Written by More controversy this week surrounding the practice of fracking. The US Department of Agriculturehas dropped the plan to require an extensive environmental review before handing mortages to people that plan to use the land for oil and gas drilling. This has outraged opponents of hydraulic fracturing, who say it eases up rules on the drilling method. To talk more about this Greg Palast, an author and investigative journalist, joins RT’s Liz Wahl
Posts in category Environment
An Arctic Blast Welcomes in the New Year
We found winter! The New Year will kick off with a blast of cold, arctic air charging across the Midwest, South and Northeast. For some cities, this air mass will be the coldest so far this season.
Although temperatures Monday and Tuesday will sink below average, it could be much worse. After all, we are entering what is typically the coldest time of year. That said, after what has been a mostly mild December, this may be a bit of a reality check for some.
World ‘dangerously unprepared’ for future disasters
Some countries’ failure to pay into a UN disaster relief fund is leaving the world “dangerously unprepared” for future crises, Andrew Mitchell says.
The international development secretary said several countries had not donated to the Central Emergency Response Fund, aimed at speeding-up relief delivery.
Britain has increased its pledge for 2012 from £40m to £60m but the fund is expected to be £45m short next year.
The international community must “wake up” to the challenge, Mr Mitchell said.
Japan says some tsunami reconstruction funds going to whaling
Tokyo (CNN) — The Japanese government has affirmed that $29 million from its budget for post-earthquake and tsunami reconstruction is going toward extra security measures for the country’s whaling fleet, angering environmental activists like Greenpeace.
The whaling industry is “siphoning money away from the victims of the March 11 triple disaster, at a time when they need it most,” Junichi Sato, executive director of Greenpeace Japan, said this week, referring to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that struck Japan in March.
But Tatsuya Nakaoku, an official from the Japanese Fisheries Agency, said Thursday he funds would help “support the reconstruction of a whaling town and nearby area,” which was devastated by the natural disasters.
To Save Sharks from Soup and Human Greed, California Bans Trade
Campaigns to protect the shark species have seen progresses last week, with the California Senate passing the ban on sales and possession of shark fins last Tuesday. In Toronto, the City Council voted unanimously to support a city-wide ban on the sales and consumption of shark fin on Friday.
Shark fins could cost as much as $600 per pound, building up a billion-dollar global industry that plunders tens of millions of sharks every year for their fins.
In the brutal practice of shark finning, shark fins are removed from the shark’s body and the de-finned shark is thrown back to the ocean where it slowly bleeds out and dies.
Intensive fishing causes severe damage on shark populations, because sharks produce few offspring and their reproduction begins when they are over 10 years old.
“Not only is the finning of sharks barbaric, but their indiscriminate slaughter at an unsustainable rate is pushing many species to the brink of extinction,” states stopsharkfinning.net.
“Since the 1970s the populations of several species have been decimated by over 95%. Due to the clandestine nature of finning, records are rarely kept of the numbers of sharks and species caught. Estimates are based on declared imports to shark fin markets such as Hong Kong and China,” the website said.
The California Shark Protection Act, AB 376 introduced by State Assemblyman Paul Fong and State Assemblyman Jared Huffman, would ban the sale, distribution and possession of shark fins in California.
The laws also aims to curb over fishing and, in doing so, help restore the shark population in the ocean.
EU bans GM-contaminated honey from general sale
The European Union’s highest court on Tuesday ruled that honey which contains trace amounts of pollen from genetically modified (GM) corn must be labelled as GM produce and undergo full safety authorisation before it can be sold as food.
In what green groups are calling a “groundbreaking” ruling, the decision could force the EU to strengthen its already near-zero tolerance policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Bavarian beekeepers, some 500m from a test field for a modified maize crop developed by Monsanto – one of only two GM crops authorised as safe to be cultivated in Europe – claimed their honey had been “contaminated” by pollen from the plant.
The European court of justice found in their favour, a ruling that should offer grounds for the beekeepers to claim compensation in a German court.
5.9 magnitude quake rattles east coast, causing evacuations in DC
An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale struck the state of Virginia not far from Washington, D.C., rattling buildings up and down the eastern seaboard, with reports indicating tremors as far away as Toronto, Chicago, Kentucky and even Daytona Beach, Florida.
The quake will be recorded as the largest on record to hit Washington, D.C. The last major quake the nation’s capital experience was in July 2010, when a magnitude 3.6 quake struck. Prior to that, no quakes had been recorded in the region for over 35 years
Desperate to drink, West Texas turns to wastewater
Big Spring, Texas (CNN) — Desperate times call for a tall, cool glass of creativity in this patch of West Texas where water is scarce and quickly disappearing.
But a plan to pump millions of new gallons of drinking water into the system has many people across West Texas holding their noses.
This week construction started on a $13 million water-reclamation facility. That’s a fancy way of describing a treatment plant that will turn sewage wastewater into drinking water.
“That’s not something I even want to think about,” said Eunice Thixton, a Big Spring resident. “It really doesn’t sound too good.”
There are three major reservoirs that provide drinking water for half a million people who live around Midland, Texas. But the drought is draining those lakes and threatens to create major water shortages in the months ahead.
This is an age-old problem in the dust-hardened landscape of West Texas.
Monsanto-spawned superweeds growing three inches daily, destroying farm equipment
(NaturalNews) The proliferation of superweeds — weeds that have mutated to develop resistance to popular herbicides like Monsanto’s Roundup formula — continues to rise. But the individual plants’ overall size and strength is also increasing. According to a series of new studies published in the journal Weed Science, farmers are having more trouble than ever dealing with out-of-control superweeds in their fields, some of which grow up to three inches a day in size, and are so strong and thick that they are destroying farm equipment.
The studies reveal that there are currently at least 21 different weed species known to be resistant to Roundup, also known generically as glyphosate. These species include ragweed, pigweed, horseweed, waterhemp, and ryegrass. Since 2007, the total acreage of farmland known to be infested with superweeds has also jumped more than 450 percent, from 2.4 million acres to 11 million acres, which means that the problem is only going to get exponentially worse.
“Super-strains of plants like pigweed — which grows three inches a day and is tough enough to damage farm machinery — have emerged, which may dramatically reduce the options for farmers to control them,” writes Fast Company in a recent piece on the issue. “The alternatives are usually more dangerous chemicals or plowing and mulching fields, undermining many of the environmental benefits biotech crops are supposed to offer. It’s ‘the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen,’ claims Andrew Wargo III, president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts.”
And yet for years Monsanto has denied, at least in part, that Roundup is the cause of superweeds, alleging also that widespread concern about the issue is overblown. Though it now admits that Roundup may actually be culprit in spawning superweeds (you think?), Monsanto is trying to somehow spin the situation in a positive light. Back in 2010, for instance, a writer for Monsanto’s public relations blog actually claimed that using too little Roundup might be a cause of superweeds (http://www.monsantoblog.com/2010/05…).
Farmers sued for saving Monsanto wheat seeds
Agrichemical giant Monsanto Co. today filed a federal lawsuit against two Erie-area farmers, accusing them of planting seed saved from plants grown from the company’s genetically engineered products.
According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, farmers Harold Wiser, of Carlton, and Steve Wiser, of Girard, bought Monsanto’s wheat, soybean and corn seeds. The seeds are genetically engineered to be resistant to Monsanto’s pesticides, which “will cause severe injury or death to varieties that do not contain the [pesticide-resistance] technology.”
The farmers had signed an agreement in 2003 outlining how the seeds could be used. Not authorized: Saving seeds from plants grown from the Monsanto products, and planting them the next year.
Whole Foods Market Not Wholesome?
If you are like many Northeast Cobb residents, you shop at Whole Foods Market for organic produce and all-natural products. But Whole Foods Market has decided to go alonq with Monsanto, a company that produces genetically engineered (GE) crops.
Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farm also surrendered to Monsanto.
According to The Huffington Post, top executives from those companies have said they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to cut a deal for “coexistence” with Monsanto and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Consumers such as Tricia Brown are concerned that Monsanto’s genetically engineered crops will spread toxic genes on crop land and be unsafe to consume.
“I am shocked to learn this. I shop at Whole Foods because I want organic, pure fruits and vegetables. The idea of eating anything genetically modified scares me. There has not been enough studies done to determine the long-term effects of eating genetically modified foods,” Brown told Northeast Cobb Patch while she shopped at Whole Foods.
Fire And Flood Stoke Fears At U.S. Nuclear Facilities, But Officials Say Radioactive Materials Are Safe
With the specter of the devastating March 11 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant still fresh in the public mind, a spreading wildfire and rising floodwaters near three U.S. nuclear facilities further heightened concerns on Monday — though officials asserted that all three facilities remained essentially safe.
Two nuclear power plants on the swollen Missouri River — the Fort Calhoun Station, 19 miles north of Omaha, Neb., and the Cooper Nuclear Station, located 85 miles downriver near Hamburg, Iowa — were dealing with rising floodwaters.
Meanwhile, a wildland fire near the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico — a massive research facility that is home to several metric tons of plutonium and numerous other hazardous and volatile materials — had inched to within just over a mile of the southern edge of that facility’s boundary.
Officals at Los Alamos, which was closed as a precaution on Monday, announced that the lab would remain closed on Tuesday due to “risks presented by the Las Conchas wildfire and the staged, mandatory evacuation of the Los Alamos town site.” A statement posted to the laboratory’s Web site also noted that a one-acre spot fire was reported on the Lab’s southwestern boundary.
Canada OK with killer asbestos
Canada is blocking asbestos from being listed as a hazardous chemical under an international convention, drawing fire from critics here and abroad.
“The government says that the product is safe if used in a certain fashion but they’re refusing to ensure that the buyer is told to beware,” said NDP Leader Jack Layton on Thursday.
“This is absolutely outrageous and unacceptable.”
The international community is currently in Geneva, Switzerland, debating whether to list chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous chemical under the Rotterdam Convention, a UN treaty that covers banned or restricted pesticides and industrial chemicals.
There needs to be consensus to add a new substance to the list and Canada opposed the agreement, helping kill the tightened regulations.
The listing would allow recipient countries to make informed decisions about handling the carcinogen.
