T-shirt Blog from Marvelous

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

You can join people around the world raising their voices to fight cancer. Sign the World Cancer Declaration today. Act Now

The GLOBAL Cancer Summit is August 24- 26. Read about it HERE

Consider donating to Susan B Komen Foundation or the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Cancer will touch everyone at some point in their lives and these two foundations do work that is beyond incredible for cancer patients of all ages. In my family there have been many of us including myself that are cancer survivors. My father is now experiencing the journey.

“The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything” – Albert Einstein

I will donate all profit to these two organizations from the purchase of the Marvelous “Heart” shirt through the end of this year. Buy the shirt HERE

Every wonder about disease? Care about your child’s health? Do something about it! This is 2009 and we are still acting like stupid primates or worse.
– marvelous mouth

from the GoodGuide Transparency Manifesto

We start from a simple premise: People have the right to know what they’re putting in, on, and around their bodies.

There are three simple things everyone should know about their food but don’t:
Where did it come from? How was it made? What’s in it?

In the United States, manufacturers of processed foods are still not required to label where a product came from, whether it contains genetically modified organisms, or was produced using synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides.

Additionally, government agencies, such as the FDA, continue to face criticism for falling short (marvelous mouth – they suck!) of their responsibility to protect the public from contamination and other food safety scandals.

GoodGuide and consumers around the world have launched the “What’s In It?” Campaign to demand transparency from our food producers.

We call on food manufacturers to disclose the following information about all products:

1. Where it came from:

* Disclosure of where ingredients were grown and processed. For meats, this should include where the animal was born, raised, and slaughtered.
* Tracking and labeling throughout the supply chain, with a process for tracing contaminant issues.

2. How it was made:

* The use of synthetic pesticides.
* The use of hormones.
* The application of antibiotics.
* The presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
* Animal cloning in meat and milk production.
* Food Irradiation
* USDA Organic production standards.
* Explanation of a company’s food tracing and contaminant control program from farm to table.

3. What’s in it:

* Complete ingredient lists, with details of common allergens, applied to restaurant items as well as store-bought foods.
* Nutritional information normalized to a standard serving size.
* Explanation of levels of nutrients that may be harmful (such as saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, and sugar).
* Contaminants such as pesticides, methyl mercury, or PCBs that remain in the product, even in trace amounts.

read more HERE and join the campaign

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.