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Showing posts from April, 2009

Superweed Explosion Threatens Monsanto Heartland

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By CLEA CAULCUTT - France 24 - SUNDAY 19 APRIL 2009 “Superweeds” are plaguing high-tech Monsanto crops in southern US states, driving farmers to use more herbicides, return to conventional crops or even abandon their farms. Read more here... Artist Paul Hoppe

The Swine Flu Scare Lays Bare the Meat Industry's Monstrous Power

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By *Mike Davis . Posted April 28, 2009 . (Photo courtesy of "Centre for Research on Globaliziation" ) Animal husbandry now more closely resembles the petrochemical industry than the happy family farm. Click on title for more ... ====== Please also read - Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms - by F. William Engdahl AND Swine Flu Is Related to Virus Born on U.S. Hog Factories in 1998 AND A FOOD SYSTEM THAT KILLS New from GRAIN - April 2009 SWINE FLU IS MEAT INDUSTRY'S LATEST PLAGUE Read more here... COMMENT: Johanne Dion said... Very few seem to want to ask the question: how do these epidemics start and what can we do to avoid them? Seems to me that factory farming is just begging for these new virus mutations while creating pools of superbugs by using micro-dosing of antibiotics. A productive thing than anybody in an industrialized country can do is to buy pork and ham that comes from a family size, almost organic pig farm, and avoid all prepared meats that come fr

"Big Pharma" Poisons the World's Rivers

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Cocktail of Pharmaceuticals Found in the Fish Caught Near Major U.S. Cities - 3/26/2009 - (NaturalNews) - Pharmaceutical pollution is out of control, polluting the waterways of our world to such a disturbing degree that now even the fish are carrying detectable levels of pharmaceuticals in their own bodies! A study conducted by Baylor University... read more... Also... WORLD'S HIGHEST DRUG LEVELS ENTERING INDIA STREAM By MARGIE MASON PATANCHERU, India (AP) — When researchers analyzed vials of treated waste water taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.

Why the Free Market Doesn't Work - Especially Regarding our Environment

Why the Free Market Doesn't Work: Consumption vs. Conservation by Mike Adams, "The Health Ranger"

Ocean Dead Zones Likely To Expand

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ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news and science breakthroughs. Increasing Carbon Dioxide And Decreasing Oxygen Make It Harder For Deep-sea Animals To Breath ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2009) — New calculations made by marine chemists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) suggest that low-oxygen "dead zones" in the ocean could expand significantly over the next century. As more and more carbon dioxide dissolves from the atmosphere into the ocean, marine animals will need more oxygen to survive. Read more here... About all that can survive in these dead zones are vast hordes of slimy, amorphous, useless jellyfish (r.). They can inflict painful stings on swimmers who fail to heed warning signs (l.) l.p.

13 Breathtaking Effects of Cutting Back on Meat

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By Kathy Freston, AlterNet. Posted April 22, 2009. The meat industry contributes to land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage and pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Read more here.... Photos by L.P. Click on "Water" and "Livestock" labels to the right for related stories.

Honeybees Continue to Vanish: Don't Blame Aliens -- It's Our Addiction to Pesticides

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By Evaggelos Vallianatos, TruthOut.org. Posted April 16, 2009. The chemicals we use in industrial agriculture cause brain damage to the bees, making it often impossible for them to find their way home. Click on headline for the full story. Please also read - Should Pesticide "Regulators" & Politicians Face Penalties for Refusing to Protect Honeybees? and "Lament for the Honeybee" here. Photo courtesy www.nonofficejobs.com

News Release – Green Party of Manitoba

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Apr. 19th, 2009 - Brandon, MB. Read related story here. The leader of the Green Party of Manitoba, James Beddome, is challenging Premier Doer to make Manitoba the first western province to ban lawn and garden chemicals. Just weeks ago, Ontario became just the second jurisdiction in the country to do away with the so-called “cosmetic” use of pesticides, long considered a health hazard, especially to children. Beddome says such a ban would do a lot to enhance the image Mr. Doer has been promoting of himself as a “green” leader. He further challenges the Premier to call on Ottawa for an immediate halt to the introduction of any further genetically-engineered crops in this country. Beddome says, contrary to industry hype, GMO crops require more, not less, pesticides to ensure their success. Meanwhile, there is mounting and credible evidence that these pesticides are harmful, both to human health and the natural environment. CONTACT: James Beddome - (204) 990-5195 Or

