Polar bears: They swim great lengths out of desperation, out of starvation, and become exhausted on a search for floating ice to hunt from. If they do find a berg, it is more than likely it has become too thin to support their weight. They end up treading water or searching frantically, now for land, until they die.
I do not care whether you feel bad, do not flatter yourself. I do not care about you at all. Wait I lied. You make me so, so angry and if there were less of you the world would be better, just a little.
Let me give you your perspective: You cannot be held personally responsible for polar bear extinction. You are only a person with a job in a house, you have responsibilities, interests, you can't wait for the weekend. We all just blindly purchased GE'd groceries that have not been shown to have any negative effects on humans, nor have they been properly tested to prove there are no negative effects on humans. You can speak coherently about politics and hey, you're worldly, you've backpacked like a total. badass. These bits of life combined make you an accomplished adult human. You are no doubt busy with important things. You're comfortable enough with yourself that you do not feel obligated to dwell extensively on polar bear extinction. In no immediate way does polar bear lifestyle interest you. You do not have much to learn from them. You only use fuels that contribute to their habitat destruction because you have to, you don't exactly mean to, what else would you do? Did I mention you're busy? I get it, me too. Someone will handle it, or not. Come on, they're polar bears, it is sad I guess? What do you want me to say? It's not like I was ever going to travel to Antarctica to visit them anyway.
Did I manage to insult you? I highly doubt it. Either way, what do you care what my opinions of you are. You are clever enough, you probably guessed this is an analogy for something I will talk about starting now-ish. Though first-off, for the record, I love polar bears and take their demise personally. I am responsible for their deaths because I am. This is fact. I refuse to dilute the extent to which I am responsible just because you, and the entire human population are also responsible. That is no way to behave or think logically. Some advice: I will not try to stop polar bear extinction, neither will you, but stop with the removal of responsibility to others and ultimately to yourself. Care more. I cannot put blame to someone else for not doing more about it, when I have done nothing. I do not expect "the government" to solve any dilemma of this sort, that would be cyclical-thinking on my part and I will no longer be a contributor to that nonsense, dead-end mental state. I do not blame the Planet Earth series for not "getting" to more people, they try with those episodes to make you care. For a half hour after watching them, you did. I blame myself entirely, if I do not feel personally responsible then I do not care, my involvement would dissolve and I would be you. And that would feel much worse than guilt. Essentially it would mean I would be, in no active way, a part of an urgent need for a shift of mentality. Or rather a shift in morality.
"What good is knowledge if you do not intend to use it."
- David Suzuki
To be aware of something does not prove your intelligence, to have a solution or the motivation to think creatively about a topic is useless and selfish until you apply this skill. Or until you get someone aroused enough to make two people who care in place of one.
Humans have this phenomenal, unhealthy obsession with circles. Like a tiger pacing in captivity, we seem to be frustrated and we are right to feel trapped. After all, we are born into our situation and since we've lived this way our entire lives, we are not equipped to fully understand the reason we are frustrated. Humans have developed some terrible habits which have been successfully rooted in every generation. Even at the risk of these habits killing us, we continue with them. Even if we choose not to see any obvious connection between our habits and global issues, but understand that they are present, we continue with the same behaviour. There are circumstances involved that we are possibly not aware of because they are seemingly unrelated. I'll bet you think polar bears have nothing to do with this.
We are so, so capable until money becomes a conflict of interest. Why bother predicting an outcome if we do not follow-up by taking precautions to prepare for it? Or forget that entirely- think about now: How do we face a present-day crisis... work out a viable solution/plan... only to let the issue go on another 30 years without implementation of our findings? Now, because we've managed to ignore universal crisis for so long, there is continuous accumulation of entirely new issues that are also out of control as they continue to react with one another. And we help it along this path, we are guiding ourselves into the eye of this storm by passively allowing terrible decisions to be made by people who lack souls. Let me assume you do not care about the future of other peoples children, I'm sure as shit not having any of my own with what's ahead. You want to know, how does this affect you?
