tagged w/ Civilization
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And we are still being poisoned by companies like Monsanto and Dow, they sure seem to love making people sick!
"From 1961 to 1971, the US military sprayed Vietnam with Agent Orange, which contained large quantities of Dioxin, in order to defoliate the trees for military objectives. Dioxin is one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man. It has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a carcinogen (causes cancer) and by the American Academy of Medicine as a teratogen (causes birth defects).
Vietnamese who were exposed to the chemical have suffered from cancer, liver damage, pulmonary and heart diseases, defects to reproductive capacity, and skin and nervous disorders. Children and grandchildren of those exposed have severe physical deformities, mental and physical disabilities, diseases and shortened life spans. The forests and jungles in large parts of southern Vietnam have been devastated and denuded. They may never grow back and if they do, it will take 50 to 200 years to regenerate. Animals that inhabited the forests and jungles have become extinct, disrupting the communities that depended on them. The rivers and underground water in some areas have also been contaminated. Erosion and desertification will change the environment, contributing to the warming of the planet and dislocation of crop and animal life.
The US government and the chemical companies knew that Agent Orange, when produced rapidly at high temperatures, would contain large quantities of Dioxin. Nevertheless, the chemical companies continued to produce it in this manner. The US government and the chemical companies also knew that the Bionetics Study, commissioned by the government in 1963, showed that even low levels of Dioxin produced significant deformities in unborn offspring of laboratory animals. But they suppressed that study and continued to spray Vietnam with Agent Orange. It wasn't until the study was leaked in 1969 that the spraying of Agent Orange was discontinued.
US soldiers who served in Vietnam have experienced similar illnesses. After they sued the chemical companies, including Dow and Monsanto, that manufactured and sold Agent Orange to the government, the case was settled out of court for $180 million which gave few plaintiffs more than a few thousand dollars each. Later the US veterans won a legislative victory for compensation for exposure to Agent Orange. They receive $1.52 billion per year in benefits.
But when the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange sued the chemical companies in federal court, US District Judge Jack Weinstein dismissed the lawsuit, concluding that Agent Orange did not constitute a poison weapon prohibited by the Hague Convention of 1907. Weinstein had reportedly told the chemical companies when they settled the US veterans' suit that their liability was over and he was making good on his promise. His dismissal was affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The chemical companies admitted in their filing in the Supreme Court that the harm alleged by the victims was foreseeable although not intended. How can something that is foreseeable be unintended?
On May 15 and 16 of this year, the International Peoples' Tribunal of Conscience in Support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange convened in Paris and heard testimony from 27 victims, witnesses and scientific experts. Seven people from three continents served as judges of the Tribunal, which was sponsored by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL).
Testimony given by the witnesses showed the following:
Mai Giang Vu, a member of the Army of South Vietnam, carried barrels of the chemicals on his back. His two sons could not walk or function normally, their limbs gradually "curled up" and they could only crawl. They died at the ages of 23 and 25."
continues at link aAnd we are still being poisoned by companies like Monsanto and Dow, they sure seem to... more
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What are you doing sitting at your computer inside a comfortable building with food and toilets nearby? It's time to forget those things and go camping! Brett Erlich shows you how on a new Viral Video Film School.
Viral Video Film School is a recurring segment on the weekly television show infoMania. In each episode of VVFS, Professor Brett Erlich teaches you valuable skills in the discipline of Viral Video making. So sit down, take notes, and try not to piss him off. For more Brett visit http://current.com/viral-video-film-school/ and Current TV.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at http://current.com/infomania/ or on Current TV. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com.What are you doing sitting at your computer inside a comfortable building with food... more
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and again and again..... when all our natural resources are gone, either used up or polluted beyond any repair - no water no food, well, oil and money are just not that tasty or digestible....
From Earth Justice:
"Did you know that the oil and gas industry, thanks to Dick Cheney and his old friends at Halliburton, are exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act?
That's right: thanks to a provision slipped into the highly-controversial Energy Policy Act of 2005 at the request of Halliburton, Exxon and a handful of other corporations, the oil and gas industry was exempted from having to comply with critical provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act—a law that protects underground sources of drinking water for millions of Americans.
This exemption has allowed hydraulic fracturing—a process that increases oil and gas yields by shooting an oftentimes toxic brew of chemicals underground at high pressures—to go completely unregulated by federal law.
Hydraulic fracturing is already suspected of endangering drinking water in six states. However, due to the "Halliburton Loophole" exemption, EPA lacks the authority to investigate instances of contamination and cannot regulate this controversial practice.
Thankfully, concerned members of Congress in both the House and Senate have recently introduced legislation to close the "Halliburton Loophole" and ensure that Big Oil has to follow the same laws that every other industry does.
H.R. 2766, introduced by Diana DeGette (D-CO), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Jared Polis (D-CO); and S. 1215 introduced by Bob Casey (D-PA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would regulate hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Please contact your congressperson and senators and ask them to cosponsor these important pieces of legislation."and again and again..... when all our natural resources are gone, either used up or... more
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And again.....
As Joni Mitchell sings: "You don't know what you've got till its gone - you pave paradise and put in a parking lot!!!!"
"The Obama administration is currently reviewing hundreds of mountaintop removal permits to make sure they are based on the best science and follow the letter of the law. But the policies currently governing these permits go against the intent of important environmental laws like the Clean Water Act.
It's up to the Obama administration to issue a new rule that prohibits mountaintop removal mining altogether. Although the administration recently promised more stringent review of permits, it has not yet taken the bold action required to end this destructive practice."And again.....
As Joni Mitchell sings: "You don't know what... more
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New archaeological evidence suggests that Easter Island, mysterious home of titanic stone heads, was first settled around A.D. 1200, much later than previously thought.
Once there, the colonizers quickly began erecting the famous statues for which the remote eastern South Pacific island (map) is famous. They also helped deplete the island's natural resources at a much faster rate than previously thought, the study says.
With its barren landscape, the Chilean-controlled island, also known as Isla de Pascua and Rapa Nui, has come to symbolize an isolated civilization that once flourished but suffered ecological catastrophe.
Terry Hunt, the study's lead author, says the new findings highlight the dangers of human-induced environmental change, especially to islands.
"This shows that [such] changes can occur very rapidly," said Hunt, an anthropology professor at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.
The study is to be published in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.
Collapse
Scientists have long treated Easter Island's extinct society as a textbook example of a once thriving civilization that doomed itself by wiping out its natural resources.
Before humans arrived on the isolated island, which is 64 square miles (166 square kilometers) in area, had some 16 million giant palm trees. Twenty or more other tree and woody shrub species formed a forest on the island, as on other local islands.
Yet when Dutch colonizers arrived on Easter Island in 1722, they found the eerie stone carvings and little else.
The natural landscape was totally barren, the island's trees having been cut down—an environmental disaster examined in geographer Jared Diamond's latest best seller, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. (See Guns, Germs and Steel: Jared Diamond on Geography as Power.)
In 1947 Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed a tiny raft, called Kon-Tiki, from Peru to Polynesia in an effort to prove that ancient civilizations could have sailed to the South Pacific.
Relying in part on Heyerdahl's conclusions, scientists have long believed the island was colonized around A.D. 400. More recently, researchers argued that settlement first took place around the year 800.
The deforestation of Easter Island is believed to have begun around 1300, suggesting that there was a period of several centuries during which the islanders lived in harmony with the environment.
Fuel for the Fire
The new study by Hunt and his colleague Carl Lipo, however, suggests that the Polynesians didn't arrive until around 1200. The deforestation began soon thereafter, they say.
The scientists took eight samples of wood charcoal from the bottom of the oldest known archaeological site on the island, Anakena. Radiocarbon dating placed them at around the year 1200.
"This is the first sign of human activity at Anakena and probably for the island," Hunt said. "There is no longer any evidence for settlement earlier than about 1200 A.D."
The findings suggest the island did not enjoy the kind of Garden of Eden period for 400 to 800 years that researchers had previously imagined.
Instead the Polynesians immediately began destroying the trees and giant palms, using the wood for their canoes, for fires, and perhaps for moving statues.
"Radiocarbon dates … show that deforestation took place over 400 to 500 years," starting around 1200, Hunt said.
"This is consistent with our shorter chronology and the observations made by the Dutch in 1722."
Most of the island animals, particularly birds, lost their habitat and were wiped out. Native animals also suffered direct predation from the Polynesian rat, which the colonizers brought with them to the island.
"Like problems of invasive species today,New archaeological evidence suggests that Easter Island, mysterious home of titanic... more
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Yea, the politicianscorporations (one word now) are desperate alright, take from the public as quickly and as much as possible before the stupified public all wake up!!!!!
These people (or are they invaders from another planet - see the movie "The Live") are hell bent on creating hell on earth....
" Desperate to plug California's gaping budget hole, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has turned to an idea he has long opposed - offshore oil drilling.
Schwarzenegger has thrown his support behind a Texas company's proposal to tap an oil field just off the coast of Santa Barbara County. Drills lowered from an existing oil platform near Vandenberg Air Force Base would bore as many as 30 wells into the seabed over the life of the project. The state could reap $1.8 billion in royalties over 14 years.
Viewed on an annual basis, that isn't much - just over $100 million a year. But with California's government facing a $24.3 billion deficit and literally running out of money, the Tranquillon Ridge drilling project would give the governor a rare new source of revenue.
To critics, that smacks of selling out California's treasured coast."
Continued at link above:Yea, the politicianscorporations (one word now) are desperate alright, take from... more
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"Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street’s Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity—and What We Can Do About It. In this video, just uploaded to Chelsea Green TV, he explains the basic concepts behind the financial collapse and Wall Street’s run on public money so that even the layperson can understand."
Meanwhile, there still seems to be plenty of money for weapons of mass destruction, cash bailouts for massive failures who fully express the description of insane that is, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results....
But why is there no cash flow for health, education, social services, road works, parks?"Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street’s... more
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A tiny article on a huge problem. Hazardous left overs - the killing and maiming doesn't stop at the end of a bomb! Although not mentioned in the article, dare I mention and ask where is all the depleted uranium going?
Published on Friday, June 5, 2009 by the San Antonio Express-News
Texans Sue KBR, Halliburton Over War-Zone Burn Pits
by Guillermo Contreras
"Six people from Texas, including some soldiers, who claim they were poisoned by toxins and emissions from burn pits at U.S. camps in Iraq and Afghanistan are suing contractors KBR and Halliburton.
(photo: Dept. of Defense)The suit, moved to federal court in San Antonio from state court last week, alleges the companies operated the large war-zone pits and burned waste since 2004 that included trucks, tires, plastic water bottles, medical waste, hazardous materials, animal carcasses and even human corpses.
The suit claims burning the waste in open pits - with no safety controls - may have released toxins that harmed at least 100,000 people, including U.S. troops, contractors and civilians.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are seeking to make the case a class-action lawsuit, citing evidence that many others are having symptoms or medical conditions that include severe respiratory ailments, asthma, sleep apnea, heart problems, tumors, lymphoma and leukemia.
Some even have died, according to the suit and news reports.
The situation has been likened by some observers to that caused by Agent Orange of the Vietnam era.
The suit was filed on behalf of Robert Cain of San Marcos; Craig Henry of San Antonio; Francis Jaeger of Haltom City; David McMenomy of Lampasas; Mark Posz of San Antonio; and El Kevin Sar of Houston.
The six exhibited symptoms ranging from acute abdominal pains, chronic respiratory infections, burning sensations in the lungs and persistent cold-like symptoms.
McMenomy had a football-size tumor removed from his hip suspected of being caused by fumes from a burn pit at Camp Al Taji, Iraq, the suit said.
The six couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
Lawyers with Burke O'Neill LLC in Washington have filed lawsuits in 10 states, including the one in San Antonio.
Thirty-four suits have been filed or are expected to be filed in 34 states where people with symptoms have surfaced, plaintiffs' attorney Elizabeth Burke said.
The burn pits are so large, the suit said, that tractors are used to push "every type of waste imaginable" into the fire, and the flames shoot hundreds of feet into the sky, sometimes around the clock.
The suit claims the contractors failed to install incinerators to limit the toxic exposure.
"They took an enormous amount of taxpayer dollars and did shoddy work," Burke said of the contractors. "The work they did harmed the soldiers and hindered the military mission. In some bases with an Air Force presence, planes could not take off and land because of the smoke."
Houston-based KBR said it operated within the rules and regulations set by the U.S. military.
"The general assertion that KBR knowingly harmed troops is unfounded as the safety and security of all KBR employees and those the company serves remains our top priority," said an e-mailed statement from KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne.
Halliburton, which at one time was the parent company of KBR and also is in Houston, questioned why it was named as a defendant.
"As these lawsuits are based on KBR activity in Iraq and Afghanistan, we believe that Halliburton is improperly named in these cases and, as such, we expect Halliburton to be dismissed from the suits as Halliburton would have no responsibility, legal or otherwise, for the actions alleged," Halliburton spokeswoman Diana Gabriel said by e-mail."
continued.....A tiny article on a huge problem. Hazardous left overs - the killing and maiming... more
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To add to the library....
Published on Friday, June 5, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Gag Me with Clean Coal
by Karyn Strickler
"Take a revitalizing breath of those clean coal emissions from the average coal plant, filled with carbon monoxide, mercury, arsenic and lead - all deadly toxic to humans in high amounts. Breathe deeply the pestilence that is clean coal.
If coal's impact on climate change weren't so serious, the public relations campaign that asks us to choke down "clean coal" would be farcical. "Clean coal" is a dirty joke that won't wash.
In his GQ article, entitled Black Tide, Sean Flynn says, "The term clean coal entered the lexicon in its current faux-eco-activist incarnation-with the implication that coal can be a source of nonpolluting fuel, that it can be scrubbed of its toxins and its carbon dioxide rendered harmless-with stunning speed, largely in the past two years through the expensive efforts of two groups: the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a lobbying group for coal-burning industries, and the Hawthorn Group, a marketing firm hired by ACCCE."
In an ad for ACCCE President Barack Obama is featured saying, "Clean coal technology is something that can make America energy independent...This is America. We figured out how to put a man on the moon in 10 years. You can't tell me that we can't figure out how to burn coal that we mine right here...and make it work," just as the Hawthorn Group had planned.
Contemptible as it is, the Hawthorn Group was understandably proud that Barack Obama and other candidates for President adopted their very language saying, "Soon our message was repeated back to us from the podium by the candidates themselves." In their newsletter they bragged, that before they began their clean coal campaign for ACCCE, a slim majority of public opinion leaders surveyed, opposed burning coal to generate electricity. But when their PR campaign was complete, they had 72% support.
Hawthorn succeeded in practically turning 2008 Presidential candidate events into clean coal rallies and said in their newsletter, "Building on our existing 200,000-strong grassroots citizen army, we leveraged the presidential candidates' own supporters, finding advocates for clean coal among the crowd to carry our message...We did this by sending ‘clean coal' branded teams to hundreds of presidential candidate events, carrying a positive message (we can be part of the solution to climate change) which was reinforced by giving away free t-shirts and hats emblazoned with our branding: Clean Coal. Attendees at the candidate events wore these items into the events." Hawthorn combined grassroots organizing and integrated online media to create more of a buzz.
Coal is clean -- in the same way that cigarettes are healthy. Only with clean coal, cancer is the least of your worries."
continued....To add to the library....
Published on Friday, June 5, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Gag... more
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I don't recall Obama saying much about coal other than he supported "clean coal" as an alternative energy source... sadly, his actions should not come as a surprise...
"Stopping the Desecration of Mountaintop Removal
by Jim Hightower
Obama spaketh, and it was good: "We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal than simply blowing the tops off mountains," he proclaimed.
And, yea, in the mountains and down through all the valleys of the ancient land of Appalachia, hearts were filled with joy, for here was a prophet of hope who was signaling that a change was coming - at last, the endtime was at hand for the brutish coal-mining method called "mountaintop removal," which is an abomination.
Even as the people rejoiced at this good news, coal barons trembled in their temples of black gold. For a decade, these mighty extractors of wealth had been allowed to accumulate unto themselves enormous profits by exploding the tops off the peaks in Appalachia, the oldest mountain range in all the land. With the top third of these awesome, forested mountains reduced to rubble, the barons used giant machines to strip out seams of coal, and then they simply shoved the rubble and toxic coal waste down the mountainsides, burying the valleys and streams below. It was a desecration - but the love of mammon made it the law of the land.
Then, behold, now the prophet became president, so he was in a position to put his words into action.
And act, he did. On May 15, it was announced that Barack Obama's Environmental Protection Agency had quietly approved 42 of 48 new Appalachian mining permits sought by the coal barons.
Say what? The prophet of change and hope just OK-ed more desecration by coal mining profiteers? What in the name of a mysterious God is going on here?
Politics. Politics at its weaseliest. Industry supporters point out that while Obama had expressed his concern about this detestable practice in last year's presidential race, he had not actually promised to halt it. Cute, huh?
Once he was in office, coal executives, lobbyists and other enthusiasts for bang-and-shove mining went to work on him. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee and a full-throated cheerleader for whatever his state's coal industry wants, met with the head of the EPA, the chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff.
"In each of these meetings," says Rahall, "I received assurances.The Obama administration knows that it cannot turn its back on coal."
Of course, that's not the question. There are many ways to mine coal besides blowing up the environment. The question is whether Obama will turn his back on the mountains, the people and his own integrity.
The industry rationalizes its greed in the name of creating jobs for this hard-hit region - but mountaintop removal relies on dynamite and huge machines, not workers. In fact, thousands of mining jobs have been lost as corporations switched to this method. In all of Appalachia, there are only 19,000 jobs connected to every form of surface mining - and the tiniest fraction of those are in mountaintop removal. A much brighter job future is to develop Appalachia's boundless green-energy potential - a blue-green initiative that's supposed to be one of Obama's top priorities.
The good news is that the approval of these 42 permits does not mean the debate is over, even in the White House. Some 200 other applications are pending, involving much larger projects, and it's known that top Obamans are very divided on allowing any more of this crass destruction.
This is a case where public outrage can make a difference. Obama and team snuck out the 42 permits without even notifying the public, but they won't be able to ambush us on the other applications. Rather than throwing up our hands in disgust at their first action, now is the time for us to flex some grass-roots political muscle."
continued....I don't recall Obama saying much about coal other than he supported "clean... more
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Last year it was the threat of 47 state parks being closed because the state budget has gone where? (oh no, that's right, it was the banks and wall street that got bailed out....) and now it is 220 that may be cut off from the public!
Our beautiful parks are the soul of the state, they are amazing grace and something to behold.
(Why is there always money for destructive projects that benefit only a few, but very little for those things that uplift the spirit, heal the psyche and are for the many....!)Last year it was the threat of 47 state parks being closed because the state budget... more
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Well, yes! Poisons are toxins (sorry to be so obvious) and one day, depending upon your stature and physical composition, they will take their toll one way or another...
We don't need these poisons in our food or anywhere in our environment.... If you plant properly, nature does a far better job (understatement) of keeping our world in balance!
"Jackie Christensen was 32 when her body began to betray her. She had just returned to work after the birth of her second son and when she tried to type, two fingers on her left hand refused to cooperate. "They wouldn't go where I would want them to on the keyboard," says Christensen, who at the time -- it was 1997 -- was co-director of the food and health program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a Minneapolis think tank. "I also had what they frequently call frozen shoulder, with a very low range of motion in my left arm."
The first neurologist Christensen went to responded flippantly to her suggestion that she might have multiple sclerosis, which she had self-diagnosed because of her relatively young age and the fact that she was female. "If you want me to write that down, I will," she remembers him saying, refusing to pursue the matter further. A second neurologist thought it was all in Christensen's mind and referred her to a psychiatrist. Over the next several months, her symptoms got progressively worse, and she finally consulted neurologist number three. His startling diagnosis: Parkinson's disease.
"I thought, 'I can't have Parkinson's because I'm not old,'" Christensen recalls. But a trial of the standard treatment, a drug called L-dopa, seemed to work. Based on that clinical observation, the diagnosis was confirmed. This was in 1998, when Christensen was not quite 35, and she has been on L-dopa, with varying degrees of success, ever since."
continued below...Well, yes! Poisons are toxins (sorry to be so obvious) and one day, depending upon... more
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We desperately need a new way of thinking, a new mind-set. The thinking that got us into this bind will not get us out. When Elizabeth Kolbert, a writer for the New Yorker, asked energy guru Amory Lovins about thinking outside the box, Lovins responded: "There is no box."
There is no box. That is the mind-set we need if civilization is to survive.
It's not news that Lester Brown is warning about our unsustainable approach to feeding the planet. But it is news that Scientific American has run a major article by him on how "The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse."We desperately need a new way of thinking, a new mind-set. The thinking that got us... more
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The Environmental Pollution Agency - oops, Environmental Protection Agency at it again, but it doesn't take a government agency or rocket scientist to understand toxins of any kind create health problems - perhaps they should consult the mothers of the world instead!
Newly-released report shows increased risk of cancer for those living near coal ash disposal sites
By JASON HANCOCK 5/7/09 2:43 PM
People who live near near sites used to store ash or sludge from coal-fired power plants have a one in 50 chance of developing cancer, according to a just released government report kept from the public for seven years by the Bush Administration.
The Waterloo South Quarry, one of four unlined, unmonitored sites around the state where waivers were issued allowing coal ash disposal. Those using the site include John Deere, the University of Iowa and Iowa State University. (Photo courtesy of Plains Justice)
The data, compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2002 and released Thursday by the watchdog groups Earth Justice and the Environmental Integrity Project, suggests that environmental contamination from the storage sites could last for a century or longer.
The Iowa Independent reported in March that there are four disposal sites across Iowa where coal ash is being stored in unmonitored and unlined containment facilities, raising concerns that dangerous materials in the ash could poison groundwater supplies, damage ecosystems and jeopardize human health.
The largely unregulated sites include three abandoned quarries in Cedar Rapids, Goose Lake and Waterloo and one mine in Buffalo. Each received a waiver from the Department of Natural Resources allowing them to accept coal ash as fill in the sites’ reclamation process.
Coal ash, also known as fly ash, is the waste produced by burning coal. The nation’s power plants produce enough ash to fill 1 million railroad cars a year, according to a 2006 report by the National Research Council. Coal-burning power plants in Iowa produce 20,000 to 30,000 tons of coal ash every year. The Hawkeye State also imports coal ash from Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.
The ash contains high levels of arsenic, lead, mercury and boron, each of which has been known to cause cancer, neurological and development problems, and other illnesses. Yet for three decades, rules governing coal ash have been left up to the states, creating a patchwork of differing regulations with questionable effectiveness."
Continued below and at link above.....The Environmental Pollution Agency - oops, Environmental Protection Agency at it... more
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If you live in Southern California or visiting Los Angeles this weekend, I highly recommend you visit this Alternative Building Expo. Its great to see so many people care about our planet, as well as discover alternative ways to create healthy, harmonious, and beautiful environments - definitely uplifting.
We don't have to poison ourselves or our world when we build, and expos like this demonstrate this very clearly.If you live in Southern California or visiting Los Angeles this weekend, I highly... more
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"Climate Change Hitting Entire Arctic Ecosystem, Says Report
Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme study tells of profound changes to sea ice and permafrost, among others
by John Vidal
Extensive climate change is now affecting every form of life in the Arctic, according to a major new assessment by international polar scientists.
Ilulissat Icefjord a UNESCO World Heritage site in western Greenland. The Greenland ice sheet has continued to melt in the past four years with summer temperatures consistently above the long-term average since the mid 1990s. (AFP/Slim Allagui)In the past four years, air temperatures have increased, sea ice has declined sharply, surface waters in the Arctic ocean have warmed and permafrost is in some areas rapidly thawing.
In addition, says the report released today at a Norwegian government seminar, plants and trees are growing more vigorously, snow cover is decreasing 1-2% a year and glaciers are shrinking.
Scientists from Norway, Canada, Russia and the US contributed to the Arctic monitoring and assessment programme (Amap) study, which says new factors such as "black carbon" - soot - ozone and methane may now be contributing to global and arctic warming as much as carbon dioxide.
"Black carbon and ozone in particular have a strong seasonal pattern that makes their impacts particularly important in the Arctic," it says.
The report's main findings are:
Land
Permafrost is warming fast and at its margins thawing. Plants are growing more vigorously and densely. In northern Alaska, temperatures have been rising since the 1970s. In Russia, the tree line has advanced up hills and mountains at 10 metres a year. Nearly all glaciers are decreasing in mass, resulting in rising sea levels as the water drains to the ocean.
Summer sea ice
The most striking change in the Arctic in recent years has been the reduction in summer sea ice in 2007. This was 23% less than the previous record low of 5.6m sq kilometres in 2005, and 39% below the 1979-2000 average. New satellite data suggests the ice is much thinner than it used to be. For the first time in existing records, both the north-west and north-east passages were ice-free in summer 2008. However, the 2008 winter ice extent was near the year long-term average.
Greenland
The Greenland ice sheet has continued to melt in the past four years with summer temperatures consistently above the long-term average since the mid 1990s. In 2007, the area experiencing melt was 60% greater than in 1998. Melting lasted 20 days longer than usual at sea level and 53 days longer at 2-3,000m heights.
Warmer waters
In 2007, some ice-free areas were as much as 5C warmer than the long-term average. Arctic waters appear to have warmed as a result of the influx of warmer waters from the Pacific and Atlantic. The loss of reflective, white sea ice also means that more solar radiation is absorbed by the dark water, heating surface layers further.
Black carbon
Black carbon, or soot, is emitted from inefficient burning such as in diesel engines or from the burning of crops. It is warming the Arctic by creating a haze which absorbs sunlight, and it is also deposited on snow, darkening the surface and causing more sunlight to be absorbed.""Climate Change Hitting Entire Arctic Ecosystem, Says Report
Arctic Monitoring... more
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* Food scarcity and the resulting higher food prices are pushing poor countries into chaos.
* Such “failed states” can export disease, terrorism, illicit drugs, weapons and refugees.
* Water shortages, soil losses and rising temperatures from global warming are placing severe limits on food production.
* Without massive and rapid intervention to address these three environmental factors, the author argues, a series of government collapses could threaten the world order.
For most of us, the idea that civilization itself could disintegrate probably seems preposterous. Who would not find it hard to think seriously about such a complete departure from what we expect of ordinary life? What evidence could make us heed a warning so dire—and how would we go about responding to it? We are so inured to a long list of highly unlikely catastrophes that we are virtually programmed to dismiss them all with a wave of the hand: Sure, our civilization might devolve into chaos—and Earth might collide with an asteroid, too!
For many years I have studied global agricultural, population, environmental and economic trends and their interactions. The combined effects of those trends and the political tensions they generate point to the breakdown of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have resisted the idea that food shortages could bring down not only individual governments but also our global civilization.
I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy—most important, falling water tables, eroding soils and rising temperatures—forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible."
More- MUCH more (it's SCIAM so it's like 6 pages) at the link!* Food scarcity and the resulting higher food prices are pushing poor countries into... more
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This is a petition to sign to support organic gardening in the White House: Go to the link above to add your voice of support for organic food.
from CREDO Action:
"The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) has a bone to pick with Michelle Obama.
MACA represents chemical companies that produce pesticides, and they are angry that - wait for it - Michelle Obama isn't using chemicals in her organic garden at the White House.
We are not making this up.
In an email they forwarded to their supporters, a MACA spokesman wrote, "While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made [us] shudder." MACA went on to publish a letter it had sent to the First Lady asking her to consider using chemicals -- or what they call "crop protection products" -- in her garden.
Michelle Obama has done America a great service by publicizing the importance of nutritious food for kids (she's growing the garden in partnership with a local elementary school class) as well as locally grown produce as an important, environmentally sustainable food source.
MACA's letter is part of a larger propaganda effort to convince people that chemicals are a necessary part of produce growth - when we know that's not true.
Sign this petition today to tell the board members of MACA (virtually all of them big chemical executives) that we don't appreciate their telling Michelle Obama (or any of us) to use pesticides in our gardens. We support Michelle Obama's organic garden, and we'll thank them to keep their propaganda out of it."This is a petition to sign to support organic gardening in the White House: Go to... more
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What a beautiful and wise project slowly spreading to different cities around the country! It speaks for itself.
Published on Thursday, April 2, 2009 by The Balimore Sun
Baltimore City Hall Garden Plots to Be Planted in Veggies
Crops will help to feed the poor at Our Daily Bread
by Susan Reimer
Baltimore, which sometimes carries a poor-cousin chip on its shoulder when it comes to the nation's capital, is about to trump the city to the south.
Mayor Sheila Dixon is planning to turn the formal gardens in front of City Hall into vegetable gardens covering about 2,000 square feet. Michelle Obama's White House vegetable garden measures only 1,100 square feet.
"This was being planned before the White House," said Dixon, firmly. "We are not copying!"
The city will be planting decorative urns, about 70 window boxes and several formal raised beds with spring and summer vegetable crops that will benefit Our Daily Bread, which feeds 700 to 800 people a day and often finds itself, even in summer, relying on canned vegetables.
"We have a cook who is thrilled," said Kerrie Burch DeLuca, director of communications for the soup kitchen.
When asked how many recipes she had for Swiss chard, a favorite element in the design for the City Hall gardens, she laughed. "We will find some," she said. "Nothing will go begging. This is our happy day."
City Hall's move reflects the growing interest in vegetable gardens this year as consumers try to deal with a tough economy and concerns about health and food safety.
"This news about Baltimore is wonderful news," said Roger Doiron, founder and director of Kitchen Gardeners International, a Maine-based nonprofit that advocates for locally grown food and has campaigned for high-profile vegetable gardens. "It will inspire people to rethink the role cities can play in feeding themselves."
Doiron credits the Obama garden with creating a "domino effect" in the United States. "This is why we pushed so hard for so long," he said. "We knew [a White House vegetable garden] would have this inspirational potential."
This week, California first lady Maria Shriver announced plans for a vegetable garden at the Statehouse in Sacramento. Citizens in Flint, Mich., are planting a 2-acre vegetable garden in the middle of town. A garden is planned around the Kingston, N.Y., town hall, Doiron said, and the first family of Georgia is discussing an official garden. Maryland's first lady, Katie O'Malley, is planning a vegetable garden for Government House in Annapolis, too, despite the abundance of shade trees.
Planting for the Baltimore vegetable garden is expected to begin Saturday. The plantings will extend from the porches of City Hall across War Memorial Plaza to Gay Street.
"We have an opportunity to do something right here in front of City Hall," the mayor said. "We have a chance to lead by example and to inspire residents, to show that in an urban environment you can still maintain healthy eating."
The City Hall vegetable gardens will be more than bountiful - producing a very conservative estimate of $3,000 worth of everything from kale to corn.
They will be beautiful, too, said Angela Treadwell-Palmer, a landscape designer who planned the garden.
She at first envisioned a couple of small demonstration gardens: "I was thinking we could just show how pretty vegetables could be." But Bill Vondrasek, head of horticulture for the Department of Parks and Recreation, loved the idea and told her to run with it.
"The mayor set the tone with her cleaner, greener, safer, healthier Baltimore," said Vondrasek. "When you have her support, you start thinking about what you can do."
Continued at link above.What a beautiful and wise project slowly spreading to different cities around the... more
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"On March 2, environmentalist Bill McKibben will join demonstrators who plan to march on a coal-fired power plant in Washington D.C. In this article for Yale Environment 360, he explains why he’s ready to go to jail to protest the continued burning of coal.
by Bill McKibben
It may seem odd timing that many of us are heading to the nation's capital early next month for a major act of civil disobedience at a coal-fired power plant, the first big protest of its kind against global warming in this country.
After all, Barack Obama's in power. He's appointed scientific advisers who actually believe in... science, and he's done more in a few weeks to deal with climate change than all the presidents of the last 20 years combined. Stalwarts like John Kerry, Henry Waxman, and Ed Markey are chairing the relevant congressional committees. The auto companies, humbled, are promising to build rational vehicles if only we give them some cash. What's to protest? Why not just give the good guys a break?
If you think about it a little longer, though, you realize this is just the moment to up the ante. For one thing, it would have done no good in the past: you think Dick Cheney was going to pay attention?
More importantly, we need a powerful and active movement not to force the administration and the Democrats in Congress to do something they don't want to, but to give them the political space they need to act on their convictions. Barack Obama was a community organizer - he understands that major change only comes when it's demanded, when there's some force noisy enough to drown out the eternal hum of business as usual, of vested interest, of inertia.
Consider what has to happen if we're going to deal with global warming in a real way. NASA climate scientist James Hansen - who has announced he plans to join us and get arrested for trespassing in the action we're planning for March 2 - has demonstrated two things in recent papers. One, that any concentration of carbon dioxide greater than 350 parts per million in the atmosphere is not compatible with the "planet on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted." And two, that the world as a whole must stop burning coal by 2030 - and the developed world well before that - if we are to have any hope of ever getting the planet back down below that 350 number.
That should give you some sense of what Obama's up against. Coal provides 50 percent of our electricity. That juice comes from hundreds of expensive, enormous plants, each one of them owned by rich and powerful companies. Shutting these plants down - or getting the companies to install expensive equipment that might be able to separate carbon from the exhaust stream and sequester it safely in some mine somewhere - will be incredibly hard. Investors are planning on running those plants another half-century to make back their money - the sunk costs involved are probably on the scale of those lousy mortgages now bankrupting our economy.""On March 2, environmentalist Bill McKibben will join demonstrators who plan to... more
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