Environment
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We’re Killing Off Our Vital Insects Too By F. William Engdahl
Recent independent scientific studies indicate that we are threatening our vital global insect population, including of bees, with widespread extinction through massive deployment of agriculture pesticides. For most of us, insects such as flies or mosquitoes or wasps are nuisances to be avoided. Yet if the latest studies are any indication, we may be in… Continue reading
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Poisoning the Public: Toxic Agrochemicals and Regulators’ Collusion with Industry by Colin Todhunter
In January 2019, campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason lodged a complaint with the European Ombudsman accusing European regulatory agencies of collusion with the agrochemicals industry. This was in the wake of an important paper by Charles Benbrook on the genotoxicity of glyphosate-based herbicides that appeared in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe. Continue reading
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Climate and contradiction in Marx’s theory of history by Matt Huber
Climate change is often seen as a “new” kind of crisis of capitalism – one that throws into question the standard Marxist analysis as having a blind spot with respect to nature. This has led to a whole host of intellectual efforts to “green” Marxism, or to argue an ecological Marxism must go beyond class… Continue reading
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Oil, Agriculture and Imperialism: Averting the Fast-Track to Armageddon? By Colin Todhunter
The US’s hand-picked supposed leader-in-waiting, Juan Guaido, aims to facilitate the process and usher in a programme of ‘mass privatisation’ and ‘hyper-capitalism’ at the behest of his coup-instigating masters in Washington, thereby destroying the socialist revolution spearheaded by the late Hugo Chavez and returning to a capitalist oligarch-controlled economic system. Continue reading
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Global Breaking News on GMOs and Pesticides Editors’ picks
6 February 2019 — Sustainable Pulse Sri Lankan Experts Receive Top Scientific Award for Revealing Lethal Truth about Glyphosate Two public health researchers who battled powerful corporate interests to uncover the deadly effects of industrial herbicides, solving a medical mystery and protecting the health of farming communities across the world, will receive the 2019 Scientific… Continue reading
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Bayer-Monsanto Merger: Endangering Our Health, Food, Farms & Planet
The US Department of Justice finalized its approval of the Bayer and Monsanto merger. A new monopoly will be created over agricultural pesticides and industrial seed production, with farmers locked into industrial farming and of our health endangered (Inc. transcript) Continue reading
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Organic Bytes 31 January 2019
31 January 2019 — Organic Consumers Association ESSAY OF THE WEEK ‘Radical Rethink’ A new study calling for a “radical rethink” of the relationship between policymakers and corporations reinforces what we’ve been saying for years: Our triple global crises of deteriorating public health, world hunger and global warming share common root causes. Continue reading
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The Political Economy of Half-Earth By Troy Vettese
31 January 2019 — Socialist Project – The Bullet That the “extermination, enslavement, and entombment of the aboriginal population in mines […and] the transformation of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black skin” was essential to capitalism’s emergence has long been recognized. Few, however, realise that capitalism has been changing the climate… Continue reading
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Glyphosate is Carcinogenic: EU Regulatory Authorities Colluding with Agrochemicals Industry By Colin Todhunter
Back in 2016, I posed the question in The Ecologist whether regulators in the EU were acting as product promoters when it came to the relicensing of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. The renewal of the license for glyphosate in the EU was being debated at the time and much evidence pointed… Continue reading
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Monsanto/Bayer Moving to Genome Edit Fruits and More By F. William Engdahl
Not surprising, Monsanto, today hidden behind the Bayer logo, as the world leader in patented GMO seeds and the probable carcinogenic Roundup herbicide with glyphosate, is attempting to quietly patent genetically modified or GMO varieties of fruits using controversial gene-editing. The “beauty” of this for Monsanto/Bayer is that in the USA, according to a recent… Continue reading
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OCA: Ben & Jerry’s; Tainted Tortillas; Deer; Pinapple Poison; Farm Talk; Reading Matter
10 January 2019 — Organic Consumers Association TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK Good News! Photo: Julie David, CC BY-ND 2.0 Nothing like starting the year with some good news, for once. We’re happy to report that consumers have won round one in our legal battle to hold Ben & Jerry’s accountable for its advertising and marketing claims.… Continue reading
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Open Letter to Bayer CropScience: Bayer Has Never Been Transparent In Its Life! by Colin Todhunter
9 January 2019 — Counter Currents “Transparency creates trust. At Bayer, we embrace our responsibility to communicate how we assess our products’ safety — and we recognize that people around the world want more information around glyphosate. This month, we published more than 300 study summaries on the safety of glyphosate on our dedicated transparency website. “ Continue reading
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The Stomach-Churning Violence of the Agrochemical Oligopoly by Colin Todhunter
As humans, we have evolved with the natural environment over millennia. We have learned what to eat and what not to eat, what to grow and how to grow it and our diets have developed accordingly. We have hunted, gathered, planted and harvested. Our overall survival as a species has been based on gradual, emerging… Continue reading
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‘Dust Bowls of Empire’ exposes capital’s global assault on the land
The “Dust Bowl” of the 1930s was an iconic moment in American history. As a result of what one historian called “the inevitable outcome of a culture that deliberately, self-consciously, set itself [the] task of dominating and exploiting the land for all it was worth,” tens of thousands of people fled their homes, usually losing… Continue reading
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Big Oil, Auto Industries Conspire to Destroy Liveability of Planet By Yves Engler
Is it simply business as usual or a corporate conspiracy to destroy the planet? However one characterizes it our planet is being cooked so already wealthy people can make even more profit. Continue reading
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Inspections and pollution tests drop as Environment Agency sheds thousands of staff
The EA has shed the equivalent of more than 2,500 full-time jobs (20% of its workforce) since 2013. In a statement, Minister for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) George Eustice said nearly 1,000 EA staff – all of which were in corporate services such as finance, HR and IT – have… Continue reading
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Why Ecosocialism? A discussion of the case for a red-green future
Michael Löwy initiates a wide-ranging debate on the great transition from capitalist destruction to a just and sustainable future Continue reading
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ⓍXR Protect & Honour Life CampaignⓍ 18 December 2018
18 December 2018 — Extinction/Rebellion Oops. The link to the New Year Protect and Honour Life Campaign should work now! Thanks for your patience! With fierce love, The XR International team PROTECT AND HONOUR LIFE CAMPAIGN January 1 – 7, 2019 Seeding the New Year with a Collective Commitment to Protect and Honour the Foundations of Life Continue reading
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Death and Extinction of the Bees. The Role of Monsanto? By Joachim Hagopian
12 December 2018 — Global Research This article was originally published in March 2014. What has been the role of Monsanto in the loss of of the global honeybee population. It is only recently that this issue has been the object of mainstream media coverage. Continue reading
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Decimated’: Germany’s birds disappear as insect abundance plummets 76% by Morgan Erickson-Davis
Germany’s flying insect biomass has dropped 76 percent in the past 27 years, according to a study published last week in PLOS ONE. The findings have stunned biologists around the world and are prompting concern about potentially disastrous ecological consequences as another study finds the country lost 15 percent of its birds in just over… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 