Midnight Oil Lead Named Australia's New Environment Minister

I'm crossing my fingers; I'm praying to the Great One above; I feel it in the air. Can't you feel it? A change is coming. Better days? Well, I'm taking the news that Peter Garrett, the former lead singer of Midnight Oil (A totally bitchin' band), being named as Australia's new environment minister in the new Australian government as a sign.

From The Guardian by Barbara McMahon:
"Former Midnight Oil rocker named Australia's environment minister" —

For 25 years Peter Garrett was the frontman of Midnight Oil, an Australian rock band known for its raucously loud music and protest songs about social and environmental issues. Then the bald 6ft 6in singer hung up his microphone, disbanded the group and exchanged his rock star clothes for the sombre suits of a politician.

After a meteoric rise through the ranks of Australia's Labor party, he was yesterday named environment minister in the newly elected government. The 54-year-old said he was "excited and humbled" by the opportunity.

It wasn't even supposed to be. The Bush Administration's supported conservative John Howard who has been the Prime Minister since 1992, Australlia's longest serving prime mininster. But "Kevin Rudd is Australia’s new prime minister, after his Labor Party inflicted a crushing defeat on the conservative coalition government of John Howard" (The Economist), a government that from this side of the world look perfectly atrocious. Under Howard's tenure, Australia have become even worse polluters than the US: "Australia has the highest per capita level of greenhouse gas emissions in the developed world." (The Sydney Morning Herald). Not to mention the race riots.

So better days are coming? Maybe. Well, at least, let's enjoy the day and believe so!

The Fire this Time

The mainstream media is avoiding the question like the plague. It's not just them, not many want to state the obvious, global warming may be behind the fires in California this week. Let's face it we've been having a lot of strangeness in our weather of late. We are sitting in the middle of the hottest October on record. Fires raged over Greece, floods and droughts abound. Once again it takes independent media to ask the question that has got to be on everyone's mind.

From AlterNet.org by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!:
"Are the Wildfires in California Related to Global Warming?" —

AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. The fires in Southern California and global warming, is there a connection?

BILL McKIBBEN: I'm afraid that there is. This is the kind of disaster that we see more and more of as we begin to change the basic physics and chemistry of the planet we live on. One of the people leading the really brave rescue effort out there yesterday said, one of the San Diego authorities said, this is the driest it's been in at least ninety years. It's dry because they've had terrific heat and not much rain. And those are just the conditions for that part of the world that all the modeling suggests come about when you begin to raise the temperature.

We still have a chance to save our world. It will take the willingness of government and the education of the populous. We CAN do it. We just have to be willing to work for it.

Call Him Al

Al Gore along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) has been awarded the Nobel Prize! Oh, hell yeah! And ya damned right!

As you can see, I am quite pleased with the decision of The Norwegian Nobel Committee. This is a win not just for Al Gore and the IPCC but for our planet. This will hopefully draw even more attention to global climate change, of which, the US is practically the last place on Earth to accept that we, humans, have been affecting the world's weather.

From the BBC:
"Gore and UN panel win Nobel prize" —

The committee cited "their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change"...

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said he was "overwhelmed" by the award.

He told a cheering crowd of colleagues and journalists outside his office in Delhi that he hoped the award would bring a "greater awareness and a sense of urgency" to the fight against global warming.

On a personal note, this award is also a wonderful poke in the eye to the Bush Administration who have been a disaster for this country and the world. If I were to list all the things that they have done to bring on chaos, I would be here all day. I don't know what the world would have been like if Al Gore had taken his rightful place as President, but I have to believe that the condition of the worlds climate would be so much better for ourselves and our children.

Now enough of that. Let's dance!

The Weather?

Am I the only one or has summer continued on for far too long? The humidity is high as well as the temperature. It feels more like mid-July that mid-October. I look forward to wearing my off-white turtlenecks in the Fall. So where is the Fall? It is too hot. It's not a matter of believing in global warming, it just is. What have we done to our precious world?

EcoFest 2007

Sunday | September 30, 2007
11 AM to 6 PM

Damrosch Park @ Lincoln Center
Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street

For more Information

Through dynamic exhibits, stimulating entertainment,celebrity performers, and speakers, ECOFEST fosters public awareness about opportunities for environmental change. It spurs people to take the initiative in making their communities more ecologically advanced and environmentally sound.

Asthma and Migranes

For many years now I've suffered from migraine headaches. In college, I would have one just about every other week. Before I was diagnosed with getting migraines I thought that I was just dying. A migraine isn't just a really bad headache, it involves your whole body: nausea, stomach cramps, confusion, depression, sensitivity to light and sound, irritability.

Since I moved here to NYC I also developed a light form of asthma, so that I only need to used an inhaler 3 or 4 times a year. August is the worst time for this though. The high humidity and heat sometimes bring on an asthma attach so you will most likely find me indoors under an air-conditioner during this month.

