Mails To The Director

The articles I usually post come from my thoughts or different pieces of news I read from time to time. And as in any job, there are more productive days than others or worse: there are days which are not productive at all. So I take advantage of that more productives days in order to write the posts and let them in a pile for when necessary (it is, days without any idea or nothing to say).

With respect to an article I posted some time ago, Ardorín, a friend of mine, made  a comment who brought to my mind a piece of news  which I had piled. So my friend, here you have a mail which was written to the persone in charge of the newspaper El País. The mail was edited in May 27th, 2007. the author is Nicolás Fabelo González, Galápagos, Madrid, who makes a reflection which I think is very interesting and which should be in the thoughts of everybody.

OUR FAULTS ARE OURS NEVER

Traffic accidents have increased: it's roads fault, missing signposting, weather conditions... but never to blame for people who aggresively or madly drive, never to blame for those who show off driving at 180 km/h; perhaps is better to criticize those who drive according to the law...

Junk TV consolidate its leadership on TV media but it's not our fault. We have to claim on TV chains as  there is no room for cultural programs, maybe we also have to claim on politiciens for not giving a proper answer to this issue, maybe it will be the inherent cultural poverty of the capitalism but... has anybody thought that TV chains behave as markets? It is, they only sell what it is bought... has anybody thought about the gossiping and coarsing spirit of many individuals of our society who being idle in their sofa practise an absolute power on their remote control?

Climate change is worsening: We should claim on transnational  companies, on predator capitalism, the EEUU government, etc, etc... but never claim on those who overuse their SUVs just for a box of Cokes, those who set their heating system at 26ºC or the air conditioning at 17ºC, those who never will understand that winter has been created for being "cold" and summer for being "hot".

Many shameless individuals who have got loaded thanks to the destruction of the environment and spreading around the urbanistic chaos... so we should claim on the world of politics, on the defects in politics which rule the use of the land, on the capitalism rapacity... but never we should claim on those who are far more interested on the last signing of their football team than in the management of their comunity or municipality.

Summarizing: Our fault is never our fault, devil seems to come from politiciens, business people, journalists or from that dark abstraction called "the System".

Moral of the day: we see the mote in others eyes but not the beam in ours own.

Are We Humans More Animals Than Animals Themselves?

Following the thread of one of my posts and thinking once more about the girls and boys who will be the men and the women of the future, I think it's worth watching the video that my friend Leo sent me some time ago. Now every reader should get his/her own conclusions.

Children See. Children do.

Long time ago I read the following quote: there's no better education than the example. This quote is a glaring truth. That spanish quote about "Do what I say but don't do what I do" should be something out, something not to be said to children as they are literally parrots and copy exactly what they see at home. It's not worth for a teacher telling a pupil "use your seat belt when in a car" when his father never uses it. I don't know if I transmit you the idea.

I think other world is possible but a better future is only possible making kids to do right things by giving them example. Kant said something like "Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world".

Long time ago I also was sent from different people the video which is below, a video which was the spark to begin this post. Thanks guys.

If I Pug Can Do It So You Can Do It

Don't wait for the change, you are the change. The change will come when everyone of us changes.

Thanks Charles for the link.

Something You Should

Something I usually do when I go abroad, is to buy an English book about any subject related with climate change or the state of the planet. In this way, I found in Paris the book whose cover you can see on the left.

And what special thing has this book that many others don't? The first thing is the content. The second is that you can downloaded it for free. I think you can't lose such a opportunity to read a book with points of view that not everybody has. Give yourself the opportunity to see in another direction.

I will let you here some quotes from the Preface to have an idea of what you are going to read, if you do, of course.

Our world is changing fast.When Plan B 2.0 went to press two years ago, the data on ice melting were worrying. Now they are scary....

By 2030, when China's income per person is projected to match that in the United States today, China will be consuming twice as much paper as the world currently produces. If in 2030 the country's 1.46 billion people have three cars for every four people, U.S. style, China will have 1.1 billion cars. And it will consuming 98 million barrels of oil per day, well above current world production...

The challenge for our generation is to build a new economy, one that is powered largely by renewable sources of energy, that has a highly diversified transpor system, and that reuses and recycles everything. And to do it with unprecented speed...

In the following paragraph you have four of the mainstay of my religion... There are four overriding goals in Plan B 3.0: stabilizing climate, stabilizing population, erradicating poverty and restoring earth's ecosystems....

I don't want this post to be longer, so I'm going to finish with the following quote of the book: We have the technologies to restructure the world energy economy and stabilize climate. The challenge now is to build the political will to do so. Saving civilization is not a spectator sport. Each of us has a leading role to play.

Here's the link to download the book and here some more useful information.

Have a nice weekend.

P.S. If you decide to print the book, please, do it using recycled paper and if impossible, buy the book, it is printed that way. Save trees. Respect the Planet.

Father's Love

It's something usual to have conversation at home with my wife about things we watch at TV. I remember of having a conversation one day about climate change and, from that point we jumped to the point of recycling and finally to the subject of transport by bycicle. We, in secret, many times laugh at people seeing how they try to justify why they use a car to get to work when really it is not necessary at all. But those people go far, even they try to justify why they don't do anything at all for the planet. The reason for not recycling is, according to them, that everything is thrown away to the same place or that the container is not in front of their doorway... even things so odd as "if the United States continue polluting I also will"... Cool!!! You have convinced me with such a great arguments!!!

