Health – Paul Noël

Microplastics discovered in the placenta. That’s right, we’ve polluted the planet that much.

A recent Greenpeace study discovered a large amount of micro plastic particles entering the environment from a plastics recycling plant. With over 13,000 types of plastics in use, several thousand known to be harmful to humans and thousands of others of unknown toxicity it’s time to cut plastic production and use drastically. Meanwhile…..

A new (relatively) study shows that microplastics have been found in the placenta of a number of women. These microplastic particle can be joined to toxins and pathogens and they are in some cases travelling through our bodies and it would seem into or at least affect newly born children. The long term health consequences have probably not been worked out, yet the fossil fuels industries wants to produce more plastic. These industries need to regulated properly and unnecessary plastic use needs to be curtailed. Still want a free plastic bag for your shopping or a plastic straw for your drink? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020322297

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Have you enjoyed your plastic meal?

We need to stop this. It’s becoming increasingly known that plastic is not only disastrous for the environment but also poses significant human health risks.

This is an excellent visual article on how much plastic we are all consuming. What we need to know is what are the long term health effects because of the pathogens and other chemicals that the micro and nano sized particles can carry with them. Where do they end up? Which organs and can they cross the blood brain barrier? This isn’t the way we should be living our lives and it certainly isn’t sustainable yet the fossil fuel corporations want to increase plastic production. We need to stop them. https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2020/12/11/in-pictures-how-much-plastic-are-you-eating

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.

A man pushing an ice cream cart among the traffic of Asuncion, Paraguay

The inequality of the world can be seen quite clearly here. While some travel around in vehicles that cost more than this ice cream seller will probably earn in a lifetime. He will also suffer far worse health breathing in the traffic fumes. Which is why we must redesign our cities where people don’t have to travel so far and where they use public transport. Seen on the road out of Asuncion, Paraguay in 2012, as we leave on the long distance coach for Buenos Aires. A journey that for us leaves around 6pm, maybe earlier, if I remember correctly and arrives the next day, 19 to 20 hours later. 29th February 2012.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts 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/.

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

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

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

Humans, the only animal to burn stuff and hence poison itself

I posted this a year ago in 2022 as well. Has the situation changed in any way? Probably not.

21st January 2021

As this article suggests 3,000,000,000 humans are exposed to smoke pollutants in their own homes, https://theconversation.com/air-pollution-over-three-billion-people-breathe-harmful-air-inside-their-own-homes-152986?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20January%2021%202021%20-%201840217909&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20January%2021%202021%20-%201840217909+CID_eff88aaf48ed7c3bc025a7194d90b5bf&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Air%20pollution%20over%20three%20billion%20people%20breathe%20harmful%20air%20inside%20their%20own%20homes. We are the only animal to burn stuff and before we discovered fire and cooking our food would have been raw and uncooked. To replace the burning of climate change generating materials is going to require a large amount of renewable resources which have a limited lifespan. We really do need to find what a sustainable number of humans is that the planet can support because at the moment we are way beyond that figure.

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/.

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

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

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

It’s Veganuary – have you made any changes at all?

First posted in January 2021 and it’s here again. Time to do your bit for the planet in any way that you can.

We are rushing away from the start of the New Year. Are any of your New Year’s resolutions intact? Do you know about Veganuary? Perhaps it’s time that you took a small step to improve your health, save the lives of some animals and protect the environment with special reference to the Amazon rainforest. So thing about reducing your meat intake, try vegetarian and vegan options as there are plenty of good ones.

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.

Eat less meat – it will be good for you and so much better for the planet

First posted on the 11th of January 2021. For your health and the health of the planet not to mention all the creatures eaten make 2023 the year to change your diet.

It’s Veganuary and if you haven’t thought about it already then consider eating one or more meals with no meat products. This photo that I took in Paris was of some apt graffiti on an aptly named street sign, The passage of the small butcher. There are so many things wrong with the fast food and intensive animal farming industries and they contribute massively to environmental destruction and climate change. This includes fossil fuel subsidies so fish can be caught to feed to herbivores and the tearing down of rain forests and other environments to either graze animals or raise crops to feed to animals. None of this is sustainable and there really is no such thing as cheap eats fast food. There is also the human health aspect and for this additional reason all fast food outlets should be taxed in lieu of the damage they are causing to the planet to serve a convenient lifestyle. So every meal should carry a damage to the environment tax of at least one dollar, one pound, one euro and any other local currency to make people pay the real cost of this style of eating.

