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Public Warning: Monsanto Super Virus in Essentials orders
By Ciaran Mundy | October 21, 2009
I sense a conspiracy. What’s in the ghee, or is it in the Essentials brown rice orders?
I am starting to suspect Essentials co-op has been inflitrated, their food contaminated with some form of Monsanto derived super virus, a virus that splices in an emissions denial gene into otherwise highly aware human beings. I know it sounds crazy, but a good friend and tireless campaigner for social justice, Transition Towns and much more, pointed me to this Guardian article referring to research published by Dr Tim Riley at Loughborough University. He concluded :
“While some people are willing to fly less and others are willing to pay more to fly to offset emissions, they remain the minority. It is cost and not environmental consequences that deter people from flying more often.”
She is just off to India by the way . . . I assume by bike and camel etc.
In my experience some of the most entrenched flyers are people who’s identity is otherwise largely based on doing the right thing. I can’t quite get my head round this one. . . . maybe it’s something subliminal on the Yoga relaxation CD (I’ll try playing one at double speed to see if I can hear the ads for Easyjet deals to Bombay)
FHS is an increasingly serious condition that is spreading faster than ever and if my Bohemian friends are anything to go by these otherwise low impact living heroes are suffering more than the rest of the population.
I was with another friend from London the other day who has decided the best response to our current destruction of planet earth etc. is to spread the idea of ‘blended living’ - one hand on the spade and one on the laptop. They then added that the winter months would be spent somewhere like India, getting spiritually re-charged (not sure if that was working with the poor to rebuild sustainable rural economy, or staying at a Sawdayesque retreat) and the 2 tonnes CO2 from the 1 trip (not including any uplift here) was offset by lower impact living at home.
I think this phenomenon should have a name, as it is so prevalent amongst my peers, I might call it flying hippy syndrome!
4 degrees here we come . . . .
OK I am not really an advocate of lecturing so I am wondering if I forget about pointing all this stuff out and stop giving my friends a hard time. . . so I thought this might be better approach
ARE YOU DOING YOUR BIT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, PEAK OIL? - GIVE ME A BREAK!
You say, “don’t even start, I am not going to live in a commune and eat lentils!”
I say “I am not asking you to make personal sacrifices.”
You say, “I fly and I drive and I like eating meat. It’s not a crime!”
Yes, and that’s totally normal, and making a martyr of yourself is not the point. I am not asking you to suddenly stop when every one else carries on.
What am I saying?
We act together and make the best out of what is a massive challenge for everyone. If it’s just you doing it, then there is little point.
It’s about deciding what type of future we want, given what we know about climate change, and energy security and it’s also about fairness. Only acting together can we create the fair system of rules and regulations where we share the benefits and responsibilities of the changes that are needed.
So in no uncertain terms, tell your MP, “I will if you will” , talk to your boss, your friends, your family. Together we’ll make happen whatever needs to happen to get us through in the best possible way.
If everyone acts together we can have a good life, better in many ways than we have now, and much better than the life we’ll have if we don’t.
Topics: Uncategorised |
October 21st, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Thanks Ciaran for highlighting the hypocrisy that taints much of the evangelical environmental movement. For me there is a fine line between not disempowering people by criticizing and pointing the finger - and ensuring that this does not allow us all to see this as a green light to do whatever we want, as long as we recycle and turn up to Transition or other community meetings.
Being part of the solution is definitely not about being a martyr but it does seem to be about having integrity, doing your best to understand the impacts your lifestyle is having and doing your best to align this with your integrity.
However, perhaps most importantly with respect to the martyr syndrome is that the solutions can not lie in us all making ridiculously uncomfortable individual changes. If we are going to transform our work for the better through tackling climate change and peak oil, then the changes have to mean more positive lives for the majority. And the only way this change will be wholly positive is if we capitalize on these crises-ladden times as opportunities to work together to transform our society and the systems that govern it … turning off our light switch and resisting the temptation to fly are obviously important changes to make - however far more significant is joining efforts in your community to change the way it operates - or as Ciaran suggests to lobby government to make necessary policy changes.
Being the Flying Hippy that inspired Ciaran’s blog, it’s important for me to stress that I see my decision to fly as no way justifiable - I am simply human and by no means perfect. I just wish all those supermarket-shopping hippies would stop defending supermarkets and simply admit that they too are not perfect and just find it hard to resist the temptation!
October 21st, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Around 1970, in N America the governments introduced catalytic converters on vehicles because the smog was so bad in all cities. It took 10 years for the old car to be retired but since then the air has been smog free in almost all large cities. This was the most successful environmental legislation in history. We still hae no catalytic converters on homes, on coal fire gernation plants, on trucks or anything else. If we did this one thing, put catalytic converters on all of these machines, air pollution would be improved considerably. And we would not need cap&Trade. Many nations have no converters on their vehicles at all to this day. So why do we need Cap&Trade. Just regular environmental legislation will do the trick. They did it in the early 1970s and they can do it again. But why cap&Trade? Cap&Trade smells fishy, like there is an ulterior motive of some kind. Drop the Cap&Trade part and there will be agreements. But that won’t happen, because Cap&Trade is not about saving the planet. It’s about a whole lot more, isn’t it.
April 20th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Офигенно! Спасибо!!!…
I sense a conspiracy…..