The voice on the radio suddenly forced its way into my conscious awareness. Absolutely staggering, I felt it deep in my gut with no uncertainty.

Forty Percent of the Afghan economy is from illegal drug production and trafficking. More disturbing is the fact that the United States has nothing that can replace the drug trade for Afghan entrepreneurs.

As I contemplated these hard hitting statements, I found myself imagining how different our world could be if we just stuck to some basic tenants of common decency.

Yet, what does this say about our world, where such an obscene industry can thrive? It’s not just the growers and traffickers that are contributing to the problems, but the users of the end product. Those users ultimately feed the entire industry’s cash flow.

Considering the Afghan drug problems alongside illicit drug trade around the world, there has to be an incredible amount of drug users to support the global market for drugs. Why? Is it really about the high, or is it about escaping the sober realities and pain of human life? It seems that we never hear anyone talking about this aspect. Life is often painful. Whether you are poor or rich, there are all kinds of problems and challenges that we human beings face.

How appealing a drug addiction and the escape it provides must be to the user. In some ways, it may even be understandable.

Facing life and its challenges head on is NOT for the timid. But, we are all faced with life nonetheless and there is no escaping that for the rational and sober minded person. Sure there are moments of pleasure that provide temporary relief but how long do those moments last? How long before the next problem rears up to block our path arrives?

For some, the moments of pleasure and happiness last longer and not so long for others. That may be related to a whole host of factors including socio-economic ones.

So what can we do? Not much as it turns out, for a simple reason. It is a fact of our very existence that free will exists. Each person makes his own choices. More laws won’t change what people do when they think that they can’t be seen.

Perhaps a greater degree of personal happiness and contentment would prove to be more attractive than the lure of drug use. As you may have heard, “history tends to repeat itself”. And why is that? Maybe the human condition doesn’t really change that much, only the scenery and technology change, while the basic conditions of human life stay about the same throughout the ages.

If that is true, and similar conditions existed in the past, how were they dealt with back then? One of the western world’s most revered philosophers was Socrates.

Socrates talked about virtue. He discussed things like Truth, Beauty and Goodness with his students. Today, Master Li Hongzhi expounds on Truthfulness, Compassion and Endurance. Perhaps contemplation of these things can bring greater contentment and personal happiness? With happiness and contentment, there may no longer be as strong a catalyst for feeding a drug addiction.

One thing is fairly certain. Due to the existence of free will, only each individual can choose for himself the path he wishes to tread.

This has made Bhutan one of the highest per capita refugee generators in the world due to the implementation of the “Driglam Namzha” (Cultural Code of the Ruling Elite) with a “One Nation, One People” policy which imposed the language, dress code, and customs of the northern Bhutanese on the entire population. The crackdown on the southern Bhutanese continued as the government began closing schools and hospitals in an attempt to force out those of Nepali origin.

Often the countries most overburdened with refugees are already among the poorest in the world. Nepal continues to be ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of human development yet hosts more than 100,000 Bhutanese and 20,000 Tibetan refugees. Nepals inadequate social and physical infrastructural services are overstrained by such an
influx of refugees.

There are seven camps with a population of 101,000 refugees, about half of whom are located in Beldangi camp. The camps are situated on the plains of east Nepal, spanning two districts (Jhapa and Morang) which are the most heavily populated in Nepal.

To get to the refugee camps, one has to drive on winding dirt roads through fields or forested land for at least half an hour. The forest clears out all of sudden and distinct rows of huts appear in the clearing. It seems as if you have come upon a civilization long hidden from the rest of the world.

In the seven camps there are 45 schools, 40,000 pupils and 956 teachers. The
student/teacher ratio is an average 40:1 but in reality the classes are much bigger than this as the number of teachers includes headmasters and teacher trainers which are given very few periods, if any at all.

A school environment provides more than just basic needs to read and write, but also provides an outlet for children to experience a sense of normality, safety and routine after many years upheaval.

Most of the classrooms are temporary structures (often made of a mixture of brick, bamboo and grass) due to the limited life-span of the camps. Many of the lower classes do not have desks and the children are sitting on jute mats which have been manufactured in the camps during the income generating activities initiated by Oxfam. However, all classrooms are provided with a table and chair for the teacher. The blackboards are portable with an easel.

I’ve found a cool apartment! Okay, okay…so it’s not perfect. Just a few bugs. I mean literally! First expense? An exterminator! Is it worth the cash? Well, I can’t afford a more expensive place, so a one-time (please!) cash outlay should be okay. Maybe just a can of “Raid?”

I need a way to move my stuff. Daddy, can I borrow your truck? You don’t have one? Why not? Do you want one? I’ll help you pick it out! Well, it was just a suggestion. No need to get all bent out of shape! I guess I’d better call the truck rental places. What do you mean…$200…PLUS mileage? AND Gas? fast cash  ? Good grief !

While I’m on the phone I’ll call the utility and phone companies. Yes, I know I haven’t used your services before. No, I don’t have a credit card; this is my first place. You want what? A $100 deposit? For EACH? Holy cow…do you people have a license to steal?

Daddy, I need $500 for moving expenses! I used all my money for the first and last months rent AND the damage deposit. Well, how was I to know this was going to be so expensive? Sell something? Daaaaad…I NEED my TV!

Boy, this place is pretty empty. Maybe I should buy a couch and a chair. Nah…I have my bed. That’ll be good enough. I don’t need a table; I’ll just use this box.

Renters Insurance? I don’t think so! What do I have to insure?

Just got my first phone call! I’d love to come to your party! Daddy, I need a car. Because it’s too far to walk to work, that’s why. Umm, Daddy…there’s car insurance too! Thanks, Dad…you’re the best! And gas? I didn’t think so…

Time for dinner. Let’s look in these boxes. Oh, No! No dishes or pans. No FOOD!

Uhhh, Mom?

At first glance it’s hard to imagine how the proliferation of human activity upon the environment has been a major factor in climate change given that climate change alone is nothing new. Over two million years the earth’s history has seen enormous changes. Indeed, in the last ten thousand years the warming and cooling of the earth has been on a larger scale that what we see today.

The climate is however very changeable these days. Getting the politics right has been half the fight. Unfortunately, the right policy has been held at bay partially by having the right knowledge of what’s happening to the climate. The climate changes we see today are the result of only a century and a half of study, peanuts in comparison the huge shifts over the earths history.

The recent UN Climate Change Conference sought to put in place a policy to take over the Kyoto protocol. At its core were some recently publicised results:

1. The warming trend on the earth’s surface has been taking place since the early part of the twentieth century. The last ten years have been the warmest of that millennium.

2. There have been rapid signs of melting the Arctic circle. The sea ice there has fallen by around eight percent over thirty years.

3. The old inconsistency in the data between the temperature rise in the atmosphere and on the planets surface seems to have levelled out. They appear to rise in parallel.

4. The Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California noted that the ocean has been warming at different depths for over 65 years. These results match the predictions that warming has been induced more by greenhouse gases that as a result of small changes in the suns heat output.

5. There has been an observed and recorded link between the sea surface temperature and the frequency and intensity of tropical storms, typhoons and hurricanes.

6. The existing computer models of the change in ocean currents, in particular in the North Atlantic, are correct.

There are however still some unknowns. For example the solar hypothesis is now known to be a lesser contributor, the miniscule changes in the suns heat output over its eleven year sunspot cycle is adding to the mix. Also, the aerosol emissions from sulphurous fuel promote the formation of clouds, and as a consequence the sunlight reflected from the earths surface increases, effectively opposing the greenhouse gas effect.

Some even argue for the benefits of global warming, which include for example the opening up of new shipping lanes in the artic as the ice recedes, new oil drilling opportunities and longer harvest periods in Canada and Russia.

It seems climate change is inevitable and the small economic ideas such as banning coal subsidies bear little fruit as a means of curbing the problem. More than ever, political will must be demonstrated at first to show to industry and populations that it is even an issue. More importantly perhaps, the will of the politicians must be met with achievable methods from the technological and scientific community.

Professor Socolow is leading the way with what he calls “stabilisation wedges”. On a graph of climate change, the space between the trend line and the stability line is known as the “stabilisation triangle’. By dividing these triangles into wedges and assigning realistic goals to each wedge the massive problem is given a usable and effective solution.

The goals to assign to the wedges range from greater overall efficiencies, the decarbonisation of electricity, fuel displacement by low carbon electricity, methane management, and natural carbon sinks.

By further subdividing each wedge into sub wedges, such as decarbonised electricity being subdivided into nuclear power, renewable energy, natural gas as an alternative to coal, and the storage of carbon dioxide – these problems are confounded into what everyone has been looking for. A short list of solutions that together will balance the problem.

It seems the technology for all this exists. It is merely in need of refinement. For example the management of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels could be dealt with through further carbon sequestration. A couple of power plants already employ this particular technique to good effect. The carbon dioxide is extracted at the source and is injected into porous rocks deep underground to prevent it escaping into the atmosphere.

Steam reformation is another technique. It is, in essence, a pre-emptive technique that reacts the fuel used with water to yield hydrogen. The hydrogen output is burnt to create electricity.

Of all the possibilities of reworking and inventing technologies, perhaps the best idea is the oldest idea. Replanting programmes. The idea of photosynthesis to combine carbon dioxide with water and sunlight is a relatively cheap and exponential idea and would be hugely effective.

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Have your ever had an experience you thought was a coincidence, but a nagging feeling made you feel there was more meaning to it? Those nagging feelings may be the very seeds of your own psychic ability waiting to be cultivated.

Your psychic sense can be compared to the bubbles that surface on a quiet pond. As you quietly stare into a still pond, you will soon notice the movement of the water. When you continue to focus your attention into the small body of water, you will eventually see tiny ripples of water and small bubbles emerge from the depths of the quiet pond. That’s exactly the way your sixth sense will respond, when you pay attention to the “psychic bubbles” of insights that surface from the depths of your mind.

How can you develop your psychic ability naturally? Set aside time to do nothing but experience your senses. Absorb everything you observe or feel around you. When an image flashes into your mind or a feeling runs through your body, don’t be quick to dismiss it. Instead, allow yourself to savor it as you would a delicious dessert. If it is an image, observe the details of it but also pay attention to the way the image makes you feel. If it’s a feeling, try to make it into an image. Imagine it as a sound or a smell.

