Health is Spiritual

Flu season is almost upon us

2015-09-30T12:44:00.000-05:00

Seth Berkley explains how smart advances in vaccine design, production and distribution are bringing us closer than ever to eliminating a host of global threats — from AIDS to malaria to flu pandemics.

She is Worth Dying for

2015-09-21T11:26:00.000-05:00

She is Alive

She is Home

She is Complex

She is Beautiful

She is Finite

She is Hurting....

With Health, Wealth, & Wisdom
Your's truly

Content credit: The principal source for the footage was Yann Arthus-Bertrand's incredible film HOME http://www.homethemovie.org/. The music was by Armand Amar. Thank you too Greenpeace and http://timescapes.org/

Self-driving Cars can Equal Freedom

2015-09-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

You may or may not have heard about Google's self-driving cars. They're cute, a little anthropomorphic but that's on purpose. Of course there has been some outcries as to the dangers of self-driving cars and I understand the concerns.

Yet! There is a benefit to promoting these for public use that most people do not consider.

Beyond safer roads free from distracted drivers, Google's self-driving cars have the ability to offer mobility to those in desperate need to such a degree that it could be considered life-altering! How you ask? Consider your parent(s) - let's say they're healthy vibrant individuals living and working, enjoying life till suddenly one or both are struck down with an illness, a disability, or life-altering stroke. Your parent(s) are suddenly immobile because they are unable to drive due to the previously mentioned health related issue and local, public, or alternative modes of transportation are time consuming. Medically speaking it is this life-altering interruption that can and statistically often does send mentally healthy people spiraling into a life-threatening depression. When life get's interrupted so does everything that happens in life - visiting friends, grocery/clothes shopping, entertainment, doctor's visits (etc). This is where Google's self-driving car can make a world of difference and not just to the elderly but to all people with disabilities or inabilities to access normal mobility. But don't take my word on it....

Koyaanisqatsi | Life Out of Balance

2015-09-04T17:16:00.000-05:00

We are living Koyaanisqatsi, which is Hopi for "life out of balance."

At one time or another, we've all probably looked at the cost of solar paneling our home, or weighing the comparison of possible savings of a gas car versus electric- though the environmental cost is still debatable. Not to mention the giddy childish smiles like that of Don Quixote chasing windmills whenever we drive past a wind farm. Or, if you've been brave enough even contemplated living "off the grid!"

Saving the Earth, our only true home is a big job and we're just not serious enough about it. We've all watched (even if you don't want to admit it) children's movies with the sometimes not so subtle environmental theme (Wall-E and Ferngully) and have at least heard about Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. And of course there are movies that play on our deeper emotional connection combining government, environmentalism, and humanities ultimate destruction: The China Syndrome, Chinatown, and Soylent Green (it's people!). Than there's the odd fantastical environmental movies like The Day After Tomorrow, Avatar, Tomorrow Land, and San Andreas (okay not so much that one- but it is a good ol' fashioned end of the world keep on the edge of your seat kind of movie).

Every day we see evidence that we cannot continue at the pace we are currently at. To avoid landfills my home town burns trash. Recycling centers are losing money due to their promise of making it easier for everyone to recycle. By allowing everyone to throw all recyclables together they are running into massive material separation issues costing them more money than they can profit on (http://wpo.st/sMeT0).

Daily we hemorrhage good edible food just because it looks funny or doesn't meet our "standard" for edible food. (http://on.ted.com/Tristram). Food that was trucked miles from where it was grown or slaughtered using up millions of gallons of oil in the process just so it could be thrown away.

We build with unsustainable or pollutant causing materials instead of utilizing alternative forms of construction. Who says you have to live in a home with four square corners? Why not use eco-friendly building materials that ultimate reduce the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere if you're planning on building new? Replace materials in your next building project from materials that emit high levels of CO2 with those that emit low to no levels of CO2, this includes paints and carpets (http://www.eesi.org/files/climate.pdf).

What can we do?

Invest in sustainable and alternative forms of energy
Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose everything that you can (do you really need a new couch?)
Buy local food and food that cannot be used in someway (stews are great for ugly food) or eaten compost in your own yard
Research alternative building materials that work well in your local environment (i.e. cod/adobe/hay bale homes just might not work where temperatures drop to -50 degrees in the winter, but are great in warmer dryer climates)
Take part in local environmental groups to learn what you can do to help even if it's just planting a rain garden or adding a water collection barrel at the end of your rain spout.
Most of all WAKE UP! Every little action toward environmental protection is one step forward in the global fight!

We are connected physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually with the health of our planet. So why do we treat it with such disdain? How we treat the earth is a reflection on how we treat ourselves and clearly we are out of balance. So do something Now! Today! Walk to the store which is only 8 blocks away. The exercise will do you good, you'll buy less because you have to carry it home, and maybe, just maybe, you'll have a better appreciation for the food you bought. Turn off the computer! Go outside! Interact, reconnect, find your purpose once again in nature.

With Health, Wealth, and Happiness!

Your's truly!

Reduce poverty to improve health

2015-09-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

Globally there is a crisis between health, poverty, and habitat. Paul Pholeros speaks on such points in his TedTalk in 2013. There is a disconnect between first world and third world countries and the access to simple every day necessities. Necessities that can mean the difference between life and death especially in children.

