Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Nut Free Restaurants Calgary
Myth
Unsustainable development
From a global environmental perspective, the idea of \u200b\u200bsustainable development is totally unsustainable. The model most extreme capitalist development does not account for the so-called natural capital and is considered inexhaustible nature as something to be exploited without limit. It is what is called "weak sustainability" (weak sustainability).
By contrast, the "strong sustainability" (strong sustainability) yes that considers natural resources as something to take care to not exhaust or degrade (Neumayer, 2003). Proponents of the first option, which currently dominates our world, measuring the development of indicators as gross as the accumulation of capital or total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the indicator that is used to hierarchically ordered by their countries stage of development and make a list of countries that choose to international economic policy, or "developed" (G8 and the like), as opposed to those who are "developing", among other euphemisms. Proponents of strong sustainability, however, defines sustainable development as one that ensures that each generation leaves to the next production base, which includes both reproducible capital (infrastructure, machinery, communications, etc.) as the natural-at least as great as that she has inherited (Dasgupta, 2010). However, the impossibility of unlimited growth in a system with limited resources makes both are utopian ideas of sustainability.
A New Green Revolution?
It is estimated that by 2050 the Earth's human population will be about 9 billion people, so feed them all adequately is proposed as one of the most important problems of today (Ash et al, 2010; Butler, 2010) . To this end, we propose a new green revolution, this time globally, in which science and technology play a key role through improvements in crop breeding and genetic modifications that increase efficiency and reduce photosynthetic the need for fertilizers, development of new methods of controlling pests, diseases and weed control, improved farming practices that reduce emissions greenhouse gas (mostly methane); innovations for improving fisheries and aquaculture techniques, new developments in nanotechnology, genomics and electronics to optimize the use of agricultural resources, changes in diet and reducing meat consumption and dairy products, and development of alternative sources of proteins. (The Royal Society, 2009; Beddington, 2010, Godfray et al, 2010).
At first glance, this option seems highly laudable, due to high philanthropic, but a more detailed analysis is not necessarily so, not even for humanity. First, it is well known that hunger in the world, at least at present, there is a problem of lack of resources of the planet, but the socio-economic imbalance created by the model supercapitalism that after the recent fiasco socialist has strengthened as a global development model par excellence. For example, before 2005, it is estimated that there were 850 million undernourished people in the world, a figure that increased to 75 million in just two years due to rising prices of wheat and maize, only for market reasons (Beddington , 2010). That is, hunger is not so much a problem of overpopulation as intra-generational injustice. Organizations such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank are responsible to maintain this situation of inequality and domination of the rich economies without the United Nations Organization was created precisely to ensure, inter alia, international security and human rights can do nothing for being too subservient to the designs of the capital and the market (Pelletier, 2010).
On the other hand, if we let ourselves be carried away by the proposed new green revolution to solve the problem in the next 40 years, we run the risk of accelerating the degradation of the planet and, probably worse, create the precedent that there is always something to squeeze, besides giving rise to the illusion that growth is always possible, and that just a new green revolution to drive a further increase in population (Rull, 2010b). In the end, it would be a planet that we would become a large farmhouse built exclusively for human development, not just remnants of what was once called Nature. From that point, any thoughts of further development would be almost impossible. This item is not as far as we think. A recent study shows that between 1700 and 2000 the terrestrial biosphere was a critical transition from a predominantly natural state to another mainly anthropogenic reaching the critical point of 50% in the twentieth century. Since then, most are predominantly anthropogenic biomes, a trend that will continue to grow in the future (Ellis et al., 2010).
The only areas that still remain in a more or less natural state are the deserts and the poles, for obvious reasons but, if you find something out of profit (economic, of course) to reverse the situation.
