In WTF News: Researcher Contemplates Adding Lithium to Water Supply

While reading the 9th Annual Year in Ideas by the New York Times, I came across a story indicating that neuropsychiatrist Takeshi Terao would like to add lithium to the water supply in order to curb “mood swings” and “potentially offer an easy, cheap and substantial strategy for worldwide suicide prevention”, which left me with no recourse other then to say “wtf.”

I don’t want to preach here, so I’ll just leave you with a few thoughts:

• Lithium is used to treat bi-polar disorder, a medical condition estimated to affect only 3-4% of the world’s population.
• Lithium is known to be toxic, affect kidney function and cause significant weight gain through increases in appetite and thirst (known as “polydypsia,” potentially causing nephrogenic diabetes insipidus), and reduces the activity of thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism).
• Lithium is associated with all of the following side effects: severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); blurred vision; confusion; diarrhea; drowsiness; fainting; giddiness; inability to control the bladder or bowels; increased or decreased urination; involuntary twitching or muscle movements; loss of consciousness; loss of coordination; muscle weakness; persistent headache; persistent or severe nausea; ringing in the ears; seizures; slow or irregular heartbeat; slurred speech; swelling of the ankles or wrists; unsteadiness; vision changes; vomiting.
• What does it mean for your medical and personal rights when you are forced to take a mind-altering substance?

posted by: Harold Johns III

Fear Guides Us to False Solutions

I think people are afraid, but we cannot let fear be our guide to mitigating global climate change. Politicians and corporations are capitalizing on the fear of Americans. We are afraid for good reason-life as we know it is at stake. The fear of global warming is omnipotent. People don’t want their lives to be any less convenient than they are now-and there is still hope that we can stop or at least slow dramatically climate change-if and only if we act now and we act fast.

When corporations and politicians look at our fear, most look at how they can turn a profit. There is a major disconnect between the CEO’s at the top making the decisions and the impacts on our environment, culture, and future. The newest, ridiculous solution to climate change is drilling for oil offshore. It is a solution that will only be backed by politicians like John McCain if there are dollar signs all over it. We are in a crisis, and people want a solution. Politicians and CEO’s are disingenuously trying to come up with the new quick fix.

In this election season, I am especially weary of new political ploys to solve the climate crisis. Every day it seems I learn of some new unexpected false solution from the headlines of every major paper in the country. Forests for fuel? Who needs the carbon sequestration anyway. Hybrid SUVS? Now you can be eco friendly and still traverse through the mountainous roads of the Midwest, with a whopping 19 mpg.

Every day we’re hearing about how drilling offshore for more oil will decrease national security issues, will solve the problem of the oil shortage on the market, and will even strengthen the US economy. I thought it was a joke. Mr. George Bush Sr. himself signed an executive moratorium on offshore drilling way back in 1990 because of “the concern for possible environmental damage and social disruption caused by both routine activities and accidents, such as oil spills.”

We are addicted to oil. We must break our addiction to oil. If a crack addict is trying to break his addiction the solution to help them overcome the problem is not… I digress.

Offshore drilling is another false solution all about politics and corporate money. It’s a bad idea. In a recent email I received, Greenpeace gave the top 10 reasons (I’m sure we can think of more than 10) why drilling offshore is not a solution. Let me take just a second to review:

10. Offshore oil drilling won’t impact gas prices today, and it won’t have a significant impact on gas prices in the future.

9. This is nothing more than a money grab by the oil companies – who are already making record-breaking profits.

8. We burn 25% of the world’s oil here in the U.S., but we have only 3% of the world’s oil reserves. So even if all offshore oil magically came to market today, the vast majority of our oil would continue to be imported, and we wouldn’t see price relief at the pump.

7. The current moratorium was put in place decades ago to protect us from the danger of oil spills along our coastlines and beaches.

6. Burning fossil fuels like oil causes global warming, which causes stronger hurricanes, which will threaten the very offshore drilling rigs being proposed, which will contribute to even more global warming.

5. To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy within the next 10 years. The billions of dollars that would be spent on offshore oil drilling just postpones the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

4. Oil exploration requires massive seismic testing – which
threatens whales and dolphins.

3. Oil prices are set on the global oil market, so American oil is no cheaper than Saudi oil. We won’t get a discount for oil drilled in the U.S.

2. We can’t solve the world’s energy problems with the same drilling that created them.

1. Renewable energy is available now, so it’s time to walk away from fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future.”

The solutions to global climate change do exist. They are right under our noses. We cannot let corporations and politicians capitalize on fear. We must make take a stance.

Instead of coming up with new and false solutions to global climate change, maybe we should start looking at the real solutions. Wind power, solar power, energy efficient vehicles, hybrids, bicycles, scooters, feet, co-ops, farmers markets, local agriculture, organic food, “change a bulb,” fuel cells. Governments can subsidize solar panels on homes. Corporations can invest in renewable energy technologies. But, Mr. CEO asks so menacingly, “Who is going to profit from that?”

We will. The people. Imagine that world.

by: Robin Rosario

Sign a petition. Attend a rally. Write a letter to the editor. Give money to a non-profit-no amount is too small. Volunteer. Grow your food. Tell a friend. We can change the world.