My I wish you, who are so kind as to visit here and read my words, a very happy Christmas, and a very healthy and peaceful 2012; may God bless you.

Song of Solomon 2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

Jesus Christ The Apple Tree; sung by the choir of King's College Cambridge.

1. The tree of life my soul hath seen,Laden with fruit and always green: the trees of nature fruitless be compared with Christ the apple tree.

2. His beauty doth all things excel: by faith I know, but ne'er can tell the glory which I now can see In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

3. For happiness I long have sought,and pleasure dearly I have bought: I missed of all; but now I see 'tis found in Christ the apple tree.

4. I'm weary with my former toil, here I will sit and rest awhile: under the shadow I will be, of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

5. This fruit doth make my soul to thrive, it keeps my dying faith alive; which makes my soul in haste to be with Jesus Christ the apple tree.

Christ is indeed in everything.

GLOBAL WARMING LATEST FACTS AND FIGURES

As I write this the Police in Scotland have told people not to travel, as winds of up to 165mph have hit the country, and have left more than 30,000 people without power. Hundreds of schools have shut and bridge and road closures are causing disruption.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland are also being hit by wind and rain as in Cumbria, heavy rain caused flooding in the Windermere area, roads were closed, vehicles stranded in water and over 300 passengers are stranded on the Rotterdam-Hull ferry off the East Yorkshire coast. But that’s enough of the UK, let’s see what has happened to the world over the last 10 years.

2001: End of long-running La Niña episode which influenced temperature and precipitation in many parts of the world. There were extreme cold temperatures in Mongolia and the Russian federation, with minimum temperatures of near -60°C across central and southern Siberia for two weeks in January. Alaska recorded warmest winter on record. Canada recorded the eighteenth straight warmer-than-average season.

2002: Return of El Niño. Exceptionally heavy rains in central Europe (including Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, and Slovakia) caused flooding of historic proportions, killing more than 100 people and forcing the evacuation of more than 450 000 people. Damage was estimated at US$ 9 billion in Germany alone.

2003: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh witnessed exceptionally harsh pre-monsoonal heat waves. Continental Europe had the hottest summer since at least 1540. Europe recorded in august 2003 its worst heat wave. In many locations, temperatures rose above 40°C. In Belgium, France, German, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, 40 000 to 70 000 deaths were attributed to the heat waves. In the European Alps, the average thickness loss of glaciers reached the equivalent of about three metres of water, nearly twice as much as during the previous record year of 1998. The heat waves resulted from strong high pressure over Western Europe related to a marked ridge of high pressure in the large-scale upper atmospheric wind flow.

2004: Widespread winter storms in the Mediterranean region. Extreme hot conditions persisted in Japan during the summer, with record-breaking temperatures. a record number of 10 tropical cyclones made landfall in Japan (the previous record was six), including Typhoon Tokage, the deadliest to hit Japan since 1979. In March, the first tropical cyclone since the start of satellite records made landfall on the southern coast of Brazil. In Afghanistan, drought conditions that had plagued the country for the past four years continued in
2004. In spring, parts of the north-east People’s Republic of China experienced the worst drought conditions since 1951, and southern China received the lowest autumn rainfall since 1951.

2005: 2005 ranked in the top two warmest years along with 1998. The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active season on record with an unprecedented 27 named tropical storms, including 14 hurricanes, which caused devastating losses across Central America, the Caribbean and the United States of America. Seven of these were classed as “major” hurricanes. In Central America and the Caribbean region, the most damage occurred from Hurricanes Dennis, Emily, Stan, Wilma and Beta. In the United States, Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest hurricane to hit the country since 1928, killing over 1,300 people, mostly in the southern states of Louisiana and Mississippi. Hurricane Wilma was the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Long-term drought continued in parts of the Greater Horn of Africa, including southern Somalia, eastern Kenya, south-eastern Ethiopia, and north-eastern United Republic of Tanzania and Djibouti, with 11 million people at risk of starvation. In Brazil, the state of Amazonas experienced the worst drought in nearly 60 years, resulting in record low water levels in the Amazon River. In October, drought conditions extended further south into neighbouring Paraguay. By the end of the year, drought affected much of the central United States from the southern Great Plains to the western Great Lakes. Australia officially recorded its warmest year on record, with data indicating that the annual mean temperature was 1.09°C above the standard 1961–1990 average.

2006: Heavy rains ended prolonged drought in the Greater Horn of Africa, leading to the worst flooding in October/November in 50 years. Drought in many parts of the United States led to the worst wildfire season on record. Disastrous tropical cyclones hit some south East Asian nations, including Typhoon Durian which killed nearly 1 200 people in the Philippines.

