Song for Jasmine

Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, has recently given the best political speech I have ever heard. Released with the premier of “Age of Stupid“, his message to the world about climate change was very clear. If you’ve never heard a politician talking straight and making sense before, you may find it refreshing.

“Age of Stupid” was released on March 15th in the UK. Set in 2055, it’s a film about the consequences of global warming, made using a lot of real news footage from recent times. For example, one clip features French mountain guide Fernand Pareau reflecting on the way the glaciers and Alps have changed in his 82 years. The film stars Pete Poslethwaite as a man looking back at 2008 and asking “why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?”. Pete is a lovely actor, highly charismatic and gloriously ugly (no offense intended, Pete). I just loved him in “Jurassic Park – The Lost World”, a role rather at the opposite end of the ecological spectrum. Pete clearly believes in the message of “Age of Stupid”, he has a wind turbine in his garden in Shropshire.

Back to President Nasheed, what did he say in his speech? Well, for one thing, he announced that the Maldives is going to be carbon-neutral within a decade. In his own words:

That’s a bold statement, but is it really such a big deal for such a small nation to achieve that? I think so, it’s not like they have a great deal of flexibility in going carbon-neutral, their choices are very limited. They import all their wheat, so it’s unlikely they can grow biofuel crops. They can’t relocate to higher ground to escape rising sea levels, because they don’t have any high ground to go to. They have no mineral resources and very little in the way of agriculture. As far as natural resources go, they have sand, sea, coral, fish, and tourists. That’s not a lot to work with.

The credit-crunch is already affecting the Maldivian tourist trade, tourism is down 14% on last year. They are calling it the ‘financial tsunami’, referring to the drop in tourism after the tsunami of December 2004.

Global warming will damage the reefs in many ways, such as bleaching through heat-stress, acidification from the extra CO2 dissolved in the ocean, and erosion from rising sea levels and extreme weather events. When the reefs suffer, the fish suffer too, so they get hit from all sides. No, small as they are, I reckon that going carbon-neutral has to be a lot harder for them than it would be for many other nations with more resources at their disposal.

President Nasheed is taking other measures to protect his nation. I’ve written before about some of the things the Maldivian government is doing to address climate change, but that’s not all of it. He’s reduced the cost of the presidency from $150 million per year to $4 million, and is selling the $7.5 million presidential yacht. He chose not to occupy the presidential palace, it may become a museum or a university. Instead, he shares an office with his secretary. Clearly he doesn’t want to squander the resources at his disposal.

The Maldivian government also recently introduced a total ban on shark fishing within their waters, extending a previous ban which only covered the tourist atolls. Sharks are top predators in the marine environment, and as such they are essential to maintaining the health of a coral reef ecosystem. The Maldivian Ministry of Fisheries is working to find alternate livelihoods for the shark-fishermen, so they will have no reason to defy the ban. This is important when you realise that these are not rich people killing sharks for fun, but just poor people trying to feed their families, and one shark-fin can be worth $100. There’s a very good discussion on shark-finning on the Southern Fried Scientist blog, but be warned, the video linked there is not for the faint of heart.

President Nasheed says “for untold fossil fuel consumption in our lifetime, we are trading our children’s place in an earthly paradise”. It would be understandable to think that the Maldives has more at stake than the rest of us, since they are such a small, island nation, but that would be totally and terribly wrong. If the world can’t save countries such as the Maldives today, we won’t be able to save places such as London, New York, or Hong Kong tomorrow. Much of Manhattan could be under water by the end of this century, and the longer it takes for us to act, the worse it will be.

The last part of President Nasheeds’ speech is directed towards the climate conference in Copenhagen in December of this year:

Well said, President Nasheed, it seems to me the world could do with more leaders like you. Perhaps if we all send a clear message to our own leaders, we might get the message through in time.

Some dates for your diary:

• 28th March, 8:30-9:30 local time, Earth Hour
• 22nd April, Earth Day
• 20th-30th March, Semaine sans Pesticides (“Week without pesticides”)

Earth Hour 2009

Earth Hour is something that started only two years ago, but is catching on fast. In 2007, 2.2 million homes and businesses in Sydney, turned out their lights for one hour, as a gesture to raise awareness about global warming. Last year, 50 million people took part, in 400 cities in 35 countries around the world.

