Author Archives: d

Mercury Pollution

Supreme court weighing rules to limit pollution from US power stations (An article from The Guardian.)

If this concerns you please voice your concern to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Here’s what I just sent:

Please side with human and environmental health and vote to support the rules to limit the release of mercury and other toxins unnecessarily emitted from coal-fired power plants and other sources. I support these rules because the intelligence of children and the health of the population in general is far more important than the profits of a few companies.

Thank you for considering the broader and long-term implications of this issue and remembering just because you aren’t receiving many emails like this from young mothers and their young children I assure you they would also support these rules as would the vast majority of the U.S. and global population had they been better informed and more involved so amongst all the corporate lobbying please keep the silent majority in mind when making your decision on this important issue.

Big Cats and Sports Cars

The Illegal Big Cats of Instagram (A video from VICE.)

I watched this while eating breakfast this morning is that it’s correct to blame and necessary to punish the people who poach wild and often endangered animals with little concern of the effects this has on ecosystems, wild populations, and the poor animals themselves. Furthermore most would agree that even more blame and more severe punishments should be dealt to those who are willing to pay for these animals, or animal products, and thus create a demand for them which entices some extremely desperate and/or greedy people to sink so low as to supply it. However far too few people take the next step and follow this trail of immorality to its source and realize the people who are perhaps the most to blame for the plight of these animals and the waste of societies financial resources as seen in this video is very likely to be themselves.

It’s understandable that some people desire a nice house and a nice car however the desire for personal palaces and private car collections isn’t so much a result of a desire of material goods which came at great environmental costs, but rather it’s the result of a desire to achieve the attention and admiration the possession of such goods unfortunately still gains people in our sick society. So not only should the people in this video be frowned upon for how they use their wealth as well as punished for what they do to these animals, a big fat finger should also be pointed at all those Instagram followers and even the reporter herself for fawning over one of his many luxury sports cars or his baby white tiger because that’s exactly why rich and immoral people like this do what they do.

If we as a society see someone driving around in a decadent car, perhaps with their pet Cheetah, we should not say: OMG! So cool! We should say: Wow what a waste of money, they could’ve bought a really nice electric car and still had a few hundred thousand dollars to perhaps invest in renewable energy, versatile non-toxic compostable materials, or maybe desalination and water filtration systems not to mention helping some poor children gain access to clean water, basic nutrition, and an education. If it became not only “not cool” but actually shameful to behave in these immoral and decadent ways our world would become a better place over night. So if you’re one of the well over 300,000 people following people like this on Instagram and other social media sites then please reconsider.

Once people stop encouraging people like this they’ll realize they need to behave in other ways if they want the attention and admiration of society. In essence only when the average person stops aspiring to these types of immoral and decadent lifestyles will those who do have the financial resources to live them stop doing so and start living more responsible lives and find better ways to spend their time and money.

Israel, Iran, and U.S. Foreign Policy

In light of recent events now is as good of a time as any for the U.S. to re-evaluate its relationship with Israel and put an end to policies which often leaves the U.S. as a lone voice in the U.N. defending the misdeeds of Israel and policies that provide it, a country with a per capita GDP on par with that of Spain, with around 3 billion dollars annually in foreign aid.

Continue reading →

Dolphin Abuse

I’m strongly against the kidnapping, imprisonment, and exploitation of dolphins, orcas, or any other animals for human amusement because in addition to being immoral in itself it’s also what makes brutal dolphin hunts so profitable. If people want these hunts to stop they need to stop supporting/visiting the establishments which fund them, e.g., zoos and aquariums.

Former Orca Trainer For SeaWorld Condemns Its Practices

Dolphins slaughtered in Taiji, Japan: leading zoo body accused of links to hunt

Also before going all anti-Japan please scroll back a few posts and watch the video on the factory farming and realize just because you pay someone else to do the mistreating and butchering doesn’t mean you’re any less a part of it. More or all plants less or no animals and if you do eat animal derived food please make sure it comes from responsible sources.

Failed Superpower

I’m not referring to how the U.S. has conducted itself as the sole superpower since the breakup of the Soviet Union, but about how we as a species have conducted ourselves since the advent of human civilization when we became the sole superpower species. When viewed objectively it would be hard to show, thus far, that we have been anything other than an utter failure. You may be thinking that’s ridiculous and cite how we’ve spread to all 5 continents and greatly increased our lifespans.

