That was a genuine ride. At first I felt your story was like a kind of novel. Not all of us meet someone who was once a government agent. When I read your question about aliens, I laughed out loud! I really didn't expect that. Interesting how you describe the process and how your young age played a role in what you wanted to know. I assume that secret services are doing things we would rather not know. You have done a lot of research to explain the Flourid problem in water and toothpaste etc.. Respect for your work.

This seems to be a really serious problem in the States (and other countries) and there is no solution in sight. Does anyone drink from the faucet at all? I remember finding the water in California so repulsive and it smelled of chlorine so much that I wondered how such a thing even works.

My man told me about Flourid a few years ago and I have since switched to a biologically flawless toothpaste that my son also uses.

As consumers, it is quite difficult for us to check our food and goods for harmful substances and so there is no one hundred percent protection.

My way of dealing with it is to realize that much of what manufacturers produce is very likely to harm me. So that I don't faint over it, I see that there are many things that are in return beneficial to me. As human beings, we are born into a modernity that imposes a heavy legacy on us and raises our awareness of the damage to nature.

All the advantages of our modern life come with a price.

If you asked people what they want to do without, you would probably not be surprised that actually almost everyone wants to live just as comfortably as before, but without having to do without the usual amenities.

I therefore take the liberty of asking myself the critical question that if a society continues to focus on growth, improving the quality of life in the sense of accumulation of material values and boundless mobility, industrial hazardous waste will continue to exist which in one way or another intervenes in all biological cycles and causes problems there.

I suspect that one's own behaviour regarding the consumption of resources such as water and energy leads governments to mistakenly believe that their peoples are not particularly interested in improving their energy balances and are in principle unwilling to accept a deterioration in their quality of life.

In any case, I see people walking through their homes in T-shirts in the middle of winter, while outside it is minus ten degrees. When I recently spoke to a family member about whether he would be prepared to give up his car because the damage caused by roads and vehicles would be obvious, I got the answer that he would like to see environmentally friendly vehicles produced and that he would not have to pay more for them than at present.

A sobering answer, and I think we are all more or less - even if we do not want to admit it - of the opinion that we want everything exactly as we are used to from good times, but environmentally friendly. I suspect this will not work.

Have you heard of the cradle-to-cradle concept? It works with this issues and suggests to put everything in technical and biological cycles. For example, you wouldn't buy a washing machine but rent ten thousand times washing. Afterwards it goes back into the technical cycle and will be fully used for other goods. You can google it and you will find some interesting research material. This is still in baby-shoes and much of it is still more public relations than anything significant in producing in this way. But it's a beginning.