new viruses. These steps are completely passive, that is, they are predefined by the nature of the molecules that comprise the virus particle. Viruses don’t actually ‘do’ anything. Often scientists and non-scientists alike ascribe actions to viruses such as employing, displaying, destroying, evading, exploiting, and so on. These terms are incorrect because viruses are passive, completely at the mercy of their environment”.[4]
And now to get back to the possible lifting of the moratorium on altering the flu virus in laboratory environments that might be decided upon next week . . . The Stanford University microbiologist David Relman states unequivocally: [if the moratorium is lifted right after the upcoming meeting], “I’d be concerned”.[5] Sentiments which are echoed by the Harvard School of Public Health epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch: “But the risks are not to scientists. The risks are to the world. The risks are that one of these viruses gets out of a laboratory and starts to spread from person to person. And so the people who have something at stake are not the scientific community only”.[6] In other words, if the moratorium were lifted next week, there is very little that would prevent a Twelve Monkeys scenario from being enacted . . . On its Facebook page, CEIRS announces that the ‘2012 6th Annual CEIRS Network Meeting (Mount Sinai) to be held in New York City, July 29-August 1, 2012’.[7]
Raised inVancouver andToronto, Severn Cullis-Suzuki has been camping and hiking all her life. When she was 9 she started the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They were successful in many projects before 1992, when they raised enough money to go to the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Their aim was to remind the decision-makers of who their actions or inactions would ultimately affect. The goal was reached when 12 yr old Severn closed a Plenary Session with a powerful speech that received a standing ovation.
Severn Suzuki speaking at UN Earth Summit 1992
And now, 20 years later another similar stunt is in the process of being prepared to . . . show the world that even children realise that action speaks louder than words. The worldwide 2012Living Rainforest International Essay competition now shines another “ray of hope” . . . the first prize was won by Nardos Tilahun, and she will now be able to travel to Rio and address the leaders of the world. The Auckland Girls Grammar School’s website explains: ‘The competition asked contestants to write a letter to the UN Secretary General to share their ideas on what governments and world leaders should be doing to build a more sustainable future on planet Earth. When considering what she would write, Nardos thought back to a video clip she had seen called The Story of Stuff which examined the impact of consumerism on the environment. She did further research of her own and, the night before the deadline, wrote her essay. She entitled her essay ‘Exploiting Consumerism to Save our Planet’ and argued that since the human desire to consume won’t change, we should change the kinds of products that are produced. One of her suggestions was that rather than mining for natural resources and ruining the environment, we should be mining our landfills for material that can be recycled into new products. She also proposed that governments offer incentives to companies to become more eco-friendly through taxing those who [are] not sustainable in their products or business practice[s], or not restricting their ability to advertise. While this competition is sponsored by Living Rainforest, a small education trust in the UK, the judges for this competition included experts in the field of sustainable development and the environment. Over eight hundred students from all over the world entered the essay competition and the other finalists came from far flung places such as Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Russia, Singapore, Samoa, Nepal, the Seychelles and the Philippines. Nardos’s generous prize includes flights, a week’s accommodation in a luxury apartment on Copacabana beach, the opportunity to attend the UN Earth Summit, a private city tour and money to cover [the] living expenses [in Rio]. Nardos and her family came to New Zealand in 2004 from Ethiopia as political asylum seekers. She is very excited about this opportunity to visit Brazil and observe the Rio+20 Earth Summit in action. The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, will be held in Rio de Janeiro from 20-22 June 2012. It is expected to be the biggest meeting on the international calendar in 2012 . 115 Heads of State and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will be in attendance. Nardos hopes to be able to deliver her letter in person!’.[1]
‘United Nations, New York, 22 November 2011 – To promote next June’s Rio+20 conference and the need for sustainable development, the United Nations launched a campaign engaging people in a global conversation on the kind of communities they would like to live in twenty years from now. The campaign, Rio+20: The Future We Want, works through public participation to envision how societies in all parts of the world can build a future that promotes prosperity and improves people’s quality of life without further degrading our planet’s natural environment’.
It’s been while since posted something on Fukushima . . . and now, as we can read in The Independent, it has been a ‘year since the Fukushima nuclear plant was destroyed, the fight to prevent disaster goes on. In an exclusive dispatch from the reactors, David McNeill becomes the first European journalist to revisit Japan’s ground zero’.[1] But before digging into McNeill’s narrative, here is Dr Helen Caldicott, whom I have featured on numerous occasions in the past, talking to Arnie Gundersen on her weekly radio show If You Love This Planet.
