The Story of Stuff

I can’t say enough about this video and web site, The Story of Stuff. Environmental activism isn’t about signing petitions, changing lightbulbs, holding signs and joining Greenpeace. It’s examining our consumer behaviors and gullibility:

Toxic fake protein Melamine in human food

A disturbing story, if you’re a meat eater (originally in the New York Times):

Melamine-spiking “widespread” in China; human food broadly contaminated (I recommend reading this after the NYTimes version if you read the NYT version at all.)

I’ve not been following much of the the Menu Foods pet food recall much after the move – not that I don’t care what animals eat, but mostly I’ve long known that most commercial dog and cat food is terrible and to be avoided by any living beings, and was a bit thankful people were paying more attention now. I also thought human food, as always, needs attention too. And well, now I think I’m getting my wish… The substance that killed pet cats and dogs is also being fed to animals in China which are in turn fed to people buying meat from China. (And that could be pretty widespread, I think!)

Here’s a link to the Wikipedia’s entry on Melamine, not to be confused with the plastic most people have run into that is actually melamine resin (which is still disturbingly close now that I’m looking at it).

The New York Times story does not dare to state that Melamine is toxic:

No one knows exactly how melamine (which is not believed to be particularly toxic) became so fatal in pet food, but its presence in any form of American food is illegal.

But the Wikipedia is less squeamish about discussing the harm of melamine, and for this blog entry I’d feel classifying this stuff as dangerous than not. The New York Times does go into some detail how food safety regulations in China are so lax (if they even exist) that plenty of other food (mostly animal flesh, in the article anyway) is spiked with hazardous substances.

Anyone who’s serious about their health and the health of their loved ones really needs to start thinking of eating less meat – it’s environmentally-friendlier and healthier, because so much toxicity can be found in animal flesh and animal fat. Add financial greed, buyer ignorance and lack of vigilance driving the addition of questionable substances to our food supplies – becoming smarter about what we put into our mouth is vital to maintaining our long-term health. Nobody is “safe” just because they “feel fine” after a meal. Some things are bio-accumulative. By the time people’s bodies show signs of their toxic burdens, there’s little that can be done and too many possible culprits to have just one thing to point a finger at. My personal belief is that it’s better to be aware of the dangers now than only after these substances have wreaked their damage.

With all that said, eat your organic veggies tonight. 🙂

Interconnectedness and air pollution

Well, Singaporeans and many Southeast Asian countries should be familiar with the fact that air pollution travels between countries. But now, scientists also know air pollution from China is reaching the United States… across the Pacific Ocean.

Chinese Air Pollution Crosses Pacific, Reaches Western United States

The black carbon traveling from Asia accounts for 77 percent of the black carbon emitted into North America’s lower atmosphere during the spring season, the study finds. Although the transported soot is only a small component of near-surface air pollution, it has a significant heating effect on the atmosphere two kilometers above the surface, especially in the Pacific region, which drives much of the Earth’s climate.

The black carbon is coming from deforestation and fossil fuels (coal probably being the worst-polluting). China now has, by far, the biggest number of hydroelectric dams in the world (quite environmentally damaging in their own right), and builds a new coal power plant about every week. Though one can understand China’s need for energy, this story made me think about two things:

One, it still stresses the importance of everyone watching their energy use and curbing their use of fossil fuels. I have to admit I get tired of the argument that those outside of China shouldn’t bother with pollution controls or curbing energy usage, because China will be polluting so much. It’s a bit like the argument that it’s OK to dump our poisonous chemical cleaners into streams and rivers because our contribution will be “nothing” compared to the water pollution from factories. Pollution shouldn’t be OK just because other people are doing it. And if any country wants China to curb its pollution, it has the moral obligation to practise first what it would enforce upon others.

