Category Archives: Pollution

The dramatic rise in young adult cancer rates are the latest warning

Guest Post by Nate Bear/Do Not Panic!

Aerial View of Coal Fired Power Station in Winter

The mass media has been so firmly captured by the progress narrative it can be difficult to find out the true state of our civilisation. We’re all living longer and getting healthier, right? National Geographic’s January cover story would certainly have you believe this, crowing about how modern medicine and technology means we’re all going to be skydiving into our 90s. On the ecological front, a breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology, reported breathlessly by what seemed like every media outlet on the planet, means we can stop worrying about climate breakdown, right? Wrong. There is no breakthrough.

So often we’re led to believe we live in a time that doesn’t exist. Yet this propaganda serves a very useful purpose—if we’re placated by believing these fairy-tales, we’re hardly likely to agitate for change. We just have to let our rulers get on with it and we’ll be living in full health until we’re 120 in no time, of course for the time being we still have diseases and stress and that’s why products like Amanita mushroom gummies can totally help in this area.

In the real world however, a bit of research confirms things aren’t so rosy. Global life expectancy has declined year-on-year for the first time since 1959 because our rulers allowed a virus which has more in common with HIV than a cold to establish itself in global circulation. (The lies told by our rulers about just-a-cold-covid are very long and can be seen here). Excess deaths in 2022 and early 2023 continue to be way above pre-pandemic baselines, sometimes even the highest they’ve ever been – despite the fact the pandemic is supposedly over. Yet judging by the silence in the media you’d think we successfully beat covid.

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When the soil becomes laden with salt, only a few sparse weeds will grow in it. That’s becoming a serious problem.

“And all that day Abimelech fought against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he demolished the city and sowed it with salt.” From the Bible, Judges, chapter 9 verse 45. There are other examples of ancient armies sowing the fields of their defeated enemies with salt, making them incapable of producing crops, thus assuring their enemies’ utter destitution. Some 4,000 years ago the fields of southern Mesopotamia, having been over-irrigated for many decades (in a hot region where evaporation was rapid) became so laden with salt that they could not grow crops, and soon Mesopotamia was no more. 

Now, that very thing is being done to us, and not by an occupying army. Like the Mesopotamians, we are doing it to ourselves. Continue reading →

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While images of shiny new recycled products dance in consumers’ dreams, this is where their plastic discards actually go.

Of all the subjects I have tackled in the 12 years or so I have been writing in this space, none has given me greater pain than recycling. I have many friends and family members who are passionate about recycling, and proud of their recycling creds. For me to write, as I often have, that recycling — especially plastics recycling — is basically an industry scam, hurts them, and hurts me. Some examples:

“The Second Biggest Scam Ever: Plastic Recycling.”  The Daily Impact, November 2020.

“Recycling: Garbage In, Garbage Out.” The Daily Impact, June, 2019.

“Recycling and Rain Forests: Trojan Horses.”  The Daily Impact, May, 2018.

Needless to say I have taken some grief for my opinions on this, but last week came powerful affirmation: the attorney general of California launched an investigation into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries for their role in “causing and exacerbating the global plastics pollution crisis.” Continue reading →

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This is the latest, most endangered species: us.

In the 15 years or so that I have been actively researching the prospects for the end of the world (Brace for Impact came out in 2009), it has always been in the back of my mind to be on the lookout for a ringer — the thing that would do us in finally while we were intently watching 20 other things and expecting one of them to do it. It might be here.

Sperm counts. I did not see that one coming. In the western industrialized nations sperm counts dropped nearly 60% between 1973 and 2011, which is worrisome. Fertility rates in half the world’s countries are now below the replacement level, which worries the industrialists. But now, the epidemiologist who conducted that sperm-count study has projected that on the current track, sperm counts will hit zero in 2045. This wouldn’t be the end of the world, of course. Just the end of the human race. Continue reading →

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Contrary to what you’ve been told, this is and has always been the reality behind plastic “recycling.”

To misquote Buckminster Fuller, industry kills what industry touches. (He said that about tourism, but it works.) Industry decided to reach out and touch plastic recycling in the 1970s, about the time the general public was awakening to environmental concerns. At the same time, the same industry (Big Oil) reached out and touched global warming, launching what has to be the largest and most consequential deliberate scam of all — I’m assuming this, but I feel safe — climate-change denial.

But the oil companies used different strategies for the two issues. With climate change, they saw no upside, nothing to co-opt, and spent billions of dollars over many decades to spawn fake science, fake news and fake advertising denying that any such thing was happening, and if it was it was not especially harmful, and if it was there was nothing we could do about it anyway. But in plastic, they saw an opportunity for increased profits in the rising public disgust over the degradation of the planet with plastic waste.  Continue reading →

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You can sort it any way you want it, but increaskngly, it’s all going to the same place.

Recycling has always been the friendly face of environmentalism, the feel-good thing that even Republicans would cheerfully do to save the planet. It became popular much like taking a daily aspirin to ward off a heart attack; it was always easier than the alternatives, things like strenuous exercise and rigorous dieting. Recycle, or pay a hefty carbon tax? Yeah, we all said, I can recycle!

It didn’t take long for a significant number of us to enlist, egged on by environmental organizations that discovered it was far easier to recruit members with pitches based on recycling than, for example, admonishments to forswear air conditioning. Just recycle, the implicit message was, and you can continue with your hedonistic lifestyle — as long as you separate the plastic trash from the aluminum trash.

