The End is Nigh!

The end of the 2013 winter season of MRM is closing in quickly and there are a couple of important subjects I want to cover before I take my traditional time off for March Break. Thereafter I will return like a Spring Phoenix, rising from the ice and snow, reborn. It may be chillier, but way less messy than rising from all those sooty ashes. 

So, first up, I wanted to mention some of the "Movers and Shakers" who joined the MM movement in 2012, including Sir Richard Branson and Giada De Laurentiis. This article includes the following quote from the Virgin Group's Branson:

“I love eating meat, but I love our planet even more, so I will join this campaign and stop eating meat at least one day a week."

Well said - he loves eating meat, but he also loves the planet. As members of this planet, we are slowly starting to realize that we are going to have to choose between the two. In pulling together this related, peer-reviewed article "Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?", Paul Ehrlich consulted top experts in a variety of fields. The Inter Press Agency news service reported on the following conclusions contained in the report:

“We talked to many of the world’s leading experts to reflect what is really happening,” said Ehrlich, who is an eminent biologist and winner of many scientific awards.

Our reality is that current overconsumption of natural resources and the resulting damage to life-sustaining services nature provides means we need another half of a planet to keep going. And that’s if all seven billion remain at their current living standards, the Ehrlichs write.

If everyone lived like a U.S. citizen, another four or five planets would be needed.

Global population is projected to increase by 2.5 billion by 2050. It doesn’t take an expert to conclude that collapse of civilisation will be unavoidable without major changes.

The End is Nigh! Grab your sandwich boards and hit the streets, everyone! Or, like Richard Branson, we can take a step back and make choices to help preserve the planet, and feel like change is possible and not even that difficult. As I discussed last Earth Day, environmental writer Bill McKibben believes it is already too late and we are on the downward slide to the end of the world as we know it (isn't that a song?), but I prefer to emphasize the positive and make those changes it is in my power to make, such as MM.

Maybe we should have seen it coming. Surely the existence of something like The Heart Attack Grill is a sign that the end is nigh. This is a restaurant that has lost not one (as I covered last year), but now two official spokespeople in the last year. Quick Irony review for this evil corporation: It is only funny to thumb your nose at death and ill health if your mascot DOESN'T have a heart attack. If he does, it's just sad. (Thanks to occasional second-hand reader M.W., currently splitting time between T-dot and the Forest City, for the heads-up on this story.)

And speaking of T-dot, positive changes that are within our grasp and MM movers and shakers, I am so glad to welcome the University of Toronto cafeteria system to the movement. The article in the university paper "The Varsity" includes this great excerpt: "First, all future generations are gravely at risk due to climate change and water stress, caused in large part by factory farming; second, livestock consume a disproportionate amount of resources, contributing to world hunger and famine; third, factory farms are breeding grounds for deadly pandemic diseases, representing a global health risk. Factory farms should be outlawed for these reasons — instead, governments currently subsidize them." Wow - they're really taking this seriously. As must we all.

But seriously, you may be thinking at this point, will this article never finish so I can see the bloody recipe already and get on with my day? Worry not, the end is nigh. This week's recipe is a delicious Asian-themed tweak on a classic Italian dish. I consider it no sacrifice when positive change is this tasty. Hope you enjoy it and to my Canadian readers, have a happy Family Day tomorrow!