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Monsanto's Sordid History
Monsanto, best known today for its agricultural biotechnology products, has a long and dirty history of polluting this country and others with some of the most toxic compounds known to humankind. From PCBs to Agent Orange to Roundup, we have many reasons to question the motives of this company that claims to be working to reduce environmental destruction and feed the world with its genetically engineered food crops.
Headquartered near St. Louis, Missouri, the Monsanto Chemical Company was founded in 1901. Monsanto became a leading manufacturer of sulfuric acid and other industrial chemicals in the 1920s. In the 1930s, Monsanto began producing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs, widely used as lubricants, hydraulic fluids, cutting oils, waterproof coatings and liquid sealants, are potent carcinogens and have been implicated in reproductive, developmental and immune system disorders.
The world’s center of PCB manufacturing was Monsanto’s plant on the outskirts of East St. Louis, Illinois, which has the highest rate of fetal death and immature births in the state. By 1982, nearby Times Beach, Missouri, was found to be so thoroughly contaminated with dioxin, a by-product of PCB manufacturing, that the government ordered it evacuated. Dioxins are endocrine and immune system disruptors, cause congenital birth defects, reproductive and developmental problems, and increase the incidence of cancer, heart disease and diabetes in laboratory animals.
By the 1940s, Monsanto had begun focusing on plastics and synthetic fabrics like polystyrene (still widely used in food packaging and other consumer products), which is ranked fifth in the EPA’s 1980s listing of chemicals whose production generates the most total hazardous waste.
During World War II, Monsanto played a significant role in the Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb.
Following the war, Monsanto championed the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture, and began manufacturing the herbicide 2,4,5-T, which contains dioxin. Monsanto has been accused of covering up or failing to report dioxin contamination in a wide range of its products.
The herbicide “Agent Orange,” used by U.S. military forces as a defoliant during the Vietnam War, was a mixture of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D and had very high concentrations of dioxin. U.S. Vietnam War veterans have suffered from a host of debilitating symptoms attributable to Agent Orange exposure, and since the end of the war an estimated 500,000 Vietnamese children have been born with deformities.
In the 1970s, Monsanto began manufacturing the herbicide Roundup, which has been marketed as a safe, general-purpose herbicide for widespread commercial and consumer use, even though its key ingredient, glyphosate, is a highly toxic poison for animals and humans. In 1997, The New York State Attorney General took Monsanto to court and Monsanto was subsequently forced to stop claiming that Roundup is “biodegradable” and “environmentally friendly.”
Monsanto has been repeatedly fined and ruled against for, among many things, mislabeling containers of Roundup, failing to report health data to EPA, and chemical spills and improper chemical deposition. In 1995, Monsanto ranked fifth among U.S. corporations in EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory, having discharged 37 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, land, water and underground.
Since the inception of Plan Colombia in 2000, the US has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in funding aerial sprayings of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicides in Colombia. The Roundup is often applied in concentrations 26 times higher than what is recommended for agricultural use. Additionally, it contains at least one surfactant, Cosmo-Flux 411f, whose ingredients are a trade secret, has never been approved for use in the US, and which quadruples the biological action of the herbicide.
cont... Monsanto, best known today for its agricultural biotechnology products, has a long and dirty history of polluting this country and oth... more -
Green News Update
To help offset rising food costs, around 1, 000 families in the Kiang Valley, Malaysia ill recieve free bread or a year.
Three international automobile makers commit to reserving 300 hybrid cars per month to assist in New York City's goal of a green transformation for all 13, 000 taxicabs.
As Nigeria is considered one of the countries highly affected by climate change, a meeting was held in Sokoto to urge for limiting greenhouse gas omissions, along with urgent adapation and sustainable development measures.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and partnets are collecting field data about forests worldwide to better assess deforestation and land use, and will publish a report within two years.
To help offset rising food costs, around 1, 000 families in the Kiang Valley, Malaysia ill recieve free bread or a year. ... more -
Urban farming flourishes in Detriot, USA
The goal of the Detroit/Michgan based charity Urban Farming, is to turn unused city land into free vegetable gardens for the communiity. Started by singer Taja Sevelle three years ago, the community gardens have met with great siccess amd sipport from city dwellers. Some of the now regu;ar gardeneres orginiated in inmate rehabilitation programsx, wiith crime rates also noted to have decreased in the Ubran Farming neighbourhoods. I applaud these wonderful efforts, Ms Sevelle and all participnt, for restoring a sense of community spirit, and bringing back a healthy was of life. May Urban Farming continue to grow and spread this new culture of togetherness and plentiful sustenance to many more cities around the world.
