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River protest set for proposed central Indiana reservoir
May 17, 2013
Opponents of a proposed major reservoir in central Indiana are planning a protest aimed at highlighting what the project would put under water.
The newly formed Heart of the River Coalition will hold what it calls a “protest paddle” on Saturday, with kayakers and canoeists covering several miles of the White River near Anderson.
Organizer Clarke Kahlo tells The Herald Bulletin that the group is trying to build public awareness of what would disappear if the reservoir is built.
The proposed Mounds Lake Reservoir would back water up seven miles of the river in Madison and Delaware counties, covering about 2,100 acres. That’s slightly larger than Geist Reservoir near Indianapolis.
An Indonesian court has ruled indigenous people have the right to manage forests where they live, a move which supporters said prevents the government from handing over community-run land to businesses.
May 17, 2013
Disputes between indigenous groups and companies have become increasingly tense in recent years, as soaring global demand for commodities like palm oil has seen plantations encroach on forests. In Thursday’s ruling, Constitutional Court judges said that a 1999 law should be changed so it no longer defines forest that has been inhabited by indigenous groups for generations as “state forest”, according to court documents.
“Indigenous Indonesians have the right to log their forests and cultivate the land for their personal needs, and the needs of their families,” judge Muhammad Alim said as he handed down the ruling, state news agency Antara reported.
While environmentalists welcomed the ruling, they warned it could unintentionally lead to an upsurge in disputes between authorities and communities over the classification of indigenous land. In March, seven villagers were shot in northern Sumatra, where a dispute over a forest claimed by both the community and government has been simmering since 1998.
The National People’s Indigenous Organisation filed the challenge to the 1999 law, which has let officials sell permits allowing palm oil, paper, mining and timber companies to exploit their land. The group said Friday’s ruling affected 40 million hectares (98 million acres) of forest - slightly larger than Japan, and 30 per cent of Indonesia’s forest coverage. Despite their living there, the area was legally classified as “customary forest”, a term that describes forests that have been inhabited by indigenous people for a long time.
“About 40 million indigenous people are now the rightful owners of our customary forests,” said the group’s chief Abdon Nababan.
Stepi Hakim, Indonesia director of the Clinton Climate Initiative, said the ruling would give legal grounds for indigenous communities to challenge businesses operating in their forests, but this could lead to a string of new disputes. “As soon as this policy is delivered, local governments have to be ready to mitigate conflicts,” he said.
Environmental protests are becoming one of the biggest forms of social unrest in China – latest protests took place on Thursday over plans to build a petrochemical plant in the city of Anning.
May 17, 2013
The refinery, if it goes ahead, will process more than 10 million tonnes of crude oil a year and 500,000 tons of the industrial chemical paraxylene (PX). China is the world’s largest producer of PX which is used in the process of manufacturing plastic bottles and other products and is carcinogenic. According to some media reports, up to 2,500 people took to the streets today and the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that arrests had been made.
The newspaper quoted a 24-year-old protester saying “I hope this can be a good beginning for a dialogue between citizens and the government on major decisions”. The protest was one of the top trending topics on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo and photos were posted of protesters wearing masks and waving banners.
This latest protest in Kunming is the second large protest in a week over environmental concerns about industrial manufacturing. Earlier this week up to a thousand people took to the streets in the Songjiang district of Shanghai against plans for a lithium battery factory amid concerns about water and air pollution. According to media reports, residents of the area marched peacefully chanting and holding signs saying “no factory here”. Yesterday, state media reported that the plant, which was to built by Hefei Guoxuan High-tech Power Energy Co Ltd, would not go ahead due to the public pressure.
“Everybody is texting the news, and there are plans for a celebration,” a resident named Zhu was quoted by the China Daily newspaper and said that local people had viewed the plant as a safety hazard. We are delighted with the company’s decision because we love Songjiang and we want a safe and clean environment,” she said.
The Chinese public are becoming increasing concerned about the state of their local environment and up to 80% believe that environmental protection should be a higher priority than economic development, according to a new survey. The survey, carried out by the Public Opinion Research Centre in collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, measured the public’s attitudes towards environmental protection and how they rate the government’s performance.
Such protests appear to be often tolerated by the authorities and, like the Shanghai protests, are sometimes successful in their goals. Last October, a week-long series of protests in Ningbo in eastern China by thousands of residents was sucessful in stopping work on an oil and petrochemical complex. The frequency of protests is rising as China’s increasingly affluent and middle-class society becomes more aware of environmental issues. The number of environmental protests rose by 120% from 2010 to 2011, according to Yang Chaofei, the vice-chairman of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences.
