4/8/01
10:06:35 PM
I read about the link to this page in an Astronomy magazine. I can't believe some of the ignorant statements I read on your web page. Where do you people get this information from?? Thank goodness your little minds only form a small percentage of the global opinion. How does nuclear power increase global warming?? Why don't you people go to college, get engineering degrees and make solar power more efficient and practical? Try to be part of the solution instead of complaining!!
4/7/01
2:58:30 PM
Forming A Unity Of One Percent To Stop Our Extinction
Connecting Through 1000 EcoHumanePolitical Websites
"If Homo sapiens are going to survive as a species, we had better understand and quickly heed the inherent limits of Mother Nature."
Mark Elsis
4/7/01
2:58:25 PM
Forming A Unity Of One Percent To Stop Our Extinction
Connecting Through 1000 EcoHumanePolitical Websites
"If Homo sapiens are going to survive as a species, we had better understand and quickly heed the inherent limits of Mother Nature."
Mark Elsis
4/7/01
1:25:10 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME IN QUEST FOR FOREST PROTECTIONS
By Cat Lazaroff
BOISE, Idaho, April 6, 2001 (ENS) - A federal judge in Idaho ruled Thursday that the Clinton administration violated certain environmental and disclosure rules in crafting the Roadless Protection Initiative, opening the door for the Bush administration to overturn the regulation. The judge's decision caps a rollercoaster week of forest protection actions, ranging from legislation to lawsuits.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-06-06.html
UK LOOKS TO BACTERIA FOR POLLUTION SOLUTIONS
LONDON, United Kingdom, April 6, 2001 (ENS) - Instead of digging and dumping, an army of natural micro-organisms could soon be cleaning up the more than 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) of contaminated industrial sites in the United Kingdom.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-06-10.html
CANADA TO SIGN INTERNATIONAL BIOSAFETY PROTOCOL
OTTAWA, Canada, April 6, 2001 (ENS) - An agreement to regulate the movement of genetically modified organisms across international borders is a step closer to fruition after Canada announced yesterday it would sign the international protocol.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-06-11.html
ECO-TOURISTS BUY TICKETS DIRECT TO CONSERVATION
BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 6, 2001 (ENS) - Across the European Union initiatives towards sustainable tourism are taking off this spring. A German tour operator conducting journeys to Croatia contributes part of each tourist's fee to the conservation of the last Adriatic dolphins.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-06-01.html
PANDAS NOT SAFE IN CHINESE NATURE RESERVE
EAST LANSING, Michigan, April 6, 2001 (ENS) - China's Wolong Nature Reserve was established to be a panda heaven where the endangered species of bear could recover. But burgeoning human populations near the reserve and crowds of tourists are squeezing the bears into an increasingly smaller area, a new study of satellite data shows.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-06-02.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 6, 2001
Warming Tropical Oceans Changing Northern Climate
Public Lands Eyed as Energy Resources
Shooting Sea Lion Lands Fisher in Jail
Small Streams Play Big Role in Cleaner Water
PCBs Found in Hudson River Soils, Animals
Bill Would Keep Nuke Compensation in Labor
Task Force Will Assess Maryland Terrapins
Low Lake Levels a Boon for Botanists, Birdwatchers
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-06-09.html
4/7/01
1:21:33 PM
Action Alert from the Organic Consumers Association
Starbucks Under Fire: The Frankenbuck$ Campaign
By: Ronnie Cummins
http://www.organicconsumers.org
April 5, 2001
Dear Friends,
First of all, thank you for your efforts and support in the launch of our strategic and precedent-setting Starbucks campaign. On March 20 (M-20) several thousand "Frankenbuck$" volunteers took to the streets and sidewalks across North America, picketing, protesting, and leafleting in front of Starbucks coffee shops in over 100 cities. In a number of cities and college towns, activists staged press conferences enlivened by colorful signs, street theater, and powerful speakers. In Seattle 100 protesters rallied and cheered the speeches of campaign spokespersons--in front of a solid bank of TV cameras and news reporters--outside the building where Starbucks was holding their annual shareholders meeting. Even in cities where we had just a few leafleters, we made our presence felt, making contact with Starbucks customers and generating news stories which reached thousands of people.
Since M-20, leafleting and other pressure tactics have continued in a number of communities, with strong indications that the campaign will soon catch fire in Canada, Japan, and the UK. For a summary of local reports and news coverage in many of these 100 cities (bear with us, we are still posting them) go to the Starbucks section of our website
http://www.organicconsumers.org
During Earth Day week April 15-22 we are encouraging activists to leaflet Starbucks once again on a nationwide basis. If you are willing to leaflet Starbucks customers in your local area please email mailto:simon@organicconsumers and we¹ll send you some leaflets and posters.
Extensive Media Coverage
By the end of the first week of activities, the Starbucks campaign already had generated over 750 newspaper articles, TV news clips, and radio reports, all the way from National Public Radio, Pacifica Radio, Associated Press, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe, to scores of college newspapers and community radio stations. Over 50,000 Consumer Warning leaflets have now been distributed to Starbucks' customers by our campaign. The website of the campaign
http://www.organicconsumers.org
received over six million hits in March, which means that thousands of people are going to our site every day. It is no exaggeration to say that millions of people across the US, Canada, and Europe have now heard about our campaign. And of course this negative publicity has Starbucks worried. On March 28 we were attacked in both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times newspaper, a sure sign that we are starting to make an impact. As we said in our national press release for M-20, this is the largest consumer campaign ever launched in the US around the issues of genetic engineering and Fair Trade.
