Masters of the Universe

Power of Nature

Anyone watching the news footage on the television will know that the media’s capacity to dramatise the trivial and to deify celebrities has at last been silenced. Their artificial world has been silenced by the real and overwhelming power of nature that has brought such devastation in the wake of earthquakes and Tsunamis.

There have been two major explosions already and radio-active iodine has been released into the atmosphere; the headlines sensationalise the possible meltdown at the nuclear reactors. The aesthetic complaints of the NIMBYs on Windmills are so petty in comparison,they are a reminder of the country bumpkin Don Quixote's and his attack on windmills that he believed to be ferocious giants. Our failure to promote green power shows that we often fail to go with the flow and our failure to work with nature and with its tried and tested technology.

Martin Luther King had it right.In 1963 he said that we have all genuflected before the God of Science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate.

Killer insecticides.

It would be as foolish to say that this disaster in Japan proves that nuclear power generators are unsafe and lead to catastrophes. It is equally foolish to say that nuclear power is safe outside known earthquake zones, with or without Tsunamis. Similarly governments that assure us that many insecticides. , herbicides or even colouring in food are safe are foolish if not dishonest. They have not have not been tested over decades or centuries together and, like DDT which was unsafe even on its own, we may be paying the price already with increased cancers or new triggers for latent vulnerabilities. We do not know, but time will tell, when we understand much more about the science of what is being done.

Organic Gardening.

I started organic allotment garden when my young daughter had an acute allergic reaction to additives in food, knowing that thousands of years of natural cultivation had shown what the body could and could not accept. She continued to have occasional severe allergic reactions that could lead to acute anaphylactic shock . On two occasions these were from sweets/chocolate snacks that had changed their ingredients without clearly labelling this. There were never any problems with my allotment grown organic fruit and vegetables.

It would be foolish to reach immediate conclusions from Japan, but sensible to start asking tough questions.We should listen more to questioning scientist and challenge arrogant politicians.

Are we masters of the universe,what can we learn from its successful evolution, can we learn to treat people and the planet with greater respect?

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