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Nuclear Disaster

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common dreams has this up.

I was reading about all the consequences of nuclear disaster in the ecology textbook yesterday…brought back a lot of that anxiety of the 60s and 70s…

The costs are enormous and not necessarily recoverable.  The book likened it to what happened in Hamburg during WWII– it was July, 1943, that Hamburg was just plastered with bombs.  There were fires that shot flames 1500 feet into the air.  People were incinerated by the heat.  They reported that bomb shelters were turned into infernos and rescue workers could not enter them for two weeks following the bombing.  The book likened this to nuclear disaster because of the chemical component that poisoned the land, rivers, killed the humans and wildlife in the area.  It was total devastation of life. And the soils would not recover from the chemical devastation that killed not only vegetation, but the beneficial soil bacteria that helped the rooted ones to survive.

I’ll have to write a more thorough report of how the book details the ripple effect of nuclear disaster–chilling.

Farm Bill

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I’m late with this, but it’s nice to know others are out there fighting for those of us most affected by this.  The cuts in food stamps…i.e., the “Eat Shit” campaign of those compassionate conservatives who think all life is precious…as long as you’re a conservative and wealthy….poor people should just dry up and blow away and “decrease the surplus population…”

From the email sent to the organic advocates group I belong to:

Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and other hill champions are coordinating Members
of Congress to make ‘one minute’ speeches in opposition to the House Ag
Committee’s proposed cuts to SNAP. When you call your Members of Congress
today, ask him/her to speak out on the House floor in support of SNAP
tomorrow, *July 10 at noon or on Wed., July 11th at noon*. If interested,
House offices should contact LaDavia Drane (ladavia.drane@ mail.house. gov)
in Rep. Fudge’s office. “One Minutes” are first come, first serve.

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“House Republicans think a working poor household with $2,000 in assets
shouldn’t be getting food stamps – an average of $1.50 per meal – but they
don’t seem to have problems with far wealthier insurance companies and
agribusiness getting much bigger handouts from the Farm Bill,” noted Dunlea.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the House bill would cut spending
over ten years by more than $35 billion, the Senate bill $23 billion.****

“****America* ***’s children, seniors and 1.5 million veteran households
facing a constant struggle against hunger deserve better from Congress,”
said Senator Gillibrand of the House bill.****

The House bill does not include several amendments attached to the Senate
bill, including one that required those getting subsidized crop insurance
to comply with conservation requirements and another that reduce by 15
percentage points the share of crop insurance premiums the government pays
for farmers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $750,000. Currently
the government bears an average 62 percent of crop insurance premiums

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The quote from Henry Kissinger popped in my head. Link Here:

http://www.corporate-aliens.com/quotes/getquote.php?Henry-Kissinger&quoteid=1427

Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.
Yeah, that about sums up the disaster the world is in right now, doesn’t it?
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A really good article here on conventional versus organic farming.  I take issue with the yields being 25 percent more in conventional farming–I’ve read differently–especially when it comes to drought conditions.  Rodale did a comparison of conventional versus organic farming and found that the crop loss from bugs, etc., was minimal, and when they were in a drought, the organic soil was better able to retain moisture, helping the crop to survive.  If you look at the soil samples in the article, it’s plain to see the difference in soils. I used to have a compost bin at my house, and it was so amazing to put food scraps in the bin, along with leaves, sticks, and stuff, and see it magically transform into rich compost.  Compost is amazing in that it can help break up clay soils and will also help sandy soils to hold moisture.
In the ecology textbook I’m reading, they bring up an important point:  pesticides not only kill the bugs the farmers don’t want on the crop, but they also kill off beneficial bacteria in the soil which the plants need to thrive.  Also, I’ve read that the outbreaks in salmonella and e. coli could easily have been avoided with organically grown food–the beneficial bacteria love to eat them.
Here in the corn belt, we are experiencing a severe drought.  They have pretty much given up on the corn crop, and are unsure about soybeans.  Again I wonder at the wisdom of so much land being devoted to grains, instead of growing nuts, which don’t require chemicals to grow, and the trees help soil erosion.
Also, people are watering their lawns, which drives me up a wall–they cut the grass to two or less inches, and then wonder why the grass dies.  Grass should be grown to at least 3 inches so the roots will grow deeper, allowing it to find moisture when it’s dry out.  I never had a problem with my grass dying when I still had my house/lawn.  But you never, ever hear about this when they’re talking about people watering their lawns.
Finally, I like the idea of subsidizing farms based on how much carbon they leave in the soil.  Great idea.  Probably won’t go anywhere if Monsanto doesn’t like the idea…

DN, III

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Okay, the last story on DN, Gov. Rick Perry said he was going to refuse the Obama Healthcare, which would mean he would refuse all money for medicaid.

So…I’d like to see Gov. Perry look a young pregnant and poor woman in the eyes and tell her that she can’t go for prenatal checkups.  Is this what they mean by compassionate conservatives?  Why is it that when a woman wants to end the pregnancy with abortion that they say that she can’t do that because life is precious, but then deny her healthcare in order to have a healthy child?

On the flip side, she should be allowed to choose her provider— i.e., a midwife with a home birth is what she prefers, then that should be covered, as well.  I have to laugh when I hear stories of how shocked people are when women who birth on their own “before the medical profession can intervene”…as if women have only given birth in hospitals since time began…

Newsflash:  obstetricians, who make their $$ off of hospital births, are claiming that home births are much more dangerous than hospital births…

…meanwhile, bankers say that people who finance their homes through private lenders at lower interest rates are in danger of…of…of….well, they don’t know, but terrible, terrible things happen when people start making independent decisions…/snark

Back to the article–the shocking rate of 32% of births being made through Caesarean is outrageous.  Interference with the natural birth process so you won’t get sued means you’re in the wrong profession (if you’re that inept).  And you might note the reference that C-sections cost more $$…jaysus h, if they’re using it for making a profit, that is unconscionable!

