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Friday, April 14, 2006

Interesting liner notes from "Everything Is Wrong" ... a 90s CD by Moby
===================================================


Facts That I have Collected by Moby

--in the past 20 years approximately 1 million species have disappeared
from the world's tropical forests.

--from 1960-1985 over 40% of the Central American rainforests were
destroyed to create grazing land for cattle.

--the United States imports over 100,000 tons of beef from Central America
each year.

--it takes 23 gallons of water to produce a pound of tomatoes, it takes
5,214 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef.

--one acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes. one acre of land
can produce 165 pounds of beef.

--the U.S. cattle industry produces 158 million tons of waste per year.

--livestock production is the #1 cause of water pollution in the U.S.

--22 million acres of land have become unusable due to desertification.

--85% of the topsoil loss in the U.S. is the result of livestock production.

--in the U.S. 33% of ALL raw material consumption is used solely in the
production of meat, egg, and dairy products.

--it takes 1 pound of grain to make 1 pound of bread.

--it takes 20 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of beef.

--75% of the grain sent to 3rd world nations goes to livestock production.

--the countries with the highest in animal products are also the countries
with the highest rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis,
etc. 50 percent of men who eat meat regularly die of heart disease.

--4 percent of men who eat no animal products die of heart disease.

--80% of USDA chicken inspectors no longer eat chicken.

--if the average commuter passenger load in the U.S. were increased by just
1 person per day we would save 33 million gallons of gas each day.
Americans spend over 1 billion hours stuck in traffic each year.

--30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from cars.

--air is sold in Mexico city for $1.15 a minute by sidewalk vendors.

--what Greenpeace spends in a year general motors spends in 4 hours.

--3.5 million children under the age of 6 suffer from lead poisoning.

--in Europe 50% of the cars still use leaded gas.

--2 million gallons of motor oil are dumped in American waterways each year.

--over 8 million tons of oil are spilled into the world's oceans every year.

--5 billion gallons of water are flushed each day in the united states

--sewage treatment facilities in the U.S. discharge 5.9 trillion gallons of
sewage wastewater into coastal waters every year.

--U.S. tuna fishermen are permitted to kill over 20,000 dolphins every year.

--2 million sharks die in driftnets in the north pacific every year.

--only 1 in 10 baby chimpanzees survive the trip from the jungle to the zoo.

--1 billion animals are killed each year in experiments.

--17 million animals are trapped in the U.S. each year for fur.

--many traps are so painful that animals chew through their own limbs to
escape.

--for every fur animal trapped two other animals (dogs, cats, deer, etc.)
are trapped and killed.

--in 1987 450,000 minks died on fur farms from heat exhaustion. 1 ton of
recycled paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, & enough energy to
heat the average home for 6 months.

--six times more jobs are created by recycling as opposed to landfill
operations.

--the amount of money spent on trash disposal in American schools is equal
to that spent on new textbooks.

--out of every $10 that Americans spend on food, $1 pays for packaging.

--65% of garbage in the U.S. is packaging.

--50% of all trash thrown away could be recycled into new products.

--500 new dumps are built each year in the united states.

--over 1 billion trees are used to make disposable diapers every year.

--Americans throw away 20 billion disposable diapers each year.

--Americans dump the equivalent of 21 million shopping bags full of food
into landfills every year.

--2.5 billion batteries are thrown away each year by Americans.

--over 700,000 tons of hazardous waste is produced in the U.S. every day.

--Americans throw away 10 million cigarette lighters every week.

--500,000 people die of cigarette related diseases in the U.S. each year.

--pesticides that are banned in the U.S. (such as ddt) are regularly sold
to third world countries.

--90% of all food borne pesticides are found in meat and dairy products.

--10% of nursing mothers who were vegetarians had ddt in their breast milk.

--90% of nursing mothers who were meat eaters had ddt in their breast milk.

--in 1945, before widespread pesticides were use, U.S. corn growers lost 3%
of their crops to insects, last year they lost over 12%.

--74 different kinds of pesticides have been found in drinking water.

--over 100 chemical contaminants have been found in the breast milk of
nursing mothers in the U.S.

--of the 34 chemicals most widely used on lawns, 25% are widely believed to
cause birth defects, genetic mutation, and cancer.

--Americans spend 6 billion dollars on their lawns each year.

--25% of U.S. nuclear reactors would not be able to contain a core breach
meltdown.

--a 1985 study predicted a 45% chance of core breach meltdown in the U.S.
before 2005. in 1992, 430,000 people in the world died from cancers
resulting from nuclear testing radiation.

--more money is spent in the U.S. on nuclear weaponry in one year than was
spent on housing from 1980-1992.

--to date, cleaning up storage facilities for nuclear debris has cost
taxpayers 200 billion dollars.

--in 1989 the U.S. military used 200 billion barrels of oil, enough to keep
all American public transit systems running for 22 years.

--1 ton of toxic waste is produced by the U.S. military every minute.





