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[catbus]

Lately there's been freaky news all about: Global warming crises, the bees dying... I was reading in the paper today that Asia is facing heavy food shortages in the future if action isn't taken immediately to prevent climate change. And apparently bees dying will result in the eventual death of humans? (I just heard someone say, I didn't do any

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[jemariel]

HA. Welcome to my world.

I heard about this last... um, Wednesday? Thursday? And for three solid days, the only thing I could think, the only thoughts running through my mind were "The bees are dying. Albert Einstein predicted that four years after the bees die, the human race will end, because there will be nothing to pollinate the all our food. They'll all be dead in a year. Four years after that is 2012, which is when the Mayan calendar ends..... all the bees are dying...."

I was RIGHT on the edge of becoming a raving lunatic, wandering the streets grabbing people and screaming at them. Seriously.

Then I did some reading, and asked some questions. It's not as bad as all that. Yes, we're fucking up the planet - but the tide is starting to turn. People ARE waking up. The pressure for green energy is starting to build, and it will keep building until a corporation can't get away with waste and dumping toxins and clearcutting. The battle isn't over yet, but we are making headway. And once we clean up our act and stop beating down the environment, the environment will find her own ways to make up the difference.

There's a bill up for election in California to outlaw plastic bags. If it goes through, how many others will follow California's lead? That's a big fucking state to have in your corner.

We know about the bees *now,* and we have ideas as to what the problems are - overstress of bees being moved around constantly; a million bees brought in to pollinate half a million acres; global warming, yes; genetic alterations in produce meant to prevent pests being passed into the honey and killing baby bees; pesticides; a whole cornucopia of problems. But they can be changed. Y2K really could have wiped out every computer in the world, but we knew about it early and corrected the problems. It's the same with the bees. Albert Einstein was working with 1920s technology when he made his predictions.

As for China's food shortages - China is almost always on the edge of a food shortage. They have what, a quarter of the world's vast and bloated population? They're the most seriously at-risk country in the world. America may only be a close second, but they're worse off than we are. We're still safe for a while.

The next few years may be difficult - but I no longer think they will be apocalyptic. If nothing else, it may be the final close call we need to truly wake up, and start to, as a race, grow out of our irresponsible adolescense and start protecting the earth like we should have been all along.

PS: The US lost about 50% of its bee population back in the 1980s, and they were back within a few years with a LOT less awareness and human assistance than we can provide now. We'll be alright. Humans are tough - and so are bees. ^_^

Sorry for the rantiness. This is why I'm going to Unity - so I can write about this stuff and get paid for it. ^_^

[catbus]

haha, it's perfectly okay. :)

It's Asia as a whole, not just China, though. If you were mistaken.

[jemariel]

Oh, did you say Asia? I read China....

[28thvoodoo]

I believe the Mayan calender says 2012 is not so much the END of the world as much as "The second coming" when the gods are supposed to come back. Some people just jump to conclusions saying it means the end of the world, but it very easily could be them coming back to give us what I call "Enormous boost to human advancement #2", as they did with the Incas, Egyptians, etc :)

[jemariel]

Yeah, I agree with that - more a rebirth than an ending, which actually gives me great hope. But in the middle of going bugnuts insane, it's difficult to think that way. ;)