Two, at the same time I frequently run into complaints in the US about China’s pollution of the environment, I wonder if some complainers ever think about how they contribute to that pollution whenever they shop for and buy cheap clothing, products and gadgets at shopping malls or big box stores. Do they ever check the labels to see how many products come from China and other developing countries? These products are cheap because they come from places, among other reasons, with few pollution controls, and where exploitation of labor is not uncommon. The environmental cost of shipping the products halfway around the world, using fossil fuel, is also never included in the price tag.

It should be clear now that the pollution in those “faraway” places isn’t staying confined to those places anymore. So “Think global, shop local” has added environmental reasons for our support, not just economic and social ones!

Bottled water – what we get for a product marked up 3000%

Bottled water – so ubiquitous nearly the whole world over, and especially in tropical Singapore. I have no problem with people carrying water around, but if they purchase bottled water for drinking as a matter of course, or for “health” reasons, or because of their squeamishness of tap water, they need to be know that their blind faith in bottled water is misplaced. Worse, bottling water and shipping bottled water around the planet not only takes a toll on the environment, but actually worsens the gap between the rich and poor.

First a look at what most bottled waters claim on their labels, whether the stuff is “spring water”, “natural”, “purified”, flavored, distilled or “enriched” (the last 2 being polar opposites). Claims of water being spring water usually can’t be verified and aren’t verified, “natural” again means nothing and is a claim that isn’t certified by any governmental body anywhere. Same with “purified.” Flavored water has its own bag of worms if one is wary of preservatives, chemical flavorings and/or articificial sweeteners of questionable long-term effects (pregnant women should definitely watch out). Enriched water – personally, I think it’s just another marketing angle and a scam, and a convenient opportunity to charge over a dollar for a product that took mere cents to produce.

Bottlers tend to locate where municipal water is cheapest – Coca-Cola may be the worst company in this regard; their operations in India actually bleed local villages dry, leaving little water for living and farming. Should locals need more water for survival, they are forced to buy from corporations at inflated prices. And Dasani, Coca-Cola’s bottled water label (which calls itself “purified”), was revealed a while back to be plain tap water.

Dust In My Eyes posted an article: Bottled Water: Nectar of the Frauds? (original article here). Coincidentally I had an exchange online yesterday about the alleged benefits of bottled water – which are rarely found outside of literature put out by bottling companies themselves. Within the US, the Natural Resources Defense Council reveals that bottled water is actually tested less frequently for bacteria, dangerous chemicals and pathogens than tap water.

If the con job on bottled water isn’t already apparent from the above links, then the next thing to consider is the environmental and humanitarian impact of bottled water (or soda, for that matter). People who live in urban places on this earth can take water for granted – the infrastructure for the efficient delivery of water by pipes to every home and business is there. Getting water from these taps is infinitely affordable and easy compared to drier, less developed places on this earth where people (frequently females) have to walk miles each day to get water for their households. As bottling companies in third world countries take advantage of poor areas and drain local water tables, residents in these places are forced to travel even further from home for access to water. The environmental impact of bottled water – well, some of the links provided in this post will explain more clearly than I. The burning of fossil fuels, the creation of and pollution from nonbiodegradable plastic bottles, the output of greenhouse gases shipping these overpriced products around for rich nations cannot be ignored especially at the rate the market for bottled water is growing.

At the end of the day, the purchasing of bottled water in industralized nations, like shopping for luxury goods, is a lifestyle choice. We can choose not to be duped into buying bottled water for health or lifestyle reasons. And we can choose to protect the planet and make life easier for those in other parts of the world less fortunate than ourselves.

Globalization Has Increased the Wealth Gap

Nobel prize-winner and economist Joseph Stiglitz is interviewed at Alternet.org. This is the first introduction I’m getting to his work (he’s now on my to-read list) and it looks promising that he seems to have a balanced view toward globalization – as in, he definitely sees its faults! More intriguing is that he also sees solutions. (And the comments on Alternet at the end of the page are also worth a read, although Alternet is subject to trolling sometimes. And Alternet seems to be struggling with its page format at the moment. I hope it’ll be fixed soon.)