Friday, February 27, 2004

Too Many Problems David Suzuki writes: News that global warming could push one quarter of the world's plants and animals to the edge of extinction by 2050 recently made headlines around the world. But did the stories do more harm than good? The forecast is truly grim. A major international research paper published in the journal Nature reports that about one million species could be doomed to extinction. The culprit? Heat-trapping gases we are pumping into the atmosphere through vehicle exhaust, power plant and factory smokestacks and home chimneys. So, faced with such alarming news, what did people do? Did millions say "That's it, no more SUV for me!" and commit to public transit? Did thousands call, write or email their elected leaders and demand action on global warming? Did corporate executives commit to making their industries cleaner? No. Instead, this terrible news was largely met with a collective shrug. To be fair, it was more of a collective "Isn't that horrible!" or "How awful!" rather than a shrug, but the effect is the same. For the average person, nothing will change. Why? Well, most people are simply overwhelmed by such news because the whole thing seems beyond their control. When that happens, people tune out. They have too many other things to deal with in their lives to figure out one more problem in the world - especially something as incomprehensibly big as climate change. Rather than being spurred to action, such news without context can drive many people to a defensive position. Just as consistent news reports focusing on street crime creates fear and drives people off the streets (thereby actually making the streets more dangerous) overwhelming environmental news also causes people to retreat into themselves and inadvertently make things worse. For example, rather than taking action to reduce global warming, some people may purchase a bigger, heavier vehicle "to keep the family safe." (02/27/04) Beyond a Nation of Laws Barry Carter writes: A couple hundred years ago at the beginning of the Industrial Age someone uttered the famous words, "We are a nation of laws not men (people)." ... All civilizations must have a system of social order. Industrial society uses government. In specific representative government. The primary tool used to provide this order is laws. The primary function of our representatives, in addition to levying taxes, is passing laws. These laws are then supported by a judicial system and the potential violent force of police and militaries. We see how ineffective our laws are in an Information Age, when they run counter to our lose/win norms, with out of control violence, crime, riots, corruption, white collar crime, terrorism and overloaded prisons. As Stephen Covey explains, "When mores are strong enough laws are not needed and when mores are not strong enough laws are irrelevant." Today our mores are lose/win and until this changes anything goes! The fact is that our norm in society is lose/win and adversarial competition. We artificially attempt to separate some lose/win activity from other lose/win activity with laws. In an Information Age where people are empowered more and more daily, with expanded social freedoms, it simply does not work. Lose/win is lose/win and a norm is a norm. Man-made micro rules and laws that make one form of lose/win legal and another illegal, are meaningless. This is why progress seems hopeless in our present paradigm. (02/27/04) New Cancer Drug Available BBC Health -- The US government has approved a drug that halts the growth of tumours by cutting off their blood supply. Avastin has been shown to prolong the lives of those with advanced bowel cancer, and could be available in the UK within a year. It works by starving cancerous tumours of blood, thus preventing them from growing in the body. Unlike chemotherapy, which works by killing all dividing cells, this new drug only targets cancer cells. The backing of the new treatment is being seen as a potentially very significant breakthrough in the fight against cancer. The drug has been shown to prevent the formation of new blood vessels, thereby denying tumours the oxygen and other nutrients needed for their growth. In approving it, the US Food and Drug Administration described it as the first drug that had been proven to delay tumour growth. The FDA had "fast tracked" approval for the drug because studies had produced such positive results. So far, Avastin is being used in combination with chemotherapy to treat patients with advanced colon cancer. ... A Food and Drug Administration official who oversaw the Avastin review said the survival advantage of the drug was unusual. Dr Patricia Keegan said: "In every subset analysis of the trial, every patient regardless of gender, age, extent of disease - all of them responded." Genentech, the company that created the drug, says it is now looking at how Avastin might be used to treat other common cancers, such as breast cancer and lung cancer. (02/27/04) An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away BBC Health -- Eating three apples a day can significantly cut the risk of death from coronary heart disease, say scientists. The fibre in apples and other fruits helps prevent heart disease by lowering cholesterol levels. The findings are part of a US study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. It reinforces other research which has shown the health benefits of a diet rich in fibre. Scientists, who carried out the research, said people who eat 10 grams of fibre daily, reduce their risk of heart attack by 14% and their risk of dying from coronary heart disease by 27%. A medium-sized apple contains about 3 grams of fibre, a slice of whole wheat bread contains 1.5 grams and a stalk of broccoli about 2.7 grams of fibre. Fibre found in fruit, vegetables, grains and cereals lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels, according to the article. The team found the health benefit of fibre was strongest when it came from fruit and cereals, rather than vegetables. They say the reason may be because common starchy and heavily processed vegetables, such as sweetcorn and peas, are poor in nutrients but high in sugars that can lead to diabetes and heart disease. "Our results suggest that dietary fibre intake during adulthood is inversely associated with CHD risk, said study author Mark Pereira, formerly of Harvard University in Boston, and now at the University of Minnesota. "Therefore, the recommendations to consume a diet that includes an abundance of fibre-rich foods to prevent coronary heart disease) are based on a wealth of consistent scientific evidence." Fibre in the diet has been found to lower blood pressure, cut blood levels of artery-clogging lipids and improve insulin sensitivity. (02/27/04) Do You Remember the Sea Turtles? BBC Nature -- The steep decline of the Pacific Ocean leatherback turtle has gone so far the species could be extinct within no more than a decade, conservationists fear.  A report by the US group Conservation International says leatherback numbers there have fallen by 97% in 22 years. Five of the six other species of sea turtle are also at risk of extinction, though not necessarily as acutely. Threats include fishing practices and the poaching of the turtles' eggs, but scientists say they can still be saved. CI released its report on the plight of the Pacific leatherbacks at the 24th annual symposium on sea turtle conservation and biology, meeting in Costa Rica. It says their numbers have fallen from about 115,000 breeding females to fewer than 3,000 since 1982. James Spotila, professor of environmental science at Drexel University, said: "The Pacific leatherbacks currently face an annual mortality rate of up to 30%. "That rate is clearly unsustainable, and without dramatic intervention we can expect to see them disappear in as soon as a decade." Of the other species, the Kemp's ridley and hawksbill turtles are also both classified by IUCN-The World Conservation Union as critically endangered, the designation given to the leatherbacks. Green, olive ridley and loggerhead turtles are classed as endangered, and only northern Australia's flatbacks are not thought to face extinction. Roderic Mast, vice-president of CI and president of the International Sea Turtle Society, said: "On land, the canary in the coal mine warns humans of impending environmental danger. "Sea turtles act as our warning mechanism for the health of the ocean, and what they're telling us is quite alarming. Their plummeting numbers are symptomatic of the ocean as a whole." (02/27/04) 5:52:56 AM

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