I’m having one of those ‘despairing at the world’ weeks.  It just completely baffles me how we can allow something so beautiful to be so destroyed for the sake of money and greed.

There is no point in trying to change the giant corporations running this world, they are quite fine thank you very much.  Happily raking in billions of Dollars whilst hiding behind “cheap” products that we are duped in believing we simply must have.  The supposed watchdogs like governments and the FDA are revolving door / toothless lapdogs bought and paid for buy super wealthy lobbyists with an agenda, so don’t believe anything they tell you.

We cannot change them.  We can only change ourselves.  We have got to start asking better questions about what we are buying and why before it’s too late. Please, we can’t be this blind to what is going on.  Please stop believing all the marketing hype being thrown at you from every single angle and dig deeper! To quote someone: “I’m not asking you to think like me, I’m just asking you to think!”.

While there are thousands of websites with information on all these subjects, here are just a few to get you going…

 Plastic – the “Public Friendly” Version

The True Cost of Plastic

• The unfortunate truth of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• The environmental toll of plastics
• The effects of plastic bags on the environment
• Plastic not so fantastic
• Facts and figures of plastic bags
• The real cost of free plastic bags
• Plastic pollution has become a man-made, global catastrophe
• Environment impact of plastic

 What You Can Do

• Be aware of how much packaging goes into the products you buy, lobby the manufacturers to reduce that.
• Shop at organic, local farmers instead of supermarkets and take your own containers and recycled bags.
• Upcycle anything plastic, don’t throw it away, or donate it to a business that does upcycling.
• Learn about recycle codes and toxic ingredients in plastic and buy smart.
• Use glass or stainless steel where possible.

Bottled Water – the “Public Friendly” Version

The True Cost of Bottled Water (and soft drinks)

• The banks are buying up all the water sources at an unprecedented pace while governments limit access to self-sustaining citizens
• The race to buy up the world’s water – and then sell it
• Nestle CEO believes that water is not a fundamental human right and should be privatised
• Nestle continues stealing water in world’s water drought
• Movie : Bottled Life, the Truth About Nestle’s Business with Water
• Movie : Water, the Great Culling
• Water is being stolen from us
• Bottled Water Fact Sheet for South Africa
• Drowning in bottled water
• The bitter truth behind bottled water
• The insanity of bottled water
• How green is Fiji Water
• Coke’s misuse of water in India mobilizes locals
• Groundwater levels plummet around Coca-Cola’s bottling plant, deny locals access to water
• Coca Cola “engineers” orange juice

 

What You Can Do

• Stop buying bottled water!  If you are reading this blog, you live in a place that has safe tap water.
• Stop buying fizzy / energy drinks – apart from the massive ecological damage, they are unbelievably bad for you with the amount of sugar and chemicals in them.
• Make your own flavoured waters using tap water and fruit.

The following are extracted from this article:

• Say no to bottled water at home, at school, on the go, and in restaurants – wherever you have access to clean and safe tap water.
• Buy a reusable bottle and keep it filled for when you’re on the road.
• Install a water filtration system if you don’t like the taste of tap water.
• Avoid refrigeration of tapped water. Chlorine (from the treatment process) evaporates at room temperature.
• Install public water fountains in schools, offices, sports stadiums and parks.
• Opt for tap water in jugs in communities, restaurants, at work, social functions and promote the serving of tap water.
• Develop and implement policy restrictions on bottled water and lobby for prices that reflect the true cost of bottled water.

 Cosmetics – the “Public Friendly” Version

The True Cost of the Cosmetics Industry

• The cosmetics racket
• Top 10 dangerous toxins in cosmetics
• The story of cosmetics
• Toxic makeup
• Dove soap full of toxins
• Animal testing by dripping products into rabbit’s eyes
• Why the US won’t ban cosmetic animal testing anytime soon
• The US must ban cosmetic testing on animals
• Hate animal cruelty? Avoid these cosmetic brands
• Various articles on testing on animals

I apologise for these images, I felt physically sick finding some for this blog.

 

What You Can Do

• Read labels – first thing to check is if they have an no animal testing / cruelty free certification.
• Read labels – learn what the most hardcore toxins are and avoid them.
• Make your own, it’s really not that hard.
• Because you’re worth it – and so is this planet and its creatures.