The goal of the Detroit/Michgan based charity Urban Farming, is to turn unused city land into free vegetable gardens for the communii... more -
Hybrid car conversions getting 80 MPG right now
SAN JOSE, CA (KGO) -- About a year ago, CEO's in Silicon Valley challenged one another to start driving electric. On the eve of a huge conference in San Jose, high tech leaders say the plug-in movement is well underway.
Last week Tom Hayse was getting 40 miles a gallon driving his hybrid Prius. That was before his plug-in conversion and a lithium battery packed in the back.
"With the plug-in hybrid, I'm getting actually getting close to 80 miles a gallon, so I'm pretty happy with that."
Tom is one of 30 Silicon Valley CEO's and community leaders who have pledged to be part of what they call the 'plug-in revolution'.
"If only ten percent of the million or so Prius owners converted their cars like we're doing, the price of the battery conversion would come down," says Sass Somekh, Ph.D of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.
SAN JOSE, CA (KGO) -- About a year ago, CEO's in Silicon Valley challenged one another to start driving electric. On the eve of a huge... more -
The devastation of the rain forest
About 22% of the earth's original forest coverage remains. Western Europe has lost 98% or so of its primary forests; Asia 94%; Africa 92%; Oceania 78%; North America 66%, and South America 54%. Approximately 45% of the world's tropical forests, originally covering 1.4 billion hectares, have disappeared in the last few decades.
One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries. Rainforests are being destroyed because the value of rainforest land is perceived as only the value of its timber by short-sighted governments, multi-national logging companies, and land owners
Nearly half of the world's species of plants, animals and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to rainforest deforestation.
Experts estimates that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.
There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000.
The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.
At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.
The Brazilian government is currently trying to protect its section of the rainforest, but it can not stop huge multinational companies from coming in a doing illegal logging.
About 22% of the earth's original forest coverage remains. Western Europe has lost 98% or so of its primary forests; Asia 94%; Africa... more -
What's the eco footprint of death?
"What’s the ecological cost of contemporary burial?
Each year in the U.S.’s 22,500 cemeteries we bury roughly:
827,060 gallons of embalming fluid
90,272 tons of steel (caskets)
2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)
14,000 tons of steel (vaults)
30-plus million board feet of hardwoods (much tropical; caskets)
Emissions and pesticide use:
Though we haven’t found good figures for emissions (from lawn mowing, trimming, etc.) or synthetic pesticide and fertilizer use, it’s got to be mega-tons each year. (Depending on the type of mower used, cutting grass for one hour emits as much pollution as driving a car from 100 to 650 miles.)
The average cemetery buries 1,000 gallons of embalming fluid, 97.5 tons of steel, 2,028 tons of concrete, and 56,250 board feet of high quality wood in just one acre of green.
The ecological cost of cremation:
Each cremation releases between .8 and 5.9 grams of mercury as bodies are burned. This amounts to somewhere between 1,000 and 7,800 pounds of mercury each year. Seventy-five percent goes into the air and the rest settles into the ground and water.
Cremation removes the body from the cycle of nature, keeping it from nourishing new life. We prefer earth burial.
You could drive about 4,800 miles on the energy equivalent of the energy used to cremate someone—and to the moon and back 83 times on the energy from all cremations in one year in the U.S.
Cremations of Tompkins County residents during the past year released between 1.2 and 6.8 pounds of mercury into the atmosphere. This estimate is based on a 20% statewide cremation rate—though the county’s rate is probably higher.
Your body is a natural resource, rich with life-sustaining nutrients. Your choice for natural burial is a choice for natural renewal and growth—a way to give back to the earth that sustains us all." "What’s the ecological cost of contemporary burial? Each year in the U.S.’s 22,500 cemeteries we bury roughly: ... more -
Mitsubishi’s electric car will be released in 2009 for $37,500
...$37,496 US, which is about $2,500 less than we often hear talked about as the price point for the Chevy Volt...
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Micro-compact green homes: the future for young people?
Architect Richard Horden has designed a village of seven tiny, prefabricated homes, called "m-ch" (micro-compact home), for students at the University of Munich, the Guardian reports.
And now the homes are now heading to the UK - the Irwell Valley Housing Association is building six in Manchester to provide temporary accommodation for key workers, and a private client in London has made a planning application to build one on their land. And one is about to go on show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as part of an exhibition on contemporary living.
Each m-ch is just 2.6m sq - the size of an average living room - but has two pull-down beds, toilet (with pull-across screen), shower, table with seating for four, bookshelves and a kitchen area with sink, two-ring cooking hob, microwave, fridge, freezer and cupboards.
The homes are energy efficient, too. "Our aim is to be carbon neutral, using solar panels," says Horden, a partner at UK practice Horden Cherry Lee architects. "With all the fixed lights on, you are using the same energy as a single 80w bulb."
Each unit costs around £26,000.
As the credit crunch hits, could this be a solution for young people without the capital to buy their own standard-size home? Could live in a mirco-compact home like this? And if so, where the bloody hell would you put it?
Architect Richard Horden has designed a village of seven tiny, prefabricated homes, called "m-ch" (micro-compact home), for students a... more -
Green noise: are we getting too much information on the environment?
Does the media damage the climate change movement by shoving too much contradictory, bossy, or just parrot-like information down our throats? Does this wall of information we're presented with create a kind of static that we can't hear anymore? Does the media damage the climate change movement by shoving too much contradictory, bossy, or just parrot-like information down our t... more
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Cost effective solar energy roofs!
These will be neat, and plus you get a skylight as a added bonus!! :)
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Green & Buried
Drew Broadrick meets Rupert and Claire Callender of Launceston, Cornwall who have an environmentally and emotionally kinder way of burying the dead. Drew Broadrick meets Rupert and Claire Callender of Launceston, Cornwall who have an environmentally and emotionally kinder way of bur... more
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Home sweet...shipping container
What can’t the shipping container do? We know you can live in these fabulous prefab versions of shipping containers (such as the All-Terrain Cabin or Detroit's planned container condos by Steven Flum); you can shop in them (like in Freitag’s shipping container store in Zurich); you can even serve beer out of them (we like the industrial hipness of Melbourne’s Section 8 bar). Now, even more recycled fun can be had in Melbourne-based Phooey Architects’ shipping container playground, which revamps four shipping containers and other reclaimed materials into an attractive yet functional activity centre, designed to provide kids living in South Melbourne’s public housing with safe spaces to create art, dance and play. What can’t the shipping container do? We know you can live in these fabulous prefab versions of shipping containers (such as the All-T... more
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U.S. Lifts Moratorium on New Solar Projects
Public pressure wins! Now it's time to build some solar plants.
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Temporary parks dominate parking spaces across the U.S.
PARK(ing) Day, a collaboration between San Francisco nonprofits Rebar and Public Architecture and the national Trust for Public Land is an event during which more than 40 cities across the country have seen countless groups take over parking spaces and turn them into an extremely wide variety of interpretations of the "public park."
PARK(ing) Day is a wonderful chance to spread the message that urban environments don't have to be a never-ending field of concrete and steel, and that even if you don't have a traditional garden, you shouldn't feel cut off from a life with green things.
On this third PARK(ing) Day--the first occurred in 2005 when Rebar set up a temporary park in a single San Francisco parking spot--the creative spirit is definitely in the air, and it's not just ordinary citizens who are getting involved.
In a way, PARK(ing) Day was a dress rehearsal for what Public Architecture hopes will be a series of permanent installations set up in urban streets.
Of course, even PARK(ing) Day had its rules. Those who had commandeered parking spaces had to pay the meters. At one point, at McLaughlin's sustainable rooftop garden, a couple of her colleagues noticed that a meter maid was coming.
"We'd better feed the meter," they said urgently.
But over at the temporary beauty salon, where there weren't any meters, but where the space was in a one-hour parking zone, Cara Buglil said the meter maid was simply driving by and honking happily at her and her fellow cosmetologists.
PARK(ing) Day, a collaboration between San Francisco nonprofits Rebar and Public Architecture and the national Trust for Public Land i... more -
Living with your garbage
Ecobloggers bring the landfill home.
Ari Derfel likes living with his garbage. He hasn't thrown anything away in more than a year, but he insists he doesn't suffer from any compulsive hoarding disorders.
Rather, Derfel views the bins of bottles, boxes, leaflets, cartons, and wrappers he's stacked in his Berkeley, Calif., home as fruits of a continued meditation about sustainability.
"Something inside me doesn't feel right every time I throw things away," said Derfel, who runs an organic catering company. "When I look around at the piles, it's like, 'Hey, man, here's your life. Here's what you spend your money on and put in your body.' It has a profound impact."
Derfel, 35, is joined by a handful of bloggers who are going to extremes to keep their trash out of the landfill. Motivated by global warming, they say they are fed up with promiscuously packaged, toxic products and other evils of conspicuous consumption they say are trashing the planet.
These pack rats are stashing their trash at home and then writing about, photographing, and even weighing it. They belong to a growing cadre of "green" lifestyle bloggers who provide a personal angle to broader issues covered by big-name ecoblogs such as Treehugger.com.
Seems a touch extreme to me... Ecobloggers bring the landfill home. ... more -
UK to slow expansion of biofuels
The UK is to slow its adoption of biofuels amid fears they raise food prices and harm the environment, the transport secretary has said.
Ruth Kelly said biofuels had potential to cut carbon emissions but there were "increasing questions" about them.
"Uncontrolled" growing of fuel crops could destroy rainforest, she told MPs.
A government-commissioned report recommends ministers "amend not abandon" biofuel policies. The Tories said policy had to change "right now". The report calls for biofuels to be introduced more slowly than planned until controls are in place to prevent higher food prices and land being switched from forests or agriculture.
The UK is to slow its adoption of biofuels amid fears they raise food prices and harm the environment, the transport secretary has sai... more -
US and EU urged to cut biofuels
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has called for reform of biofuel policies in rich countries, urging them to grow more food to feed the hungry.
Speaking on the sidelines of the G8 summit on Hokkaido island, Mr Zoellick said biofuels - transport fuels made from crops - had made a contribution to food price rises.
He laid particular blame on fuels made from corn and rapeseed produced in the United States and the EU.
"The US and Europe also need to take action to reduce mandates, subsidies and tariffs benefiting grain and oil seed biofuels that take food off the table for millions," he said.
Protesters have been holding marches in Sapporo, the city closest to the G8 venue, to demand action on global warming, poverty and rising food prices.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has called for reform of biofuel policies in rich countries, urging them to grow more food to fee... more -
Solar powered golf carts
"Smart Energy Stuff offers a variety of solar-powered golf carts, from $6,000 to $9,000. The costs are on par with those of regular electric-powered golf carts, but they come with the added sweetener of one-time state and federal tax credits of up to $990.
"Things are tight," said Njoku, a Nigerian-born New York City transplant who has lived in Fayetteville with his wife for the past three years, "and tight people are holding onto their money. What we're trying to do is give them products that will save them money and also be very green."
Smart Energy Stuff sells other solar-powered products, such as a sun-powered water heater, electric panels and outdoor lights.
A self-professed "solar geek," Njoku said he is a civil engineer and architect by trade with a natural affinity for cars and all things solar."
Just saw this and I think it's great! "Smart Energy Stuff offers a variety of solar-powered golf carts, from $6,000 to $9,000. The costs are on par with those of regular el... more -
25 ways going green is cheaper than the alternative
As a college student, I'm always looking for ways to save money. This is a handy list of ways to be more green while also saving money. As a college student, I'm always looking for ways to save money. This is a handy list of ways to be more green while also saving mone... more
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Tesla building 225-mile electric sedan
"In that magical year for electric cars – 2010 – Tesla plans to have a 5-passenger electric sedan out and on the road. The Model S is to have a 225 mile range on a single charge, not too shabby! But as is the case with Tesla vehicles, buyers had better have padded wallets as the price is expected to be around $60,000, and likely higher as the release date approaches."
By Jaymi Heimbuch, ecogeek.org
Thursday, 03 July 2008 "In that magical year for electric cars – 2010 – Tesla plans to have a 5-passenger electric sedan out and on the road. The Model S is ... more
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