Emerging Alternatives:
On Earth, the unlimited growth of population and GDP is utopian and at some point there will stop. The limit defined by the natural capital, which ultimately is the origin of any production system (there is nothing that we get out of Nature), no matter what the economic paradigm in vogue. There are already some alternatives such as the so-called "zero growth" (steady state economy) or "decline" (degrowth) (Lawn, 2010, Schneider et al., 2010). Both are based on the principles of the "green economy" (Ecological Economics), which highlights the importance of interactions between economy and environment, as well as the biophysical laws that restrict human development. The basic principle is thermodynamic: The amount of energy in a closed system is constant and degrades any useful energy transformation making entropy.
All economic activities produce this kind of energy degradation which ends in waste and pollution, so the earth's capacity to provide materials and energy for human development is limited (Pelletier, 2010). Proponents believe that the decrease of human progress is possible without economic growth and offer a fair decline in production and consumption can promote human welfare and improving environmental conditions locally and globally, short and long term (Schneider et al. 2010). According to them, there is a recession or economic downturn or a return to pastoral societies. Today, this movement is structured from a theoretical point of view and also with concrete practical proposals (Martinez-Alier et al., 2010), and will have to follow developments in the near future.
In conclusion
In short, sustainable development is a fallacy. Or guarantee the conservation of nature and is a real possibility for human progress medium and long term. In fact, all intended to maintain sustainable development is development itself under supercapitalism principles of market economy and consumerism (Rull, 2010C). Although it is hard to accept, any conservation of biodiversity, saving energy, pollution or waste management, recycling, remediation, etc.. conducted under this utopian model of growth, is intended to keep and that is as scheduled. They are all mitigation activities to make up the visible damage and thus understood that the development is not seen as something so counterproductive that is, what it is to "change everything so that nothing will change. " Unfortunately, many good intentions get caught in this trap. Scientists and technologists have been called to act as leaders in this endeavor, using their work and creativity to find the appropriate solutions (Beddington, 2010). However, a feature that should distinguish science from other activities is independent of any social system, economic, political, ideological or religious (Rull, 2010a), so you should think hard about the attitude we take, not only by the underlying ideological implications, but also for the possible future consequences. It is not alleviate the most obvious consequences of a viable development model, now disguised by the term magic "sustainable", which transforms any proposal politically correct, but to replace it. It is time for economic creativity, but not just for a change of lifestyle habits to more "green" or "green" as it is fashionable to speak, but to a profound change in the global political and economic order.
The capitalist model is exhausted and depleted the planet if we continue (Speth, 2009), directly or indirectly, for the sake of the myth of sustainability.
This essay draws on concepts and arguments developed in previous analysis (Rull, 2009, 2010th, b, c) to defend the so-called sustainable development is not only the best option for conservation of Nature but it is not feasible, in terms of ecological, economic and even physical. In short: It is a myth. In fact, it is a call for reflection, before taking some personal views and / or professional, implicitly considered as "politically correct" (or trendy, which is to be the same), face the problem of human progress and Nature conservation. This paper should be regarded as a personal opinion, which aims to promote discussion.
Unsustainable development
From a global environmental perspective, the idea of \u200b\u200bsustainable development is totally unsustainable. The model most extreme capitalist development does not account for the so-called natural capital and is considered inexhaustible nature as something to be exploited without limit. It is what is called "weak sustainability" (weak sustainability).
By contrast, the "strong sustainability" (strong sustainability) yes that considers natural resources as something to take care to not exhaust or degrade (Neumayer, 2003). Proponents of the first option, which currently dominates our world, measuring the development of indicators as gross as the accumulation of capital or total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the indicator that is used to hierarchically ordered by their countries stage of development and make a list of countries that choose to international economic policy, or "developed" (G8 and the like), as opposed to those who are "developing", among other euphemisms. Proponents of strong sustainability, however, defines sustainable development as one that ensures that each generation leaves to the next production base, which includes both reproducible capital (infrastructure, machinery, communications, etc.) as the natural-at least as great as that she has inherited (Dasgupta, 2010). However, the impossibility of unlimited growth in a system with limited resources makes both are utopian ideas of sustainability.
