Overpopulation...There's No More Elbow Room

"In the natural community, whenever a population's food supply increases, the population increases. As the population increases, its food supply decreases, and as its food supply decreases, that population decreases. This interaction between food populations and feeder populations is what keeps everything in balance.....Once you exempt yourself from the law of limited competition, everything in the world except your food and the food of your food becomes an enemy to be exterminated.....You end up with a community in which diversity is progressively destroyed in order to support the expansion of a single species."

- Excerpt from Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn

Although I had heard about the issue of overpopulation, it had never really concerned me until I read Ishmael. (It's a fantastic book if you ever get the chance read it) There are many lessons one can learn from this little novel but I think everyone who has read it can agree that it was mainly written to describe humanity's place in the world. However, like most pieces of philosophical literature it led to more questions than answers, but as Socrates once said, "The unexamined life is a life not worth living." So maybe the questions I began to ask myself were a good thing.

There is something genuinely frustrating about philosophy. We keep searching for answers only to realize we are even more clueless than before, which is partly the point I suppose, but after a while it just seems like these books and magazine articles I read are just like one long episode of LOST. I may now know that Sawyer has a daughter somewhere but it is completely irrelevant to my question of what the hell that sand monster is.

I keep reading more and though my understanding of what is going on in the world increases, there is still no clear cut solution, and as a person who likes to take action I find that sooooo irritating. After I read Ishmael I did some research on overpopulation, and found out that it is in fact deeply entwined with most of our political and environmental problems. Every cocky human being has that idea in the back of their head that if things get bad here we can always go somewhere else. If the Earth gets too fucked up we'll just move to Mars or something. Number one, it is not that easy. Number two, I like this planet, and number three, there has to be a solution. It just may not be as easy as the one of sitting back while the world gets destroyed a little more each day. We might each have to work for it as individuals.

Perhaps the first time we became aware of the overpopulation issue was in 1798 when Thomas Malthus predicted that our population would outrun our food supply, leading to a mass famine, but more than 200 years later we are still here. Our numbers are still booming. We have been both lucky and smart enough to find different ways to combat this problem, however the main way has largely been through deforestation in order to make way for more farmland. Over time our soil has been depleted of many of its nutrients, which means the vegetables we eat today do not have the same nutritional value that they had 20 years ago.

The greatest spurts in population growth tend to be seen in developing countries, such as many African nations and third-world countries such as India. This leads to war over scarce resources, lack of employment since there are not enough jobs to go around, crime, starvation, and disease. The more people there are, the more difficult it is to find clean water, and diseases are allowed to thrive. What I found to be particularly strange, was the trend in which citizens of countries who are more prosperous have less children than citizens of nations plagued by war and famine. As a result of this pattern many researchers have concluded that improving the way citizens are taken care of within a nation could help reduce the amount of children they have each year. This means the issue of human overpopulation could largely be solved by an increase in stable governments throughout the world who are able to bring peace to their nations. The general fertility rate of women also goes down when they are able to reach high places in society, and become educated about their own sexual health.

These two solutions must be used in conjunction with better farming techniques in areas throughout the world. This includes rotating the crops to prevent depletion of nutrients. Citizens of more prosperous countries, such as the United States, have to stop seeing water as something that just comes out of a faucet. We need to see it as a finite resource and learn to both appreciate it and conserve it the way those who have to walk miles each day just to bring a few buckets home to their families do. Conservation means more clean water, and more clean water means less disease. In addition, the more we conserve, the more food and water there is for all the other people we share our beautiful planet with.

It is reassuring to me that overpopulation is something that can be solved by helping other people live more stable and secure lives.

So how do you take action? You know I wouldn't leave you hanging without any ways to help!

To Do Your Research:

http://www.overpopulation.org/solutions.html

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/printFriendly/11035

http://www.apda.jp/en/poverty.html

To Help Out :D :

Visit http://www.sraproject.org/opposing/ to learn how farmers can transition to environmentally friendly techniques and how you can make more informed decisions as a consumer

http://www.caff.org/

http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-mission-and-the-movement/page.do?id=1101178 Amnesty International has a goal of providing basic human rights to everyone on the planet. As you just read not only is it important that every human is able to thrive in their own environment but it also helps to prevent overpopulation. One of their leading campaigns strives to prevent violence against women around the world. When women are no longer seen as second-class citizens, they are then able to make their own choices when it comes to sex and fertility.

http://www.unfpa.org/public/ This is the most important website out of all of these. Not only does it list the causes for overpopulation in detail but it also gives solutions and tells you how you can help! Check it Out!

