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Monday, February 17, 2003
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Arnie Cooper interviews Duane Elgin: “Simplify, simplify.” When Henry David Thoreau made this plea 150 years ago, he was reacting to the increasing complexity of life around him. Today we find ourselves in a far more complex world, one in which increasing numbers of us are beginning to see the wisdom in Thoreau’s appeal. Duane Elgin helped define this trend back in 1981 with his first book, Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Morrow). In that now-classic text, updated and reprinted in 1993, Elgin encouraged us not just to cut back on consumption and ease our busy schedules, but to live a life with purpose, in which every action is the result of a conscious choice. Since bringing voluntary simplicity to the attention of the larger culture, Elgin has focused on how humanity can survive on a planet whose natural resources are stretched to their limits. The ultimate test, he believes, will be in how we respond to the challenges of the coming years, when he predicts that environmental problems will reach a breaking point. His latest book, Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future (Morrow), paints a chilling picture of the cultural and ecological dangers we will face, yet offers an optimistic view of the possibility for humankind’s survival and evolution into a more mature species. (02/17/03) | |
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Linda McQuaig writes: The astonishing thing about American power is not that it will soon crush the feeble nation of Iraq, but that it has managed for months to keep world attention riveted on Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" when Washington's real interest is Iraq's oil. In saying that, I realize I risk being dismissed as a naive, knee-jerk simpleton. One is allowed to voice skepticism about the upcoming invasion and still move in sophisticated circles these days. It's quite appropriate at a cocktail party, for instance, to question the timing of the invasion or to wonder whether the U.S. has the stomach to deal with post-war Iraq. These are serious questions, according to New Yorker magazine editor David Remnick, who at the same time is dismissive of those who think war is being driven by "a conspiracy of oil interests." Let me redeem myself slightly, by saying that I partially agree with the sophisticates — this war is not just about oil. It's also, for instance, about eliminating an intransigent foe of Israel and possibly diverting Iraqi water to Israel. And it's about giving George Bush a major military victory, without risking nuclear mayhem too close to an election. But it's also very much about oil. It's odd there's so much resistance to this notion, since commentators sniff the oil factor quickly enough when analyzing the motivations of countries like France and Russia. (02/17/03) | |
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BBC Science -- British researchers are hoping to harness the body's natural killer cells to fight cancer. The immune cells produce chemicals that destroy foreign invaders and rogue leukaemia cells. Scientists at London's Royal Free Hospital believe an infusion of the cells from a donor could help leukaemia patients. They are trying to find a way to treat sufferers of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) who relapse after treatment and do not have a suitable match for a bone marrow transplant. ... The new research is based on a technique to filter natural killer cells from donated blood. The team aims to grow the cells in the laboratory and use them as a therapy. (02/17/03) | |
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BBC Science -- Drinking green tea could help keep arthritis at bay, say scientists. The tea, first discovered in China nearly 5,000 years ago, has long been thought to be beneficial to health. It has been linked to preventing coronary heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer. But now researchers in Sheffield have found that two compounds found in green tea, EGCG (epigallocatchin gallate) and ECG (epicatechin gallate) can help prevent osteoarthritis by blocking the enzyme that destroys cartilage. Dr David Buttle, of the University of Sheffield, said laboratory tests showed the benefits of regular green tea consumption. "Green tea should be drunk as a prophylactic to prevent disease." (02/17/03) | |
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New York Times -- Spurred in part by the agency that supplies water to most of Suffolk County, a campaign is under way to ask residents to rethink the way they keep their lawns green. Several nonprofit bodies are promoting the use of organic methods — those that recreate the natural process — to maintain lawns and gardens, a process those involved with water quality say would keep excessive amounts of chemicals, like nitrates, found in synthetic fertilizers and pesticides out of the groundwater. According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, if the concentration of nitrates found in drinking water exceeds E.P.A. health standards, health problems may result. There are some drinking water sources in East Northport and the North Fork area that, before treatment, exceed these standards as a result of farming that was done there many years ago. ... Because of a sharp increase in water use during the summer, the agency has begun a campaign aimed at educating its 360,000 customers on how to change their watering habits and still keep their lawns green and urging them toward organic maintenance. ... In addition, the water authority has begun a $100,000 advertising campaign to "get people to think differently," Mr. Jones said. Notices will be placed with water bills, asking customers to water their lawns every other day for longer periods of time, rather than every day for short periods. "This method will send grass roots deeper and able to survive a dry spell without turning brown and will thus require less fertilizer," he said. "Shallow roots are unable to completely pick up the fertilizer's nitrates, which then go into the groundwater." The agency will also use only organic products at its eight customer service facilities and Oakdale headquarters. (02/17/03) | |
