I am sorry to keep plaguing you all with more of the same ole posts. When it turns out no matter what products we use or buy, it seems to be a choice about not really having much choice. We are at the mercy of the manufacturers, and don’t have any say as to how products are made, packaged or sold. Someday we may be able to uninvent some of the things that have both, improved and hurt our lives and environment.
Tag Archives: environment
Endangered Earth Online
| Suit Launched to Protect Pollinators, Frogs From New Pesticide
The Center for Biological Diversity and other public-interest groups notified the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday of our intent to sue over its failure to protect a range of federally protected species — including bees, butterflies, amphibians and birds — from a powerful, newly approved insecticide called “insecticide.” Even though the EPA recognized the chemical could harm endangered species, it didn’t consult with any wildlife agencies to protect those species. The insect poison could be particularly harmful to solitary bees that are often important crop pollinators — 4,000 species of which live in the United States. “This systemic insecticide makes a plant highly toxic to any birds, butterflies and bees that feed on it, but the EPA has turned a blind eye and approved it without considering how it will hurt imperiled wildlife like the endangered Karner blue butterfly,” said Lori Ann Burd, director of the Center’s new Environmental Health program. “It’s our government’s duty to investigate how dangerous insecticides might affect wildlife — not just rubberstamp their approval.” Read more in The Oregonian. |
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| Feds Ban Imports on Four Large Constrictor Snakes — Thank You
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has just made it illegal to import four kinds of nonnative constrictor snakes — or sell them across state lines — by adding them to the list of “injurious” wildlife under a law called the Lacey Act. This should prevent widespread introduction of these exotic animals, which can be extremely destructive to U.S. ecosystems and our own native species. In 2010 scientists identified nine snakes as posing an unacceptable risk of establishing invasive populations; two years later the agency said four of those species would be listed as “injurious”: Burmese pythons, yellow anacondas, and northern and southern African pythons. And now the Service has announced that it will list four of the remaining five snakes under the Lacey Act — the reticulated python, DeSchauensee’s anaconda, green anaconda and Beni anaconda. Last summer the Center submitted comments on a proposed rule that identified numerous scientific studies documenting the risk posed by exotic constrictor snakes. About 30,000 Center supporters backed our efforts, writing to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to ask that the remaining snakes be listed as injurious. The Center — and the snakes that won’t be trafficked — thank you. Read more in The New York Times. |
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| Help Bring Northwest Grizzly Bears Back From the Brink — Take Action
The grizzly bears of the Pacific Northwest could soon get some much-needed help from the feds: The National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service have declared they’ll be teaming up to restore a healthy grizzly population to the North Cascades, bringing in bears from neighboring areas. Now the agencies need to hear from you to know these massive, iconic bears have your full support. The rugged North Cascades mountain range is key to grizzly survival in the lower 48, according to scientists … but only six bears are currently living there. Since they earned Endangered Species Act protection in 1975, grizzlies have begun to recover — but some populations could still disappear, so they all must be expanded to counter threats like climate change, development and logging. The Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service have waited years to invite public input on their plan for Cascades grizzlies — so we have to act quickly. Voice your support now for grizzly recovery in the Cascades to keep this project and these bears moving forward. |
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| San Leandro City Council Says No to Dangerous Oil Train Project
San Leandro, Calif., became the latest city to oppose a proposed Phillips 66 oil train offloading facility in San Luis Obispo County when its city council unanimously passed a resolution Monday urging county supervisors to deny the project’s permit. The San Leandro Teachers’ Association and San Leandro Unified School District are also opposed. If approved the facility would bring mile-long oil trains, carrying 2.5 million gallons of crude, through densely populated areas nearly every day. Oil train traffic in the United States has increased more than 4,000 percent since 2008 — bringing with it a steep rise in derailments, spills and explosions, with more oil spilled in rail accidents in 2013 than in the previous four decades combined. “I look out my classroom door every day at the trains going by on the Capitol Corridor,” said schoolteacher Claudia McDonagh. “With the recent exploding derailments in West Virginia and Illinois it becomes easy to imagine one of those mile-long oil bomb trains coming off the tracks and into my classroom.” Read more in our press release. |
| Oil Waste Is Contaminating California’s Underground Water, Officials Admit
