Are You Watching?

Are you watching the 160,000 acres of deforestation every day?

Were you watching the 17 million African deaths from aids and 25 million soon to be following?

Are you watching our Bill of Rights being systematically stripped from us, and our questing of it called unpatriotic?

Are you watching us head into another oil war in the name of something else?

Are you watching the depleted marine ecosystem which is the base of life form in the ocean?

We may want to take a short reprieve from our mostly trite jobs, the Anna Nicole "reality" program, and krispe kreme donut break and think about what is happening around us. With or without our notice, we are on a high speed chase into planeticide.

And for those where this self created reality is slowly dawning on them, may you realize that our time here is short and to make your soul's contribution while you can. To wake up from this illusion and understand what's really important and where you'll be at when it's all done.

The price we're paying for our "gotta have more gotta do more" mentality is earth itself. How can we ever say it's worth that? Americans comprise 4.5% of the world's population, yet we consume 30% of its resources. While we're supersizing our life in every way, we're leaving an irreversible string of natural and human casualties in our wake.

The Johannesburg World Summit was graced with 100 world leaders this week, but The President from the richest nation and the biggest polluter refused to go. Additionally, the U.S. won't ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which many countries view as critical for reversing global warming that scientists tie to a manmade increase in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Their reason? "Inappropriate and too costly for the U.S. economy."

If we bothered to have a REAL reality show, it wouldn't survive the ratings, because the dire truth would be too much for our mind numbed consciousness to deal with.

From what I've seen, it is too late. The tide of greed and disinterest has reached its peak, and we'll all end up washed up on shore, taking everyone with us.

I hope everyone's watching, because we're going to end up exactly where we're heading.

Facts:

• During the 1990s, 2.4% of the world's forest were destroyed

• The world's population is to reach 8 billion by 2025. Right now, more than 6 billion people inhabit the Earth -- an increase of 140 percent over the past 50 years. By 2050, the population is projected to rise to 9 billion.

• By 2025, 50% of the world's population will face water shortages

• In 1981, fossil fuels generated 86% of energy; today it's 81%

• In 1996, 25 percent of the world's 4,630 mammal species and 11 percent of its 9,675 bird species were at significant risk of extinction. Conservationists believe the current extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than it should be under natural conditions. That means that in the first decades of the 21st century, many creatures may disappear. The primary reason: human activity.

• Half the population of the planet, or 2.8 billion people, live on less than two dollars a day.

• Retired Admiral James Watkins, chair of the Commission and former head of the Department of Energy under the first President George H.W. Bush states in September of 2002, that, "Our coasts are in trouble. Our marine resources are in trouble ... all, perhaps, in serious trouble," A new, interim report from a federal commission on ocean policies tells us that we can't wait any longer. The repercussions of our troubled ocean is life itself. And what is their obstacle to change they say? "The Bush administration continues to equivocate about the threats posed to the U.S. by global warming and pollution." If you're wondering what "equivocate" means, it's "beat around the bush (no pun intended); be evasive, fudge and quibble". Sounds about right for this administration.

What we know and don't know is controlled by the media. We know what we see and hear. Mixed in our headlines, for every one of these facts listed above (a dozen among hundreds of the same type), is 10 ludicrous articles for us to read. On today's MSN headlines is: 'Buffy' marries a Prinze, Find a cool car in 6 steps and Kiss your 56K goodbye.

U.S. Congressional Record, February 9, 1917, page 2947, Congressman Calloway announced that the J.P. Morgan interests bought 25 of America's leading newspapers, and inserted their own editors, in order to control the media. That was in 1917. I assure you it's broadened now. The richest, fattest, and most self absorbed nation in the world is made up in part because of our leaders and media and how they deliver so called "news" to us.

Anne