Headline, June22, 2013

'''TO THE WASTE PITS'''

'''History says, Don't hope

On this side of the grave

But then, once in a lifetime,

The longed-for tidal wave

E-waste is by far the fastest growing segment of the human waste stream. Most of the developed world's discarded equipment is shipped to China, India and Pakistan, where it is stripped by women and children working under appallingly hazardous conditions.

The incredible spurt in American consumption since the 1970s would not have been possible if America didn't have the world set up so that the lion's share of its resources flow towards America. The U.S. economy is so massive that in gross domestic product each state is comparable to a foreign country: Mississippi to Peru, Florida to Brazil, California to Italy, Texas to Canada, North Carolina to Sweden.

It is this affluence, and the unnecessary spending that it sucks you into, that is driving much of the destruction of the planet. As many as million flights a year are taken by passengers solely for the purpose of keeping up their elite status. Airplane fuel adds 600 million tons of carbon dioxide a year to the atmospheric mix   -3.5 per cent of the global human total.

It is obvious that an economy based on more and more -sooner than later- is going to collide with the reality that the earth has only so many raw materials to offer. How can i reduce my ecological footprint? people are beginning to wonder, as they realize that we are bringing the roof down on ourselves. What can I do make myself carbon-neutral?

Now here the sad truth:

The sad truth is that real carbon neutrality is impossible because, apart from everything else, each of us take  -26,000-  breaths a day, and each breath removes oxygen from the atmosphere and replaces it with carbon dioxide. As far as I and the world is aware, no one has gone so far as to sacrifice himself to for the environment, but you do the next best thing and go belly-up.

Then there are all the things that you can do without   -from plastic bags to blood diamonds, to digital and electronic appliances containing tantalum. Slip a ceramic mug in your handbag, fold your toilet paper as many times as you can, turn the lights off when you are not in the room. So, instead of counting the calories you are burning, start calculating the carbon you are emitting.

If all that cramps your style somewhat, consider this : even if you don't release another molecule of Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, that's already there is going to take 100 years to cycle out   -and we haven't even felt its full effects. But if we can keep warming to 2 degrees centigrade through 2100, we might save the coral reefs that are left. We might even forestall the ghastly crashes projected for this century  -no glaciers, no fish, no Amazon rain forest etc, so its worth doing everything we can.

The US is responsible for 35 percent of worldwide carbon emissions since industrialization. Sadly in parts to the US oblivious hyper-consumption of trees, oil, minerals, and other natural resources around the world, species are disappearing 100 to 1000 times faster than they have in millennia.

The world's belief in the ''myth of superabudance'' a phrase coined back in 1963 by US Secretary of Interior Stuart Udall, now has to be retired. The sooner the world and US gets it, the fewer of our fellow creatures are going to die, and the more hospitable and inhabitable the planet we leave to the generations that follow.

Of justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme.'''

This energizing masterpiece is from Seamus Heaney. Hugely engaging as this longing is for hope and history to rhyme together!

Indeed, the theory of justice, -in the affairs of the world- as formulated under the currently dominant transcendental institutionalism, reduces many of the most relevant issues of justice into empty   -even if acknowledged to be ''well meaning''   -rhetoric.

Respectful dedication to all the aggrieved people of the world.

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless