The Human Imprint

Keeping Time

There is a Time for Everything

There is a time for everything and everything on earth has its own season.

There is a time to be born and a time to die.

There is a time to plant and a time to pull up plants.

There is a time to kill and a time to heal.

There is a time to destroy and a time to build.

There is a time to cry and a time to laugh.

There is a time to be sad and a time to dance.

There is a time to throw away stones and a time to gather them.

There is a time to embrace and a time to refrain.

There is a time to search for something and a time to stop looking for it.

There is a time to keep things and a time to throw things away.

There is a time to tear apart and a time to sew together.

There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.

There is a time to love and a time to hate.

There is a time for turmoil and ... a time for peace.

Adapted from Ecclesiastes 2

Leisure

I have been preparing some readings for a memorial service for a loved one and felt that I should put them on the blog over the next couple of days as a tribute to his life which was lived with vigour.

Leisure

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

W.H Davies

Snow detected on Mars

I have written before about my visit to NASA last autumn and I am fascinated by the continuing exploration on Mars. The BBC reports that the Phoenix spacecraft has detected snow (ice crystals) in the clouds above its landing site. Follow the link to find out more.

Five a day target costing more

I wrote a few weeks ago about the "five-a-day" target being missed. The Telegraph has reported on the latest survey in The Grocer which states that their shopping basket survey showed that potatoes had risen in price by 28.7 per cent; carrots by 24.6 per cent; tomatoes and onions by 20.3 per cent; white seedless grapes by 17 per cent and apples and oranges by 16 per cent. Broccoli is the only produce that they identify as having gone down in price by 25.9 per cent.

Meat should be rationed

The Guardian carries a well written article on a recent report by the Food Climate Research Network. The report recommends that total food consumption should be reduced especially foods of low nutritional value. These include alcohol, sweets and chocolates. The report suggests that families should buy local in-season products. A large amount of the carbon footprint is in the method of cooking. Cooking in bulk and making sure that saucepans have lids when they are boiling (so you use less energy), pressure cookers and microwaves are important ways to address this.

There is much debate to on the fuel used when going food shopping - walking to the shops (hard for me as I live seven miles from the nearest supermarket and three miles from the nearest shop) or home delivery via internet food shopping will reduce fuel usage. Another key aspect is reducing waste food.

One of the key aspects is livestock production. Animals do not convert all the food that they eat into meat.  This means that eating large amounts of meat in your diet has an impact on the environment compared to eating the same amount of calories from cereals, fruit or vegetables

The recommends cutting meat consumption by at least half and making sure animals were fed as much as possible on grass and food waste which could not be eaten by humans. The Guardian suggests the difference between the current and proposed diet. The current diet (per person, per week in the UK) = 1.6kg meat and 4.2 litres of milk. This is equivalent to:

6 sausages (450g); 2 chicken breasts (350g); 4 ham sandwiches (100g); 8 slices of bacon (250g); 3 burgers (450g); 3 litres of milk; 100g of cheese and a helping of cream

The proposed diet is equivalent to: 2 sausages; 3 rashers of bacon; 1 chicken breast; 1 litre of milk or 100g of cheese.

My first question is how would we source the calcium that we currently consume in dairy products - I guess we could take a supplement. Where will we source our protein? I guess there are other sources - but as many people throughout the world are changing their diet to include more meat and dairy based products this will be a difficult dialogue on choice versus prohibition.

CO2 emissions rising faster than predicted

Nature reports that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement manufacturing are rising faster than even the worst-case scenario drawn up by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  The Global Carbon Project  has just released the 2007 worldwide carbon budget, which identifies that emissions from fossil fuels and cement manufacturing rose by 3.5% a year between 2000 and 2007, compared with the 2.7% calculated by the IPCC. and 1990s levels where emissions rose at 0.9% a year.

To get a good review of the statistics check out the carbon budget.

Deliberate contamination of food

In 2005, the British Food Journal published a paper that I co-wrote on deliberate contamination of the food supply chain. The fall-out from the melamine incident in China demonstartes the potential human and financial impact of an instance of agro-terrorism or food terrorism. I was therefore interested to read the blog post on the Shigella Blog about a recent incident in Sweden. The blog comments that the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise may be a victim of food terrorism because at least 140 people were sickened with dysentery. This has been caused by the Shigella dysenteriae bacteria and those affected include employees and members of the confederation and guests. A left-leaning internet-based forum has claimed responsibility for the outbreak on a website.

UK economy stationery

The Guardian reports that the British economy has failed to grow in the second quarter of the year with a balance of payments deficit of nearly £11bn. The article states that "Most economists, though, think the economy has contracted in the current three months and will do so again in the final quarter of the year, meeting the technical definition of a recession" and concludes that GDP is expected to contract by 0.2% in 2009, after growing by just 1.1% in 2008.

According to the Guardian the UK Manufacturing sector has shrunk in output at the fastest rate for 17 years when records began.

Cases rise in Salmonella outbreak in Denmark

In August I wrote about the  food safety outbreak in Denmark associated with Salmonella Typhimurium U292 where at least 400 people have been linked to the bacterial infection.According to the article in PolitikenWeekly there have tragically been five deaths and 822 cases of Salmonella Typharium U292 recorded up to 15th September. In a population of five million people this is a large number of cases.

Quotes on materialism

With these torrid financial times my thoughts turned to the nature of materialism. Here are some quotes which I found thought provoking.

People recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment. Herbert Marcuse

There must be more to life than having everything. Maurice Sendak

You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you. Chuck Palahniuk

Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth. Mahatma Gandhi

Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment. Mark Twain