At the time of writing
the world population is a little over 6.4 billion human beings and there
has never been a time when there was more impact on our environment
(the biosphere) as now.
There is also the
co-evolving interplay between hosts and pathogens.
James Lovelock beautifully
describes the earth in its entirety as Gaia, a descriptive term meant
to convey that in a certain planet in a certain kind of solar system
certain kinds of chemistry and geology have given rise to diverse and
profoundly connected living systems and that this is our home.
A goal for all human
beings is to honour and respect Gaia which is the ground of our existence
and the basis for our future.
We are being informed
of major scales of degradation and pollution of seas, lakes, waterways,
air and soils.
Now climate change
looms large!
There is an opportunity
for the wealth of the world to provide the best protection to these
systems in the name of life.
If it is true that
countless thousands of toxic substances and altered concentrations of
basic chemicals (for example in soil salination) are having an impact
it seems absurd that we are promoting billion dollar industries around
nutritional supplements without getting the underlying soils, water
and air into optimal states. Healthy plants require such healthy environments
and so it goes up the food chain.
Governments have
generally been complicit with national and multinational companies and
corporations in wilderness and ecosystem destruction.
JOINING SCIENCE
WITH ATTITUDE AND CARING
WORLD SAVING COMMUNITIES.
Is it possible
that people of integrity could create an "Earth protecting group"
by cooperating with caring and responsible governments, who more truly
represent them?
Such new wave governments
could eliminate the present tax havens, and together create "Healing
funds and healing enterprises" to protect the richness of life
and all its support systems.
We can learn to
go beyond selfishness.
This involves the
realisation that people in moving to positions of possession and power,
risk misuse of the world's resources.
The Great Transition
Initiative (GTI) is one such collective endeavour.
Can we understand
that misuse comes when people claim the privilege of rights to much
more of the world's resources than others?
Another is the
claim to have a better or" only" revelation from God, which
has led to indescribable actions towards other human beings as in the
Spanish Inquisition which sprang up from within Christianity, but has
no Christ like love within it.
In our recent history
the action of destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York, killing
human beings of many different beliefs, reveals the ethical consequences
of such a disdain for others, through a blind and dogmatic interpretation
of the Qu'ran.
Yet the US administration
demanded the inept and aggressive attack on Iraq by the “coalition
of the willing”, in a circumstance of major lack of understanding
about the cultures of the Iraqi residents and the likely aftermath of
the invasion.
Of this ilk are
the differences that divide us.
They create notions
of inclusion and exclusion.
I invite the reader
to be willing to think of inclusion and compassion as basic to our futures
on the earth.
We will be striving
to protect and improve soils, to optimise nutrition for all of us, protecting
the ecosystems of all living things on earth.
Scientists and health
practitioners can dare to seek and find the integrity of
person and community
that their truths cannot be bought, directly or indirectly by holders
of wealth, through political expediency or bargaining power.
If we could somehow
allocate some of this wealth to education of every human being during
schooling and to openness in telling the truth about the state of health
or otherwise in the food industry, at last it could be possible for
people to truly choose foods which would optimize health.
This a timely moment
for every person to protect her or his own body, by eating to the end
of achieving a long healthy life.
PRINCIPLES OF
BEST NUTRITION
(1) Each of can
strive to eat fresh, unprocessed food, much of it from the plant kingdom
and uncooked.
(2) Breakfast
cereals and processed food, especially white bread are often poor
choices. Be conscious of not eating too much wheat-derived products.
(3) Choose many
colours of plants as this ensures a better availability of multiple
antioxidants.
(4) Choose the
best fatty acids in the safest amounts. This is covered in Chapter
18.
(5) Find way as
of getting minerals and trace elements.
(6) Be very wary
of poor food labelling, especially in processed food.
(7) Do not believe
the company advertising! When something is claimed to be low
in fat, it may
have a high glycaemic index.
(8) Petition Parliamentarians
to attain better food labelling.
(9) Obtain a book
which gives explicit details of additives.
(10) Don’t
let your children get into the habit of demanding poor foods. Hopefully,
they will never see white bread in your house, and seldom be offered
fast food.
(11) Eat slowly
where possible and don't eat if you
are not hungry.
(12) Consider
that each of us have genetic patterns which may make certain persons
prone to not feel satiety. Such persons, if tending to be overweight,
can improve their health by trying to work out a lower calorie diet
The desirable approach
is concern in big as well as little life arenas.
We are now able
to be part of family, community, country and world based thinking.
The field of ethics
of caring has become “me, others, the whole world.”
I believe it is
the responsibility of all citizens who are educated in the field of
biology to bring to bear the strongest influence on governments in the
following matters.
1. A much greater
assessment of all soils and the regular publication of information
about soil and water quality in a completely accessible site. (For
example written and visual media including the internet.)
2. A method of
doing genetic engineering research in such a way that it cannot contaminate
non-genetically engineered plants or organisms.
3. Thorough labelling,
not only of the contents of food, but its origin, list of nutrients
and presence or absence of genetically engineered material.
4. Updating of
all the methods that are now being employed to counter chemical and
radiant pollutions with publication of this information in regular
health bulletins available through the media and the internet
5. Authorities
need to stop being so defensive when conventional and accepted information
is challenged. If it emerges that toxicity used to be thought about
in terms of parts per million we do need to rethink whether there
are biological actions of parts per billion.
The example of the
British Government's response to the initial information about bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease) is just one example of an
ignorant and arrogant response by people in authority.
The Bush administration
has blatantly ignored environmental science of the highest calibre and
provided its citizen with spin doctoring from its corporate supporters.
The Howard government
has a 10 year record of paying scant actual attention to global warming
and its late claim to ask people to do something about it seems to be
“Do as we say, not what we do!”
6. Dr Amory Lovins of the
Rocky Mountains Institute in the USA writes and lectures about Natural
Capitalism, in which we could factor in the value of every resource
used. It truly makes economic sense to include the value of what nature
provides, and to know what it costs us when we damage the environment.
Lovins is very positive
in his suggested remedies, which actually save money and generate long-term
economic advantages.
It seems timely
to help children at various stages to appreciate that there are necessarily
many ways to think about the world and ourselves. Many of these worldviews
can be found in different cultures.
We can come to think
of having access to many discourses about ourselves and our planet and
this includes honouring many traditions other than our own.
Such a background
could open us to respond to difference with curiosity rather than hostility.
HEALING OURSELVES
AND HEALING THE HEALER
The journey of the
healer as a person has old and sacred connections.
The healer at some
time encountered a dangerous or hurtful experience leaving her or him
wounded.
The emergence of
a career in healing, will uncover a vulnerability that touches the old
wound or wounds.
It is a hope that
through this happening the healer will sooner or later realize that
she or he has been wounded, and can dare to face that which wounded
her or him.
The ancient claim
is that there is " healing in facing that which wounds us."
Yet more is needed!
We can learn that
we ourselves wound each other.
Thus we can become
more aware of this possibility, so as to notice each time that we have
contributed to another's pain.
In time, we awaken
to be sensitive enough to confront whatever is needed, yet communicate
in ways which fit with the person’s own values and belief systems.
This is called "meeting
people at their models of the world".
We cannot do this
if we do not know what that model is".
We are ever in danger
in imposing our models of the world on others.
Thus the new millennium
could be a time for reflecting upon our present practices, healing those
that need healing and creatively developing many new possibilities.
(Theobald)
In a world that
seems to be getting better and better, and worse and worse, faster and
faster, will you be part of this healing of body, mind, spirit and environment?
medicine