Environment & Climate
The Organic Revolution: Change the System, Not the Climate
What if there were an organic technology that could cut greenhouse emissions in half and literally suck down and sequester carbon dioxide in living soil - bringing the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere down to 350 ppm - the level scientists warn us we must acheive in order to avert a climate catastrophe?
Cook Organic, Not the Planet. Boycott Factory-Farmed Foods.
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Rachel's Democracy & Health News #852
"Environment, health, jobs and justice--Who gets to decide?"
Thursday, April 27, 2006................Printer-friendly version
www.rachel.org -- To make a secure donation, click here.
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Featured stories in this issue...
The Environmental Movement Isn't Dead, It Just Needs More Friends Recently the National Association of County and City Health
Read moreFrom April 27, 2006
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Tony Blair's "Africa Commission" declaration last year that Africa should encourage development by growing Biofuels, is evidently starting to take root with a recent announcement in Zimbabwe about the growing of GM to produce biodiesel (see Gaia Mailout "African Biosafety Laws May Fail to Protect Countries" 19 April 2006)
Although thought by many to be an environmentally and economically sustainable alternative to the coming oil and climate change crises, a closer look at the true implications of biofuels is
Read moreThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn its plan to approve a highly toxic fumigant for strawberries and other high-value crops after California officials, labor unions, environmentalists and others objected that nearby residents and farmworkers could be in danger.
The new pesticide, methyl iodide, is designed to replace methyl bromide, which is banned under an international treaty because it damages the Earth's ozone layer.
Read more
A few more strange bedfellows have recently been coaxed into the sack with the enviros, hawks, and labor advocates pushing for a smarter U.S. energy strategy. The newbies include growers of corn, soy, wheat, trees, and even dairy cows, all of which could play a role in cultivating homegrown energy sources.
Earlier this month, some 70 agriculture and forestry groups and companies endorsed a campaign dubbed "25 x '25," which advocates that 25 percent of energy in the U.S. come from "America's working lands" by 2025. That means biofuels like ethanol, bioenergy from processed animal
Birth control pills, cancer drugs and a host of other pharmaceuticals that people flush down the drain every day are showing up in our drinking water, says Gord Miller, Ontario's environmental commissioner.
"We need to do a better job of keeping drugs out of lakes, rivers and drinking water," Miller told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record on Wednesday. Although the drugs are not considered a threat to human health, there is evidence that they can harm wildlife.
"There is no health hazard in drinking water now that has been detected in Canada, but we have detected substances in
Read moreCopyright © 2006 Earth Policy Institute
When Austin Energy, the publicly owned utility in Austin, Texas, launched its GreenChoice program in 2000, customers opting for green electricity paid a premium. During the fall of 2005, climbing natural gas prices pulled conventional electricity costs above those of wind-generated electricity, the source of most green power. This crossing of the cost lines in Austin and several other communities is a milestone in the U.S. shift to a renewable energy economy.
Austin Energy buys wind-generated electricity under 10-year, fixed-
Read moreAs we strolled through downtown Seattle in search of coffee, Rabbi Michael Lerner casually pointed over my shoulder and said, "That's where I was in jail." He was referring to his membership in the Seattle Seven, a group of Vietnam War protesters whose 1970 arrest and trial sparked a legendary media circus.
It was a reminder that Lerner's been in the activism game a long time.
Lerner went on to become a rabbi and found Tikkun, a liberal Jewish magazine, and the Network of Spiritual Progressives, an organization devoted to developing a spiritual vision for the left. He's
Read moreGREENLAND: Some 130,000 years ago, in a period just slightly warmer than today, much of the region's ice cap melted away. AP/FILE
Global warming appears to be pushing vast reservoirs of ice on Greenland and Antarctica toward a significant, long-term meltdown. The world may have as little as a decade to take the steps to avoid this scenario.
Those are the implications of new studies that looked to climate history for clues about how the planet's major ice sheets might respond to human-triggered climate change.
Already, temperatures in the Arctic are close to those that
Read moreWASHINGTON, DC, March 22, 2006 (ENS) - Seventy-one congressional representatives are urging increased financial support for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) sustainable energy programs in a letter being delivered this week to the members of the House of Representatives' Committee on Appropriations.
The letter, led by Representatives Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat, and Roscoe Bartlett, a Maryland Republican, was signed by 64 Democrats and seven Republicans.
It stresses the need to restore funding for the geothermal, hydropower, and key energy efficiency accounts targeted
Read moreMEXICO CITY, Mexico, March 22, 2006 (ENS) - An international meeting on the future of the world's fresh water resources is marking World Water Day today with a renewed effort to ensure that more clean drinking water reaches the 1.1 billion people who do not have access to safe water, but the crisis is complicated by the impacts of a warming climate, an world renowned atmospheric chemist told delegates.
In addition to drinking water scarcity, about 2.6 billion people, four out of every 10, lack access to sanitation. This situation is a humanitarian crisis - dealing with it
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