Starbucks Rattled
Even before March 20, Starbucks began to react in a manner that indicates they are taking our campaign quite seriously. In a nationally syndicated story filed by the Associated Press and Dow Jones on March 16, the CEO of Starbucks, Orin Smith, was quoted to the effect that "the company was hoping customers would be given the choice of growth hormone-free milk by late this summer." As Smith stated, "If I've got 10 percent of my customer base that's concerned about this issue, I'm concerned." National Public Radio and other radio stations echoed the same news story. Starbucks faxed and mailed a letter to the OCA and our campaign allies on March 16, implying that they intend to "source an adequate supply of high quality Fair Trade Coffee to enable us to provide brewed Fair Trade Coffee as one of our 'Coffees of the Day' in our stores."
However a close reading of Starbucks' official March 16 statement reacting to our campaign (published on Starbucks' website as well on our own) makes it clear that their positions up until now on rBGH and brewing Fair Trade coffee may be more accurately classified as public relations statements, rather than concrete declarations that the 32 million gallons of milk they buy every year soon will be completely rBGH-free or that they intend to brew Fair Trade coffee as the coffee of the day everyday in their 3500 coffee shops worldwide.
Starbucks' Claim That the OCA is Being Intransigent
Starbucks representatives claim that we are unwilling to meet with them. This is not true. We have been talking to them over the telephone and will continue to do so. We are willing to formally sit down and meet with them and negotiate the details of how they can implement the policy changes we are calling for--as soon as they demonstrate that they are acting in good faith. To demonstrate that they are acting in good faith:
(1) Starbucks must stop saying that they believe that genetically engineered recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone is safe, and that it's only a perception problem on the part of a minority of their customers that rBGH is hazardous. We have asked for Starbucks executives to meet with one of America's top scientific experts on rBGH, Dr. Michael Hansen of the Consumers Union. So far they have not contacted Dr. Hansen. For background information on the hazards of Monsanto¹s Bovine Growth Hormone, see the rBGH section of our website.
(2) Starbucks must address the genetic contamination of their chocolates, baked goods, and bottled coffee beverages. In their public statements up until now they have totally ignored our demands on removing GE ingredients from these products. To meet our concerns they must agree to source non-GE or organic ingredients (including soy, soy lecithin, corn sweeteners, and cooking oils) for their chocolates, baked goods, and bottled beverages. Once they can guarantee that they are using only non-GE or organic ingredients, then these products should be labeled as "GE-free," in a manner similar to the labels found on Ben & Jerry's ice cream and other non-GE natural food products.
When we called Starbucks' head office in Great Britain on March 26, they told us that all the food and beverages in their 170 UK coffee shops were ³GMO-free.² (Free of genetically modified organisms). They also admitted to us that in the UK they are not selling Fair Trade coffee packages. Our obvious response to this disclosure is that if they can sell food and beverages in the UK which are free of genetically engineered ingredients, then they can certainly do the same thing in North America and the rest of the world. And of course they need to start brewing, selling, and promoting Fair Trade coffee in Europe, as well as in North America and the rest of the world.
(3) Starbucks must stop claiming that the reason they're not brewing Fair Trade coffee as the flavor of the day in all of their 3500 cafes worldwide is that there's not a large enough supply of Fair Trade or organic coffee. Starbucks knows as well as we do that there is a massive supply of Fair Trade and organic coffee in the world waiting for a buyer right now. As the human rights group Global Exchange has pointed out, one-half of the world's supply of certified Fair Trade coffee (16 million pounds annually out of a total production of 32 million) is now having to be sold on the commercial market at a loss--simply because coffee buyers like Starbucks aren't buying enough of it.
Independently owned coffee shops across America and Europe are brewing Fair Trade and organic coffee and serving it up as the flavor of the day. Starbucks can certainly do the same. Many of these coffee shops are also using milk and dairy products which are either organic or labeled as rBGH-free, and serving organic baked goods or sandwiches. The ethical bottom line is that millions of the world's 25 million coffee producers are producing coffee the way it should be grown, sustainably and organically. These coffee farmers need and deserve a mass market and a fair price for their labor.
(4) Starbucks says they give lots of money to charities and that they are socially responsible. Again they are avoiding the real issue. We are asking them to put in writing that they will raise the wages and improve the working conditions of the impoverished coffee workers who toil on the plantations of their suppliers. A study referred to by the US Guatemala Labor Education Project (USGLEP) in Guatemala in 1997 found that entire families of coffee workers on the plantations supplying Starbucks and other companies were typically making a grand total of $1.25 per day, while a Guatemalan family needs at least $10 a day to survive. USGLEP estimated in 1997 that for Starbucks to guarantee subsistence level wages for plantation workers it would cost the company a mere penny a cup more for their coffee. This is outrageous behavior for a company that pays its CEO, Orin Smith, $60,000 a week, and which rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits every year.
(5) Starbucks has said they aren't using genetically engineered coffee beans at the present time. We simply want them to put in writing that they will never use them.
We are happy that Starbucks seems to be taking our campaign seriously and that; at least on the level of rhetoric, they are moving in the right direction. Now we need a clear and unequivocal response to our demands. Are they or are they not willing to get rid of GE ingredients, brew up Fair Trade coffee everyday, and put into practice a code of conduct which will improve the wages and working conditions of coffee plantation workers?
In the meantime the Organic Consumers Association and our allies intend to go forward with Phase Two of the Starbucks Campaign, as outlined below.
