Beautiful and Damned
I can always smell the first trace of autumn. It doesn't mean autumn is here, not for good. But it does mean it's on its way in. And I smelled it last night, this morning, and again this evening. <swoon>
Autumn is my spring – the season of awakening and rebirth, when I come back to life.
Glorious, high-energy run in the park, leaping up and down the twisting trails like a baby goat, spotting pairs of magpies, always in their pairs – “Two for mirth! Two more for mirth!"” – smiling out loud at the dappled sunlight, happy. Free.
Lately, having recently read and thought a lot about Eckhart Tolle, my position is kind of that everything is perfect, everywhere, at all times. But today was even more perfect, perfect without the Panglossian mysticism, perfect whether you take that view or not.
And on top of all that, as of today, the first new book is finally looking to be in something like publishable shape, and I'm actually on track to hit deadlines.
I need this more than you know
I can't believe
I'm still standing here alive
Don't get no better than this
This is perpetual bliss”
And then… and then I stopped by the Little Waitrose for groceries on my way back from the run. And I'm standing there in my “Vegan AF” t-shirt, when I see the man ahead of me in the queue has got two whole dead chickens under plastic in his basket – whilst wearing a face mask against the latest zoonotic pandemic caused by raising and killing animals for food. You really couldn't make this s*&^ up. It's like doing the conga straight to your own funeral. Do you suppose people are going to wake the f*&^ up at any point?
(Ideally before the next one, which might have a 60% mortality rate like SARS, unlike the piddling 1-2% one we've got now, and which will pretty much end civilisation as we know it.)
Then I took the floofs for a walk.
The Most Apocalyptic Killer Virus Coming Home to Roost
The apocalyptic virus that would make COVID-19 seem irrelevant.
“Leading scientist warns of the danger of a pandemic triggered by chicken farms that could kill half the world's population. Civilisation as we know it would cease.”
Governments’ Dietary Guidelines are Harming the Planet, Study Finds
Across the world, failure of official advice to provide sustainable, healthy diets is shocking, say scientists.
“Scientists who have carried out the most comprehensive assessment of national dietary guidelines to date say food is responsible for a quarter of the emissions driving the climate crisis and millions of early deaths. The analysis assessed all available dietary guidelines, covering 85 countries and every region of the world. The researchers said governments’ failure to help people eat good diets was 'shocking'.”
"In the UK, following the planetary health diet would cut food-related emissions by 70% and diet-related deaths by 104,000 every year, compared with people’s current diets. In the US, where the study found the average citizen’s actual diet does not meet national advice for any food groups, emissions would fall 74% and deaths by 585,000."
