cancer

Are more people are being diagnosed with cancer these days?

When I think back to my early teenage years, I can only remember one person, a near neighbour and friend of my mother, being diagnosed with cancer. She was sent to Clatterbridge Hospital for treatment and I was given to understand that simply going there was an indication that she would not survive, as diagnosis was usually made at a late stage of the disease.

After leaving home, I found out that my best friend's mother had suffered from breast cancer and was so shy that she would not allow surgery and somehow coped with all the pain until she had to be hospitalised, just before she died. I can remember her protecting one side of her body from contact, but didn't realise what ws going on until many years later. How sad that she could not be helped; she was such a lovely woman and so brave.

Now, statistics show that 1 in 6 people will be diagosed with cancer. Soon, I ecpect that it will be 1 in 5 or even fewer. We are living longer and diagnostic scans and x-rays are finding the disease in ever-earlier stages, so I suppose it's no wonder that so many people have been found with the early stages of some form of the disease.

It's still hard to believe that no effective treatment has yet been found for so many of the types of cancer. Maybe the miracle cure will never will be found and we will just have to cope with a variety of drugs that manage the condition. If they allow a good standard of life, then that will have to be enough. Maybe that will be as good as it gets.

Please stop the Idaho Wolf Massacre

Late yesterday, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game made a tragic announcement:

Starting Monday, the department will begin selling an estimated 70,000 permits to hunt and kill wolves in Idaho. That’s 70 guns for each wolf mother, father and pup in Idaho!

Please help us STOP THE DEADLY WOLF HUNT.

This could be the worst wolf massacre in the Lower 48 United States since the 1930s. Hundreds of defenseless wolves will be shot, with many surviving wolf pups left to starve to death. Unless we stop it.

We’ve won the fight for wolves in court before, and we can do it again. Last year,Defenders of Wildlife and our allies convinced a federal judge to stop wolf killing in Wyoming and secured a reprieve for wolves in the Northern Rockies. Now we need your help to win again for our wolves.

Idaho’s wolf hunting season is scheduled to begin in just 14 days. Please make a tax-deductible donation right now to help fund our legal fight and national mobilization campaign to save wolves in Idaho and Greater Yellowstone.

With the lives of so many wolves hanging in the balance, Defenders of Wildlife needs your support to prevent the worst wolf massacre in decades. I hope we can count on your support.

For the Wild Ones,

Rodger Schlickeisen President Defenders of Wildlife

P.S. These wolves don’t have much time -- the Idaho wolf hunting season begins in just 14 days. Please make a secure donation online today to support our legal fight and other efforts to save wildlife or call to contribute over the phone.

Modern day slavery

The domesticated animals in most of the world are treated as slaves, with little thought being given to their welfare.

Beasts of burden in hot countries are over-worked by poor owners who are trying to make a living and have never been educated in animal care. In Europe and the Americas, animals kept to produce or provide food for the mass consumption are mercilessly badly treated to keep production costs low and profits high.

When these animals were first captured and tamed by mankind they were selected for breeding because of qualities that suited the needs of mankind: docility, greater meat yield, longer wool, greater egg laying capacity etc. Their characteristics have been tampered with for so long that some breeds would now be unable to revert completely to a wild state without help and a long period of adjustment. Cows need milking twice a day unless they are rearing calves and many sheep would be suffering under heavy fleeces that they are unable to shed easily as the older, unimproved breeds do.

There are charities in existence that try to lessen the harm we do to other species, both wild and domestic. Please give them as much support as you can and always buy organic and free range products whenever you can, as the animals are reared with a higher welfare standard.

The RSPCA endorsed Freedom Foods are NOT as well inspected as you would imagine - see the reports made by Hillside Animal Sanctuary at: www.hillside.org.uk/

Please support Hillside, The Brooke and Compassion in World Farming to combat cruelty.

Road Rage

While chatting with friends, the subject of bad driving habits was raised and we all discovered some common events that came close to giving us a bad case of road rage:

Motorists not slowing down enough for horses
Car drivers deliberately obstructing cyclists
Lorries turning left just in front of cyclists
Drivers STILL using mobiles while driving
Really big, wide horrible people carriers that obstruct your view of the road and expect smaller cars to give way automatically
Motorists paying more attention to shop windows than the road
Motorists driving too close together, especially on fast roads

Sometimes I see some really worrying behaviour, especially when driving late at night and Iwonder if the driver is drunk or if the car has been stolen for a joy ride. I always drop back and keep away from them - you never know who's out there these days.

No more presents!

It's been a while since my very first blog as Eco Worrier. Some of the time I've been too disheartened by the state of the world to try and distill my concerns into a paragraph or two. Other times I've managed to put all the worries out of my mind and just get on with my life as best I can.

There are so many terrible things going on that it's impossible to help every good cause so for some years now I've banned presents to and from my family. Relatives no longer get expensive presents - the money goes to help animals and people at home and abroad instead. In return, they donate money instead of giving me something I don't really need.

If more of us in the UK did this, it would be such a boost for everyone who puts in such a lot of effort helping to make the world a better place for us all. I used to work for a small wildlife charity and know the importance of donations. We valued every one, especially the small sums from pensioners who saved up coins to help us.

So, if you are reading this and feeling you would like to help improve the lot of animals, people or the environment, start now!

Climatic change

Spring is early again.

Our activities are unbalancing the seasons and affecting the intricate balancing mechanisms of the planet. In the West we are technology rich and free from famine but less fortunate countries and wildlife have no resources to cope with the changes we have caused.

What will it take to make governments take a brave stand and stop our destruction?

It's time that every human being was made to understand that life is a partnership, shared with all the other living things in the world. People, mammals, marsupials, reptiles, fish, birds, insects, everything has a function, even if we don't know it yet.

Ultimately, if we don't learn to thrive in harmony, we will all eventually fail and die.