Focus on Your Goals

2015-08-31T15:34:00.000-05:00

Here's another inspirational email - sometimes I love them and well other times they're just junk. I only share the best with you fans!

Hi Health is Spiritual,

There will be times in each person’s life when they will feel
like they aren’t doing as well as they have hoped or compared
to their peers.

There are times when self-doubt will be so suffocating that you
would rather sit still in one place rather than make a wrong move.

It’s hard to manifest your dreams when all you can think of is
curling under your sheets and sleeping off the bad vibes.

What we’re here to tell you is that feeling like a failure will
actually help you in making your dreams come true.

Even the most successful people around the globe have gone
through multiple failures in their lifetime. And it is in these that
they found the right formula for a successful life.

Without falling down, they might never have known the right
way to climb up.

That said, here are 2 methods on how you can help yourself
keep focused on your goals.

Cauterize the worry wart in you

People are worried 24/7. Whether it’s a consequence of
something they’ve done in the past or the dread of what will
happen in the future.

These kinds of thoughts can be debilitating.

The past has already happened, and your present is about
learning from that and applying it for a better future.There
really is no point in worrying about what has already happened
and what hasn’t happened yet.

It will only rob you of enjoying what you have now.

Our minds are so strong that they can make us believe anything.
If we keep on thinking about the things that can go wrong, then
most often than not, those thoughts will come true.

The law of attraction uses the same principle, but in the positive
context.

If you think positive, the positive will come. You will be able to
attract wealth, love, friendships and the like. Use the power of
the mind to manifest your dreams, not your fears.

Learn to tune out

When you find yourself entertaining these negative thoughts, you
need to actively, consciously, divert your attention somewhere else.

It helps to visualize your brain as a gadget that can be turned on
and off, or at the very least, one whose frequency can be changed
like that of a radio or a television.

You need to know what kinds of thoughts trigger the panic or
anxiety in you.

And to counter this, you need to think of an object, a person,
or a place that can soothe you when the panic comes.

Visual people usually have a good method of combating scary
thoughts because they know what it is that they need to picture
right away.

If you’re not particularly visual, let’s say you’re auditory, have
your peaceful go-to song on speed dial. If you’re more of a feeler
type of person, it’s good to imagine a soothing scenario like let’s
say a beach or the forest.

Different pictures work for different people. Don’t be boxed in a
certain type.

What matters is that your method works for you.

I hope you enjoyed this and it will assist you in focusing on
who you are and where you want to be in life.

We will chat again soon,

Heather Mathews

Author
Manifestation Miracle

P.S. I didn't have all life's answers right away.

Quote of the day

2015-08-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

~ Lao Tzu

Thankful Thursday

2015-08-27T15:38:00.000-05:00

Quote of the day

2015-08-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark, the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light...

~Plato

Always #LikeAGirl - Unstoppable

2015-08-18T14:55:00.000-05:00

For a commercial this has a beautiful message and now I will take it even further: Between social media, magazines, movies, television, and skewed political agendas that want to return women back to a time before the suffrage movement it is important not to limit the vision, ideas, and dreams of our youth - male or female! Still to this day, young women (girls) are often told to be demure, soft spoken, and to not try for subject matters that are deemed as masculine just as young men (boys) are told to be tough, loud, and to avoid anything that will make them seem weak. This is laughable! In a world where we cry out for free speech yet hold back when our freedoms are revoked because it is just too hard; or we have to figuratively and sometimes literally fight to the death for something that should be so simple like education or natural like the right to marry who we love - there should be no one no where that has the right to deter anyone from being who they are meant to be. All people should be allowed and given the freedom to express their soul in its purest form. Stop the insanity! Stop the degradation of humanity! Support our youth, our world, our existence without undermining our future.

Quote of the day

2015-08-14T12:11:00.000-05:00

The holy person of our time, it seems, is not a figure like Gotama or Jesus or Mohammed, a person who could found a world religion, but a figure like Gandhi, a person who passes over by sympathetic understanding from one’s own religion to other religions and comes back again with new insight to one’s own. Passing over and coming back, so it seems, is the spiritual adventure of our time.

~John S. Dunne in The Way Of All The Earth: Experiments in Truth and Religion

Thankful Thursday

2015-08-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

Quote of the day

2015-08-11T11:37:00.000-05:00

A student asked Suzuki Roshi why the Japanese make their teacups so thin and delicate that they break easily. "It's not that they're too delicate," he answered, "but that you don't know how to handle them. You must adjust yourself to the environment, and not vice versa."

~From: "To Shine One Corner of the World: Moments with Shunryu Suzuki: Stories of a Zen Teacher Told by His Students" (Edited by David Chadwick

The Point of No Return: Climate Change Nightmares Are Already Here

2015-08-10T18:58:00.000-05:00

The worst predicted impacts of climate change are starting to happen — and much faster than climate scientists expected

BY ERIC HOLTHAUS August 5, 2015

Walruses, like these in Alaska, are being forced ashore in record numbers. Corey Accardo/NOAA/AP

Historians may look to 2015 as the year when shit really started hitting the fan. Some snapshots: In just the past few months, record-setting heat waves in Pakistan and India each killed more than 1,000 people. In Washington State’s Olympic National Park, the rainforest caught fire for the first time in living memory. London reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit during the hottest July day ever recorded in the U.K.; The Guardian briefly had to pause its live blog of the heat wave because its computer servers overheated. In California, suffering from its worst drought in a millennium, a 50-acre brush fire swelled seventyfold in a matter of hours, jumping across the I-15 freeway during rush-hour traffic. Then, a few days later, the region was pounded by intense, virtually unheard-of summer rains. Puerto Rico is under its strictest water rationing in history as a monster El Niño forms in the tropical Pacific Ocean, shifting weather patterns worldwide.