2007: Nome in Alaska was frost-free from June to September – its second longest frost-free season on record. Exceptionally heavy rains in a number of African countries (Burkina Faso, Sudan, and Uganda) caused widespread flooding. Mexico suffered the worst flooding in five decades in November, causing the worst weather-related disaster in its history. Severe to exceptional drought continued in the south-east United States, with the driest spring on record and the second worst fire season after 2006. Australia suffered a sixth straight year of drought in Murray-Darling Basin. In 2007 sea ice extent reached its lowest September value since the beginning of measurement in 1979.

2008: China witnessed the worst severe winter weather in five decades in January, with over 78 million people affected by the freezing temperatures and heavy snow. The exceptional cold extended westwards across Asia as far as Turkey, there was an unusually mild winter over most parts of Scandinavia; with monthly anomalies exceeding 7°C for much of Norway, Sweden and Finland, it was the warmest winter ever recorded. Tropical Cyclone Nargis with maximum winds of 215 km/hour was the most devastating cyclone to strike Asia since 1991, causing Myanmar’s worst natural disaster ever. Heavy rain and flooding in Brazil in November affected 1.5 million people and resulted in 84 fatalities. Severe prolonged drought hit Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, where large areas reported one of the driest years on record.

2009: Australia was marked by exceptional heat waves, which affected the south-eastern part of the country in January/February. This was associated with disastrous bushfires that caused more than 170 fatalities. Victoria recorded its highest temperature with 48.8°C at Hopetown, the highest temperature ever recorded so far south in the world.

2010: The year 2010 ranked as the warmest year on record, along with 1998 and 2005. (The difference in global surface temperature between the three warmest years 1998, 2005 and 2010 is within a small range of 0.02°C, making the difference statistically indistinguishable.) The 2009/2010 winter was characterized by extremely cold temperatures over large parts of the northern hemisphere, including parts of Europe, Asia and North America. Hundreds of records for daily minimum temperatures were broken in the United States. Heavy snowfall disrupted air and road traffic in Europe, the United States and China. By contrast there were very mild conditions over the arctic and Canada. These conditions were associated with large-scale atmospheric disturbances connected to the arctic and North Atlantic Oscillations and the El Niño event. The summer of 2010 witnessed a sequence of devastating extreme events, frequently associated with unprecedented impacts. Over the course of the 2010 monsoon season, Pakistan experienced the worst floods in its history. Heavy rainfall, flash floods and river floods combined to create a moving body of water equal in dimension to the land mass of the United Kingdom. The floods affected 84 of 121 districts in Pakistan, and more than 20 million people – one-tenth of Pakistan’s population – devastating villages from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. More than 1 700 people were killed, and at least 1.8 million homes damaged or destroyed. July 2010 was the warmest month ever in Moscow since the beginning of modern meteorological records. Temperature exceeded the long-term average by 7.8°C (the previous record in July 1938 was 5.3°C above average). More than 20 daily temperature records were broken, including the absolute maximum temperature in Moscow and the high temperatures which extended from July to the first half of august triggered massive forest and peat fires in the European part of the country, with smoke and smog adversely affecting tens of millions of people. The devastating heat wave in the Russian federation and floods in Pakistan were associated with a “blocking event” in the northern hemisphere jet stream, which kept weather patterns stationary over certain countries. La Niña conditions, which prevailed during summer 2010 and subsequently, have been associated historically with increased likelihood of wetter-than-average conditions over the Indian subcontinent. In many parts of China, high temperatures broke historical extremes. Floods, landslides and mud-rock flows also caused serious economic damage. In August, Zhouqu County, Gansu Province was hit by the most devastating flood and mud-rock flow in the country’s history of the China, killing more than 1 500 people. Greenland recorded its warmest decade (2001–2010) since modern measurements. Most stations in West Greenland, especially in the southwest, recorded their warmest ever year in 2010. In august, ice measuring more than 200 km2 calved from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland – the largest chunk in the past 50 years of observations and data (since 1962). Tens of thousands of icebergs calve yearly from the glaciers of Greenland, but this one was exceptionally large; because of its size, it more typically resembled icebergs in the Antarctic. The Sahel region and West Africa were hit by extreme precipitation events. Niger, which had been gripped by prolonged drought, suffered devastation from flash floods in July. Hundreds of thousands were made homeless in Benin by flooding. Australia faced its worst flooding in about 50 years. The year 2010 was the third wettest year for Australia as a whole and the wettest for the state of Queensland, where the floods were the most devastating.

