Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Eyes Wide Shut We humans are great at not believing what we don’t want to believe. There are none so blind as those that will not see, nor none so deaf as those that will not hear. During World War II, there was much evidence that Hitler was systematically exterminating the Jews of Europe. This evidence reached the eyes and ears of the leadership of the both England and the United States years before our soldiers actually entered the concentration camps, and brought the truth before the world press. It was not believed. The will not to believe runs strong in humanity. Even today, fifty years after Hitler killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, there are many living humans that still deny this crime ever took place. The truth is especially hard to believe if it requires that we take action — if it requires that we change. If humanity is to have a future, we must take action — we must change. If humanity is to have a future, we must believe the truth. ... This morning George Monbiot writes: "We live in a dream world. With a small, rational part of the brain, we recognize that our existence is governed by material realities, and that, as those realities change, so will our lives. But underlying this awareness is the deep semi-consciousness that absorbs the moment in which we live, then generalizes it, projecting our future lives as repeated instances of the present. This, not the superficial world of our reason, is our true reality. All that separates us from the indigenous people of Australia is that they recognize this and we do not. Our dreaming will, as it has begun to do already, destroy the conditions necessary for human life on Earth. Were we governed by reason, we would be on the barricades today, dragging the drivers of Range Rovers and Nissan Patrols out of their seats, occupying and shutting down the coal-burning power stations, bursting in upon the Blairs' retreat from reality in Barbados and demanding a reversal of economic life as dramatic as the one we bore when we went to war with Hitler. Instead, we whine about the heat and thumb through the brochures for holidays in Iceland. The future has been laid out before us, but the deep eye with which we place ourselves on Earth will not see it." (08/13/03) Scenario for a New World Joël de Rosnay writes: I should like this final chapter of the book to be an opening onto the future, not a conclusion. Every criticism, every thorough examination of one type of society and its scale of values ought to lead us toward a new design for society. How can we discern the major features of this society through the gropings of social innovation--the experiments, the successes, the failures that we witness? From what point of view can we formulate and represent such a design? ... In terms of my own objective, however, the one method that appears to combine them advantageously is the method of "scenarios." The principle of that method is that the future is never given in its totality; it can be determined only through choices made by people devoted to building their future. Thus there is an infinite number of possible "futures," and a scenario is nothing but a more or less detailed description of some of them. A scenario clarifies decisions and facilitates choices. But a scenario does not describe what is probable or even what is possible. For between the probable and the possible there is political will as much as there is chance, catastrophe, global crisis, or revolution. A scenario describes situations as they might be, situations that are plausible in a given context and in terms of what one knows of the evolutionary tendencies of the principal elements of the system under study. In this respect the scenario is quite like a game; one acts as though the description were possible and one had some relation to it. Every scenario is a bit biased, as is the case with the present one. First because it is unique, whereas usually the rule insists that one compare several scenarios (for example, the pursuit of unrestrained growth; the slowing of economic growth while the present pursuit continues; catastrophes; the global crises of the economies; wars and other conflicts but such a comparison would take too long. Secondly because one again encounters several of the ideas, suggestions, and theses that I propose and defend in this book. (It will be easy for you to pick them out, recognize them, and criticize them.) My purpose, I recall, is to stimulate thought and reflection, not to attempt to impose my opinions. In order that you may use your imagination as you will, this scenario voluntarily assumes the somewhat dry form of an outline: I have conceived it in the form of notes sent by a reporter to a large weekly news- magazine. The details are left to you to invent. (08/13/03) The Promise of Stem Cells BBC Science -- Human embryonic stem cells have been grown in the UK for the first time, a team at King's College London announced on Wednesday. The cells will be deposited for use by other researchers Its success is the first since such experiments were approved in the UK. The researchers say they will use the cells to research treatments for Parkinson's disease and Type 1 diabetes. ... The King's cell line was grown from an embryo originally created as part of a course of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. Under UK legislation, embryos created for IVF and not used after five years must be destroyed. The embryo used at King's was one such embryo and was donated to the researchers by its biological parents, who have finished their IVF treatment. At the time the cells were taken from the embryo it was a small clump of cells a few days old, visible only under a microscope. Scientists are interested in stem cells because they have the potential to become any other kind of cell and so might be used for transplantation. Professor Peter Braude, who led the research team, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the breakthrough of a "bank" of stem cells will greatly help research in the UK. (08/13/03) Creatine Boosts Memory The New Scientist -- A dietary supplement used by many athletes to boost muscle power can also increase brain power, at least in vegetarians. New research shows that non-meat eaters taking the supplement, called creatine, perform better in various memory tests than those taking a placebo. However, it is not yet clear if the benefits would apply to meat-eaters, as they already gain creatine from their diet. It is also uncertain whether the effects persist for as long as people continue taking the supplement, or whether it diminishes after a few months. Creatine helps cells replenish their stocks of a chemical called ATP, which is the immediate source of energy for cellular processes such as the contraction of muscle fibres. Athletes often take creatine for sports such as sprinting that require intense bursts of energy. Thinking is also energy intensive. "You're fuel-limited every time you're thinking," says Catherine Rae, a biochemist at the University of Sydney, Australia, and leader of the research team. The human body can make creatine, but much of it comes from eating meat and fish. Rae thus suspected any effects would be greater in non-meat eaters, and began her research with this group. Both vegetarians and older people have been shown to have lower creatine levels in their muscles. Rae and her colleagues asked 45 vegetarians in their twenties to take either five grams of creatine, equivalent to about two kilograms of meat, or a placebo daily for six weeks. The volunteers' reasoning ability and short-term memory was tested before and after the six-week period. In one test, for example, Rae's team found that those who took creatine could remember an average of 8.5 numbers compared with 7.0 for those on the placebo. (08/13/03) Saving the Fiji Coral BBC Environment -- The people of Fiji have launched an ambitious attempt to save their magnificent coral reefs from uncontrolled development. The reefs attract thousands of tourists, yet the impact of tourism is one of the main threats they face. Another is chemical run-off from intensive agriculture, which is making increasing inroads in Fiji. The Fijians hope their approach will work for other islands facing similar problems. The problems of Fiji's reefs are explored in Waibulabula, a film made by Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) for BBC World. ... Waibulabula, the name of the project, means "living waters" in Fijian, but the water flowing off the island has for years been helping to kill the coral. The island gets plenty of rain, which helps to carry fertilisers and chemicals off the sugar canefields and into the streams. Crown-of-thorns starfish eat the coral Suva, the capital with 80,000 people, is the largest urban centre in the South Pacific. Many of its rivers are contaminated with sewage, which also finds its way to the sea. ... To try to help the reefs to recover, volunteers removed an infestation of crown-of-thorns starfish from the coral. They thrive in the nutrient-rich water, and left to themselves will eat the coral. (08/13/03) UK's Birds Still On Decline BBC Environment -- Britain's birds face a mixed future, with some species showing heartening increases and others sunk in an apparently inexorable decline. The State Of The UK's Birds 2002 says some scarce breeding species are continuing to increase in number. Birds of prey continue to recover, with climate change a possible boost for several species. But woodland birds have undergone a moderate setback, while farmland species are declining steeply. The report is published jointly by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and the British Trust for Ornithology. It says: "The common bird indicator has been relatively stable since 1970, although there has been a marked upturn since 1988, due at least in part to recent mild winters." It records a 22% decline in woodland birds since the mid-1970s, with farmland bird numbers dropping by 46% over the same period. The health of breeding bird populations is used by the UK Government as one indicator of progress towards sustainable development. (08/13/03) 5:34:55 AM

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