Eric Rignot, a climate scientist at NASA and the University of California-Irvine and a co-author on Hansen's study, said their new research doesn't necessarily change the worst-case scenario on sea-level rise, it just makes it much more pressing to think about and discuss, especially among world leaders. In particular, says Rignot, the new research shows a two-degree Celsius rise in global temperature — the previously agreed upon "safe" level of climate change — "would be a catastrophe for sea-level rise."

Hansen's new study also shows how complicated and unpredictable climate change can be. Even as global ocean temperatures rise to their highest levels in recorded history, some parts of the ocean, near where ice is melting exceptionally fast, are actually cooling, slowing ocean circulation currents and sending weather patterns into a frenzy. Sure enough, a persistently cold patch of ocean is starting to show up just south of Greenland, exactly where previous experimental predictions of a sudden surge of freshwater from melting ice expected it to be. Michael Mann, another prominent climate scientist, recently said of the unexpectedly sudden Atlantic slowdown, "This is yet another example of where observations suggest that climate model predictions may be too conservative when it comes to the pace at which certain aspects of climate change are proceeding."

Since storm systems and jet streams in the United States and Europe partially draw their energy from the difference in ocean temperatures, the implication of one patch of ocean cooling while the rest of the ocean warms is profound. Storms will get stronger, and sea-level rise will accelerate. Scientists like Hansen only expect extreme weather to get worse in the years to come, though Mann said it was still "unclear" whether recent severe winters on the East Coast are connected to the phenomenon.

And yet, these aren't even the most disturbing changes happening to the Earth's biosphere that climate scientists are discovering this year. For that, you have to look not at the rising sea levels but to what is actually happening within the oceans themselves.

Water temperatures this year in the North Pacific have never been this high for this long over such a large area — and it is already having a profound effect on marine life.

Eighty-year-old Roger Thomas runs whale-watching trips out of San Francisco. On an excursion earlier this year, Thomas spotted 25 humpbacks and three blue whales. During a survey on July 4th, federal officials spotted 115 whales in a single hour near the Farallon Islands — enough to issue a boating warning. Humpbacks are occasionally seen offshore in California, but rarely so close to the coast or in such numbers. Why are they coming so close to shore? Exceptionally warm water has concentrated the krill and anchovies they feed on into a narrow band of relatively cool coastal water. The whales are having a heyday. "It's unbelievable," Thomas told a local paper. "Whales are all over

the place."

Last fall, in northern Alaska, in the same part of the Arctic where Shell is planning to drill for oil, federal scientists discovered 35,000 walruses congregating on a single beach. It was the largest-ever documented "haul out" of walruses, and a sign that sea ice, their favored habitat, is becoming harder and harder to find.

Marine life is moving north, adapting in real time to the warming ocean. Great white sharks have been sighted breeding near Monterey Bay, California, the farthest north that's ever been known to occur. A blue marlin was caught last summer near Catalina Island — 1,000 miles north of its typical range. Across California, there have been sightings of non-native animals moving north, such as Mexican red crabs.

Salmon on the brink of dying out. Michael Quinton/Newscom

No species may be as uniquely endangered as the one most associated with the Pacific Northwest, the salmon. Every two weeks, Bill Peterson, an oceanographer and senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Oregon, takes to the sea to collect data he uses to forecast the return of salmon. What he's been seeing this year is deeply troubling.

Salmon are crucial to their coastal ecosystem like perhaps few other species on the planet. A significant portion of the nitrogen in West Coast forests has been traced back to salmon, which can travel hundreds of miles upstream to lay their eggs. The largest trees on Earth simply wouldn't exist without salmon.

But their situation is precarious. This year, officials in California are bringing salmon downstream in convoys of trucks, because river levels are too low and the temperatures too warm for them to have a reasonable chance of surviving. One species, the winter-run Chinook salmon, is at a particularly increased risk of decline in the next few years, should the warm water persist offshore.

"You talk to fishermen, and they all say: 'We've never seen anything like this before,'” says Peterson. "So when you have no experience with something like this, it gets like, 'What the hell's going on?' "

Atmospheric scientists increasingly believe that the exceptionally warm waters over the past months are the early indications of a phase shift in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a cyclical warming of the North Pacific that happens a few times each century. Positive phases of the PDO have been known to last for 15 to 20 years, during which global warming can increase at double the rate as during negative phases of the PDO. It also makes big El Niños, like this year's, more likely. The nature of PDO phase shifts is unpredictable — climate scientists simply haven't yet figured out precisely what's behind them and why they happen when they do. It's not a permanent change — the ocean's temperature will likely drop from these record highs, at least temporarily, sometime over the next few years — but the impact on marine species will be lasting, and scientists have pointed to the PDO as a global-warming preview.