(14 Feb 2012)
And, as the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown happened quite some time ago, here is a handy timeline compiled by the Independent:
11 March 2011
At 2.46pm a magnitude 8.9 earthquake strikes Japan’s north-eastern coast, triggering a devastating tsunami and a series of strong aftershocks.
12 March
A state of emergency is declared. About 170,000 people are evacuated from a 20km (12-mile) zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant after an explosion in one of its reactors.
13 March
Around 190 people are treated in hospital for radiation exposure.
17 March
Helicopters dump tons of water over the Fukushima plant in an attempt to cool the overheating nuclear reactors as fears over a meltdown grow.
22 March
Abnormal radiation levels are detected in tap water, vegetables, milk and fish.
25 March
Japan expands the exclusion zone around the plant, and asks a further 130,000 residents to evacuate as fears over the extent of the damage to the reactors worsen.
26 March
Levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the Fukushima nuclear plant are found to be 1,250 times higher than the safety limit, according to officials.
30 June
Radiation contamination is found in 10 children’s urine samples, according to a citizen’s group.
19 July
Transport of beef from Fukushima is prohibited, but a crisis ensues after it emerges that meat from cattle fed on contaminated hay has already been distributed nationally.
8 September
A total of 15,000 terabecquerels of radiation were released into the sea from the damaged plant, according to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
29 September
Core temperatures for all three damaged reactors dip below 100C for the first time.
28 October
The Fukushima plant released twice as much radioactivity into the atmosphere as originally thought, a study by the Norwegian Institute for Air Research finds.
27 January 2012
The Japanese government had a secret plan to evacuate everyone living within 155 miles of the plant should the situation have spiralled out of control, it emerges. This would have included the Tokyo metropolitan area – home to 30 million people.
3 February
Researchers working around the Fukushima plant say bird populations there are dwindling, one of the first indications of the impact of radioactive fallout on local wildlife.[2]
And now let’s turn to The Independent’s David McNeill: the “journey to Fukushima Daiichi begins at the border of the 12-mile exclusion zone that surrounds the ruined nuclear complex, beyond which life has frozen in time. Weeds reclaim the gardens of empty homes along a route that emptied on a bitterly cold night almost a year ago. Shop signs hang unrepaired from the huge quake that rattled this area on 11 March [2011], triggering the meltdown of three reactors and a series of explosions that showered the area with contamination. Cars wait outside supermarkets where their owners left them in Tomioka, Okuma and Futaba – once neat, bustling towns. Even birds have deserted this area, if recent research is to be believed. The reason is signalled by a symphony of beeping noises from dosimeters on our bus. As we drive through a police checkpoint and into the town of Tomioka, about 15km from the plant, the radioactivity climbs steadily, hitting 15 microsieverts per hour at the main gate to the nuclear complex. At the other end of the plant, where the gaping buildings of its three most damaged reactors face the Pacific Ocean, the radiation level is 100 times this high, making it still too dangerous to work there. Inside the plant’s emergency co-ordination building, the air is filled with the sound of humming filters labouring to keep the contamination out”.[3]
Radiation Spread in Pacific from Fukushima 2012
But already in May 2011, the Natural News’ Ethan Huff reported that the ‘US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced [on 4 May 2011] that it is ceasing its special monitoring protocols in the US for radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, despite the fact that no real progress at the plant has been made, and threats to the US are persistent. At the same time as the EPA announcement, foreign reports also indicate that levels of radiation in Pacific waters near the Fukushima plant are now up to 1,000 times normal levels, with no real indication of where this radioactive water is flowing. The EPA has stated that radiation levels in the US related to the Fukushima incident have been “consistently decreasing,” and that the agency no longer needs to regularly test food, air, and water for radiation in the manner that it has been. In fact, the agency is so confident that it states in its announcement that “[t]he next round of milk and drinking water sampling will take place in approximately three months.” But just a few weeks ago, EPA data revealed that several milk and water samples from across the country were testing positive with dangerously high levels of radiation‘.[4] And now we are in February 2012, and the Fukushima disaster fallout is still in full swing . . .
The Story-of-Stuff Lady, Annie Leonard takes on the thorny issue of bottled water,[1] in the below clip: ‘The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day) employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industry’s attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all. Our production partners on the bottled water film include five leading sustainability groups: Corporate Accountability International, Environmental Working Group, Food & Water Watch, Pacific Institute, and Polaris Institute’.