And I just got the double whammy! An asthma attack with a migraine. What a week! But it seems from medical studies that asthma and migraines are linked:

From RespiratoryReviews.com by Mimi Zucker, PhD:
"Asthma Linked With Migraines"

Case reports and some epidemiological studies have pointed toward a connection between migraines and asthma. A large matched case-control study recently identified a relative risk (RR) of 1.59 for asthma in migraine patients, confirming the association and suggesting shared etiological origins for the two disorders.

What I do for when I get a migraine is lie in a quiet dark room and have a couple of glasses of white wine. (I feel better about drinking wine than taking any of the toxic FDA medicines that have been approved under this current administration. I don't trust them.)

I also try to avoid certain foods. (I wrote to Pueblo, CO for a brochure when I was a kid and got this list. You are showing your age if you remember when the gov. had that brochure program!)

• yogurt
• granola
• red wine (although red wine without phosphates might be okay)
• peanut butter
• chocolate
• anything with caffeine

i.e. anything you might actually enjoy eating. I must admit lately falling off the wagon on these foods. I paid dearly for this over the last couple of weeks. I'm slowly getting back on my feet. At least it's August when the book world is slow. I hope this information is helpful to someone out there.

Strong Link Found between Hurricanes and Global Warming

From a article in Scientific American by David Biello:
"Stronger Link Found between Hurricanes and Global Warming" —

Using records dating back to 1855, hurricane researchers say they have uncovered an ongoing rise in the number of Atlantic hurricanes that tracks the increase in sea surface temperature related to climate change. Critics of such a link argue that this trend is merely because of better observations since the dawn of the satellite era in the 1970s. But the authors of the new study say the conclusion is hard to dodge.

I Don't Trust the Cervical Cancer Vaccine ... Never Did

An FDA that is unwilling to examine food is not fit to suggest that a cervical cancer vaccine is ready for prime time. I have been very suspicious that the laws being suggested to FORCE young girls take this experimental drug. Girls who are not even sick. (Since the FDA is not doing it's job right now I think that any drug they approved over the last 7 years is experimental and possibly dangerous.) It used to take years to pass through the FDA. Now drugs are passed, it seems without much examination at all. And new drugs are marketed to women like they are cosmetics.

I think that the cervical cancer vaccine is a lawsuit in a bottle. I've never trusted it. And as a woman, I am disgusted that drug companies continue to play with our bodies and lives. It turns out that my suspicions have been well founded since it seems that the drug needs more testing to see if it even works! I think that it is dangerous and is playing Russian roulette with women's lives.

From a May 10, 2007 San Francisco Chronicle report:
"UCSF doctors warn on wide use of cervical cancer vaccine" —

Nearly a year after a controversial cervical cancer vaccine won federal approval and hit the market to a whirlwind of interest from doctors and parents, at least two UCSF physicians are warning against widespread use of the drug until much more extensive studies are complete.

In an editorial published in today's New England Journal of Medicine, the UCSF doctors suggest that there are still too many questions about both the efficacy and the long-term safety of the vaccine, called Gardasil, to warrant making it mandatory for all girls -- as has been suggested in several states, including California.

From a May 11, 2007 Newsday report:
"Doubts on HPV vaccine" —

In an editorial published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Drs. George F. Sawaya and Karen Smith-McCune of the University of California, San Francisco, say the Gardasil issue produces more questions than answers.
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Even though the FDA reviewed reams of data before approving the vaccine last year, clinical studies are still under way, Smith-McCune said, adding that "while the trials are ongoing, mandatory vaccination is premature."

On The Diane Rehm Show, the Director of the FDA admitted that 20% of the funding of the FDA comes from industry. How about 0% coming from industry?! How can an agency designed to inspect and regulate drugs be getting monies from drug companies?

Wherein the cervical cancer vaccine is concerned, there is too much conflicted information about it. This is a extremely contrary situation. We have an administration that pushes abstinence only before marriage and doesn't even want to give out condoms, yet it is pushing a drug to girls to prevent a cancer that is contracted from having sex. Think very, very carefully before you expose yourself or your daughter to this drug. Has anything in the last 7 years of this administration and it's agencies done to indicate that they give a damn about anything more than money?

The Great Saunter

Saturday | May 5, 2007
begins at 7:30 AM
with www.shorewalkers.org

Shorewalkers will hold their 22nd annual Great Saunter—a 32-mile walk around Manhattan's rim. The pace is steady, but not fast. Most of the route is fairly flat. We keep to the waterside as much as possible. There is no rain date; we will go rain or shine.

Join the Shorewalkers on this spectacular 32-mile walk around the rim of Manhattan Island, starting early at South Street Seaport and ending there that evening for a celebration. Walk through 20 parks, experience many cultures, and celebrate the new Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. See the Statue Of Liberty, New Jersey, the Palisades, all four outer Boroughs, people fishing in the rivers, cherry trees in bloom, spring flowers.