"The climate [change] models predict this gentle, slow increase in temperature," says Peterson, "but the main problem we've had for the last few years is the variability is so high. As scientists, we can't keep up with it, and neither can the animals." Peterson likens it to a boxer getting pummeled round after round: "At some point, you knock them down, and the fight is over."

Pavement-melting heat waves in India. Harish Tyagi/EPA/Corbis

Attendant with this weird wildlife behavior is a stunning drop in the number of plankton — the basis of the ocean's food chain. In July, another major study concluded that acidifying oceans are likely to have a "quite traumatic" impact on plankton diversity, with some species dying out while others flourish. As the oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it's converted into carbonic acid — and the pH of seawater declines. According to lead author Stephanie Dutkiewicz of MIT, that trend means "the whole food chain is going to be different."

The Hansen study may have gotten more attention, but the Dutkiewicz study, and others like it, could have even more dire implications for our future. The rapid changes Dutkiewicz and her colleagues are observing have shocked some of their fellow scientists into thinking that yes, actually, we're heading toward the worst-case scenario. Unlike a prediction of massive sea-level rise just decades away, the warming and acidifying oceans represent a problem that seems to have kick-started a mass extinction on the same time scale.

Jacquelyn Gill is a paleoecologist at the University of Maine. She knows a lot about extinction, and her work is more relevant than ever. Essentially, she's trying to save the species that are alive right now by learning more about what killed off the ones that aren't. The ancient data she studies shows "really compelling evidence that there can be events of abrupt climate change that can happen well within human life spans. We're talking less than a decade."

For the past year or two, a persistent change in winds over the North Pacific has given rise to what meteorologists and oceanographers are calling "the blob" — a highly anomalous patch of warm water between Hawaii, Alaska and Baja California that's thrown the marine ecosystem into a tailspin. Amid warmer temperatures, plankton numbers have plummeted, and the myriad species that depend on them have migrated or seen their own numbers dwindle.

Significant northward surges of warm water have happened before, even frequently. El Niño, for example, does this on a predictable basis. But what's happening this year appears to be something new. Some climate scientists think that the wind shift is linked to the rapid decline in Arctic sea ice over the past few years, which separate research has shown makes weather patterns more likely to get stuck.

A similar shift in the behavior of the jet stream has also contributed to the California drought and severe polar vortex winters in the Northeast over the past two years. An amplified jet-stream pattern has produced an unusual doldrum off the West Coast that's persisted for most of the past 18 months. Daniel Swain, a Stanford University meteorologist, has called it the "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge" — weather patterns just aren't supposed to last this long.

What's increasingly uncontroversial among scientists is that in many ecosystems, the impacts of the current off-the-charts temperatures in the North Pacific will linger for years, or longer. The largest ocean on Earth, the Pacific is exhibiting cyclical variability to greater extremes than other ocean basins. While the North Pacific is currently the most dramatic area of change in the world's oceans, it's not alone: Globally, 2014 was a record-setting year for ocean temperatures, and 2015 is on pace to beat it soundly, boosted by the El Niño in the Pacific. Six percent of the world's reefs could disappear before the end of the decade, perhaps permanently, thanks to warming waters.

Since warmer oceans expand in volume, it's also leading to a surge in sea-level rise. One recent study showed a slowdown in Atlantic Ocean currents, perhaps linked to glacial melt from Greenland, that caused a four-inch rise in sea levels along the Northeast coast in just two years, from 2009 to 2010. To be sure, it seems like this sudden and unpredicted surge was only temporary, but scientists who studied the surge estimated it to be a 1-in-850-year event, and it's been blamed on accelerated beach erosion "almost as significant as some hurricane events."

Biblical floods in Turkey. Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency/Getty

Possibly worse than rising ocean temperatures is the acidification of the waters. Acidification has a direct effect on mollusks and other marine animals with hard outer bodies: A striking study last year showed that, along the West Coast, the shells of tiny snails are already dissolving, with as-yet-unknown consequences on the ecosystem. One of the study's authors, Nina Bednaršek, told Science magazine that the snails' shells, pitted by the acidifying ocean, resembled "cauliflower" or "sandpaper." A similarly striking study by more than a dozen of the world's top ocean scientists this July said that the current pace of increasing carbon emissions would force an "effectively irreversible" change on ocean ecosystems during this century. In as little as a decade, the study suggested, chemical changes will rise significantly above background levels in nearly half ofthe world's oceans.

"I used to think it was kind of hard to make things in the ocean go extinct," James Barry of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California told the Seattle Times in 2013. "But this change we're seeing is happening so fast it's almost instantaneous."

Thanks to the pressure we're putting on the planet's ecosystem — warming, acidification and good old-fashioned pollution — the oceans are set up for several decades of rapid change. Here's what could happen next.

The combination of excessive nutrients from agricultural runoff, abnormal wind patterns and the warming oceans is already creating seasonal dead zones in coastal regions when algae blooms suck up most of the available oxygen. The appearance of low-oxygen regions has doubled in frequency every 10 years since 1960 and should continue to grow over the coming decades at an even greater rate.

So far, dead zones have remained mostly close to the coasts, but in the 21st century, deep-ocean dead zones could become common. These low-oxygen regions could gradually expand in size — potentially thousands of miles across — which would force fish, whales, pretty much everything upward. If this were to occur, large sections of the temperate deep oceans would suffer should the oxygen-free layer grow so pronounced that it stratifies, pushing surface ocean warming into overdrive and hindering upwelling of cooler, nutrient-rich deeper water.

