Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Forbes tells us that the latest hot tip for saving the planet from climate change and unsustainable resource usage is to avoid red lipstick.
According to Forbes;
Want To Combat Climate Change? Give Up Red Lipstick, Drink Local, and Fly Direct (No Problem!)
As a climate change advisor at the United Nations, 35-year-old Cassie Flynn spends her days talking about hefty issues. There are rising sea levels wiping out entire countries, droughts impacting the food security of an entire region, and mega-storms like Superstorm Sandy becoming the norm. “It’s very hard not to feel overwhelmed by this,” she said. “You want to do nothing or leave it to the CEOs or world leaders or people having these large conversations.”
…
Deciding to show regular people how they can help, Flynn started an initiative called Climate Winners that officially launched last night in a private room of Sixty Soho, a trendy downtown Manhattan Hotel. The idea is to use short videos and tidbits on Twitter TWTR +0.00% and Instagram to spread the word about small, easy changes everyone can make in their lives to mitigate climate change.
…
Another video called “sustainable flirting” teaches you how to make better decisions when getting ready for a date. Both men and women use health and beauty products like makeup, deodorant, cologne, and hair products before leaving the house. These have chemicals that don’t break-up and accumulate in the ecosystem (“Talk about a shitty party,” says Flynn.) So it’s important to use products that are organic. “Ignore fancy words like ”natural’ or ‘hypoallergenic’ on the front and choose products with shorter lists of ingredients and avoid things that have synthetic fragrance,” she advises. Red lipsticks are particularly known for containing toxins like lead, so check if yours does!
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alysonkrueger/2015/11/18/want-to-combat-climate-change-give-up-red-lipstick-drink-local-and-fly-direct-no-problem/
Consumer products do occasionally contain bizarre and dangerous additives. The “Mercurochrome” antiseptic my Mum used to apply to scrapes and cuts, contained substantial quantities of hideously toxic organic Mercury compounds. China in 2007 got into a lot of trouble, because some Chinese companies were adding anti-freeze to Toothpaste. Similarly, some European companies got busted in 1985 because they were adding anti-freeze to wine.
Here is what the FDA has to say about Mercury Lead and Lipstick.
What did FDA’s expanded survey reveal about lipsticks on the market?
The expanded survey found that the average lead concentration in the 400 lipsticks tested was 1.11 ppm, very close to the average of 1.07 ppm obtained in our initial survey. The results ranged from the detection limit of 0.026 ppm to the highest value of 7.19 ppm. For a table of the results, see FDA Analyses of Lead in Lipsticks – Expanded Survey. The expanded survey will be published in the May/June, 2012, issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Science.
Is there a safety concern about the lead levels FDA found in lipsticks?
No. We have assessed the potential for harm to consumers from use of lipstick containing lead at the levels found in both rounds of testing. Lipstick, as a product intended for topical use with limited absorption, is ingested only in very small quantities. We do not consider the lead levels we found in the lipsticks to be a safety concern. The lead levels we found are within the limits recommended by other public health authorities for lead in cosmetics, including lipstick.
Read more: http://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/ProductsIngredients/Products/ucm137224.htm
Obviously its possible that any cosmetic products you buy in a third world flea market while on holiday might not meet FDA standards, though I don’t know why anyone would think this reservation would particularly apply to red lipstick. Having said that, I think its safe to say that on this issue at least, provided you exercise a modicum of caution about your sources, Cassie Flyn is talking nonsense.
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I love a sexy lady putting on lipstick. There’s some videos I can hook you up with. Pretty soft core but will get you off if into that kind of thing.
Umm…what?
Anthony —
Actually — stevek — is quite funny — if you are into that type of humor. Think of the movie “The Producers” and “Springtime For Hitler” and the reaction of the audience. Then somebody yells out “Hey, that guy is funny!” and everybody starts laughing.
I do “the mind boggling” statement myself every once in a while.
But some of our national leaders have that type of humor down pat. Take Obama calling ISIS the JV Team and saying it was contained just before the Paris Massacre. And he will go to Paris and undoubtedly call “Climate Change” the greatest threat the world has ever known. And how about John Kerry, his every public statement is really that type of humor though few have caught on. And Hillary Clinton — her tongue in cheek lies flabbergast the nation! Wait until the public realizes what a joker she really is!!!!! She doesn’t want to be president! Really deep down in her heart all she really wants is the public to laugh at her!!!!!! Any day now she will do her act wearing a green fright wig!!! Unless they put up a fence this is the type of woman who will walk off the edge of the stage to get a laugh! She is “loose in the noodle” as I once heard one great comic described.
Those crazy (got to love them) students at Missouri and Yale are heroically attempting to master this type of humor!
Oh, well, enough said.
Eugene WR Gallun
Anthony,
I apolgize for my post. I had taken an ambien sleeping pill before going to bed and was reading article. People end up doing, saying very odd things when on this medication. Sorry !!
The use of red lipstick originated in ancient Babylon where the ‘Harlots of Babylon’ used it to advertise the specialty of their trade, fellatio.
What does lead have to do with CO2?
There is no link made between lead and global warming in the article. They are treated as two separate issues. The Forbes headline is misleading. The article describes a video showing how people can make small changes to reduce climate change. The it says in another video she talks about dating without harming the environment. Another case of headline writers getting it wrong. I would recomend not getting your information from headlines.
“dating without harming the environment”
Surely this is the #1 criterion when seeking a mate these days.
..What does lead have to do with CO2?….
This is to do with putting lipstick on a pig….
Ah ha! Lipstick will lead to even more little porkers thus more methane.
And mouths exhausting CO2…
Surely it will lead to even more porkies?
Red Lipstick presumably contains red lead. Does white lipstick contain white lead? We used to use both red and white lead paints as first and second coats – makes it easier to see “holidays”.
Okay. I will.
And what exactly qualifies one to become a “Climate Change Consultant at the United Nations”? Is this an advocacy position or a contract position (i.e. public relations for the U.N.).
“…small, easy changes that everyone can make in their lives to mitigate climate change.” reminds me of the naivety of the young bunch of film-making white water kayakers I met who were so proud of the fact that their camera equipment was powered by solar cells while not grasping that the amount of energy involved there was many orders of magnitude less than that consumed by their global gallivanting by jet and automobile.
Tell me this is a parody. PLEASE!!!!
Nope. However, my Chinese sister-in-law and a lot of her girlfriends are way ahead on this curve. She tattooed her lips red about four years ago. Problem solved.
Ouch!!
My wife has very light eyebrows, so she had them tattooed a number of years back.
You just have to be informed better than anybody else. Rising sea levels wiping out entire countries – yes, she is a citizen of Atlantis! Or a Minoan?
That’s what I don’t get. People demand that climate change is a huge deal and then underestimate the costs of actually doing things by multiple orders of magnitude. The actions taken are at complete odds with the rhetoric that they expouse. Even as a child, I could see that if fire was the problem and the problem was irreversible then we would have to ban fire to stop climate change, which was nonsensical to me even in grade school.
I wonder sometimes, are they hypocrites or just stupid?
What am I going to put on my pig?
BBQ sauce. Believe me, It tastes better. 😛
Stilettos?
In Northern Nigeria, it is common to use ground galena, a lead ore that contains about 80% lead, as a powdered cosmetic for making blue-gray, finely sparkled eye shadow and other face markings. These healthy-looking young ladies didn’t seem to be suffering, so I feel safe kissing a women wearing red lipstick (and I’m looking forward to it!)
Well Gary the Ebola and HIV virus might be a graver risk in northern Nigeria than any possible combination of cosmetics!
Obviously you’ve never watched Batman.
Not to mention Boko Haram, who are an ever-present threat of imminent death to people all over Nigeria.
You lucky fellow!!!!!!!
I made the mistake of going to Cassie’s website.
She can’t understand why anyone would wrap coconuts in plastic wrap….
“I picked one up like it was an alien. I remembered holding the heavy coconut in my hand in Tuvalu. I was confused – why would you wrap a coconut in plastic? The fruit had a shell that didn’t need any help. It’s not spikey or dangerous or needed in any recipe I could think of. We don’t wrap oranges or bananas in plastic wrap. Why in the world would we do it for a coconut? I stood there for a long while just staring at this pile of shiny coconuts in front of me.”
She didn’t bother to investigate WHY some coconuts need to be wrapped… (to pass through customs if they aren’t domestic, if they’ve been hulled before export it serves to buffer the shells from cracking when they bang into each other, it preserves the freshness and amount of the coconut milk inside from dehydration, to prevent infestation of bugs once hulls are removed etc)…nope. She assumed it was merely a wasteful function….(because ALL produce growers and importers/exporters LOVE to spend additional money and labor putting things in shiny plastic wrap) Idiot.
And the article states that if more people would take direct flights instead of connecting flights…airlines would offer more of them and that means less emissions on take off and landing. (forehead smack) Does someone really need to explain to these people that “connecting flights” are simply DIRECT FLIGHTS between cities that are closer together that were going to happen anyway…and that demanding that airlines create more “direct flights” over longer distances means they will create those longer flights IN ADDITION TO the shorter ones?
I want my 5 minutes back. Seriously.
How ’bout STAY HOME? Telecommute? Stay-cation? Grow your veggies in your own garden, fertilized with your own chicken manure, burn wood in an EPA-approved stove and go to bed at dusk. Now THOSE would be some suggestions for more “sustainable” living. The very idea that someone actually pays a SALARY to this kid to come up with bubble-headed garbage like this is what’s truly disturbing.
Burning wood is about 100 times more polluting than using the most retrograde coal fired power station. All the PM2.5 is extremely carcinogenic.
How about changing that to “fertilized with your own manure”, and leave off the exploitation of the poor chickens?
The world gone mad!
Space travel viable yet? I’m ready for life on another planet…
I stopped buying plastic wrapped coconuts as every one I purchased had gone sour, meat and milk.
Now my coconut cream comes from cans unsweetened and un-thickened.
@Aphan. That and at least in the US of A most airline operate a Hub System. Typically you board a flight go the Hub to get “concentrated” then board a very full flight to your destination. I used to live in Florida and worked for AT&T and flew to New Jersey quite often. I almost always flew Delta. That means going through Atlanta then on to Newark. My colleagues used to joke that even when you die, you go through Atlanta.
No, if you are bad and die, you just go to Atlanta…..
She has a point actually. Many UK supermarkets still sell coconuts, pineapples etc loose without any plastic wrapping. Frankly I would far sooner buy my fruit and vegetables from someone who lets me see and touch them first. Of course in today’s world fit for morons they have to stick a ‘best before’ label on them.
so far..Ive not seen plastic wrapped coconuts
but as the eyes are the weak areas for mould etc
wrapping would seem to be asking for them to go off faster surely?
if bugs are a problem then sulphur fume em
if knocking together cracks them? huh? how many bashes with a hammer does it take to crack one..have to be super rough handling to crack them??
pack em tight in a cardboard box with card separators. all biodegradeable too.
sheesh
Keith, I have no idea why the coconuts were wrapped, and many stores here in the US sell them loose and unwrapped as well. My point was that instead of finding out WHY the ones she saw 10 years ago were wrapped, she chose to view it as a metaphore (her word) about waste and damaging the environment.
My logical brain immediately came up with a number of reasons why they might have been wrapped, and I rejected her conclusion based on the zero evidence she presented to back it up. But I’m weird that way.
Don’t try and see her world through your framework of sense and reason. It just doesn’t work. You can not explain the attitudes and beliefs of these people using your brain, because they don’t use theirs. They “emote”, rather than think. Everything is one big mix of emotions for them. The best solution is to turn their emotions against themselves by pointing out they really are incredibly bad people by wanting to deny the poor cheap reliable sources of energy.
If I remember correctly, back in the mid 50’s they wrapped fruit such as apples, pears, etc individually in tissue like paper and the fruit came in little wooden boxes. I always loved it when my mom came home with one of these fruit boxes. That meant that for the next few days we could enjoy looking through the stacks of catalogs stacked in the out house, rather than using them.
I usually use a bit of salt, pepper and caraway followed by slow heat. The pig is normally in a post-mortem, parted-out state when I do this.
“Ignore fancy words like ‘natural’.” Can’t make this crap up!
I don’t think I’ve ever used red lipstick, just ChapStick.
I used Mercurochrome, and Merthiolate – that stung even more, we used it for the uglier scrapes, though it may have the same active chemical. Worked well, and also worked better as behavior modification than Mom’s “Be careful.” She didn’t sting as much. 🙂
http://boomergrandparents.com/wp-content/image/Mercurochrome-300×268.jpg
Ah – Merthiolate has thiomersal, the preservative in some vaccines and once considered as a cause of autism. (And still is by some people who don’t understand science.)
I understand enough science to know that injecting mercury into the flesh n doing that for some 38vaccines+ now pushed on babies from birth ie HepB for newborns who do not have any full immune system defence..with often unlisted adjuvants traces of pig/monkey/dog kidney etc tissue and other crap
is NOT something that anyone should have the power to enforce on those who choose to opt out for themselves or their kids.
Cumulative total becomes rather nasty if you add it all up.
OZ, there’s a problem of public health. If you want to let your child get whooping cough, that’s your problem. However, if that kid is near my daughter, I’m going to be upset. Vaccines aren’t 100% effective, and you can only give the whooping cough vaccine so early. Infants die because of that disease, and every person who refused vaccines out of irrational fears is complicit in spreading it.
Also, every one of those vaccines, both separately and in conjuction, have been tested with well documented and small side-effects. This is necessary to stop plagues, and is the primary reason that we have seen a huge drop in child mortality this past century.
1) The form of mercury in thiomersal is not bio-active.
2) There isn’t enough of it to cause a problem anyway.
No, decrease of infectious diseases occurred before the vaccines were available.
Nice try with the vaxxers propaganda.
It’s almost like improved sanitation and medical intervention had something to do with those drops! Now go look at the death rates prior to and after vaccines. But hey, ask Britain how that anti measles vac thing worked out:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/measles-uptick-in-britain-blame-andrew-wakefields-autism-vaccine-study/
Measles kill about 150,000 people a year worldwide today compared to the 350,000+ it was killing yearly 10 years ago. That’s about the number of women that die every year on the US from heart disease. I suppose you think that they shouldn’t try to prevent THAT either..
“I suppose you think that they shouldn’t try to prevent THAT either..”
Don’t suppose. Try to make a rational argument based on serious sources.
Vaccines aren’t tested like normal drugs.
There is no proof of efficacy for many vaccines.
We see epidemics of diseases among vaccinated people. Yet the hysterical vaxxers call for more vaccination, and mandatory vaccination, in violation of the most fundamental human rights and in violation of doctors’ obligations.
Vaccines faith is the the globul warming faith of Big Medicine.
http://forum.actuanimaux.com/showthread.php?3916-Le-laboratoire-merck-La-cruaute-a-l-etat-pur-sur-des-juments-en-gestation
personne ne parle des problèmes après vaccinations “obligatoires” d’ailleurs
do you know if thes women are fed properly ? “le terrain est tout” –
don’t forget “NIGARI’
You’re in some fantasy land there simple.
I am old enough to remember some of the terrors that were extremely real; e.g. polio, whooping cough, measles, mumps, smallpox, chickenpox, and TB.
Mass use of those vaccines changed the health issues literally overnight.
Any arguments that anti-vaccine claim are all anti-science. Avoid vaccines if you are so inclined, just don’t be surprised when you find out that those infectious diseases are deadly serious and not jokes. Just check out the third world issues with diseases whose vaccines are passed over; e.g. measles.
When a number of these major leaps in vaccines became available, thousands were lined up and vaccinated. Only a very small number had reactions to the vaccination with the majority of the reactions being an allergy.
A vaccination is an inoculation with a non-infectious version of the actual disease that induces a person’s own immunity system.
A vaccination is not a drug!
Vaccinations still undergo serious testing, validation and verification procedures.
Any decreases in infections you pretend exist as ‘proof against’ vaccination are due to the anti-mosquito, quarantine measures or improved sanitation that may have reduced but did not eliminate infections.
There are many causes for vaccines not properly initiating immunity including mishandling the vaccine, improper vaccination or even resistance to the vaccine. All of which prove vaccination benefits not weaknesses. Any allegations of actual epidemics among vaccinated people you will have to prove by science. e.g. Twenty seven, which is not an epidemic, measles cases in Russia 2000-2005.
“A vaccination is not a drug!”
Stop. Talking. Bullshit.
I preferred Merthiolate and greatly miss it. The goop they sell as antiseptic frequently leaves one unsure whether it is effective.
10% Iodine, works and stings:-)
And safer. They do make a 1% iodine salve also, discolors less, lasts longer.
ozspeaksup:
I like tincture of iodine mixtures too.
One can always tell the efficacy level by the iodine stain as iodine evaporates over time.
Hard to find the tincture anymore here. It has become one of the ‘ask the pharmacist’ products.
Lead and mercury (the element, not the planet) in lipstick!!!!!
We’re DOOMED!
They’ll both kill us and neither would exist if it wasn’t for LIPSTICK!!!!!
Ban lipstick!!!!!!!!
Oh…. wait a minute.
Lead and mercury both came from the Earth.
BAN THE EARTH!!!!!!!!!
Uranium is found in all soils at about 3 ppm (pdf, where it’s taken up in plants. Cassie needs to stop eating.
Especially bananas. Oh, the thought of consuming all that radioactive Potassium 40! My God!
The average human has about 9 million atoms of uranium in their body at any one time.
To be on the safe side Cassie Flynn should go green.
That certainly works for me! I’ll never say anything bad about going green again.
Please don’t hate me for this…
GloZell earned some notoriety with her YouTube demonstration of how to bathe in Fruit Loops and milk.
http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/01/150126bokblustercartoon.jpg
Save time by having breakfast and a bath at the same time?
In the little ice age folks had white lips and green teeth.
As much as I wish I could travel to Fiji, or Paris (or any number of touristy destinations that average people would never be paid to travel to), to inform Cassie Flynn that my sister, my older sister, doesn’t use red lipstick for altruistic reasons, I can’t. It’s true, however, that she doesn’t wear red lipstick, but not for any reason Cassie Flynn may hope for. You see, my sister, my older sister is a vampire. She doesn’t wear lipstick because her lips are already red from blood.
Is what I just wrote pretty silly? Not if you’ve had the blood sucked out of you by busybodies.
Human blood contains Iron. Make sure she doesn’t “drink” too many humans….
It’s usually only wealthy old men that she’s had convinced to give her property power of attorney. Then it’s ‘hasta la vista, baby!’
So how many women are going to go without? LOL.
Only the women who also refuse to wear deodorant, shave their legs, wash their hair regularly, etc. They aren’t even a blip on the cosmetic industry’s radar.
That’d be me! Damn, I’m green! 😉
My wife was at one of those cosmetic consumer consultation events which are basically sales pitches for their products, she somewhat upset them when answering the question “what do you use on your face to keep your clear complexion” . She said “soap, water and a flannel” . When we married she used no make up at all and was the most beautiful woman on the planet (of course that is only my opinion even though the rose tinted classes have made way for more regular glasses)
James Bull
“James Bull
November 18, 2015 at 11:20 pm”
Same was true for my, now, former wife. Maybe a little lippy. She is Ethiopian.
“though I don’t know why anyone would think this reservation would particularly apply to red lipstick”
Lead oxides were used for “natural” red pigment (minium) as well as a mercury mineral, cinnabar,
I’m aware of that. But if you throw out the rule book, and buy cosmetics from an untrustworthy source, there are other equally horrible or even worse ingredients you could use as colourants in cosmetics, so there is no reason to pick on red in particular.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheele%27s_Green
You could try radium to make your lips light up?
I must be “green” – I don’t use red lipstick.
(Because it looks like sh!t on me.)
It does on most of us! lol
“Climate Winners”?
I think that needs an h and only one n.
“sustainable flirting” ???
that’s contrary to my primary objective – biological diversity (only in safe spaces to be PC)
Hi Bubba! Actually, I rather like the idea of sustainable flirting. Flirting is an activity to be engaged in throughout the entirety of one’s life. I’ve seen boys and girls, barely out of diapers, flirting. After my recent endoscopy (every goddam year) I managed to muster the wherewithal to flirt with the cute nurse. I’ve found, however, that the sudden release of methane cannot coexist with sustainable flirting.
Best wishes, always.
(“Talk about a shitty party,” says Flynn.)
================
Shitty how ?
The fact that people are paid to come up with this nonsense is telling. I wonder who is really behind the scenes paying for all of this? It’s fairly obvious why the UN is spearheading the AGW meme but there are just too many making money from it.
I don’t know for sure, but there is probably some form of petroleum jelly used in lipstick so it can’t be Big Oil.
Hmmm … The Commies are often referred to as “Reds” so it can’t be them. (That also rules out any Cincinnati Reds fans.)
Do the people that make Crayola Crayons make more money from green crayons than red ones?
Is it time for another RICO investigation?
Our taxes at work…
Please! PLEASE don’t tell me she got a government grant for this!
She’s a UN climate advisor. The UN pays her to help formulate global policy on how we should all be encouraged to live…
UN climate advisor?
And she’s against red lipstick?
She must be new.
She must have never met Rajendra K. Pachauri.
OK, I won’t tell you that she got a government grant.
It appears that she’s a full time employee of the UN. lindedin
I hope that makes you feel better.
UN . We directly pay her wages.
I’m already 2 for 3, but I’m not giving up on the ladies who wear red lipstick, not even the mercurial ones.
They are very bad for my equanimity.
Well, I could have said- “not even the mercurial reds.” and left it to the reader to figure if I meant women, or lipstick- but I know Pamela Gray is out there, listening…
*Tiptoes past commieBob*…
Useless but trendy. That has been going on forever. Only now the bureaucrats are setting the style.