Category: Environment

Uneven Earth’s Monthly Readings

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7 December 2019 — Uneven Earth

[Came across this very useful resource, from yet another information source, Uneven Earth. Frankly, with the wealth of accurate information available to us these days, there really is no excuse for inaction, no matter how small, over the major issues of our time. WB]

November readings

On the wave of global protests, lessons from the 1999 Seattle shutdown, and nuclear energy

Once a month, we put together a list of stories we’ve been reading: things you might’ve missed or crucial conversations going on around the web. We focus on environmental and social justice, cities, science fiction, current events, and political theory.

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Dammed Good Question about the Green New Deal

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11 January 2019 — Green Social Thought

By: Don Fitz

Gordon Dam, Southwest National Park, Tasmania, Australia (2008). Creator: JJ Harrison. Via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gordon_Dam.jpg

Hydroelectric power from dams might be the thorniest question that proponents of the Green New Deal (GND) have to grapple with. Providing more energy than solar and wind combined, dams could well become the backup for energy if it proves impossible to get off of fossil fuels fast enough.

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Bayer faces lawsuit horror as US cases double in three months

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31 October 2019 — GMWatch

Over 42,000 lawsuits in the US alone allege the herbicide Roundup has caused cancer

EXCERPT: Bayer has haemorrhaged around $43 billion in market value since acquiring Monsanto.

Gregor Heard
Farm Weekly, 31 Oct 2019
https://www.farmweekly.com.au/story/6469073/bayer-faces-lawsuit-horror/

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Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care

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22 October 2019 — Resolute Reader

by Giorgos Kallis

GK

This short, readable and stimulating book begins with the author overturning perceived knowledge about the 18th century economist Robert Malthus. Malthus is best know for his extended work An Essay on the Principle of Population, an influential book that has rarely been read by those who claim to extend his ideas. Giorgos Kallis argues that it is important to understand what Malthus was really arguing for, because it is a key statement of a central tenet of modern economics, the idea of limits. In his introduction Kallis says that he aims to “reclaim, refine and defend the notion of limits” and proceeds to do just this with a critical examination of the way that limits have been understood by economists and environmentalists since Malthus’ time.

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Our Vanishing World: Insects

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30 October 2019 — Global Research

By Robert J. Burrowes

About 12,000 years ago, late stone age humans precipitated the neolithic (agricultural) revolution that marked the start of the steady rise to civilization. Coincidentally, this occurred at the same time as the beginning of what is now known as the Holocene Epoch, the geological epoch in which humans still live.

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“Let Them Eat Cotton” : Genetically Modified Cotton as a “Solution to Human Hunger”? Approved by FDA

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30 October 2019 — Global Research

By F. William Engdahl

US Government regulators have approved a genetically modified cotton variety as a “potential solution to human hunger.” The radical decision is to permit consumption by humans, in addition to animals, of seeds of a GMO cotton developed at Texas A&M University, with no independent long-term testing. It opens grave new concerns about the safety of our food chain. Soon, as a result, the world food chain may well be contaminated with the GMO cottonseeds whose dangers have been simply ignored by authorities.

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Agrochemical Apocalypse: Interview with Environmental Campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason

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29 October 2019 — Counter Currents

by

The renowned author and whistleblower Evaggelos Vallianatos describes British environmentalist and campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason as a “defender of the natural world and public health.” I first came across her work a few years ago. It was in the form of an open letter she had sent to an official about the devastating environmental and human health impacts of glyphosate-based weed killers. What had impressed me was the document she had sent to accompany the letter. It was over 20 pages long and contained official data and referred to a plethora of scientific papers to support the case she was making.

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Glyphosate impairs honeybee sensory and cognitive abilities

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25 October 2019 — GMWatch

Bee apis

New review shows exposure to the herbicide could have “implications for overall long-term colony survival”

A new review of the scientific literature (see abstract below) has found that exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in glyphosate herbicides like Roundup, impairs the foraging behaviour of honeybee workers and has adverse effects at different levels within the colony.

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Poisoning the Planet: Pesticides and Capitalism

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24 October 2019 — The New Dark Age

9 stories on the global impact of pesticides on ALL life on the planet (all in PDF format).

9 stories on the global impact of pesticides on ALL life on the planet.

Open Letter: Where have all our insects and birds gone?

Neonicotinoid insecticides, glyphosate and Roundup Ready GM Crops

Last year the Guardian published letters from all over the country asking this question. Both the neonicotinoid insecticides and glyphosate (Roundup) herbicide appear to be responsible.1
The UK government, the NFU, the Farming Minister, the Defra Minister, Defra and the Department of Health are supporting glyphosate and systemic neonicotinoid insecticides. Some UK farmers say it will be impossible to farm without access to these two chemicals. They are voting to grow GM Roundup Ready Crops after Brexit.

Has Monsanto told the truth about GM Roundup Ready crops? Monsanto, Bayer and Syngenta coat their GMO corn seeds with neonics but charge farmers extra for them— even though studies show that neonic-coated seeds provide no real benefit to farmers.

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Carcinogenicity assessment flawed for four out of 10 pesticides, new review shows

A new review of carcinogenicity assessments of pesticide active ingredients shows 40 percent were not carried out in compliance with existing European guidelines, leading to possible continued exposure of farmers and consumers to cancer-causing pesticides.[1] In 30 percent of the cases, significant details were missing from the dossiers, raising uncertainties about how European authorities came to the conclusion they did.

To those who support the renewal of the registration of glyphosate or remain silent about it

“Corporate totalitarianism … rules through dispensability and corruption. It treats communities, people, countries, ecosystems and species as disposable and dispensable.”

Update on glyphosate renewal: On May 17 2017, the European Commission announced its intention to renew the license for glyphosate for 10 years despite a petition last year from 1.5 million citizens urging them not to. The British Government and civil servants supported this renewal wholeheartedly. But are they aware of the implications? The EU Commission was in a hurry because it didn’t want to wait for the Monsanto Papers to come out. However, MEPs have asked for an inquiry into them.

To_those_who_support_the_renewal_of_the

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