Facing tough questions from California lawmakers, state regulators admitted last week that oil companies are contaminating underground water by dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into protected aquifers. Documents obtained by the Center had already shown that oil companies were allowed to drill about 2,400 illegal injection wells for waste disposal or oil production into protected aquifers, including many with water clean enough to drink. But last week’s state Senate hearing confirmed the dire consequences. “We believe that any injection into the aquifers that are non-exempt has contaminated those aquifers,” water official Jonathan Bishop told lawmakers. This illegal dumping contaminates water because fracking flowback and other oil waste contain cancer-causing chemicals like benzene. But Gov. Jerry Brown’s oil regulators have so far shut down just 23 of the illegal wells, so we have much more work to do. “If Gov. Brown doesn’t halt fracking and illegal waste water injection, Californians will bitterly regret the damage done to our water supply,” said the Center’s Kassie Siegel. Learn more about these illegal oil industry wells via our new interactive map. |
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| Help Give Away New Endangered Species Condoms for Earth Day — Sign Up Now
At the very first Earth Day in 1970, the world’s rapidly growing human population was a central part of the conversation. But now, 45 years and 3.5 billion more people later, population growth is rarely talked about. You can help change that by joining the Center’s Endangered Species Condoms project. Every year we give away tens of thousands of free condoms in packages featuring wildlife threatened by humans’ runaway population and overconsumption. And this Earth Day we’re launching a new lineup of Endangered Species Condoms with different species; new artwork; new slogans; and new, sustainable, fair-trade Sustain brand condoms — but we need volunteers to help us distribute them at events and in communities across the country. The deadline to sign up to be an Earth Day condom distributor is March 25. Even if you’ve signed up in the past, we need you to confirm your contact information and current mailing address. Sign up to volunteer and get a sneak preview of our new condom designs. |
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| Dozens Die in South Pacific Superstorm, Island President Faults Climate Change
When Cyclone Pam hit the South Pacific island of Vanuatu last weekend, at least 24 people died — and the massive storm flattened buildings, wrecked infrastructure, and left more than 3,000 survivors displaced. Right after the storm hit, Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale warned that climate change was contributing to more extreme weather conditions, specifically cyclone seasons, in his region — like those that caused Pam. In an affecting speech, he also lamented other climate change-related phenomena threatening his country. “We see the level of sea rise,” Lonsdale said. “The cyclone seasons, the warm, the rain, all this is affected. … This year we have more than in any year. … Yes, climate change is contributing to this. I am very emotional. … We do not know if our families are safe. As the leader of the nation, my heart hurts for the people.” Read more in The Guardian. |
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| Wild & Weird: Did Man’s Best Friend Cause the Neanderthal Extinction?
For millennia Neanderthals raised their young, buried their dead, hunted, laughed and lived in the presence of a daunting variety of Pleistocene Eurasian megafauna: giant cave bears, saber-toothed tigers, huge lions, woolly rhinos and leopards. But then, some 40,000 years ago — in what amounts to the blink of an eye in evolutionary time — Neanderthals and that host of megafauna nearly all fell to extinction. No single prevailing theory has yet explained the event. But we do know that modern humans showed up in Neanderthal territory not long before the Neanderthals disappeared. A new book by retired anthropology professor Pat Shipman puts forth the hypothesis that modern humans, and their alliance with another apex predator, the wolf-dog, allowed the newcomers to hunt more efficiently than Neanderthals. Through domestication of wolves, humans were able to hunt many species, like mammoths, that Neanderthals rarely challenged. Read more on Pat Shipman’s book The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction, including an interview with the author, in National Geographic. |
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Here is the link to the web site http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
There are many more issues going on, so don’t hesitate to take a look at the web site.
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Poachers Target Journalists Investigating Rhino Killing
A Mozambican poaching kingpin has two reporters arrested and threatened with torture and death.
February 23, 2015 By John R. Platt
John R. Platt covers the environment, technology, philanthropy, and more for Scientific American, Conservation, Lion, and other publications.
Two international journalists who traveled to Mozambique last week to investigate rhino poaching instead found themselves arrested and threatened with torture, rape, and death.
“We were almost certain we were not going to survive,” said Swedish photojournalist Torbjörn Selander, who is in Mozambique with German reporter Bartholomäus Grill on assignment for Der Spiegel magazine.
The reporters went to the village of Mavodze on Feb. 16, hoping to interview a local kingpin who is said to control at least 10 teams of poachers in the region and is wanted by Interpol on suspicion of murder in South Africa. “Other journalists have met the kingpin, but I think someone has put pressure on them, and they are quite nervous now,” Selander said.