Phase Two of the Frankenbuck$ Campaign: Expanding Internationally While Keeping Up the Pressure in the USA
We are on the road to winning the Starbucks Campaign, but we need to expand globally and continue the pressure in the USA. We can do this by (a) expanding the campaign to Canada, Great Britain, and Japan--places where Starbucks already does a lot of business--and (b) applying continued pressure in several hundred communities across the USA. Our campaign staff has initiated discussions with our counterparts in Canada and the United Kingdom, and will soon be placing calls to activists in Japan and other nations to initiate a pressure campaign against Starbucks. We have already seen a few protests in Canada (Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Waterloo, and Montreal) and expect we will see more in the upcoming weeks. Two respected Canadian public interest groups, the Sierra Club of Canada and Rights Action, have already endorsed our campaign.
In the USA we suggest that the following tactics may be the most fruitful:
(1) Keep leafleting, but after you or others organize an initial media event in your community, carry out follow up actions unannounced. One tactic that works is to show up at a Starbucks location, preferably at their busiest time of day. Go inside and see if they are brewing Fair Trade coffee as the "flavor of the day" and listing this fact prominently where customers can see it. See what kind of milk they're pouring into their lattes and mochas. If they're not yet "doing the right thing," discreetly give all the customers in the cafe a copy of our Frankenbuck$ Consumer Warning leaflet and then walk out and do the same thing (or have a friend do the same thing) at another location. Standing outside and leafleting customers is still a good tactic, especially out in front of Barnes & Noble bookstores (which have Starbucks inside) or in the Student Center cafeterias of college campuses, which have Starbucks outlets.
(2) Call every Starbucks café in your community on a regular basis. Have your friends do the same thing. Ask the manager or the person in charge if today they are brewing Fair Trade coffee as the Flavor of the Day and advertising this fact to their customers. Ask them what kind of milk, skim milk, and half and half they are using, and if they have a written statement from the dairy that these products are free of genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone. Ask them the same thing about their chocolates and baked goods. If they answer your questions in the negative, tell them you are going to boycott them until they do what consumers are demanding. Tell them the name of the coffee shop where you will take your business instead. If they claim they are doing the right thing today, go down to their café, or have someone you know do this, and see if they are telling the truth. If you are a coffee drinker and need a fix, request that they brew you a Fair Trade coffee, but tell them to hold the rBGH milk please. Keep in mind that Starbucks claims it will supply organic soymilk for your coffee upon request.
(3) Complain to retailers that sell Starbucks products that the company has not implemented the changes that consumers are demanding.
(4) Get your school, college, or city council to pass a resolution that they will serve Fair Trade or organic coffee, avoid foods contaminated with GE ingredients, and avoid doing business with sweatshops factory sweatshops or agricultural sweatshops in the field.
If you need Starbucks leaflets or other campaign materials call our national office (218-226-4164) or send an email to <simon@organicconsumers.org <mailto:simon@organicconsumers.org>>
You can also help us cut expenses by downloading and printing your own leaflets and posters from our website and making copies. If you need coaching or advice on how to carry out Starbucks campaign activities contact Starbucks campaign coordinator Simon Harris <simon@organicconsumers.org <mailto:simon@organicconsumers.org>>
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to support the campaign, send your contribution to:
Organic Consumers Association
6101 Cliff Estate Road
Little Marais, MN 55614
As you can well imagine this campaign is costing us a lot of money.
Again thanks for all your hard work and support, and congratulations in advance for participating in a campaign that we are going to win.
As our counterparts say south of the border: Hasta La Victoria Siempre! Until the Final Victory
Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association
4/7/01
1:17:56 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
Running on Empty?
In the latest issue of Utne Reader, you can find inspiring, practical solutions for stress, the environment, the energy crisis and insomnia. And that's just in the first half of the magazine!
http://www.utne.com/subscribe/
TODAY'S PICKS:
http://www.utne.com/webwatch/archive.tpl?d=04/09/2001
THE CULT OF GREENSPAN
by Dan Kennedy, Boston Phoenix
-- NPR affirms Alan Greenspan's popularity with its report that "more people have heard of Greenspan than the lead singer for the boy group 'N Sync." Even so, his reputation may be losing some of its luster as the economy continues to flounder.
SAM COOKE: LOST AND LOOKING
by Stephan Talty, Killing the Buddha
-- Stephan Talty takes a sober look at the art and artifice in the short career and tragic, untimely death of legendary pop/soul crooner Sam Cooke, and it's impact on pop culture in the mid 60's.
THE PUBLIC I
website review by Al Paulson
-- The Public I, online newsletter of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity, exposes the slimy dark underbelly of money and influence in government. Updated daily, this no-holds-barred site makes no bones about pointing fingers and naming names.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
4/7/01
1:10:45 PM
WILD ALERT
Last month we told you about a proposed policy by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) that would keep the "wild" in wilderness. It would supersede the current, antiquated policy that fails to reflect the agency's duty to protect wilderness character.
Many of you commented on this issue (thank you!). Now we need your help to ensure that another important new policy is retained and strengthened. Please send comments to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to request that they finalize and strengthen the draft "appropriate use" policy for the Refuge System. Comments must be received by April 19.
Take action now from
http://www.wilderness.org/standbylands/refuges/orv040901.htm
BACKGROUND
In 1997, Congress passed the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act to clarify the mission of the 93 million-acre Refuge System, provide important new protections for these lands, and enhance opportunities for public involvement in key land management decisions. Since then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been preparing regulations and policies to implement the Act. In January, a critical policy that defines "appropriate use" of refuges was released for public comment.
APPROPRIATE USE POLICY
The 1997 Refuge System Improvement Act states that the mission of the Refuge System is wildlife and habitat conservation. It directs that, where compatible with wildlife conservation, six activities shall be considered "priority uses". These are wildlife observation and photography, hunting, fishing, and environmental education and interpretation.
In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a new "appropriate use" policy that would de-emphasize activities that are not priority uses, including snowmobile and off-road vehicle use, mining, and grazing, all of which unfortunately occur on some refuges.