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.

Christmas or Capitalistismas? Pretty plastic whatever it is

Christmas or Capitalistismas? The Coop shopping centre in Morges, Switzerland. Most of what we see is very unnatural whether is be the materials used or the cultural appropriation by corporations intent on mass consumption whatever the deleterious effects are to Earth’s life support systems by that neoliberal consumerism.

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.

Christmas decorations, pretty plastic

Christmas decorations, pretty plastic, seen here in the Coop shopping centre in Morges, Switzerland. At some point this plastic will enter the environment and cause untold damage to forms of life, maybe humans, even you and I. It may look pretty but that doesn’t mean that it’s not dangerous.

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.

A decade to make the necessary changes – 3652 days

First posted January 2021 so we’ve lost over 700 days. Meanwhile we “celebrated”, really, there being 8,000,000,000 of us alive at any one given time and of course levels of greenhouses gases have risen sharply. The human species is not in a good place as we leave 2022.

The decade, from the start of 2021 to the end of 2030, will be a defining one for those people alive today and depending on what reductions we make in terms of fossil fuels, many generations into the future. We have 3652 days if you count from the 1st of January and the two leap years of 2024 and 2028. To some that may sound like a lot of days and to others no time at all. It would be difficult enough if we managed to stabilise the human population but we are far from doing that. Much of the reason for current increases in our total number are the lack of women’s rights, the inequality between women and men and the lack of access to contraception, family planning, abortion and not forgetting the issue of child brides and child mothers.

How big a problem is it? Possibly it’s as big as burning fossil fuels. Many included myself see it as one of the larger human elephants in the room. In the 366 days of 2020 the world’s head count increased by let’s call it 80,000,000 despite the extra deaths due to the pandemic. So in 2020 an extra 10 Switzerlands were created, https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/world-demographics/. So in general, even though the fertility rate is falling and we assume that the pandemic will pass we can apply the same number of additional people being born for this the crucial decade in human history. It’s an uphill struggle to meet the Sustainable Development Goals as it is but at the rate humans are reproducing we would create another 100 Switzerlands by the end of 2030, 800,000,000 people. Now you could argue it would be less but even if it was 600,000,000 extra people they would still need food, water, shelter, education, energy, in some form, infrastructure, jobs, medicine, household goods etc. Not all within the next 10 years but it is easy to see how unsustainable it is since we cannot provide these things for the current 7,800,000,000 humans. It should be noted as a generalisation that countries where women do not have rights such as access to abortion are also those from which migration in search of work for example are the highest, https://www.statista.com/chart/13680/the-legal-status-of-abortion-worldwide/?utm_source=Statista+Global&utm_campaign=ec3b7da732-All_InfographTicker_daily_COM_AM_KW49_2020_Th_COPY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_afecd219f5-ec3b7da732-310309078. Therefore women’s rights and inequality are one of the largest human elephants in the room. What happens in what remains of the 3652 days of this decade will come back to haunt the human race for a long time in the future. It is time to change because we are too many, we take too much.

Women’s rights and equality essential and central to solving global issues

First posted on the 5th of January 2021. In some, perhaps many ways we may be going backwards not forwards.

Although not the only links between what is happening in the world this map of where abortion is available tells us a lot about women’s rights, equality, sustainability and migration. We can make some generalisations here for the sake of not writing a book on this blog. Many of the countries where women don’t have the right to have an abortion or access to contraception and family planning are also those with a high percentage of very young people and that have large numbers migrating to countries that do have these and where populations are growing at a more sustainable rate. Many countries in Africa for instance have around 50% of their population 18 years old or younger. Clearly no country can deal with this unsustainable growth and in the wider picture any country’s environment can be severely damaged by this level of growth. In the even larger picture of looking over the last two centuries the planet cannot sustain the growth of having gone from around one billion individuals in 1800 to 7.8 billion in 2021. It is therefore as a matter of urgency, as part of climate change, sustainability and reducing the damage done to the environment that we concentrate as a priority the gaining of equality for all women and their control over their own bodies, https://www.statista.com/chart/13680/the-legal-status-of-abortion-worldwide/?utm_source=Statista+Global&utm_campaign=ec3b7da732-All_InfographTicker_daily_COM_AM_KW49_2020_Th_COPY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_afecd219f5-ec3b7da732-310309078.