Sometimes I'm astonished when some of those people show off about being fanatical parents, but they don't take care and do nothing to instill the minimum values about environmental issues, of course, like father, like son... Sadly, environmental issues are not things of crazy people: it is a must, imagine if it is so important than a 25% of the world's population die because of environmental problems.

So fathers and mothers, you that show off about being so good and complacent with your children, keep in mind that coming times are not as good as you think, I think they will face some very serious problems. The least you can do for them, would be to instill them some values which contribute to a better world, both socially and ecologically, it's not worth letting them a world in a mess when you leave so teach them to leave things as they found them. It's a moral and a survival must.

One day somebody told: There's no better education than the example.

Cigarette Butts

A vice that I hate a lot is smoking. I hate that damned smoke that many times passes long my face but, what the most I hate, is that unconscious habit, or not, of throwing away the butter, not being important the place in which someone is, of course. It doesn't matter at all whether we are in the city or in the countryside, the action is always the same: from the mouth to the hand and from the hand to the ground. Was the butter here before you arrived? Your waste is yours not mine nor from the others, I don't want to share your waste and nor the others, and of course, forests are not guilty for being you a filthy person. We are already doing enouhg smelling your smoke.

In my city, all litter bins at the streets have a little piece of metal to put out your cigarette and, if there isn't, is not my business but yours. In this case, you have to put out your cigarette crushing it with your foot and the following action would be to throw it to the litter bin. It could be room for another possibility, there aren't litter bins!!!! My God!!! It's easy, take the butter and put it inside your pocket. I have some acquaintances that do that, in fact they're being responsible for their waste. The last straw is to see somebody throwing his/her butter through the window, what kind of education does he/she have? Aren't there any ashtrays in the cars nowadays? Neither is my fault in that case. If you don't want to get dirty your car neither get dirty our streets. The car is yours but streets are from everybody so that's the problem, and things which are from a lot of people are not looked after, as so many another things.....

Smoker, three messages for you:

1. Your butter and cigarette boxes get dirty OUR environment.
2. Your butter is not easy to be recycled, have you thougt about it? It will take a long time to be recycled and maybe it will be eaten by an animal causing his death.
3. If everyone of us threw away a butter, that would be translated into 6600 million butters, but the worst thing wouldn't be that, perhaps, the worst thing would be that they would fire our forests.

EOF.

Thanks

My words today are for a wonderful person, they are for the late Félix. His documentaries were the most watched TV programmes in Europe in the late seventies and at the beginning of eighties. Thanks Félix for having taught us so much, for having opened the eyes of several generations, for having being so special, for having us to move before the howl of the wolf. Thanks for being existed.

Today, nobody has covered your absence, lots of years will be required for a person like you, but the most important thing is that you are alive in our hearts. You left some seeds before leaving and you are the reference for them because, as I said before, you live in their hearts. See you my friend.

Who are the Dugongs?

Wretch

I am part of that group of people which every day get to work/school/university and so on by bycicle. In another words, I am part of a group known as: wretch, immigrant or fucking ecologist.

I think the people who think about us in that manner, have never asked themselves about how would be our cities without our bloody cars, it is, our cities without fumes, without noise, summarising, having cities with much more quality of life. They are blind but I think the worst is that they don't want to open their eyes, they prefer staying in the supposed comfort of their consumer life.

I suppose I'm in the position of saying that I'm happier from I'm using the bycicle. Since 2004 I park where I want, I don't emit fumes and noises, I don't get stuck in traffic jams and that means not to waist my precious time. Summarising, to get to everywhere by bycicle in the city only means two things: to be healthy and save money, two great reasons for me, don't you think so?


Have a nice day.

Forbidden Going Out

I think that more than one woud have to be at home, it should be forbidden for them to go out. Some people are as Atila's horse, where it steps on... the grass never grows. The difference is that Atila didn't threw any plastic bottles, wrappers, aluminium cans and cigarette butts among other things. In September 2006 I was in the Albufera, a lake near the city of Valencia. We got a boat ride and I could see some bottles floating in the water. The worst thing was that the bottles were among nesting places. Furthermore, it does exist a little track to access the lake by walking. In the point you reach the shore everywhere is plenty of trash. Regrettable.

The same thing I could see in Arañuel some time later. Arañuel is a little village which stands next to the Mijares river. It wasn't difficult to find a bier can and different products of plastic floating in the water or along the shore. But the worst thing for me is tourism in Antarctica, where's our limit for travelling? Are we going mad? I think travel agencies don't matter the subject, they only want one thing: money. It's really a pity, but in our last sanctuary, someone has already said that sometimes is possible to see trash bags or butts "dancing" among whales and penguins.

Not every body is prepared for visiting any place.

Was that when you arrived here?

Some time ago I was in the university library and I could observe as a couple of young girls left their litter on the table. It took my attention the esay-way for people to leave their rubbish. I think as they leave their litter in the library, in the same way they behave when they are on the beach, in the cinema, in the streets, in the countryside, etc... Girls, your miseries are yours not ours. It's not our fault if you are uncivic or very bad educated people (I'd rather say you are filthy). If we think, two food packings it's not much, what I'm worry is if you are smokers, so perhaps you treat your cigarettes in the forest as you treated your litter on the table. You have rights, correct, but you also have obligations. Your behaviour belongs to old times because some decades before there wasn't culture and education. Now, you don't have excuses.