This draft "appropriate use" policy establishes criteria that must be met in order to allow non-priority uses in a refuge. A "non-priority" use can only be allowed if it complies with relevant laws, regulations, and policies and is consistent with public safety and resource management objectives. Most significantly, a non-priority use can only be allowed if it also: [1] Is beneficial to the refuge's wildlife or cultural resources or contributes to the public's understanding and appreciation of the refuge; [2] Can exist without impairing existing wildlife-dependent recreational uses; [3] Cannot reasonably occur anywhere but within the refuge; [4] Can be managed using existing staff and finances; and [5] Will be easy to control in the future.
These criteria are very good.
POLICY NEEDS STRENGTHENING
However, the draft policy contains three loopholes that could allow a variety of inappropriate uses to continue on refuges, including off-road vehicle use.
First, non-priority activities that facilitate priority uses are exempt from meeting the "appropriate use" criteria. For example, someone could argue that the use of snowmobiles or off-road vehicles facilitates fishing, hunting, or bird watching.
Second, the policy appears to exempt "management activities" by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Third, the draft policy appears to allow refuge managers to exempt non-priority activities from the appropriate use criteria on a case-by-case basis.
These loopholes must be closed.
TAKE ACTION
Please tell the Fish and Wildlife Service BY APRIL 19 that you support the agency's draft "appropriate use" policy with some modifications. Send your comments from
http://www.wilderness.org/standbylands/refuges/orv040901.htm
or write, fax, or e-mail the agency directly, and make the following points:
[1] The draft "appropriate use" policy is a substantial improvement over previous refuge policies on public use.
[2] You support the draft policy's requirement that non-priority uses can be allowed only if they are beneficial to refuge wildlife or cultural resources or if they contribute to appreciation and understanding of refuge wildlife or cultural resources.
[3] You support the draft policy's requirement that non-priority uses can be allowed only if they cannot reasonably occur anywhere else but within the refuge.
[4] The draft policy must be improved by eliminating the language that could exempt non-priority activities such as snowmobiles or other off-road vehicles. Some may argue these activities facilitate priority uses or contribute to recreational goals of an individual refuge. [5] The draft policy should not provide open-ended authority for refuge managers to exempt refuge management and other activities from the policy on a case-by-case basis.
Send your message to:
J. Kenneth Edwards Refuge Program Specialist National Wildlife Refuge System U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 4401 North Fairfax, Room 670 Arlington, VA 22203 Fax: 703-358-2248 E-mail: Appropriate_Uses_Policy_Comments@fws.gov
4/7/01
1:08:15 PM
GREAT NEWS FOR HANSON ISLAND LOGGING THREAT ENDS
Hello everyone,
Yesterday, the government of British Columbia announced a series of decisions relating to the future of the forested central coast region of British Columbia. Of foremost importance in the overall scheme of things is the protection of areas of the ancient "Great Bear Rainforest" which are critical habitat for the "Spirit Bear" and other wildlife. This is fantastic news, and signals an end to the "war in the woods" that has been waged over the issue. But for us, sitting on the edge of our seat on the periphery of the action, it was a tiny detail of the map that put a huge smile into our day... one of the new "protection" areas looked like Hanson Island! We hardly dared believe it to be true yesterday, so waited for verification from government officials. That came this morning, and YES, it's true... Hanson Island is to be protected!! The exact manner of the protection has yet to be determined, but one thing is clear... the island's forest is now safe from the threat of logging!!!
It's difficult to explain the sense of relief we feel after two decades of tension and struggle... profound, to say the least. We also owe a profound debt of gratitude towards all those who've stood with us and helped, in innumerable ways, to achieve this outcome. To the Namgis First Nation, David Garrick, our persistent allies at the CCLRMP "table", campaigners protesters & story tellers, our supporters from around the world, and in the end the government of B.C. itself, we express our heartfelt gratitude. Because of you, Hanson Island and its green forested beauty will remain the jewel it is today.
THANK YOU ALL!!!!!
Paul, Helena & Anna
4/7/01
1:05:21 PM
EcoNet News
This Week's Headlines and Alerts from EcoNet
http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/enindex.html
Canada Stops FTAA Protestors at Border
There were people from the Canadian media, from Platsburgh media and indy media, who took notes and recorded the events. When we had all been told of the disposition of our requests, an official announced in a loud voice, "You must leave now and return to the US." Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/986511820/index_html
Climate Protest Floods White House
More than 50,000 angry citizens from all over the world have "flooded" the White House with e-mails, as a part of a Friends of the Earth protest over Bush's climbdown on the UN climate treaty (the Kyoto Protocol). The number of protest mails is now running at over 10,000 a day. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/986511977/index_html
Illegal Fishing off the Galapagos
Please visit the site shown below and write a letter to stop illegal fishing in this unique ecosystem. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/986512191/index_html
Save the Dugong of Okinawa
Here in Japan, the Save Dugong Campaign Center has just started to collect signatures to save the dugong and other endangered species of Okinawa. They are living in the region where the Japanese and US governments are planning to construct a new large scale US military base. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/986512324/index_html
Mattole Forest Blockade Raided
Please read about the latest developments at the Mattole Forest Blockade and add your support. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/986580493/index_html
National Forest Protection Act Reintroduced in Congress
A bipartisan bill introduced by 73 members of the U.S. Congress calls for an end to the federal logging program on public lands. The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act would promptly cut off funding for commercial timber sales on millions of acres in Oregon and Washington. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/986580704/index_html
EcoNet Headlines: April 6, 2001
Corporations Outgun Environmentalists in Politics of U.S. West
Under [House Resource Committe Chairman James] Hansen and his predecessor, Alaska's Don Young, the House Resources Committee has become a rollout point for efforts to roll back the clock and ignore 50 years of evolving values, economics, and population in the West. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986508506/index_html
Canada, Timber Firms Agree on Pact to Protect Rainforest
In a major victory for the forest conservation movement, Canadian government and timber-industry officials have agreed to protect 3.5 million acres of British Columbia's ancient temperate rainforests from planned industrial logging. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986508268/index_html
