North vs South?

To start from the beginning, our "global south" is suffering from disadvantages they simply do not and cannot have any control over. The majority of the world's land mass is located above the equator within the northern hemisphere, alond with the majority of the world's wealth. This has resulted in countless examples of exploitation of the south by the north, ultimately resulting in death and disparity in these countries. It is incredible how large northern (and in most cases Western) powerhouses choose to go to these developing countries in the south to exploit resources. These people have so little to begin with, not even enough to feed and water their own citizens without these large corporations walking in and taking even more of these precious life resources. Currently there is a crisis with water within the global south, so much so that water has become one of the most valuable resources in the world. Blue gold! people are calling it, and right now countries in the global south have chosen to put a price tag on water. In some cases even privatising water, putting it far out of the reach of the people living there. How can you justify making something so scarce already even more difficult to get your hands on for these people? Privatising water is a joke. Water should be a right not a privilege. In saying so the right to water should be added to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because we can no longer allow for these people in the Global South to suffer anymore.

Undeniable

It is simply undeniable that our world is experiencing climate change. Whether or not we choose to use vague terms such as "global warming" to describe it or not, our world climate is experienceing fluctuation. For those sceptics out there just look at the glaciers not only at the poles but all over the world as they are drastically disappearing resulting in multiple consequences. Whether or not we choose to believe it now or later, eventually our lives will change due to climate change and in most cases it will be for the worst. It could be an increase in sea levels, drought, green house gasses, or even plague, but at some point our lives all over the world will experience devestation. We need to stop arguing about certain climate change scenarios and start looking at it in the big picture, at a global scale. Because it will not only be certain area's affected, we may not all be affected in the same way, but we will ALL be affected. All those ignorant people out there denying the changes to our climate saying how a couple of degree changes can't be enough to make any sort of difference need to snap out of it. We need to look at the professionals and scientists who are able to measure the change in climate instead of our past beliefs for guidance. If we do not act globally and united then our future generations will not have a planet to worry about. Worth the effort?

New Orleans - Whatta joke!

The way that the municipal and federal government have handled the city of New Orleans after the disaster is a disaster initself. It is a joke. The city of New Orleans is so far below sea level that the possibility of flooding from strorms is inevitable. So many experts knew that this was going to happen, and the city officials essentially left the citizens to drown. It is a joke the way that the New Orleans people were prepared for disaster in terms of protection and evacuation. The question of whether or not the amount of damage that occurred could have been prevented is in no doubt in my mind 100% that it could have been prevented. The levee system along the Gulf Coast was only enforced to stop category three hurricanes, where Hurricane Katrina was a category 5. The worse thing is that this was not a surprise hurricane, as so many people predicted this storm coming. There have also been several hurricanes to hit New Orleans over the past few decades, and for the city levee's not to be built to protect from category 5 hurricanes is non-excusable. And even now while rebuilding the levee's after Katrina, they are only building them to category 3 hurricane once again. The fact that the city has no money to rebuild these levee's is also a joke, as they rebuilt the NFL stadium immediately, and Canal street, one of the largest tourist attractions has also been rebuilt. They are putting the joke tourism industry of New Orleans as first priority and leaving thousands of people homeless and with nothing.
The federal government should quit it with these billion dollar bail-out investments into large corporations like the auto-industry, and put the money into restoring the city of New Orleans and other cities along the Gulf Coast. They cannot allow this to happen again, and should never have happened in the first place. Whatta Joke.

Oink Oink

We have this fairytale idea of where our food comes from. It's this idea of a happy little farm where all the animals can roam free, they have a barn to themselves, and they all talk and smile when the farmer isn't watching. Wow thanks Disney, you have definitely succeeded in pulling the Meatrix over so many of our heads, giving us this false reality of where our food comes from. In reality our food comes from these heavily populated factories where the animals are forced to stand in a stationary spot and are fed antibiotics so they don't get sick. However, it is no only the food that these animals are produced for that are being contaminated but it is also the environment around these corporate farms that are being destroyed by this mass farming. The waste alone from these pigs is astronomical, and the way that they are collected, in "lagoons", is destroying the landscapes around these farms. These huge corporate farms need to be held responsible the damages they are causing to our planet. We have already seen Smithfield Farms being punished for its environmental responsibility in North Carolina, it was charged $65 million for the damages it was doing within the Pork industry.
We as consumers also need to be more aware of the food we are eating and where it comes from. We are fortunate living in Waterloo as we have access to rural areas to buy local food, however we also need to be more careful when buying from grocery stores. Let's not contribute to the problem of mass farming, let's be the solution. Buy local.