Water – Paul Noël

Who gives a floss?

Whoever we are, whatever we are doing, we very rarely have time to think about what’s happening to everyone else and the rest of the planet at any one given moment. So some of us floss. We’ve been recommended to by our dentist, hygienist, parents, slick marketeers or whoever.

So consider this. Where does that plastic come from and where does it end up in it’s current form or as breakdown products in micro or nano particle size or as what is left after having been incinerated? Perhaps some of the plastic that we are all ingesting comes from the flossing we did the previous day. Wouldn’t that be ironic?

Now consider that there are 8,000,000,000 of us alive today and in all probability still increasing at the rate of 80,000,000 every 365 days. How many of them floss, how many of them can floss, how many of them have clean water to drink let alone floss? We talk about Sustainable Development Goals and they translate to everyone who wants to, being able to floss, but when is that going to happen in reality? As we know glacial reserves of water are melting and are not being replenished as quickly, two thirds of the world’s aquifers are under stress and rainfall patterns are being altered by climate change due to our burning of fossil fuels.

So when you stand in front of the bathroom mirror flossing your teeth, give a little thought to the really bigger picture of the moment and what your small part in it, is playing.

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/.

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

Overlooking the Port de Barcelona, Spain

The Montjuïc hill gives different views across the city with, in this photo, the Port de Barcelona area with its marinas. 19th September 2014.

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/.

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

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

In Each Cup – Fair trade, fair pay

First blogged in December 2020. It reminded me to think of all the workers in the world that pick tea. Have their lives improved in the two years since? Possibly not, think about it. I doubt whether their wages have gone up in line with the actual price of tea.

I noticed on this particular teabag for some reason this message. I don’t know how many different messages there are on the teabags in the box but this one for some reason caught my eye. We don’t normally use teabags preferring loose tea but we were visiting a relation. The message got me thinking because for most of the time we ignore such marketing and in this case it might have had the opposite effect to what the advertiser sought. One might think how wonderful that someone has hand picked leaves for this and the other teabags in the heavily and unnecessarily plastic wrapped box, but that’s another story. So I asked myself what sort of lifestyle did the person who picked the leaves for my teabag actually have? How many hours did the work and in what conditions and how much did they get paid? Did they have clean drinking water and proper sanitation? Did they eat a varied diet and have a proper roof over their head? Was their life in any way as easy as mine where as a first world citizen I can buy teabags without thinking of the cost to my bank account or the costs in terms of properly paid human labour and loading on the environment. Think about the things that you take for granted and try to learn about the reality of the people and places behind them.

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.

Another river crossing, Cuba

Another river crossing with fishing boats on the river bank, seen from our coach on our way from Holguin to Sancti Spiritus , Cuba. 21st March 2010. Cuba’s a great country for a holiday. Get away from the beaches and meet the people and enjoy the Cuban culture.

Many of our photos are just snaps but some of them aren’t too bad. If you would like one of our snaps please let us know.

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.

Crossing another body of water, Cuba

Crossing another body of water seen from our coach on our way from Holguin to Sancti Spiritus, Cuba. 21st March 2010. Cuba’s a great country for a holiday. Get away from the beaches and meet the people and enjoy the Cuban culture.

Many of our photos are just snaps but some of them aren’t too bad. If you would like one of our snaps please let us know.

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.

Humans. Are we that stupid?

The answer is yes we are. Here’s an example. We take H2O and ship it all around the world when the place it’s coming from is complaining that they are in danger from sea level rise. Do you see the irony here or just the business case for continuing? Putting aside the issues of climate change what of the micro and nano plastic pollution that was found in the human placenta and only recently in our bloodstream? How long will it be before someone discovers that these particles and whatever they are attached to can cross the human blood brain barrier because we already know that is true for mice.

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.

Water fountain, Burgdorf, Switzerland

A water fountain in Burgdorf, typical of many to be found throughout Switzerland. 23rd August 2009.

Many of our photos are just snaps but some of them aren’t too bad. If you would like one of our snaps please let us know.

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 has blank greeting, birthday, invitation cards of some of my books cover artwork, 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/.

Water in a plastic bottle but why? – Environmental loading part 4

I first posted this in February of 2021 but has anything changed? No, not at all. There needs to be a huge tax on this ridiculous way of delivering and consuming water.

19 February 2021

When we traveled round South America in 1999 we were advised to drink bottled water because of local water standards so we did. Much of it appeared to be owned by the Coca Cola company but that’s another story regarding who owns water and additionally I understand it’s their packaging that represents the largest percentage of a single corporation’s detritus in the environment.

Since that time I may have drunk out of a plastic bottle in desperation but why do people in first world countries spend considerable amounts of money on H2O wrapped in plastic? Do they assume that the water in the bottle is better than that coming out of their taps? Have they done any research? Have they looked up any figures? Buying expensive H2O seems a very strange thing to do and generates huge amounts of plastic waste, climate change and pollution. Your bottle of water could be floating in an ocean gyre or be carcinogenic particles having being burnt in a local incinerator or because you live in a first world country could be desecrating a third world country’s environment because that’s how some despicable international trade works. The ridiculousness of Fiji complaining about sea level rise but exporting bottled water shows the stupidity of humanity.

So knowing that the tap water in London or say New York is perfectly drinkable why are you buying bottled water from half way round the world?

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/.

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

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

In Each Cup – Fair trade, fair pay

I posted this just over a year ago. As we are, depending on where you are in the world, either enjoying Christmas Day or waiting for it to happen spare a thought for those people involved in bringing that cup of tea to you and for those not able to enjoy this day for various reasons.

17th December 2020

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/.

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.

Bottled water and what’s wrong with western economics

Another post from the middle of 2020 but we are still carting lots of bottled water around and polluting the planet in so many ways by doing so.

There is a lot wrong with western first world economics but apart from individuals aware of the environmental issues that unfettered growth causes and a few rather left wing economists, the majority of humanity gives what is wrong little thought. After all there are few if any immediate consequences. So ask yourself what do you see wrong with this partly drunk bottle of water?

To start with it is bottled water hauled all over the planet using vasts amounts of fossil fuels and thereby causing additional CO2 emissions that would not be released if everyone drank tap. Now people might say that they don’t trust tap but how do you know the bottled water is any better than what comes out of the tap or worse? Maybe it’s all down to believing a brand and a dubious corporation over your local tap water utility company. So maybe a branding makeover might change some people’s minds.

Here however we see this expensive, in terms of financial but more importantly environmental cost water, about to be tipped down the drain because the customer has enough money and no thought about its real costs and so hasn’t finished it. The customer almost certainly didn’t think about the 800,000,000 people who cannot drink clean water each and every day. The customer probably didn’t even think about the nearby homeless people that are stepped over each day and how they get enough clean water to drink, let alone that huge number of people in far away lands.

Then of course there is the glass bottle, the raw materials, probably not locally sourced but imported, that have been turned into a container to take this very expensive water all the way from A to B. Much energy went into producing the bottle but it will be smashed and if lucky enough, using a lot more energy turned into another glass container. That energy use and the processes to make the glass almost certainly cause pollution of one sort or another so why wasn’t the bottle returned and reused instead of being broken?

It’s this misuse of raw materials and energy that recently saw a CO2 reading of 418ppm at the Mauna Loa research station. This is the highest level of CO2 since before this last series of ice ages start some 2.58 million years ago and the atmosphere is gaining CO2 at a rate not seen for 50 to 60 million years. If you are a climate change denier then you clearly live in some fantasy land.