Try new activities and do old things in new ways. Loosen your focus on goals and try being flexible enough to stimulate your mind by doing something out of the ordinary. Follow your impulses and lean toward the unusual. As you do, you will be exercising your mind to function psychically.

Studies show that the brain waves of subjects change when they’re introduced to new materials or experiences. A person who is receptive to new experiences, new information, and has been exposed to unusual and varied life experiences, will find it easier to develop the ability. Therefore, act like sponge! Soak up as many experiences as possible to feed your mind the subliminal stimuli necessary to cultivate your psychic ability.

Exercise your extra-sensory mental muscle naturally with these five simple tips:

- Travel as much as possible and observe everything.
- Change your routine by driving a new way to work or in some other way.
- Try an exotic food and savor the experience.
- Talk to someone you think you have nothing in common with.
- Solve a problem by listening to a “hunch” or “gut instinct”.

Developing your psychic sense is a natural as learning how to exercise. One is for body fitness and the other is for mental fitness. Both give you the tools to reach your full potential and the ability to create an even better life than you have now. To develop your sixth sense naturally set aside time to accomplish nothing. Instead just experience the moment through your senses and become aware of everything as though you were just born.

Feeling hot under the collar?

Glaciers and polar ice are melting, ocean levels are rising, hot, dry weather, huge forest fires, water restrictions, crop failures…

You name it, if these don’t feature in your life yet, they soon will. Global warming and climate change are facts of life now, according to the International Panel on Climate Change, and many scientists.

Huge problems beyond our control!

But are you hot under the collar?

If you’re not, you probably live in a city where half of the Earth’s citizens live now and take much for granted. Because in city living we are far removed from natural processes that deliver our food, clothing and energy.

Does your child even know that milk comes from a cow – or a soya bean if you’re that way inclined – and not from a milk carton?

Even in the city you cannot stick your head in the sand (or under the asphalt?) and you are not immune from climate change. Witnesses are the 15,000 mostly elderly people that died in Paris alone in the sizzling hot European summer of 2003. Or the many killed in New Orleans at the ‘hands’ of cyclone Katrina.

And if you are hot under the collar, do you think perhaps that there will be some miraculous scientific break-through so they ever-responsible ‘They’ will fix the Earth? The ultimate stem cell technology maybe that can clone a new home for us!

Seriously, for many of us it is just all too hard.

All we want is to live a life where we may raise our children to have a future.

A future of some predictability: of schooling, a job, a family, community, of achievements and an enjoyable life – on a healthy planet Earth.

Is this a fading dream, once a reasonable expectation?

Maybe, maybe not.

Our world is changing. There are great challenges ahead and it is too late to stop global warming. The Earth has changed and the processes it uses to regulate itself are adjusting themselves. And these changes will not suit human life as it is.

But you are not powerless.

Each person alone can change the world, one by one. Let me explain.

Do I say that these problems are under our control then?

Well, yes and no.

We are talking about a severely disabled world really.

And from the experience of disability we can learn how to survive and thrive!

“Come on, get real”, you say? Do I hear: “Just show me the right alternate energy sources and we’ll get out of this mess.”

Yes, we desperately do need to switch to renewable energy sources that do not make a greenhouse out of our home, the Earth. But all the technology in the world will never be enough to survive and flourish.

Renewable energy sources alone will not teach us to accept limits, unpredictability and what it is to lead a rewarding life.

How we have lived collectively, in our billions, for the last few hundred years, has got us to this point. And by changing what we do we can live through climate change as best as we might.

Even now.

It’s simple and it’s hard work. No way out of that.

Many people with severe disabilities know this. And they report the same or better life satisfaction as anyone else–under highly challenging, vulnerable circumstances.

So, we can learn to live well in a disabled world.

Regardless of what is to come you and I will be well served by the beliefs and strategies that people with disabilities use to – not just to survive – but to live well.

These are true alternate energy sources.

Those that guide us how to use what we have sustainably.

These ‘disabled people’ believe this:

* Accept that all of us are fragile and vulnerable

* The world is full of limits. We need some of these to live well

* Vulnerability and dependence are an inevitable part of a whole life

* No-one is independent, but interdependent

* Connection with others is our lifeline and our wellbeing

And they do this:

* Engage with others to build positive relationship, where you live, work and play

* Pay attention to other’s needs and that of the environment

* Take responsibility for the situation you’re in

* Care for others and the environment competently

* Be assertive and use your humour and creativity

Not all people with disabilities act in this way of course. And I’d be the last to portray people with disabilities as heroes. We’re just people – trying to get on.

You try that!

Talk to that elderly woman in your street. Offer a hand when someone needs it.

Doing such small things will connect you with others and your environment.

And do also use the ‘regular’ renewable alternate energy sources, and recycle too.

You can change your local world by acting in these ways.

And if all fails – regardless?

Well, it’s the only way to go!

Perhaps your world might be just as hot but it’ll be cooler under your collar!