California Wind Farms Kept from Generating Power for Public Use
Even as California suffers its most disastrous power shortage, the Mojave wind farms are prevented from generating anything like their maximum outputs because of a combination of bureaucratic cock-ups and big business conspiracies. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986508757/index_html
GM Trials to Go Ahead in Foot and Mouth Zones
Friends of the Earth today hit out at the Government after it confirmed that new GM farm scale trials would take place on farms in areas infected with foot and mouth disease. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986508923/index_html
Genetic Contamination Impacts Farmers' Rights
For many years, the Canadian public saw genetically modified rapeseed as another, potentially profitable, farm management strategy. But that was before Canada's international market for rapeseed collapsed amid fears of GM contamination and Monsanto took Percy Schmeiser to court. This is his personal story. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986509253/index_html
Cogema Allowed to Unload Australian Spent Nuclear Fuel
Greenpeace will launch a new legal challenge to the state-owned nuclear company Cogema's plans to reprocess Australian spent nuclear fuel after an injunction preventing the unloading of the fuel was overturned by a Court of Appeal on April 4. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986509392/index_html
Consensus over Nuclear Waste Crumbling in France
More than 25 years after the introduction of nuclear power in France, the country's consensus on the subject is crumbling under the weight of technical and legal setbacks. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986509572/index_html
EU Will Ratify Kyoto Protocol Despite U.S. Withdrawal
A high-level delegation from the European Union (EU) said Tuesday that its members intend to ratify the Kyoto Protocol by next year, regardless of what the United States may do. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986509719/index_html
EU Fails to Decouple Natural Resource Use and Economic Growth
The European Union (EU) has failed to decouple economic growth from the intensified use of natural resources, thus increasing the burden on the global environment, says a new study produced for the European Environment Agency (EEA) in Copenhagen. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986509948/index_html
Public Services Doomed under New Round of WTO Talks
After profiting from the liberalisation of goods and investments, transnational corporations are seeking - through the General Agreement on Trade in Services - greater control of global services. The agreement will allow foreign companies to take over and monopolise the provision of all forms of services in a country, covering a broad range of activities that directly affect every aspect of people's daily lives. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986510140/index_html
Despite Protection, Panda Homeland Disappearing Fast
Despite 25 years of government protection, the pandas' homeland in the Wolong Nature Reserve in southern Chinais increasingly under threat from human encroachment. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986510335/index_html
Australia Gains a Fish, Loses a Mammal
Australia's largest river, the Murray, has gained a new fish species - the Yarra pygmy perch - offering a bright spot in the river's legacy of pollution and dwindling biodiversity. But in other parts of the nation, species like the tiny brush tailed phascogale and dozens of woodland birds may be vanishing forever. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986510464/index_html
EU Votes to Ban Animal-Tested Cosmetics
On Tuesday, the European Parliament voted to ban sales of all new cosmetic products tested on animals, including makeup, shampoos, and shower gels. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986510580/index_html
EPA Feedlot Rules under Review
The Bush administration will address the concerns of farm interests before making final some rules that the Clinton administration proposed to control runoff from feedlots, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Tuesday. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986510706/index_html
Plastics May Get EU Restrictions
The European Parliament called Tuesday for tighter rules on the use of polyvinyl chloride, a plastic commonly used in household plumbing pipes, citing health and environmental risks related to the use and disposal of the plastic. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986510800/index_html
GREEN: America's Wild Cats Are in Danger
North America's wild cats are "joining the ranks of wolves and grizzlies as top predators quickly disappearing from our nation's landscape" says a new report from the National Wildlife Federation. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/986510933/index_html
4/7/01
12:59:00 PM
Real Goods
Update on the California Energy "Crisis"
We were deluged with comments on our idea in Solar Times Number 23 (click here to read) where we showed that simple conservation measures could solve the California energy "crisis." The summary conclusion was that if the California State government provided $135 million worth of compact fluorescent bulbs and water saving showerheads, the state could shut down 100 average sized power plants of its current 1,000 power plants. Or better yet, prevent the construction of new ones.
Since that research was done, the legislators in California have pretty much come to the same conclusion that conservation is one major way out of the dilemma of blackouts and the promise of many more to come in the long hot summer. In fact, right now, there are over 200 pending bills in the State of California that will either bring incentives for renewable energy and/or incentives to conserve. There are so many bills, that I'm unable to fathom all of them to even comment on separating the good ones from the bad ones. And there is no one tracking all of them. (Hint: is there an enterprising Solar Times Subscriber who wants to report to us on what all the bills are and which ones are the most promising?)
The climate for passing good bills is so hot right now that Clint Eastwood (Go Dirty Harry!) walked into the Legislature and in one day got commitment to reverse the established policy on net metering, so that now the utilities will have to pay renewable energy producers for the excess power they generate.
Let's back up a minute and look at why California finds itself where it is today seemingly without enough energy to satisfy its needs. After the ill-fated deregulation policies were adopted in California, it was mandated that utilities had to divest of their generating facilities in California. So PG&E and Southern California Edison (SCE) did just that. They sold off their generating facilities and went out of state and bought shares of Enron, Duke, and other power generators in Arizona, Texas, Utah, Washington, etc. So when their California generating facilities were gone, PG&E & SCE had to go out of state to buy their power. And of course they bought it from Duke and Enron. Smelling a sales opportunity these out-of-state companies raised their rates from the previous $.05 - $.10 per KWh they had been charging up to as much as $0.40/KWh putting PG&E and SCE on the verge of bankruptcy.
