Sunday, April 26, 2009

the end of confusion: deniers outted as liars

I hate to relish the yoke that's dripping off the face of climate change naysayers this weekend but it's just too much of a relief, I feel a bit giddy.

In case it was as buried in your local newspaper this morning as it was in mine (page 13), I'm referring to the NY Times story revealing that a coalition of deniers — financed by big corps & the oil industry, natch – censored their own scientists.

The group, like others out there seeking to protect their financial fortunes, "led an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign against the idea that emissions of heat-trapping gases could lead to climate change." Uh... yeah. But, whew, now it's finally official that they're liars!

See this makes me so happy because I know many, family members even, who've believed the doubt and misinformation sown by such smearers and who dismiss "hippy" environmentalists such as myself who might attempt to argue against their "IPCC is a conspiracy" claptrap.

What's even more heartening is that this revelation will make people more conscious of how much power the lobbyists have had and perhaps now everyone will start to ponder what else they've been lying about – peak oil, principally.

On the latter topic, please look for a must-see movie (that I'm reviewing this coming week on Our World 2.0) called Blind Spot.

POSTSCRIPT: I should have also included Yale360's interview of a psychologist who examined the tactics used by the food industry (and discovered they use the same strategies as Big Tobacco). If you prefer to listen, rather than read it, scroll down and see the audio version.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

focusing potion wanted

I just prepared myself a nice late lunch using several of the lovely veg from our first organic basket from Konohana Family farm (I'm at about 15 vegetarian meals of 21 in my transitioning process). We're over-the-moon happy with our order, which included not only 10 kinds of veg, eggs and some staples like brown rice and black soya beans, but also the most delicious handmade rice crackers I've ever tasted and some divine fresh mayonnaise. Very affordable too. I think I'd like to go visit them soon. They're near Mt. Fuji, where we haven't gone yet, which is ridiculous, and they have a very interesting eco-village type of set-up that I'm curious about.

Now I must do some work that I had promised myself yesterday that I'd get out of the way this morning. It's so hard to sit and do reading and research though. Despite having come out of the chronic brain pain phase I went through for the past several months, I must say my head is still far from sharp a lot of the time. Possibly silent migraines, which would fit since I'm often dizzy, bone tired and/or irritable, despite not having much pain.

Anyway, abody got any natural tricks to help clear brain fog? I'm trying to stay away from coffee since acupuncture seems to have made me hypersensitive to it - I feel the caffeine zooming through my system, it's unsettling! So I suppose I'll just make myself a cup of Konohana's Black Zinger roasted brown rice "coffee" now.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

why can't we think before we eat?

tuna stocks

Source: WWF analyses

Monday, April 13, 2009

déjà flu

Though I'm not stupidstitious, I got a frisson today when I realized that this darn flu that's dragging on is eerily similar to the one I had just under a year ago.

Hacking my guts out, I thought, what's the deal with that?

Of course this time around I'm not traveling on night trains, climbing rocky slopes or snorkeling for hours on end. So, hopefully I should recover quicker.

It just won't be as much fun...

Friday, April 03, 2009

now I know how Vermonters feel

I will always remember a weekend getaway I once took with my soul-sister Christine, to see a concert in Vermont. It was autumn and the tiny quaint town was hopping. We happened to overhear some locals referring to weekend visitors as "leaf peepers" and we were quite taken with the phrase and amused at the teritorialism inspired by our ilk.

Well, G-dog's favourite haunt, our daily walking ground, the normally very very peaceful Aoyama Cemetery, today began to see many — and what promises to transform this weekend into hordes of — blossom gawkers.

Actually, even yesterday afternoon, despite a blustery cold wind, we saw plenty of blue plastic tarps laid out, weighted down by bricks, and with notes taped on to mark the spot for the evening's picnic (brrr!).

The tradition of o-hanami is very old and is much fun if you do it the good old fashioned way: go with a big group and imbibe a lot while feasting under boughs heavy with beautiful glowing flowers. A legendary type of party if ever there was one.

G and I just find it amusing to share our daily territory with transient peepers.

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