RecreationJungle

We’re looking for answers to questions we have not fully formed. Today’s world is changing so quickly we’re not sure we can keep up with it. After several hundred years of industrialization, mankind is finally affecting the global environment at an easily measurable pace. We have surpassed even cows in producing environment altering gases that change how our atmosphere works. We may disagree on the details of what will happen next, but we all pretty much agree that change is in the wind — literally.

A recent series of articles on science fiction and environmentalism has received some attention. People are starting to sit up and take notice of the immense responsibility we have taken upon ourselves for altering our world environment. But we cannot just look at “fixing” the problems we have created (changing weather patterns, loss of tree cover, extermination of irreplaceable species, etc.). We must also look at how we’re going to survive on Planet Earth for the next few hundred years.

There are no viable alternatives to this world. We cannot just hop on board a few million space ships and go find another planet. In fact, even if we could colonize other worlds only a very small fraction of humanity would be able to make the trip. The vast majority of people would remain behind on Earth, still facing all the problems that overindustrialization, overcrowding, and overpolluting have created.

In one fascinating attempt to outline global strategies that humanity could initiate, science fiction writer Michael Martinez suggests that we could irrigate our largest deserts to create new arable land, new wetlands, and possibly alternate habitats for vanishing species. Poor nations with few resources could transform themselves into gardens rich with wildlife, farms, and biofuel production facilities. The 22nd century would not have to suffer because of the excesses of the 21st century.

Such radical thinking is bound to draw criticism. Some people don’t want to lose their multi-million acre deserts to farms and artificial wetlands. They’d rather leave the desolate wastes as Mother Nature shaped them. But the Sahara desert alone has passed from desert to wetland three times in the past 120,000 years. Why should man not try to effect the change again? It’t not like the Green Police will suddenly show up and tell us how to fix the problem. We have to think creatively now.

Cancer of the mesothelium is a uncommon cancer of the tissue that lines the person’s interior organs. Around two thousand brand new cases are detected each year in the whole US. Of these, nearly 75 percent of occurrences affect the sac that protects the lungs, called the pleura. Also known as pleural mesothelioma. In almost 10 to twenty percent of cases, malignant mesothelioma could concern the tissue that surrounds visceral organs, called the peritoneal membrane, causing what is then known as peritoneal mesothelioma.

Introduction to asbestos is positively the primary influencing factor for this uncommon cancer. After asbestos exposure, the delay to progression of the mesothelioma disease may be 2 to 4 decades. As a result of occupational introduction, mesothelioma is about three times more routine in males, than in women. Because the number of occurrences goes up with your age, there are nearly 10 times more cases in the men over age 64 than in the men in their 30s.

Being diagnosed with Mesothelioma is a serious cancer, that, at the current time, has a decidedly low rate of lasting endurance. Although, if it is spotted soon, regimens are then available that can seriously extend the patient’s life. New therapies continue to be and are being promoted through the use of clinical trials.

Founded in 1969, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has a relatively new grant-making program in environmental conservation. But when it recently granted the New Jersey-based Drew University with $950,000 for the launch of an environmental major, one is hardly surprised. In America, Mellon Foundation has been hailed one of the most generous nonprofit organizations. Yearly, the foundation has been known to shell out around $185 million worth of grants. This particular grant funds a new academic major called ESS or Environmental Studies and Sustainability. It should equip prospective students with the intellectual ammunition to tackle convoluted environmental issues head on. By default, students in this program are expected to live according to sustainable practices. Its multidisciplinary compendium of courses includes Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Science, with room for internships and exchange programs abroad. However, Mellon Foundation’s environment grant-making, all in all, has been very biased towards research on plants and terrestrial ecosystems. Likewise, it prefers leaders in the field at hand. Surely Drew University’s new major touches on these things, let alone exhibit leadership. Nevertheless, the Mellon Foundation has been on the lookout for talented researchers not only in the US but also in South America and South Africa. Apart from the environment, the Mellon Foundation has made grants in other areashigher education, scholarly communications, performing arts, research in information technology and museums and art conservation.

Ted Waitt and the Waitt Family Foundation are active in supporting science and education.

Philanthropist Ted Waitt has a collection of quotes on ThinkExist.com.

September 11, 2001 could have been prevented. We could have stopped that International Terrorist Act had we just employed a few simple tools. If we would have simply kept our eyes and ears open and had a plan in place. Was it Bush’s fault? No, it was America’s fault. It is our fault for thinking every thing was fine and that the CIA and FBI could protect us from any one of a hundred different types of attacks. International Terrorists have so many ways to attack us.

Rumsfeld is correct when he said; “we have to be right all the time; they only have to be right once!” Yes in fact this is true, that means it is up to every American to keep their eyes and ears open and to make certain that we take up the responsibility to know our communities and neighbors. It is so ironic that every time they catch one of these International Terrorists in the United States that they live in a middle class neighborhood and have a squeaky clean record. How on Earth would anyone suspect them?

Well if you keep your eyes and ears open and pay attention it may not be as hard as you think at all. I have developed a plan that would have prevented these terrorist attacks. It is not Bush’s fault, how could it have been, I never sent in my idea. I have never even met the gentleman. My plan is a take off on the Neighborhood Watch Theme, with a special emphasis on becoming the eyes and ears of the community. Not just one community all communities. To be a mobile net-centric community watch program, which will make us strong and tight. Here is my plan: http://www.lancewinslow.org/nmwp.shtml

You see folks it is not Bush’s fault he inherited the humungous bureaucracy. It is our fault for not seeking proof that government was protecting us. We all assumed; you and I and everyone, that we were being protected. Yet in reality that is a totally false assumption how on Earth can you protect against International Terrorism? You can’t. You need human intel on the ground, everywhere all the time. If we had such a thing in place like this Mobile Neighborhood Watch Program before 9-11 then we surely would have caught the bad guys, because everyone would have been heads up about the real problems and vulnerabilities we have in a free society. We now know and we are watching and chances are we will keep catching the bad guys because we are diligent in our efforts to keep a look out. The authorities are too, but they cannot be everywhere all the time. That’s where you can come in and set up a neighborhood mobile watch program in your community today. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/