A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com highest in the world. Our dairy industry has one of the worst animal welfare records in Europe. The RSPCA say that we are in danger of “milking our cows to death”. Another farmer showed how she ran a successful dairy farm using smaller Friesian cows in green pasture to produce her milk. A scientific study into the welfare of dairy cows in Europe may result in new directives for standards of welfare. Would you knowingly buy milk, yoghurt or cheese produced in this way, because it’s cheaper? Bee colony collapse - another threat to food security. The British Bee Keepers Association warns that colony collapse could wipe out bees in Britain by 2018. Bees are essential for pollinating crops. The causes are complex and may include toxic pesticides and bees being under stress (Telegraph.co.uk). One thing people can do to help is to plant more flowers and shrubs that attract bees in their gardens. The same thing needs to be done in public spaces like parks, verges and roundabouts. There is also a campaign by the British Bee Keepers Association to encourage more people to keep bees. World Poisoning from Pesticides Each year, around 2.5 million tons (2,500,000 tons = 5 billion pounds) of pesticide are dumped on the planet's crops. In 2002, an estimated 69,000 children were poisoned by pesticides in the US. The World Health Organization reports 220,000 people die every year worldwide because of pesticide poisoning. In 2001, the world pesticide market was valued at $32 billion ($32,000,000,000). Although most pesticides (80%) are used in rich countries, most poisonings are in poor countries. This is because safety standards are poor; there may be no protective clothing or washing facilities, insufficient enforcement, poor labelling of pesticides which are used by farm workers who can't read anyway. Few people know much about pesticide hazards. Pesticide residues in food are often higher in poor countries. Farmers who use pesticides have a 'significantly higher rate of cancer incidence' than non-farmers. In the US, nearly one in ten of about 3 billion kilograms (6,613,800,000 pounds) of toxic chemicals released per year is known to be capable of causing cancer (in other animals as well as people). Source: One World Net Cash crops produced by poor countries for wealthy Northerners are a major contributor to water scarcity, desertification and salinisation caused by excessive irrigation in dry areas. Salinisation is one of our biggest environmental problems, a major cause of desertification and soil degradation. Salinisation and sodification are among the major degradation processes endangering the potential use of soils in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Furthermore, to produce these exports, peasants are deprived of the land that gives them independence; local food production is damaged and forests destroyed to make way for meat, grain and now bio-fuel exports. These are of little benefit to poor, dispossessed people or local economies. Dietary diversity is vital to health and disease prevention. A healthy diet requires a complex mixture of nutrients, not just protein, energy, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins. We need complex diets rich in micronutrients. We are learning that traditional food, made from a variety of crops, grown for centuries from seeds saved over generations, unique to the environment in which people live, are full of important micronutrients that are vital to health and preventing diseases. As Westernisation took hold, these were often discarded as “poor peoples’ food” and replaced by imports or new crops. In places like Kenya there are now efforts to publicise this information and reintroduce such indigenous crops, as well as how to cook them to make them delicious. 66
Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com Globalisation is undermining the production and use of indigenous foods, so important to our health, all over the world, including in Western countries. Crop diversity is vitally important. Many of old species have drought resistance or other qualities valuable in growing crops in adverse conditions. The reduction in varieties to a very small number for industrialised agriculture thus damages food security as well as nutrition and health. We are degrading our built environment too. Not only are we degrading the earth. By putting power and profit before people, we are creating more and more ugliness. We are destroying those aspects of our built environment that have historic and cultural meaning and beauty. People thrive in beautiful places and become depressed in ugliness. The human spirit suffers in ugliness and dereliction. Older buildings of a more human scale, often built lovingly by craftsmen using natural and local materials, are being replaced by monster developments, symbolic of the false values of many big corporations and government. These are expressions of masculine domination and power. Institutions shape our mindset. Business without soul creates ugliness; ugliness is bad for our spirit and energy. The process of massive redevelopment - demolition, new building and construction – greatly adds to our Carbon and Eco impacts. It creates enormous externalised environmental and social costs. There has to be a careful assessment of the balance of gains and harms. 67
Page 1 and 2:
Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rig
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16: Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rig
Page 65: Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rig
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211:
show all

A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?