Enhanced evaporation from the warmer oceans will create heavier downpours, perhaps destabilizing the root systems of forests, and accelerated runoff will pour more excess nutrients into coastal areas, further enhancing dead zones. In the past year, downpours have broken records in Long Island, Phoenix, Detroit, Baltimore, Houston and Pensacola, Florida.

Evidence for the above scenario comes in large part from our best understanding of what happened 250 million years ago, during the "Great Dying," when more than 90 percent of all oceanic species perished after a pulse of carbon dioxide and methane from land-based sources began a period of profound climate change. The conditions that triggered "Great Dying" took hundreds of thousands of years to develop. But humans have been emitting carbon dioxide at a much quicker rate, so the current mass extinction only took 100 years or so to kick-start.

With all these stressors working against it, a hypoxic feedback loop could wind up destroying some of the oceans' most species-rich ecosystems within our lifetime. A recent study by Sarah Moffitt of the University of California-Davis said it could take the ocean thousands of years to recover. "Looking forward for my kid, people in the future are not going to have the same ocean that I have today," Moffitt said.

As you might expect, having tickets to the front row of a global environmental catastrophe is taking an increasingly emotional toll on scientists, and in some cases pushing them toward advocacy. Of the two dozen or so scientists I interviewed for this piece, virtually all drifted into apocalyptic language at some point.

For Simone Alin, an oceanographer focusing on ocean acidification at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, the changes she's seeing hit close to home. The Puget Sound is a natural laboratory for the coming decades of rapid change because its waters are naturally more acidified than most of the world's marine ecosystems.

The local oyster industry here is already seeing serious impacts from acidifying waters and is going to great lengths to avoid a total collapse. Alin calls oysters, which are non-native, the canary in the coal mine for the Puget Sound: "A canary is also not native to a coal mine, but that doesn't mean it's not a good indicator of change."

Though she works on fundamental oceanic changes every day, the Dutkiewicz study on the impending large-scale changes to plankton caught her off-guard: "This was alarming to me because if the basis of the food web changes, then . . . everything could change, right?"

Alin's frank discussion of the looming oceanic apocalypse is perhaps a product of studying unfathomable change every day. But four years ago, the birth of her twins "heightened the whole issue," she says. "I was worried enough about these problems before having kids that I maybe wondered whether it was a good idea. Now, it just makes me feel crushed."

Katharine Hayhoe speaks about climate change to students and faculty at Wayland Baptist University in 2011. Geoffrey McAllister/Chicago Tribune/MCT/Getty

Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist and evangelical Christian, moved from Canada to Texas with her husband, a pastor, precisely because of its vulnerability to climate change. There, she engages with the evangelical community on science — almost as a missionary would. But she's already planning her exit strategy: "If we continue on our current pathway, Canada will be home for us long term. But the majority of people don't have an exit strategy. . . . So that's who I'm here trying to help."

James Hansen, the dean of climate scientists, retired from NASA in 2013 to become a climate activist. But for all the gloom of the report he just put his name to, Hansen is actually somewhat hopeful. That's because he knows that climate change has a straightforward solution: End fossil-fuel use as quickly as possible. If tomorrow, the leaders of the United States and China would agree to a sufficiently strong, coordinated carbon tax that's also applied to imports, the rest of the world would have no choice but to sign up. This idea has already been pitched to Congress several times, with tepid bipartisan support. Even though a carbon tax is probably a long shot, for Hansen, even the slim possibility that bold action like this might happen is enough for him to devote the rest of his life to working to achieve it. On a conference call with reporters in July, Hansen said a potential joint U.S.-China carbon tax is more important than whatever happens at the United Nations climate talks in Paris.

One group Hansen is helping is Our Children's Trust, a legal advocacy organization that's filed a number of novel challenges on behalf of minors under the idea that climate change is a violation of intergenerational equity — children, the group argues, are lawfully entitled to inherit a healthy planet.

A separate challenge to U.S. law is being brought by a former EPA scientist arguing that carbon dioxide isn't just a pollutant (which, under the Clean Air Act, can dissipate on its own), it's also a toxic substance. In general, these substances have exceptionally long life spans in the environment, cause an unreasonable risk, and therefore require remediation. In this case, remediation may involve planting vast numbers of trees or restoring wetlands to bury excess carbon underground.

Even if these novel challenges succeed, it will take years before a bend in the curve is noticeable. But maybe that's enough. When all feels lost, saving a few species will feel like a triumph.

From The Archives Issue 1241: August 13, 2015

The rise of Humanity -objective vs fictional reality

2015-08-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

Only human's can utilize language to tell stories which if believed can dictate behavior and morality.

Why do we not question our fictional reality?

Master Penman Jake Weidmann | HUMAN

2015-08-05T12:41:00.001-05:00

CAN THIS MASTER PENMAN SAVE HIS ARTFORM? Here's the fascinating story of Jake Weidmann, the youngest master penmen in the entire world...
Posted by UPROXX on Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Quote of the day

2015-08-05T08:48:00.000-05:00

With heart, the impossible is possible.

~Catherine Calarco

Thankful Thursday

2015-07-30T10:30:00.000-05:00

Nurture those dreams that allow you to bloom!