That’s all true however when you remove the anthropocentric blinders and look at the big picture, at the biosphere which humans are just one part of, you’ll realize that although we’ve been quite successful at improving the lives of most of humanity we’ve been a disaster for nearly every other species and ecosystem on this planet. The good thing is it doesn’t have to be this way because not only do we have the potential to live comfortable lives that are in balance with nature we also have the potential to use our knowledge and technology to actively assist in the regeneration of what we’ve already tainted and destroyed.

Market Math

It’s hard to believe how many adults can not add or subtract at even the most basic level because these are skills that most of us use every day, particularly if you sell fruit for a living. Moreover rather than put forth a tiny effort to improve basic math skills by not relying on a calculator for everything, and I mean everything, it seems most people prefer to reach for the calculator. I’m not talking about for double digit multiplication but for things like: something cost 60, I give you 100, how much should I get back. I encourage you to and to encourage others to use their brains and bodies more. Getting in the habit of doing basic math in your head is a good place to start. Just because someone has a calculator don’t expect them to do the math for you and instead see if your brain can beat their fingers to the result.

Population Growth

In 1800 there were about 1 billion people on the planet.

It then took around 127 years before the population reached 2 billion.

Can you guess roughly how long it took for humanity to add the last billion?

a.) 127 years  b.) 60 years  c.) 30 years d.) 12.7 years

If you answered d then you are correct and with over 7.2 billion of us the population is still growing. However what’s more worrying than rapid population growth in a heavily overburdened biosphere where human induced extinctions already occur on a daily basis is the rapid increase in unsustainable consumption which unlike population growth shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Reuse, Recycle

U.S. and World Population Clock

P.S. Can you name the top five countries according to population size? For the answers check out the bottom of this map that shows country size adjusted according to population size.

World Population

Freethought and Bananas

Where I live on the Kra Peninsula there are these awesome bananas which in Thai are called Kluai Heen which translates to Banana Heen. Most people around here feed Heen bananas to the poor birds they imprison in little cages which spend their days jumping from one side of the cage to the other probably imagining what it would be like to fly again. Because they lack of empathy and apparently have nothing better to do many of the local men often bring these poor birds to poor-bird-in-cage competitions where they see whose bird can cry “Let me out of this cage so I can fly!” the loudest.

Since most people consider them bird food when people see a foreigner eating a hand of Heen bananas they’re a bit surprised. In the area I’m referring to people do eat them but it seems rarely unless they’ve been cooked. One day I was looking to buy breakfast from a roadside fruit stall and I saw a hand of ripe Heen bananas in the back. I asked if I could buy them and she said they weren’t any good. When I insisted she said I could have them so I started eating my banana breakfast. I rarely eat bananas for breakfast as I prefer more juicy fruits in the morning but that day I was happy to make an exception.

After eating one and confirming my prediction I told her they were awesome and offered her to try one but she gave me a slight “surprised/you’re crazy look” and refused. She said they were no good because those bananas have to be cooked before you can eat them and only birds would eat them like that. I asked her if she had tried ones that are ripe and she said “No.”. So I asked her how she knew they were no good and she said “Because my husband told me.”, so I asked her if he had tried them and she said “No.”, so I asked how would he know and she said “The elders told him”.

The point of this post is to remind anyone who reads it not to blindly accept the assessments of perceived figures of authority and instead think for yourself, do your own research, and when applicable/safe do your own experiments and who knows maybe one day it might even score you a free breakfast.

banana heen

5 Tips for Improving Digestion

These tips were written to be applicable to everyone regardless of what they eat, however I hope everyone considers eating more or all plants and less or no animals.

1.) Don’t overeat and realize that if you have a significant amount of excess body fat you are overeating. Perhaps not today or even recently but definitely over the long run because no animal can produce body fat without an excess of energy. Therefore eat as your body requires and try to stay as close to hungry as comfortably possible provided that allows you to maintain your ideal body composition. If it doesn’t you’ll have to slightly increase or reduce your energy intake.

2.) Keep hydrated because digestion is one of the first bodily functions to be negatively affected by dehydration as your body struggles to hang on to all the water in your stools which will slow them down and make their eventual expulsion much more difficult. Therefore drink enough water and eat enough water rich foods to ensure that your urine is clear or almost clear because the darker your urine is the clearer sign it is that you’re dehydrated.