Indeed, the natural and reproducible capital are directly interdependent, so that any increase in the first end, sooner or later, for decimating the second, either in the form of reduction, contamination or accumulation of debris (Rull, 2010b). After reaching the capacity of the Earth, insistence on a growth model of this type may result in a collapse. The question is how close or far we are in that capacity. According Rockström et al. (2009), humanity and violated three of the nine boundaries that are considered critical, as are the rates of climate change and biodiversity loss, and interference with the nitrogen cycle, which determines their progressive accumulation in the biosphere. The latest estimates indicate that to continue growing at current rates and would need 1.2 planets like ours (WWF, 2008) and this will worsen in coming decades.
A New Green Revolution?
It is estimated that by 2050 the Earth's human population will be about 9 billion people, so feed them all adequately is proposed as one of the most important problems of today (Ash et al, 2010; Butler, 2010) . To this end, we propose a new green revolution, this time globally, in which science and technology play a key role through improvements in crop breeding and genetic modifications that increase efficiency and reduce photosynthetic the need for fertilizers, development of new methods of controlling pests, diseases and weed control, improved farming practices that reduce emissions greenhouse gas (mostly methane); innovations for improving fisheries and aquaculture techniques, new developments in nanotechnology, genomics and electronics to optimize the use of agricultural resources, changes in diet and reducing meat consumption and dairy products, and development of alternative sources of proteins. (The Royal Society, 2009; Beddington, 2010, Godfray et al, 2010).
At first glance, this option seems highly laudable, due to high philanthropic, but a more detailed analysis is not necessarily so, not even for humanity. First, it is well known that hunger in the world, at least at present, there is a problem of lack of resources of the planet, but the socio-economic imbalance created by the model supercapitalism that after the recent fiasco socialist has strengthened as a global development model par excellence. For example, before 2005, it is estimated that there were 850 million undernourished people in the world, a figure that increased to 75 million in just two years due to rising prices of wheat and maize, only for market reasons (Beddington , 2010). That is, hunger is not so much a problem of overpopulation as intra-generational injustice. Organizations such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank are responsible to maintain this situation of inequality and domination of the rich economies without the United Nations Organization was created precisely to ensure, inter alia, international security and human rights can do nothing for being too subservient to the designs of the capital and the market (Pelletier, 2010).
On the other hand, if we let ourselves be carried away by the proposed new green revolution to solve the problem in the next 40 years, we run the risk of accelerating the degradation of the planet and, probably worse, create the precedent that there is always something to squeeze, besides giving rise to the illusion that growth is always possible, and that just a new green revolution to drive a further increase in population (Rull, 2010b). In the end, it would be a planet that we would become a large farmhouse built exclusively for human development, not just remnants of what was once called Nature. From that point, any thoughts of further development would be almost impossible. This item is not as far as we think. A recent study shows that between 1700 and 2000 the terrestrial biosphere was a critical transition from a predominantly natural state to another mainly anthropogenic reaching the critical point of 50% in the twentieth century. Since then, most are predominantly anthropogenic biomes, a trend that will continue to grow in the future (Ellis et al., 2010).
The only areas that still remain in a more or less natural state are the deserts and the poles, for obvious reasons but, if you find something out of profit (economic, of course) to reverse the situation.
On Earth, the unlimited growth of population and GDP is utopian and at some point there will stop. The limit defined by the natural capital, which ultimately is the origin of any production system (there is nothing that we get out of Nature), no matter what the economic paradigm in vogue. There are already some alternatives such as the so-called "zero growth" (steady state economy) or "decline" (degrowth) (Lawn, 2010, Schneider et al., 2010). Both are based on the principles of the "green economy" (Ecological Economics), which highlights the importance of interactions between economy and environment, as well as the biophysical laws that restrict human development. The basic principle is thermodynamic: The amount of energy in a closed system is constant and degrades any useful energy transformation making entropy.
