On My Soap Box

I just finished watching The 11th Hour, a documentary by Leonardo DiCaprio about the energy crisis. It was similar to Al Gore's movie in that it provided a lot of statistics but it was definitely more interesting. Not just a power point presentation. A few things really stuck with me.

1. Is Global Warming true? One person in the movie clearly stated that if you look at all the facts (I won't go into the facts here, you can watch the movie or do your own research), there is a change in many areas of nature that are not flowing in natural patterns. By "not believing" in global warming you are treating it like people treat religion. You choose to believe or not believe in a particular religion. But the facts of our climate change are indisputable. Facts are facts whether they are believed or not.

2. Our population growth. I did not realize how fast the world population is really growing. In 1800 it was less than 1 billion, 1900 about 1.6 billion, 1950 about 2.5 billion, 2000 about 6 billion and 2005 it was 6.45 billion. At some point our population will outgrow our resources. And I don't just mean oil but food. We have already seen glimpses of food shortages in other parts of the world that have had little affect here.

3. Corporate economic globalization. Big corporations are only more important to the government because they collectively have more money than individuals. Corporations run government not the people. It's a greed thing. Enough said.

4. Property vs. person. Everything is either property or it is a person. You think that the air you breath and the rain falling from the sky is free. But in Colorado and in some other parts of the world it is not. The Colorado Constitution prohibits individuals from collecting rainwater because you are taking it away from someone who has water rights further down the line. I found this out when looking for rain barrel collectors at online stores and saw there were warnings to those who live in Colorado. Who do you want controlling our precious resources. People or corporations?

5. (This was not in the movie but is from my own research) The majority of our world's food supply is controlled by big private corporations that are heavily supported by our government. They produce genetically uniform crops that have been genetically altered to: produce terminator seeds (they cannot reproduce), have resistance to chemicals like weed killer so that petroleum based pesticides and herbicides can be sprayed on them, have DNA that have been patented so that if your crop is contaminated by pollen from their plants at a nearby farm, you can be sued for paten infringement (link). The other problem with less diversity is your are taking a risk of major crop failure. Remember the advice to diversify in economics? If one year a particular bug becomes resistant to the pesticides it could wipe out the entire crop where that bug lives. One American company controls about 90 percent of genetically engineered soy, cotton and canola seed markets and has a large piece of the corn seed market. They also provide seeds or have cooperation with seed providers in nearly every type of seed out there.

11the Hour Trailer

Link to a movie about that seed corporation. I didn't put it on the blog because it automatically loads (annoying!).