Yes, Del, I think it is nuclear power we disagree about. Thanks for reminding me. I spent my lunchtime today looking at pictures of children with stumps for arms, advanced cancers, and empty eye sockets because they were unlucky enough to be living near Chernobyl.
I am not opposed to the earth's peoples being able to turn on the lights and the computer, although I think life might be slower and simpler and more pleasant without electricity. When we got up with the roosters and went to bed a little after dark, we were more in tune with the rhythms of nature, and I think that is basically quite a healthy way to live. Isn't there much more that could be achieved with wind power? Have we simply not harnessed energy that seemed to be difficult to capture?
Is there any way we could actually avoid using nuclear power? I might be less opposed to it if someone could convince me there is absolutely no alternative. I think it would be healthier to lower our expectations. I know that nuclear power causes a lot of environmental damage to the earth, the sky and the water near nuclear plants. Sellafield, in France, would be an example of that. Environmentalists have been waging a war against it for a long time. If French facilities were so great, why would that be??
El Nino is going to be very scary, from what I have heard. I live a couple of miles from the Pacific Ocean, but up almost a thousand feet near the top of an urban mountain of sorts. So I am not afraid of tsunamis or anything, but when the trees fall out of the forest into the roads and knock all the power out, I cannot use the computer!!! Candles I can handle. Reading by flashlight is a distinct pleasure, reminding me of childhood, sneaking a late night book under the covers.
Does your house have a secure basement? It sounds like you are VERY close to the water!!! Incidentally, I don't know very much about El Nino. Is this totally a cyclical fluke of nature, or is there an environmental, global-warming component??
Am I a vegetarian?? Almost!!! Sometimes I get lazy and we have fresh fish or chicken grown without hormones or antibiotics. At least these foods are not very harmful to health. As Paul and Linda McCartney say, though, don't eat anything with a face!!! I am not perfect, by any means. I don't like tofu very much. A long time ago, some kind people posted some really good vegetarian recipes on this thread. If anyone feels like adding some more, that would be much appreciated by me.
Incidentally, there is sort of a misunderstanding of a Buddhist rule that I discovered recently. Western Buddhists don't seem to be very much aware that in Tibet, it is very difficult to grow enough to eat like a vegetarian. So people might eak a yak!! What I just found out, though, is that according to Buddhist doctrine, eating one yak is preferable to eating, let's say, a thousand shrimp. In America most vegetarians give up eating mammals first, and then perhaps fish and chicken because mammals are closer to us spiritually, and nurse their young and have FEELINGS. But Buddhists believe life is life, and the fewer beings that must suffer the better. So a yak and a shrimp are equal. I thought that was fascinating!!!
Well, are you a vegetarian, Del?? |
