Time to Take Stock?

News&Views
The Armchair Curmudgeon
March 19, 2007




Fragile Relationships We Don’t Seem to Recognize…

First, our government in bed with the private sector send us a chilling message: They've killed off hundreds of species. Yes, there is a direct connection between the pollution in the rivers and streams and the loss of valuable species.

But our government ignores the toll in pursuit of profits and moves on!

Then we start losing butterflies for consuming corn that is genetically mutated....

Forget about farm raised salmon; a very high percentage contain parasites and bacteria that result from the in-breeding.

Meanwhile, the Pacific salmon are being decimated by government’s control of dams along the Columbia river…

And our most beautiful Swordfish, the symbol of freedom, is so full of mercury that we can't eat them more than once a week without worrying about the effects on the brain....And that goes for tuna, albacore and other fish that used to part of our diets.

You have to watch your consumption of milk and beef because of genetic ingredients in the feed that helps the cows get bigger and meatier; and you have to be mindful of the fact that hormones in the milk are said to affect embryonic growth and development.

You don’t get a free ride on chicken either. The inspectors who are pressured to inspect a chicken every ten seconds has to check for 32 separate diseases, some of them can be fatal.

We've taken for granted the fact that the food chain begins in the area west of Alaska so we dump pollutants including toxic chemicals there with significant affect on krill that breed there and constitute the main source of food for most of the smaller fish.

OUr heating up of the waterways with coal's effluents and heavy metal by products has had a devastating affect on marshlands and coastal areas—areas that play a vital role in the foood chain; thereby, depleting the supply of fish that fuel the food chain...and disrupting the critical balance that keeps the oceans stocked with fish...

Now, our dogs are dying...
and we don't know why.

The truth is that up until now, we've been lucky.

Contaminated lettuce and other ailments caused by eating affecting foods only hint at the dangers we face.

Will our best friends persuade us that we must act now to get our priorities in order; or will we lose them, too…like the canaries in the miner’s lamp….

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon