There
is no shortage of anything in this world, other 
Environmental blunders "Down Under"
Ancients hold Mother Bhumi (Mother Earth) as consort of
Lord
Varaha dev, and Mother of Srimati
Sita Devi:
Links to Environmental related sites:
Hare Krishna Solutions to Community Waste on GoogleVideo
Varnashram - REAL society's social structure
What is the Story of Stuff?
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
Holiday shopping season is kicking into high gear. But do you
ever wonder what happens to the stuff from holidays past?
Find out in our new movie The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard.
The Story of Stuff, Free Range's biggest movie release of the year, will take you on a provocative tour of our consumer-driven culture — from resource extraction to iPod incineration — exposing the real costs of our use-it and lose-it approach to stuuff.
Check it out here: www.StoryofStuff.com
The movie is just the beginning of the story. Watch it, send it to friends, learn more on the interactive website, get involved in an organization and follow along on Annie Leonard's inspiring blog.
Enjoy,
- Free Range Team
More Environmental
Articles HERE:
Occasionally there’s a natural disaster that creates suffering for the peoples of a particular place and time, but in the most disasters are being caused by man’s attempt to play God.
We often see that with man’s greed for power over the people, control of material resources (gold, and other precious metals, diamonds, and other gems, oil and its by-products, timber, cotton, silks, spices, rubber, the air, the sea, electricity, etc.), which comes in various ways, entangles him further beyond his conception or perception. Man so blinded in lust for such dominion unfortunately does not see the consequences of his plan.
There are so many resources of the kindness of Mother Earth, who provides us with all our needs, both man and beast. When we take what we need and leave the rest, there’s more for others, and replenishment of the same in the course of time.
The example is given of if an animal or a bird sees a bag of rice spilled for the taking, he will take what he needs for his family for a few days and go on with his life. But man, in his so called wisdom will take the entire bag of rice, put a price on it making sure he makes at least 100% profit, but usually more and then resell that to others, who by God’s law had a right to it in the first place.
Please don’t think that we have a gripe against economics, for commerce must go on, but based on honesty and sustainability and not on thievery.
What comes to us freely or of little endeavour can be redistributed under the same principle, allowing others to benefit. For some honest work and honest pay is given. Principles and concepts that you think are too obvious.
Alas what we see today, in the raping of millions of acres of forest (Amazon region), the lungs of the planet, merely for timber or for raising cattle for slaughter is a form of foolishness that is well known as man’s.
To burn off thousands of acres of forest (Indonesia) just to clear the land, without taking into consideration what such resultant smoke and other debris caused to neighbouring countries is a form of ignorance reserved for those covered with a lust only for money.
The vast imbalances in climates, changes of environment for local wild-life,
who are then blamed for coming to towns and villages to feed/hunt result
in numerous compound effects than man, playing God has created in his ignorance.
One such incident came about
by the fashion some years ago when some people made the eating of frogs-legs
very in vogue. So many frogs were collected to satisfy the market need
that the frog’s natural food, the mosquitoes began to flourish in an unseen
before manner. So many people were being bitten and diseases known to be
carried by the mosquitoes were becoming a serious problem.
In another incident, just
as ridiculous in 1987 in India there was a problem because of the way man
had interfered with the natural environment, taking out one element, but
which caused further and more problems to resolve.
The local Hindus of Southern
Karnataka and Kerela lived among the inland waterways. They fished there,
grew crops there, and disposed of their dead in the waterways too, the
Turtles eating the dead bodies.
When the British, French
and Portuguese came to India they had taught the local people that they
could eat the Turtles too. They even opened a cannery to catch, process
and can the Turtles and make big business of Turtle Soup, which they would
export. After some time of doing this, to make a good profit most of the
Turtles were cleaned up in the waterways. This not only finished the business
of the cannery which the town had become reliant on for work, but now they
had no method for disposal of the dead – and it was common for decomposing
bodies to remain in the water for sometimes washing in and out on the tides.
Some genius in the Ministry
of the Environment or similar govt. Dept. came up with an idea befitting
a cartoon, rather than real life. He proposed the introduction of crocodiles
into the waterways to dispose of the dead bodies, as they are known to
like them. The challenge came when some time later as the crocodiles breed
that it was not only dead bodies they liked, but also live ones, and many
people going to collect water, doing their washing etc., were not seen
again.
Someone devised another piece of genius – to bring in the army.
So there we have it today. Periodic attacks upon the crocs’ by the army;
the crocs’ eat the villagers; villagers eat the turtles; who should have
been eating the dead bodies – because man interfered and thought he could
profit from the prolific amount of turtles and the innocence of the people.
What to speak of numerous
plagues, infestations, and swarm attacks that have had man to thank in
the initial offset, although he carefully as usual emphasised the result
rather than the root cause – him. These are not even beginning to mention
Landslides caused from piling up masses of “waste” removed from coal mines
that slip onto villages and cover them, killing hundreds of people; or
the mining accidents that claim so many lives each year; or toxic releases
that poison entire areas killing (immediately or over generations) thousands
of living entities in all species, and creating disabilities or mutations
in others (caused by Nuclear power stations – bombs, testing and in wars;
pollution by companies into waterways; air pollution by companies, farmers,
chemical weaponry, etc; soil pollution and burning through over chemical
induction, spraying, defoliation, etc.)
...a friend of mine tells me that it was his great grandfather who introduced the intrucive weed Gorse into New Zealand to use for hedge rows. Now the country is full of it. Same with Blackberry bushes, introduced to Australia and New Zealand with all good intention. Similarly other introduced pests to native forest and native animals and birds; Possums, Rabbits, Rats, Domestic Cats, Stotes, Peacocks, to name a few.
With modern society’s emphasis on careers and making money to facilitate
independence and sense gratification for women, another artificial imposition
on a local, individual environment is created. The menstrual periods these
days that women are experiencing with pronounced PMS was unheard of in
natural environments before artificial contraception and career centred
childless families became in vogue. Formerly when women were old enough
to marry and reproduce they spent many years in either child bearing, childbirth
or lactating without periods. Modern women’s rights activists, feminists’
etc., seeing it their right to do whatever they want, deny nature and are
against this ancient and scientific fact of social practice. Instead they
see it as their right to kill the child through contraception, or in the
womb through abortion, thus achieving the same menstrual periodless time.
Hormonal studies in recent
times again identify such a life-style as unnatural and potentially harmful
in the long term to individuals and society in general, as symptoms of
interference in nature’s plan. The “24 hour society”, the pressures and
stress upon women to perform as equal to or independent of their men-folk,
“working unsociable hours”, etc., is now accredited to much of the PMS
and conflict between the two genders. Women’s activists are now, as predicted/expected,
suggesting that by adding the required hormones as they naturally decrease
due to stress and an unnatural way of living, all will be okay.
Does anyone recognise a trend
here? Is it another monster in the making, or is it already made? As usual,
you can guarantee, you and I will have to pick up the pieces when the reactions
to the dysfunctional development of such a society finally hits the fan.
Look at the nervous break-down statistics; look at marriage break-up statistics;
look at the avenues of relief they seek out through addictions to habit
forming drugs, like alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, heroin, tobacco
and marijuana usage statistics; look at suicide rates, none of which shows
signs of a natural way of sustainable healthy life.
We cannot seriously hope to mention all of the ridiculous things that man-kind has done; funny, sorry, sick and sad as they be – for a being who dares to think that he can govern himself bereft of the natural laws of God.
In these pages, and their links hopefully you will find enough information to influence you to join with us, and help the inhabitants of this Earth to again act like civilised humans and not money hungry animals dressed in the refinery of uncivlised ignorant, insensitive garb.
In my calling these perpetrators of the Earth we all share animals I mean no offence to our four legged friends – for you we have respect for, natures’ laws you strictly follow. The two-legged animals do things that no animal would ever do, with no conscience or remorse, as long as the money is in the bank.
As devotees of Lord Krishna the proprietor of everything and everyone, we recognise and accept His dominion. Simply by that one humble action, it changes one’s entire life.
When we know who the owner is, and where we all fit in as servants under His scheme, we can work in harmony.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3. Karma-yoga
TEXT 12
istan bhogan hi vo deva
dasyante yajna-bhavitah
tair dattan apradayaibhyo
yo bhunkte stena eva sah
SYNONYMS
istan--desired; bhogan--necessities of life; hi--certainly; vah--unto
you; devah--the demigods; dasyante--award; yajna-bhavitah--being satisfied
by the performance of sacrifices; taih--by them; dattan--things given;
apradaya--without offering; ebhyah--to the demigods; yah--he who; bhunkte--enjoys;
stenah--thief; eva--certainly; sah--is he.
TRANSLATION
"In charge of the various necessities of life, the demigods,
being satisfied by the performance of yajna [sacrifice], supply all necessities
to man. But he who enjoys these gifts, without offering them to the demigods
in return, is certainly a thief. "
PURPORT
The demigods are authorized supplying agents on
behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vishnu. Therefore, they must
be satisfied by the performance of prescribed yajnas. In the Vedas, there
are different kinds of yajnas prescribed for different kinds of demigods,
but all are ultimately offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For
one who cannot understand what the Personality of Godhead is, sacrifice
to the demigods is recommended. According to the different material qualities
of the persons concerned, different types of yajnas are recommended in
the Vedas. Worship of different demigods is also on the same basis--namely,
according to different qualities. For example, the meat-eaters are recommended
to worship the goddess Kali, the ghastly form of material nature, and before
the goddess the sacrifice of animals is recommended. But for those who
are in the mode of goodness, the transcendental worship of Vishnu is recommended.
But ultimately, all yajnas are meant for gradual promotion to the transcendental
position. For ordinary men, at least five yajnas, known as pancha-maha-yajna,
are necessary.
One should know, however, that all the necessities of life that the human society requires are supplied by the demigod agents of the Lord. No one can manufacture anything. Take, for example, all the eatables of human society. These eatables include grains, fruits, vegetables, milk, sugar, etc., for the persons in the mode of goodness, and also eatables for the non-vegetarians, like meats, etc., none of which can be manufactured by men. Then again, take for example heat, light, water, air, etc., which are also necessities of life--none of them can be manufactured by the human society. Without the Supreme Lord, there can be no profuse sunlight, moonlight, rainfall, breeze, etc., without which no one can live. Obviously, our life is dependent on supplies from the Lord. Even for our manufacturing enterprises, we require so many raw materials like metal, sulphur, mercury, manganese, and so many essentials--all of which are supplied by the agents of the Lord, with the purpose that we should make proper use of them to keep ourselves fit and healthy for the purpose of self-realization, leading to the ultimate goal of life, namely, liberation from the material struggle for existence. This aim of life is attained by performance of yajnas. If we forget the purpose of human life and simply take supplies from the agents of the Lord for sense gratification and become more and more entangled in material existence, which is not the purpose of creation, certainly we become thieves, and therefore we are punished by the laws of material nature. A society of thieves can never be happy because they have no aim in life. The gross materialist thieves have no ultimate goal of life.
They are simply directed to sense gratification; nor do they have knowledge of how to perform yajnas. Lord Chaitanya, however, inaugurated the easiest performance of yajna, namely the sankirtana-yajna, which can be performed by anyone in the world who accepts the principles of Krsna consciousness. (Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Bhagavad Gita As It Is. BG 3:12. purport.)
"In Bhagavad-gétä (7.10) the Lord also says, béjaà mäà sama-bhütänäm: “I am the seed of all living entities.” A particular type of seed is sown within the earth, and then a particular type of tree or plant comes out. The mother resembles the earth, and when a particular type of seed is sown by the father, a particular type of body takes birth." (Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srimad Bhagavatam 9:20:21. Purport.)
yadvämba te bhüri-bharävatära-
kåtävatärasya harer dharitri
antarhitasya smaraté visåñöä
karmäëi nirväëa-vilambitäni
SYNONYMS
yadvä—that may be; amba—O mother; te—your;
bhüri—heavy; bhara—load; avatära—decreasing the load; kåta—done;
avatärasya—one who incarnated; hareù—of Lord Çré
Kåñëa; dharitri—O earth; antarhitasya—of Him who is now
out of sight; smaraté—while thinking of; visåñöä—all
that were performed; karmäëi—activities; nirväëa—salvation;
vilambitäni—that which entails.
TRANSLATION
"O mother earth, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, Hari, incarnated Himself as Lord Çré Kåñëa
just to unload your heavy burden. All His activities here are transcendental,
and they cement the path of liberation. You are now bereft of His presence.
You are probably now thinking of those activities and feeling sorry in
their absence."
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1:16:23.)
"The asuras (selfish demons) want to enjoy a
life of sense gratification, even at the cost of others’ happiness. In
order to fulfill this ambition, the asuras, especially atheistic kings
or state executive heads, try to equip themselves with all kinds of deadly
weapons to bring about a war in a peaceful society. They have no ambition
other than personal aggrandizement, and thus mother Earth feels overburdened
by such undue increases of military strength. By increase of the asuric
population, those who follow the principles of religion become unhappy,
especially the devotees, or devas.
In such a situation, the Personality of Godhead
incarnates to vanquish the unwanted asuras and to reestablish the true
principles of religion. This was the mission of Lord Çré
Kåñëa, and He fulfilled it." (Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada. Srimad Bhagavatam 1:16:34. Purport.)
"The kñatriya, or the man who is qualified to protect the sufferers, is meant to rule the state. Untrained lower-class men, or men without ambition to protect the sufferers, cannot be placed on the seat of an administrator. Unfortunately, in the age of Kali the lower-class men, without training, occupy the post of a ruler by strength of popular votes, and instead of protecting the sufferers, such men create a situation quite intolerable for everyone. Such rulers illegally gratify themselves at the cost of all comforts of the citizens, and thus the chaste mother earth cries to see the pitiable condition of her sons, both men and animals. That is the future of the world in the age of Kali, when irreligiosity prevails most prominently. And in the absence of a suitable king to curb irreligious tendencies, educating the people systematically in the teaching of Çrémad-Bhägavatam will clear up the hazy atmosphere of corruption, bribery, blackmail, etc." (Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srimad Bhagavatam 1:17:27. Purport.)
"I am speaking, because amongst the living entities, human being is considered to be the highest. So the mother earth was lamenting that people have lost their good qualification. They cannot be lost, but it is, by the influence of Kali-yuga, it is now covered. Satyam, çaucam, dayä, that twenty-six nice qualifications. We have discussed all these things. Here (reads):
So, on account of this Kali-yuga, the good qualification of human society will be lost. Thinking this future of the present age, Mother Earth was lamenting and talking with Dharmaräja. At that time Mahäräja Yudhiñöhira, er, Mahäräja Parékñit arrived on that spot. This is the verse.satyaà çaucaà dayä kñäntis
tyägaù santoña ärjavam
çamo damas tapaù sämyaà
titikñoparatiù çrutamjïänaà viraktir aiçvaryaà
çauryaà tejo balaà småtiù
svätantryaà kauçalaà käntir
dhairyaà märdavam eva ca
Hare Krishna Solutions to Community Waste on GoogleVideo
The short film is about organic recycling of vegetable waste, farming fruits and vegetables and offering the produce to the Lord
Click on the picture to go to Google Video on-line and view the short
video (12 mins) - buffering takes a while.
Just
a few of many that this vast topic comprises - if you know more please
send
EARTH
Raping of the Earth's resources
Forests - deforestation - milling - forest fires
Pollution
Toxic Dumping
Geneticly Altered Foods
Genetic Engineering
Transport
AIR
Wind Energy
Air Pollution
Air borne diseases
LIGHT
Solar Energy
Skies & Sunsets
Clarity of light is required osmosis etc
WATER
Drinking Water
Water Tables
Atmospheric Water - Rains (Acid rain)
Fishing industry
Whaling
Marine pollution - dumping, spills and wreacks
Underwater life
ICE
Antarctica
The Arctic
FIRE
Forest fires
Oil fires
CLIMATE CHANGE
Melting ice caps
Flooding
Effects on habitats
NUCLEAR AGE
Chernobyl
Nuclear power stations
Nuclear dumping
Nuclear waste transport
Nuclear reprocessing
WILDLIFE
Endangered species - Elephants, Tigers, Snow Wolf, Red Fox,
Sea birds
Seals and walrusses
Turtles
Penguins
Whales and dolphins
Habitats
Changing
the face of the Earth - the Vaishnava perspective on environmental
clean-up !!:
Different
aspects of global pollution
Changing
the face of the earth campaign
A
world of peace and love and harmony
What
happened to the Greenies?
Daivi-Varna
and Ashram pages - Social order:
Ministry
of the Environment - New Zealand:
Envionmental
Education in the Bay of Plenty:
ECO
- Environment & Conservation Organisations of New Zealand (go to
links)
Ghost
busting services - cleaning the subtle environment
Greenpeace
New Zealand:
Greenpeace
International:
Greenpeace
International information page:
BBC
World - 'Earth Report':
Friends
of the Earth - UK:
A
list of good Environmental URLs Worldwide:
The
Institute for Earth Education:
The
Globe Program - for edcation on envirnmental issues:
United
Nations Environent Program:
Earthlink
Australia:
Environment
Australia Online:
Cornell
Univesity Gateway to Ecology and Environmenal Protecton:
Environmental
News Network:
Save
the Rainforest:
Environmental
E-cards:
Environmental
e-community:
Stop
Animal Cruelty:
Exploitation
of Animals:
The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Cloning:
Genetic
Engineering - Modification:
Isn't it better to recycle
electronics, give to charity and give our time to loved ones rather
than add to the pollution and commercialism of the planet?
Click HERE to view the on-going threat to Alaska and similar oil rich places
Click here for an alternative to Petro' fuel
...and for those who would like regular up dates on Environmentalist issues try here - MotherNature - Find your niche: ecology and the world around us (Three times a week)
World
Environment Day is 5th June EVERY YEAR - tell the World about it.
TAKEN FROM THE BOOK “DOWN UNDER”
Original full length version published by Doubleday,
a division of Transworld Publishers. Copyright 2000 by Bill Bryson.
Condensed version copyright Reader’s Digest (Australia) Pty Ltd
….. In 1859 a man named Thomas Austin, a landowner in Winchelsea, Victoria, a little south of where I was now, made a big mistake. He imported twenty-four wild rabbits from England and released them into the bush for sport. It is hardly a novel observation that rabbits breed with a certain keenness. Within a couple of years they had entirely overrun Austin’s property and were spreading into neighbouring districts. Fifty million years of isolation had left Australia without a single predator or parasite able even to recognize rabbits, much less dine off them, and so they proliferated amazingly.
Collectively their appetite was essentially insatiable. By 1880, two million acres of Victoria had been picked clean. Soon they were pushing into South Australia and New South Wales, advancing over the landscape at a rate of 75 miles per year. The rabbits ate so much of everything that sheep and other livestock were forced to extend both their range and their diet, punishing yet wider expanses. As sheep yields fell, farmers perversely compensated by increasing stocking levels, adding to the general devastation.