That was then, meaning 2010, but this is now, in other words 2011 on its way to 2012: ‘The United States isn’t broke; we’re the richest country on the planet and a country in which the richest among us are doing exceptionally well. But the truth is, our economy is broken, producing more pollution, greenhouse gasses and garbage than any other country. In these and so many other ways, it just isn’t working. But rather than invest in something better, we continue to keep this ‘dinosaur economy’ on life support with hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money. The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It’s time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let’s build it better’.
The 20th century was the American Century, we are told, and the 21st will be the Chinese, rumour has it . . . but staying in the U.S. and ignoring the Chinese-owned American debt, Annie Leonard emphatically declares that “We’re not really broke—our public money has just been hijacked. Our new film, The Story of Broke, shines a light on the dumb choices our elected so-called leaders are making with our money: handing out tax breaks for oil companies reaping record profits; paving public roads that only go to one place—a new Walmart; granting permits to mine public lands at prices set in 1872; cleaning up toxic messes made by giant chemical companies; and offering public funds for corporations building nuclear reactors and other risky ventures. Here’s how it’s supposed to work in a democracy: Every year, you and I pitch some of our money into the shared public account. Our government is supposed to use this money for the public good: public safety, education, environmental protection, and helping those in need. Some public money also gets used to help businesses—to encourage job creation or spur technological innovation, for instance. I’m all for the government using some of my money to help businesses grow and innovate – as long as I and my fellow citizens also benefit. Unfortunately that’s not always what happens. And we usually don’t see it happening because most of the handouts take the form of hidden subsidies – tax breaks, government contracts, access to public land and water. If a member of Congress came to your house and asked for money to build a garbage incinerator in a low-income neighborhood, to mine uranium near the Colorado River, or boost the balance sheet of an oil company that just posted record profits, you’d tell him to get off your lawn. But thousands of lobbyists in Washington and billons in campaign contributions keep the subsidies flowing – and hold America back from the sustainable economy of the future. So as we balance our personal bank accounts each month, let’s remember that there’s a whole other pot of money we’re responsible for as well. It’s both our right and our responsibility to help determine how that money is spent and we should be making sure it’s helping build a better world. We know that a better future is possible—that we can make Stuff in ways that are safe and healthy and fair. We know that clean energy and non-toxic chemicals exist. Better alternatives have been around for decades. It’s high time we gave a leg up to the kinds of cleaner, healthier industries we need for the century ahead. It’s time we put our money behind businesses that will help build a better future. That means stepping out of our consumer selves and occupying our citizen selves. It means reminding ourselves and our governments of the power we have when we unite as citizens. That’s why what was happening in Oakland and other cities last week was so exciting. Because together, getting out of the shopping mall and into the streets, we do have real power to make a better future. And we have enough money to get started right now”.[2]
In fact, turns out, as explained by Business Insider’s Vincent Trivett, it is not really the Chinese who are holding the great bulk of U.S. debt: ‘Hong Kong, Caribbean Banking Centers, Taiwan, Brazil, Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mutual Funds, Commercial Banks, State, Local, and Federal Retirement Funds, Money Market Mutual Funds, the UK, Private Pension Funds, State and Local Governments, Japan, U.S. households, China, The Federal ieserve, Social Security Trust Fund’, and he ends his survey by stating that “[i]n all, the Treasury owes foreigners and foreign governments $4.514 trillion dollars . . . But [, that] Americans own most of their own country’s $14,342,909,569,328.74 of debt”.[3] Trivett points out that the Chinese own but 8% of the U.S. debt burden.
Will the US, China and India sign a second term of the EU backed Kyoto protocol? Guests of the show: Praful Bidwai, an expert on climate politics; and Jim Footner, head of climate and energy for Greenpeace.
Tent cities have sprung up all over America and poverty has a key role in the increasing numbers. Homeless people have been forced to seek refuge in camps in the woods over the last 5 years. What will it take to make places like these obsolete? Richard Eskrow, senior fellow at The Campaign for America’s Future, helps us answer this tough question (7 December 2011).
While Occupy Wall Street tents have been popping up all across the U.S., homeless people have been forced to Occupy a camp in the woods over the last 5 years. RT’s Anastasia Churkina reports from New Jersey’s Tent City — and finds out why the homeless haven’t been joining the protests (7 December 2011).
