Green Videos & Green News: Environment Videos // Current

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Zimbabwe: Diamonds' bloody trail

Human Rights Watch said Friday that Zimbabwe's armed forces have taken over diamond fields in the east and killed more than... more

ClipsFC
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Answering questions about organic

In the year since I have been writing this column, readers have sent in many questions about organic foods. With the White House... more

JanforGore
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"From cell phones and computers to bicycle helmets and hospital IV bags, plastic has molded society in many ways that make life both easier and safer. But the synthetic material also has left harmful imprints on the environment and perhaps human health, according to a new compilation of articles authored by scientists from around the world.

More than 60 scientists contributed to the new report, which aims to present the first comprehensive review of the impact of plastics on the environment and human health, and offer possible solutions.

“One of the most ubiquitous and long-lasting recent changes to the surface of our planet is the accumulation and fragmentation of plastics,” wrote David Barnes, a lead author and researcher for the British Antarctic Survey. The report was published this month in a theme issue of Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B, a scientific journal.

“Plastics are very long-lived products that could potentially have service over decades, and yet our main use of these lightweight, inexpensive materials are as single-use items that will go to the garbage dump within a year, where they’ll persist for centuries,” Richard Thompson, lead editor of the report, said in an interview.

Evidence is mounting that the chemical building blocks that make plastics so versatile are the same components that might harm people and the environment. And its production and disposal contribute to an array of environmental problems, too. For example:

• Chemicals added to plastics are absorbed by human bodies. Some of these compounds have been found to alter hormones or have other potential human health effects.

• Plastic debris, laced with chemicals and often ingested by marine animals, can injure or poison wildlife.

• Floating plastic waste, which can survive for thousands of years in water, serves as mini transportation devices for invasive species, disrupting habitats.

• Plastic buried deep in landfills can leach harmful chemicals that spread into groundwater.

• Around 4 percent of world oil production is used as a feedstock to make plastics, and a similar amount is consumed as energy in the process.

People are exposed to chemicals from plastic multiple times per day through the air, dust, water, food and use of consumer products.""From cell phones and computers to bicycle helmets and hospital IV bags, plastic has molded society in many ways that make... more

DeliaTheArtist
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8 responses

1 day ago

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The Truth Behind Secret Recipes in Coke, KFC, Etc.

"Everybody loves secrets, mystery, and intrigue. That's why mystery novels and films have been popular for decades, and why shows like "The X-Files" and "Lost" are cult hits.

The commercial appeal of a good mystery (real or manufactured) has not been lost on advertisers. "Mystery meat" aside, several famous brands have emphasized the uniqueness of their secret-ingredient-containing products.

But is there really any such thing as a "secret ingredient" these days? After all, over the past decade consumers have gotten more and more disclosure about what's in the food they eat-- everything from calorie content to food allergy information. Furthermore, laboratory analysis has kept up with the times. Perhaps when A.J. Bush baked his first recipe in 1908, or when the Coca-Cola company was founded in 1892, there was no way to determine what "secret ingredients" might be in a product.

But these days, any laboratory worth its sodium chloride can tell pretty much what chemicals and ingredients appear in what quantities of a given sample. It's food science, not rocket science.

In his book "Big Secrets," William Poundstone revealed a laboratory analysis of Kentucky Fried Chicken: "The sample of coating mix was found to contain four and only four ingredients: flour, salt, monosodium glutamate, and black pepper. There were no eleven herbs and spices — no herbs at all in fact... Nothing was found in the sample that couldn't be identified." So much for the "secret." In fact, the chicken's ingredient statement is available on KFC's Web site.

As for Coke Classic, well, the formula can be found on page 43 of Poundstone's book, but it includes vanilla extract, citrus oils, and lime juice flavoring.

There's no cocaine in Coke, and technically there never was, though it uses coca leaves and kola nuts as flavorings and stimulants. Cocaine is not the same as the coca leaf it is derived from; for centuries, natives in South American countries regularly chewed on the coca leaf for its anesthetic and mild stimulant properties. But just as chewing on a coca leaf is not "taking cocaine," neither is drinking a Coke."

The Secret? THERE IS NO SECRET!"Everybody loves secrets, mystery, and intrigue. That's why mystery novels and films have been popular for decades, and... more

DeliaTheArtist
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9 responses

1 day ago

: ^#5

Fabrics of summer

Another rarely used fabric for clothing by Nepalis is hemp. Similar to linen and cotton, this natural fabric is also a cool choice... more

devincalloway
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0 responses

1 hour ago

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Study confirms increase in wheat gluten disorder

A Minnesota study using frozen blood samples taken from Air Force recruits 50 years ago has found that intolerance of wheat... more

JanforGore
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1 response

20 hours ago

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Oregon Passes Hemp Bill

Today, by a vote of 46 to 11, the Oregon House passed SB 676, a bill that permits production and possession of industrial hemp and... more

JackHerer
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40 responses

6 days ago

: ^#8

Coal Country: The Movie Coming in Fall 2009

Published on Friday, July 3, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
The Film Big Coal Does Not Want You to See
by Jeff Biggers

As a groundbreaking clean energy counterpart to this summer's extraordinary Food, Inc. documentary on the agribusiness, the long-awaited "Coal Country" film on the cradle-to-grave process of generating our coal-fired electricity will be hitting the theatres next week with the big bang of an ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosive.

And Big Coal ain't happy.

After a year-long campaign of threats and intimidation, the Big Coal lobby plans to have its Friends of Coal sycophants out in force to picket the premiere of the film on July 11, 7pm, at La Belle Theater in the South Charleston Museum in Charleston, West Virginia.

Why is Big Coal so afeared of this documentary film by native Appalachian daughters Mari-Lynn Evans and Phylis Geller, producer and director of three-part award-winning landmark PBS series, "The Appalachians"?

If anything, Coal Country goes out of its way to include the views and voices of the Big Coal lobby and its executives, engineers and miners. This, in fact, might be why Coal Country is so compelling; far from any hackneyed agenda, Coal Country simply allows the coal industry and those affected by its mountaintop removal operations and coal-fired plants to tell their personal stories. The end result is devastating. In a methodical and deliberate fashion, Coal Country brilliantly takes viewers on a rare journey through our nation's coal-fired electricity, from the extraction, processing, transport, and burning of coal.

Once you see the breathtaking footage by cameraman Jordan Freeman, and the unaffected and heart-rending portraits of coal mining families, you will never flick on your light switch again without thinking about Coal Country.

From the git-go, West Virginia governor and coal peddler Joe Manchin declares: "There is no replacement for coal. There might be 30 or 50 or 100 years from now, but there's not today."

A French engineer cheerfully proclaims, "Coal is a wonderful resource. It's too bad it's dirty."

As one coal company executive coldly states, the millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives that rip through the Appalachian mountains and poison the watersheds and air of local communities daily, "might make some people uncomfortable."Published on Friday, July 3, 2009 by CommonDreams.org The Film Big Coal Does Not Want You to See by Jeff Biggers As a... more

SeaJade
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5 responses

23 hours ago

: ^#9

The Beach

Consequence of an Action...

carolkras
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0 responses

21 hours ago

: ^#10

New Washing Machine Uses Plastic Instead of Water

Xeros is working on a new breed of washing machines that will use only a cup of water per load, relying on reusable nylon beads to... more

singrrr
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35 responses

11 days ago

: ^#11

Bugs: The Forgotten Victims of Climate Change

“Animals such as polar bears, tigers and dolphins are tremendously important, but mostly because they help define how we think about our relationship with the natural world,” says Hellmann. “But when it comes to the functioning of ecosystems, insects are where it’s at.”

Why are insects so ecologically important? “They carry diseases, they pollinate and they have economic impacts on crops and timber,” says Hellmann, a biologist at the University of Notre Dame. In fact, almost 80 percent of the world’s crop plants require pollination, and the annual value of insect pollinated crops in the U.S. is about $20 billion. What’s more, most of the living organisms on Earth are insects.

They are also particularly sensitive to climate change — as invertebrates, they can’t regulate their own body temperatures — making them “great little thermometers,” Hellmann adds.

How will those “great little thermometers” respond when climate change makes their habitats too hot or too dry for them?

As climate change progresses, some insects may become trapped — like fish out of water — in habitats that can no longer support them. They may therefore go extinct or lose genetically important segments of their populations. But other species, and no one knows which ones yet, may be able to reach cooler climates by moving north on their own.

But the potential of some insect, plant and animal species to survive outside of their native habitats begs the question: should endangered species whose habitats are harmed by climate change be manually moved to more accommodating habitats? Hellmann warns that this idea, called “managed relocation” or “assisted migration,” remains highly controversial.

“Under some circumstances, managed relocation might be wildly successful and save a species from extinction,” says Hellmann. “But under other circumstances, relocated species may overpopulate their new habitats, cause extinctions of local species or clog water pipes as invasive zebra muscles have done in the Great Lakes.” Such risks have traditionally compelled most scientists to reject managed relocation.

“Ten years ago, we would have said, ‘No way. Managed relocation is a stupid idea.’ And that’s because the best strategy is to reduce greenhouse gases. But we are not reducing greenhouse gases fast enough.”

What do you think? Should we relocate creatures that are potentially victims of climate change?“Animals such as polar bears, tigers and dolphins are tremendously important, but mostly because they help define how we... more

DeliaTheArtist
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0 responses

10 minutes ago

: ^#12

US house passes historic climate change bill

The US House of Representatives on Friday narrowly passed historic legislation to cut carbon emissions blamed for climate change,... more

JanforGore
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115 responses

9 days ago

: ^#13

Phoenix Lander discovers snowfall on Mars

Many outlets are reporting on the recently released results of the various experiments and observations of NASA's Mars... more

Tyrannous
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15 responses

1 day ago

: ^#14

Honor Our Hemp-Raising Patriot Heroes

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison---virtually all Revolutionary Americans who had access to land---embraced hemp’s critical role in our early economy.

Accordingly, they raised it in mass quantities.

We must now honor them by demanding its immediate legalization, to save our economy and our ecology.

For rope, for paper, for clothing, for food, for fuel, this miracle plant has been a critical crop for cash and survival for 6,000 years, since the onset of ancient China.

Today it is a multi-billion-dollar product there and in Germany and Canada, among other major economies.

There is no rational reason for hemp to be illegal. Some law enforcement “experts” say it resembles marijuana, and therefore must be banned.

What are they smoking? Certainly not hemp, which gives its imbibers little more than a splitting headache and a nasty cough.

Today, marijuana is the largest cash crop in many states and regions of the United States. A billion dollars-worth of it was purchased under medical auspices last year in California alone. Properly taxed, its users freed from our overcrowded prisons, pot’s legalization could offer a giant step out of our financial morass.

But as an agricultural staple, marijuana pales alongside hemp. This miracle weed returns on its own year after year, requiring no pesticides, herbicides or special fertilizers. It is hardy, fast-growing and supremely productive.

A single hemp plant can provide the basis for very high-quality rope, sails for ships, cloth for clothing, paper for documents, seeds for food and oil, the cellulosic base for ethanol, and much more. It is the feed of choice for untold numbers of birds and land animals. It can be the basis for innumerable stressed eco-systems where it survives and thrives with virtually no human input.

As a staple spread across the Great Plains and through the rest of America’s battered farmland, it could help restore our shattered crop base and our devastated rural economy.

Presidents Washington and Jefferson---both of them extremely advanced agronomists---cataloged their techniques for growing hemp at great length. They would simply not comprehend the concept---let alone the reality---that hemp might be illegal.

Early drafts of both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written on sturdy paper made of hemp.George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison---virtually all Revolutionary Americans who had access to land---embraced... more

JackHerer
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11 responses

1 day ago

: ^#15

Why is marine conservation so neglected?

There are hundreds of organisations in the UK devoted to the conservation of the land and its animals. Unbelievably there is only... more

Seasaver
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0 responses

1 day ago

: ^#16

Can religion survive science?

Can religion survive science? Is it anti-religion to be pro-science? Are religion and science compatible? Can one embrace a... more

unimatrix0
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118 responses

15 days ago

: ^#17

One Fifth of World's Population Can't See Milky Way At Night

"Light pollution has caused one-fifth of the world's population — mostly in Europe, Britain and the US — to... more

Tyrannous
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52 responses

26 days ago

: ^#18

'Spaceship' boosts anti-whaling force against Japan's might

Japan has asked Australia to prevent the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin leaving port to harass its whalers in the Antarctic next summer, but the plea may have little effect.

The anti-whaling activists plan to upgrade their fleet from an ageing, former North Atlantic fisheries patrol boat to include another ship - something out of the future. The global speedboat Earthrace would head south under Sea Shepherd colours next summer, the group's leader Paul Watson said.

"It looks like a spaceship. It can do 40 knots and dive under waves completely. We'll be using it to intercept and block harpoons."

In 61 days last year Earthrace circled the globe fuelled by biodiesel. The New Zealand owner/skipper, Pete Bethune, said he decided to become involved because "this is happening in my backyard and it really pisses me off. I'm going to make a stand."

He said he was adding half a tonne of Kevlar to the vessel to toughen it against the ice. It had the endurance to go half way round the world on a tank of fuel.

"They won't get away from me," he said.

Earthrace's role was unveiled as the International Whaling Commission heard that Sea Shepherd's protests endangered the lives of whalers in the Southern Ocean last summer when the Steve Irwin was involved in two collisions.

"These are highly dangerous, and it can only be described as a miracle that there has been no death or large-scale accident to date," said a Japanese delegation member, Jun Yamashita.

"We cannot tolerate such audacity," Mr Yamashita told the commission. "We ask for

all appropriate measures, including a ban on the ship from leaving port, so that we can prevent these acts from being repeated."

Mr Watson, who is not permitted inside the meeting, said the Steve Irwin was soon to leave Brisbane for Hobart after a $500,000 refit. Its buckled hull plates had been repaired, and it was fitted with a powerful water cannon on the bow to match the whalers'.

He dubbed next summer's campaign Operation Waltzing Matilda and has adopted a symbol with a kangaroo wearing a pirate's eye patch.Japan has asked Australia to prevent the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin leaving port to harass its whalers in the Antarctic next... more

jefftego
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43 responses

9 days ago

: ^#19

Supreme Court Shock: Ruling Says Lethal Mining Waste Can Be Dumped in Lakes

In a ruling that will shock and dismay environmentalists everywhere, the US Supreme Court decided that the Clean Water Act shouldn't prevent mining companies from dumping their toxic waste into lakes--even with full knowledge that doing so will exterminate every trace of life within.

It's absolutely appalling, and now, it's legal. The court's decision will allow Coeur Alaska Inc, a gold mining company, to dump 4.5 million tons of waste into Lower Slate Lake. And that bit about extermination above, that's no exaggeration--the mining company, environmental groups, and even the Supreme Court are all well aware that dumping the waste will literally extinguish all life in the lake.

It's just, the defense goes, that it's the easiest way to get rid of it. And it's "less environmentally damaging than other options." Say what? Okay, before I get ahead of myself, here's how the whole thing happened:

Mining Waste Case Origin
In 2005, Coeur Alaska applied for a permit to dump 4.5 million tons of slurry waste--you know, that toxic stuff that's full of good stuff like arsenic and that likes to break out of containment areas (though it's different than coal ash). They applied to the Army Corps of Engineers, overseen then by the Bush administration, which doled out the permit with full knowledge that the dumping would eliminate all life in the lake and leave permanent environmental degradation. But some green groups got wind of the situation, and sued, saying the Bush administration was violating the Clean Water Act with the action. The US Court of Appeals agreed, and promptly negated the permit in 2007.

Now, after two more years of appeals, the Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeals' ruling. Dump away, says the ruling.

A Precedent for Unregulated Dumping?
Now, the biggest problem here isn't that 4.5 million tons of waste are going to be dumped into a lake in Alaska, believe it or not. It's that the case could set a precedent for unregulated dumping in the future.

The New York Times reports:
“If a mining company can turn Lower Slate Lake in Alaska into a lifeless waste dump, other polluters with solids in their wastewater can potentially do the same to any water body in America,” said Trip Van Noppen, president of the environmental advocacy group Earthjustice, whose lawyer argued the case before the court.

That's what makes the decision so horrifying. There's a glimmer of hope that the EPA could decide that the ruling affects its ability to keep US waters safe, but as of yet, the agency has only said that it's looking into the matter.
It's a truly alarming case, and an unfortunate one in regards to the safety of US lakes and rivers.In a ruling that will shock and dismay environmentalists everywhere, the US Supreme Court decided that the Clean Water Act... more