This is not good. It is just mindboggling that anyone could possibly think Nuclear energy is cost effective and SAFE. It is neither. It is the biggest energy scam ever. It is unsustainable.
Billions of dollars spent on this black hole could have been used to develop and promote solar energy. It could have been used to sponsor classes of off-grid energy for the public….but no…
common dreams has this link up on the octopus of GMO corn and the emerging super bugs that are resistant to the pesticides….
…and of course, their answer is to….throw more pesticides after them.
We all saw this coming, so why are Monsanto and Syngenta still allowed to market this monster?
Congress, can you hear the American public that you love to *quote* all the time? Can you hear us above the *clink* of money in your pocket? (Be sure to click on the media link and its pathetic and sometimes belittling coverage).
Vilsack, can you cut your ties with Monsanto and do what is right for the environment and our health?
Here’s a report about GMO’s in the waterways in my own backyard. This is a freaking nightmare.
As a side note, here’s an article on aerial spraying and untested chemicals. Gees-o-pete, does anyone stand up to the chemical industry??
Nine state legislators were flown on a chartered flight and…well, you can read the rest here.
From the article:
The tar sands of Alberta are estimated to be the third largest reserve of crude oil on the planet. But the process of turning the tar-like bitumen into a refined product that can be used as fuel is extremely energy intensive and highly polluting. The former NASA scientist James Hansen, warned that the extraction and use of Canadian tar sands would mean “game over” for the climate. TransCanada is the operator of the proposed KXL pipeline, which would carry the tar sands to Texas for processing and likely for exports to markets abroad.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I think it’s really important to highlight NASA scientist James Hansen’s statement on this because most folk think that folks who believe in climate change are “fringe” liberals, when they’re not. Dr. Hansen is a prime example of that.
More:
TransCanada, which is a member of ALEC, sponsored ALEC’s Spring Task Force Summit in Oklahoma City in May 2013, alongside other corporations with tar sands interests including BP, Devon Energy and Koch Industries. TransCanada’s Vice President Corey Goulet presented to legislators at the conference during a session called “Embracing American Energy Opportunities.“
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dimon stayed in touch with Adams’ office over the proceeding months, providing his staff with further materials about Keystone XL, including a set of talking points stamped with the TransCanada logo.
By February 14, Adams had an updated draft that had been reviewed by the Ohio legislative service commission, the non-partisan body that assists legislators with drafting legislation. Adams staffer Ryan Crawford sent this language to Rob Eshenbaugh, a lobbyist with Ohio Petroleum Council, the state affiliate of the American Petroleum Institute. “Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,” Crawford wrote to the lobbyist. Eshenbaugh responded with some requested changes, which Crawford then incorporated into the bill.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
So…yeah….pretty glaring examples of not so subtle bribery. Unethical. Unethical. Unethical.
I have something of a quibble with the story saying that the XL has become a national issue….where were you when Enbridge was getting the northwest Indiana pipeline approved even though it runs near Lake Michigan and other sources of water? Does anyone know why Indiana is ignored? I’d like to know why we don’t matter….somebody tell me, please.
I found a used book on natural medicine by an M.D. that actually believes in food as a healing or in my case, a hurting element of health; exercise, and vitamin supplements helping one to stay healthy. The book is called Natural Prescriptions by Robert M. Giller, M.D. and Kathy Matthews (this cover isn’t the same as my book, so I’m not sure if it is the same one or another updated version).
I guess now would be a good time for the lawyer-speak: The suggestions here are not meant to diagnose or cure. If you are having health issues, you should seek the guidance of a health care practitioner.
Dr. Giller touches on Celiac disease. He mentions the neurological connections with schizophrenia and depression, but he fails to note migraines, seizures, and possible Alzheimer’s as symptoms of Celiac. He also states that once one begins the gluten-free diet, one’s symptoms should abate in a couple of weeks. bwahahahahahahahahahaha. Obviously not an expert of Celiac. Healing the gut, as noted by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, takes one to two years, depending on severity. But Dr. Giller does note that one cannot go back to eating gluten after the symptoms subside.
Anyway, Dr. Giller did have some pretty good questions to diagnose Celiac:
1. Do you have Irish, Scottish, English, or Scandinavian heritage? (I would add German or Dutch) Dr. Giller notes that every 1 in 215 Irish suffer from Celiac. Whoa.
2. Is there a history of intestinal disease in your family? Does anyone in your family experience similar symptoms including chronic gas, bloating, and indigestion? (This is harder to answer because the farting thing is kinda a dirty little secret…I can’t imagine folks sitting around at family gatherings talking about it. :p )
3. Have you ever had a blistery rash on the inside of your elbows, behind your knees, or at other body folds?
4. Is your abdomen ever swollen? (Take heed of this–I just thought that I had gained weight (due to thyroid/mercury) and that was why my abdomen was swollen. Nope. It was dramatic how much it shrunk when I began the gluten diet. If you recall, I lost twenty pounds within six months. Remarkable. )
5. Is chronic fatigue a serious problem in your life, affecting your job performance and social obligations? (I notice just before I get a migraine, my energy levels plummet. BUT this is an incredible improvement from just three years ago, when I got tired just walking twenty feet from my bedroom to the front room. Most people are mischaracterized as being lazy when they actually have chronic fatigue.)
6. Do you have frequent diarrhea or constipation? (This is a tricky question because if you have been undiagnosed all of your life, what is “normal” to you is not a true indication of health. That is, you may suffer from either or both, thinking this is just how your body is, without knowing that you’re a Celiac. So you might not think to mention this to the doc because it is “normal” for you.)
7. Does your family have a history of stunted growth or delayed maturity? (This is my family. My son was the shortest kid in his class until his Junior year in high school, when he grew. I did not fully mature physically until in my late twenties. )
Of course, Dr. Giller does not mention GMO’s and their possible implication with gut inflammation. This book was published in 1994, so the GMO monster had not yet been released (as far as we know—I keep reading different dates as to when this monster was released.)
…is the endangered species of the month of July. (there weren’t any last month, in case anyone is wondering…they just had a serene pic of a beach…nice)
While searching the web, I found this excellent site that has a couple of videos on how climate change is affecting the Galapagos. He has a clear, non jargon manner that is refreshing. I wish that the mainstream media would put him on the air to explain Climate Change. Whenever they mention Climate Change (IF they mention climate change) they don’t do a good job explaining it or to note changes already happening…gah, I wonder if the many commercials for BP and other oil companies has anything to do with it…? (said with dripping sarcasm) (with the exception last night of CBS–they asked if all the wild fires going on now are a result of climate change and if the fire fighters believed in it. The fire fighter interviewed said they would not find any fire fighter that has seen the incredible heat and intensity of these fires deny climate change.)
I saw on some sites that people were taking these crabs home for their aquariums. Please don’t do this. Enjoy the moment, and then leave them be.
….this is not good….we have third generation bee farmers who are giving up because of the genocide of bees. (buzz-a-cide?)
From the Chicago Tribune link:
Die-offs of bee populations have accelerated over the last few years to a rate the U.S. government calls unsustainable. Honeybees pollinate plants that produce roughly 25 percent of the foods Americans consume, including apples, almonds, watermelons and beans, according to government reports.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m afraid that they will wake up too, too late….and it won’t be until the crops have died and the fields are empty. God help us then.
“…spraying Agent Orange on our food….” A pretty stunning statement…glad to see Melissa Harris-Perry allowing him to speak out.
Green Pasture has this up on Dr. Huber’s speech on glyphosate. (Purdue is pooh-poohing his assertions. I found a web page from Purdue that says that Dr. Huber was exaggerating the implications. Um-hmmm….a Purdue scientist with many, many years of experience is now suddenly incompetent? I don’t think so. There might be some reasons $$$ why…Purdue and other universities speak against Dr. Huber.)
From the article:
Huber spoke about a range of key factors involved in plant growth, including sunlight, water, temperature, genetics, and nutrients taken up from the soil. “Any change in any of these factors impacts all the factors,” he said. “No one element acts alone, but all are part of a system…When you change one thing,” he said, “everything else in the web of life changes in relationship.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Word.
Anybody who has grown a garden can attest to all the factors named above that impact your garden’s productiveness. Like I said, it truly is a miracle how a plant can grow from a tiny seed. The wonder of it all never ceases to amaze me. And it also never ceases to amaze me how scientists feel they know better than nature.
As Dr. Huber asserts–if a plant is in a weakened state, it will not be able to fight off disease (or pests). Everybody thinks that you *have to* spray bug killer and you *have to* use fertilizers to have a healthy plant, when it is a healthy soil (through composting) that creates the healthy plant and subsequently, the ability to fight off disease and pests.
More:
Huber reported on what he described as a newly discovered pathogen. While the pathogen is not new to the environment, Huber said, it is new to science. This pathogen apparently increases in soil treated with glyphosate, he said, and is then taken up by plants, later transmitted to animals via their feed, and onward to human beings by the plants and meat they consume.
[…]
He said laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the organism in pigs, cattle and other livestock fed these crops, and that they have experienced sterility, spontaneous abortions, and infertility.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Pretty sobering, eh?
Here’s the Rodale report on organic versus conventional farms. This is one of the best reports I’ve ever seen. I used this report back in 1999 (?) to counteract a Hudson Institute toadie’s assertion that organic farms did much worse than conventional—if I recall correctly, it was Dennis Avery who made the assertion.
He actually said in the article that he read in Organic Gardening that they had problems with low yields and bugs. I happened to subscribe to it at the time, and there was no such thing in that article! It reported the opposite: that yields were good, and only a few plants were affected by bugs….and the best part was that with composting, the organic fields were able to retain moisture much better than the conventional soil, therefore, the organic field’s plants weathered a drought better than the conventional field.
The U.S. has already had a taste of this type of policy under the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA). In 2005, the Canadian Cattlemen for Fair Trade sued the U.S. the U.S. government for banning imports of beef and live Canadian cattle after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Canada. In the end, the U.S. prevailed, but not until it had spent millions to defend itself in court. Mexico wasn’t so fortunate when three companies (Corn Products International, ADM/Tate & Lyle and Cargill) sued the Mexican government for preventing imports of high fructose corn syrup. Mexico lost all three cases, and was forced to pay out a total of $169.18 million to the three firms.
~~~~~~~
The Obama Administration is trusting corporations like Dow AgroSciences, Cargill and DuPont, and trade groups like the Pork Producers Council and Tobacco Associates, Inc., to write food safety policies. In all, more than 600 corporations have been given access to drafts of various chapters of the TPP. Requests for the same level of access, from members of Congress and from the public, have been denied.
~~~~~~~~~~
This has serious implications towards the fight against GMO’s, as the article states. It’s hard enough fighting against the ag bullies like Monsanto….it will be even harder with an agreement like this in place. The whole “fast track” process usurps the democratic process of allowing the American public and its elected representatives an opportunity to know what is going on and the opportunity to vote against it.
Truly, if you’re doing something that is positive, you’re not going to try to hide it. They’re like little kids who poop their pants and then go hide somewhere hoping not to be discovered….but the smell gives them away…
*whew* Do you smell something?
In case you didn’t click on the link for yet another farm crop contaminated with GMO’s….
I just want to know how many times Monsanto can get away with this before somebody finally lays down the law?
What’s to say that they aren’t doing this in other countries…allegedly releasing GMO seed via unsuspecting farmers who plant the seed, not knowing it’s GMO, and by the time the discovery is made…well, too late…it’s already been released into the environment??
Bopping around on the web, I found this article about products that were thought to be GMO free, but alas…Sweden was, by other articles I read, proactive and was against GMO’s. So….where did this come from? I can’t say that I know enough about the timeline with Sweden, but is certainly raises questions. What is worrisome is how Monsanto has worn down the resistance to GMO’s, if this is any indication.
Here’s a good article on what countries have banned GMO’s. Note that even though Japan banned GMO products, it *still* got contamination…by importing Canadian GM canola….stunning…absolutely stunning. Alarms should be going off all over at this news. Also, the article mentions the India farmers’ suicides…and the water thing. Why doesn’t anyone bring up that the cotton plants were much more thirsty than the heirloom cotton? That seems to escape everyone’s notice–we can’t afford to use more of our precious water resources for frankencrops that require more water to survive.
Note also the refusal of a tuna shipment to Greece when it was tested positive for GM. It had been packed in genetically modified soybean oil! So, evidently, one doesn’t have to consume GMO’s to be altered by it–one only has to touch it. Which brings more worries about breathing in GM corn pollen. As I have said in previous blogs, my allergies during the summer always get worse after corn pollen has started to enter the atmosphere. And with my previous post on how GM enters the DNA of gut flora….just scares the crap out of me–even carefully trying to avoid GM food, I could still end up more contaminated. I say more contaminated because I ate GM food before I was aware of it–as most Americans who are unaware of eating GM food.
This is just mind numbing…do courts ever do their own research about stuff they rule on? Or do they just accept what is force-fed them by agricultural bullies like Monsanto??
Well, with the ruling, I think we have the answer to that. Anyone who does their homework and looks up genetically modified organisms will have had all the evidence against its continued use. How many crops does this monster have to damage and destroy before courts and politicians wake up?!
Monsanto promises not to sue farmers….seriously?
Eagle 
You must be logged in to post a comment.