Culture – Paul Noël

Dental floss – which ones are good for us?

For a long time, I used to use a commercial dental floss but there has been a lot of research lately, talking about the dangers of PFAS forever chemicals, in the chemical cocktail that is the modern life. Now PFAS chemicals help surfaces slide against each other and guess what? Yep, some dental floss use PFAS chemicals. Now one paper that I read recently said that PFAS chemicals had been found concentrated in those who had died of a brain tumour. Early days yet but it’s bad enough that these chemicals are crossing the blood brain barrier. And then a second study, https://www.dzne.de/en/news/press-releases/press/pfas-in-blood-are-ubiquitous-and-they-are-associated-with-an-increased-risk-of-cardiovascular-diseases/, that I read just the other day is suggesting a link to cholesterol and cardiac problems. So I have been trying to reduce my exposure to PFAS and the corporate chemical cocktail overall. That’s why I have switched to a plant based floss. It’s a little less convenient, breaks sometimes and doesn’t slide so well but I know that it’s clean in terms of corporate poisons.

The one on the left is a strand of corporate dental floss. The refillable glass container on the right is the plant based alternative.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://scientistandphilosopher.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Where is it now? In how many pieces? Plastic pollution, Lac Leman, Switzerland — Plastic pollution, Lac Leman, Switzerland

Dental floss, where's it from, where does it end up after use? — Dental floss, where’s it from, where does it end up after use?

A plastic Easter

This is probably, or nearly, 100% plastic, different types of plastic. While it may look pretty and is somehow related to the religious period of Easter it is a gross commercialisation of it.

More importantly is it shedding micro and nano plastic sized particles and what will happen to it? Will it be stored somewhere for next year or will it be disposed of by incineration or landfill? If so the pretty image that everyone walks past will become an environmental nightmare.

As I have mentioned before the breakdown products of this pretty display if it is disposed of in some way will be damaging to us, other life and the environment overall. If it is burnt then its remains will be released as atmospheric pollutants and gases depending on the process and what is captured. CO2 released during any such incineration increases the amount of the gas trapping heat in the atmosphere making climate change worse and extreme weather events potentially more likely and intense.

Depending on the process, if the rabbit and its stand and surround break down slowly to become micro and nano plastic particles, then depending on their size they could end up in the soil or the vegetables that you eat. They could end up in the water and eventually in the fish and seafood that you eat. They could end up in the air, carried up high into the troposphere, where degraded by radiation they become hydrophilic and form condensation nuclei falling as plastic rain. They could find their way into every organ of your body, even crossing your blood brain barrier, potentially carrying toxins and pathogens leading to diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease.

The fact is we are being exposed to a chemical cocktail and research is still trying to catch up on what the long term effects are. Why? Because we like pretty, shiny things and we believe that everything is safe because it’s there, so how could it not be?

We need to wake up and get out of the, “Aah that’s pretty” and into, “Oh (expletive), what’s this doing to me?”. Our modern, convenient lives are increasingly being found to be bad, not only for us as individuals but for life on Earth itself. Large corporations are putting profit before people and damaging the sustainable configuration of the Holocene interglacial period. It’s time to stop them, so it’s time for you to inform yourself of the dangers that you face in your life and then act accordingly, as if your life depended on it, because one day it just might.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://scientistandphilosopher.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

“Aah, it’s pretty”, but is it dangerous?

So what is this? Part of a Christmas present wrapping. If you had one or used one, they have probably been thrown away by now. But what are they and where are they?

They are plastic and the ones that you had might have been disposed of but they or their breakdown products are still out there. If they were burnt then they would have released atmospheric pollutants and gases depending on the process and what is captured. CO2 released during incineration increases the amount of the gas trapping heat in the atmosphere making climate change worse and extreme weather events potentially more likely and intense.

Depending on the process, if they are slowly breaking down to become micro and nano plastic particles, then depending on their size they could end up in the soil or the vegetables that you eat. They could end up in the water and eventually in the fish and seafood that you eat. They could end up in the air, carried up high into the troposphere, where degraded by radiation they become hydrophilic and form condensation nuclei falling as plastic rain. They could find their way into every organ of your body, even crossing your blood brain barrier, potentially carrying toxins and pathogens leading to diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://scientistandphilosopher.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Who won this plastic toy and then discarded it?