The UK has this website up–gives women more information so they can make a decision.  Good God, what will they think of next? Allowing women to wear pants? /snark

I know that if I were better informed, I would have had my kids at home.  The hospital births were  a nightmare and the interference by the doctors and staff made it miserable instead of a joyous occasion.  And I’ve read that the position of the woman being on her back (which I was) is the most dangerous position for her to labor in…but it’s more convenient for doctors…perhaps someone should bring that up when they claim to be worried about the safety of home births.

DN, revisited

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Gah, I don’t believe this entire post was eaten in cyberspace! Arrgh!

Okay, since I don’t know which website caused the error, I’ll try adding one at a time…

You’ll have to go to the DN website to see what stories I’m commenting on…

President Obama is once again promising that he will let the Bush Tax Cuts for the rich to expire…yeah, well, we’ve heard that before…

…and we all know the rich don’t want to pay for anything…

Okay, if these two posts hold up, I might have time to put the other links up in the next post…

H.Pylori and Migraines

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I picked up a mag that one of the residents had left in the lobby the other day and was surprised by a blip on migraines being connected to H. Pylori, a bacteria that is linked to ulcers. Unfortunately, this article recommended antibiotics to rid the stomach of the bacteria.  Arrrrgh!!

I had just read in the GAPS diet book that H. Pylori was connected to low stomach acid, a condition that is, typically, undiagnosed.  We’ve discussed low stomach acid on the mercury support group, as well, but like this article states, I didn’t think I had a problem because of the acid reflux and other stuff.  Dr. Campbell-McBride recommends taking a bit of sauerkraut juice before meals and also recommends Betaine HCL with pepsin to help the stomach make enough acid.  She says that one wouldn’t have to continue with the Betaine HCL, only until the gut is healed enough that the stomach is able to make enough acid on its own.

Just thought I’d pass this along in case anyone is having issues in that area…

More adventures on the GAPS diet, and more…

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Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride recommends making your own homemade yogurt because the commercial stuff is inferior, with less active live cultures.  So, I’ve been experimenting with using organic Kefir with this wonderful locally made milk, from Trader’s Point Dairies here in Indiana.  It’s pasteurized (since raw milk will kill you/snark) but it is not homogenized, which is only a cosmetic, not a health concern.  Dr. Campbell-McBride says that the process to homogenize changes the fat molecules.  I suppose the body cannot recognize it in the changed form?

Anyway, I’ve decided that my homemade yogurt is like a box of chocolates…I never know what I’m going to get. 🙂  It’s either runny or lumpy….although I have to admit the times when it’s been more of a solid, I’ve added more Kefir to it, so maybe that’s the cause.

Homemade sauerkraut is totally under-rated.  The commercial stuff has this bitterness to it, but the homemade stuff doesn’t.  It has a kick to it, for sure.  The only problem is that you have to wait 5-7 days for it to ferment.

I’ve also tried fermenting carrots.  I thought I might get the sweet-and-sour thing….yeah, that didn’t work out so well…but they’re still edible.

There’s also a recipe for homemade ice cream, using real cream that’s also been fermented into sour cream, adding eggs, honey, and whatever ingredient you want…sounds delicious.

Dr. Campbell-McBride encourages certain ripe fruits on the diet–I’ve tried some, but still have strong reactions to them, so I’m back to ripe bananas (brown spots on the skin) and apples.  I mashed a ripe banana and threw it in the pan with the eggs in the morning, and oh.my.god, it was like eating pancakes! Yum…pancakes are something I’ve been missing.

I’ve been pretty good at sticking with the diet, although I have to admit I cheated last week…succumbing to the call of M&M’s.  But I’m still proud of myself for sticking to it.  I’ve now lost 20 pounds.  Amazing.

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Fort Wayne has free firewood, if anyone’s interested…you’ll have to drop by and pick it up yourself. 🙂  Just a little storm humor.  Geez, it still amazes me how powerful that storm was…I was walking home from the grocery this morning (haven’t been able to walk anywhere because of the heat), and there were trees with major damage on each of the six blocks I walked.  One guy passed by and said his friend’s car was demolished by a tree.  I don’t think insurance even covers that–nice out for them, eh?

Oh, and a minor correction–I don’t think the picture I linked to with the tree in the street was the actual one in front of the library.  I’m still not that familiar with the streets, not being that mobile.  I think the tree down was actually about a couple blocks over.  Anyway, wanted to clear that up.  Truth in reporting and all that 🙂

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No Justice for Bhopal

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Incredibly, the citizens of Bhopal, India, are still left holding the bag after Union Carbide’s tragic 1984 accident that killed 20,000 people and polluted unknown amounts of water, soil and air.

In the environmental book I’m reading, they recount the Love Canal disaster and all the complexities involved in resolving a toxic event.  The original company, Hooker Chemical, sold the land to the local school board, and incredibly, the school board took it with a contract that stipulated that Hooker Chemical was not responsible for any chemicals on the land.  They had been dumping chemicals there for years—and they built a school on top of the land. Parents began complaining about their children’s health issues within five years after the schools’ opening.

This is where it gets interesting–they were ignored, and when they were finally believed, at first the reaction is what you would expect by those in charge–they admitted there was a problem, and came up with solutions for it.  However, once the financial numbers were crunched, they decided there wasn’t a problem, after all.  Even the state’s health dept scientists were loathe to charge the state for the clean-up.

And the ones who did the toxic dumping–the chemical company–walked away.  This is the real problem–chemical companies, pharmaceutical companies, oil companies that screw up and just walk away because it’s more important to keep them in business than it is to hold them accountable.