Artwork & Content Copyright © 2010 Jean Burman
Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only then will we learn that money cannot be eaten
-Cree Indian Prophecy
If mankind lived by just one creed “Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix” the world would be in much better shape than it is right now… and the future of planet earth would be assured.
They’re only six little words. But those six words could make a world of difference.
Had these six words been considered before deep water drilling was undertaken in the Gulf of Mexico… the current disaster would have been averted.
We are now living on a planet burgeoning out of control with untested and untried systems and technologies.
Contrary to what we might think… 100% of [precisely nothing] is put impartially and comprehensively to the test before it is rushed out into the market place… placed into common use… or otherwise foisted upon an unsuspecting populace and planet.
Don’t believe me?
Well consider this.
Remember when it was safe to put:
DDT on food crops
Mercury in teeth
Nicotine in cigarettes
Asbestos in building materials
Thalidomide in tablets
[dare I say] fluoride in drinking water?
Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix.
Remember when it was safe to eat:
Margarine and polyunsaturates (oops… you didn’t know?)
Preservatives
Stablilizers
Emulsifiers
Thickeners
Flavour enhancers
Sweeteners
Glutamates
and a plethora of processing aids
all still used [incredibly] in packaged food?
Shelf life is king and the key to turning a profit. Your health is not a consideration to manufacturers or regulators [until either 1. something goes wrong 2. they are called out on it or 3. someone literally drops dead from it]
Slow death over a long period doesn’t count… and is too difficult to quantify anyway. No one goes there… despite cancer now being the number one killer [behind Death by Medicine].
Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix.
And who knows where the limits will be… or when… [or indeed how] the reversal will come on daliances such as:
Nuclear energy
Nanotechnology
GM crops
EMFs
Mobile Phones
Food Irradiation
Microwave technology
Genetic Engineering
[dare I say] IVF
the list goes on…
Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix.
Government and big business might argue to the contrary… insisting that there are checks and balances. Oh sure… there will always be [industry funded] trials and environmental and regulatory impact studies and the like. But when things go wrong… sometimes catastrophically… it’s the same old thing. Corporations dive for cover and Governments bring out the dustpan and brush.
The checks and balances are there alright… but they come amid a plethora of vested interests… adjusted facts and unexplained determinants. The product is withdrawn… the practice is stopped… or the process is reviewed. A short period of negative press may then follow before the whole darned thing is swept under the carpet and all but forgotten about in a mire of mind numbing ignorance complacency and wilful self-interest.
Greed drives everything.
To say the man woman and child in the street are confused would be an understatement. To say we have no control… is an undeniably fact.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not anti-progress.
I am pro ANTIDOTES!
And we should have them now… not later.
So that when things do go wrong… instead of playing the blame game… and sweeping the embarrassing fallout from our not insignificant failures under the carpet of negligence complacency and self interested greed… we will have real solutions [before] we need them.
It shouldn’t be all that hard. If we’re smart enough to develop the technology in the first place… we surely must be clever enough to come up with the appropriate solution?
And before the fact not after it.
As privileged temporary custodians of this incredible planet Earth [the creatures the earth the oceans and the atmosphere]… this must surely be our first most imperative priority… our [moral] obligation… and essential responsibility.
Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix.
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