Comments for Hugh Thomas. Consume to live; or live to consume

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:50:39 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Grapes of Wrath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqaTv8cCWeg

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:48:24 +0000

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

24) Empty Table
‘...The year is 2085 and Yasmin’s teacher has taken the small class to the local museum .Their assignment is to discover how their ravaged world has come to be. As they enter the darkened central chamber, a single ray illuminates the object displayed on a blackened pedestal, a thing so forbidding that its vague form – let alone the messages it contains- sends a chill of horror through the awed children. As they draw closer they begin to feel its power. Closer and they can at last make out what is, this fount of all the ruin, the suffering, the hunger, the loss. It is a cookbook.

Those raised on conventional museums are accustomed to the guns, swords, religious symbols, and legal documents with which our thuggish ancestors imposed their views on their fellows, or died in the attempt. The victors had the privilege of framing history the way they liked. In the food wars to come, however, there will be no victors - only victims, and they will see the matter differently. The typical early twenty-first century cookbook, with its gorgeous illustrations, elegiac combinations of the failing fruits of the Earth with those that cost us the climate, water, soil, and our safety to produce is, unambiguously, a recipe for disaster on a planetary scale...’
Extract from the book : The Coming Famine by Julian Cribb (publisher University of California press).

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:26:49 +0000

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

The conveyor belt of death: Secret footage shows how millions of unwanted British chicks are killed every year

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326168...

IMAGE The Breaking of Animals

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:42:41 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

20)
Bag for shopping and recycling - so fostering 'feeling good' about consumerism - don't buy it.

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:14:55 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

19) Circus

Refs (unchecked)
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodisiac
2) http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_spec...
3) http://www.freeland.org/eng/index.php?option=co...:feared-and-endangered&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=208
etc, etc....

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:16:13 +0000

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

11) McU&Me (and another 6+billion mouths to feed –everyday)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbvr0m_the-int...

Art composition by Hugh Thomas. Feb 10.

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:08:39 +0000

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Earthscraper
74 Whangarei 'studies' 09-10. Art composition by Hugh Thomas

Ref: Ken Yeang
://www.sustainingtowers.org/SOA-present.htm
Interesting, and addresses population needs - but does not resolve population explosion problems eg increasing waste/sewage caused by consuming goods, food, water, electricity etc. This waste has to go somewhere and will occur no matter how 'green' people become. The crux will always return to the dynamic of human population numbers - the politics of consumerism (which is no bad thing-at some levels), and religious views about sanctity of human life( although other life does not seem to matter - even though the ultimate dynamic is indeed determined by other life i.e. biodiversity)

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:55:55 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 3
"Advertising is an instrument for construction of people's everyday reality, so we could use the same media to construct a cultural paradigm in which conspicuous consumption is despised," he says. "We've got to make people ashamed to be seen as a 'future eater'." [William Rees (Professor - University of British Columbia (UBC)).]
Whether we're capable of such a counter-revolution is doubtful, both because of our state of personal denial and because of the huge power of industry to continue seducing us.
Consumerism is 'eating the future' 07 August 2009 by Andy Coghlan New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327176....

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:28:51 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 2
..we're doing is what all other creatures have ever done to survive, expanding into whatever territory is available and using up whatever resources are available, just like a bacterial culture growing in a Petri dish till all the nutrients are used up. What happens then, of course, is that the bugs then die in a sea of their own waste... ( Consumerism is 'eating the future' by Andy Coghlan, New Scientist)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17569-con...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:52:02 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 1
Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.
Socrates
Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC - 399 BC)
We all consume, but then we consume some more, and then more -satisfaction is elusive and so consumerism becomes addictive and destructive for all life and the planet. It is easy give glib solutions but in reality not so easy - and a big factor is the accelerating growth of the world population. Perhaps consumerism is no bad thing, it just gets bad.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17569-con...
http://www.verdant.net/