I recently read this article and thought it was more than worth sharing. – Marvelous Mouth

We’ve all seen Mad Max and been frightened, if only a bit, by how savage a future it depicts. As extreme as that world may be, there is something about its resource-hungry depravity that seems almost tangible.

Our industrial society has a lot of looming problems. From acidic oceans to flooded cities, shrinking biodiversity to new super-bugs, it’s clear that something needs to be done to avert disaster.

Could health care save us from these impending catastrophes?

1. Foods that Kill

Our food is killing us. There are the salmonella outbreaks, the most recent of which cost more than a billion dollars to peanut growers. Then there’s our diet, which has left us obese, diabetic, nutrient deprived, and sick.

Food is central to any discussion of health care. A health care system that treats chronic disease as something cheaper and easier to prevent than treat, places pressure on the food industry to change. As Michael Pollan explains, “to keep from bankrupting ourselves, we will…have to get to work on improving our health—which means going to work on the American way of eating.”

2. Pandemic Disease

Changing the way we make food is tied closely with health care for an entirely different reason: It could prevent pandemic disease. Swine flu has its roots in the industrial agriculture system, and it’s not alone. Some researchers believe that MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant staff infection that is becoming ubiquitous in hospitals, is the result of using regular antibiotic regimens on pig farms.

Then, there is the threat of diseases spreading to new regions as the planet warms. Tropical ailments like dengue fever could become problems in the now-temperate United States.

Health care could help avert these tragedies in two ways. First, it could take control of the use of antibiotics, ensuring that human drugs are not used irresponsibly and in ways that could create resistant microbes. Second, universally available health care will be better able to catch new diseases at their source before they have a chance to spread out of control.

3. Not a Drop to Drink

Droughts in California and Georgia, to name only two, have made it clear: The water crisis is global.

The most important thing we can do to avoid a peak water situation is protect the resources we still have. Incineration and disposal of medical waste pollutes the air and the water.

Our health care system needs to adopt a full-circle management approach that considers the production of medicine and supplies, their use, and ultimately their disposal.

4. Every Breath is Poison

Asthma, lung cancer, and even appendicitis: The air we breathe can make us sick. Recently, the EPA announced that greenhouse gasses pose a threat to public health.

A health care system that considered prevention valuable would be forced to pressure the government to regulate such public health threats. If government-backed health insurance costs increased based on the environmental risks of the insured’s residence, legislators would be motivated to take radical action to curb air pollution.

5. Home is Where the Toxins Are

Almost every home in America harbors a bounty of toxic chemicals and these toxins are not only under the sink or in the garage.

Lipstick, toys, and are all commonly cited examples of where toxins hide. While focusing on these individual sources makes for sensational headlines, it fails to miss the true scope of the problem. In 2005, it’s estimated that exposure to environmental toxins cost the health care industry upwards of $5.7 billion.

Eliminating or better controlling these substances would, in the words of one researcher, “significantly improve the state’s economic performance.” This is an understatement anyone in government could understand.

6. The Thermostat’s Broken

Climate change will affect your health in both minor and significant ways. Everything on this list will be made worse by a warming climate and, not even considering the implications it will have on health, climate change is expected to cost the United States $271 billion dollars by 2025.

A health care plan that advocated for locally produced whole foods, prevented the use of human antibiotics in industrial farming, regulated the production and disposal of medical supplies, demanded stronger action on dangerous emissions, and lobbied for stronger control of household toxins would, by default, position the United States as a leader in climate change action.

Any plan that does not address these environmental factors, or strive to correct them, will fail under the incredible cost of our dangerous lifestyle.

Read more HERE

Article from: http://www.treehugger.com

As much as I try to evolve to being that best human possible, I still resort back to wanting controls in the world on negative things like the over populated world becoming more over populated and harming everything natural and good.

The Phajoding monastery in Bhutan is threatened by the growing number of sightseers. The monastery has been around for centuries as the regions centre for solitary meditation.

A new underground train in Barcelona will threaten the famous temple of Antoni Gaudi.

In this week’s JOURNAL, Bill Moyers spoke with Daniel Goleman, author of ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE, about how to find truly eco-friendly goods amongst the sea of products now marketed as ‘green.’

“Let me reassure you. Everything that we’ve done that’s ‘green’ is to the good. I recycle my papers and plastics, and I try to get the ‘green’ product. But once you realize, through the lens of the life cycle assessment, that every product has a thousand environmental, health, [and] social impacts, and you see that what we call ‘green’ has taken one slice and improved it, there’s still the 999 other things that we need to get better.” Daniel Goleman Read more HERE.

This was once again a great Bill Moyer’s Journal (I love this man) and what Daniel Goleman had to say was alarming, informative and he actually gave solutions that most reporting does not do. I haven’t read his new book yet, but I hope it does the same. No matter how little our present “green” effort is in fighting the big monsters, it is something and a start. Change happens generationally and of course we see some younger ones that may put us back some years, but it is never too late to try to reach people and get them to understand the impacts on a personal level so that they will give a damn and do the right thing. They have to see the personal impact for change to happen!! Sad, but true for most. It amazes me how many people I see with kids that don’t even try to be green. They don’t see the personal impact on their children. Wow!! Also know that most of these companies claiming to be green, going green or whatever, are full of crap. They will jump on any “bandwagon” that will bring them more sales. As Daniel talked about, this is one place we need to make change by telling them with our buying dollars and letters to their companies that we want them to change their ways and do the right thing.

The term “VOTE with YOUR dollars” is always relevant and this is a good place to apply this. Don’t complain, take postive action, big or small!

This week on the JOURNAL, Bill Moyers spoke with religious scholar Karen Armstrong about her efforts to promote understanding between cultures. Armstrong suggested that human nature has an inherent tension between compassion and the desire that one?s views be the absolute truth:

“Compassion doesn’t mean feeling sorry for people. It doesn’t mean pity. It means putting yourself in the position of the other, learning about the other, learning what’s motivating the other, learning about their grievances… The three monotheisms, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have a besetting tendency: that is idolatry, taking a human idea of God, a human doctrine, and making it absolute, putting it in the place of God. Now, there have been secular idolatries too. Nationalism was a great idolatry. The state can be… We are constantly creating these idols, erecting a purely human ideal or value to the supreme reality. Once you’ve made something essentially finite, once you’ve made it an absolute, it has to then destroy any rival claimants, because there can only be one absolute… And we get a lot of secular people doing this too… I think the so-called liberals can also be just as hard-lined in their own way.”

Thank you! Bill Moyers and Karen Armstrong (recent TED winner) for relevant, insightful, stimulating and thought provoking discussions on the Journal. I wish your audience was much wider.

At Marvelous we agree there is not enough Compassion in the world. We hope we can motivate and help create a better world. See our latest t-shirt on the subject HERE.

With all the bleakness we are in living these days sometimes it is good to reflect, take action, make change in ourselves and realize there is always hope. This article may give you some motivation and lead you to good sources. We like the site where this article came from: Zen Habits

Task Ninja: Form the Action Habit

A lot of us get stuck in inaction ?procrastinating, doing a lot of unimportant tasks to avoid the important stuff, worrying about failing or about being perfect, having a hard time starting, getting distracted, and so on.

It?s time to start forming the Action Habit instead. Read more ?