And still many think that it's a hoax, so for all of them, the words of Jeremiah 5:21. Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but not every man's greed” (Ghandi)

With more than 13 million people in dire need of food in the Horn of Africa, food prices set to remain high and volatile, and almost a billion people going to bed hungry every day, it is clear that existing policies and responses are inadequate to solve the problem.
It is possible to reduce hunger dramatically – countries like Brazil and Vietnam have shown how it can be done, what is lacking is the political will by world governments to take the decision to address the causes of hunger. Such as scrapping harmful biofuels targets, subsidies and tariffs which are turning food into fuel, the regulating of commodities markets to curb excessive speculation and increasing the food reserves in poor countries so they can cope with shocks and extremes in prices. In addition the stopping of land grabs by Western and Far East countries and a commitment to increase gender equality in agriculture is needed.

The World Bank estimates that 44 million people fell below the poverty line in the second half of 2010 due to high food prices, and research for Christian Aid’s East Africa Appeal and Oxfam’s GROW campaign indicates that the price of staple foods such as maize could more than double in the next 20 years. Poor households, which spend up to three-quarters of their income on food, are worst affected by the crippling price hikes. The world does have the capacity to produce the food, the groaning supermarket shelves in the 'developed' world scream this out, what is lacking is the will for the 'developed' world to share it.

Prov. 28:27 If you give to the poor, your needs will be supplied! But a curse upon those who close their eyes to poverty.

Do you want to know why there is a protest outside St Paul's?

It's simple! When the failed banks need money, they get it, lots and lots and lots of it, more than enough so they can even pay out huge bonus payments and it's our money.

The Euro presently has huge problems, so it gets propped up by austerity measure and with lots and lots our money.

If finance is needed to cover the cost of wars in, just by coincidence, oil producing states, money is available, lots and lots of it, and it's our money.

When there is a massive oil spill disaster it get paid for in the end by our money, lots and lots of it.

So here in the UK we are obviously not a country that is broke, enough money is available for all the above, so what is it that there is not enough money available for?

When finance is needed to cover the cost of green energy this has to be funded by additional taxes, despite the fact that here in the UK we spend billions of pounds year after never ending year looking after spent nuclear fuel.

And when finance is needed for schools, hospitals, adult social care, children's hospices, for community projects for more nurses and teachers and police, for the fire and ambulance services or for those that have lost homes or jobs or those now living on the streets it's either in very short supply indeed or completely unavailable.

That's why there is a protest outside St. Paul's and in Wall Street and all the other places... that's why, because it's not the banks or big business that should be bailed out, it is those that really need the cash, like those in the last paragraph.

What we all need to protest about is the same as Jesus did, and that is greed and economic inequality.

As Jesus said “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15)

"If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?" (John 1:17-18) A good question indeed...

So, where does YOUR money go?

It was when I was at theological college that I first met my fellow student and now friend and fellow minister Angela Steele. One of our tasks was to preach at a combined staff and student’s service. Her first line when she did is still with me. “Do you know where your pension funds are invested and how that money is used? Is it invested in ethical companies or those that abuse others in some way for your future income?” The point she made was that where we spend and invest our money is actually a large part of our faith.

It was a lesson that I have tried to live up to, so... do YOU know what the organisations YOU spend or invest your money with do with it, are they involved in exploitation and are they as environmentally sound as they claim?

Is it invested in companies such as Caterpillar Inc? They are a multinational company involved in earth moving equipment, they also make the large armoured bulldozers that the Israelis use to bulldoze homes in the Palestinian areas, and they made the one that killed US peace activist Rachel Corrie. OK, so perhaps you do not have any investments in Caterpillar Inc, but Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Waitrose all openly sell settlement produce from land the Palestinians’ were forcibly removed from, the very thing that Rachel was trying to stop.

How about buying that chocolate bar with the ‘Fairtrade’ mark? Think first, because ‘Greenwash’ abounds! For example That Kit-Kat bar with the Fairtrade logo is a Nestle production; a company that is supplied by companies involved in Rain Forest destruction, operates in several tax havens and with several oppressive regimes and is involved in political lobbying and mis-promotes baby milk.

The Canadian Tar Sands project is an environmental disaster in the making, This huge project has investors from many countries, including a large stake, invested by a company called Husky Energy. They posses around 511,000 acres of tar sands leases and have a 50/50 partnership agreement with BP for a 50/50 to develop the tar sands project.

Husky Energy is owned by Hong Kong based Hutchison Whampoa, a multi-national company with operations in 55 countries across the globe and a turnover of around £31,034.9 million per year. In the UK Hutchison Whampoa own Superdrug!

VW... Now they make environmentally sound car... or do they? The latest UK TV ads show a range of cars (at times informing the viewer that at the bottom of the screen that some of these are only available in left-hand drive, we use right-hand drive in the UK!) including concept cars with images of wind farms in the background and saying that an electric car is planned for production in the near future. What VW don’t tell you is that it's lobbying against climate change laws, funding lobbying groups to the tune of millions of Euros to stop Europe reducing its Greenhouse Gas emissions from 20% to 30% by 2020.