Statement by Concerned Citizens of the Valley

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Concerned Citizens of the Valley is a group of people who live in the Swan River Valley of west-central Manitoba, CA. In the mid-1990’s, Louisiana Pacific proposed to build an Oriented Strandboard mill near Minitonas in west-central Manitoba. Clean Environment Commission hearings on the environmental impact of the OSB mill were held in 1994. The wood products plant in question. (photo by Larry.) At the time of the hearings, the US Environmental Protection Agency had reached an agreement with Louisiana-Pacific to install Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers in it’s US mills. These RTOs limit the emission of toxic compounds like formaldehyde, benzene and Volatile Organic Compounds, toxins known to be hazardous to human health. In Manitoba, requirements were far less rigorous and Louisiana-Pacific did not propose to install RTOs, nor was the government suggesting that the Company do so. It was the view of some that Manitoba citizens should be afforded at least the same level of health and en

Greenhouse gases bad for health: U.S. agency

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CBC - Cars, power plants and factories in the United States could all soon face much tougher pollution limits after a government declaration by the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday. It sets the stage for the first federal regulation of gases blamed for global warming. Read more here... (Photo - Greenpeace)

Failure to Yield

Union of Concerned Scientists - Citizens and Scientists for Environmental Solutions Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops For years the biotechnology industry has trumpeted that it will feed the world, promising that its genetically engineered crops will produce higher yields. But is this true? Click here for the answer...

George Monbiot: on Global Warming - “It’s over, now we must adapt to what nature sends our way”

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George Monbiot is Europe's leading "green" commentator. Below is his article in the UK's Guardian. ================= Quietly in public, loudly in private, climate scientists everywhere are saying the same thing: it's over. The years in which more than 2C of global warming could have been prevented have passed, the opportunities squandered by denial and delay. On current trajectories we'll be lucky to get away with 4C. Mitigation (limiting greenhouse gas pollution) has failed; now we must adapt to what nature sends our way. If we can. Read more here....

Big Food - The New Tobacco?

Big Food Is Copying Big Tobacco's Disinformation Tactics. How Many Will Die This Time? By Fen Montaigne, Yale Environment 360. Posted April 11, 2009. Courtesy of AlterNet.

More of Man's Inhumanity Toward Nature?

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Photo - Guardian - UK Published on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 by the Times Online (UK) by Lewis Smith Mass strandings of dolphins and whales could be caused because the animals are rendered temporarily deaf by military sonar, experiments have shown. Read more... Also watch this heart-wrenching BBC video of stranded dolphins.

Breaking News: New Ontario Law on Toxic Chemical Reduction

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This just in from Environmental Defence - The province of Ontario has introduced new legislation designed to persuade companies to reduce their use of toxic chemicals. It will be the first jurisdiction in the country to produce such a strategy. Read more....

Should Pesticide "Regulators" & Politicians Face Penalties for Refusing to Protect Honeybees?

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By Larry Powell. Over the past several months, I have politely asked the federal Minister of Health, the Hon.Leona Aglukkaq , (r.) who is responsible for the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, at least three times to comment on the issues outlined in my article, below. She has not responded. ================== As many of you will know, populations of honeybees have, in recent years, been tragically and "mysteriously" disappearing around the world. I say "mysteriously" with some sarcasm, because pesticides are already known to be one of the factors. Yet, instead of removing these known toxins from the market, they continue to be allowed, while ever-more harmful ones are being approved! Not only do the bees produce our honey, they are our most important pollinators, responsible for the production of up to one-third of the human food supply! Despite numerous and now frantic studies into the phenomenon, which has been dubbed "Colony Collapse Disorder," n

Farmers Need Help to Grow More Food With Less Water - FAO

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Future of water is in agriculture FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf has called for more attention to be paid to water management in agriculture and for increased support and guidance for farmers in developing countries to tackle water scarcity and the related problem of hunger. Meanwhile, the FAO has urged policy-makers to include agriculture in negotiations for a new climate change treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol. Photo courtesty of www.treehugger.com

Canada Plunders Our Oceans With the "Best" of Them!

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The Trouble With Sea Cucumbers - Sea cucumber stocks are under intense fishing pressure throughout the world, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In a majority of countries reviewed and in the African and Indian Ocean regions, stocks are overfished. In the Asian Pacific region the most sought-after species are largely depleted. [more... (Photos courtesy of FAO) Large-scale sea cucumber harvesting operation in Canada. (left).