This year, over 80 countries will take part, representing over 1400 cities (and growing fast). The Eiffel Tower in Paris is one of many major landmarks worldwide that will have its lights turned off for that hour. Apparently Switzerland hasn’t heard about it yet, but there’s still time.

They’re hoping to have a billion people participate this year, so please visit the Earth Hour site, watch their rather impressive video, and join in. Maybe invite a friend or two over for the evening of the 28th and see how much fun you can have with the lights out!

Earth Day 2009

Earth Day, just over three weeks later, is a bit less dramatic, but they claim to already have a billion people participate in their activities, so it’s no small thing. Earth Day has been around since the 1960′s, and is aimed at raising awareness about environmental issues. There are a variety of different events, organised all over the place, so there may be something near you. Switzerland are on board this one, at least in Zurich, as far as I can tell. It’s unfortunate that the earthday.net web-site is so poorly structured, it’s really hard to find anything useful there. You might have more luck with Google., or you can find some ideas on how to participate at the earth911.com site.

Making the bridge between Earth Hour and Earth Day, you can take the Earth Hour 2 Earth Day Challenge if you want to do more.

A Week Without Pesticides 2009

Another noteworthy event is “Semaine sans pesticides” (“Week without pesticides”). This started in France, and is young, like Earth Hour, this year being only its fourth year. France uses more pesticide than any other country in Europe (76,000 tonnes per year), and this movement is all about letting people know there are better ways of doing things. It has also become an international event, and this year it has gone as far as Brazil. Check out their website to find out what’s going on near you.

An American study published last year showed that pesticides can be measured in young children on a conventional diet, and that switching to organic foods eliminated the pesticides from the childrens’ bodies in less than 36 hours. Switch back to a conventional diet and the pesticides are detectable again almost immediately, which means the children are eating pesticides every day. I don’t know about you, but that rather worries me.

So, there’s a lot going on in the near future, and it’s easy to get involved. Attend one or more of the events for Earth Day or Semaine sans Pesticides, or switch off your lights for an hour on the 28th and have some fun.

Oh, that reminds me, I haven’t mentioned this to DweezelJazz yet. DweezelJazz, fancy spending an hour with me in the dark on a Saturday evening?

The oldest song about pollution that I know of about is by Tom Lehrer, a mathematician, pianist, and satirist, who wrote many fun songs. “Pollution” was written sometime around 1962-1963, coincidentally the same time that Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, a book which is often credited with having started the environmental movement.

It’s not just the English-speaking world that was singing about pollution, Johnny Hallyday released “La Pollution” in 1970, some 39 years ago. There’s a list of French songs on an environmental theme on Yahoo, if you want more.

More recently, the Australian group Midnight Oil have been actively campaigning in their music for aboriginal rights, and on environmental issues. Their singer, Peter Garrett, has taken his protests one step further. Since November 2007 he is the Environment Minister in the Australian government.

I was surprised when I first found out that people were singing about pollution over 40 years ago. If anyone knows of an older song about pollution, I’d love to hear about it please. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy Tom, there’s a lot of his stuff on YouTube if you want more.

Allergies can cause runny noses and rashes, but they can also cause extreme changes in behaviour. Dr.Doris Rapp has known this for many years, and in October 1989 she appeared on the Phil Donahue show to tell America about it. The show received 175,000 letters as a result, and the switchboard was jammed with callers wanting to know more.

Dr.Rapp is a board certified environmental medical specialist and pediatric allergist. She told the audience two things that went against the mainstream medical opinion of the time, and in fact are still not as widely recognised as they should be.

• Allergies can cause changes in behaviour. These can often be severe and uncontrollable, and frequently go unrecognised or are misdiagnosed as psychological problems.
• People can be allergic to a wide variety of things, more than just the usual suspects. Many of the people she examines have been told by doctors that they could not possibly be allergic to things that they have begun to suspect for themselves, only to find that they were right.

The entire TV show is available on YouTube, and I can recommend it to anyone who has 45 minutes spare to watch it. For those of you that don’t, here are some of the highlights I have extracted for you. I should add that I have no medical background, and everything I report here is from watching the video for myself.