Do you spread Flora on your bread? If so then remember that the company that produces it, Unilever, test products on animals, lobbies politically, promotes Geneticall Modified food, uses factory farmed eggs and meat and operates in several tax havens and with several oppressive regimes.

The safest way to make sure that others do not profit from your spendong power is to buy locally produced items whenever possible and check where your pension funds are being invested. Someone some where profited from the death of my fellow Christian Rachel Corrie.

"Why are you an Environmentalist?" is a question I am often asked

It really is simple; God made creation for all to share and I am working for those yet to be born to ensure that the generations to come will learn to love, enjoy and share the work of God's hands just as I do.

It is our responsibility as His hands, feet, eyes and ears to ensure that our generation is looked back upon as the one that, when aware of the environmental problem, acted.

We live in a generation where things are loved and people used, it should be the other way round, we should love those in our families yet to be born and leave them an environmental legacy to be proud of.



"Ecclesiastes 3:11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."

I will go with that!

(CARBON) FOOTPRINTS

Last night I dreamed a dream.

I was walking along the beach with My Lord. Across the dark sky flashed all the scenes from my life, for each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; I asked The Lord “Why do I see two sets of footprints?”

The Lord said to me “Those are your very own personal carbon footprints, and despite your efforts they are still over twice the global average

Our journey continued on and when the last scene of my life flashed before me I looked back at the many footprints in the sand, but noticed that at times there were only one set. I realized that this occurred at the very lowest and saddest times of my life. This bothered me greatly and I questioned The Lord about my dilemma.

"Lord” I said, “You told me, when I decided to follow you, that you would be with me and talk with me all the way, but I'm aware that during the most troublesome and problematical times of my life I must surely have been alone. I just don't understand it, why it was that when I needed you most you left me?" But why are there only one set of footprints?

He whispered, "My son, my precious child, I love you and will never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and testing’s. When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I arranged for your central heating oil delivery order to be mislaid, your electricity to fail, your car to break down, your flight cancelled or your passport lost."

I was shocked at this and tried to remonstrate with The Lord.

The Lord looked with sadness at the sea gently lapping on the sands and said to me “Well I had to try and do something, this sandy beach was supposed to be a fertile valley”.

Murdoch – News International / News Corporation – World-Wide Lies, Deceit and The Bottom Line.

I have witnessed the Murdoch Media at far to close quarters, the way it expertly wraps lies in half truths and damages lives, so when the facts about the way it works finally emerged I cheered, and when Murdoch said to an MP committee that ‘this is the humblest day of my life’ my heartfelt hope was that it would not be. The video here shows just one aspect of the Murdoch Empire’s influence... but it certainly does not stop there... please, please read on!

Recent revelations have at last uncovered the extent of the Murdoch media's corruption in the UK. His staff hacked the phones of thousands, including grieving widows and murdered schoolgirls. They stole a Prime Minister's bank information, paid huge sums to police officers, and staged a cover up, which included James Murdoch authorizing hush money to victims.

But Murdoch is a global problem, famous for dictating editorial positions to his papers. He has corrupted and controlled democracies by pushing politicians to back his ideas on war, torture and a host of other planetary ills, and destroying careers with smear campaigns unless they do his bidding, or to be more accurate, blackmail.

In the US, he helped elect George W. Bush and now appears to have many Republican presidential candidates on his payroll. His Fox News Network lied to promote the war in Iraq, pushed resentment of Muslims and immigrants and promoted the right-wing tea party. Not only this, he has worked non-stop to block urgent global action on climate change.

Now Murdoch’s political friends, who used to listen avidly and seemingly obey his every word, have dumped him. In the UK his ex CEO Rebekah Brooks faces criminal charges and two of London's most senior police officers, Sir Paul Stephenson and Assistant Commissioner John Yates have resigned and now it is reported that there are US and Australian investigations into the Murdoch News Corp empires.

Since becoming the UK’s Prime Minister sixteen months ago, David Cameron had 26 meetings with Murdoch’s executives. PM Cameron, against the advice of his deputy prime minister, also employed former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his communications director. Coulson, who has been at the centre of the hacking probe, was arrested on July 8.

Rebekah Brooks, who resigned as CEO over the escalating scandal, is the only person Mr Cameron has invited twice to Chequers, a privilege not extended even to the most senior members of his Cabinet.

Fox News is owned by The Murdoch Empire; see the below and read on!



The Mail on Sunday recently suggested that previous UK PM Tony Blair will face scathing criticism of his role in the launch of the Iraq war when the report of the inquiry under Sir John Chilcot is published in the autumn. The Observer newspaper reported that the terms of an oil deal struck between BP and the Baghdad government would provide the company and its Chinese partner with a 'stranglehold' over the Iraqi economy. Secret documents referred to by the Observer reveal that BP and the Chinese National Petroleum Company have been guaranteed full payment at an agreed price for the oil they extract from Iraq's richest oil field at Rumaila. The oil field - about 20 miles from the Kuwait border - is about half as big as the entire North Sea and accounts for more than 40% of Iraqi oil production. Oil, in turn, provides 95% of the country's export earnings. If extraction from the field is curtailed - because of quotas imposed by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, for example - the Iraqi government will pay the partnership for the 'lost' production. Similarly, if natural disaster, terrorist attack, or any of a series of other possible developments, disrupts production for more than 90 days, the administration will compensate the partnership for the 'loss'.

The Observer speculated that news of the arrangement will likely 'increase the prejudice of those who saw the UK's involvement in toppling Saddam as part of a "war for oil"' - a consideration which Tony Blair has always insisted played no part in his decision to support the drive towards invasion.

This raises the question of what Mr Blair and Mr Murdoch were talking about in the conversations we now know they held in the days leading up to the invasion on March 20, 2003, because Murdoch was, from the outset, blunt about his reasons for supporting the war. The reason was not to find weapons of mass destruction, or to overthrow a tyrant, but to secure economic interests through control of the flow and price of oil.

Just weeks before the invasion, Murdoch said that "The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy would be $20 a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax-cut in any country."

Mr Blair and Mr Murdoch had three conversations in the nine days before March 20. They spoke on March 11, immediately after Jacques Chirac had announced that France would veto any second UN resolution sanctioning invasion.

The next day, Murdoch’s Sun Newspaper proclaimed: 'Like a cheap tart who puts price before principle, money before honour, Jacques Chirac struts the streets of shame. The French President's vow to veto the second resolution ... puts him right in the gutter."

On March 13, as conflict over a second resolution intensified, the two men talked again. On March 14, The Sun returned to the theme: 'Charlatan Jacques Chirac is basking in cheap applause for his "Save Saddam" campaign - but his treachery will cost his people dear ... This grandstanding egomaniac has inflicted irreparable damage."

On the evening of March 19, as tanks prepared to cross the border, PM Blair and Murdoch talked again; as they did every single one of Mr Murdoch's 127 newspapers around the world, with a combined circulation more than 40 million, urged its readers to back the war, a war that has resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands so far and will result in the death of many, many more in the future. This is because more than 1,820 tons of radioactive nuclear waste (i.e. depleted uranium) has exploded in Iraq so far in the form of armour piercing rounds and bunker busters. 64 kg of uranium were used in the Hiroshima bomb so the U.S. Iraq Nuclear Holocaust represents far more than fourteen thousand Hiroshima's.

The nuclear waste the U.S. has exploded in the Middle East will continue killing for hundreds of years because that's how long these particles of radioactive dust will continue to blow around to be lodged in an individual’s lungs or be ingested.

No WMD's (Weapons of Mass Destruction) were found in Iraq, they were however imported to that country. Reported birth defects among Iraqi newborns are up 600% from before the war, the defects are typical of the kind produced by exposure to radioactive poisons.

The civilian population of Iraq were ‘liberated’, liberated for Murdoch’s desire for cheap oil, aided and abetted by the Western World’s addiction to oil, and at last, the truth is about to emerge!

Sources; the newspapers and media quoted and www.abovetopsecret.com

UK Farms In Crisis; Is it the same where you are?

We have been lucky to live in a farming area for some 34 years now; it once was a farming community but then the supermarkets with their values of the bottom line and sourcing from the cheapest producers from any part of the world closed down many local small farmers and growers. Growers’ in the UK could not compete with, for example tomatoes grown in Africa where the cost of labour and production is low even though the cost of shipping, and the carbon footprint, is high. Our two village market gardens closed down as the majority of our counties grocers shops, unable to compete with the supermarkets closed. One of the market garden owners committed suicide.

The same supermarket pressure has been applied over the last few years to our milk producers, and many are going out of business on a weekly basis. When Pam and I were at the recent South of England Show I took this picture of a milk producer's stall. The most important words read;

Supermarket price approx 85p per litre
Cost of production approx 29p per litre
Farmer paid approx 25p per litre
Outcome 3-4p loss on every litre of milk produced. Thousands of British farms going out of business every year.

The supermarkets focus on buying at the cheapest price and then selling at the highest possible margin. Forget their claims of ‘giving you more’ or even ‘every little helps’ just look at their end of financial year profits to see where their focus really is.

What has happened to the UK farming industry is the equivalent of “selling the family silver”, when the time comes, and it will come soon, that we need the UK’s farmers they will no longer be there... then what?

How the European Food Safety Authority got GM 100% wrong!

In 2007 the EFSA said that ““A large number of experimental studies with livestock have shown that recombinant DNA fragments or proteins derived from GM plants have not been detected in tissues, fluids or edible products of farm animals such as broilers, cattle, pigs or quails.” This was subsequently adopted as the official advice of the UK’s Food Standards Agency in “Transfer of GM material from feed”

GUESS WHAT?

New research from Canada has found a Bt toxin produced by GM insect resistant crops in the blood of women and clear evidence that it was passed to foetuses. The new study was carried out by a team at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec and has been accepted for publication in the peer reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology. The team took blood samples from 30 pregnant women prior to delivery, 30 samples from umbilical cords immediately after birth and samples from 39 non-pregnant women who were undergoing treatment. All the women were of a similar age and body mass index, and none worked with pesticides or lived with anyone who did. Pesticides used on GM herbicide tolerant (HT) crops were also detected.

The same Bt toxin as detected by the researchers is present in Mon810 maize, which has EU cultivation approval but is currently banned in France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Luxemburg and Greece.

The results show that the toxic Bt protein Cry1Ab was present in blood serum from all three sources (93% of pregnant women, 80% in umbilical blood and 67% of non-pregnant women). The researchers suggest that the most probable source of the toxin is GM food consumed as part of a normal diet in Canada, where GM presence in food is unlabelled. The Canadian scientists have not speculated on any health effects from the presence of Cry1Ab protein as this was beyond the scope of their study.

Safety concerns have been growing since the introduction of GM herbicide tolerant crops, including links to Parkinson’s disease and cancer in the case of glyphosate. Residues of these herbicides in food are infrequently monitored, and the maximum permitted residue levels for crops directly sprayed with glyphosate, such as GM HT crops, were raised over 200 times in the 1990s.

One of two GM crops approved for cultivation in the EU is genetically modified to produce the Cry1Ab toxin – the Bt maize Mon810 licensed to Monsanto and mainly grown in Spain. The other GM crop authorised for cultivation in the EU is the GM potato Amflora (grown on a very limited scale, 17 hectares in two countries in 2011), genetically modified to produce a starch used for non-food industries (not Bt toxin production), but the pulp would be fed to livestock in the food chain.

I always remember the tobacco industry’s comments regarding lung cancer that “doubt is our product”, the same applies to the GM industry, just ask yourself the question “why is it that no insurance company will insure GM?”

WATER – THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR IT

The 'River' Charante, France, August 2010.

As I write this I am looking out on our field that has received little rain over the past two months. I am in South east England where in April less than 10% of normal rainfall was recorded; it was the second successive very dry month here. Provisionally, it was the 6th driest April over England in a series from 1910, a sunny month across all of the UK, with amounts generally close to 150% of normal, making it the sunniest April in the series from 1929. Even in normal times, London actually receives less rainfall than Istanbul, but in April even that lower figure was exceeded.

Our field shed has solar panel powered lighting, as there is a substitute for mains electricity. In my garage I am working on a solar electric vehicle, as there is a substitute for oil; but there is no substitute for water...

Agriculture accounts for 70% of global water use, and farmers around the world are the first to suffer from lack of access to a usable long-term reliable supply. The 2010 Russian Drought caused an export ban on Russian wheat, while elsewhere in the world, floods caused crop destruction. China experienced droughts in some areas and floods in others, as did Australia. The May 2010 Tennessee floods were a 1000 year event. There was flooding in Central Europe, Pakistan, France, and Singapore, far too much water in some areas and nowhere near enough in others. Crops were wiped out by drought and crops were wiped out by flooding, and in response 2010/2011food prices rose and the worlds poorest suffered.

This is a problem now and not for the coming years, the world will run out of accessible water for agriculture long before the world will run out of oil. Unilever CEO Paul Polman was reported as saying that his company is concerned that the regions that produce its tomatoes, Greece, Spain and California “will have enough water in the coming decade to guarantee the harvest that will meet our business needs”.

Water is a marginal consideration to many Western governments; but very soon it will be a central issue, without water there is no life.

Jesus mentioned water often, 'living water' is fresh water, and Jesus was never without water. There is a lesson there for as all as we seemingly can only look on as the drought effected areas of the world get ever bigger, more and more are forced to leave their homes in search of life giving living water.

Germany Abandons Nuclear Power

The words on the Nuclear Power Plant chimney read "Nuclear power damages Germany."

According to a Reuters Report Germany is to phase out all nuclear power in the country before 2020.

At long last a major European Country has decided that the dead end (I chose my words carefully) that is Nuclear is to go.

Thank you Germany!!!

EU Funds Dangerous Nuclear Power Plants; could a Japanese Nuclear type of disaster happen in the EU?

I looked in shock as first Japan was first hit by an earthquake of unimaginable proportions, then by a wall of water so high, wide and long that it wiped out all in its path, then as the weather changed and survivors sheltered from the bitter cold, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power Plants, unable to function due to the damage, went critical. Now there is the threat of a deadly unseen radioactive cloud that could damage or destroy life.

As I write this there are some workers at the plant displaying breath taking courage by staying there and trying to contain the damage, accepting the fact that their lives are being offered up to save the lives of many others.

We in the West and in my case in the EU, (the UK) are told that this could not happen here as our standards are so high and we are not subject to the same geological problems as Japan. Yet, as Japan's nuclear disaster continues it has emerged that EU is funding a nuclear expansion programme in the Ukraine, despite real safety concerns, that will increase the export of energy to the main body of the EU.

The safety risks and concerns that surround the nuclear industry in the Ukraine that were there in the old Soviet era still remain.

In the EU, after the radiation leaks at the Japanese Fukushima plant, Germany is now to postpone the decision to extend the life of that country’s nuclear power plants, closing some of its older reactors down, while still funding the increase of nuclear power generation in the Ukraine.

It is the intention of the Ukraine Government to increase the number of nuclear power plants there from 12 to 22, and this work has been granted close to one billion Euros, jointly, from the EBRD, (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and the EIB (European Investment Bank) with the funding supporting the 'Trans-European Energy Network projects' which will enable the Ukraine to export energy produced in that country to EU Member States.

There are however huge concerns regarding the safety of these plans, especially since the Ukraine Government is keen to increase the working life of its existing Soviet-era reactors from 30 to 45 years. This may well be a financial necessity as the Ukraine government does not have adequate facilities in order to decommission their radioactive waste. Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath, from the environmental watchdog Bankwatch who monitor the activities of The EU said: “Twenty-five years after Chernobyl it [the Ukraine] has not solved technically and financially the problem of management of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. Furthermore, without enough resources to fulfil its utopian strategy of constructing 22 nuclear reactors by 2030, the government is now extending the life of existing nuclear blocks, which increases the risks of operational accidents”.

Part of the problem is the power of the EU Nuclear Lobby groups with their claim that Nuclear Power is low carbon and so part of a solution to Climate Change. The EU invests then in the Ukraine Nuclear Industry so as it can import ‘low priced’ and 'low carbon' energy into the EU.

The words of Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath sums the EU situation up perfectly. “Unfortunately it takes a disaster like the one in Japan for EU's decision-makers to acknowledge these risks. As the Chernobyl accident showed 25 years ago, the EU is vulnerable to the impacts of possible nuclear disasters in its immediate neighbourhood”.

See the full bankwatch report HERE

Whenever I read of the increasing number of nuclear plant accidents that we were told 'could never happen' I am reminded of the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer when the first nuclear weapon was unleashed upon Japan; "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds".

My thoughts and prayers are with those in Japan who now, after surviving earthquake and Tsunami face the ultimate nightmare of an uncontrollable and unseen nightmare created by mankind. Once the Nuclear Genie is out of the bottle it cannot be put back. The words we use to describe our species are Homo Sapiens; they mean 'wise man', I personally have my doubts.

SPAIN'S SOLAR POWER SUCCESS - 75% FROM RENEWABLE ENERGY

On January 6 the tradition in Spain is that children receive gifts from the three wise men. Forget Santa Claus, for children this is THE day! Unless they have behaved badly ... then... they are given coal.

So, on January 6th as Spanish children open their gifts and in many cases plugged them into the nearest electrical power point, coal was all but outlawed because on that day 75% of Spain's electricity was from renewable sources while coal reached a measly 4% of supply.

OK, on that day conditions must have been ideal for renewable energy production, but on any day last year Spain was producing renewable clean energy. Last year (2010) coal-fired power was lowered by 34% and gas-fired by 17%. Greenhouse gas emissions were cut by 20% and renewables are now providing jobs for nearly 100,000 people. To rub salt in the Nuclear/coal/gas lobby, Spain's renewables were the source of power for France, as for the very first time France was a net importer of Spanish electricity.

So, it can be done.

I write this from the UK, where the sun is not much in evidence at the moment but we do have exposed windy areas and an inexhaustable supply of tidal power... or does the above cartoon say it all?

IT'S OFFICIAL... OIL IS RUNNING OUT!

And who says so? It's those nice people the investment experts who tell you where to invest your money! Not that I have money to invest you understand, but I like to know what is really going on in the world of finance. 'Invest in food/land' was a recent journal heading, "you can't eat money" was an unforgettable line of that article, which perhaps explains the rising cost of food as investors gamble on food futures.

The latest edition informs its readers that the increasing demands for and the ever dwindling supply of oil is a threat to the global economy, but is also a big opportunity for investors.

Fatih Birol of the International Energy Agency stated at a recent conference that "The age of cheap oil is over" and so oil companies are hunting far and wide to locate new oil sources, like tar sands. The demand for oil is increasing as, for only one example, China will need more oil. In the EU around 50% of people have cars, but in China, it’s around 3%, and China has a huge population, and now we have the recent political turmoil and upset in the Middle East, a region we in the West are oil dependent on. Iraq oil production, the article informs, is a critical element in increasing future oil supply, so that explains the war then...

The problem for the West is that as the political problems in Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and Libya spreads to their much larger next door neighbour, Saudi Arabia, that the oil price will increase and push the fragile Western economies over the edge of another slump.

The article talks about natural gas as one alternative, pointing out that it is located in politically hospitable areas. My thoughts are that Russia is not the most politically hospitable area, but compared to the Middle East they may have a point I suppose. So what are the investment tips? They are nuclear and renewable energy, and I bet that nuclear gets the nod.

The inescapable facts are though that our transport infrastructure is oil dependent and there is no alternative to oil, it is our primary energy source and it is running out. The sooner the world wakes up to those facts and values what there is the more chance that our children and grandchildren will have a viable future.

The death of Greenland's canary in the 'Climate Change Coal Mine'?

Without the ‘Greenhouse Effect’ life would not exist on earth. The Earth’s atmosphere lets in just enough ultraviolet and visible light, but traps some of the infrared radiation and heat and works just like a greenhouse; light enters and heats up the inside and the glass traps some of it in. This is a delicate balancing act the atmosphere performs, because our atmosphere is very thin, the equivalent to the thin layer of varnish on a 3foot diameter globe.

The ozone layer is a diffused layer and if it were at normal air pressure it would be about 1/8th of an inch thick. It absorbs some 97% to 99% of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation, if it did not do so all life on Earth would be seriously damaged, yet this layer, depending on the place and the season, is located between only eight to 24 miles high above the Earth.

The problem we now have is that the amount of Greenhouse Gasses, mainly CO2, in the atmosphere has been increased by the use of fossil fuels and the burning of the rain Forests. It really is quite simple; more greenhouse gas equals more heat being trapped in the atmosphere and less escaping into space, what we have done is the same as insulating the greenhouse roof with bubble wrap! It is this increase in trapped heat that changes the climate, altering weather patterns and the greater heat trapped in the atmosphere results in the more frequent and severe weather events that now occur. It is not simply the immediate increase but also the lengthened time scale that this increase occurs over. If for example you insulate the roof of your house the heat does not escape so readily but stays for a longer period. For the Earth then the spring season can start earlier, the summer season extend and autumn arrive later due to the fact that that early and late heat does not escape as it once did and simply builds up within the atmosphere.

Proof of the longer seasons was evident when researchers found that Greenland's annual melting season lasted 50 days longer than average last year when compared to the years between 1979 and 2009. Satellite data indicates that shrinkage of ice sheets may contribute more to sea level rise than was thought. Were the Greenland Ice Sheet to completely melt, which is very, very highly unlikely indeed, then there is the potential of a 5-6 meters sea level rise in the ice sheet which is almost 2 miles thick in the centre.

In Greenland, 2010 summer temperatures of up to 3C above the average were combined with reduced snowfall, and Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, had the warmest spring and summer since records began in 1873.

Greenland’s ice sheet and its melting patterns are quite simply a canary in the climate change coal mine. The canary has started to die, but if action is taken quickly, it can be saved.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

... it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way (Charles Dickens; 'A Tale of Two Cities').

2010 felt like that to me, 2 steps forward, 1.9 steps back, fighting environmental battles for the truth regarding Climate Chaos, GM and others with minimal resources against an enemy with limitless assets who cares for nothing other than the bottom line, then I remember Ola. To stand up and be counted is not easy, but to be a young girl in Babylon Iraq, and stand up outside the gate of Ishtar and be counted makes my fight seem easy.

350.org is an international grassroots campaign, 350 being the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM—a "people powered movement" that is made of people like us in every corner of the planet.

To see 350 campaigner Ola with others in other countries, please watch the film below, Ola appears at the 24 second mark, proving to me that I should never forget the Power of One.