The problem would have been acute enough, but in the 1890’s, after forty unusually green years, Australia fell into a murderous, decade-long drought – the worst in its recorded history. As the earth cracked and turned to dust, the topsoil – already the thinnest in the world – blew away, never to be replenished. In the course of the decade, some 35 million sheep, more than half the nation’s total, perished; 16 million went in t single pitiless year, 1902.
The rabbits, meanwhile, hopped on. By the time science finally came up with a solution, almost a century had passed since Thomas Austin tipped his bunnies out of the bag. The weapon deployed against the rabbits was a miracle virus from South America called myxomatosis. Harmless to human and other animals, it was phenomenally devastating to rabbits, with a mortality rate of 99.9 per cent. Although just one rabbit in a thousand survived, those few that did were naturally resistant to myxomatosis, and it was resistant genes that they passed on when they began to breed again. It took a while for things to get rolling, but today, Australia’s rabbit numbers are back up to 300 million and climbing fast.
……….. At a place called Torquay, the Great Ocean Road rejoined the main highway towards Melbourne. Twenty miles to the west, I noticed, was Winchelsea, where Thomas Austin set free the twenty-four rabbits that transformed the Australian landscape. Now you would think that people might have learned a lesson from Austin’s experience, but amazingly no. At the very moment that rabbits were eating their way across the country-side, influential people were introducing other species of animals in great number – sometimes for sport, sometimes by accidence, but mostly in an effort to liven things up a little. In the 1860’s the Ballarat Acclimatisation Society loosed foxes into the landscape, and they quickly became a scourge, a position from which they have not yet retreated. Other animals escaped or were abandoned and went wild. Camels were used to build the railway from Adelaide to Alice Springs, but were set free when the work was completed. Today 100,000 id them roam the central and western deserts, the only place in the world where one-humped dromedaries exist in the wild. Across the country there are up to five million wild donkeys, a million or more wild horses, goats, sheep, pigs, foxes and dogs. Feral pigs have been caught in Melbourne suburbs. There are so many introduced species, in fact, that the red kangaroo, once the largest animal on the continent, is now only the thirteenth biggest.
The consequences for native species have often been devastating. About 130 mammals in Australia are threatened. Sixteen have become extinct – more than in any other continent. And guess what is the mightiest killer of all? According to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, it is the common cat. Cats love the Australia wild. There are twelve million of them out there, inhabiting every niche in the landscape from the driest deserts to the tallest mountains. With the fox they have driven many of Australia’s smallest, cutest and most vulnerable native animals to the edge of extinction – numbats, bettongs, quolls, potoroos, bandicoots, rock wallabies, playpuses and many other. Since most of these creatures are nocturnal and rarely seen, most people don’t notice their absence, but they are going fast.
As with animals, so with plants. In the 1850s, Victoria was unfortunate to have as chief botanist a dedicated acclimatizer with the imposing name of Baron Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich Von Mueller. As with animal acclimatizers, Von Mueller couldn’t abide what he viewed as the impoverished nature of Australia flora, and he spent much of his free time travelling the country sowing seeds of pumpkins, cabbages, melons and whatever else he though might flourish. He had a special affection for blackberries, planting clumps of them all over. The blackberry is now Victoria’s most pernicious week, all the ineradicable and the bane of farmers everywhere. Where unmolested, it takes over whole landscapes.
Altogether, according to author Tim Low, Australia is now home to more than 2,700 foreign weeds. Botanical gardens are among the worst offenders. Three escapees from Darwin’s Botanic Gardens – mimosa bush, leucaena and crutch tree – threaten Kakadu National Park, a World Heritage site, and there have been others elsewhere.
Where these things come from is often a mystery. According to Low, in recent years a biting ant, from the species Iridomyrmex, has infested Brisbane. It has become a common nuisance. Interestingly, no one knows where it came from or how it got there. It just one day appeared. Nor, for obvious reasons, can anyone say where it will spread or what quiet havoc it might wreak. One thing alone is certain. As so often, it appears to be doing better in Australia than wherever it came from.