This can be done through gratitude!

Give thanks to that which makes you happy and healthy

Learning from the Struggles of Others

2015-07-27T15:19:00.000-05:00

The last few months have been a whirlwind for me and clearly I've been a little bit absent as of late - for that my dear readers I apologize for leaving you dangling in the wind as I finished my Master's degree. But enough dawdling!

Have you ever met someone who you instantly bonded with? Yeah?! Me too!

Well, that has been my life over the past 2 months. Through an odd attempt at a business venture I met some very wonderful women and connected with one of them on a level akin to well kin. It's like she is the long lost sister I never knew I had which is amazing because on closer inspection we have so little in common.

Like all of us at one point or another, she is struggling. I see her struggles in her Facebook posts and sometimes the lack there of, I see her struggles in her texts to me and feel her pain when she doesn't respond to my attempt to check up on her.

My advice to her when I give it, is based off my own experiences for really what else is there any of us can teach or preach to someone else? Sure we can verbally vomit some sage commentary from a book we read but to truly help someone else through their own personal struggle all we can and really should do is offer them an ear. Her struggles are her own and really only she can be the one to solve them, to muster through and defeat them! I'm just here to be her cheerleader; that's not so say I won't offer advice if she asks -and she does; how she chooses to use that advice is strictly up to her.

So, I'm sure you dear reader are wondering, how exactly do "I" learn from someone else's struggle?

As a cheerleader, as the lended ear and or shoulder to cry on, you get the front row seat of observation. Not only do you get to pin point all the steps and turns that brought your friends struggle but you get to see how it could have been prevented. This does NOT give you the right to JUDGE but it gives you the freedom to stop and take stock on your own life to see if you are truly on the right path for you. To ask yourself the question you may have advised your friend to ask: Does this action really benefit me, my life, or my future?

When you can help and guide someone, even if all you do is listen in silence, you gain the best experience short of going through the struggle yourself. Thinking of their struggle as a mini-life-lesson can teach you a lot about yourself; your strength's - your weaknesses. How you handle their struggle either through advice or through listening gives you insight as well. Each moment of interaction as you stand beside your friend is a learning moment for the both of you. When done correctly you will both come out on the other side better people and with a friendship bond that has been made greater by the experience. Ultimately our biggest struggle in life is that of our connection to those around us, so stop and listen, learn, and grow every chance you can because some day you may be the one who is struggling looking for a cheerleader, a shoulder to cry on, and someone else's sage advice.

With Health, Wealth, and Wisdom!
Your's truly!

How Industrial Ag is Making the Soil--and Us--Unhealthy

2014-09-13T13:49:00.002-05:00

Passing along this article in my inbox today. Hoping you enjoy...

Stay Healthy My Fans!

By Hannah Bewsey and Katherine Paul
Organic Consumers Association, September 11, 2014

For related articles and more information, please visit OCA's All About Organics page.

Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away? Not anymore, according to soil health experts—unless the apple comes from a tree grown in healthy, organic soil.

According to Australian soil scientist Christine Jones, as reported by Courtney White in his book, Grass, Soil, Hope, apples have lost 80 percent of their vitamin C.

And that orange you just ate to help ward off a cold? It’s entirely possible that it contains no vitamin C at all.

A study looking at vegetables from 1930 to 1980, found that iron levels had decreased by 22 percent, and calcium content by 19 percent. In the United Kingdom, from 1940 to 1990, copper content in vegetables fell by 76 percent, and calcium by 46 percent. The mineral content in meat was also significantly reduced.

Food forms the building blocks of our bodies and health. Soil forms the basis for healthy food. Unhealthy soil grows poor quality food. And poor quality food means poor health.

Even our mental health is linked to healthy soil, rich in microbes.

So what’s happened to our soil? It’s been under assault since the advent of modern industrial agriculture, with its monocrops, fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides.

The term “biodiversity” evokes images of a rich variety of plants—trees, flowers, grasses, fruits, vegetables—mixed in with an equally diverse collection of animals, insects and wildlife, all co-existing in a lush environment.

But there’s a whole world of biodiversity that lives beneath the surface of the earth—at least in areas where the soil hasn’t been destroyed. And that biodiversity is essential for the growth of nutrient-rich foods.

The Earth’s soil is a dynamic mixture of rock particles, water, gases, and microorganisms. Just one cup of soil contains more microorganisms than there are people on the planet. These diverse microbes compose a “soil food web,” a complex chain beginning with organic residues like decaying plant and animal matter, and ranging from bacteria and fungi to nematodes (worms) and bugs. Just by going about their daily lives in the dirt, these organisms decompose organic matter, stabilize the soil and help convert nutrients from one chemical form to another.

This rich diversity of microbes affects most soil properties, including moisture content, structure, density, and nutrient composition. When microbes are lost, the properties of soil that allow it to stabilize plants, convert chemicals, and perform other vital functions are also reduced. The microbe content of soil—its biodiversity—is nearly synonymous with soil health and fertility.

As Daphne Millier, physician, author and professor, writes, “soil teeming with a wide diversity of life (especially bacteria, fungi, and nematodes) is more likely to produce nutrient-dense food. Of course, this makes sense when you understand that it is the cooperation between bacteria, fungi, and plants’ roots (collectively referred to as the rhizosphere) that is responsible for transferring carbon and nutrients from the soil to the plant—and eventually to our plates.”