3.) Stay active because physical activity helps keep our bodies in good working order especially our digestion. All types of physical activity are good for digestion especially walking and knee raises. The amount of physical activity we require for optimal health is far too much to allocate to an exercise session so it must be incorporated into our day and become habitual, e.g., walking or biking instead of driving and taking the stairs instead of elevators and escalators.

4.) Some foods and food combinations digest poorly for some people and the best way to figure out which foods and food combinations to avoid is by living a healthy lifestyle, simplifying meals, and spacing them out so you can accurately observe their effects because even if you ate only one type of a food at a meal if you ate another meal an hour or two after the last one it may be difficult to determine whether it was the first meal that caused you an issue, the second, or the combination of the two.

5.) When going to the bathroom rather than sitting consider squatting. Sitting is an unnatural position to be in when having or trying to have a bowel movement so consider squatting or at least raising your knees with a small stool. However regardless of whether you’re sitting or squatting never try to force a bowel movement and instead when you are constipated consider alternating walking with squatting while continually swallowing small amounts of water until you’ve had enough or are ready to go to the bathroom.

Feeding the World vs Feeding the Worlds Livestock

Current food production is sufficient to feed the over 7 billion of us here now and it will even be sufficient to feed the over 9 billion who will be here in the near future… provided the arable land we use and the food we grow is used to feed people rather than livestock and provided we stop wasting so much of the food that is produced. The reason why so many people on this planet are without access to adequate food isn’t because there isn’t enough to go around it’s because they don’t have the money to buy it. Therefore in addition to making better use of the food that’s already being grown and the land that has already been cleared to grow it eliminating extreme poverty should be the primary goal of anyone serious about feeding the world. Not cutting down more forests and using more toxic chemicals to produce more food that the people who need it most can’t afford to buy all while continuing to waste so much of it by feeding it to livestock and placing much of the food that is produced into plastic bags and sending it off to landfills.

Straws

I stopped using straws years ago and this is one of the reasons why. Do you still use straws? Maybe you should stop using them too or start using your own reusable one.

strawsI don’t know how long we’ll live but I do know the straws we’ve used thus far in our lives will be around long after we’ve died and decomposed. To me at least it’s disturbing to know that the environmentally harmful waste I’ve unnecessarily created as a result of my own ignorance will outlast me. I don’t know where all our old straws will eventually end up however I imagine some will end up in leaky landfills, others buried in the soil future generations will use to grow their food, and some of them in the bellies of birds, fish, and other poor creatures.

bird plastic (photo by unknown)

Let this post and these images be a reminder to bring your own reusable food boxes, water bottles, and shopping bags and to say NO to unnecessary and environmentally harmful disposable items because in today’s overpopulated and over-consuming world it’s critical that we all work to reduce the negative social and environmental impacts of our consumption.

Dog Loving Animal Abusers

Dog loving animal abusers are people who treat dogs like humans while at the same time support the treating of pigs, cows, and other livestock like inanimate objects via their consumption of factory farmed milk, eggs, and, flesh. If you have a dog please make sure it’s spaded or neutered and always on a leash in public. If you want a dog please don’t support dog breeders and pet shops and instead adopt one from your local animal shelter. Also please clean up after your dog each time it makes a mess in public and as you do ask yourself if you really need another dog after the current one dies especially if you live in a densely populated area.

Thank you,
One of many people who is sick of being chased by dogs, dodging their excrement, hearing them bark, and feels that humanities resources would be much better spent on people rather than on pets.

Bargain Bananas

Whenever I have the chance I try to teach people how to eat fruit… when it’s ripe, however I must say I do benefit from the fruit ignorance of the average person because it often gets me awesome discounts on premium ripe fruit. Today’s discounted fruit was Namwa bananas, probably my favorite type of banana. Saying these things put Cavendish bananas to shame is an understatement. Today I got a 66% discount and last week on some that were slightly riper than these I got a 100% discount however I still gave a tip to show my appreciation.

In today’s case these bananas weren’t even on display, they were behind the sellers table in a crate as the seller had already decided to compost them because she said no one would buy bananas like these and felt it wasn’t even worth displaying them next to the 70 and 80% ripe ones. I said get them bananas on this table and give’em a chance! Who knows maybe another oddball like me who eats ripe bananas will be happy to buy some at a 66% discount. She did put them on the table but I doubt she sold any because the average person would rather eat yellow/green bananas than yellow/brown or yellow/black ones.

