Alright Maybe Not

So after our biggest contributors graduated and moved on out of our organization, I turned to our new leaders to join the blog and contribute. Over the course of three months I finally managed to drag a few people on board but even so the output has been zilch. I guess people just aren’t so enthusiastic about writing these days.

So my statement earlier that this blog would become active once again – false.

In the meantime we shall wait and see if anything happens. Otherwise, I expect this place to close soon enough.

Tell Me You’re Kidding

The other day a friend of mine was interviewing candidates seeking a job pertaining to sustainability management. Among the general questions asked was one very simple inquiry: “What is climate change?” This was a simple test just to gauge each candidate’s level of knowledge. Anything really, could have passed as a suitable answer.

Except this one response.

It went like this. “Climate change is when a cold front meets a warm front.”

It wasn’t a joke.

Must We End This Journey

If we are not the ones who end our species, from our own technological collapse, then it will happen when the Sun dies out.

Most educated people are aware that we are merely the outcome of four billion years of Darwinian evolution. But many tend to think that humans are still, somehow, the culmination of that. Our Sun, however is less than halfway through its lifetime. It will not be humans who watch that demise, 6 billion years from now. Any creatures that then do exist will be as different from us we are from bacteria or amoeba.

- Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, from a speech entitled “Dark Materials”

Go Shit All Over Democracy Somewhere Else

We have all heard of the large communal voice from advocacy groups about the G20′s apparent avoidance of any issues pertaining to the environment. Some of us may even be tired of hearing about it. So tired that they have decided that violent protests are the answer. I put my self in the other category. I am not tired of hearing about it. I am, however, tired of the violent protests.

This post is going to irk some people.

Tags: Canada, G20, G8

A Modest Proposal to End the World

1. Enriched Flour
2. Dextrose
3. Vegetable Oil Shortening (Made from hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil)
4. Water
5. Sugar
6. Soy flour
7. Mono and diglycerides
8. Dried yolk
9. Wheat gluten
10. Yeast
11. Dry skim milk
12. Calcium sulphate
13. Ammonium sulphate
14. Calcium Peroxide
15. Calcium Phosphate Monobasic
16. Calcium Phosphate Dibasic
17. Ammonium Phosphate Dibisic
18. Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate
19. Whey Powder
20. Modified Corn Starch
21. Ascorbic Acid
22. Sodium Bicarbonate
23. Calcium Carbonate
24. Lecithin
25. Salt
26. Calcium Propionate
27. Cellulose Gum
28. Natural Lemon
29. Mace
30. Cinnamon and Vanilla Flavours
31. Artificial Pentosanase
32. Protease
33. Corn Maltodextrin
34. Sodium Caseinate
35. Corn Syrup Solids
36. Agar
37. Locust Bean Gum
38. Sodium Phosphate Dibasic
39. Sorbitan Monostearate
40. BHT

Glaze may also contain:

1. Calcium Carbonate
2. Agar
3. Locust Bean Gum
4. Disodium Phosphate
5. Sorbitan Monostearate

Manufactured by your local Krispy Kreme Doughnut Store under the authority or Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation.

———–

Keeping with the topic of junk-based foods in Tyler’s last post, I find it absolutely comical to list the ingredients of Krispy Kreme’s recipe for their original glazed donut. Krispy Kreme likes to boast that it’s their original recipe from as far back as 1937 – and this highlights the problem. We eat crap. People eat crap – and they would hate to stop.

Tags: Cancer, Cigarettes, Disease, Donuts, Food, Health, Junk Food, Lifespan, Lung Cancer, Tobacco

Your ‘Diet’ Food is Making You Fat

This article from the Huffington Post a little while ago puts very cleary the risks associated with the average North American diet of processed foods. The article isn’t brief, but I found that I felt a need to read the entire thing. We are made to believe that foods with sugar are bad for us and will make us fat. What we are never told, is that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), the sweetener used in almost every processed food to replace natural sugar, is even worse for us. Not only does it have a increased negative impact on our weight, but it comes with a host of other issues from lack of nutrients and energy in our bodies to the monopolization of the agriculture industry and hazardous Genetically Modified Foods.  Coincidently, along with the Post article, I also came across an article from the CBC about the high percentage of Canadians with high blood pressure, another symptom of HFCS.

From the Huffington Post:

Study after study are taking their place in a growing lineup of scientific research demonstrating that consuming high-fructose corn syrup is the fastest way to trash your health. It is now known without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all it’s myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll.

And fructose in any form — including high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and crystalline fructose — is the worst of the worst!

Tags: Agriculture, Diet, Food Industry, Genetically Modified Organisms, GMO's, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Industrial Agriculture, Obesity, Sustainability