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BBC Science -- Cancer cells can be destroyed using a colourful combination of chemical ingredients, researchers have discovered. Using red light, blue dye and a plant hormone, scientists have been able to kill around 99% of cells in laboratory tests. As all three ingredients have been used in other therapies before, scientists from Cancer Research UK are hopeful it could be used as a cancer treatment in the near future. ... Scientists treated the cancer cells with a blue dye that becomes chemically "charged" in response to light, along with the plant hormone. The blue dye absorbs the red light to transfer chemical energy to the plant hormone. The hormone then shatters to produce free radicals. These form poisonous by-products which can kill cancer cells. (02/17/03) | |
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Jeffrey Miller writes: Space shuttle Columbia's crash unravels evidence the White House wishes not to discuss. F-16s in the air on September 11, 2001, were armed with Sidewinder missiles, and F-15s held hot guns, and 511 rounds of TP -- nonexplosive training rounds. Had the military fired upon a passenger plane with explosive firearms, or had an explosion occurred from within the aircraft, it would have broken apart like Columbia, and like the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie Scotland two decades prior. But a nonexplosive missile would simply ruptured the aircraft, causing debris to escape first, and eventually causing the aircraft to fail. Planes have crashed, exploded, and collided throughout aviation history. But not before United Airlines Flight 93 out of Newark, NJ, had every branch of the United States government guarded the events of this plane's crash. Why? Political suicide. Admitting to down a commercial airline requires accountability. Implications stretch beyond laxed airport security, and failed airline spreadsheets. It taxes a human side, of even the most evil government official, whose reputation could not live down 44 deaths. (02/17/03) | |
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BBC Science -- Dolly the sheep, who became famous as the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, has died. The news was confirmed on Friday by the Roslin Institute, the Scottish research centre which created her. A decision was taken to "euthanase" six-year-old Dolly after a veterinary examination showed that she had a progressive lung disease, the institute said in a statement. ... Dr Patrick Dixon, a writer on the ethics of human cloning, said the nature of Dolly's death would have a huge impact on possibility of producing a cloned human baby. The real issue is what Dolly died from, and whether it was linked to premature ageing," he said. "She was not old - by sheep standards - to have been put down." (02/17/03) | |
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Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch |
Common Dreams -- Weekend protests worldwide by millions of anti-war activists delivered a stinging rebuke to Washington and its allies on their hard-line advance towards war. The unprecedented wave of demonstrations, involving eight million to 11.5 million people, according to various estimates, further clouded US war plans a day after they suffered a diplomatic setback at the United Nations. Significantly, some of the biggest rallies were held in countries which have strongly supported the pledge by US President George W. Bush to use force if necessary to strip Iraq of suspected weapons of mass destruction. In Sydney Sunday, Prime Minister John Howard was greeted upon his return from a nine-day trip that took him to the United States and Britain by the largest anti-war demonstration ever seen in Australia. An estimated 250,000 people filled the streets of the antipodean nation's largest city, following on from demonstrations that began Friday in Melbourne and cropped up from Brisbane to Canberra. A crowd estimated by organizers to be three million-strong marched through Rome to condemn Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's backing of Washington. More than five million people turned out in separate demonstrations in Spain, protest leaders said. Even Britain, the staunchest US ally, saw at least 750,000 people tramp through London in the country's biggest protest ever to give their government's stance the thumbs down. Organizers put the figure at more than two million. "If we don't stand up and say no to Bush, he thinks he can do what he likes because he's got the most powerful military and economy in the world," said Nick Lobnitz, a 24-year-old Briton. Demonstrators turned out in droves Saturday in New York, where organizers expected more than 100,000 people as the focal point of the largest display so far of US public opposition to an attack on Iraq. (02/16/02)
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Ed Douglas profiles E.O. Wilson: Hailed as a genius of modern science, he's also been accused of racism in a vicious debate over evolution. He is a former Southern Baptist who found clues to human behaviour in the ways of the humble ant and is now focusing on the battle to save the planet. ... Now 71, Wilson is a tall, slender man, his upper spine crooked from years of looking earthwards. In his brightly lit laboratory behind the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, he stands over a plastic tray of pheidole rhea, remarkable for having two soldier castes. A few workers are marching up the arms of his linen jacket and across his shoulders. He smiles gently as he eases into a chair, his voice a rich, Southern drawl, even though he left Alabama for Harvard over 45 years ago. His manners are Old South as well - warm, polite and thoughtful. The bleaker inheritance of the South is there too, in a way. Wilson's career has been unusually fruitful. And while he has had a lifelong obsession with ants, discovering how they communicate through pheromones, he is most famous for the publication in 1975 of Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, a work of deep insight that advanced evolutionary thinking and proved a Darwinian manifesto, describing social behaviour from the ants to humans. It also landed Wilson in the fight of his intellectual life. Accused of racism and misogyny, of suggesting that some human beings are genetically superior to others, of echoing Nazi doctrines on eugenics, Wilson and his ideas were splashed on the cover of Time and the front page of the New York Times. Echoes of that fight were faintly heard this week in the renewed nature or nurture debate. (02/16/03) | |
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2003
Timothy Wilken.
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