Pharming is (put very simply) a term used to describe recombinant DNA technology where foreign genes are introduced to a subject. This can be plant or animal and the idea is to produce a pharmaceutical drug cheaply and in large quantities, these products of course intended for human consumption. Pharming is a form of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering for example, allows us to make a plant more resistant to insects, or frost, or to pesticides... so more chemicals can be applied to the plant without killing it. Not bad for production, but you're ingesting it. This is not hypothetical and while still very much in a research-stage, genetic engineering is common. In fact any food that is processed has been genetically engineered in some form. For now, lets not even consider the effects of consuming GE products over a lifetime, and lets definatley not think about what effects these have on children during early development (what's the rush? We'll find out in 15 years). Let us not think about the fact that yes, certain GE corn pollen has proven lethal to monarch caterpillars. Lets not even consider comparing the rise in diseases and cancers since the introduction of GE products. Lastly, let us not mistake GE foods with the cramming of antibiotics into animals from the day they are born to help ward of potential sickness the animal may or may not contract, that could spread throughout a herd and cost the Pharmer lots. Of. Money.
Do you know what effects GE products pumped with antibiotics has on humans who eat them? No. Of course you don't. Nor does anyone. I definitely have some ideas as to what we could be dealing with: Introducing foreign genetic material has the ability to produce an array of different proteins that an organisms body could either use erroneously to cause mutations, or reject, causing a body to essentially attack itself. You eat this animal with its unknown effects from being genetically engineered, and unknown to you further are the effects it has on you. It doesn't have to affect you on a large, terrifying scale to be unhealthy or dangerous. Not so unrelated to this, Aids developed from humans eating monkey brains, MAD cow disease developed from cattle eating sheep material infected with scrapie. Scrapie is not transmissible to humans from sheep. But after being consumed by a cow, and that cow being ingested by humans, we have ourselves infected with a disease that attacks our own central nervous system much the same way scrapie affects sheep. But that is an entire discussion on its own.
Stop believing our government, or a business, or even laboratory scientists have our best interest at heart. There are no strict regulations on (mis)use of these technologies, you are not protected by many laws. The name of their game is money but fortunately you can to take responsibility for your own health and safety.
Breeze through this with me, a crop grows GE feed intended for *pharm animals to consume. Crops yielding these products cannot be absolutely contained, so GE products of this sort, though not intended for human consumption, may very well end up in a neighbouring crop or in the wild where it can reproduce and have success for at least 70 years. That's the best case senario. The animals themselves are also GE, before ingesting their GE feed, to aquire certain traits that would otherwise not be expressed. These traits can be taken from within the species or crossed with different species. It is called Transgenisis. On top of this they are also raised on a combination of antibiotics. I forgot to mention hormones and steroids. Some animals cannot develop properly without steroids due to the enclosure/environment. By the time this animal is packaged and in your home, can you actually qualify this product as real meat? Does the manipulation that the animal undergoes at each stage of its life outweigh the benefits of eating this by a certain point? I stopped eating meat when I was 10 because it made me sad, because like all kids I loved animals THISMUCH. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have been such a weakling-child. I'll take iron deficiency over cellular mutation any day. From a business perspective, why would they bother doing long-term studies on animal products when they can churn out product twice as fast and make profit instead? A business would not fund such research. Cutting corners is exactly how these products got to the market in the first place. What about the government? No. Certainly not the Pharmer. I'll give you another hint: No one. People have even gone out of their way to keep labels off GE products, so you really aren't given any choice but to be subjected as if it were an experiment. It took a few lawsuits, but in Europe GE products must be labelled. A ban of GE products throughout Europe is the goal. As G. Brunk stated, "When it comes to human and environmental safety, there should be clear evidence of the absence of risks. The mere absence of evidence is not enough". Give some thought to drawbacks of GE products:
-Proteins produced by GE genes may be allergens (cause allergies)
-Protein production via new genetic combinations with unknown effects
-Resistance to GE pesticides developing among "pests"
-Human resistance to antibiotics
