I subscribe to the Weekend NY Times and get the daily Times on line. This 'program' that the Times has created has helped make them more solvent. They've paid off their mortgage early, which is great news, when so many Papers and Magazines are going under. The front page on Saturday had an article on the deforestation of the planet.
In addition to the loss of the rain forest in Brazil by farming and the growing desert in Africa, the Australian forest and the American forest is under attack from pine beetles. As the planet has warmed up the life expectancy of the pine beetle has lengthened. They dine on our forests longer, so less forest.
Some good news. China plants a great many trees to control flooding and the growth of the Gobi Desert. Parts of America and Northern Europe, what we in America call the rust belt because of the loss of manufacturing through the rise of the global economy, is becoming greener. Is it enough?
My friend Mara, a climate change expert with the European Union says it's too late. Personally, I think we lost the planet when the world population hit 7 Billion. Just about the time scientists created in vitro fertilization and cloning. Does anyone else remember John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the Dick Cavett show in the early 70's talking about Zero Population Growth. They said then that over-population was the single greatest threat to our future. We're as ravenous as pine beetles.
In other parts of the paper there's These articles.
Wall Street Demonstrators are being pepper sprayed and arrested.
Drones, small, unmanned, attack spacecraft, have killed Anwar al-Awlaki. He is described as an American born jihadist. The attack was carried out by the newest member of our military, the CIA, in our newest field of war, Yemen.
The magazine section had readers' questions for Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and Mark Bittman, author of "How to cook Everything" and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian; wrote the second one after his heart attack.
Michael Pollan likes frozen when the fresh isn't available and sometimes prefers it to the 'fresh' at the local supermarket, because the produce is often picked at its peak of quality. Beware of greens wrapped in plastic, breeding ground for salmonella. Best breakfasts: oatmeal, or fresh fruit with yogurt or 2 free range eggs on whole grain toast. Won't eat, feedlot meat and tomatoes that have been refrigerated.
Bittman thinks Ratatouille is the best film made about food, I vote for Babette's Feast, Best novel about food 'The Belly of Paris' by Emile Zola. I'll put that on my list. The fish you can eat quilt-free is sockeye salmon of Bristol Bay, Alaska. However, since the flotsam and jetsam from the Fukushima nuclear reactor started washing up on the west coast, I eat Atlantic salmon.
