Showing posts with label toxics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toxics. Show all posts

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Climate: A New Story | Charles Eisenstein




Flipping the script on climate change, Eisenstein makes a case for a wholesale reimagining of the framing, tactics, and goals we employ in our journey to heal from ecological destruction

With research and insight, Charles Eisenstein details how the quantification of the natural world leads to a lack of integration and our “fight” mentality. With an entire chapter unpacking the climate change denier’s point of view, he advocates for expanding our exclusive focus on carbon emissions to see the broader picture beyond our short-sighted and incomplete approach. The rivers, forests, and creatures of the natural and material world are sacred and valuable in their own right, not simply for carbon credits or preventing the extinction of one species versus another. After all, when you ask someone why they first became an environmentalist, they’re likely to point to the river they played in, the ocean they visited, the wild animals they observed, or the trees they climbed when they were a kid. This refocusing away from impending catastrophe and our inevitable doom cultivates meaningful emotional and psychological connections and provides real, actionable steps to caring for the earth. Freeing ourselves from a war mentality and seeing the bigger picture of how everything from prison reform to saving the whales can contribute to our planetary ecological health, we resist reflexive postures of solution and blame and reach toward the deep place where commitment lives.

The print version is available on Amazon or from the publisher directly. Other online booksellers, such as IndieBound carry the book as well. Or better yet, ask for it at your local bookstore.

Climate: A New Story | Charles Eisenstein


Friday, December 29, 2017

UN experts denounce 'myth' pesticides are necessary to feed the world | Environment | The Guardian




Report warns of catastrophic consequences and blames manufacturers for ‘systematic denial of harms’ and ‘unethical marketing tactics’

The idea that pesticides are essential to feed a fast-growing global population is a myth, according to UN food and pollution experts.

A new report, being presented to the UN human rights council on Wednesday, is severely critical of the global corporations that manufacture pesticides, accusing them of the “systematic denial of harms”, “aggressive, unethical marketing tactics” and heavy lobbying of governments which has “obstructed reforms and paralysed global pesticide restrictions”.

The report says pesticides have “catastrophic impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole”, including an estimated 200,000 deaths a year from acute poisoning. Its authors said: “It is time to create a global process to transition toward safer and healthier food and agricultural production.”

The world’s population is set to grow from 7 billion today to 9 billion in 2050. The pesticide industry argues that its products – a market worth about $50bn (£41bn) a year and growing – are vital in protecting crops and ensuring sufficient food supplies.

“It is a myth,” said Hilal Elver, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food. “Using more pesticides is nothing to do with getting rid of hunger. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), we are able to feed 9 billion people today. Production is definitely increasing, but the problem is poverty, inequality and distribution.”

Elver said many of the pesticides are used on commodity crops, such as palm oil and soy, not the food needed by the world’s hungry people: “The corporations are not dealing with world hunger, they are dealing with more agricultural activity on large scales.”

The new report, which is co-authored by Baskut Tuncak, the UN’s special rapporteur on toxics, said: “While scientific research confirms the adverse effects of pesticides, proving a definitive link between exposure and human diseases or conditions or harm to the ecosystem presents a considerable challenge. This challenge has been exacerbated by a systematic denial, fuelled by the pesticide and agro-industry, of the magnitude of the damage inflicted by these chemicals, and aggressive, unethical marketing tactics…”

more: UN experts denounce 'myth' pesticides are necessary to feed the world | Environment | The Guardian


Friday, July 22, 2016

Report: 86% of North America's Bird Species Struggling or in Crisis - 33% Facing Extinction - EnviroNews | The Environmental News Specialists




(EnviroNews Nature) — One in three North American bird species are of “high concern” to conservationists with an additional 50% struggling badly, according to the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). The group’s annual report The State of North America’s Birds 2016 makes for grim reading by suggesting a mere 14% of bird species in the USA, Canada and Mexico are doing well. Sea birds are the biggest losers according to the study, which covers 1,154 species and contains contributions from over 40 conservation groups. More than half of the continent’s 54 sea species are “in crisis” with bird numbers declining by more than 70% since the 1950s. The research concludes that already-small sea populations are “severely threatened” by invasive predators on nesting islands as well as “accidental bycatch” by commercial fishing vessels. Pollution and climate change are also cited as contributory factors...

more: Report: 86% of North America's Bird Species Struggling or in Crisis - 33% Facing Extinction - EnviroNews | The Environmental News Specialists


Monday, July 11, 2016

Vanishing Act: What’s Causing Sharp Decline in Insects and Why It Matters by Christian Schwägerl: Yale Environment 360




Insect populations are declining dramatically in many parts of the world, recent studies show. Researchers say various factors, from monoculture farming to habitat loss, are to blame for the plight of insects, which are essential to agriculture and ecosystems.


Vanishing Act: What’s Causing Sharp Decline in Insects and Why It Matters by Christian Schwägerl: Yale Environment 360

Illustration by Luisa Rivera

Monday, March 7, 2016

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME!

time to start preparing –


Monarch Butterfly in Northern California - photo taken [last] summer in the "Bee Butterfly & Hummingbird Garden" that i started in the spring   (this is an unadjusted photo, as posted in my WHAT IT IS photo blog - what it is: Monarch Butterfly)


BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME! smile emoticon





Bee-Butterfly-Hummingbird Garden media set on Facebook:










 via GMO Free USA on Facebook–
Make no mistake. Vast GMO monocultures and Roundup herbicide are the main reason for the Monarch butterfly decline. Monsanto and the agrichemical industry are fully aware of this. Boycott GMOs. Boycott Roundup. Save the Monarch.

https://www.facebook.com/GMOFreeUSA/photos/a.468695639837571.108816.402058139834655/1078839728823156/?type=3




READ: THE MISSING MONARCHS

Monsanto’s Roundup and genetically modified crops are harming everybody’s favorite butterfly





TAKE ACTION
Stand with Just Label It and Friends of the Earth U.S. to oppose Monsanto’s RoundUp and protect the endangered monarch butterflies! 
http://action.foe.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/… ‪#‎justlabelit‬



reposted from "whats more" blog –
whats more: BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME!

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2015



Wednesday, April 8, 2015

U.S. Right to Know Calls for Investigation of Monsanto Cover up, Harassment of USDA Scientists | Sorry, Monsanto. The Science Is on Our Side, Not Yours





U.S. Right to Know sent letters today to the chairs and ranking members of the U.S. Senate and House Agriculture Committees, and to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, requesting an investigation of a possible cover up for Monsanto, and whether USDA scientists are being harassed when their work runs counter to the interests of the agrichemical industry.





more: USRTK Calls for Investigation of Monsanto Cover up, Harassment of USDA Scientists


SEE ALSO




Sorry, Monsanto. The Science Is on Our Side, Not Yours: Here are just a few examples of the latest reports, articles and books exposing the dangers of GMOs, Big Ag’s toxic chemicals and evidence of a decades-long cover-up to keep consumers in the dark.




SIGN THE PETITON TO BAN ROUNDUP

Friday, April 3, 2015

#toxics :: Oh, but You Are | Organic Consumers Association



Newsletter Issue: 

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

We Are The Guinea Pigs
You’ve seen the signs and social media posts: “I am not a science experiment.”
But you are. We all are. And this new documentary, out on April 17, explains why.
From actor Sean Penn and Emmy award-winning journalists Dana Nachman and Don Hardy comes a new documentary, "The Human Experiment." The film examines the personal stories of people who believe their lives have been affected by chemicals. 
“The Human Experiment” suggests that it’s not the big chemical spill we should be afraid of, but the insidious, much-lower levels of exposure to toxic chemicals, inflicted over generations and affecting every person on the planet.
The Human Experiment' lifts the veil on this shocking reality—where untested chemicals are ubiquitous in our products and the health of future generations is on the line. The film follows a band of unlikely activists who are fighting back. What will it take to stop this vast human experiment before it’s too late?



Oh, but You Are: Newsletter Issue: Organic Bytes #463: Doubling Down on Monsanto


Sunday, March 22, 2015

New Report Shows That The Most Popular Weed-Killer In The U.S. Probably Causes Cancer




Spraying Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup could cause cancer, the World Health Organization said in a new report.

New Report Shows That The Most Popular Weed-Killer In The U.S. Probably Causes Cancer | ThinkProgress



Statement on WHO’s Findings that Monsanto’s Glyphosate Is ‘Probably Carcinogenic’

Organic Consumers Association
– “This latest finding, which links Monsanto’s Roundup to non-Hodgkins lymphoma and lung cancer is not the first to make these links, but it is one of the strongest indictments of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup.
Monsanto has already rushed to attack this science, as they have attacked every credible independent scientist in the past. At what point will U.S. regulators start believing the scientists, instead of pandering to Monsanto?
Glyphosate is up for review this year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Now is the time for the EPA to take action and once and for all ban this dangerous chemical that is making people sick, and polluting our environment.
The OCA calls on the U.S. EPA to do its job: Ban glyphosate now."
Roundup is the number one herbicide used in the world. The U.S. Department of Agriculture does not test foods for glyphosate residues because it says it’s “too expensive.”

complete statement: Statement on WHO’s Findings that Monsanto’s Glyphosate Is ‘Probably Carcinogenic’






SIGN THE PETITON TO BAN ROUNDUP





Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Stop Pesticide Poisonings - Earthjustice





We're taking on powerful pesticide and agricultural industries—and we need your help.
Every year, 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides are applied to the fields growing foods that we eat.


And those applying the pesticides are the hardest hit by these toxic chemicals. The men, women and children who harvest our nation's food have one of the highest rates of chemical exposures among all U.S. workers. In fact, tens of thousands of pesticide poisonings happen each year to these workers.
Take action now to help stop these toxic pesticide poisonings.


Stop Pesticide Poisonings - Earthjustice


Saturday, October 25, 2014

Benny Zable - activist performance artist [FOTOS]


photo by Wanagi Zable-Andrews, who posts: "I'm honoured to have been accepted into the semi finals of the #moranprize with this photo of #bennyzable at the #bentleyblockade"

from Australia to New York City...


















  



















...and cheers to Kezia Geddes, who came up with the idea and got this exhibition Protest Songs: Artful Actions together. — at Lismore Regional Gallery.






photos are from Benny's facebook
facebook.com/benny.zable

• photos by/via Indigo Bay Photography, Wanagi Zable-Andrews, Megan Jack, Harsha Prabhu, D'un Renard, Sandra Nilsen, Scott Vidler, Hisashi Isogai, Kate Ausburn, Carly Woodstock, Tedi Davis, Greg Wilson, Andrea Kalkstein Lieberman, Diane Beeny

• with OWLS, Ena Okino, Pete Seeger 

• at Nimbin Enviro Center, People's Climate March (NYC), first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster via The Greens NSW, Lizard's Revenge, shut indian point (NRC?), #floodwallstreet, Woodstock Museum, #BentleyBlockade, Lismore Regional Gallery