As usual, I hope you learned something new and you share something good with the world because of reading this.

XO,

MIMI

Cancer- Must There Be Only One Treatment?

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among Americans. It claims more than 550,000 lives in the United States each year. 1.4 million people are diagnosed with it annually in our country alone. Many of these patients must then endure radiation, chemotherapy, and an entire cocktail of drugs each day which makes them feel incapable of doing much of the activities they are used to performing on a daily basis. It has plagued humanity since ancient times. We find evidence of it from the moment humans invented forms of writing. Fossilized tumors can be found in Egyptian tombs. It has been studied by scientists since the time of the Ancient Greeks when it first got its name. Doctors began performing autopsies on deceased cancer patients during the Renaissance to better understand the way tumors spread and what their causes might be. Operations have been performed to remove tumors for the past 300 years, and Oncology became its own specialized science in the 19th century. Yet we still don't have a cure?

How is it that we can send a man to the moon, use voice commands on telephones to call anyone in the world, have our cars give us directions, and blow out birthday candles on our iPad but we can't solve this basic problem? We have to be doing something wrong. With all the money we donate to research each year we should have a more clear cut solution by now. Right?!

There is an old story in my family about a wise man named Adeline. Members of my family first met him in post-WWII Paris. My great aunt's youngest son Jean had died of cancer during the war, partly because there was no way to get him the medication needed to stop the cancer, and also because the medical technology we have now simply did not exist yet. The poor boy was 13 and died in tremendous pain. To this day it remains a very soft spot with our older family members. Tears come to their eyes when they speak his name. Each boy born after him has the name Jean as either a first or middle name. Part of what infuriated my family the most was that after they met Adeline and heard his theories, they felt that his death could have been easily prevented.

Adeline maintained that with a diet of only green raw foods and continual cleansing of the body, the cancer would stop spreading. While at first this sounded like hocus pocus he soon began treating members of my family who had cancer. My young uncle, my great uncles and aunts. They were all plagued at some point with a malignant growth and Adeline was able to stop it in its tracks. He convinced all of the men to stop smoking long before it became understood that smoking was a leading cause of cancer. After years of research Adeline went to the greater scientific community to present his theories and research. At first they would not accept it because he was not an Oncologist. Then once his theories drew more attention he began getting death threats. When he asked one of the heads of research at a cancer institute in France why they didn't want him to help cure people he said, "Do you know how many people would lose their jobs if it were that simple? We can't make it that simple!" Adeline was disgusted with the scientific community and unfortunately, after his death, his son was too afraid to continue his father's research.

Whether Adeline was right or wrong, it does raise the question...

Is there only one way to treat cancer?

Before I tackle this question I should fully explain the general treatments performed on patients today to cure cancer.

Currently, if a malignant growth is found the doctors will first see if it is possible to remove it by surgery alone. If this is not possible or the cancer has spread more than was originally thought the patient is forced to begin radiation treatment and chemotherapy. The National Cancer Institute lists the side affects of radiation therapy as fatigue, skin changes, mouth problems, swelling, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, trouble swallowing, and urinary issues. Chemotherapy also includes all of these side effects plus everything from hair and weight loss to taste changes and hearing loss. The complete side effects of chemo can be found at www.chemocare.com/managing . Chemotherapy is effective because it prevents cancer cells from producing.

The good part of chemo is it kills the bad cells.

The bad part of chemo is it also kills the good cells.

For in essence, it is made of poison.

I know it sounds like I am completely against radiation and chemotherapy, but I am not. I simply do not think it should be the only option for patients. A dear family member of mine currently has stage four cancer and the nurse handed him a piece of paper with two options on it. The first was chemo. The second was the Gerson Method. "The cancer doesn't kill our patients the chemo does," he told them. "They come in here looking uncomfortable and worried, but once the chemo sets in they come out of here looking like death."

