Sabelmouse's Blog (187)

Biofuels: can they fuel our lifestyle without taking food from the poor?

A consultation by the UK Nuffield Council on Bioethics wants to hear public opinion on the new generation of biofuels

Green crude from oil processed from algae Just in case you thought it was safe to stop thinking about biofuels, here comes another study – this time into the ethics. Can a new generatio… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 23, 2009 at 8:32am — No Comments

Your Child's First Healer

Issue 152 - January/February 2009 by Peggy O'Mara, Editor and Publisher Before your child is born, it's hard to imagine all of the roles you will play as a mother. The first time your baby is sick, for example, you don't know what to do, and you certainly don't consider yourself a healer. Even doctors who are mothers have told me that they feel this way. And yet it is your touch, your voice, and your companionship that will bring your child back to health again and again. Your touch is what… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 23, 2009 at 8:05am — No Comments

The Lancet Commentary - Kids Should Skip the Seasonal Flu Vaccine

Dutch scientists have launched a controversial debate about the flu jab in an opinion piece titled "Yearly influenza vaccinations: a double-edged sword?" published October 30, 2009 in the British medical journal, The Lancet Infectious Diseases. They suggested that children should not be given the flu vaccine so that they might develop , which should protect them from swine and bird flu. They expressed their concern that "preventing infection with seasonal influenza viruses by vaccination might p… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 23, 2009 at 8:00am — No Comments

Who Will Protect the Children?

Issue 117 By Peggy O'Mara Many people have told me their concerns about the Homeland Security Act and the threat of smallpox vaccination. The questions now being raised about the smallpox vaccine mirror the concerns of parents of vaccine-damaged children as well as those of people who conscientiously object to vaccines. Smallpox is a serious disease for which there is no treatment; in past outbreaks the mortality rate has been 30 percent. The disease was considered to have been eradicated in 1… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 23, 2009 at 7:17am — No Comments

Vaccinations: Why All The Fuss?

Issue 134 by Peggy O'Mara Mothering has been publishing articles on vaccination for 27 years. In 1979, our first article on vaccines was intended for the early Mothering readership of natural-living pioneers who questioned medical interventions in general. Newer generations question not only the general effects of vaccinations, but also specific vaccines and specific ingredients of vaccines. In 1982, for example, parents whose children were injured by the whole-cell pertussis vaccine formed th… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 23, 2009 at 7:08am — No Comments

Off to the Races

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: December 19, 2009 I’ve long believed there are two basic strategies for dealing with climate change — the “Earth Day” strategy and the “Earth Race” strategy. This Copenhagen climate summit was based on the Earth Day strategy. It was not very impressive. This conference produced a series of limited, conditional, messy compromises, which it is not at all clear will get us any closer to mitigating climate change at the speed and scale we need. Indeed, anyone who… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 22, 2009 at 5:11am — No Comments

For Obama, No Opportunity Too Big to Blow , Naomi Klein

Get Breaking News Alerts * Share * Comments 731 Cross-posted with EnviroNation. Contrary to countless reports, the debacle in Copenhagen was not everyone's fault. It did not happen because human beings are incapable of agreeing, or are inherently self-destructive. Nor was it all was China's fault, or the fault of the hapless UN. There's plenty of blame to go around, but there was one country that possessed unique power to change the game. It didn't use it. If Barack Obama had come to Copenha… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 22, 2009 at 5:10am — No Comments

We're all eco-warriors now after world leaders failed us at Copenhagen

Our political leaders failed to do the right thing: now it's up to us to push them into action or get on with it without them What did the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen achieve? Our governments failed to agree a deal which might have avoided a global catastrophe. They did nothing but take yet another "important first step". We've had nearly two decades of those. It's likely that Copenhagen is a long-term disaster for the planet and its people, but it might have another, more immediate… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 22, 2009 at 5:03am — No Comments

If you want to know who's to blame for Copenhagen, look to the US Senate

The last time global negotiations collapsed like this was in Doha, in 2001. After the trade talks fell apart, the World Trade Organisation assured delegates that there was nothing to fear: they would move to Mexico, where a deal would be done. The negotiations ran into the sand of the Mexican resort of Cancún, never to re-emerge. After eight years of dithering, nothing has been agreed. When the climate talks in Copenhagen ended in failure last week, Yvo de Boer, the man in charge of the process… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 22, 2009 at 4:58am — No Comments

The Greatest Animal Comeback Stories Of The Decade (PHOTOS)

here is nothing like a good comeback story to lift the spirits and renew your hope in the seemingly impossible. These eleven, amazing animals were all pushed to the brink of extinction. With the help of conservationists, however, they've turned into comeback kids. These animals also prove that with enough effort, people truly can protect endangered wildlife. Check out their inspiring stories. http://www.h… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 21, 2009 at 9:21am — No Comments

In rape cases, 'no' means 'no' to everyone except the British public

Judges and the police have come far since the 70s. How sad juries haven't kept pace * Nick Cohen * The Observer, Sunday 20 December 2009 * Article history A young woman walks into a bar, drinks too much and carelessly shows the man next to her that she is carrying a wad of notes in her handbag. He mugs her on her way home and the police arrest him. The jurors mutter that she has no one to blame but herself, but they don't mean it. However much of an idiot they think she has been, they still kn… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 20, 2009 at 7:24am — No Comments

Fraud, Cancer, House Collapse: Adversity Inspires Philly Mom To Pay It Forward

Lasheild Myers is able to laugh a little now when she describes the first event in 1997 that changed her life.