"The Green" on The Sundance Channel

Tuesdays | 9PM
on The Sundance Channel

The Green is television's first regularly-scheduled programming destination dedicated entirely to the environment. Presented by Robert Redford, the destination is hosted by award-winning journalist Simram Sethi and community advocate and MacArthur Fellow Majora Carter, two dynamic leaders who have distinguished themselves with revolutionary ideas in such areas as civic planning and global business practices.

Please stop eating meat for a while...

One thing that I noticed about the Chinese, they don't eat the stuff that they sell to Americans themselves. They think of food as medicine and not just a culinary delight. "Eat this, it's good for you." I would hear as a child. I don't hear that anymore.

Please read Fast Food Nation or at least look at the back cover. The FDA is just not doing its job right now so please for God's sake stop eating red meat. Especially do not allow your children to eat ground beef. The stuff is very dangerous.

From an April 21, 2007 Medical News Today report:

After five children in Napa Country (USA) became infected with E. coli after eating hamburgers at Little League baseball snack shacks, authorities have recalled approximately 100,000 pounds of frozen ground beef patties in five states. The patties were produced in April-May 2006, by Merced-based Richwood Meat Co. Inc, and are to be found in California, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

I gave up meat about two years ago and have not regretted for a day. (Although I do still miss the taste of bacon but it's just not worth it.) Our country is eating a lot of garbage -- literally. And now that the FDA is not inspecting the meat and other foodstuffs that we are eating. Food can become lethal. You can get anything from a bacterial infection to cancer and the government that we have trusted to ensure the safety of our food is simply not doing their job. Just look at the recent list of the bacterial outbreaks that we know of:

• Spinach E. coli outbreak
• Taco Bell E. coli outbreak
• Cat and Dog Food contamination
• Peanut butter salmonella outbreak

The FDA Commissioner Andrew C. Von Eschenbach was on the Diane Rehm show and it is clear that he is in the pocket of industry. Your only chance of getting a decent meal is to pay attention to everything that you put into your mouth and try to eat locally grown food.

Update: From a April 22, 2007 report from the Washington Post FDA Was Aware of Dangers To Food.

The Bees Have Gone Missing...

I used to get organic honey to go with the organic teas I sold at the store. I got the real kind from bee farmers in Oregon. The cost started to skyrocket so I called them to ask why. They told me that they were having a bad season and the price will probably settle down soon. It never did. The bees have gone missing.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The disappearance and deaths of millions of honeybees in nearly half of the nation's states is a mystery seemingly befitting an episode of "CSI" and is threatening an estimated $14 billion in crops that rely on pollination.

Every thing on the Earth serves a purpose even the smallest thing such as a bee. I used to hear this kind of thing all the time when I was a child growing up among the hippies of Cambridge, MA. What a surprise, they were right; they were right about almost everything it seems. We need the small creatures to pollinate our crops, which thus feed us. It is possible that cell phones might be causing the bees to die.

From a report from The Independent:

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

... the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

...radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

This could be small thing to not worry about or yet another sign that the Earth is not feeling well. My bet is on the latter. We don't seem to think about the consequences of our actions, only the pleasures and conveniences that we demand. We are unquestionably doing damage to our home. I think that no one is disputing that anymore. I once heard some one say that the world has a fever and we are the infection. So what are we going to do about it? Are we willing to inconvenience ourselves a little to save our planet? I sure hope so. Because if we don't, we won't have a planet to save.

The High Line Festival

May 9 - 19, 2007

David Bowie will be personally curating a festival to raise money for the High Line Park in the old meat packing district here in NYC. The concept of the park is quite nice — fixing up the abandoned train track — even if it is frivolous and for the use of the rich that have taken over the area. (I'm sure that they'll let the public in when it's done. Yes, I'm being snarky!) Check out their site for tickets and more info: www.highlinefestival.com

The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side. It was built in the 1930s to remove dangerous trains from Manhattan's streets. No trains have run on it since 1980. FHL, a community-based 501(c)(3) non-profit group, formed in 1999 when the historic structure was under threat of demolition. FHL's mission is to preserve the structure for reuse as an elevated public open space.

Green Apple Music Festival

Celebrate Earth Day the right way -- with music! The Green Apple Music Festival will be held here in NYC as well as in Chicago and San Francisco. There will be a lot of music and venues to choose from and the whole event is to be CO₂ Neutral. Cool! Check out their site to find out more information about the performances: www.greenapplefestival.com

A Green Energy Solution for Residential and Small Businesses

We try to be good doobies at Indigocafe.com so we signed up for the ConEdison program for getting renewable energy called ConEdison Solutions. I couldn't believe it when I first heard about this program so we been trying it out for about a year now and it works great. You can switch to this program for you home and small business like we did.

ConEdison Solutions is an energy solutions company that offers attractively priced and value oriented energy services as well as electricity to commercial, industrial and residential customers.