Unfortunately, human interactions have negatively impacted almost all aspects of soil health—we are responsible for the degradation of more than 40 percent of worldwide agricultural land.

What have we done to the soil? For starters, we’ve destabilized our soil ecosystems through the widespread and reckless use of chemicals—herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers—that destroy nearly everything in sight, except the plants themselves (many of them genetically engineered to withstand herbicides and pesticides). We end up with corn, soy, alfalfa and other crops that may appear “healthy,” but in truth, are nutrient-deficient because the nutrient-cycling quality of the soil has been destroyed.

And we do it as a matter of routine, even though it’s estimated that in the case of pesticides, for instance, only 0.1 percent of pesticides used actually interact with their targets; the rest pollute plants and soil.

As any gardener knows, nitrogen is one of the three essential soil nutrients. (Potassium and phosphorous are the other two). In order for nitrogen to “feed” plants, it must first be converted to ammonium or nitrate. Soil microbes, which are critical to the nitrogen cycle, achieve this conversion by feeding on decaying plant matter, digesting the elemental nitrogen contained in the decayed matter, and excreting nitrogen ions. The newly available nitrogen is taken up by plants, where it becomes available to humans either directly (when you eat the plant) or indirectly (through consumption of grazing animals).

What happens when soil is stripped of the microbes required to complete the nitrogen cycle? Farmers often resort to fertilizers that contain nitrogen. But the over-use of fertilizers leads to nutrients (like nitrogen) building up beyond the capacity of soil microbes to convert it into usable, absorbable nutrients. Too much nitrogen actually klls plant life.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, factory farming, where thousands of animals are confined in small spaces and fed grains (supplemented with antibiotics and hormones), rather than the forage nature intended, is behind much of the damage humans have inflicted on the soil.

At the core of industrial food production is monoculture—the practice of growing single crops intensively on a very large scale. Corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and rice are all commonly grown this way in the United States.

Monoculture farming relies heavily on chemical inputs such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

In a monocropping system, what soil organisms aren’t destroyed by chemicals and over-tilling, are edged out when their plant symbionts are lost.

The impact of the loss of soil biodiversity is linked to the increase in asthma and allergies in western societies. The human immune system is developed early in life through exposure to environmental stimuli. When meat or vegetables are lacking in certain bacteria and microbes, children can’t formulate that early immune response and so may develop an allergic reaction later in life.

If the numbers are any indicator, there’s a crisis in worldwide soil health that is rapidly becoming a crisis in human health. Converting from factory farms and conventional crops to pasture-grazing livestock and organic farming are the solution. According to one study, it’s possible to more than double soil biodiversity by replacing conventional farming methods with organic farming.

But we shouldn’t be satisfied with simply scaling back the problem. Regenerative agriculture is a crucial tool for actively reversing the harm caused by Big Ag practices. And there’s no time to waste—scientists say that a single square centimeter of soil can take from 20 to 1000 years to form.

Hannah Bewsey is a writer/researcher for the Organic Consumers Association.

Katherine Paul is associate director of the Organic Consumers Association.

Suicide Prevention

2014-09-12T14:49:00.001-05:00

Please support suicide prevention. Donate today!

http://afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=570737

Julian Treasure: Shh! Sound health in 8 steps

2014-06-27T13:02:00.000-05:00

Quote of the Day

2014-05-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

“In the age of technology there is constant access to vast amounts of information. The basket overflows; people get overwhelmed; the eye of the storm is not so much what goes on in the world, it is the confusion of how to think, feel, digest, and react to what goes on.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

Quote of the Day

2014-05-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

"I mean, is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? Not to me; but then, you might retort, what do I know about the pressure to be skinny? I’m not in the business of being judged on my looks, what with being a writer and earning my living by using my brain…"
~ J.K. Rowling

Air Pollution: Hazardous and Toxic Substances

2014-05-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

My upper Midwestern home may not be the cleanest city in the world when it comes to environmental health issues, but it certainly could be considered one of the cleanest cities in the upper Midwest. Researching heavy metal toxicity and hazardous substance health issues for my current environmental health course did not readily turn up anything outstanding. Turning to the Environmental Protection Agency’s “My Environment” web page helped to narrow down health risks. Under the My Health section is a list of the most common found hazardous substances and their environmental percentages; while Formaldehyde is number one on the list it was not listed under the CERCLA priority list of hazardous substances (Friis, 2012) that was a requirement of the assignment, so; my choice was to focus on the second most common hazardous substance in my community –Benzene.

Benzene is both a natural substance and a manmade substance; highly flammable and slightly sweet smelling it is a colorless to light yellow liquid when at room temperature that can evaporate easily into the air. Naturally occurring Benzene is found around volcanoes and during forest fires. Production of Benzene is mainly found as a component in industries that make plastics, resins, dyes, synthetic fibers, and pesticides and is ranked among the top twenty chemicals used in production in the United States. Unfortunately in the event of Benzene exposure there is no antidote for Benzene poisoning. The severity of Benzene poisoning is dependent upon the quantity and length of exposure. Benzene exposure is dangerous due to how it reacts in the human body. Benzene attacks the cells in the body starting at the site of exposure and causes them to stop working correctly. Blood cells are the most susceptible to Benzene allowing for exposure to become systemic causing issues with bone marrow production, a decrease in the number of red blood cells, and a decrease in immune function. These affects on the body can lead to anemia, prolonged bleeding time, and cancers like leukemia.