All economic activities produce this kind of energy degradation which ends in waste and pollution, so the earth's capacity to provide materials and energy for human development is limited (Pelletier, 2010). Proponents believe that the decrease of human progress is possible without economic growth and offer a fair decline in production and consumption can promote human welfare and improving environmental conditions locally and globally, short and long term (Schneider et al. 2010). According to them, there is a recession or economic downturn or a return to pastoral societies. Today, this movement is structured from a theoretical point of view and also with concrete practical proposals (Martinez-Alier et al., 2010), and will have to follow developments in the near future.
In conclusion
The capitalist model is exhausted and depleted the planet if we continue (Speth, 2009), directly or indirectly, for the sake of the myth of sustainability.
The myth of sustainable development - V.
RULL Institut Botanic de Barcelona (CSIC-ICUB), Psg. Migdia s / n, 08038 Barcelona Collectanea Botanica (Barcelona), vol. 29 (2010): 103-109
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
When Did The Simpsons Begin To Decline
Post Office - Lark Rise to Candleford
The series has multiple seasons ... and I'm going for the third time. Without meaning to, you go falling in love with each character and situation in life. I like the stories where it seems that nothing happens, and suddenly it is life itself which is taking part in each of the moments. So ... given to the series ... I discovered something else about it. I saw myself doing research on the author in which it is based: Flora Thompson, and one of his books. It seems that your life has some similarity with the story told in the series.
We can imagine a world in which confidentiality there again? I think the person free of today is a bum or someone who is not connected to social networks, or from within the system (and here I must say that I am part of the system and now .. .. I am bound not want to dispense entirely with him). Recently had a conversation with a person who usually lives on the street ... and I said, I do not know anything about how to survive in an environment where there are not many of the things I call "important" and explained, among other things, how of econcontrarse with someone without "being" with that one ... then I remembered that many years ago when I visited a friend who lives in Cuenca, (and then ... there was no mobile but phones and many booths) told me that the way she was staying with friends through notes that were left in a kind wall. And just this wall, and his friends knew of the existence of such messages. Today I do not think that communicates the same way ... but ... if I could, I would try to continue staying with people through short notes or long, but take longer to see them. I fear for the demise of the boxes and letters. So .... maybe even more I liked this series. With the book I have not yet done, but try to read it one day ... with a dictionary at hand, of course. 
For a few days I've been living with these little beings that occupy our bodies in winter dates and do not feel like that at all ... not even read. A base of tea with lemon and honey, vapors of eucalyptus, onion soup and a lot of care of the people around me ... I have become much better ... until it is just that undesirable nocturnal dry cough that makes my nights are very very interesting.
While I was in these circumstances, foreign to me, since I did not really want to read, I was watching a BBC series that I found by accident ... and to me really liked: "Lark Rise to Candleford". How could it be otherwise ... we're in England in the Oxfordshire area. And what is the show? ... As a Post Office early the early twentieth century, and relations between the inhabitants of two villages, in which not slow to notice, that in spite of many distances, there is not much difference between them ... apart from that one people have greater purchasing power. But ... all their lives have no place in the Post Office, ... in which a card has a value incalcuble, by the news that can hold ... and how ... who are caring for those words, have a duty to be respectful of the contents of each letter, telegram, packet, message ... For without doubt, there is is the confidence of each inhabitant. It's a wonderful series ... I have much more to say .... well ... it's a shame that you can not buy subtitled in English. Only Online.
The series has multiple seasons ... and I'm going for the third time. Without meaning to, you go falling in love with each character and situation in life. I like the stories where it seems that nothing happens, and suddenly it is life itself which is taking part in each of the moments. So ... given to the series ... I discovered something else about it. I saw myself doing research on the author in which it is based: Flora Thompson, and one of his books. It seems that your life has some similarity with the story told in the series. 
