Interesting news: junk food, green beliefs and we are the deniers

Here are a couple of interesting articles I've been sent recently:

Photo: Fuzzies near top of Ash Lane

Scientists claim junk food is as addictive as heroin - With the rumors swirling that Michelle Obama is a big fan of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler's new book The End of Overeating, it seems reasonable to check in on the science behind an "addiction model" for salty, sweet, and fatty processed food. As it happens, a group of researchers has just released a new study on the subject. The conclusion: the brain responds to junk food the same way it does to heroin. See here.

Green beliefs given same status as religion - Environmentalism gets the same legal status as religion after a landmark ruling gave an Oxford man the right to sue his employer over his green views. The judge said: "If a person can establish that he holds a philosophical belief which is based on science as opposed, for example, to religion, then there is no reason to disqualify it from protection." Mr Nicholson claimed his beliefs affect his whole life and he accused Grainger's chief executive Rupert Dickinson of showing "contempt" for his concerns and claimed he once flew a member of staff to Ireland to deliver his Blackberry which he had left in London. It will be interesting to follow the next stage of this case....See more here.

Deniers of climate change are amateurs compared to us. Activists, environmentalists, scientists, and certainly Copenhagen politicians are in denial far more insidious and subtle. See here article that reads: "The reality we’re denying? We’re denying that we’ve put so much carbon into the atmosphere already that positive feedback loops are well on their way to amplification hell. We’re denying that time lags between carbon emissions and their effects are frighteningly relevant, and that the disastrous effects we’re seeing now are from emissions of 30 years ago. We’re denying that non-linear responses of physical systems cannot be calculated and therefore are perilously ignored. We’re denying that our consumption and waste have far exceeded planetary capacity, possibly irreparably so."