The first clip shows Ned. He’s allergic to tomato, milk, and natural gas. He was misdiagnosed as having Tourette’s syndrome, because his allergies cause him to become extremely violent. In this extract you can hear him say that he knows he is being violent but that he can’t help himself.

Jonathon (not shown here) is allergic to tree pollen. He became violent when he went outside to play. He’s also allergic to many processed foods and bananas. Even the smell of bananas provokes a strong reaction from him.

Alicia was classified as a difficult child, with manipulative behaviour and temper tantrums. She becomes giddy and giggly when she eats peas. She also reacts to detergents on peoples clothing, sometimes reacting to someone simply as they walk by.

Marsha spent 57 days in hospital at $750 per day, but was not correctly diagnosed. She becomes sad and withdrawn when she comes into contact with flouride, such as we find in toothpaste and tap water. After she was correctly diagnosed and treated, her IQ went from 56 to 128. Quite a difference.

Daryl became angry and sad and hid under the table when exposed to the air in his school after construction work took place. His pulse was 120 when he sat in the class, but only 100 when he was running around in the playground outside. His IQ rose 19 points when an air purifier was put in the room with him.

Another boy, Brian, became so violent that his family had to move. He is allergic to milk, peanuts, wheat, soy, and corn. Like most of the children on this show, he is also allergic to sugar.

Dr.Rapp proposes a simple way for you to investigate for yourself if you suspect that someone you know has allergies or sensitivities.

• Have the person write something, draw something, or describe how they feel
• Have them eat something
• 20 minutes later, have them write, draw, or describe their feelings again

You can also try this in different rooms in your home, at school, indoors and outdoors, to see if the environment is a factor.

If you suspect a food allergy you can schedule certain foods to be off the menu for 4 days, then back on, and see what changes when you do that. By trial and error, you may be able to identify a source of problems. As Dr.Rapp says, when you see a sudden change in behaviour, mood, or responsiveness, think about what the person ate, smelled, or touched.

One more thing she emphasised on that show. If your doctor tells you that it’s impossible to be allergic to something, they’re probably wrong.

an organically grown carrot

The BBC published an article on Tuesday with the title Farmers fear EU pesticide rules. Interestingly, a few hours later they changed the title to “Euro MPs back pesticide controls”. This concerns the very law that I mentioned in a previous post, “Optimism“.

It’s a shame the BBC changed the title, but the story still made it out into the world with that title, so i feel I am allowed to refer to it as such. So why should British farmers fear these rules? The majority of the EU states welcomes them, as do I, though the MEPs don’t ask me for my opinion.

Apparently, they fear the rise in price that would follow the drop in productivity, even to the point that the ‘British carrot’ could become extinct. Why, then, does the Soil Association believe otherwise? The Soil Association is an organisation that supports and promotes organic farming. They published a report in October 2008 entitled “England And Wales Under Organic Agriculture”, in which they discuss the consequences (email them if you want a copy, it’s not available for download). They point out that going completely organic could, for the UK, reduce the use of fertilizers by 95%, spraying by 98%, and increase jobs by 73%. There are many other benefits, not least of which is a huge reduction in the carbon footprint of their food.

The common objection to going organic is that yields would decline. This report shows that they would not suffer as much as is often claimed, Britain would not starve. It might even be better off with the right balance of farming techniques, there’s plenty of scope. If the Argentinians can manage to raise organic beef on large farms and export it around the world, surely Britain can do likewise?

Unfortunately, the soil-association report doesn’t mention the fate of the British carrot, so I don’t know what would happen there.

France is not so scared of going organic, it seems. The French are putting 12 million euros annually into turning their farms organic. They want organic production to grow considerably in the near future. France is the biggest consumer of pesticides in europe, but they don’t seem to be scared of running out of carrots as they change their ways.

Shopping at Satoriz with Jasmine

Personally, I buy most of my food from a French organic chain, Satoriz (Jasmine often came with us). Their prices are reasonable, the quality is good, and they have a full range of organic products, from soap and baby food to beer and wine. Oh yes, and carrots, like the one at the top of this post. I’ve also noticed that the food I buy from there tastes better than food I get from elsewhere. Satoriz have a lot of shops in my area, and have recently opened a large new outlet. I hope they continue to do well.