Another 
care I had during these days and have helped to replenish forces have been couple of books ... One of them has given me a very dear friend, and the other my traveling companion , both very welcome. The one I gave my friend, it contains recipes for cakes, scones, sandwiches ... everything for the tea. And with beautiful illustrations. The other book, ... with two words says it all. With all this, how I was going to put good!
care I had during these days and have helped to replenish forces have been couple of books ... One of them has given me a very dear friend, and the other my traveling companion , both very welcome. The one I gave my friend, it contains recipes for cakes, scones, sandwiches ... everything for the tea. And with beautiful illustrations. The other book, ... with two words says it all. With all this, how I was going to put good! By the way ... lemon green tea with honey ... liked me as I take it also in times of improvement. The photos: the first is a shelf at home ... with a cup letter to me recently gave a couple of years, there is another photo of Prince Edward Island and the Post Office which still exists and the time of Maud M. L. and the next where you see a mailbox is a street in Oxford.
Friday, February 4, 2011
What Color Should I Paint My Bmx Frame
In a corner of the room. ..
recently, where more "hours" (sometimes only get a few minutes) spent reading, is in a corner of the room used for sleeping. There I expected a pile of books ... all of them with imagination to take me to different worlds, realities not experienced, to deep thoughts, etc ... Not all the books are stacked in the room. Sometimes out of "their corner" and appear in other areas, such as a cafeteria, a bus station, a couch at home ... well ... what happens when you put books in the bag and not want to get out. I miss a continuous reading of one book ... but is that, as I said before, I am tempted to read a few pages of one of the most varied reasons, spend some time with this writer how long I do not read, reread a passage from that one book that I think would be good for me today ... so ... how many thoughts crossed my mind, to choose one or another book ... and do not remain constant and faithful to one. Is Reading that I no longer trapped as before? Am I more dispersed and not concentrated? The fact is that sometimes, when I read and I am with a book in hand, I have wanted to finish it ... and at the same time is not completed. The latter happens more meudo me when the book has caught me ... and I can not quit. And I do not get another, but "it" book on the train, the subway, waiting in the cafes ... Anyway ... I think I'm somewhat caught up in several other readings and invite me to one more may not rejected.
That was ... the other day a package arrived at work ... a colleague from another place similar to mine, sent me as he could and surprise a book. At work I decided not to open it ... And ... I took him home. Once there ... I was looking for a while ... that feeling of what is behind the paper book, I love it! .. She said that maybe I would have it, and inside was a gift voucher to choose another book, where to find them repeated. The fact is that it was not necessary. The book I have not ... It French Suit of Irène Némirosvsky . Am I can hold without reading a line? Not really. Although not yet believe that I started ... I was immersed in the prologue of Myriam Anissimov.
also joins him that although I enjoy reading and have a good time between books, I also enjoy the social life of the sunset, work, of whatever form and full time the hours of my life.
That was ... the other day a package arrived at work ... a colleague from another place similar to mine, sent me as he could and surprise a book. At work I decided not to open it ... And ... I took him home. Once there ... I was looking for a while ... that feeling of what is behind the paper book, I love it! .. She said that maybe I would have it, and inside was a gift voucher to choose another book, where to find them repeated. The fact is that it was not necessary. The book I have not ... It French Suit of Irène Némirosvsky . Am I can hold without reading a line? Not really. Although not yet believe that I started ... I was immersed in the prologue of Myriam Anissimov.
So, the stack of books, not read, it grows and grows on my nightstand ( French Suit has not yet reached this corner .) To this we must add, those books that seem to call from time to time. So that looking on the shelf, my eyes fell on "Women who write are also dangerous" to briefly talk about a friend of a writer. And there, among several names of women, many of them are in various corners of my house, I find Astrid Lindgren and Pippi Langstrump ... and remember the many hours I spent with this girl and her adventures. I read about the person who gave life to that character, and here, who writes about it, he says he was inspired by Anne of Green Gables for "Pippi portray (in my case ... I knew Pippi as a child rather than Anne ... then ... I was conditioned to like?), and then there's that name ... where did a name like "Langstrump? And it seems that it is deformation of the word Blaustrumpf , which means blue socks and was the name given to intellectual women previously. And so .... I'm walking through my mind ... and the Astrid Lindgren who writes about, we travel with the thought ... and both he Bluestokings book continues on the stack of books without read and I'd love to know more.
also joins him that although I enjoy reading and have a good time between books, I also enjoy the social life of the sunset, work, of whatever form and full time the hours of my life. Anyway ... I think I'll be trying to finish a few days From this and other worlds , traveling books that are on the table at night, trying not read Irène Némirovsky and others that are stacked around me ... and perhaps escape from dreams and whispered that tomorrow, want to be read for a while.
illustrations ... The first is Federico Zandomeneghi ... (besides the cover of a book I have really wanted to read ... and read in a moment.) Then there is the picture of Anne of Green Gables is Lauren Mills and the rest are covers of books and a picture of the actress who resprenstaba Pippi Longstocking.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Dr Scholl's Sandals Stockings
obsolescence - (Buy, Pull, Buy).
Review:
Hello, let this film uploaded to YouTube by user Jorgekan , also left the review that made the documentary. Similarly
are grateful for the information provided by the network Anarqlat , of \u200b\u200bwhich this blog is involved.
Review:
"Batteries to 'die' at 18 months of being released, printers that are blocked on reaching a certain number of prints, lamps that melt a thousand hours ... Why, despite advances in technology, consumer products last less and less?
Shot in Catalonia (Catalunya), France, Germany, USA and Ghana, Buy, shooting, shopping, a journey through the history of a business practice that involves the deliberate reduction in the life of a product to increase the consumption because, as published in 1928 an influential U.S. magazine advertising, "an article that does not wear is a tragedy for business."
The documentary, directed by Cosima Dannoritzer and co-produced by English TV, is the result of three years of research have made use of little-known archival footage, provides documentary evidence and shows the disastrous environmental consequences resulting from this practice. It also presents several examples of the spirit of resistance that is growing among consumers and includes the analysis and opinion of economists, designers and intellectuals who proposed alternative ways to save the environment and economics
A bulb at the root of planned obsolescence
Edison put on sale its first light bulb in 1881. Lasted 1500 hours. In 1911 an ad in English media highlighted the benefits of a brand of light bulbs with a duration Certified 2500 hours. But as revealed in the documentary, in 1924 a cartel that brought together the main manufacturers in Europe and the United States negotiated to limit the lifetime of a light bulb at 1000 hours. The Phoebus cartel was called and officially never existed but in Purchase, pull, buy we are shown the document which is the starting point of obsolescence, which is now applied to next-generation electronic products such as printers and iPods and applied also in the textile industry with the disappearance of the means to test runs. Consumer
rebels in the Internet age
Through History of the scheduled expiration, the film also paints a fresco of the history of economics in the last hundred years and provides an interesting fact: the attitudinal change in consumers through the use of social networks and the Internet. The Neistat brothers case, the computer programmer or Catalan Vitaly Kiselev Marcos López, give a good account of it.
Africa, first world electronic landfill
disposable
This constant has serious environmental consequences. As we see in this research, countries like Ghana are becoming the first world electronic trash. Until then hundreds of containers arriving regularly waste loaded under the label of 'second-hand material "and the umbrella of a contribution to bridging the digital divide and eventually occupying the space of rivers or playgrounds for children.
Beyond the complaint, the documentary is to give visibility to entrepreneurs implement new business models and hear the alternatives proposed by intellectuals such as Serge Latouche, start talking revolution 'decrease', the reduction consumption and production to free time and develop other forms of wealth, such as friendship or knowledge, that do not run when using them. "
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