Much like recycling, dumpster hiring, has emerged as a practical and environmentally conscious solution for individuals and businesses alike. It’s akin to choosing the easier path in our commitment to a greener planet – a bit like opting for that daily aspirin. When faced with the option of responsible waste disposal or potentially facing hefty consequences like carbon taxes, the choice becomes clear. And just as environmental organizations have successfully rallied support for their cause through recycling initiatives, dumpster rental services, such as those offered by https://grissmandumpsters.com/green-bay-dumpster-rentals/, provide a hassle-free means to continue our daily routines while responsibly managing waste-making sustainability a seamless part of our lifestyles.

The concept extends to skip bins as well, providing a practical solution for waste disposal. For those in regions like Adelaide, embracing solutions like cheap skip bin hire Adelaide ensures that the commitment to sustainability remains not only environmentally conscious but also economically viable, further fostering a culture of responsible waste management. By opting for skip bin hire, individuals and businesses can streamline their waste management processes, saving time and effort in the process. The hassle-free nature of this service also encourages more people to actively participate in responsible waste disposal practices. This, in turn, contributes to the overall cleanliness and aesthetic appeal of the community.

In the diverse landscape of waste disposal needs, roofing projects often generate substantial debris that requires specialized handling. For those in Hillsborough County, roofer dumpster rental becomes a practical solution to efficiently manage the waste generated during roofing projects. These dumpsters are designed to accommodate roofing materials, ensuring a safe and convenient means of disposal. Whether you are a roofing professional or a homeowner undertaking a roofing project, opting for a roofer dumpster rental hillsborough county offers a tailored solution that aligns with the unique requirements of roofing debris. This efficient and specialized waste management approach not only enhances the overall workflow of roofing projects but also contributes to maintaining a clean and organized work site.

Whatever the merits of the proposition, the instant that the number of adherents became significant, recycling became industrialized, in much the same way that a critical mass of believers turned the term “organic” — applied to supermarket stuff — into a punchline. In the 1980s, industry had one answer for every question, and when the question became how can we make a ton of money out of the rising tide of recyclables the answer, as always, was “China.”   Continue reading →

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Bad enough that air such as Beijing’s makes you feel sick. Did you know it also makes you dumb?

A large new study conducted in China by an international team of researchers has found that exposure to polluted air reduces intelligence. Not by a little, but by a lot. The study found that exposure to seriously tainted air — the kind that is breathed by 95% of the world’s population — is associated with a subsequent, significant drop in test scores for proficiency in language and arithmetic.

As reported almost nowhere in the corporate media, but in full by the Guardian of London:

“Polluted air can cause everyone to reduce their level of education by one year, which is huge,” said Xi Chen at Yale School of Public Health in the US, a member of the research team. “But we know the effect is worse for the elderly, especially those over 64, and for men, and for those with low education. If we calculate [the loss] for those, it may be a few years of education.”

Continue reading →

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Here, Trojans, have a horse. It’s free, a gift, and you’re gonna love it.

Long ago, in a galaxy far away, a passionate young environmentalist with my name undertook a kamikaze campaign for the state senate, running as an independent. I had previously labored in Republican vineyards, and had got to know a prominent campaign consultant of that persuasion, who called me one day, having heard of my Quixotic quest.

“Tom,” he said in an avuncular tone (although we were not related), “you could do okay with this, but not by talking about pollution and sewage and agricultural chemicals, like you’re doing. Dealing with that stuff kills jobs, and people know it. You could get a lot farther talking about things that people like and that don’t hurt them, like recycling, and saving the rainforest.”

When an enemy of your cause offers free advice on how to win an election, especially in an avuncular tone, think Trojan Horse, and remember the Trojan skeptic who warned against Greeks bearing gifts. Continue reading →

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Ask an engineer to reverse global warming, he’ll do it. Just don’t ask about thwe side effects. (Photo by Pixabay)

Saudi Arabia is a desert, with oil under it. There’s nothing you can do with oil in a desert, so the Saudis sell it, for money. That makes them filthy-rich nomads who crave big cities, with palaces for them to live in, slums for foreign workers and lots of fountains, you know, like in Las Vegas. But there’s no water in a desert. Call in the engineers.

(In Vegas, another oxymoronic desert city, their engineers’ solution was to build one of the world’s biggest dams to create one of the world’s biggest reservoirs, which worked for a while but is now drying up and is likely to make Las Vegas uninhabitable. Soon.) Continue reading →

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An earlier, more temperate report on cell phones and cancer has supposedly been eclipsed by a newer, better one. But wait.

“U.S. Leads Globe in Oil Production for Third Year.”

“Major New Study Reveals Cellphone Radiation Causes Cancer.”

These are just two examples of headlines that circled the world in the past week, subtracting from the sum total of human knowledge. Of course there were others: the “violent, chair-throwing riot” at the Nevada Democratic convention that turned out to have involved no violence, no chair-throwing and no riot; the long, dumbfounded pause when a group of pro-gun people were asked a hard question by Katie Couric, a pause that in reality was neither long nor dumbfounded. And on and on.

How are we to fulfill our responsibilities as informed citizens  (I know, it’s a quaint concept) when the information we get is consistently wrong and/or incomplete? For starters, it helps to understand the nature of the problem — in this case the dumbness and dumberness of American journalism. First Rule: when something is happening either because of stupidity or a conspiracy, always assume stupidity. These people aren’t smart enough to maintain a conspiracy. Continue reading →