Petrochemicals

Dozens expected to protest genetically altered food in a March Against Monsanto | Gainesville.com

More than 100 people from the Gainesville area are expected to join thousands of others around the world on Saturday to protest a corporation at the forefront of genetically modified crops and the use of insecticides. The March Against Monsanto spans more than 40 countries, with protests planned for about 250 cities, including 15 in [...]

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Recent Posts

Grassroots reject EDF on fracking

NEARLY 70 GROUPS: ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND DOES NOT SPEAK FOR US ON FRACKING
“Greenwashing” Called Out: No Confusion Should Arise About Views of Local Communities As a Result of Shale Gas Industry’s Coopting of EDF
WASHINGTON, D.C.///May 22, 2013///A total of 68 leading grassroots organizations focused on citizen and environmental issues today released a joint letter to [...]

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Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in Landmark Case | REALfarmacy.com | Healthy News and Information

monsanto-poison-sprayed-on-crops-041712

In 2007, France officially banned Lasso from use in the country in accordance with a European Union EU directive enacted in 2006 prohibiting the chemical from further use on crops in any member countries. But despite all the evidence proving that alachlor can disrupt hormonal balance, induce reproductive or developmental problems, and cause cancer, the [...]

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Backyard Chickens in the Gas Patch

Fish Creek Monitor remembers a favorite chicken and reflects on life near a fracking well:
Rest in Peace Maisy
March 11, 2008 – May 14, 2013
 

Our first baby chicks.  (March 2008)
The chick on the left is a Buff Orpington.  After researching various chicken breeds, we selected her because we read that they have docile temperaments and are [...]

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Chiefs walk out of Keystone XL meeting

Indian Country reports:
ICTMN Staff

May 17, 2013

Elders and chiefs of at least 10 sovereign nations walked out of a meeting with U.S. State Department officials in Rapid City, South Dakota, on Thursday May 16 in which the government was attempting to engage in tribal consultation over the Keystone XL pipeline.
Deeming the meeting “invalid,” leaders of the [...]

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EPA mentions bees in insecticide approval

Common Dreams posts:
Ignoring Bee Crisis, EPA Greenlights New ‘Highly Toxic’ Pesticide
Green group: ‘The EPA continues to put industry interests first to exacerbate an already dire pollinator crisis.’
- Lauren McCauley, staff writer
Despite new findings that prove a heightened crisis in US bee populations and a recent ban in Europe on similar chemical applications, the Environmental Protection [...]

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Follow the money in energy reporting

Union of Concerned Scientists
By Elliot Negin
[Editor's note: Elliott Negin, director of news and commentary at the Union of Concerned Scientists, shows how the U.S. news media routinely fail to inform the public about the fossil fuel industry funders behind climate change contrarian think tanks. Negin provides recommendations for how journalists can better serve the public [...]

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Arkansas Residents Sick From Exxon Oil Spill Are on Their Own

test

For more than a month, residents of Mayflower, Ark. have been told not to worry about lingering fumes from a March 29 oil spill that shut down a neighborhood and forced the evacuation of 22 homes.
“Overall, air emissions in the community continue to be below levels likely to cause health effects for the general population,” [...]

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OMB: EPA regulations SAVE money

Living on Earth explores the cost of not regulating pollution”
Critics argue that EPA regulation is costly to business and the US economy. But a new report from OMB shows that the financial benefits of environmental regulation outweigh the costs ten-fold. Harvard Professor Joe Aldy talks with host Steve Curwood about benefits of EPA rules
Transcript
CURWOOD: From [...]

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Europe protects food as US doesn’t

Mother Jones reports:
Last week, the European Commission voted to place a two-year moratorium in most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides, on the suspicion that they’re contributing to the global crisis in honeybee health (a topic I’ve touched on here, here, here, and here). Since then, several people have asked me whether the Europe’s move might inspire [...]

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Study links insecticide use to invertebrate die-offs

dragonfly

The world’s most widely used insecticide is devastating dragonflies, snails and other water-based species, a groundbreaking Dutch study has revealed.
On Monday, the insecticide and two others were banned for two years from use on some crops across the European Union, due to the risk posed to bees and other pollinators, on which many food crops rely.
However, much [...]

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Coal enjoyed record exports in 2012

coal

Illinois’ abundant high-sulfur coal once shunned as a pollution source by U.S. utilities saw record demand oversees last year even as domestic coal providers broadly curtailed production as cheaper, competing natural gas crimped their sales, according to new report Wednesday.
Energy Ventures Analysis Inc.’s study, commissioned by the Illinois Office of Coal Development, found that 13 million tons [...]

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Toxics and violent crime

By Peter Montague,  from a 1997 post to Rachel’s Environment and Health Weekly.
Pollution causes people to commit violent crimes –homicide, aggravated assault, sexual assault and robbery –according to new research by Roger D. Masters and co-workers at Dartmouth College.[1] Sociologists have known for a long time that violent crimes occur more in some places than [...]

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EU bans bee-killing pesticides

From NPR:
Three popular pesticides will soon be illegal in the European Union, where officials hope the change helps restore populations of honey bees, vital to crop production, to healthy levels. The new ban will be enacted in December.
“I pledge to do my utmost to ensure that our bees, which are so vital to our ecosystem [...]

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Green Drinks at Brew Spot May 1!

Greetings, Green Gainesville!
We’re pleased to announce that our next
Green Drinks meeting will be held at the new
The Brew Spot Café
1000 NE 16th Ave.
May 1, 6 – 8 p.m.

When was the last time you did a chemistry experiment? Jeff Keaffaber, co-owner of The Brew Spot Café, has a treat for you and anyone who wants [...]

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Why Is the Toxic Dispersant Used After BP’s Gulf Disaster Still the Cleanup Agent of Choice in the US?

corexit

Great Britain, the home country of BP, has banned the stuff. So has Sweden. But BP says as long as the US allows it, they’ll use Corexit dispersant on their next oil spill. “If this vision becomes reality, long-term destruction to our health and environment will expand exponentially.” This according to a damning new report, Deadly Dispersants in [...]

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Deadly Dispersant in Oil Spill Cleanup

cleanup

On April 19, 2013, GAP released Deadly Dispersants in the Gulf: Are Public Health and Environmental Tragedies the New Norm for Oil Spill Cleanups? The report details the devastating long-term effects on human health and the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem stemming from BP and the federal government’s widespread use of the dispersant Corexit, in response to the [...]

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Gulf Spill Cleanup Continues 3 Years Later

Gulf Oil Spill - Gallery

BAY JIMMY, La. (AP) — At first glance, the marshy, muddy coastline of Bay Jimmy in southeast Louisiana appears healthy three years after the nation’s worst offshore oil spill. Brown pelicans and seagulls cruise the shoreline, plucking fish and crabs from the water. Snails hold firm to tall blades of marsh grass.
Underneath the surface, environmentalists [...]

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Green Illusions

Truthout talks to Ozzie Zehner about Green Illusions:
Every day, the news about climate change and the harms that are sure to accompany it gets worse and worse. To many environmentalists, the answer is simple: power shift. That is, shift from fossil fuels to clean, green, renewable, alternative energy. Well-meaning concerned citizens and activists have jumped [...]

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East Coast fights over seismic testing

By CURTIS MORGAN of the Miami Herald,
cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

Hunting for oil and gas deposits off the Atlantic coast with gear that produces underwater sound blasts 100,000 times stronger than a jet engine could harm or kill tens of thousands of whales and dolphins, an environmental group contends in a new report.
The devices, called seismic air guns, are [...]

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