rebelpleb

As a youth, I was certainly guilty of being interested in shopping and in searching for bargains. Even as a concerned person who cared about the welfare of others, I was also still a teenager, in somewhat typical fashion. That was a long time ago. It is utterly unbelievable that adults do not see the moral folly of materialism, consumerism, and capitalism. We cannot possibly battle the ecological and sociological crises of our world until we all do.

Another great video by Annie Leonard. We should all be working on "game changing solutions."

When I heard that this racist moron, Rick Perry, was trying to recuit New Yorkers to move their businesses to Texas, my first reaction was what is perfectly depicted in this short clip with Lewis Black:

Image courtesy Cancer Research UK Though poor diets, lack of exercise, and genetic susceptibilities amplify one's risk of cancer, these are just RISK FACTORS; they are not causes of the disease. Risk factors and causes are not the same, although they are commonly conflated by the public, by medical professionals, and by scientists who should know better. Furthermore, beware the opportunists selling cures; eating well and healthfully is vitally important to overall health, but there are no "superfoods" that will prevent cancer if you have been exposed to enough carcinogens. Image courtesy Cancer Research UK Carcinogenic exposures cause mutations to our DNA which can (and often do) lead to cancer. Endocrine disrupting chemicals, which are ubiquitous in our air, food, water, and consumer products can more indirectly lead to cancer. The exponential increase in these known carcinogenic agents and potential carcinogens in our environments corresponds with the incr...

Sandra Steingraber’s War on Toxic Trespassers David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz on Toxic Disinformation Moyers Moment (2001): Toxins in Our Blood Thank you, Bill Moyers, for disseminating this important information!

The world exploded with praise and awe when actress Angelina Jolie announced - via op-ed in The New York Times – that she had undergone double-mastectomy as a preventative measure after discovering that she possessed the mutant BRCA1 gene. A mutation to either the BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 (both named for BReast CAncer) genes seems to confer an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer in its carriers. As the scourge of cancer has permeated the American landscape – one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer in their lifetimes – diagnosis and treatment have become the sole allowable precautionary procedures. Every day we learn more about the myriad known and probable human carcinogens saturating our built environment. In addition, scientists are continually revealing the long-term, intergenerational, and epigenetic health effects of exposure to these ubiquitous chemicals. Yet, on our insidiously poisoned planet, our insistence to continue with business as usual has led...

“Today, humanity faces a stark choice: save the planet and ditch capitalism, or save capitalism and ditch the planet.” – Fawzi Ibrahim  Reject the consumerism that is plunging the planet, and every living thing on it, into ruin ... and while you're at it, stand with striking Walmart workers!

This is partially why I have not set foot in a Walmart store in 15-20 years. The corporate owners have more wealth than many small nations, yet they cannot seem to pay their employees a living wage? That kind of act defines immorailty and evil. And the labor problem is only the beginning... The destruction that Walmart has wrought upon the earth knows no bounds...

"For a poor family in Camden, N.J., impoverished residents in the abandoned coal camps in southern West Virginia, the undocumented workers that toil in our nation’s produce fields, Native Americans trapped on reservations, Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, those killed by drones in Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or those in the squalid urban slums in Africa, it makes no difference if Mitt Romney or Obama is president. And since it makes no difference to them, it makes no difference to me. I seek only to defy the powers that orchestrate and profit from their misery..." Once Again—Death of the Liberal Class (Chris Hedges)

Brother Dr. Cornel West and Brother Tavis Smiley tell it like it is: Our biggest threats are poverty and the ecological crisis. Obama is a Rockefeller Republican - socially liberal, politically conservative. Pundits like Michael Eric Dyson and Melissa Harris-Perry (among so many others) have regrettably sold out.

  In 1900, the first year from which we have health statistics about the leading causes of death in the United States, cancer was eighth on the list. Today, cancer is the second leading cause of death in this country and, any moment now, is poised to usurp heart disease as the nation’s number one killer. I am four years past my own cancer diagnosis, which occurred when I was 36 (and, ironically, in the midst of finishing a Master’s degree about environmental risk prevention, an interest of mine for almost twenty years). The many doctors I have visited since then all repeat the mantra that I was far too young for such an occurrence of cancer. Like most people, physicians think that cancer is an old person’s disease, and that cancer incidence is increasing due to an aging populace with an increasing lifespan. This, despite the fact that cancer is actually the second leading cause of death in U.S. adults aged 25-44, after accidents. Within four years, I and three friend...