In fact, somebody, probably Pastor Steve Brigham, has even ensured that Tent City has an internet presence now: ‘2005 started out a few people homeless trying to find shelter. Now known as Tent City a makeshift village in the woods near Lakewood, New Jersey has approximately 70 people seeking shelter. Now six years later it’s a battle to be able to call this place home for some. With eviction notices from the township on its doorstep. Tent city is in need of community support’.[1]
One of the Tent City dwellers, a certain Elwood E. Hyers, has said this about living in Tent City: “Instead of being depressed that you’re homeless, at least this way you’re going inside and saying ‘wow’. You shut the door and don’t feel homeless”.[2]
A small business owner and independent investor, as well as blogger and propagandist Mac Slavo writes that “[w]hile Americans [seem to] argue amongst themselves over wages, union bargaining rights, government spending, monetary easing, and a host of other issues, including who’s to blame for the country’s malaise, Minister Brigham and his community [at Tent City] trudge on, despite what’s happening outside of their neighborhood microcosm. As millions struggle to hold on to the American Dream, the residents of this New Jersey “Tent City” have already experienced loss, and the emotional roller coaster that inevitably follows. They’ve gone through the first four stages of loss – denial, anger, bargaining, depression. In a situation where everything has been lost, and hope seemingly doesn’t exist, only the fifth stage, acceptance, becomes applicable. These individuals and families have accepted what has happened, and understand that they have a choice. Either give up and wallow in regret and blame. Or, empower oneself, and those around you, and move forward by whatever means are available”.[3]
Another way to look at the situation is to assume that the fifth stage would be resignation, which would be anathema to the American Dream and its championing of the underdog striving hard to overcome adversity and emerge victorious.
Earlier this year, Australia’s Today Tonight’s East Coast anchor Matt White presented a special report on meat glue,[1] another amazing product that has already revolutionised the way we live and die, while eating our way to an early grave.
Last year, attorney at American food poisoning lawyers of Marler Clark, Zach Mallove reported on the EU’s ban: on ‘May 20, [2010,] the European Parliament voted to ban bovine and porcine thrombin used as an additive to bind separate pieces of meat together into one piece. According to European Union lawmakers, the additives, which are commonly called “meat glue,” have no proven benefits” and create products that “carry an unacceptably high risk of misleading consumers” instead. Another consideration EU lawmakers considered was the higher risk of bacterial infection in meat products created with thrombin, due to the larger surface area of meat and the cold bonding process that is used. The decision not to authorize meat glue as an additive rejects an earlier European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) positive safety opinion on the use of ‘meat glue’ in 2005. Meat glue is an enzyme composed of thrombin and fibrogen, obtained from blood plasma. It can be used by the meat industry as a food additive for reconstituting fresh meat to create a product of desirable size and form. The method can also be applied to poultry, fish and seafood’.[2] So, banned in the EU but apparently not in Australia, the U.S. or Asia . . . Mallove adds ominously that “[s]ome lawmakers stressed that meat glue had been declared safe and was already used in some countries”.[3] According to the Colloids for Life Blog, “meat glue is widely used” by American and Australian meat manufacturers.[4]
Eric Schlosser’s somewhat mistitled book Fast Food Nation (2001) details in great depth the state of the American meatpacking industry and how the need for increased profit reduces safety concerns, leading to unsafe meat products being used all over the U.S. Now, the addition of meat glue to the already hazardous recipe for carnivorous diets can only mean that meat-eaters are getting a really raw deal . . . The South African website Food Stuff, reports that in ‘the United States, meat glue is most commonly sold under the label Activa TG, which is manufactured and marketed by the Japanese food and pharmaceutical giant Ajinomoto. The company, whose name translates as “the essence of taste”, also credits itself with the discovery of umami — a taste described most simply as savoury — and is the world’s largest manufacturer of monosodium glutamate, or MSG. Ajinomoto operates in over 23 nations worldwide, where it widely markets several versions of the meat glue, each one modified for a specific type of flesh or protein, including fish, red meat, and even dairy. Long used in cheap, reconstituted meat products like chicken nuggets, the enzyme first showed up on a swanky menu in 2004 when chef Heston Blumenthal made a “mackerel invertebrate” by de-boning a fish and gluing it back together. Blumenthal owns the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, England, which some critics consider the best restaurant in the world. Since then, the binding agent has been championed by other chefs attracted to such gastronomic trickery, like Dufresne, and Grant Achatz at Chicago’s restaurant Alinea, who was once called the “love child of Julia Child and Einstein.” Meat glue is now so popular that Ajinomoto is considering offering smaller-sized, more consumer-friendly packaging for home cooks. While Ajinomoto declined a request to release specific sales figures for meat glue, the company did acknowledge a rapid uptick in sales’.[5] How long before Ajinomoto lobbyists will be able to tear down the walls of EU Regulations???
