You can buy your way out of global warming

Recently I heard a story on the radio. The reporter was talking about the concept of people being able to invest in some sort of “pollution offset”. It basically means that a person can opt to spend a little more on things like their electricity, and in theory this extra money gets invested in some form of alternative or renewable energy. For example, maybe you live in Santa Fe and opt to have 10% tagged onto your utility bill and that 10% will be invested in building wind farms in Maine. It kinda sounds like a good idea, huh? The “investing” is handled by some middle-man. The idea is that you can offset your own contribution to global warming by investing some of your money elsewhere. So, you are not actually lowering your contribution to global warming or pollution, just hopefully helping others somewhere else make up for it. One example the reporter talked about was dealing with an “investor” who would take your money and invest it in alternative technologies. The investor claimed that the money was being used for things that were being utilized right now, not some futuristic technologies down the road. One in particular he talked about was a truck stop where truckers would typically park overnight. Instead of the truckers needing to keep their trucks idling all night, they would have the ability to somehow plug into electric stations. The investor claimed that this was already in use. The reported had to break the news to the investor that these stations were not built yet and not being used. The investor stumbled over his words for a minute, but assured him that the money was being invested carefully and the technologies would be in production very soon.

Another option I heard about recently had to deal with some car maker (I cannot recall which one, but I believe it was a European maker) that was making a version of one of their cars with an alternative fuel engine. I do not know if they disclosed what this was, but it was going to cost quite a bit more than the “regular” version, but produce about 30% less pollution. The premise of the story was that if you had the money, you could do your part to save the world; as if us regular folk were the bad guys destroying the world. Well, here is a radical idea: how about getting the “regular” version of the car and drive it 30% less than one normally would? Perish the thought! Why would anyone even consider driving less to reduce their part on pollution?

The trend here is that the government, media, and society in general do not want to accept the fact the pollution and global warming are issues that we need to deal with – the hard way. We cannot simply spend a few more dollars here and there to make the problem go away. Everyone always dances around the real solution: use less. If I just replace my light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, recycle more, and maybe buy a hybrid car, I am doing my part to save the world, right? I hate to tell ya, it might make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but in reality you are still part of the problem.

Do you really need that flu shot?

I just learned that the flu vaccinations are grown in chicken eggs. I guess I had never given it much thought as to how the vaccines are produced. Just happened to run across an article in a magazine recently on it. It takes one to two eggs to produce enough of the vaccine to immunize one person. It takes about 100 million chicken eggs a year to produce the vaccine. Now how can you tell me the big pharma and factory farms don’t have a thing going here? The vaccines must be grown months in advance of the upcoming flu season, so the medical folks must guess which strains of the flu will be the most popular. Now remember, the flu vaccine will only protect you from the particular flu strains that it is developed for. This won’t do you any good against the common cold, other viruses like strep throat, or even flu strains that were not produced in the vaccine. Using some common sense will probably do more good at protecting yourself against the flu than getting a flu shot.

Kids Growing Bigger Bellies

(Story from original article at http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/
0,22606,20708214-5005962,00.html)
There is an article in the Australian news “The Advertiser” from November 6, 2006 reporting that American children and teens are growing fatter bellies than 10 years ago. US researchers have concluded that the belly fat of children and teenagers has increased by more than 65 percent since the 1990’s. They say that belly fat is more dangerous than just being overweight, because the abdominal fat surrounding the internal organs is more clearly linked with disease than general body fat. This means that these kids are more prone to heart disease and diabetes. Even 2 to 5 year old boys had an 84 percent relative increase in abdominal fat as compared with the years 1988 to 1994 and 1999 to 2004. And, 18 to 19 year old girls had a 126 percent increase.
This does not sound like encouraging news. The study does not give any information regarding the possible causes of the increase in belly fat. However, I suspect that most people would agree that some contributing factors are lack of exercise and play, poor nutrition consisting of way too many empty calories, and the over abundance of synthetic chemicals in everything around us. I guess with all of our modern conveniences and technology we have so much free time to just sit around and get fat.