And honestly, this is not something I have a hard time believing. My favorite professor died from side effects from her chemo after she had supposedly gotten better. A close friend passed away not from the cancer but from the pneumonia she caught during treatment because the chemo had weakened her immune system to such a degree that she could no longer defend herself against airborn diseases.

There are plenty of conspiracy theorists out there who will tell you that the reason chemo remains the number one treatment is because it rakes in the most money. I have no doubt that this is in some ways true. However, I don't believe that most doctors have that greedy idea in mind. I truly believe most oncologists want the best for their patients and as far as they know, chemo is that person's best chance at life. This is why when someone comes up to them and says "I know I have stage four lymphoma but I wanna try this the natural way," they flip out.

All I am saying is perhaps cancer patients should be given more options. It is in fact their choice and not the doctor's. I am not saying however that we should all do the Jim Henson and "see what happens."

If you are a cancer patient or know someone who is I am not telling you what treatment to get. What I am telling you to do is DO YOUR RESEARCH! Do not let yourself be pushed around by your doctor. Perhaps try to find an oncologist who is more open minded and has a good success rate. Do not forget that you are in charge of your body and what you put in it, not your insurance company.

Below are some helpful links.

As usual I hope this helps and I hoped you learned something new.

XO,

MIMI <3

http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/

http://www.cancertreatmentforums.com/

http://optimal-health.org/ - this website may seem like nothing much but this center performs miracles <3>

To Kindle or Not to Kindle?

I love my books and unfortunately since we moved in with my in-laws most of mine are in storage. (Not enough room) However, most of my favorites are still stashed around my husband and I's little bedroom. :) Next to the TV there are some old favorites such as my art books on Frida Kahlo. A stack of National Geographics and Anthropology books from school that I haven't had the heart to sell lie on my dresser. By my bed are the necessities, an army bible my friend gave me before he went to fight in Afghanistan, poems by Hafiz, Ishmael, and an old poetry book my mother-in-law gave me that dates back to the late 1800's. Finally, stashed behind a bunch of Cd's are some newer books like The Other Boleyn Girl (which I have to admit I never quite finished), The House on Sugar Beach, and Dan Brown's Angel's & Demons. That does not include my husband's fantasy novels that are scattered all over the damn place and a few of my son's classic fairy tale books that I keep by my bedside for early Saturday mornings. If you can't already tell,our room is a mess. :P

When we did have our own place we had two large bookcases plus more of our favorites displayed on the coffee table such as The Red Tent and The Complete Works and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe. They may cause mess, dust, and clutter, but each of them has a story other than the one the author wrote. I read the Poisonwood Bible when I was nine months pregnant with my baby boy and finished reading it bit by bit while breastfeeding. Now everytime I look at it I think not only about what the words inside the novel meant to me as a new mommy, but that incredible time in my life. In a way, it's like a souvenir.

I read Where the Heart Is when I was in the eighth grade. My friends and I all loved it so much we passed it back and forth between one another for a year before it finally ended up back in my hands. The cover has been completely torn off and the pages are littered with highlighter marks. Every few pages there will be a note such as, "Hey Mimi, I really like this part. <3"

When people see books in your home they see part of your identity.

These are the reasons why I am having a lot of trouble accepting these new fangled iPads and Kindles.

For someone who loves the idea of saving paper and trees I am struggling a lot with the idea of this new technology. Worst of all, I have a feeling that because of this invention, books will become obsolete and one day we're gonna end up like those obese humans in Wall-E that only interact through a screen. Perhaps I am being too dramatic, but I'm at my computer enough dammit!

So I am trying to tell myself these new reading screen thingamabobs can be a very positive thing. There is less wasted paper, they are less expensive, and they don't end up taking over your house. Perhaps they are not the devil after all.

I try to comfort myself by thinking that no matter what people may use their Kindle but they would still end up finding comfort in a real book, the same way I get my news from cnn.com everyday, but still like to read the newspaper on Sundays. I hope this ends up happening, and that this does not simply spell the end of my hanging out at a bookstore with a cup of coffee all Sunday afternoon. Because if my local Barnes & Noble starts looking more like an internet cafe' then a book store, I might become depressed.

Am I being an old fart or do you agree? Let me know!

XO,

MIMI