So far no evacuation zone has been declared. There are no threats to sea life, and the fallout from the disaster was not detectable thousands of miles away. Cleanup efforts are in progress, and will not include covering the area in a giant concrete dome. No workers have been asked to give their lives in order to save their countrymen from the menace of this fallen wind turbine.
The last third of expedition took him into northern Yukon and the Arctic. During one stretch, Skurka traveled 657 miles over 24 days without crossing a road or seeing a human being. It was just him and his video camera. The clip he showed from that period revealed some of his deepest reflections. For Skurka, "big wilderness has a different feel to it." His surroundings were so wild, "big, open, and vast." He "could have been the last person on earth," and felt unsettled by this "new level of vulnerability and sense of self-dependence." His mentor, Roman Dial, put it into perspective: "You are not on the Appalachian trail anymore. In big wilderness, there is no such thing as comfort."[...]
You are "just another animal," and just "as vulnerable and exposed to nature as the creatures around you." There are "bigger powers at play than you could ever understand or imagine."
At 75 Perkins was invited to record his first album as a frontman on After Hours (1988). He followed it with Pinetop's Boogie-Woogie (1992), on which his stomping piano style was backed by a superior cast of blues guitarists including Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Jimmy Rogers, Hubert Sumlin and Luther Tucker.
It’s also an interesting formulation because we just don’t have the choice of continuing down the path of this highly industrialized, highly fossil fuel-dependent food industry, even if we wanted to. Even if we decided that’s what we liked best, we’re going to find we don’t have the fossil fuel to support it. We would find that having a globalized food economy is fraught with risks, as we’re seeing with the current price spikes. And that food security, whether you’re talking about countries or smaller units, is endangered by having the food system we have. A lot of the political instability we’re seeing now is tied to problems with the globalized food system. So the idea that’s it’s working and that we could continue on this path is just not a choice available to us. We have to figure out another way to do it. And to say the only alternative is the tiny artisinal farm is false. There are many ways to do it. All of them involve changing industrial agricultural, however.On a related note, I saw the PBS documentary of his book Botany of Desire today. The movie complimented and even enhanced the book. Usually when I read a book and see the movie, I am disappointed.
It’s unlikely that these products’ potential benefits could possibly outweigh their potential for harm. But even more unbelievable is that the F.D.A.and the U.S.D.A. will not require any of these products, or foods containing them, to be labeled as genetically engineered, because they don’t want to “suggest or imply” that these foods are “different.” (Labels with half-truths about health benefits appear to be O.K., but that’s another story.)[...]We simply do not know what will happen to the planet. We only live here. What does it matter.
The subject is unquestionably complex. Few people outside of scientists working in the field — self included — understand much of anything about gene altering. Still, an older ABC poll found that a majority of Americans believe that G.M.O.’s are unsafe, even more say they’re less likely to buy them, and a more recent CBS/NYT poll found a whopping 87 percent — you don’t see a poll number like that too often — wants them labeled.
A majority of our food already contains G.M.O.’s, and there’s little reason to think more isn’t on the way. It seems our “regulators” are using us and the environment as guinea pigs, rather than demanding conclusive tests. And without labeling, we have no say in the matter whatsoever.