Anyway I just wanted to remind you to keep your eyes open for discarded fruit and encourage you, when practical, to feed yourself with cheap, healthy, and delicious things that would have otherwise gone to the trash can or compost pile.

Namwa Bananas

Hearing Loss

While swimming at the beach I saw a deaf couple wading through the water nearby. The man was happy to have reached a school of fish which he could see swimming around him in the clear waist-deep water and wanted to tell his companion however she had turned her head before he could do so and despite them being only about 10 meters apart he had no chance of contacting her. A few minutes later she was standing near some limestone formations and I think she wanted him to take a picture or at least have a look however once again although he was only 10 meters or so away he had turned around and was heading back to the shore so she had no chance of contacting him.

Not that I didn’t already appreciate my ability to hear but this made me do so even more. I hope it will also remind you of just how precious your hearing along with the rest of your senses and bodily functions are and encourages you to better appreciate and take care of them. Hopefully in the near future waterproof smart watches will make the lives of deaf people much more convenient via haptic “Hey look over here!” alerts, and in the not too distant future hearing loss will be curable. After I got home I looked for a good hearing charity on Charity Navigator and found Health Hearing Foundation and made a small donation. They have a nice 6 minute video about how hearing works on their website.

Knees, Shoes, and Going Barefoot

While there aren’t any health consequences with wearing a shirt past its prime there are health consequences to not repairing or replacing your footwear in a timely manner. So in your quest to continually reduce the burden you place on the biosphere by striving to reduce, reuse, repair, reuse, and recycle don’t wear the same shoes for too long without repairing or before replacing them and if you really want to extend the life of your footwear and thus reduce your ecological footprint, literally and metaphorically, consider going barefoot when practically possible.

When wearing footwear I recommend walking/running as if you were doing so barefoot, i.e, landing towards your toes with a larger surface of your foot rather than smashing down on the outside of your heel with every overextended stride. Shoes or no shoes be careful while walking/running on slanted roads as this could cause you to develop a poor gait and put extra stress on your knees. When you do walk/run on sloped roads try to balance it out. For instance, when safe, walk/run with the traffic there and walk/run against the traffic back.

Fossil fuels aren’t cheap and neither is the electricity generated by burning them so why not get a nice umbrella, which is extremely useful in rain or shine, and walk more. This is not only better for personal health but also for public and planetary health. When you do need to cover slightly longer distances consider a bike or a perhaps a skateboard.

Operation Meetinghouse

March 9th-10th 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of Operation Meetinghouse. A U.S. air raid in which the densely populated city of Tokyo was firebombed and around 100,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians, died extremely painful deaths similar to the ones of this young mother and her small child, both of whom might still be alive today if not for humanities failure to avoid this conflict via diplomacy guided and backed by a free press and freethinking citizens.

Continue reading →

Black Tooth Little Fatty

As I was kicking along on my bamboo longboard I was passed by a motorcycle ridden by a mom with her little fat black tooth kid who looked around 5 years old but probably had the blood profile of an unhealthy 50 year old. He gave me a hello and I gave him a hello back but unfortunately was unable to give his mom my usual stop feeding your kid junk, encourage them to move, and in this case clean their teeth parenting lecture. The well-being of all children is our business and no child should have to suffer as a result of their parents health ignorance and/or health apathy so don’t be afraid to speak up and tell a person there’s obviously a problem with the way they’re raising their kid and kindly provide them with some useful and friendly advice.

Trans-Pacific Partnership

Here’s why I’m standing up for better trade:

Because I do not want to see trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership passed with investor-state dispute settlement provisions which allow foreign corporations to sue signatory nations in international tribunals over the current and future health and environmental protection laws and regulations of these nations if they are deemed harmful to business. In other words I do not support trade agreements which put the financial interests of corporations before the health interests of people and the planet.

Moreover I do not want to see any trade agreements passed which haven’t been made fully transparent to not only the small group comprised mainly of multinational corporations who are participating in the drafting of this important agreement, but also to the public at large. Therefore I have voiced my opinion to my representative in Congress to deny the President his request for the authority to fast-track this agreement as it must be thoroughly discussed and debated in Congress before being put to a vote. This is why I’m standing up for better trade.

Tell the White House why you’re standing up for better trade.

Read more about the Trans-Pacific Partnership at the Sierra Club website.