Exposure to Benzene most often occurs through inhalation and is found around gas stations, the emissions for motor vehicles, and industrial complexes the biggest culprit of Benzene exposure comes from the inhalation of cigarette smoke. Benzene levels can often be found at higher levels more so indoors than outside. Indoor exposure to Benzene comes from the glues and waxes used in furniture manufacturing, detergents, and paints. Because of its ease of exposure and toxicity level, the Environmental Protection Agency has it listed “as a Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) under the National Emissions Standard Hazardous Air Pollutants section of its Clean Air Act” (OSHA).

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has strict guidelines for industry and workers who handle Benzene on the job. Because of Benzene’s ability to evaporate easily, job sites need to make precautions available to prevent spills and splashes, provide employees with personal protective equipment and respirators designed to protect against Benzene. Routine medical examinations of employees who handle Benzene or work in areas with high concentration levels of Benzene are recommended. For workplace preventative exposure measures, employers are required by OSHA standards to provide personal protective equipment from full body cover to air purifying respirators. The respiratory protection standard for Benzene according to OSHA’s standard’s 29 CFR 1910.1028(g)(2)(i) and 29 CFR 1910-1028(g)(3)(i) state that “The employer must implement a respiratory protection program in accordance with § 1910.134(b) through (d) (except (d)(1)(iii), (d)(3)(iii)(b)(1) and (2)), and (f) through (m), which covers each employee required by this section to use a respirator” (OSHA).

The health effects of Benzene exposure are serious with its primary route of transmission occurring through either inhalation or direct skin contact. Though Benzene is not readily absorbed through the skin, there are instances that can speed up the process, such as; open wounds and when in combination with other chemicals that are readily absorbed. Health effects to the skin include irritation at the sight and prolonged dermal exposure can cause drying, scaling, and secondary infections. Inhalation of Benzene when in high concentrations act as a stimulant to the central nervous system and exposure is noted by changes in mood such as nervous excitement, giddiness, periods of depression, drowsiness, and/or fatigue. The individual may experience sensations of tightness within the chest along with shortness of breath followed by loss of consciousness. If the individual is not removed from the area or if they experience a severe exposure their symptoms will progress to tremors, convulsions, and respiratory paralysis which will ultimately result in death within several hours from exposure.

Post exposure measures are just as important as preventative measures. Some measures are as simple as moving out of the exposure area especially in the event of a Benzene leak. Removing clothing that may have become contaminated with liquid Benzene, cutting off those items of clothing that would require removal over the head so as to avoid contaminating the exposed skin on the face and causing harm to the eyes and nasal passages. Remove any Benzene contamination to the skin with a thorough washing with lots of soap and water, and rinsing eyes for a minimum of ten minutes if they are burning. Contaminated clothing and contacts (if worn) need to be disposed of properly in a plastic bag using rubber gloves to avoid further personal contamination. If an individual is suspected of drinking or ingesting Benzene it is important that they do not vomit and if they are unconscious not to do CPR, rather calling paramedics is of the highest priority.

With Benzene such a dangerous chemical, what actions are being taken to reduce exposure and accumulation of Benzene particles in the air? Through agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and laws like the Clean Air Act, there are steps to reduce air toxicity and pollution directed at some of the sources and causes for the reduction of Benzene levels within the air we breathe. Benzene is listed on the EPA’s list of mobile source air toxins for both on-road and non-road vehicles/equipment. As of 2007, the EPA has ruled that Benzene levels within gasoline and diesel need to be reduced in order to reduce the amount of Benzene emitted in the form of exhaust. Limiting or reducing one source of Benzene from the air will greatly reduce exposure to the general populace. Minneapolis takes the EPA standard for reduction of Benzene further with their anti-idling vehicle ordinance; limiting the amount of time commercial and private vehicles can sit while simultaneously saving fuel and reducing the Benzene levels in the air. This is important in that Minneapolis, like most urban areas, can potentially have higher air toxin levels of many different compounds that can be just as destructive to health as Benzene.

Reference:

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). Emergency Preparedness and Response:

Facts about Benzene. cdc.gov. Retrieved from: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/benzene/basics/facts.asp

Environmental Protection Agency. (2014). Overview: Pollutants and Programs: Mobile Source

Air Toxins. Retrieved from: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/toxics.htm

Environmental Protection Agency. (un). My Environment: 55417 zip code. epa.gov. Retrieved

from: http://www.epa.gov/myenv/myenview2.html?minx=-93.27839&miny=44.88896&maxx=-93.18312&maxy=44.91996&ve=13,44.90445,-93.23071&pSearch=55417,%20MN

Friis, R.H. (2012). Essentials of Environmental Health (2nd edition). Chapter 6: CERCLA

Priority List of Hazardous Substances; page 130. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (un). Medical Surveillance Guidelines for

Benzene. Regulations (Standards -29 CFR). US Department of Labor. Retrieved from: https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10045

Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (un). OSHA Standards. US

Department of Labor. Retrieved from: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/benzene/standards.html

Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (un). Safety and Health Topics: Benzene. US

Department of Labor. Retrieved from: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/benzene/