Just two days before the journalists arrived in Mavodze, the government of Mozambique pledged to take immediate action to eliminate illegal rhino poaching and trade in rhino horns. It is not known if this influenced the situation last week. The embassy of Mozambique did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
poaching rhinos
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Stop Making Our Families Sick!
Hey y’all, sorry to wax radical this morning, but I got this email in my box, and felt something should be done about things we just ignore and put up with.
https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy;jsessionid=6176FBAAB9DE628072D3282A01E1E41B.app207a?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=12153&autologin=true&s_src=413ZSRNW01
Tell the Obama Administration to protect families from mountaintop-removal coal mining today!
SierraRise — Why stand apart, when we can rise together?
More profit for Big Coal?
Or less cancer and more mountains for future generations?
Take action today!
Send a message to the Obama administration today: No more mountaintop-removal mining!
Take action today!
Dear rusty,
My name is Donna Branham and I live in Mingo County, West Virginia — smack dab in the middle of coal-mining country.
A few years ago, Island Creek Coal Company opened a mountaintop-removal coal mine two miles from the house where I grew up, and where my Mom and Dad still lived. Because of the danger, my parents had to leave their home so that they could have a reasonable life. My mom never felt at home again.
After that, I knew I had to act. The coal companies are putting a burden on us, and it isn’t fair. I’ve got grandchildren, and I want them to live in a better world. That’s why I’m calling on the Obama Administration to put our health first, and why I’m asking you to take action too. I’m a registered nurse and I’ve seen firsthand how mining hurts the health of my community. I’ve seen how it is making my community sick — and year after year, it’s only getting worse.
I’m tired of seeing families get sick just so Big Coal can increase its profits. Please send your message to the Obama Administration before it’s too late: Put our health first — no more mountaintop-removal coal mines!
Mountaintop-removal coal mining blows off the tops of mountains to extract the coal that fuels our nation’s power plants. It has already leveled 500 mountains and buried over 1,200 miles of streams — but it gets worse. It raises my community’s risk of birth defects, cancer, and heart disease.[1]
Right now, dozens of permits are pending for new mines and the Obama Administration could approve them any day. If they get approved, it will mean more people get sick and more mountains get destroyed — but I don’t want any more families to suffer the effects of Big Coal’s pollution.
Send a message to the White House today, and let them know that families like mine need them to stand up and say no to any more mountaintop-removal coal mines. Our health depends on it.
There have been many times where folks like us worked together to make change happen. If it weren’t for mothers demanding a right to vote, women would still not be allowed at the polls. It takes people like you and me who get fed up enough to take action to make a change.
SierraRise is just the community to make that change, working together online for progress and a healthier planet. This community will reach new audiences and build a bigger and more powerful movement than ever before. That means sharing heartfelt stories and inspiring pictures with our friends and family and flooding the in boxes of public officials and corporations with powerful personal messages — thank you for being part of this.
If we stand together, we can create a better life for our children and grandchildren. Tell the Obama Administration to protect families from mountaintop-removal coal mining today!
Thanks for all you do to protect our environment!
Sincerely,
Donna Branham
Sierra Club Volunteer
Mingo County, WV
P.S. To keep up with the latest about mountaintop-removal coal mining and other campaigns from SierraRise, like us on Facebook and follow @SierraRise on Twitter!
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References:
1. Cheves, John (2011 June 23). “Study notes spike in birth defects near mountaintop mining.” Lexington Herald Ledger.
Sierra Club | 85 2nd St San Francisco, CA 94105 | sierrarise.members@sierraclub.org
This email was sent to rgcorros@gmail.com.
I urge the Obama administration to take action to stop the most destructive form of energy extraction in America — mountaintop removal coal mining.
Recent, peer-reviewed science shows that mountaintop removal coal mining does more than destroy Appalachian mountains and streams; it increases risk of serious diseases such as birth defects, cancer, and cardiovascular disease mortality.
It’s time to end mountaintop removal coal mining!
There are so many issues that need to be addressed in this Great land of ours. We can’t allow big business keep making life difficult or impossible, for profits. I realize our country needs fuels to power our nation, but we also need future generations, to carry our nation into the future.
Please hear the pleas of the people and help us all to live a healthy and productive life.
Thank you for taking the time to hear the thoughts of our citizens.
Truly, Rusty Garner-Smith
https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy;jsessionid=6176FBAAB9DE628072D3282A01E1E41B.app207a?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=12153&autologin=true&s_src=413ZSRNW01
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