-Exchange of genetic material between transgenic crops and related plant species (uncontrolled reproduction between "wild" and GE plants)
-Unknown impacts on non-target (non human) species
-Unknown affects overall on humans
-Little research on development in children
-Domination of food companies (farms that refuse to go GE cannot stay in business)
I love genetics. I love biology. I love technology. I love the environment. I hate the intentions with these domains currently. Incredible, wonderful things can be done with GE research. Genome sequencing no doubt helps us to realize possibilities that range from unimaginable to beautiful. We have so much potential, but little of this potential is being used with your/my benefit in mind. It kills me to know that this is the reality regarding biotechnologies. Discoveries are being used dangerously and selfishly. Decisions on their (mis)use and go-to-market dates are being made by non-scientists who will later claim ignorance for their destructive ways. The objective with regards to these decisions is money, not your health or your future. This incredible irresponsibly translates as motive of companies, not consumers. Is there is no market for a solution? It seems too expensive? When did health of a population become a question of profit? Are we really allowing ourselves to discredit... ourselves... in this way? Not to make it about me but does anyone feel as embarrassed as I do to live like this? And on a side note, is anyone even aware that the senate just turned down a bill, the Climate Change Accountability Act last week to decrease emissions by 2020? Is that what you would call a democratic decision? Please take responsibility for yourselves, no one will do this for you. "It's okay to make decisions on behalf of the people, even if it is to their detriment, so long as they aren't aware that there is a choice". I suppose I stand corrected but that doesn't mean I will abide.
For the first time in all of human history we are capable morally, technologically and intellectually to redirect detrimental human practices on a global scale. We can literally fix problems we created for ourselves over the span of hundreds of years. Not only can we preserve nature more effectively and without giving up our "lifestyle standard", but we are able to benefit the environment with these new technologies and practices to secure a future for ourselves, our children and most importantly the rest of life on earth. This is all fact, all possible and entirely up to you.
Today, we can confirm what practices need to change (and how) by analysing climactic records dating back 200,000 years. These records explain in detail how earth systems function without human interaction or interferrance. We extract exact measurements of C02 levels from minuscule gas bubbles in core samples taken from glaciers. In examining different layers, we determine varying levels of C02 (and other gases) at any given time going back thousands of years. Similar technology uses isotopes to measure temperature trends and fluctuations. Comparing this data to recent climactic activity helps us to better understand the atmospheres behaviour and allows for speculation on what affect human activity has on it presently. For the first time in thousands of years our near future looks absolutely, devastatingly, unmistakabley, unpredictable. We can say with certainty these problems are primarily human-created. It is also certain we are gambling with catastrophic outcomes. Countries of the world, in less than 40 years our planet will have become a painful place to be. No amount of SPF will save you from skin cancers and there will be no predicting storms. Water shortages and nutritional value/health standard of food products are the only aspects that should scare us more. It will no longer matter who is to blame, please take personal responsibility.
We have precious capsules of ancient atmosphere, literally thousands of years old, indirectly explaining exactly what needs to be done. They are melting faster than any glaciologist can predict. Pieces of ancient information like gas bubble in glaciers are tools that can help us. We must continue to research things like ocean core samples and all biological processes so we can learn to work with our environment instead of simply raping from it more than can be sustained. Genethics should be revised, genetic engineering should not be stopped, it should be given the respect it deserves. I fear the interests in its qualities now will continue in the wrong direction, it will become a tactic of war. The wiser we are today with such delicate yet powerful tools, the easier it will be to use them effectively and for a greater purpose.
I'm tired of writing so forgive me if this seems disconnected or cut-off: Issues like polar bear extinction, disease on the rise, misinformation or concealment, erratic migratory behaviour, unpredictable salmon runs, unusual weather worldwide... consider these warnings. Consider that they will become much worse in our lifetime. They are many, they are not subtle and they are consistently growing in synch with our population and tolerance of weak economic frameworks. Ignoring these issues does not justify your behaviour. Reliance on "someone else" to change translates as your consent to conduct this circus.
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