Ajinomoto’s account executive for Canada and much of the United States Guy Tinay declared, “The business is increasing every year significantly”.[6] And Willy Dufresne, “cook” at the swanky New York establishment WD-50 even stated that “Meat glue makes us better chefs”.[7] With Ajinomoto’s money and high-profile chef’s endorsements, one cannot but wonder about the obduracy of EU bureaucracy . . .
[1] I would like to thank the Facebooker Advocatefor Savingdogs for bringing this item to my attention.
In a roundabout way, the UN has declared that 2050 will be the year the world’s population will start declining in a serious way as a result of food shortages: the ‘UN food agency has warned that a quarter of the world’s landmass is “highly degraded”, making it difficult to meet the food needs of a booming population’.[1] From Rome, Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) elaborates: “Humankind can no longer treat these vital resources as if they were infinite . . . The time for business as usual is over”.[2] Action needs to be taken, needs to be taken now, or else. In other words, by the middle of this century, serious food shortages worldwide will lead to hunger, starvation and death on a massive scale, unless the population growth is halted. Either way, the numbers of humans populating the earth is set to decline after the middle of the century, as apparently aleady predicted by Al Gore. The FAO has released a timely report entitled The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW), detailing how wasteful land management will lead to a necessary decrease in the global human population: ‘The report said land degradation was worst down the west coast of the Americas, across the Mediterranean region of southern Europe and north Africa, across the Sahel and the Horn of Africa and throughout Asia’.[3] Apparently, Asia and Africa will once again supply the bulk of the numbers, due to its abundant populations and scarce food resources. The report declares that “Worldwide, the poorest have the least access to land and water and are locked in a poverty trap of small farms with poor-quality soils and high vulnerability to land degradation and climatic uncertainty”, adding that some 40 percent of degraded lands are found in high poverty areas. The rich world, Europe and the U.S., will probably experience a dramatic hike in food prices, which will result in a truly divided society: on top will be the ones able to feed themselves to surfeit, while below will be those who suffer hunger on a somewhat regular basis – Upstairs, Downstairs . . .
The ‘report called for more efficient water use by agriculture as well as innovative farming practices such as conservation agriculture, agro-forestry and integrated crop-livestock systems. It said developing countries will need around $1.0 trillion (755 billion euros) in investments between 2007 and 2050 for irrigation. Land protection will require $160 billion over the same period, it added. The FAO stressed that erosion, desertification and climate change were endangering key production systems across the world from the Mediterranean to southern Africa to Southeast Asia. The publication coincided with the start of UN talks on climate change in Durban, South Africa, amid signs of a deepening political rift on how to slow the carbon juggernaut’.[4] In a way that would appear to absolve the UN of responsibility for the genocidal outcomes of the projected food shortages, Diouf stated that “These systems at risk may simply not be able to contribute as expected in meeting human demands by 2050. The consequences in terms of hunger and poverty are unacceptable”.[5] The death of millions of people may be “unacceptable”, but under current conditions seems unavoidable.
The solution seems simple and obvious, population control. But the political will to enact such policies appears absent. The other day,[6] I posted an entry dealing with Turkey’s Prime Minister and his encouragement to families in Turkey and across the Balkans to produces “at least three children” . . . As a result, it seems fair to say that the future looks bleak in terms of over-population and food shortages. On the other hand, other countries and other leaders do encourage other actions: ‘Health officials in the Indian state of Rajasthan are launching a new campaign in an effort to reduce the high population growth in the area. They are encouraging men and women to volunteer for sterilisation, and in return are offering a car and other prizes for those who come forward’, as reported by the BBC last summer.[7]
The Global Current on 30 September 2012
The Global Current is an independent, international news show, and is comprised of an all-student staff from Seton Hall University. The Global Current airs on WSOU 89.5FM every Saturday at 8:00AM. This week on the Global Current, we report on the new SARS-like virus, the opening speeches from the General Assembly, and the Venezuelan elections. We also speak with Akira Tokuhiro, professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering at the University of Idaho about the changing face of nuclear energy (30 September 2012).
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