Junk Food and Supermarkets – the “Public Friendly” Version

The True Cost of the Junk Food and Supermarket Industry

• Factory farming, a life of animal abuse
• Salt, Sugar, Fat, How the Food Giants Hooked Us
• Movie : Supersize Me
• The shocking truth about McDonalds
• Pink slime
• Yet more anti-biotics in feedlots
• Images of feedlots
• Food, the ultimate secret
• The war on health
• Fastfood facts from Supersize Me
• GMO’s – how much do you know
• The effects of fast food on the body
• Top 10 reasons not to eat fast food
• Woolworths Organic Milk Debacle
• You’ll never eat McDonald’s again after seeing these ingredients
• More than 7 billion chickens are slaughtered each year, with no rights to protect them whilst alive
• Animal kill counter – live count
• Factory farmed chickens, their difficult lives and deaths
• The problem with feedlots
• The untold costs of CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operations)
• The merciless world of CAFO
• Monoculture – necessity or environmentally neglectful
• Industrial agriculture, outdated
• Why does conventional farming damage the environment
• There is enough food to feed everyone on the planet, they just don’t have the money to pay for it!
• We already grow enough food for 18 billion people and we can’t end world hunger
• Poverty is the principal cause of hunger

What You Can Do

• Educate yourself on what’s really going into our food – antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides, GMO’s, additives, preservatives; excessive salt, sugar and fat.
• Cook at home using fresh ingredients.
• Buy from local grocers and farmers markets.
• Ask where the produce came from and what conditions the animals lived in before they got to the shelf.
• Learn the various names sugar is hidden under, like High Fructose Corn Syrup and avoid them.
• Don’t buy anything that has more than 5 ingredients in it, or has ingredients you can’t pronounce.
• Eat before you go shopping, you’ll be less likely to binge spend on those junk food items.
• Go on a junk food fast to get your taste buds back – you don’t realise how desensitized your taste buds are right now, they need to be re-educated.

_____________________________________________________________

This list can go on and on and on – oil, gas, all mining, tar-sands, weather modification, war, nuclear energy, cellphones, cities … I could be here all week. Every single person counts at this point. Please, stand up for environmental, human and animal injustices. Speak out!  If we don’t, these giant corporations win by default. We can do better, we really really can.  Just because a handful of people have convinced the majority of the population that there is no other way, does not make them right! We CAN find a better way and there are plenty in place already.

I’ll close with the poem from Woody Harrelson that sums up my feelings on all this:

I sometimes feel like an alien creature
for which there is no earthly explanation
Sure I have human form
walking erect and opposing digits,
but my mind is upside down.
I feel like a run-on sentence
in a punctuation crazy world.
and I see the world around me
like a mad collective dream.
An endless stream of people
move like ants from the freeway
cellphones, pc’s, and digital displays
“In money we trust,”
we’ll find happiness
the prevailing attitude;
like a genetically modified irradiated Big Mac
is somehow symbolic of food.
Morality is legislated
prisons over-populated
religion is incorporated
the profit-motive has permeated all activity
we pay our government to let us park on the street
And war is the biggest money-maker of all
we all know missile envy only comes from being small.
Politicians and prostitutes
are comfortable together
I wonder if they talk about the strange change in the weather.
This government was founded by, of, and for the people
but everybody feels it
like a giant open sore
they don’t represent us anymore
And blaming the President for the country’s woes
is like yelling at a puppet
for the way it sings
Who’s the man behind the curtain pulling the strings?
A billion people sitting watching their TV
in the room that they call living
but as for me
I see living as loving
and since there is no loving room
I sit on the grass under a tree
dreaming of the way things used to be
Pre-Industrial Revolution
which of course is before the rivers and oceans, and skies were polluted
Before Parkinson’s, and mad cows
and all the convoluted cacophony of bad ideas
like skyscrapers, and tree paper, and earth rapers
like Monsanto and Dupont had their way
as they continue to today.
This was Pre-us
back when the buffalo roamed
and the Indian’s home
was the forest, and God was nature
and heaven was here and now
Can you imagine clean water, food, and air
living in community with animals and people who care?
Do you dare to feel responsible for every dollar you lay down
are you going to make the rich man richer
or are you going to stand your ground
You say you want a revolution
a communal evolution
to be a part of the solution
maybe I’ll be seeing you around…