Yang a told a lecture organized by the Standing Committee of the National’s People’s Congress on the social impact of environmental problems that the number of environmental ‘mass incidents’ has grown an average of 29% annually from 1996 to 2011. He said that the number of incidents which involve concerns about dangerous chemicals and heavy metal pollution have risen since 2010.
The results of the new survey indicate that the number of such incidents is not likely to decrease any time soon. Nearly half of those surveyed said the government should spend more on environmental protection and over 60% of residents said government information about environmental protection is not transparent. And in a clear sign that the Chinese public is not going to let their voices go unheard, 78% of those surveyed said that they will participate in protests if pollution facilities are planned near their homes.
Dr. Vandana Shiva: the “GOLDEN RICE” hoax - when public relations replaces science to promote a technology for creating Vitamin A deficiency
May 15, 2013
Golden rice has been heralded as the miracle cure for malnutrition and hunger of which 800m members of the human community suffer. Herbicide resistant and toxin producing genetically engineered plants can be objectionable because of their ecological and social costs. But who could possibly object to rice engineered to produce vitamin A, a deficiency found in nearly 3 million children, largely in the Third World?
As remarked by Mary Lou Guerinot, the author of the Commentary on Vitamin A rice in Science, one can only hope that this application of plant genetic engineering to ameliorate human misery without regard to short term profit will restore this technology to political acceptability. Unfortunately, Vitamin A rice is a hoax, and will bring further dispute to plant genetic engineering where public relations exercises seem to have replaced science in promotion of untested, unproven and unnecessary technology.
The problem is that vitamin A rice will not remove vitamin A deficiency (VAD). It will seriously aggravate it. It is a technology that fails in its promise. Currently, it is not even known how much vitamin JA the genetically engineered rice will produce. The goal is 33.3% micrograms/100g of rice. Even if this goal is reached after a few years, it will be totally ineffective in removing VAD.
Since the daily average requirement of vitamin A is 750 micrograms of vitamin A and 1 serving contains 30g of rice according to dry weight basis, vitamin A rice would only provide 9.9 micrograms which is 1.32% of the required allowance. Even taking the 100g figure of daily consumption of rice used in the technology transfer paper would only provide 4.4% of the RDA.
In order to meet the full needs of 750 micrograms of vitamin A from rice, an adult would have to consume 2 kg 272g of rice per day. This implies that one family member would consume the entire family ration of 10 kg. from the PDS in 4 days to meet vitaminA needs through “Golden rice”.
This is a recipe for creating hunger and malnutrition, not solving it.
Besides creating vitamin A deficiency, vitamin A rice will also create deficiency in other micronutrients and nutrients. Raw milled rice has a low content of Fat (0.5g/100g). Since fat is necessary for vitamin A uptake, this will aggravate vitamin A deficiency. It also has only 6.8g/100g of protein, which means less carrier molecules. It has only 0.7g/100g of iron, which plays a vital role in the conversion of beta-carotene (precursor of vitamin A found in plant sources) to vitamin A. Superior Alternatives exist and are effective.
A far more efficient route to removing vitamin A deficiency is biodiversity conservation and propagation of naturally vitamin A rich plants in agriculture and diets.
The following is a list of sources rich in vitamin A which are used commonly in Indian foods. (microgram/100g)
(Amaranth leaves) Chauli saag= 266-1,166 -
(Coriander leaves) – Dhania = 1,166-1,333
(Cabbage) Bandh gobi = 217
(Curry leaves)-Curry patta = 1,333
(Drumstick leaves)-Saijan patta1 = 283
(Fenugreek leaves)-Methi-ka-saag = 450
(Radish leaves)-Mooli-ka-saag = 750
(Mint)-Pudhina = 300
(Spinach)-Palak saag = 600
(Carrot)-Gajar=217-434
(Pumpkin (yellow))-Kaddu = 100-120
(Mango (ripe))-Aam = 500
(Jackfruit)-Kathal = 54
(Orange)-Santra = 35
(Tomato (ripe))-Tamatar = 32
(Milk (cow, buffalo))-Doodh = 50-60
(Butter)-Makkhan = 720-1,200
(Egg (hen))-Anda = 300-400
(Liver (Goat, sheep))-Kalegi = 6,600 - 10,000
Cod liver oil = 10,000 - 100,000
In spite of the diversity of plants evolved and bred for their rich vitamin A content, a report of the Major Science Academies of the World - Royal Society, U.K., National Academy of Sciences of the USA, The Third World Academy of Science, Indian National Science Academy, Mexican Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Brazilian Academy of Sciences - on Transgenic Plants and World Agriculture has stated, Vitamin A deficiency causes half a million children to become partially or totally blind each year.
Traditional breeding methods have been unsuccessful in producing crops containing a high vitamin A concentration and most national authorities rely on expensive and complicated supplementation programs to address the problem. Researchers have introduced three new genes into rice, two from daffodils and one from a microorganism. The transgenic rice exhibits an increased production of beta-carotene as a precursor to vitamin A and the seed in yellow in colour. Such yellow, or golden rice, may be a useful tool to help treat the problem of vitamin A deficiency in young children living in the tropics.
It appears as if the world’s top scientists suffer a more severe form of blindness than children in poor countries. The statement that “traditional breeding has been unsuccessful in producing crops high in vitamin A” is not true given the diversity of plants and crops that Third World farmers, especially women have bred and used which are rich sources of vitamin A such as coriander, amaranth, carrot, pumpkin, mango, jackfruit.
It is also untrue that vitamin A rice will lead to increased production of beta-carotene. Even if the target of 33.3 microgram of vitamin A in 100g of rice is achieved, it will be only 2.8% of beta-carotene we can obtain from amaranth leaves 2.4% of beta-carotene obtained from coriander leaves, curry leaves and drumstick leaves. Even the World Bank has admitted that rediscovering and use of local plants and conservation of vitamin A rich green leafy vegetables and fruits have dramatically reduced VAD threatened children over the past 20 years in very cheap and efficient ways. Women in Bengal use more than 200 varieties of field greens. Over a 3 million people have benefited greatly from a food based project for removing VAD by increasing vitamin A availability through home gardens. The higher the diversity crops the better the uptake of pro-vitamin A.
The reason there is vitamin A deficiency in India in spite of the rich biodiversity a base and indigenous knowledge base in India is because the Green Revolution technologies wiped out biodiversity by converting mixed cropping systems to monocultures of wheat and rice and by spreading the use of herbicides which destroy field greens.
In spite of effective and proven alternatives, a technology transfer agreement has been signed between the Swiss Government and the Government of India for the transfer of genetically engineered vitamin A rice to India.
The ICAR, ICMR, ICDS, USAIUD, UNICEF, WHO have been identified as potential partners. The breeding and transformation is to be carried out at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack and Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and University of Delhi, South Campus. The Indian varieties in which the vitamin A traits are expected to be engineered have been identified as IR 64, Pusa Basmati, PR 114 and ASD 16.
Dr. M.S. Swaminathan has been identified as “God father” to ensuring public acceptance of genetically engineered rice. DBT & ICAR are also potential partners for guaranteeing public acceptance and steady progress of the project.
Genetically engineered vitamin A rice will aggravate this destruction since it is part of an industrial agriculture, intensive input package. It will also lead to major water scarcity since it is a water intensive crop and displaces water prudent sources of vitamin A.
The first step in the technology transfer of vitamin A rice requires a need assessment and an assessment of technology availability. One assessment shows that vitamin A rice fails to pass the need test. The technology availability issue is related to whether the various elements and methods used for the construction of transgenic crop plants are covered by intellectual property rights. Licenses for these rights need to be obtained before a product can be commercialized. The Cornell based ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application) has been identified as the partner for ensuring technology availability by ensuring technology availability by having material transfer agreements signed between the representative authority of the ICAR and the “owners” of the technology, Prof. I. Potrykus and Prof. P. Beyer.
In addition, Novartis and Kerin Breweries have patents on the genes used as constructs for the vitamin A rice. At a public hearing on Biotechnology at U.S. Congress on 29th June 2000, Astra-Zeneca stated they would be giving away royalty free licenses for the development of “Golden rice”.
At a workshop organized by the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Dr. Barry of Monsanto’s Rice Genome initiative announced that it will provide royalty-free licenses for all its technologies that can help the further development of “golden rice”.
Hence these gene giants Novartis, Astra-Zeneca and Monsanto are claiming exclusive ownership to the basic patents related to rice research. Further, neither Monsanto nor Astra - Zeneca said they will give up their patents on rice - they are merely giving royalty free licenses to public sector scientists for development of “golden rice”. This is an arrangement for a public subsidy to corporate giants for R&D since they do not have the expertise or experience with rice breeding which public institutions have.
Not giving up the patents, but merely giving royalty free licenses implies that the corporations like Monsanto would ultimately like to collect royalties from farmers for rice varieties developed by public sector research systems. Monsanto has stated that it expects long term gains from these IPR arrangements, which implies markets in rice as “intellectual property” which cannot be saved or exchanged for seed. The real test for Monsanto would be its declaration of giving up any patent claims to rice now and in the future and joining the call to remove plants and biodiversity out of TRIPS. Failing such an undertaking by Monsanto the announcement that Monsanto giving royalty free licenses for development of vitamin A rice like the rice itself can only be taken as a hoax to establish monopoly over rice production, and reduce rice farmers of India into bio-serfs.
While the complicated technology transfer package of “Golden Rice” will not solve vitamin A problems in India, it is a very effective strategy for corporate take over of rice production, using the public sector as a Trojan horse.
Via pipperipembo:
something to think about when you catch yourself worrying about how messy your room is. looks like we need to shift our perceptions if we’re going to stick around here on earth.
i heard an interesting talk about global warming, too. remember an inconvenient truth? and how the data went back a couple hundred years? well, some scientists got together to gather climate data from the deepest ice, before it melts. their data shows co2 and temperature levels from thousands of years ago. so, while an inconvenient truth did a great job of bringing the fact that we need to change our habits into people’s living rooms, it pinned the cause of warming on human activity. the ice tells a different story: we’re entering a cyclical period of warming. sure, humans have destroyed much of our habitat. but we didn’t make the oceans rise. we need to get over trying to “stop” global warming, and start working together to survive global warming.
I reposted instead of reblogged (from pipperipembo) to format the infograph to make the images & text readable/aesthetically approachable from the dashboard.
Today we honor Vandana Shiva, because as the corporate oligarchy continues to destroy our planet, it is clear that we need more leadership like hers:
- Video of Vandana Shiva on Bill Moyers’ show back in July.
- Here is a list of additional quotes by Vandana Shiva.
- This is Vandana Shiva in February @ ISFIT 2013: Changing Norms.
- This is Vandana Shiva @ Rio2012.
- This is Vandana Shiva talking about the capitalist patriarchy in March 2013 on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.
All of these available on our Facebook page: (links: Tumblr | Facebook | Twitter)
Rescue workers searched rubble that witnesses compared to a war zone early Thursday for survivors of a fertilizer plant explosion in a small Texas town that killed as many as 15 people and injured more than 160 others. The blast left the factory a smoldering ruin and leveled homes and businesses for blocks in every direction.
The explosion in downtown West, about 20 miles north of Waco, shook the ground with the strength of a small earthquake and could be heard dozens of miles away. It sent flames shooting into the night sky and rained burning embers, shrapnel and debris down on shocked and frightened residents.
“They are still getting injured folks out and they are evacuating people from their homes,” Waco police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said early Thursday morning. He added later, “At some point this will turn into a recovery operation, but at this point, we are still in search and rescue.” (AP Photo/Andy Bartee; AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News)
West Fertilizer Co factory of Texas (source of above explosion) was fined in 2006 by the Environmental Protection Agency for not having a risk-management plan. The same year the plant reported it posed ‘no risk’ of fire. Complaints were made regarding a strong smell of ammonia emanating from the plant, according to reports publicized by The Dallas Morning News.
We have to do something about these corporate giants ruining our lives, killing our friends & families, and literally, actually, destroying our communities, our water, our air, our land, & our health. From oil literally over-flowing onto the streets of Arkansas, to poisonous gas leakage from fracking contaminating water, to the many, many, many, unreported & under-reported oil spills in the ocean. And that is just a fraction of the destruction that has happened within the last month, this year.
If we don’t do something, the devastation will just keep marching forward, unbothered by our tragedies. Please attend the ecosocialism conference if you are in the New York area, to discuss strategy for organizing against the system that produces this kind of limitless tolerance for corporate destruction of our communities.
(via worldconflictquarterly)
Self-healing “artificial leaf” produces energy from dirty water
April 10, 2013
Back in 2011, scientists reported the creation of the “world’s first practical artificial leaf” that mimics the ability of real leaves to produce energy from sunlight and water. Touted as a potentially inexpensive source of electricity for those in developing countries and remote areas, the leaf’s creators have now given it a capability that would be especially beneficial in such environments – the ability to self heal and therefore produce energy from dirty water.
While the leaf mimics a real leaf’s ability to produce energy from sunlight and water, it doesn’t mimic the method real leaves rely on, namely photosynthesis. Instead, as described by Daniel G. Nocera, Ph.D. who led the research team, the artificial leaf is actually a simple wafer of silicon coated in a catalyst that, when dropped into a jar of water and exposed to sunlight, breaks down water into its hydrogen and oxygen components. These gases can be collected as they bubble up through the water to be used for fuel to produce electricity in fuel cells.
Because bacteria can build up on the leaf’s surface and stop the energy production process, previous versions of the device required pure water. Now Nocera’s team has found that some of the catalysts developed for the artificial leaf actually heal themselves, meaning the process can work with dirty water.
“Self-healing enables the artificial leaf to run on the impure, bacteria-contaminated water found in nature,” Nocera said. “We figured out a way to tweak the conditions so that part of the catalyst falls apart, denying bacteria the smooth surface needed to form a biofilm. Then the catalyst can heal and re-assemble.”
Where similar devices are expensive to manufacture due to the use of rare and expensive metals and complex wiring, Nocera’s artificial leaf uses cheaper materials and a simple “buried junction” design that he says would make it cheaper to mass produce. Additionally, less than one liter (0.25 gal) of water is enough to produce around 100 watts of electricity 24 hours a day. And while it isn’t necessarily the most efficient form of electricity generation, Nocera likens the approach to “fast-food energy.”
“We’re interested in making lots of inexpensive units that may not be the most efficient, but that get the job done. It’s kind of like going from huge mainframe computers to a personal laptop. This is personalized energy.
“A lot of people are designing complicated, expensive energy-producing devices, and it is difficult to see them being adopted on a large scale,” he added. “Ours is simple, less expensive, and it works.”
Nocera believes the artificial leaf is likely to find its first use in individual homes in areas that lack traditional electric production and distribution systems. As well as being cheaper than solar panels, because the artificial leaf doesn’t directly generate electricity, but produces hydrogen and oxygen that can be stored, the electricity could be generated for use at night.
The research team hopes to integrate the artificial leaf with technology for converting the hydrogen into a liquid fuel to power everything from traditional portable electric generators to cars.
Nocera described the artificial leaf at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society that is currently being held in New Orleans.
Venezuelan government commits to resolving indigenous Yukpa land issue
March 27, 2013
Following the murder of indigenous Yukpa leader Sabino Romero three weeks ago, a committee of 17 Yukpa met yesterday with the minister for foreign affairs, Elias Jaua, who promised to make payments so their lands could be inhabited by them.
The payments are to compensate land and building renovations made by cattle ranchers who are occupying 25 large land holdings that the Yukpa have legal collective titles to.
On 12 October 2009 the government handed over collective property titles to Yukpa communities, and on 11 October 2011, then President Hugo Chavez publically announced the government would nationalise the 25 ranches, with a total area of 15,810 hectares. Then on 6 May last year Chavez announced the assignation of Bs 259 million to make those nationalisation payments.
Jaua, representing the government, has promised the payments will be made within sixty days.
Romero was murdered on 3 March and until now, no arrests have been made. Two local police have been detained for investigations, then released due to lack of evidence linking them with the crime.
Last year seven Yukpa were also murdered by cattle ranchers or killers hired by them, and many more have been injured. Cattle ranchers have refused to hand over the land to the rightful owners, claiming they haven’t received payments for the land. In response, Yukpa people have occupied some of the large farms, and have been violently removed.
So far, the murderers of the Yukpa remain unpunished.
Romero’s son, who shares the same name, told press after the meeting with Jaua that the Yukpa had demanded the government investigate the crime.
Days after the murder however, the government said it had sent an investigation team to the region, including members of the national intelligence service SEBIN, and the criminal investigation body CICPC.
Homo et Natura reported that the Yukpa are demanding a “holistic” investigation which includes the other seven Yukpa murdered. They also demanded that Captain Lopez and other soldiers be detained and judged, for allegedly allowing the two hired killers to flee on their motorbike after killing Sabino. Further, they requested that two other individuals be detained for allegedly beating Sabino and his family and making death threats.
The Yukpa met with Zulia governor Francisco Arias last week, who then arranged the meeting with Jaua in Caracas. Jaua, previously vice-president of Venezuela, has also been minister for agriculture, and the director of the land institute, Inti.
The Yukpa live in the Perija region of Zulia state. The region is one of Venezuela’s key producers of milk and beef, and there are also certain mining interests there.
Thousands of gallons of pollution recovered from oil & gas spill in Colorado
March 23, 2013
Cleanup continues at the site of an underground spill of thousands of gallons of pollution related to the oil and gas industry in the heart of Colorado’s fracking country.
The underground leak is located near the town of Parachute and has threatened to contaminate Parachute Creek, which flows into the Colorado River. State officials continue to report that buffers have kept the creek safe, so far.
Colorado regulators reported that nearly 6,000 gallons of “hydrocarbons” had been recovered from the site. At least 102,564 gallons of contaminated water have been recovered, as well.
The spill site is near a natural gas plant operated by Williams Energy, and another company, WPX Energy, operates underground oil and gas pipelines in the area. Both companies are working to contain the spill but neither company has taken responsibility, publicly revealed the source of the pollution or identified the type of hydrocarbons contaminating the area.
Spokespeople for Williams did not respond to several inquiries from Truthout.
Todd Hartman, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said that work had begun on Wednesday to excavate a large pipe in the spill area, where workers are “proceeding with care and deliberation.”
Earlier this week, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issued notices of “alleged violation” to Williams and WPX. The commission ordered both companies to continue working to contain the spill and submit a cleanup plan to regulators.
Williams Energy workers first identified the spill on March 8, but the company did not alert the nearby town of Parachute until five days later, which frustrated local officials who visited the site this week. It’s unclear how long the underground plume of pollution was growing before Williams discovered the contamination in an area adjacent to its gas plant.
A local cattleman told The Denver Post that such spills are common in the area and often remain secret, and state records show that the oil and gas industry is responsible for hundreds of spills each year, the newspaper reports.
Advancements in drilling technology, such as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” have facilitated an oil and gas rush in Colorado and several other states. The environmental group Earthjustice reports that at least eight fracking-related accidents, mostly involving contaminated wells, have occurred across the state.
In a statement, the Colorado Wildlife Federation said the spill might have been detected earlier with better monitoring.
“This is one more strong argument for keeping oil and gas wells and related infrastructure a safe distance from waterways,” said Suzanne O’Neill, the organization’s executive director. “Regulators pledged to form a stakeholders’ group to develop standards for riparian setbacks a while ago. We’re still waiting.”
In 2008, Colorado regulators failed to include protections and buffer zones for waterways as they overhauled regulations for the oil and gas industry, the group noted.
The People’s Record News Update: this week on our dying planet
March 17, 2013
- In Brazil, environmental authorities in Rio de Janeiro have launched a huge clean-up operation after an estimated 65 tonnes of dead fish filled up the 2016 Olympic rowing lake.
- Greenpeace released a report on pollution in India that indicated one Indian coal power plants kills 120,000 people a year. Also, the report on pollution in the country warns emissions may cause 20 million new asthma cases a year.
- In China, more dead pigs have been recovered from the Huangpu river in Shanghai following the discovery of more than 2,800 floating carcasses earlier this week. The find brings the total to more than 6,600 carcasses since last Friday.
- In Spain, a majestic sperm whale has been found to have died due to swallowing 40 lbs of plastic. The dead sperm whale that washed up on Spain’s south coast had swallowed 17kg of plastic waste dumped into the sea by farmers tending greenhouses that produce tomatoes and other vegetables for British supermarkets.
Scientists were amazed to find the 4.5 tonne whale had swallowed 59 different bits of plastic – most of it thick transparent sheeting used to build greenhouses in southern Almeria and Granada. A clothes hanger, an ice-cream tub and bits of mattress were also found. The plastic had eventually blocked the animal’s stomach and killed it.
- Big Pharma on Friday won the first round of its fight to defeat a European proposal to ban a trio of commonly used pesticides suspected of killing honeybees. The closely watched measure, which calls for a European Union-wide moratorium on three types of neonicotinoid pesticides, failed to secure the needed votes from the 27 EU member states today, a result cheered by the manufacturers of the chemicals.
Capitalism isn’t working - look at what the private industries who hold all the power in our society are doing to the living things on this planet. We need to restructure the way we organize ourselves and we need to do it fast. This is all just so overwhelming.
U.S. State Department says hotly contested Keystone XL won’t have ‘substantial impact’
March 4, 2013
Despite stark warnings from environmental groups and politicians over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, a new State Department report calls the project environmentally sound. A top US environmental group says the report is the result of “malpractice.”
The March 1 Draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement says the pipeline “is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of development in the oil sands, or on the amount of heavy crude oil refined in the Gulf Coast area,” where the pipeline is set to end.
“Spills associated with the proposed Project that enter the environment are expected to be rare and relatively small,” the report said.
The report is called a draft because the public is given 45 days following its publication to weigh in on the findings, after which the State Department will respond and then finalize its report.
After the public feedback period closes, the agency says it will “conduct a separate analysis of whether the project is in the national interest, a question on which eight other agencies will offer input over 90 days.”
US President Barack Obama will most likely not make a final decision on the pipeline until “mid-summer at the earliest,” the report says.
The Keystone XL is a hotly contested oil pipeline that, if completed, would run from central Canada down through nine US states before reaching the Gulf Coast in Texas.
According to ThinkProgress, lobbyists spent $178 million in 2012 alone trying to buy influence in Washington for the pipelines’ backers.
Since its proposal in 2008 and approval in 2010, the pipeline plan has been the subject of fierce criticism from environmentalists and politicians alike over the risk of oil spills on the sensitive ground the pipeline is set to cover, as well as the massive projected greenhouse emissions.
“The annual CO2e emissions from the proposed Project is equivalent to CO2e emissions from approximately 626,000 passenger vehicles operating for one year or 398,000 homes using electricity for one year,” the State Department report says.
The Sierra Club, one of the oldest environmental protection groups in the US, released a statement in response the same day.
“We’re mystified as to how the State Department can acknowledge the negative effects of the Earth’s dirtiest oil on our climate, but at the same time claim that the proposed pipeline will ‘not likely result in significant adverse environmental effects.’ Whether this failure was willful or accidental, this report is nothing short of malpractice,” it read.
PETA outraged about bombing Guam with dead mice
February 26, 2013
The US government’s plan to bomb Guam with poisoned dead mice has sparked outrage among animal rights activists who have referred to the plan as a “clumsy dangerous massacre” of the snakes that have made their home on the island.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a Virginia-based animal rights organization, has condemned the government’s plan to parachute dead mice onto Guam’s jungle canopy in an attempt to kill off the two million brown tree snakes that have plagued the territory.
The snakes have inflicted heavy damage upon Guam’s environment and economy, killing off native bird species and destroying infrastructure by slithering into power lines and building wires.
The snakes have wiped out nearly all of Guam’s native bird species since they first came to the island aboard a US military ship more than 60 years ago. In an attempt to save the US island territory from the ever-growing snake population – as well as to prevent its spread to Hawaii – government officials will bomb Guam with poisoned dead mice this spring. Hoping that the snakes will eat the bodies of the mice, which will be laced with the painkiller acetaminophen, government officials plan to eradicate much of the invasive snake population.
But PETA stands firmly against the government’s plans, claiming that killing snakes is inhumane, regardless of the damage the reptiles might be inflicting upon Guam. The animal rights activists referred to the initiative as “absurd” and “cruel”.
“Brown tree snakes did not ask to be stowaways on planes or ships and then forced to survive on a foreign island,” Martin Mersereau, director of PETA’s cruelty investigations, told the Guardian.
“Although the snakes are considered invasive, no animal should be forced to endure cruel death,”he added.
The snakes are thought to have arrived in Guam shortly after World War II. Hitching rides from the South Pacific, the tree snakes traveled aboard US military ships and the wells of airplanes.
The snakes, which can reach 10 ft. in length, have attacked residents, bitten young children, and caused widespread power outages by crawling into power lines. By killing off almost all of Guam’s native birds, they have caused dramatic changes in the island’s ecosystem. With hardly any birds left, the island of Guam has experienced a population explosion of spiders. During the rainy season, the US territory has 40 times as many spider webs as its neighboring islands, which have similar climates, NPR reports. Spider webs, many of which can be linked to the banana spider, are also 50 percent larger on Guam than on any other Pacific islands.
Since Guam has become infested with snakes and spiders, while its bird species have largely been wiped out, the island’s tourism industry has suffered a dramatic decline.
But regardless of the damage the snakes have inflicted upon the island, PETA believes that killing the snakes would be inhumane. US government officials claim no animals other than the snakes will be affected by the poisoned mice – especially since there are hardly any birds left to become affected. But Mersereau does not think the snakes should deserve to die.
“For reptiles, death could take days or even weeks,” he told the Guardian. But the animal rights activist isn’t entirely opposed to the idea of killing the tree snakes: Mersereau said he would prefer if the snakes were trapped by trackers and humanely euthanized.
But with an estimated two million tree snakes to eradicate, the snakes would most likely breed faster than trackers could capture them — and individually euthanizing them could take a very long time. The US government plans to drop piles of the poisoned dead mice from helicopters starting in April or May.
My main concerns after reading this article:
- I forgot Guam was a ‘territory’ of the U.S., so that’s always a gross reminder of imperialism/colonialism.
- What do the people of Guam want?
- What might be long-term negative affects of this?
- If the mice can infect snakes, can they infect/poison other species as well?
America’s most contaminated: Radioactive waste leaks into northwestern river
February 23, 2013
Radioactive waste is leaking from six underground tanks at America’s most-contaminated facility in Washington, the state’s government announced on Friday. Just how much toxic stew got into the Columbia River’s underground basin is unclear.
The leak at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has so far not posed an immediate health risk to the public, Governor Jay Inslee said, because it will take a long time, years perhaps, for the waste to reach the groundwater. But the leakages have not been stopped yet.
The US Department of Energy spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler promised federal officials will to collaborate with Washington State to deal with the emergency.
US Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, who chairs the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said that “This should represent an unacceptable threat to the Pacific Northwest for everybody. There are problems that have to be solved, and the Department of Energy cannot say what changes are needed, when they will be completed, or what they will cost.”
The troubled Hanford nuclear facility is situated very close to the border of Wyden’s native Oregon State.
The US Department of Energy had earlier said that toxic radioactive liquid level was decreasing in one of the 177 tanks at south-central Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The leakage was estimated in between 150 to 300 gallons (560-1,100 liters) a year, posing a real threat to groundwater and rivers in the region, state officials acknowledged.
Monitoring wells near the tank have not detected higher radiation levels, AP reported.
After the news about the leakage made into the headlines Governor Inslee visited Washington, DC, for consultations with federal officials, where he learnt that actually six tanks were leaking.
He called the development of things as “disturbing” and promised to “vigorously pursue” a course of new actions “in the next several weeks.”
America’s most contaminated facility
Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation facility was constructed very quickly on the bank of Columbia River holds millions of liters of a highly-radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons. All of the radioactive waste storage tanks at Hanford Nuclear Reservation are long past their intended 20-year lifespan.
Those tanks have a long story of unreliability. The documentary ‘Waste: The Nuclear Nightmare’ by filmmaker Eric Guéret and producer Laure Noualhat, filmed in 2009, maintained that the first leakages were registered in 1960s and by now up to 67 out of 177 tanks with radioactive waste have failed. An estimated nearly-4,000 tons of liquid radioactive waste have contaminated the environment over the decades as a result.The water from the Columbia River has always been used in technological cycle at the Hanford nuclear facility. The systems’ pumps used river water to cool down reactors and then returned it to the river.In 2002 test of Columbia River fish exposed presence of radioactive Strontium 90 in samples.
In spite of the leakage problem reported as being fixed in 2005, the latest developments exposed that “only a narrow band of measurements’ was evaluated, acknowledged Inslee. This means that falls in the levels of radioactive waste in the tanks is an established fact, but nobody knows exactly how much the levels have been changing over time.
“It’s like if you’re trying to determine if climate change is happening, only looking at the data for today,” he said, calling it a “human error”. In any case, the most important thing at the moment is“to find and address the leakers,” the governor pointed out.
The overall quantity of radioactive waste in the tanks is estimated at 200,000 tons, enough to fill dozens of Olympic swimming pools. The quantity of solid radioactive waste piled there is close to 710,000 cubic meters.
A work for future generations
Governor Jay Inslee insists the Hanford Nuclear Reservation must be cleaned of radioactive waste, which would take decades and cost billions of dollars.
Washington is already allocating for Hanford site $2 billion annually, actually a third of the national nuclear clean-up budget. But as the latest emergency expose this money is definitely not enough to ensure radioactive contamination security.A new report entitled ‘2013 Hanford Lifecycle Scope, Schedule and Cost’ by the US Department of Energy estimates the remaining environmental cleanup at Hanford at $114.8 billion, a step up from 2012’s $112 billion forecast. The DOA promises to increase the annual clean-up budget at Hanford to over $3 billion.At such a pace the operation will possibly continue till 2070 with post-clean management needed till 2090. And costs usually tend to increase with lengthy projects.
America’s nuclear ordnance workshop
The site, near the town of Hanford in south-central Washington, used to be home to the B Reactor, the world’s first full-scale weapon-grade plutonium production reactor.
Plutonium produced at the facility was used in the first nuclear bomb, tested at the Trinity site, as well as in the Fat Man, the 21-kt bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.Several reactors commissioned at the Hanford facility produced most of plutonium (57 tons) for the American nuclear arsenal (60,000 warheads and bombs at the peak). Production continued for over 40 years and was stopped in 1987.The site was constructed in what was considered a poorly-populated mountain area, but today there is a Tri-City metropolitan area (towns Richland, Kennewick and Pasco) just miles downriver from the facility. The population of the metropolitan area exceeded 250,000 as of the 2010 census. There are also at least six Native American reservations situated close to the site.The new project of the US Energy Department implies constructing a plant that will transfer all of the radioactive liquid at the Hanford facility into glasslike logs for secure storage. But the estimated $12.3 billion cost of the factory has surpassed the budget by billions of dollars already and lags behind schedule. The new program is expected to be operable no earlier than in 2019.Meanwhile the authorities have to utilize a limited budget to build additional tanks to prevent an environmental disaster until the new technology is in place.