This toy/thing was probably won at a stall at the Winter Wonderland event during December 2021 but where is it now? It is or was, as it is not likely to still be in this format, mostly man made fibre and so created by the fossil fuel industry. Maybe it was incinerated and some of the particulates found their way into the lungs of people, children even, before they were scrubbed from the atmosphere. Maybe it was exported from the UK along with so much other plastic waste. Maybe parts of it are laying on a beach somewhere, not of course on the beaches that those first world tourists fly to on their holidays obviously. Maybe some of it has broken up and found its way into a fish that you have recently eaten. Maybe some the particulate residues are clogging up your arteries or crossing your blood brain barrier as we speak. We need to not only stop burning fossil fuels right now but drastically reduce the production of plastic. We can live without pretty, we cannot live without health.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://scientistandphilosopher.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Small is beautiful, Morris Minor

The ideal size for cars in town and city centres. Ban the SUVs and blingmobiles. In most cases they are totally unnecessary. Share resources should be used instead of private car ownership in order to tackle climate change and excessive resource use.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://scientistandphilosopher.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Stainless steel frying pan and natural cleaning products -Environmental loading 21

So last year we decided to reduce our exposure to PFAS and plastic. We’re living in a ginormous chemical cocktail experiment otherwise known as a first world convenient life. OK, so the convenient lifestyle won’t kill you today but what is the consumption of all industrial garbage doing to our health in the long term. We know that both PFAS chemicals and nano plastic particles are crossing our blood brain barriers. Research shows that PFAS chemicals are being concentrated in the glioma of people who have died of these brain tumours. Small plastic particles are being possibly linked to Parkinson’s Disease. Would you want to find out that it’s too late to reduce your exposure once you have been diagnosed with some terrible disease? That’s why we’re trying to reduce our daily exposure. No takeaway cups, no plastic in microwaves, we don’t even use a microwave, no plastic bottles of water and we’ve stopped fruit juice in plastic bottles because that’s probably just as bad. In addition we have ditched for the most part our PFAS Teflon covered frying pan for a stainless steel one. The only thing we haven’t tried is cooking eggs in it. In the photo there are also a number of natural cleaning products so no micro and plastic particles finding their way down our sink and into the environment and potentially back into us. One downside is these products aren’t made locally so possibly carry a heavier carbon footprint. Protect yourself from the modern life as it may one day kill you.

Below are a series of photos in relation to food storage and food miles plus healthy eating just for some examples of the modern life.

Inside the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, La Rambla, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, Spain

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Smoking meat, sustainable?

So if we put aside the animal suffering, the need as a society to reduce eating meat, especially as in this case highly processed food in regards to human health, what about the “oak smoked” bit on the label that perhaps only a few will notice when they pick up this sandwich? Oak trees grow slowly and can live for centuries and in doing so are home to vast and complex ecosystems so how can burning oak to smoke bacon be in any way sustainable?

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

£0.95 tomatoes from Morocco -Environmental loading 20

So six tomatoes from Morocco for £0.95. So assuming that the supermarket must make a fair amount of profit and the cost of fuel isn’t cheap, how much are Moroccan workers getting paid and what sort of lifestyle do they live to bring me these tomatoes? They may seem cheap or expensive to UK customers but is there a labour exploitation cost and what of the environmental loading and cost? What will happen to the plastic wrapping once the purchaser has disposed of it? I’m taking mine to a bin in a supermarket that says that it will be recycled but will it?

And what will we do when we go to the supermarket and there no tomatoes because the country where they are grown is in a drought and can’t even feed its own population? Repeat for all the other products that make up the 40%+ food produced and imported into the UK. We just assume that food will magically appear on our supermarket shelves. Meanwhile few, if any, consider or could contemplate being rationed food because of shortages.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Sugar snaps from Egypt -Environmental loading 19

How many of us actually look at what we buy in detail when we buy food. How was it grown and by whom? What were the conditions of employment and how much were they paid. How much climate change has been generated by transporting the food the miles or kilometres that it has travelled? What will happen to the plastic wrapping once the purchaser has disposed of it?

And what will we do when we go to the supermarket and there no sugar snaps because the country where they are grown is in a drought and can’t even feed its own population? Repeat for all the other products that make up the 40%+ food produced and imported into the UK.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Desolation Boulevard, formerly known as Oxford Street

The last gasp of neoliberal, exploitative capitalism that will either cause the planet to be uninhabitable for the human monkey or we will destroy it. There are only two options. Either we change as a species and the vacuencers and vacuous start seeing the bigger picture or we face a dire future with an increasing risk of human extinction. It’s not just about drastically reducing the burning of fossil fuels but a complete reset of human economics and justice for every human being.