Change the World Wednesday – 2nd Apr

Update

The fruits of my labour…

An orange tree has sprouted from seeds I threw in a box, and some garlic on the left

 

Ginger grown from the green nodules broken off supermarket root

 

Self-sown tomatoes growing in the soil (my compost) from an ornamental plant

 

Pineapples grow slowly, but still growing

 

Passion fruit growing up the side of the house, ready for fruit next year

Good News

On Saturday we gained a new little sacolão (fruit and vege store) in the neighborhood. It’s only small, but handy; and only 30 metres (32 yards) from home.

Sacolão, small, but handy

And the good thing is they don’t get their produce from CEASA, the state supplier. With CEASA you can’t guarantee the source. But they get their produce from a smallholder in Teresópolis in the north of the state. They have a choice of organic and pesticide-free veges.

A small range of produce

And they’re not expensive.

They already know that I don’t like plastic bags and put the produce in my carry bag.

This morning when I took the photos, there was a big plastic bag of cauliflower trimmings, I asked and was able to take it to add to my compost heap. The bag… well, that will be used to put my recyclable water bottles in for the Tuesday recycle collection.

 

Click on the banner for the full post

On with this weeks CTWW.

This week it’s a biggie…

This week, begin by educating yourself on the ocean. Do a google search using the words “protect the ocean” and read some of the articles which come up. Visit the Marine Conservation Institute or NOAA for information.

 

THEN …

Choose one (or more) of the following activities:

• Say NO to plastic, especially plastic bottles and bags. The world’s largest “landfill” is floating in the North Pacific Ocean and consists of plastic.
• Contact your state officials and encourage them to vote against off-shore drilling.
• Walk, ride a bike, or take public transportation this week. If you must drive, drive less.
• Maintain your car and fix any leaks (oil on the pavement gets washed into storms drains and ultimately finds its way to the ocean). Never toss used oil down the drain.
• Avoid fish and seafood this week. If you must eat it, make sustainable and healthy choices (look for the Marine Stewardship Council label to ensure that it is sustainable and environmentally friendly).
• Take part in a beach clean-up.
• Eliminate the use of toxic chemicals in your home.
• Avoid the use of herbicides and pesticides.
• Scoop pet waste. Letting it sit on the lawn means that it will enter our waterways.
• Stay off the water. If you must boat, do so responsibly (don’t toss things into the water and use a human-powered boat rather than a gas-powered version).
• Dispose of all trash properly and pick up litter if you see it.

 

Leaves me breathless just reading it.

Part One

The plight of our oceans is disheartening. I have eluded to this in the past. Just because we can’t ‘see’ under the ocean, we seem to forget that is is just as susceptible to pollution and predation as the land.

The ocean is threatened by plastic. Obvious plastic that we can see the plastic strewn beaches, the Pacific gyre are a public disgrace; and the less obvious the micro-pellets from our washing machines that enter the water chain. The ocean also is affected by the run off of pesticides and agro-chemicals from our farmlands. Then there are stupid politicians who make assinine decisions like the Australians to dump millions of tons of waste on coral reefs like the Great Barrier Reef. The oceans are subject to warming which is changing habitats, the you have massive problems with radiation from the likes of Fukushima in Japan; already 100% of tuna caught off the American coast have levels above the acceptable limits for consumption.

The oceans aren’t safe for anyone, let alone the fish. The governments have stopped testing (American and Canadian) because the results are just too embarrassing. The latest IPCC report classifies Fukushima radiation as an ‘extinction event’. Oh, don’t get that wrong, it’s not just the fish that are affected, ALL LIFE on the planet will be affected. Cancer/radiation related deaths in babies, new borns and foetuses are already increasing on the west coast of the USA.

Now that’s just a tad more than serious.

Why isn’t this in the news? The governments don’t want you to know.

Furthermore, there are problems with over-fishing serious straining the life-cycles of marine life.

This week there was good news. Japan has been banned from it’s ‘research whaling’ (read commercial whaling in disguise) in Antarctic waters. Japan has said it will bide by the ruling, but are already looking at loopholes like reduced quotas.

So to put it in a nutshell, we have totally destroyed the planet.

Not only the visible portions, but the invisible as well.

Man’s irresponsibility is drawing us closer and closer to our own extinction.

It’s time we woke up!

It’s time we let the governments know!

It’s time we got rid of the incumbent arseholes and their pandering to the corporations.

We need to take the dog by the tail and wake the bloody thing up, because until we do, we’re f**ked!

This CTWW by Small is probably one of the most radical we face; certainly it is the most global.

We really need to educate the masses, because most of the populace is just sitting on its sanctimonious backside saying “oh, it’ll never happen!” They are lulled into complacency by the lack of news, the government’s ‘do nothing’ approach. And, worst of all the blatant bullshit of the deniers!

Well, I’ve got news for them: It is happening, here, it is happening now!

Part deux:

• While I am not perfect, there is plastic in my life, but I go out of my way to reduce it to a minimum.
• I am bound by public transport, no car; no car, less planetary resources used and wasted.
• I will not avoid fish, I consider that fish is an important dietary aspect. I do however, spurn fish like panga produced in the Asian sewer known as the Mekong River in Vietnam.
• I don’t go to the beach, but I am active and vocal in keeping our neighbourhood clean.
• I use products that are non or less toxic where possible.
• I am now shopping at the new sacolão who are supporting fruit and vege with no pesiticides and organic produce (this is a new aspect in my life).
• My pet waste is composted. The worms do a good job.

There you have it, my CTWW.

The Pacific Gyre

If you get closer, it looks like this…

Some of those plastic bottles may be yours…

Makes you proud, doesn’t it?

 

Make you Fink on Friday

Toxic Chemical Pollution

Extract…

After global warming, global pollution, especially toxic chemical pollution, is probably the next-greatest environmental threat we face. Scientists since Rachel Carson have warned that human survival, and the survival of many other species, is increasingly at risk because of the growing assault on our bodies and the environment from the tens of thousands of different kinds of toxic chemicals pumped, dumped, leached, sprayed, vented into the environment every year by the chemical industry, polluting factories and farms, power plants and so forth. Except for lead, PCBs, DDT and a few substances that have been banned or partially banned, toxic chemical pollution of all kinds has worsened dramatically in recent decades, all over the world – especially because of the flood of new synthetic chemicals in pesticides, plastics, fabrics, pharmaceuticals, cleaners, cosmetics, etc. – thus into our food, water and the air we breathe. The average American apple or strawberry is laced with pesticides, some of which did not exist in Rachael Carson’s day. America’s favorite seafood, shrimp, “is a health and environmental nightmare.” Chemicals used in rocket fuel and dry cleaning turn up regularly in baby formula. In the United States, the increasing contamination of public water supplies all over the country has become a scandal and raised alarm. Everywhere we turn, we’re exposed to more and more toxins. Today, some 80,000 chemicals are in use in the United States, barely 200 of which have even been tested for toxicity to humans and only a handful actually banned. They’re in our homes. They’re in our bodies. And many are known to cause or are associated with birth defects, cancers, chronic illnesses and physical disorders, neurological disorders in children, hyperactivity and deficits in attention, developmental and reproductive problems in humans and animals – and these are on the rise around the world.

Source: truthout

Monday Moaning

A different side to our problems…

Make you Fink on Friday

It’s a book review, but it’s pertinent.

Toxic Overload.

Don’t Let Everyday Chemicals Destroy Your Health. Environmental Health Specialist Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton Explains How Chemicals In Pesticides, Plastics, Cosmetics, Cleaning Solvents, And Many Other Common Products Build Up To Toxic Levels In Our Bodies And Break Down Our Natural Defenses Against Disease. Toxic Surcharge Reveals The Scientific Evidence That Links Chemicals To A Host Of Chronic Illnesses And Offers A Three-step Program To Battle This Toxic Poisoning, Including: – A 7-day De-sludge Diet That Shows You Which Foods Resolution Reduce Your Intake Of Dangerous Toxins – A Body-cleansing Supplement Program To Strengthen Privilege And Reverse The Damaging Effects Of Toxic Chemicals – Home Detoxification Tips That Reveal Where Dangerous Toxins Lurk In The Home And How To Implement Chemical-free Products Into Your Life

Source: The Limbic Brain

Nearly every nook and cranny of our everyday lives killing us, slowly but surely killing us.

I posted this simply to make you think, I am not promoting the book, nor have I received any payment.

Just the review should be enough to make you sit up and listen, enough to make you wake up and smell the coffee.

 

Monday Moaning

China has the biggest footprint in Asia, while this post targets China, it is aimed at the whole Asian region, from India to Japan.

Apart from China’s political policy and human rights abuses China faces massive problems.

I am quite comfortable in saying that I would never consider knowingly buying any foodstuff from China or any region in Asia.

The problem is how to identify.

Panga, a fish from Vietnam is no problem, the supermarkets are full of the shit.

But when you consider that 34% of mushrooms in America come from China, you may not buy them, but what about the restaurants that use them. Then there is 16% of frozen spinach, 27% of garlic, 49% of apple juice, the list goes on. It’s hard to identify.

When you read statistics like these:

:: A fifth of China’s land is polluted. The FAO/OECD report gingerly calls this problem the “declining trend in soil quality.” Fully 40 percent of China’s arable land has been degraded by some combination of erosion, salinization, or acidification — and nearly 20 percent is polluted, whether by industrial effluent, sewage, excessive farm chemicals, or mining runoff, the FAO/OECD report found.

:: China considers its soil problems “state secrets.” The Chinese government conducted a national survey of soil pollution in 2006, but it has refused to release the results. But evidence is building that soil toxicity is a major problem that’s creeping into the food supply. In May 2013, food safety officials in the southern city of Guangzhou found heightened levels of cadmium, a carcinogenic heavy metal, in 8 of 18 rice samples picked up at local restaurants, sparking a national furor. The rice came from Hunan province — where “expanding factories, smelters and mines jostle with paddy fields,” the New York Times reported. In 2011, Nanjing Agricultural University researchers came out with a report claiming they had found cadmium in 10 percent of rice samples nationwide and 60 percent of samples from southern China.

:: China’s food system is powered by coal. It’s not just industry that’s degrading the water and land China relies on for food. It’s also agriculture itself. China’s food production miracle has been driven by an ever-increasing annual cascade of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer (it now uses more than a third of global nitrogen output) — and its nitrogen industry relies on coal for 70 percent of its energy needs. To grow its food, in other words, China relies on an energy source that competes aggressively with farming for water.

:: Five of China’s largest lakes have substantial dead zones caused by fertilizer runoff. That’s what a paper by Chinese and University of California researchers found after they examined Chinese lakes in 2008. And heavy use of nitrogen fertilizer takes its toll on soil quality, too. It causes pH levels to drop, turning soil acidic and less productive — a problem rampant in China. Here’s a 2010 Nature article on a national survey of the nation’s farmland:

Go and read these statistics: Grist

Read about another side of this sad problem: Not even good enough for dog food: Imported food from China loaded with chemicals, dyes, pesticides and fake ingredients.

It gets worse:

Read more

Nearly 20 million people in China could be exposed to water contaminated with arsenic, a study suggests.

Scientists used information about the geology of the country to predict the areas most likely to be affected by the poison.

The report is published in the journal Science.

Arsenic occurs naturally in the Earth’s crust, but if it leaches into groundwater, long-term exposure can cause serious health risks.

These include skin problems and cancers of the skin, lungs, bladder and kidney.

Which means this is the water also used for agriculture, food products for export. Their arsenic is ending is ending up in our food chain.

Governments are bending over backwards to do business with Asia, particularly China.

Even Japan now has a major problem with radioactive contaminants.

They should be legislating to BAN Asian food products from the shelves of the western world.

Especially in China’s case, they are exporting mainly poison and cancers!

Satireday on Eco-Crap

Monday Moaning

The moment of truth has arrived…

One in five French bottled waters ‘contain drugs or pesticides’

Researchers analysed 47 widely available brands, and discovered 10 were contaminated with miniscule amounts

Traces of pesticides and prescription drugs have been found in some brands of bottled water in France. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

They are sold as being cleaner, healthier and purer than the water that spouts from the average French tap.

Now, however, an investigation has discovered traces of pesticides and prescription drugs – including a medicine used to treat breast cancer – in almost one in five brands of bottled water on the shelves of France’s supermarkets.

While scientists insist the contamination is minuscule and the water remains safe, consumer groups are warning of a “potential cocktail effect” for drinkers, and say the findings raise serious environmental concerns.

The study was carried out by the consumer magazine 60 Millions de Consommateurs and the non-governmental organisation specialising in global water issues, Fondation France Libertés.

Researchers analysed 47 brands of bottled water widely available in French shops, and discovered that 10 contained “residues from drugs or pesticides”.

“The biggest surprise was the presence of tamoxifen, a synthetic hormone used in the treatment of breast cancer,” wrote the magazine. It reported finding traces of the powerful prescription drug in the popular brands Mont Roucous, St-Yorre, Salvetat, Saint Armand and the Carrefour discount label Céline Cristaline.

It added that the quantity was minute but “enough for us to question the purity of the original produce imposed by regulations covering mineral water”.

Traces of the prescription drugs buflomedil and naftidrofuryl, known as vasodilators and used to dilate arteries in those suffering from high blood pressure, were found in Hepar and Saint Armand mineral waters.

Molecules from pesticides banned in 2001 were found in bottles of Vittel, Volvic, Cora and Cristaline.

After the mineral water companies contested the results, the magazine commissioned a second round of tests, which confirmed the first results.

“It’s true the micropollutants found were present in very small quantities, but the range of them raises concerns about a potential cocktail effect,” 60 Millions de Consommateurs reported.

“This is serious enough to call for a much bigger study,” it added, calling for tighter controls on bottled waters to identify what it called “new pollutants”.

Read more

Opinion:

Well, it looks like we’ve done it!

If this is true in France, then it stands to reason that it’s true for much of the world.

The question remains, how long now before the ‘micropollutants’ become a serious health hazard in doses that require medical supervision?

The world is in deep shit!

Because once we have put these pollutants in the water, we can’t take them out!

We, as a race, are doomed now to drinking toxic cocktails, that are becoming more lethal with time. Because as sure as the process has started, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

From this report, one can only assume that there are no truly unpolluted water resources left.

The air, the water, the sea and the land are all poisoned.

Our irresponsibility and stupidity know no bounds.

 

Monday Moaning

Chemical defects ‘last generations’

Genetic changes may be passed down the generations

Scientists believe they have shown exposure to certain chemicals in the womb can cause changes that are passed through generations.

There is no firm evidence of this in humans, but Washington State University research showed a clear effect in rats.

They isolated defects linked to kidney and ovary disease and even obesity.

The work implicates a class of chemicals found in certain plastics, as well as one found in jet fuel.

The idea of “epigenetics” – that parents do not just pass their genes to their children, but subtle differences in the way those genes operate – is one of the fastest growing areas of scientific study.

The work of Dr Michael Skinner centres around the effects that certain chemicals can have on these processes, if the female is exposed at key points during pregnancy.

So far they have documented measureable effects from a host of environmental pollutants including pesticides, fungicides, dioxins and hydrocarbons.

However, they stress that the results are not directly transferable to humans yet, as the levels of chemicals used on the rats were many times more concentrated than anything a person would experience in normal life.

There is no data on even how an animal would respond at different doses, and no clues as to how the chemicals are causing these changes.

Environmental impacts

The studies, published in the journals PLoS One and Reproductive Toxicology, looked at the impact of phthalates, chemicals found in some forms of plastics, and a substance called JP8, found in jet fuel.

Rats exposed to phthalates had offspring with higher rates of kidney and prostate disease, and their great-grandchildren had more disease of the testicles, ovaries and obesity.

Female rats exposed to the hydrocarbon JP8 at the point in pregnancy when their male foetuses were developing gonads had babies with more prostate and kidney abnormalities, and their great-grandchildren had reproductive anomalies, polycystic ovary disease and obesity.

Dr Skinner said: “Your great-grandmother’s exposures during pregnancy may cause disease in you, while you had no exposure.

“This is a non-genetic form of inheritance not involving DNA sequence, but environmental impacts on DNA chemical modifications.

“This is the first study to show the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease such as obesity.”

Andreas Kortenkamp, professor of human toxicology at Brunel University, said the results were “potentially very interesting”, but much more work would need to be carried out before any impact on humans could be considered.

He said: “This is an exploratory study, but the authors themselves are clear that the data do not allow the possible risk to people to be assessed.”

“There is a currently a lack of information about the dose-response relationship, and at this stage we are very unsure about the mechanisms that are involved.”

Opinion:

It appears that we are all nothing but guinea pigs for industry and agriculture.

They admit they don’t know, but at the same time they can’t rule these changes out.

Every year we are being exposed to more and more harmful substances and nobody knows if they are harmful or not. When they find out, it is already too late.

With this report it maybe that we have changed the human DNA, these changes maybe irreversible, they may actually now be a part of our future. The future is here, NOW! And it doesn’t look good.

 

Monday Moaning

More damage to the environment.

Scottish fish farmers use record amounts of parasite pesticides

Farmers have been forced to increase amount of chemicals as the sea lice parasite becomes resistant to treatment

Scottish salmon ready to be transferred to a new cage at a fish farm on Orkney island in Scotland. Photograph: Doug Houghton/Alamy

Scottish fish farmers have been forced to use record amounts of highly toxic pesticides to combat underwater parasites that prey on salmon, raising fears of significant damage to the marine environment.

Data released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) shows a 110% increase in the amount of chemicals used to treat the sea lice parasite in the past four years, in large part because sea lice are becoming resistant to treatment.

Read more

Opinion:

The more we try and change the environment to suit our needs, the more damage we do.

We read about bacteria becoming resistant to our efforts to kill them, we read about weeds becoming resistant as we try to eradicate them, now we have sea lice becoming resistant.

The stupidity continues unabated.

Man will never win in this futile fight against nature. Nature has the upper hand and will be the victor every time.

How much poison do we have to dump in the eco-systems of the world before we make it totally untenable?

Time for a paradigm shift in the way we try to better our product yields.

We need to work with nature, not against her.

We humans are just too stupid to smell the coffee!