America, too, has an agricultural system strongly based in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As Obama prepares to be sworn in as president, there are people calling on him to reform the way the USA produces food, citing largely the same reasons.

So if all the French, the Argentinians, and the USA think they can produce food without so many chemicals, I have to wonder what the British farmers have to fear? Surely they aren’t really scared for their carrots?

I get free petrol this month. In fact, I expect to get free petrol every December from now on. I didn’t win the lottery, and I don’t have a company car, so how do I manage it?

About a year ago I read some articles on the web about how driving differently can reduce petrol consumption, with all the benefits that entails. I hadn’t thought about it much until then, but I decided to give it a go. Now I find I can travel about 8 or 9% further than before for the same amount of petrol.

That may not sound like a lot, but one month is 8.3% of a year, so as I see it, my petrol is free this month. I think I’ll use some of the money to take Dweezeljazz out to dinner.

There are several pages on the web now that discuss driving economically. There’s one from the BBC which has a graph of CO2 emissions versus speed. It shows that the most fuel-efficient speeds for driving are about 35-50 mph (60-80 kph).

There’s a more detailed BBC article and an an article in French that discuss the same topic. Between them, they make a number of suggestions

• drive smoothly, accelerating and braking gently
• remove the roof-rack and any excess weight
• check your tyre pressure
• change your air filter regularly
• don’t leave the engine idling unnecessarily
• change gear early, maintain constant speeds when possible
• use engine-braking rather than your foot. Modern cars will reduce the petrol injection when engine-braking
• opening the windows or using the air-conditioning will increase consumption
• know your route, to avoid unnecessary use of the car
• avoid unnecessary trips, especially short ones which don’t give the engine time to warm up

Driving economically not only saves petrol, it also reduces wear and tear on the car in general. It reduces your emissions of greenhouse-gasses and other pollutants, and makes the roads safer for pedestrians and other road-users.

Driving economically is one thing, but the last two points in the list above address the issue from a different perspective, consuming less petrol by avoiding use of the car. There are other ways to do that too, such as car-pooling, or sharing a shopping trip with a friend or neighbour. If you work flexible hours you may be able to adopt a schedule that avoids you getting caught in rush-hour traffic.

There’s another way to save petrol with the car, that’s to not drive it all the way to where you’re going. Instead of driving to my office, I now park my car over a kilometre away and walk the rest of the distance. It adds 15 minutes to my journey, but I get a lot of good exercise in the process. Getting that exercise by other means would undoubtedly take more time than that out of my day. Instead of just walking along the road, I have a route from the car to the office which avoids traffic, so I’m not breathing so much vehicle pollution. It’s not flat either, so I get even more exercise from the steps I climb up and down every day.

It’s actually a very pleasant walk, I get to see many interesting things on the way. All the photographs in this post were taken on that walk at one time or another. I get to see things like this daily, but I wouldn’t see them at all if I simply drove all the way to my office.

According to the BBC, driving economically can reduce petrol consumption by 10-15%. Apparently, Ford themselves believe people could reduce their consumption by up to 25%. I know I could try harder, and maybe, if I do, I will have free petrol earlier next year.

I’d like that, Dweezeljazz and I know a number of good restaurants nearby.

Jasmine is an African Grey parrot. That’s her flying through the banner, here in the kitchen, and elsewhere on this site. She came to live with us in April 2007, and just 18 short months later we had to have her put down. She had such severe allergies to the chemicals and products that people use everyday that she wasn’t able to survive. She should have outlived me, but she wasn’t even three years old. She would have been three this month, November 2008.

I have become increasingly concerned in recent years about pollution, climate change, and the ways in which we are poisoning our world. African Greys are an endangered species, on the CITES lists, and for Jasmine to succumb to allergies induced by modern western life is as ironic as it is tragic.

Jasmine’s story has been told elsewhere, on the Dweezeljazz and Chipper’s Alley blogs. With this blog I hope to share some of the things that I find beautiful about the world and to raise awareness (my own included) about the ways in which we can help to preserve it.

I am English in origin, but have lived in France for many years now. I intend to build this site in both languages in parallel, and hope the native French-speakers among you will forgive me my mistakes.