"I came home one night from a 16-hour double shift working in a nursing home and the front of my house was on the ground," Myers described. "I was walking down the street and I got to where my… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 20, 2009 at 7:00am — No Comments

Obama offers Copenhagen little hope

There was much Barack Obama could have told the climate summit delegates, but he left them disappointed o Suzanne Goldenberg o guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 December 2009 13.30 GMT o Article history Barack Obama speaks at the Copenhagen summit President Obama speaks at the Copenhagen climate change summit. Photograph: Susan Walsh/Associated Press The atmosphere inside the hangar-like convention centre where the Copenhagen climate summit is being held does not immediately suggest the kind of plac… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 18, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Barack Obama's speech disappoints and fuels frustration at Copenhagen

US president offers no further commitment on reducing emissions or on finance to poor countries * Suzanne Goldenberg and Allegra Stratton in Copenhagen * guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 December 2009 12.53 GMT * Article history On the final day of UN climate talks Barack Obama tells world leaders: 'I come not to talk but to act' Link to this video Barack Obama stepped into the chaotic final hours of the Copenhagen summit today saying he was convinced the world could act "boldly and decisively" on… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 18, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Proof Copenhagen Is "an Elaborate Sham"

— By Bill McKibben | Thu Dec. 17, 2009 1:17 PM PST For two weeks we've been listening to the story of the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia—a media tempest in an English teapot. And all the time the biggest scandal has been directly under our noses. This afternoon at Copenhagen a document mysteriously leaked from the UN Secretariat. It was first reported from the Guardian, and by the time it was posted online it oddly had my name scrawled all across the top—I don't know why, bec… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 18, 2009 at 6:48am — No Comments

Michael Mann speaks out on hacked climate science emails

Climatologist involved in leaked emails row fears controversy could hinder future scientific discourse. From environmentalresearchweb, part of the Guardian Environment Network * Comments (18) * Buzz up! * Digg it * Liz Kalaugher for environmentalresearchweb, part of the Guardian Environment Network * guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 December 2009 10.14 GMT * Article history Few, if any, climate researchers will be unaware of the saga of leaked emails from the Climatic Research Unit at the University… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 18, 2009 at 6:45am — No Comments

These videogames are not art. They are extreme pornography

Has imagery of violence against women become so normal that we no longer notice it? Mark Kermode says we should be relaxed about adult themes in videogames (Should we avoid violent games?, 11 December). He confesses to knowing nothing about these games: "I don't play them and probably never will." But he then says, "I do know something about horror films, and the moral panic they provoke," and takes issue with the "ominous sense of ill-informed outrage" about the modern videogames market. He t… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 18, 2009 at 6:33am — No Comments

How about we stop claiming environmentalists are “anti-human”

In the dark of night yesterday—OK, at 8:02 p.m.—Slate published a piece by Anne Applebaum that calls out the “anti-human prejudices of the climate change movement.” Specifically, she is worried that the news coming from Copenhagen is turning her nine-year-old son into a nihilist. Because her son used apocalyptic climate change as an excuse to not do his homework: “By the time I’m grown up, the polar ice caps will have melted and everyone will have drowned.” Seems to me her son is creative, clev… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 18, 2009 at 6:19am — No Comments

Better to have no deal at Copenhagen than one that spells catastrophe

The only offer on the table in Copenhagen would condemn the developing world to poverty and suffering in perpetuity On the ninth day of the Copenhagen climate summit, Africa was sacrificed. The position of the G77 negotiating bloc, including African states, had been clear: a 2C increase in average global temperatures translates into a 3–3.5C increase in Africa. That means, according to the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, "an additional 55 million people could be at risk from hunger", and… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 17, 2009 at 1:05pm — No Comments

The Protesters Offer the Best Hope at Copenhagen

At first glance, the Copenhagen climate summit seems like a Salvador Dali dreamscape. I just saw Archbishop Desmond Tutu being followed by a swarm of Japanese students who were dressed as aliens and carrying signs saying "Take Me To Your Leader" and "Is Your Species Crazy?". Before that, a group of angry black-clad teenage protesters who were carrying spray cans started quoting statistics to me about how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere can safely absorb. (It's 350 parts per million they point… Continue

Added by sabelmouse on December 16, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments