There is an article in today's Telegraph online http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1973230/Fat-people-blamed-for-global-warming.html saying new research blames fat people for global warming. There's a certain strange logic to this: fat people eat more so it costs more in terms of resources to produce their food. Yes I can understand that. It was the next bit I found unpalatable - fat people walk less and travel by car more and don't use public transport!! How's that for sweeping generalisations?
I actually walk more and use public transport more than many thinner people I know so I don't see how they can generalise like this. If you're thin and active you might also eat more than fat inactive people. What about food everyone in the Western world wastes as well?
Personally I don't subscribe to the idea that mankind is wholly responsible for climate change. What about volcanoes? What about all the historical evidence about climate change in the past? Were dinosaurs driving around in gas guzzling cars before the last ice age? I don't think so - though of course there are the Flintstones to consider!
I'm all in favour of limiting waste but not for reasons of climate change. The whole carrier bag thing irritates me immensely. Those of us who use carrier bags as bin bags will only have to buy alternatives if they ban them entirely - so where's the difference? I refuse to wash out the kitchen bin every time I use it because I can't put a bin liner in it - that's a waste of water and washing up liquid.
The other thing that really bugged me today on the news is the idea that many rural doctor's surgeries may have to close under the new grand plan for polyclinics. So how are rural communities to manage? This potentially means more cars on the road and more people travelling which is not what this government wants. Our leaders and their policies seem less and less joined up by the minute.
Those of you who follow Dr Crippen's posts on NHS blog doctor - link at top of page - may have read his comments on extreme feminism. Even though I'm female I still sided with him. The women he's referring to who are discussing 'birth rape' seem to have a very strange outlook on life. I fail to see how medical procedures can be described as and equated with rape. They may be unpleasant and uncomfortable but NOT rape. There is something definitely skewed about this sort of attitude in my opinion. Do men being examined for prostate cancer regard the examination as male rape? I doubt it.
I've come across this attitude before in women of my acquaintance who seem to think doctors get turned on by giving women internal examinations and regard anything like that as disgusting and demeaning. To me it all depends on your attitude to it. What if the doctor is turned on? As far as I'm concerned if he's doing his job properly I don't really care what vicarious enjoyment he's deriving from the task. As long as a procedure is medically necessary - what is the problem?
Maybe this all brands me as anti-feminist - which I'm not. I don't like the extremes of misogynism or feminism as they're apt to throw the baby out with the bath water in their pursuit of their ideals.
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3 comments:
I'm with you, Jilly on most, if not all of this. I've heard some crap in my time but this takes the biscuit -- which is probably as well otherwise I'd be fatter! Of the five heaviest people I know, none of us have a car! We all walk, tho' I admit I do use taxis maybe more than I should. And of the five of us, four have no children. Can't get much greener than that!
Carrier bags. Hmm. Yes. A sideshow. PR exercise. Our carrier bags always get reused for something; and if the supermarket delivery didn't insist on using them we'd have almost none. Wake up guys. Smell the (fair trade?)coffee. Cut the packaging: or at least make it recyclable/biodegradable paper. And cut the food miles. In the last few months we've gone to having organic fruit & veg delivered weekly. Yes delivered; why?; because we can't buy it locally. It comes in cardbord boxes which the firm collect and recycle/reuse. Almost no plastic bags; mostly paper bags if any at all. And none of the produce is air-freighted; what does come from outside the UK is either shipped here or trucked from the continent; and that's reduced by using more of what's seasonal. Good stuff it is too; not cheap but much tastier.
I'm full up with climate change. Whether or not it is real or important I'm undecided. But I've had enough of it. Although I read science magazines, climate change is one of the things I refuse to read about; also stem cells, fertility treatment and Africa. They're either immoral or they bore me or both. I must write a weblog post about this soon; it's gestating in my brain.
Just don't get me started on feminism. What happened to equal rights for men, and for the childless, then? Oh, of course, we don't matter; let us do all the work then we won't be fat.
[exit waving two fingers]
some very good points here jilly! I agree with some of what you are saying but not all. I do enjoy this post though and how you have backed up your opinions with facts, it helps to keep me open minded about it all to say the least!
Yes exactly! The childless always get left out somehow - and men these days. That's the wyay society goes though - from one extreme to the other. Thanks emma jayne for reading - and for the compliment.
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