Friday, June 26, 2020

W.H.O. on alcohol

As a follow-up to this post from 2014, a poster from the World Health Organization.  The message is that much use of alcohol is harmful (and that by putting its ill-effects in numerous buckets, the harm is made to seem less).

In 2016, the harmful use of alcohol resulted in some 3 million deaths (5.3% of all deaths) worldwide and 132.6 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) – i.e. 5.1% of all DALYs in that year. Mortality resulting from alcohol consumption is higher than that caused by diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and diabetes. Among men in 2016, an estimated 2.3 million deaths and 106.5 million DALYs were attributable to the consumption of alcohol. Women experienced 0.7 million deaths and 26.1 million DALYs attributable to alcohol consumption.






Tuesday, June 23, 2020

The permanent end of normal times.


Even just a few years ago, when mowing the lawn, I'd be making bees flee from their buzzing round the clover.  No pesticides, no herbicides in my yard, lots of nectar-bearing flowers, clover continuing to proliferate in the lawn - but where are the bees?  Oh, to be at the risk of a bee sting!

For that matter, where are the squirrels?  The "green acres" behind my house are empty; and not one squirrel shows up to eye the bird-feeders.   (What is new is a pair of chipmunks.).

My little pond got one froggy visitor last year.  None so far this year.

I think just like people in the red states seem oblivious of the COVID-19 virus, or at best, "oh, its just like the flu", humanity is sleepwalking through an ecological crisis; but will be suddenly woken up to the unsustainability of what it is doing.  Unlike our other crises, there is no November 3rd election day, or new vaccine or treatment that hold out the possibility of life going back to normal.


Monday, June 15, 2020

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Saturday, June 13, 2020

Thursday, June 11, 2020