PERMACULTURE -- Doing What Comes Naturally

As it says on their web site, "Permaculture is about creating sustainable human habitats by following nature's patterns." It uses the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems to provide a framework and guidance for people to develop their own sustainable solutions to the problems facing their world, on a local, national or global scale. It is based on the philosophy of co-operation with nature and caring for the earth and its people."

Pealk oil and the exaustion of energy and other resources is a reality, not just something thought up by tree huggers and, As it said on a recent TV prog on BBC 2, We cannot go on like this. Peak oil has provided us with the means to grow, irrigate, fertilise, transport, distribute, and process huge volumes of food. Even GM food is totally oil dependent. But look at the B side. Industrial and agricultural pollution of air, soil and water often with chemicals which did not exist untill World War 2, the majority of which have never been thoroughly tested has allowed the world to support an enormous population, producing waste in volumes which have over-powered the planets ability to cleanse itself.

Whether we like it or not this cannot go on for very much longer. oil prices will continue to rise as will the costs of all its used to produce. In energy terms no other single source of energy will make up the shortfall. and many believe that even a basket of alternatives such as wind, solar, tidal, geo-thermal and nuclear will not be enough. The UK imports more than 50% of all its food so what do we do when the tankers stop arriving?

TBC....

IS THE BBC AND OTHER MEDIA IGNORING YOUR PROTEST?

IS THE BBC AND OTHER MEDIA IGNORING YOUR PROTEST?
IPM, BBC RADIO FOUR WEBSITE -- HAVE YOUR SAY

iPM has talked about Richard_SM before. He wrote suggesting we look at how the media covers demonstrations. "Tens of thousands sacrificed their time" to attend protests about events in Gaza, but the demos were "hardly covered". He contrasts this with the heckling of a military parade in Luton and the Peter Mandelson green goo incident, which were widely reported.
see picture >>>>>

The media, he says, is "simply creating an environment which encourages violent or outrageous protests in the future to draw attention to their cause".

We've already spoken to iPM listener Andy Williamson (pictured above with his sax). He and the Jazz Activists entertain marchers. He provided us with an improv soundtrack for Saturday's show, but we still want to hear from more iPM listeners.
Are you a protester worried that your quiet, peaceful demonstration has been ignored? Do you feel under pressure to come up with provocative stunts to catch media attention. Have you reported on a protest?Email us or leave a comment.

With a few exceptions, the issue of fluoride and fluoridation has been ignored by the media, despite the fact that its its unethical, immoral, and illegal. The TV and Radio stations, didnt even seem concerned when the governments yes men and women at the SHA and PCT decided to ignore their own rules and 72% - 92% public opposition and throw democracy out of the window in Southamption. Its little wonder that people talk now so much about a growing police state. Have your say on the IPM Radio Four Website. at this address
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/2009/03/reporting_demos_and_all_that_j.shtml#commentsanchor

LOOK OUT -- THE LAWYERS ARE COMING -- UKCAF WEB SITE

Now - put up, or shut up! The fraudulent misrepresentation of the supposed benefits of fluoridation is a scandal that continues unabated. Now an American Attorney has implemented UKCAF's call to use the law to bring the fluoride apologists to heel.

THE AGE OF STUPID -- Celebrating the End of the Beginning

Like Al Gores movies this is a little compressed in its time frame but certainly highly watchable for all those concerned that environmentally speaking we do live in The Age of Stupid.

Although I agree that Global Warming is a fact, I tend to differ with those both in the environmental movement and outside, who consider that this whole scenario all as a result of human activity. Our Sun is a Variable Star and at various times in the history of our little planet, it has experienced major flooding, deserts and almost complete covering by ice.

These conditions can result from the Suns variation in heat output, or from the entire solar system travelling through a large area of dust or gas clouds or even as a result of a major clobbering by a large chunk of rock or ice from the asteroid belt. Life itself can then be reduced to its merely vestigle components and any civilisations have to pick up the pieces and start over.

This of course does not mean that the activities of human beings are entirely innocent nor that we should turn a blind eye to Global warming in either the hope or belief that it will go away because it probably wont and doing absolutely sod all is not an option. Just as the answers to global warming cannot all be solved by wind farms or nuclear power but by a basket of solutions, neither can the causes be reduced to a single "wham bam thank you mam. "But i digress considerably......

The Age of Stupid by Franny Armstrong is both an environmental cry from the heart and a plea for change. As it says in the review by Sukhdev Sandhu Her last documentary, McLibel (2005), saluted two intrepid environmentalists who successfully took on the might of fast-food giant McDonalds. Her latest call to arms is called The Age of Stupid. Beginning in 2055, when London is under water, Vegas under sand, Sydney on fire and the Taj Mahal in ruins, it features Pete Postlethwaite as The Archivist, a sad-eyed man, the last one left on earth, who lives in a tower off Norway using touch-screen technology to find out why it was that people in 2009 did nothing to stop the eco-catastrophe that was staring them in the face.

There are six main stories. Among them that of an octogenarian French mountain guide who has witnessed the swift erosion of the glacier he loves; an Indian entrepreneur bent on setting up a low-budget airline; a British wind-energy developer who tries to persuade other people in his village to support the construction of local turbines.

The Age of Stupid is more passionate, more emotionally charged than the Al Gore-fronted An Inconvenient Truth (2006). It makes energetic use of animation in the style of 1970s public information films. Its use of science fiction is also both effective and emotional: it's as if Armstrong hopes that the future can come to the aid of the present. Bold, supremely provocative, and hugely important, her film is a cry from the heart as much as a roar for necessary change.

See it if you can and if you cannot, then hector your local cinema to screen it. And what as a society can we do about all this. Well we can stop glamourising consumption and start really educating our children rather than training them to be perfect little producer-consumers. The future depends on all of us. As Captain Beefheart said. "Times running out, if all you ever do is blabber and smoke!"

THE WATER COMPANIES, FLUORIDATION AND BREACH OF CONTRACT

Breach of Contract?

Does the State or A Water Undertaker

have an enforceable contract to supply

water that is not artificially fluoridated?

"Wherever you live, your local Water Company must supply you with water that is fit for human consumption. Exactly what this is has been laid down by law, but what if the water delivered to your home is not the product that you believe it to be? Is fluoridated water actually 'water for human consumption', and are you obliged to accept it?

In a word, no. Any 'medicinal water' is excluded from control under both the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations and the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations – so you should not drink or prepare food with fluoridated water.

South Central SHA's order to Southern Water to fluoridate Southampton's water supplies has started a process that will, if it runs to completion, result in the supply of an entirely different product to every resident (and food processor) in the City. Instead of the foodstuff customers expect, they will suddenly find themselves landed with a largely unwanted and unreturnable medicinal product, fluoridated water. And what's more, it's not even a legal medicine - it doesn't have a medicinal Licence.

So - does the SHA Board really have the clout to force Southern Water to break its contract to supply drinking water to tens of thousands of its domestic customers in the City? Can it force the Company to supply food processors (and cafe's restaurants, etc) with an unlicensed medicine instead of 'potable water'?

Or has the Company the nerve to stand up to the Health Police and tell them that it respects its customers a damned sight more than it respects them? We are watching this with considerable interest – someday soon this issue will rock the Establishment to its core."

The above is an extract from the UK Councils Against Fluoride Web Site.

http://www.ukcaf.org/

WIKIPEDIA -- ACCURACY AND FLUORIDE? --SHURELY SHOME MISHTAKE

As one of our correspondents puts it, "Read the Wikipedia page on Fluoridation and be astonished!" Well I did, and he's absolutely correct. The item on fluoride is so inaccurate and out of date that it defies belief and certainly reflects badly on both Wikipedia itself and on anti-fluoride campaigners for not editing it until this late stage of the farce. Any volunteers out there who think they can help? If so, just register with Wikipedia and start correcting.

And dont worry, Even if you try, you will find it very difficult to make it less accurate. It currently shows every symptom of being written exclusively by our "friends," at the BDA, Messrs, Cockcroft and Ward, ( the Ant and Dec of the pro-fluoridation movement) which easily explains the complete lack of balance and accuracy at present. See for yourself at.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoridation

ANTI FLUORIDE PETITION - PLEASE SIGN & PASS ON THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS.

There is a new anti fluoride petition on the 10 Downing Street web site.
It reads....

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop Fluoride being added to drinking water, both bottled and tap.
Submitted by Myles Chapman – Deadline to sign up by: 09 April 2009

The link below will take you to the Petition.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/AntiFluoridation/