I don't understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet
is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people
open.
Dean Ornish, MD




I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race in its
gradual improvement to leave off eating animals.
henry david thoreau



Your choice of diet can influence your long term health prospects more than
any other action you might take.
former surgeon general C. Everett Koop



Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of
life in earth as much as the evolution to an vegetarian diet.
Albert Einstein




Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, ,man
will not himself find peace
Albert Schweizer





Essay One

by 'everything is wrong' i mean EVERYTHING. i look
around me - i'm typing on a plastic and metal and glass
computer perched on a desk made from cut down trees
and toxic paint. i sit in a building made of wood and
bricks that were taken from the earth on a street made of
poisonous asphalt that was laid over an ecosystem that
had thrived for hundreds of thousands of years. i'm
clothed in cotton that was saturated with pesticides
while it grew and treated and dyed with toxic chemicals
while it was being processed. all of my possessions
were made hundreds or thousands of miles away and
shipped in Styrofoam and plastic wrap via gas burning
engines and destructive road and air ways to me. my
food, although organically grown and completely vegan,
is shipped from where it was grown to my local store and
is often packaged in paper, plastic, metal, and toxic inks.
i know tons of people that eat meat, smoke cigarettes,
drive cars, use drugs, etc., even though they know that
these things will ultimately hurt the quality (and length)
of their lives. i live in an apartment building where no one
is on a first name basis. i know more about idiot actors
in hollywood that i've never met than i do about the
woman who lives next door to me (and is probably more
interesting). while walking to work i inhale toxic exhaust
from cars sitting in traffic.

to make sure that eating 3 cans of oven cleaner will make
you sick, or to make sure that pouring nail polish
remover into your eyes will hurt you, we torture mice,
rabbits, dogs, cats, etc, we use toxic chlorine bleach to
keep our underpants white. we cut down the rainforests
to drill for oil so that we can drive to the video store. do
you see what i mean? everything really is wrong, even
the back to nature people still drive cars and use prod-
ucts made from materials ripped out of the earth, people
struggle all of their lives doing work that they hate just to
be a functioning member of a system that is wasteful,
destructive and unhealthy.

what i advocate is this a sensible, pragmatic, and non-
destructive approach towards existence. we need to re-
evaluate our practices. just as it doesn't make sense to
hire an elevator operator to run an automatic elevator it
doesn't make sense for billions of people to drive to
work alone in their cars, it doesn't make sense to con-
sume animal products, it doesn't make sense to use pes-
ticides on agricultural products, it doesn't make sense to
derive power from nuclear, coal, and petroleum when we
have solar, hydro, and wind power, it doesn't make
sense to maintain destructive systems just because peo-
ple earn their livings from them, it doesn't make sense to
pour billions of tons of toxic chemicals onto our lawns so
that they'll look pretty and green, i could go on but
you're probably either bored or overwhelmed by now, i
advocate change; massive, massive change,
basically we should stop doing those things that are
destructive to the environment, other creatures, and
ourselves and figure out new ways of existing, - that's it







Essay Two

the christian right is neither. god is angry, i think. here in
the u.s. vast numbers of politicians and religious leaders
(the line between the two being blurry) are masquerading
hate, racism, sexism, and ignorance under the banner of
conservative christian values.

conservative christian values are these - humility, mercy,
compassion, love, honesty, etc. nowhere in the bible does
christ encourage his followers to be intolerant, greedy
bigots. nowhere in the bible does christ encourage his
followers to lie, slander, steal, or be divisive along eco-
nomic or cultural lines. preserving the 'american way' has
nothing to do with christ. in fact, the 'american way' of
greed, cruelty, environmental destruction, racism, sex-
ism, homophobia, etc. would seem to have nothing to do
with christ. christ is wonderful, loving, compassionate
and honest. today's right wing evangelical christians
seem to be insecure, hate-filled creatures and although i
should probably pity them, right now i'm angry.

we sit back and watch as the christian right tries to legislate
their petty morality at the city, state, and federal level. they
successfully ousted the best chairman the new york city
school system ever had because he encouraged condom
distribution and an open-minded curriculum. here's a ques-
tion - how are teen pregnancy, hiv/aids, and a redundant,
ineffectual curriculum christian? instead of spreading hate,
ignorance and a narrow-minded social agenda why doesn't
the christian right go out and spread mercy, compassion
and selflessness?

two thousand years ago christ called the religious & politi-
cal leaders of his day 'whitewashed tombs, clean on the
outside but inside full of evil.' god sent prophets, the reli-
gious & political leaders killed and tortured them. god sent
christ, the religious & politicai leaders killed and tortured
him. the religious and political leaders of 2,000 years ago
were 'whitewashed tombs, full of evil.' and the religious
and political leaders of today seem to be just as bad.

About Me

My photo
I live on the Pacific slopes of the Talamanca mountain range in southern Costa Rica. My adult children live in the United States. I have a Masters Degree in Gerontology but have worked as a migrant laborer, chicken egg collector, radio broadcaster, secretary, social worker, research director, bureaucrat, writer, editor, political organizer, publicist, telephone operator, and more. My hobby of photography has garnered some awards.

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