cheersmak

[cheersmak]

Defining Identity Not Identicality:

How to have identity in a world that values identicality:

Where does identicality come from? Why do we value it in the first place?

The answer to both of these is simple: culture. Culture is the basis for which thoughts, feelings, and expressions, are all designed to be similar. Our culture is shaped by implicit and explicit circumstances and experiences we find ourselves in, and ultimately shapes who we are. When these experiences which shape us are shared amongst a number of people, culture arises. This can provide a greater sense of belonging, an identity, mutual support, but it comes at a price.

The price is what is defined when someone doesn’t suffice to the expectations of culture. Namely the aspect of culture which creates social constructs; subjectively defining traits such as race, gender, sexuality, spirituality, economics, mental health, physical health, and assigning them to positive or negative connotations (including behaviors and values), then reinforcing them through ostracization and depreciation of those outside of these definitions.

For example: Gender social construct in America:

Men v. Women: Emotions and Traits:

Men: aggressive, dominant, emotionless, apathetic, distant, self-confident, masculine, strong, sexual, athletic, able bodied.

Women: nurturing, caring, kind, emotional, empathetic, accommodating, self-depreciating, weak, feminine, flirtatious, naive.

Men v. Women: Behavior & Occupation.

Men: aggressive, dominant, sexual, masculine, intelligent, handyman, engineer, doctor, scientist, technician, businessman, police officer, military, etc.

Women: feminine, quiet, teacher, nurse, sensitive, tender, domestic, housekeeper, caregiver, babysitter, etc.

Men v. Women: Appearance:

Men: tall, muscular, expected to dress in stereotypical male clothes: pants, shorter hair styles, suits, ties, etc.

Women: shorter, thin, graceful, expected to dress in stereotypical female clothes: dresses, skirts, heels, make-up, etc.

Why does it matter that culture creates social construction?

It matters because it can directly impact the growth and perception of people, and leads to the expression of a personality in accordance to subjective word associations, not to who they are as an individual. It also contributes to the mocking and marginalization of people who do not fit the standard, such as assertive women, or emotional men. In addition to that, those who are inside of the social norm or the standard, often times have to give up a piece of who they are or their personality in order to do so. These individuals feel a similar emotion to guilt, having to abandon part of themselves, in order to fit in. Simultaneously, they also experience fear and or shame due to the potential to be marginalized if they expressed themselves fully, or shame that they even have something about themselves worthy of ostracization.

It is in essence: internal guilt for truly not fitting in, fear that expression will lead to negative reprocussion, and shame that they have to hide something about themselves.

Social norms, roles, construction, and cultural conformity, all create worlds where people are afraid to be themselves, ashamed of who they are, feel guilty for not being who people want them to be, and also create marginalized people deemed “worthy” of negative attention and comments against them. Furthermore, our children pick up on this, and they too define who is deemed “worthy of bullying”, because the victim doesn’t fit their definition of someone normal, thus they don’t deserve to be seen as someone at all. Meanwhile these definitions are all based on subjective, opinionated, but normalized standards for how every person should be.

However, it isn’t fair nor an objective representation for how people truly are. I argue that identity is more important than identicality, regardless of what group you consider yourself a part of. You should never have to sacrifice who you are for anyone else, nor should you be expected to. People are more than the summation of their parts or the categories they fit into. They are people, and people who are worthy, regardless of some subjective terms assigned to them, especially if they do not meet those.

After all, a standard is something established by authority, and is promoted by general acceptance and consent. Why would anyone want to promote stereotypes, stigma, and negative associations propagated as positive ones, about who they are? We are the general consensus, and our personal narratives are not textbook definitions.

I urge you to break the cycle. Claim your identity, not your identicality. Your identity is what makes you unique, defines you, and only you. Take advantage of that, and share it with the world.

[cheersmak]

Dystopia in a Lifetime

In 2014, BP analyzed how much oil the world had left in its reserves, and it came up with a number: 53.3 years left. However, that was using numbers of current consumption rates of oil, 5 years ago—and as the human population increases, the number of cars, homes, businesses all increase, so does use of oil, and our time left shrinks.

Assume this has nothing to do with climate change. Let’s keep this as little politically charged as possible. The only question on everyone’s mind should be, what’s it matter? For some people, 53.3 years, or less, means it won’t matter: they will have maxed out their time here, and won’t be around. For others, it means that in a singular lifetime, they will see a shortage of crude oil.

But what does that really mean?

Take a minute to imagine in a present day Earth, what that might look like. Try to list off in your head what would happen if the last drop of oil was pumped from the Earth’s crust, and the next day, there wasn’t anything left.

You may be thinking, ‘this is difficult, I don’t really know what crude oil is used for other than my car. How bad could that be?’ And you wouldn’t be alone! For those of you struggling to imagine what might occur, default back to the old power grid failure theory that circulated a couple years ago—one where the power lines suddenly failed, disconnected from society without internet, electricity, and more.

Now let’s amp it up. Oil is used for almost everything in modern day society. No oil, no electricity. No oil, no heat, no air conditioning, no lights, no modern cooking, no fridge, no chilled food at the store, no tv, no phone, no internet, and more! No oil, no driving, no job, no store, no doctor, no pharmacy, no restaurant, no bank, no credit card, and what’s worse: no food transportation, no bank, no circulation of any goods, including no mail, and no money from the reserves etc: only a matter of time before it’s worthless green fabric anyway, right?

The world would look dark, disconnected, and lonely without our number one dependent as a society. 53.3 years - or really, 48.3 or less years from now, your life seems a little barbaric, right?

But what can we do?

Well, we have 2 options, and only 2 options. The first, we can take our chances, wait until the last minute, last second, and let the world turn back time to some preindustrial era. We can then worry about getting people smart enough places in order to try to make a change, however without any transport, it seems bleak. Option 2, requires us to prepare. It requires us to be problem solvers, and to slowly, in the cradle of oil, while we have it to rely on, find a means of escaping its grasp. It is possible, for us to do so. Humanity has managed to go to the moon, send and study far away planets, picture a black hole, build the entirety of the internet, computers, phones to pagers to flip phones to smart phones, all in what has been less than a hundred year journey. We have the brains, we just need the motivation and thirst to do something, which starts with someone brave enough to spark a movement, and gather just enough support behind making alternate energy a reality, instead of just a dream.

In short, humanity has two options, we can accept these terms, or we can do something about it. Are you going to let the lack of innovation seal your coffin, your children’s coffins, or are you going to do something about it?

[cheersmak]

The Dangers of Extremism: American Democracy

A heated political climate has contributed to a divide in constituent beliefs amongst voters in the US. Plastered on practically any news page is the theory of hate groups and hate crimes on the rise. This deep rooted concern can also be divided by partisan beliefs, in which strawman arguments, projection, and misinformation is spread—lacking the general consensus and accountability of danger to democracy on both extremist agendas.

Most of this divide has to do with the misunderstanding of definitions: in extremist governments, totalitarian, authoritarian, dictatorship, all are terms that are easily confused and have nothing to do with what political aisle the actual government ideas are upon, and everything to do with how these ideas are promoted.

1.) Authoritarian—favoring strict obedience to authority, at the expense of personal freedoms.

2.) Totalitarian—synonymous with authoritarian: obedience to the state or authority figures.

3.) Dictatorship—an individual who holds absolute authority. An individual generally gains absolute authority through militant use and militant totalitarian or authoritarian government—strict obedience of ideas favored by the state that are enforced by the military)

Note: None of which is far left nor far right ideology. However, all are used by far right and far left governmental bodies to enforce their ideas and power.

Difference between far left and far right ideology:

1.) Far Right Ideology—Origin: Charles Darwin. Central Theory: “Inequality of outcome” I.e. inferiority by general birth, social construct, etc. (hierarchal—Social, economic, anti-democracy, anti-capitalism (predatory economics and laissez faire economics favored), racial pyramid based organization), anti-communist, anti-socialist, nativist, reactionary, nationalism and fascism.

2.) Far Left Ideology—Origin: Karl Marx. Central Theory: denounciation of social, political, or inequality by outcome. (No hierarchy, all represented and equal at base / ground level 0), anti-capitalist, anti-democratic, anti-fascist, anti-nationalist, revolutionary, communist, socialist, anarchist.

The ‘NAZI’ theory:

The acronym has been fuel for the misinforation of the basis behind the NAZI ideology in history. Nazi: “national socialist workers party”—provides a debate between people as to whether or not it represented far left or far right political persuasion. National socialist often makes some believe it is a socialist brand of government, however it is not.

Hitler was a Nationalist who practiced Darwin ideals of a singular master race, one that was superior above all others (hierarchy based on race and religion) In Mein Kampf, he wrote about being anti-communist, anti-socialist, and he branded himself a Nationalist. His government was a prime example of militant authoritarian fascism, where it was demanded with the threat of violence that Germans report and shun those not of German nationality and genetics—those less favored were punished by the state. Anti-intellectualism and propaganda emerged which ignited feelings of anti-semitism, and allowed for many of his horrors against the Jewish people to even go unseen for a period of time. The state seized and burned books, as well as altered educational teachings to favor the state’s held ideals—> he also found himself in company of Mussolini, dictator of fascist Italy and Tojo, dictator of fascist Japan.

Similarity and differences between Stalin’s Communist Soviet Russia:

Stalin’s government controlled the media his people had access to, the educational opportunity they received. Religion was opposed, first as an “opium to the masses” but also as a means of asserting complete control of the state. Propaganda emerged which illustrated Stalin and his greatness. Government regulated everything, and access to healthcare was greatly improved. Industrialism boomed. However, famine ensued after failed attempts of mass food cultivation by state.

Many similarities, however Stalin’s communist party valued revolutionary ideals. The industrialization of the Soviet Union. The destruction of things that separate one another and allow for them to all feel and be equal. Nationality is not relied upon, and in fact is completely disregarded as a means of saying it is unnecessary—people are people and equal of value. No one nationality above another. The main distinction being the lack of hierarchy and leveling of playing fields.

Why both are dangerous evils to American democracy:

American democracy is celebrated by being a federalist democratic nation with constitutional principles for which may protect the people from tyranny or extremism.

-both are anti-democracy (celebrate totalitarian and dictatoriship rule which undermines the tiered and multi chamber government systems of our democracy)

-both are anti-freedoms (celebrates the annexation of freedoms either (far right) in an attempt to install the hierarchy of their choosing, OR annexation of freedoms to undermine individuality of people in the country which may separate the people and thus preventing them from being equals)

-both are militant (the military is used to assert control of the state over the people, and people suffer for their actions against the agenda of the dictator or state.)

-both support anti-intellectualism / propaganda (anti-intellectualism can be defined as the direct discrimination of those who are professionals / educated, the lack of educating one’s self, mistrust in educated officials, and also direct disregard for those with education in subjects, in favor of a specific goal, or opinion. The disregard of facts in favor of opinions. This threatens the nature of our founders trust in the ability to accurately educate one’s self on matters and perform informed judgements. The embrace of chosen or enforced ignorance is a threat to democracy.)

The restoration of democracy begins with the strict denunciation or ignoring of extremist ideals, embrace of intellectuals, share and spread of common sense facts and ideals—statistics, and the restoration of freedoms that promote individuality in America. These extremist groups should be treated as such, with the housing of ideals which threaten the constitution and federalist democratic nature of our government.

***note: politics is a spectrum. There are distinct differences in social democracy upon others. I am referencing strict far right or far left extremist ideals.***

[cheersmak]

The World’s Most Polluted River: The Citarum

Nestled into West Java, Indonesia, the Citarum River runs a whopping 168 miles and supplies water to over 25 million people daily. Water usage for these people represent their main source of water for everything they do, including washing clothes, themselves, irrigating plants for agriculture, drinking, cooking and even electricity.

The Citarum River, once home to a thriving fishery, now has found itself lacking over 60% of the fish population. However, it wasn’t overfishing that drove the population’s down, it was the sheer pollution that found itself into the waterway. Today, fishermen find income by shifting through the trash floating at the surface, in the hopes of finding something worth selling to earn a living wage for themselves or their families.

Every day, no less than 20,000 tons of waste and 340,000 tons of waste water find itself being dumped directly into the once clear waterway. Most of which occurs from textile factories which represent a large proportion of Indonesia’s income as a nation. This pollution, including floating trash, waste, dead animals, all float in the river and the water itself is dyed in places from the toxic chemicals that industrial mills have poured into the waterway.

The river is also the main water source for the Jatiluher Reservoir, which is the largest reservoir in Indonesia. It supplies water for Bandung, 80% of water for the capital, produces enough energy for hydroelectric powerplants which fuel 3 cities, and irrigates 400,000 hectacres of rice fields—most of which will be harvested and exported to the US annually. However, some of the crops that the water finds its way onto the farmlands, will die from the pollution.

However, despite the vitality of this river, it continues to be polluted to unsafe levels. Toxic chemicals such as mercury, lead, manganese, and iron, poison the water. In 2013, a study by Blacksmith Institute, determined the levels of lead were 1000x the safe drinking amount as determined by the US standards for drinking water. With no other options avaliable, the people continue to suffer from skin diseases, including scabies, impetigo, skin bleached spots, and various other infections. Another study in 2014 foundmercury levels 4x the safe amount. The toxic chemicals also have effects such as cancer, organ damage, stunted growth, and dozens of other adverse effects on health including death—not to mention the respiratory issues arising from factory smoke.

The toxic chemicals found in most abundance are also considered hard metals, which are not degradable, and also may not be removed with conventional treatment methods.

Companies found along these banks are mostly for foreign export, and mostly owned by US companies. These companies have managed to escape the US EPA company standards, and found a country where they can obtain cheap labor all in one, but are also placing their workers, and the general population at risk with the chemicals they use and attempt to dispose of. They also place our own population at risk when rice containing these chemicals have been poisoned by the contaminated water it was grown in, and sold to people of any nation importing Indonesia grown rice.

How can the US and other countries pitch in to help Indonesia’s government protect their workers and the river clean up project?

Insure that companies buying textiles from Indonesia and producing clothing, also make sure that the process by which they create that clothing is free from hard metals, harmful chemicals, and illegal dumping in Indonesian waterways.

You can do that by boycotting and releasing names of clothing brands in your country that buy clothing from Indonesia, writing letters to the company itself, and making sure appropriate action is taken.

Some people may find this method to be unnecessary, after all—it isn’t directly impacting their lives. However, the US and other nations should hold companies over seas to the same standard that it holds our own, and shouldn’t allow corners to be cut anywhere in the manufacturing process. Considering these chemicals do not get washed out of the clothing all together, and also may put the wearer at risk from absorption, etc. Greenpeace tested clothing found some levels of heavy metals so high it placed the public at risk for cancer.

Brands known by Green Peace to pollute waterways/have harmful chemicals (some in quantities high enough to harm the wearer):

1.) Gap, 2.) Armani, 3.) Marks & Spencer, 4.) Calvin Klein, 5.) Mango, 6.) Zara, 7.) H&M, 8.) Esprit, 9.) Nike, 10.) Adidas, 11.) Levi’s, 12.) C&A, 13.) Metersbonwe, 14.) Victoria’s Secret, 15.) Tommy Hilfiger, 16.) Jack and Jones, 17.) Vero Moda, 18.) Diesel, 19.) Blozek, 20.) Only, 21.) Benelton, 22.) Puma, 23.) Ling Ning, 24.) G-Star Raw, 25.) Jack Wolfskin, 26.) VANCL,

Possible brands: (companies owned by parent companies like Limited)

1.) Ambercrombie & Fitch (Limited: owns Victoria Secret and in conjunction with Metersbonwe, Adidas and Nike), 2.) Old Navy (Gap Inc: Owns Gap), 3.) Banana Republic (Gap Inc) 4.) Athleta (Gap Inc) 5.) Levi Strauss Co. (Owned by Levi’s) 6.) Dockers (owned by Levi’s), 7.) Denizen (owned by Levi’s), 8.) Heritage Brands: Speedo, Van Heusen, IZOD, Arrow, and Warner’s (PVH: owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein) 9.) Reebok (in conjunction with Giorgio Armani: Armani).

[cheersmak]

Texas, Butterflies, and the Borderwall

In the U.S., Texas leads the country with sheer number of farms and ranches, as well as designated lands. 248,800 ranches and farms litter the Texas landscape and make up 130.2 million acres of land. Every 1 of 7 working Texan’s also may be found in the agriculture industry and 98.6% of these farms are family owned, partnerships or family held corporations. The impact of the fiber and food industry alone is valued at $100 billion annually.

Today, the average farmers life has become increasingly strained with costs of production, time, and (particularly prevelant in small farms) lack of a safety net nor any form of employee benefits of production. For a farmer in Texas, a dispute over border security has also ignited a large controversy over whether or not a border wall will be under construction. This border wall, as pointed out by Beto O’Rourke presents difficult tasks to overcome when it comes to small ranches along the border, in which their lands and livelihoods would be annexed in order to construct a wall, leaving them out of a job, out of land, and drive those on the margins of economic poverty into full blown poverty and dependency on the state and federal government for support.

However, ranchers and farmers all around Texas may be affected by this rash decision making by those in office. A current proposal of the border wall sets its path right through a butterfly sanctuary along the Rio Grande River in Mission, Texas. The National Butterfly Center has spent 15 years undisturbed as they restored 100 acres of land into a sanctuary where 200+ butterfly species call home, many of which are endangered. The Trump administration in 2016 had crews cutting down trees and clearing land in an attempt to make room for the wall, and this month it is said that the same crews may begin bulldozing the land. The proposed plan would leave 70% of the sanctuary outside of the border wall.

The National Butterfly Center has taken the federal government to court numerous times over the actions of the administration, and meanwhile the lawsuit is still pending, the US Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling, that allowed the administration to ignore the ESA (Endangered Species Act) as well as dozens of other environmental laws. An estimated hundreds of thousands of butterflies live in the sanctuary.

In Dec. of 2018 the National Butterfly Center art up a GoFundMe campaign that was set to provide funding for the continued battle in the courtroom as well as, perceiving they win, allow for them to rebuild the sanctuary and replace the trees and habitat that the administration has ruined. The US Interioir Department also stripped government officials’ (including biologists, ecologists, environmentalists, and wildlife managers) testimonials against the construction of the wall along the Rio Grande region, suggesting it would harm a ecologically diverse region and several imperiled species like ocelots and tortoises. These were originally set to be set to U.S. Border Security and Customs, however thanks to the interior department, never made it.

So, what does that have to do with the everyday-average-Texas farmer?

Like bees, butterflies are plant pollinators. In fact, butterflies are so great at pollinating, an estimated 1/3 of the food people eat in the world depend on butterflies to pollinate the plants and help them grow!

Not only do they pollinate the plants by carrying pollen from pant to plant when they go to drink nectar, butterflies also eat pesky pants and bugs. As caterpillars, butterflies eat leaves of pesky plants, which generally correspond to the type of butterfly they are. For instance, the Monarch butterfly, a currently endangered species of butterfly, eats milkweed plants. As they grow, butterflies also eat aphids, which are pesky bugs that eat crops and create a sooty fungus by secretions which destroy plant leaves and in some cases prevent the plant from growing all together (aka stunt it). Aphids are commonly fought with pesticides, however for organic farmers who do not have the capability of spraying said chemicals over their lands, butterflies are a natural, efficient, and free method of caring for crops and preventing aphid break outs.

So, for the everyday farmer, particularly small organic farmer, the loss of this diverse butterfly sanctuary and population, as well as rollbacks regarding their protection under the ESA, has placed them in direct danger, and farmers too. In this case, many species are already endangered, and the vicious cycle that forces farmers to spray pesticides over their farmlands to kill ever returning pests often times kills butterflies too, and if the population were to drastically drop or die off, the poorest of farmers, those privately owned-small-organic farms, wouldn’t be able to make a living. Even those who rely on pesticides to kill aphids wouldn’t survive the devastation from lack of pollination and pollinators.

~1/3 of the world’s crops would fail, and 1/3 of the world would go hungry without these essential workers doing their jobs. The wall not only places butterflies in danger, but also the 1 in 7 Texans who rely on these animals to help them farm. Needless to mention the millions this food goes to feed, in the US and abroad.

As a nation, the U.S. needs to give serious thought to the consequences of their actions and place into question which is the true national emergency.

899 arrests and convictions per 100,000 illegal immigrants, (comparatively: 611 for legal immigrants and 1,797 for native-born American citizens) or the conservation efforts of endangered animals which could threaten the livelihood of millions of Americans, as well as put thousands more in the soupline or in the grave with a shortage of food.

Texas needs it’s butterflies, not a border wall.

[cheersmak]

Sea Otters, Kelp, and the California Coast

What Sea Otters, Kelp, and the California Coast has to do with each other and the balancing act of a fragile relationship that determines vitality of all three:

The sea otter is a member of the weasel family, the smallest marine mammal, and has the densest fur in the animal kingdom. This fur however, would nearly wipe the otter off the map—at one time, sea otters numbered into the millions, however the fur trade drove numbers down to just ~1,000-2,000 individuals in the early 19th CE. Today, ~100,000 individuals exist, only ~3,000 along the California coast.

What this has to do with kelp:

The sea otter is considered a keystone species in a kelp forest. As a predator, it fulfills a vital function of stabilizing the entire ecosystem. It’s favorite food items, sea urchins, crabs, snails, mussels, clams, albalone and ~40 others completely desecrate kelp forests. The otter thus helps keep the kelp entanglements alive by eating 25% of their body weight every day. (A female’s weight can range between 31-73 lbs, a male can be between 49-99 lbs, so that’s about 7.73-24.7 lbs of food a day)

Indirectly these otters also help to keep CO2 out of our atmosphere and ozone, as kelp forests absorb large amounts of CO2 from the coastal environment. In addition, thriving kelp forests, like coral reefs, also act like a natural barrier against storm surge.

History:

In 1820, sea otters were at near extinction. The sea floor in certain places are still scarred with sea urchin barrens. Without the presence of sea otters, urchins multiplied and tore down the kelp; consuming and performing deforestation of the dense kelp forests that once had thrived. They have left nothing but a pile of urchins behind and a dark, barren, wasteland of what used to be an entire city of fish and marine life.

Thanks to the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the sea otter is making a come back, slowly but surely.

California also wants to make sure that you take conservation one step further and help protect our furry friends and the coast. When you file your income tax return, if you go to the contributions section (side 4 of 540 or side 3 of 540-2EZ), you can enter the amount you’d like to donate (in whole dollars) on line 410 to the California Sea Otter Fund. The donation is even tax deductible on the next year’s refund!

Funfacts:

-A group of resting otters is called a raft.

-Sea otters have 1 million hairs per square inch, we (humans) have 100,000 on our entire heads.

-They are known to wrap themselves and their pups in giant kelp to keep from drifting away from one another while they sleep! (Even sea otters know how to tuck in their young at bedtime)

-They are one of the few animals to use tools. (Rocks to crack open shells of mussels or crabs etc)

-Threats to population are: white shark bites, pathogens and parasites, food limitations, coastal pollutants, boat strikes, entanglements in fishery nets, and oil spills.

-A raft of sea otters is always composed of same sex individuals and can range from 10 to 1000 otters

-Sea otters also hold hands to keep from drifting apart while they sleep. (A viral video favorite of these adorable animals)

-Sea otter pups’ fur is so dense that they are bouyant and float on the surface while their mother hunts. (They stay with the mother for the first 8 months of their life)

-Sea otter’s also are known to clap their hands together while grooming themselves.

[cheersmak]

The Peanut Antiquity

How America’s favorite groundnut is leading the race for the food allergy epidemic worldwide:

Today, odds are, you know or have met someone with a food allergy. No matter where you live, food allergies are on the rise and it’s estimated about 1/15 children or ~6.67% of the entire global population is living with them. For some people, as little as 1 particle of dust or 1 droplet of peanut oil is enough to cause a reaction.

Since the 1900s, the world has experienced a 50% increase in the children with food allergies. Most of them popping up in the 1990s—now, after a 1970 surge in athsma cases, and a 1950 surge in hay fever. What makes this so difficult to treat is modern day medicine is only scraping the surface on why allergies surged in the first place, and long term prevention plans that don’t include complete expulsion and avoidance are still in the works.

Most of these cases are categorized in “the big eight” and come from previous staple foods, particularly in American diets during the 20th CE: shellfish, treenut, milk, egg, finfish, wheat, soy and peanut. The culprit of most severe allergic reactions that end up in hospitalization or death is the peanut. This is particularly unfortunate because peanut allergies are also the most common of these 8.

In conjunction with the consistent fears that those with severe reactions to peanuts hold, most have to avoid common restaurant chains, like Chik Fil A or Five Guys. Though eating out holds a new risk all together, as precautions in every single step of prep must be taken to avoid even the trace of cross contamination occurring, which comes with its own list of mess ups that could be made and ultimately determine if someone lives or dies. In fact, most cases of peanut allergy induced anaphylactic shock occurs in restaurants.

So, how does an allergic reaction occur?

Food allergies occur when someone’s immune system perceives a food protein as a threat and the immune system is triggered to attack and remove or destroy it. Immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies in individuals with food allergens thus are released, which binds to the food protein and releases chemicals (histamines) into the bloodstream and body. Histamines are what cause the allergic reaction.

Even with this understanding, medicine and science is still trying to find out what causes certain individuals to have these IgE binders for certain foods, and why the body perceives these proteins as a threat to begin with; especially how it occurs in only certain people and not others.

Evidentially, there is some hope for new parents and allergy sufferers. The National Institute of Health (NIH) more recently revoked their old peanut-free urge for parents, which cautioned new parents against feeding their newborns peanuts or peanut goods and products, in favor of one that is quite the opposite. Pulling from an increasing number of studies which suggest feeding children peanuts at 4-6 months or as long as 4-11 months of age may decrease their chances of having peanut allergies or severe allergies to peanuts by 80%. As for those currently living with allergies, it is common for adults to grow out of their food allergies. Though it would be advised to always go to the allergist and get tested first before consuming the food, and those with severe allergies may not be so inclined to test their limits or fate, it is definitely good news for some.

[cheersmak]

Corona and the River

How Mexico may be facing a water shortage and how Corona and climate change may be to blame:

Corona, a Mexican lager company and best seller around the world, is made and manufactured in Mexico. This lager, like millions of other manufactured products require water in every step of production. A beer takes about 5 liters of water for every 1 liter produced: 5:1 ratio just for the brewing. At most of 180 and at least 60 liters (8-24 gallons of water) are used in the entire process to create a pint.

For {EASY} reference: Corona comes in 7 oz, 12 oz and 24 oz cans and bottles, all available in 6 packs. 1 pint = 16 oz = 2 cups

1 pint of beer = 8-24 gallons of water to produce

What that has to do with the Colorado River

The Colorado River is 1,450 miles long and extends from the Rocky Mountains in central Colorado and empties into the Gulf of California in Mexico. Along its path, the river touches 7 states through either direct flow or tributaries: Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. This area of the US is extremely dry and receives little rain so majority of this fresh water is used for domestic use and irrigation.

The Colorado River gets most of its water from the Glen Canyon Dam in Northern Arizona, (88% of its water) which the Dam gets water from precipitation and melting glaciers in the Rocky Mountains. As the glaciers have receded, ice has become scarce as the years have passed and less and less ice has returned and cycled through to melt and power this key river.

{NOTE: the glacial cycle: the ice melts in warm seasons and returns in cold seasons. This cycle has been disrupted by warmer temperatures melting more ice than can be replenished with either a.) warmer winter weathers and or b.) shortened winter weather conditions which allot less time for the ice to develop}

What this means for Mexico and Corona:

The Colorado River flows into two states in Mexico, one of which has built a large Corona manufacturing company and has promised to bring jobs but it has also borrowed from a dwindling River. The River is no longer enough to keep up with the demands of the people and the corporation and without proper fresh water reserves in the rest of Mexico, they have been borrowing on groundwater.

The problem with this solution is that as the Colorado River becomes less and less plentiful, each state that draws off of it will be drawing off of even more limited reserves which threatens it to dry up completely in Mexico. Groundwater, although wonderful in severe emergency, does not replenish but every millennium or every kiloyears {1000 years}.

This means that for every drop Mexico borrows it is borrowing off of a reserve that won’t replace that single drop until 1000 years down the line.

Continuous drawing will dry this reserve and leave these Mexican states without water nor a reserve to power anything, not even to drink.

The only way to curve this is to cut water waste in production of products, work to fix the warming of our climate and thus see to the rejuvenation of the Colorado River in all its entirety.

Funfacts:

70% of the Earth is covered in water.

91% of the Earths surface water is the ocean.

2.5% of the Earths water is fresh water but only 1% of the fresh water is accessible; the rest is in groundwater:

Of that 1% of accessible fresh water, most of it is trapped in glaciers and snowfields {approximately 0.7%}. 0.3% of it is on the Earths surface found in lakes, reservoirs and rivers.

[cheersmak]

The California Condor

Who’s killing the California Condor?:

In 1980 there were about 21 of these birds left in the wild, by 2017 there were 276 California Condors. Though from 1984-2016 there were 72 known California Condor deaths due to lead poisoning.

So, who’s poisoning these birds?:

Considering the California Condor is an endangered species and is hereby protected by the ESA; Endangered Species Act of 1973, it would be illegal to kill one of these birds. Therefore it couldn’t be by human hands, right? So where was the lead poisoning coming from?

To understand where the lead is coming from, we have to understand the history of firearms. Since 1249 AD, gunpowder was understood to be able to project materials out of a hollow ended tube or a barrel. Lead use in bullets is a difficult history to track. In America, soft lead was used in the American Revolution and the Civil War, So dating back to at least the 18th CE is lead alloy used in bullet casting.

Despite the common myth being silver bullets were used, silver alloy is unstable when fired from a gun due to the density of it. Like an airsoft bullet affected by wind gusts, it is unstable and unpredictable. The density of silver being 10.5 g/cm3 vs lead as 11.34 g/cm3, the density of lead has made it a go to for ammunition as its stability in the air and reliability when traveling. Though military and civilian ammunition can come in lead free options.

Lead, however is unreliable on impact. When lead hits a target, it shatters; splinters if you will. It makes it an unsafe and unreliable ammunition for hunting small game but a powerful ammunition for hunting large game as the goal of the bullet is to splinter and inflict as much damage in as much area as possible, in hopes the splinter will hit a vital artery or organ and kill the animal. Due to this, large game such as buck shot, bear hunting ammunition, etc often are lead based bullets.

What this has to do with the California Condor:

The Condor’s diet, being it is a scavenger, includes the carcasses of sheep, deer, cattle, and rarely small game.

Deer, being the most abundant of these in the wild, often are also the targets of mainstream hunters. Buckshot contains lead which splinters on impact. Thus, the California Condor, gets it’s dose of lead from a popular big game sport; deer hunting.

While eating the deer meat, even a small amount of the splinter has a high concentration of lead. This same meat may also be brought back into nests and fed to their offspring; poisoning them as well.

62-91% of California Condors sampled in California between 1997-2011 had elevated levels of Lead present in their blood. Hunters and Ranchers are to blame. The carcasses left behind often go to feed scavengers and often times will kill them, especially if they are eating large traces of said lead poisoned meat or if they eat off various carcasses with lead ammunition in them. Ingestion of a lead bullet accidentally could and most likely would prove fatal.

A bill passed in 2013 by California Governor Jerry Brown expanded legislation statewide to ban the use of lead ammunition and is set to take place in 2019. A step vital for the survival of these massive and intriguing birds.

California Condor Facts:

The California Condor is one of the largest birds in North America. It has a wingspan of 9-10 feet, comparatively the Bald Eagle has a wingspan of 5.9-7.5 feet.

The California Condor can travel up to can travel up to 150 miles a day in search for food.

The skin on the Condor’s head changes color during its aging process and to reflect its mood. It is also thought that the female bird has a more prominent-deeper yellow head than the male.

In 1985 it is believed due to habitat destruction, lead poisoning and illegal shooting of these birds, the population of California Condors dipped to just 9 individuals.

The last free California Condor was captured in 1987 and thanks to captive breeding efforts by the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo it has made strides to make a come back, the first pair was reintroduced in 1991.

The California Condor remains one of the world’s rarest birds.

A California Condor can live up to 60 years.