Ever crafty, PG&E went to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and got approval to separate their out-of-state division from their in-state division. PG&E formed PG&E Holdings corporation. The new parent companies bled between $3 billion and $6 billion from the in-state utilities and left them on their own to pay their bills. Ironically, when PG&E and SCE were crying poor and talking bankruptcy, 60% of their debts were to their parent companies! So the State of California, in its infinite generosity, bailed out the "suffering" utilities and paid $45 million per day to buy their electricity.
The background to the "crisis" now established, let's talk about how solar provides a common sense way out even without conservation, although obviously they should be done in concert.
Solar energy, by its nature, is the solution to the State's power dilemma. Solar does "peak power shaving," in that it provides its highest power just when the state needs it - in the middle of the summer afternoon, when air conditioning loads are heaviest and the huge bottleneck occurs in transmission lines. This means with net metering, PG&E pays $0.30/KWh during summer peak afternoon hours, and pays only $0.08/KWh at night. Again, ideal for your new solar system's economics!
Right now, the cities of San Francisco and Santa Rosa and the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District are considering huge PV arrays to keep their municipalities running during Summer blackouts. Industry estimates are that the demand for PV in California alone will be as much as 3,000 MW over the next three years. Yet the world production right now is only 350 MW per year. California's governor Davis says he wants 5,000 MW of power this summer to avert rolling blackouts (using no conservation measures). With the demand for PV increasing, the prices are coming down. Current pricing for mega-systems is running about $5/watt installed. With California Energy Commission (CEC) and other pending legislation rebates of $2/watt, the net installed price of solar should drop to around $3/watt.
With a price of $3/watt on installed PV, the payback period is 11 years at a price of $0.14/KWh and 5-1/2 years at $0.28/KWh, well below the $0.40/KWh that the utilities frequently pay. If Governor Davis were to spend the $45 million per day on installed solar, that money would be going into clean, non-polluting renewable energy that would pay itself back in a very short time. Let's put some sense back into our State government!
Save the Planet, Spare Your Wallet
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, American families on average spend nearly $1,300 a year in home utility costs. Much of the energy they pay for is wasted. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy says the energy wasted through poorly insulated windows and doors is about as much energy as we get from the Alaska pipeline each year.
Using electricity at home that's generated from fossil fuels puts more carbon dioxide into the air than that which is produced by two average cars. By adopting a energy efficiency plan at home, the DOE estimates you can reduce energy bills by 10 to 50 percent while reducing air pollution and preserving energy resources.
How much do you know about reducing water and energy consumption in the home? Take Environmental News Network's (ENN) home energy and water efficiency quiz and learn new ways to save money and the planet. To take the quiz and learn more about this story, click here.
New "Airhead" Website Offers Quick Way to Calculate Energy Use
The Center for Neighborhood Technology is offering people a quick and easy way to calculate their energy use and contribution to air pollution. Sample facts:
A vacant house at 55 Fahrenheit uses more energy for heating than an occupied one at 68 Fahrenheit.
Earn 50 percent or more [on your investment] installing insulation and weather-stripping to cut your heating and air-conditioning costs.
Did you know that running a large refrigerator and freezer for one year can produce as much pollution as driving a car from Chicago to Las Vegas?
Or that each mile a person travels in an airplane accounts for 1.08 pounds of greenhouse gases?
The average American contributes 1,859 pounds of air pollution to the atmosphere each year.
The AirHead site includes a data base of more than 70,000 products by brand name to help consumers determine how much pollution they create. Looking to buy a new hairdryer? The site will help you find the least polluting model on the market. To calculate your energy consumption, all the AirHead system requires is information about electricity bills, driving habits and other energy uses. Plug the information into the calculator and in less than a minute it will spit out how much pollution you create in one month.
Most energy-saving practices do not require a radical change in lifestyle. And you can test the effectiveness of your actions. Airhead will keep track of your progress in a monthly pollution profile. The Web site is likely to boost bank accounts, as energy savings translate into financial savings. The arrival of the site comes at a good time, as the country continues to suffer from a shortage of cheap power.
There are clear connections between energy use and environmental destruction. Many environmentalists say energy consumption is second only to population growth on the list of environmental concerns. According to the Alliance to Save Energy, energy use is responsible for 80 percent of all air pollution and 88 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. To learn more, click here.
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS:
BUSH SAYS ECONOMY OVERRIDES ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
George W. Bush declared on March 29th that he has no intention of supporting any environmental initiatives that could harm the American economy. During a press conference Bush was asked about the environmental initiatives his administration has already rolled back, and what programs he may overturn in the future. For full text and graphics visit: Click here.
2,500 ECONOMISTS AGREE THAT COMBATING GLOBAL WARMING NEED NOT NECESSARILY HARM THE U.S. ECONOMY NOR LIVING STANDARDS
Recent Bush Administration announcements, including Bush's press conference statement on March 29th that curbing carbon dioxide emissions would "harm our economy and hurt our American workers" ignore a declaration - endorsed in 1997 by 2,500 economists, including eight Nobel Laureates - stating that policies to slow climate change can be enacted without harming either the United States economy or living standards. Full Text Visit: Click here.
EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS CONFRONT BUSH OVER CLIMATE RETREAT
BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 29, 2001 (ENS) - The European Union will next week send a high level delegation to Washington in a bid to "clarify" the USA's position on the Kyoto climate protocol. The move was announced by Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom as European condemnations of the Bush administration's apparent rejection of the Kyoto Protocol multiplied. For full text and graphics: Click here.
FOREST CHIEF LEAVES OVER BUSH POLICY
Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck, a proponent of a sweeping land-use plan the Bush administration may now be trying to undo, announced Tuesday he is stepping down. For the full text story: Click here.
INTERIOR SECRETARY SUSPENDS MINING RULES
Interior Secretary Gale Norton is launching her first direct attack on Clinton administration environmental rules, suspending hard-rock mining rules that allowed regulators to veto environmentally damaging mines on public lands. Click here.
NORTON OPENS DOOR TO OVERTURNING MONUMENTS
WASHINGTON, DC, March 29, 2001 (ENS) - In a letter sent Wednesday to local officials of all political affiliations, Interior Secretary Gale Norton asked for their ideas regarding land use plans for national monuments that were set aside by the Clinton administration. The news was greeted with concern by conservation groups who fear the Bush administration will seek to dismantle the monuments. For full text and graphics: Click here.
TELL YOUR SENATOR TO SUPPORT RENEWABLE ENERGY TODAY
Democrats in the US Senate, led by Senator Bingaman (NM), are preparing a comprehensive energy bill for introduction as early as next week. UCS recently learned that the bill no longer includes a Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS). Read More...
RENEWAL OF GERMAN ATOMIC WASTE SHIPMENT SPAWNS MASSIVE PROTESTS
A shipment of reprocessed nuclear waste from France arrived at an underground storage depot at Gorleben in northern Germany early this morning, but not until nearly 700 people were arrested in violent clashes with police. The United States could see protests similar to those now occurring in Germany if the federal government approves a plan to transport high-level nuclear waste across the country to a Nevada storage site, two U.S. public interest groups said today. For full text and graphics visit: Read More...
Bush Administration Throws Out New Arsenic Standard
WASHINGTON, DC, March 20, 2001 (ENS) - The Bush administration has opted to defer - perhaps permanently - new arsenic standards that would slash the acceptable limits for this toxic chemical in drinking water by 80 percent. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman announced today that EPA will propose to withdraw the pending arsenic standard for drinking water that was issued on January 22.
The rule would have reduced the acceptable level of arsenic in water to 10 parts per billion (ppb). The current standard of 50 ppb, set in 1942, is five times higher than the international standard adopted several years ago by the World Health Organization and the European Union. Read More...
Schools Spending on Energy
Did you know that schools spend more on energy than on computers and textbooks combined? For more facts about energy and energy efficiency, visit:
www.ase.org/consumer/didyouknow/
For more on schools and energy efficiency, visit:
www.ase.org/greenschools
Staples is Target of Urban Uprising for Forest Protection
100 Demonstrations at STAPLES' Stores Nationwide Protest Policy of Forest Devastation
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Mar. 28 -/E-Wire/-- The second National Day of Action against Staples was a huge success as protests raged at 100 Staples' stores across the US. Leading forest protection organizations and thousands of concerned citizens protested the company's refusal to help preserve the world's forests by switching to the sale of recycled paper in its stores. Hundreds faxed in letters to the CEO from the www.ForestEthics.org/staples web site. Read more...
Renewable Energy & Energy Conservation News:
WORLD ENERGY USE WILL MORE THAN DOUBLE BY 2020
Worldwide energy consumption will grow by 59 percent over the next 20 years, according to an annual forecast released today by the U.S. Department of Energy. Carbon dioxide emissions linked to global climate change are expected to nearly double by the year 2020. For full text and graphics visit: Click here.
SOLAR PLANT IN CALIFORNIA IS SAVED FROM THE WRECKINGBALL
A city in California has been able to preserve a solar power plant that was marked for destruction. Full coverage: Click here.
SAN FRANCISCO LIKELY TO VOTE ON MAJOR SOLAR INITIATIVE
Residents of San Francisco may vote this November on a proposal to spend up to $120 million to install solar panels on city-owned buildings. Eight of the eleven members of the city's Board of Supervisors, along with the mayor, support the idea of placing the proposed bond measure on the ballot later this year. The proposal is to raise $50 to $120 million to install solar panels on hundreds of civic buildings. Full coverage: Click here.
GREENS TELL EU NOT TO CALL GARBAGE "RENEWABLE"
Greenpeace warned the European Union yesterday that plans to classify some forms of waste incineration as "renewable" energy would lead to a proliferation of unpopular new incineration plants. Read More...
WINDS OF HOPE FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY IN ARGENTINA
The winds seem to be blowing in favour of alternative energy in Argentina, a country with great potential for developing "aeolian" technology, which is clean and increasingly competitive with fossil fuel energy sources. Read More...
UK SETS SIGHTS ON SOLAR POWERED FUTURE
Photovoltaics technology, which harnesses the sun's energy to provide electricity, could soon power 70,000 homes and several hundred other buildings in the UK. For full text and graphics: Click Here.
PACIFIC ATOLLS COULD DROWN WITHOUT CLIMATE PACT
The tiny South Pacific nation of Kiribati warned on Thursday it could "drown" if the world did not act to halt global warming. Click Here.
WORLD OIL DEMAND SEEN UP 56 PERCENT BY 2020
World demand for petroleum is expected to soar by 56 percent, or 43 million barrels per day (bpd), over the next two decades due mostly to strong demand for transportation fuels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday. Click Here.
CALIFORNIA ENERGY CRISIS MAY COST BILLIONS
Even with customers paying up to 46 percent more for electricity, California's financial controller says the state faces a $7.4 billion shortfall over the next 18 months if it keeps buying power. Click Here for more.
Earth Day Events around the Globe (Including EarthDay 2001)
FORUM 2001 SOLAR ENERGY: THE POWER TO CHOOSE - APR 21 - APR 25 2001 WASHINGTON D.C
Over 2000 participants and twelve RE-related organizations will gather for the largest and most comprehensive solar event of the new millennium. These organizations--public, private, large and small-are united by a commitment to the key role solar energy can play in our Planet's energy future. Learn more: Click Here
EARTH DAY EVENTS
Editors Note: Solar Times #27 will be distributed electronically to our 25,000+ Subscribers on April 19, 2001 - three days before Earth Day 2001. We'll be happy to list your local Earth Day event in the next issue if you send your submissions to jschaeffer@realgoods.com by noon, pacific time on Wednesday, April 11.
Earth Day prelude: a world without cars Get ready. Stop your engines. Go! On April 19, the Thursday before Earth Day 2001 (April 22), all citizens of the world are invited to spend a day without their cars in what is being billed as the first ever Earth Car-Free Day. Click for more.
92.9 WBOS-FM hosts the 8th annual EarthFest Concert on April 28th at Boston's Hatch Shell. Performers include Blues Traveler, Joan Osborne, Fisher, Cowboy Junkies, and Double Trouble. In addition to music, over 100 environmental groups will be onsite with exhibits.
On 22nd of April Maui will have an awesome event brought together by the Maui Earth Day Collective and Mauitopia Foundation. Earth day is not only about environmental issues but of people issues too. This event we will have speakers, on many issues from native sovereignty, hemp, environmental, health, music, african dance, copeira, booths, food fire dancing, prayer, drumming, DJ and much more.. Its a free event to the diverse community of Maui.
EARTH DAY 2001 GOAL: ONE MILLION TREES
American Forests (americanforests.org), the country's oldest nonprofit conservation organization, has launched a campaign to plant one million trees for Earth Day. The 31st anniversary of Earth Day is April 22. People can make a big difference in the health of the planet by planting trees in their communities and through the Internet with American Forests Global ReLeaf program which is partnering with community organizations across the United States and around the world. At www.americanforests.org people will find information ranging from the best way to plant a tree in their yard to an easy way to plant trees for Global ReLeaf in one of 50 ecosystem restoration projects underway this year. Every dollar donated online, or through the Global ReLeaf hotline at 1-800-545-TREE, plants a native tree and counts toward the million-tree goal. Individuals can also log in the trees they plant at home or in community action projects.
Since 1990, American Forests has been planting trees for Global ReLeaf in areas damaged by human or natural causes. The Global ReLeaf network has planted trees in more than 500 projects and extends through every state and territory in America, as well as the countries worldwide. In 1996 the organization set a goal to plant 20 million trees for the new millennium. To date more than 15 million trees have been planted and American Forests expects to plant the 20 millionth this fall.
Web site: http://www.americanforests.org
4/7/01
12:48:48 PM
The Nation
Recent headlines noted that a review of 64,248 Florida ballots by the Miami Herald and USA Today found that George W. Bush would have prevailed had the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a recount of that state's disputed presidential vote last fall. But the stories beneath the headlines -- particularly those in the Herald itself -- reveal an entirely different reality.
In fact, as the Herald editors themselves concede, there is no way of knowing whether a real recount would have produced a Bush win because "there is no way to be certain how canvassing boards in each county would have judged each ballot." A Herald editorial even acknowledged that had "every mark, dimple, pinprick or hanging chad" that appeared to suggest a voter's intention to support either Bush or Gore been counted, "Gore would be in the White House today."
The bottom-line, according to John Nichols in the latest installment of the Online Beat: "The post-election waters are as muddy today as they were on the morning on November 8, when bleary-eyed television anchormen retracted their retractions of their previous retractions and finally admitted, "We still really don't know who was elected president."
And, as Nichols notes in another recent Online Beat feature, at least one prominent Democratic activist is urging the party to challenge Bush's legitimacy: In a widely-circulated recent memo, Barbra Streisand implored congressional Democrats to put aside vague talk of bipartisanship and match Republican fire with fire in opposing a president who "stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation."
Read these two Online Beat reports currently, along with an instructive look at an important grassroots victory for public school advocates in Milwaukee. All available exclusively at:
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/
There are also lots of new articles, columns and editorials available currently on a wide range of subjects from the April 23 issue of The Nation:
BRUCE SHAPIRO: The Doctor Killers
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010423&s=shapiro
COURTNEY LOVE AND JOHNNY TEMPLE: On The Record: Toward a Union Label
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010423&s=love
RICK PERSTEIN: The Sins of the Pundits
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010423&s=perlstein
VICTOR NAVASKY: Publish or Speech Perishes
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010423&s=navasky
ERIC ALTERMAN: Commies and the Conservatives Who Love Them
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010423&s=alterman
PETER EDELMAN: A Fairness Agenda for the Bush Era
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010423&s=edelman
You can also still read recent articles of interest from the pages of The Nation, including Senator Jon Corzine on why he's not joining the DLC; Scott Sherman on Al Sharpton; Jonah Peretti on his "Nike media adventure"; Naomi Klein on the World Social Forum; Eben Moglen on Napster; JoAnn Wypijewski on General Electric; Ellen Willis on The Sopranos; Marc Cooper on Plan Columbia; Robert Sherrill on death-penalty politics and Vincent Bugliosi on Bush vs. Gore. All available at:
4/7/01
12:44:01 PM
I am opposed to NASA's continued use of extraordinary quantities of plutonium for any purposes in its outer space programs.
To:
Mr. David Lavery
NASA Headquarters
Office of Space Pseudo-Science
Flight Program Division (Code SD)
Washington, DC 20546-0001
marsnepa@hq.nasa.gov
From:
Russell D. