Category Archives: environment

ALEC and Fossil Fuels

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PRWatch has this up on ALEC continuing its dirty campaigns against everything that is logical.

From the piece:

ALEC is even going after people who want to generate solar power for their homes. The boom in home solar energy generation—there has been a 60 percent increase in domestic solar installations in the past year—is a threat to ALEC’s dirty energy producing members, so they have a bill to amend so-called net metering laws that allow homeowners to sell excess electricity back to the grid. It is the ability to do this that makes solar an increasingly affordable possibility for homeowners. ALEC’s bill would charge homeowners additional fees, with ALEC environment task force director John Eick telling The Guardian that these users are “free riders on the system.”

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You know, it’s one thing to try to promote your heavy-metal containing pollution, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing to try to prevent people from taking a proactive stance against your dirty fuel.  Unreal.

Solar energy has sooo many benefits–one of which is independence from the greedy energy producers whom have stripped our lands of trees, poisoned our water and soil, and then not paid for the land use nor taxes on top of that.

Sixty percent increase in solar energy use…just in the last year…this is a *huge* threat to them.

Mike Pence, doing ALEC’s bidding, along with the coal industry.

Not long ago, Indiana ranked in the top five for low cost of electricity. Now, thanks to an onslaught of regulations from Washington, Indiana ranks somewhere firmly in the middle of the pack.

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Reading between the lines, this is as much an admission of guilt for polluting our air, water, and soil with heavy metals (lead, mercury, arsenic) from coal. They were getting away with it until regulations prevented the free-for-all.

I keep thinking about that 17 million pounds of toxins put into our waterways every single year…and BP dumping mercury into Lake Michigan every single year, courtesy of Indiana Dept. of Environmental Mis-Management….and the lack of action when the toxic spill floated down the Ohio…

 

 

 

The ingenuity of organic farmers

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So…one of the members of the organic farmers group posted about an onslaught of bugs eating his plants–he petitioned for help.

The suggestions made me smile at their ingenuity:

–one suggested using grass clippings for the bugs to munch on so they would leave the good plants alone.

–adopt a lizard.

–put up birdhouses in the surrounding area (great idea!)

–spray a mixture of honey/sugar and lard/oil over the ground near the plants to attract wasps, hornets, and ants that are predators.

–another suggestion was leaving rotting vegetation around (straw, hay, grass clippings, wood chips) so the bugs would eat that instead, and if all else fails with an infestation…get out the dustbuster. Haha.

Finally, a member commented that one of the “pests” –-a pill bug — ate heavy metals….so there you go–nature taking care of the bad stuff.  Another mentioned that they are great soil builders, so you really want them around–you just need to provide something else, like the rotting vegetation, for them to munch on.  They prefer it over the new plants.

Just thought I’d pass this along for anyone else wanting to get away from the toxic chemical solution–

The toxic waterways

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I had heard this report was out but hadn’t seen it until now–about our toxic waterways.  Indiana, unfortunately, heads the list for toxic load.  It’s worse than I first read about–the number now is 17 million pounds of toxins into our waterways.  43 million pounds released into the Ohio river, THE most toxic river.  Good Grief.

And Joe Donnelly, Dan Coats, and Jackie Walorski, paid by their bosses (in the form of campaign $$, and God knows what else), are fighting for the industries’ right to poison us.    Some of them are so bold to say they’re fighting for us and our families….seriously.  17 million pounds of toxins.  Whom is irresponsible, Mr. Coats?

NY Times has a page up on fines and violations…and how nobody takes responsibility.

The Sierra Club’s take on the Indiana Dept. of Environmental Mis-Management, including a dog boiled alive by hot water discharge, and a coal industry lobbyist being appointed to…wait for it…the IDEM–for prosecuting the polluters.  If this wasn’t so serious, I would be laughing my arse off.

 

 

Progress

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So…you all might recall I blogged about the vulnerability of the Irish to heavy metal poisoning due to a genetic factor…

…my other sister dropped a bombshell last week at the funeral dinner–she had her daughter tested because of health issues…and….drum roll please….she has the double gene responsible for the inability to detox heavy metals.

I knew it….but I couldn’t convince my siblings that because we were Irish, we were more susceptible.

They had a hard time believing that my stupid amalgams had made me so ill.  My sis was a dental hygienist in another life, so she was brainwashed into believing that stuff was perfectly safe.  She was exposed to it eight hours a day, five days a week.  I won’t go into her health issues, but there’s plenty to point towards mercury poisoning.

And yet, it’s still hard for her to wrap her brain around–because she just noticed the red spots on my arms–that have been there for over ten years–probably closer to fifteen years.  She thinks that’s a sign of allergies.  Yes and no.  Allergies are worse with mercury poisoning and many on the support group have some sort of skin issue like mine.

I explained to my sister (she lives out of state, so I don’t get to see her that often), that my red spots got much worse when I worked at the state mental hospital that was located near a cement plant that burns hazardous waste.  I found out a couple years ago that it was spewing mercury into the air.  This just clicked for me that my red spots got worse when I worked there, and then started to disappear when I moved out of town after losing my house.  The thing is–when I chelate, the red spots itch like crazy and become an angry red.  And when they do go away, there is a pink scar left on my forearm.

I’ve passed another milestone that indicates I am progressing, however slowly–my long time readers might recall I mentioned warts on my thumb and middle finger.  The warts on my thumb began to disappear a year or two into chelation.  The middle finger, however, was still there.  Until now.

It was getting itchy and red during chelation, but still remained until this week–where the body finally dealt with it and tada! I no longer have the wart.  Incredible how the body is such a miracle.  I knew that viruses cause warts, so I was waiting for the immune system to take care of it.  Doctors, of course, want to just remove the warts without thinking about why the wart is there and if there is something gone wrong with the immune system…?

So…yeah…a little progress, but a giant leap as far as I’m concerned.

And knowing that I was right all along about the Irish genetics is just wonderful.  Validated.

Now if they’ll only listen to me about Dr. Cutler’s protocol and start chelation before things get really bad…

…and following a grain free organic diet…but yeah, that’s probably not going to happen–lots of resistance, but I can hope, can’t I?

 

 

Alert

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Just wanted to give you a head’s up on something the mercury group has posted~

Vitamin Research Products (vrp.com) is no longer stocking DMSA, one of the chelators of mercury and lead.  They just suddenly stopped stocking it and have even removed the page from their website.

This is not good news.  They were the main supplier of DMSA.  Theories are abound that Big Pharma is behind this–buying out the competition.  And if they can buy out natural cures, they can force sick people to buy their side-effect-laden crap.

There are also allegations that Obamacare is limiting natural methods of healing, such as chelation supplements, making it harder for folks to get well. I don’t know this for fact, but it is one of the reasons I have not signed up for the health care.  Another reason is the link to the insurance industry instead of single-payer, which would have been more palatable, being like Medicare for All.

I can tell you that many of us on the group lost jobs as a result of mercury–therefore, we had lost the ability to pay for medical insurance and the ability to pay for supplements that insurance didn’t cover.   But at least the supplements were available…and cheap.  I would have not gotten well without that.  So once again, the poor take a hit for the uber wealthy to make even more profits….

I suspected that Big Pharma would try to grab this part of the market again, because they had in the past and continually try to get some twerp in Congress to do their bidding with making supplements illegal.

With billions of dollars and high-priced lawyers, they have gotten away with trying to take credit for natural healing herbs and methods, such as those used in India.  These were used for thousands of years…and Big Pharma comes along and tries to claim a patent.  Utterly mindboggling.  More here on Big Pharma’s battle to get a share of the market in India. An even better explanation of it here.

Big Pharma tries to claim that compulsory licenses aren’t available for cancer drugs – a lie; or that they are only available for national emergencies – another lie; or that India is establishing a general exception to patents for pharmaceuticals – an even bigger lie.  Sovereigns retain the right under TRIPS to issue compulsory licenses or to allow public, non-commercial use of patented products or processes.  As long as the correct procedures are followed and adequate remuneration is paid, the patent holder has nothing legitimate to complain about – unless, of course, it is a U.S. multinational who doesn’t want an emerging country like India to get in its way.

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…or for a group of U.S. citizens who want natural methods to heal their bodies to get their way….

And unfortunately, that’s not all that the greedy are trying to patent.

Lastly, here is a good segment on DN! with Vandana and Mira Shiva–two “uppity” women I admire for fighting the good fight~~

Vandana brings up the point of liability.  It would seem that none of the chemical companies — be it Dow/Union Carbide or any Big Pharma — want to take responsibility for the harm that they cause.  All the profits. None of the guilt.

She also highlights the attitudes towards the poor–they don’t matter so let’s poison them or use them as guinea pigs.

It was great to hear of them speak of their strong mother in the end~~no junk food in the house.  My father, too, did not allow junk food in the house when I was growing up–a parent who cares is not going to feed their child junk.  I heard the other day of parents of my children’s generation feeding their kids nothing but junk…and they don’t see anything wrong with that.  Very unsettling.  Regretfully, I didn’t appreciate my Dad’s wisdom until recently.  I always felt deprived because other kids got to have a “treat” of junk food on Friday night.  Just before the divorce, my sister would make Chef Boy-ar-dee pizzas on Friday night.  I felt happy at getting that “treat”.  Pfft.  The “treat” that kills.

Food is medicine.  Weeds are medicine.  When will we learn to value that which is not valuable by profit-making and make that available to all, not just those with cash in hand??

 

 

Fracking wastewater being pumped into wells

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Have these people completely lost their minds?

One New York state study found radioactivity in fracking waste water at 267 times the level considered safe for human consumption. Other studies found several cancer-causing contaminants in fracking waste water. The report cites arsenic, lead, hexavalent chromium, barium, chloride, sodium, sulfates, boron, benzene and radioactive agents.

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You might remember hexavalent chromium…it was the stuff used by PG & E featured in the movie, Erin Brockovich. 

It, as well as benzene, are known cancer causing agents.  Arsenic and lead, of course, are heavy metals that cause neurological damage and in enough amounts–death.

It is just mindboggling that the fracking proponents look the other way at the damage caused by the fracking process.  All that matters to them is getting the gas out of the ground, no matter the consequences.  Well, it has a way of coming back on you…quality of life goes down…healthcare costs go up…and each generation suffers more DNA damage.

Blackfish backlash

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Members of Congress have paid attention to the orca documentary, Blackfish, and are now asking Secretary Vilsack for updated guidelines on marine mammals in captivity.

Well…it’s a start…but I would much rather see the whole practice abandoned entirely.  It is inhumane to take these animals from their natural habitat for our entertainment.

It’s sad to see that the Sea World employee lashing out at people speaking out against Sea World.  It was troubling to see Dawn Brancheau’s family speaking out against them, too.  Mindboggling.

My other posts on Blackfish and orcas.

Puget Sound group helping orcas.

 

 

Helping bees

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On to lighter subjects…

A member on the organic farmers’ list posted a message about helping a bee that is on the ground.  If they’re on the ground, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are dead or dying–it probably means they are dead tired from gathering pollen and are resting.  You can help it by mixing up a little sugar water to help it regain its strength.

Just thought I’d pass this along–