Saturday, December 30, 2006

Laundry and environment

Yesterday was laundry day. At the Rancho Punta Boca in Mexico is neither running water nor electricity. Therefore laundry is by hand. In a special cement basin made for this purpose under a palm leaves roof. Using a bar of special soap and a hard brush. Drying of the laundry is in the open air in the sunshine. This is an example of a simple life as many people still entertain worldwide. In remote places like Punta Boca del Salado. In a way this simple life style results in less complications. These days many people in Europe and the USA are confused and deeply worried because of seeing the films “An inconvenient truth” and “Our daily bread”. It is a self-confrontation with a life style of which we now must realise it is changing the climate of this Earth. A life style of which a majority of the people never have been wishing to be aware of how food was produced for them. A life style with a deliberately low level of wanting to be aware of the consequences for the future. A life style completely out of balance with nature. A life style purely focused on the personal well being no matter what. The children of the future are going to have a lot to blame to the current generations.
What can be learned from the Gonzales family is that we can live a life more simple and survive and be healthy and be happy. Without consuming a mass of useless goods. By eating simple and healthy what nature directly offers us.
In the end it is a personal choice for the people living in the world of “Our daily bread” and “An inconvenient truth”. Nobody is an innocent victim. Every single person has a responsibility and there is no excuse not accepting this.
Therefore there is no reason to panic or to surrender. Change starts now by scrutinizing its own life style and see it in the context of the planet we live on. Every item purchased, consumed or used must be a deliberate and responsible choice.
This careless way of living must stop.

The change in climate can be very well noticed where the Gonzales family is living. Because the temperature of the ocean water is rising, the annual hurricanes between August and October are more frequent and fierce. The Gonzales who live here for almost a century are in harmony with nature. They know hurricanes. Therefore many of their dwellings are made of natural materials found in the area. These dwellings when a hurricane strikes are blown and washed away but are easily rebuild and replaced. The phenomenon now occurring is that the hurricanes come with much more rainfall than ever before. This is a very good thing for this area. Even until now, what used to be dry riverbeds are small rivers bringing down from the mountains the water that fell as rain in September. The cows of the Gonzales are happily walking in the mountains where they find food to eat and water to drink. In former times they would be near the rancho waiting for the Gonzales to give them food the family had to buy in town.
And nature showing itself here normally as a barren desert landscape is now green and lavish with flowers and butterflies everywhere.
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For more info about the film "An inconvenient truth" click on:
www.climatecrises.net

For more info about the film "Our daily bread" click on:
http://www.ourdailybread.at/jart/projects/utb/website.jart?rel=en

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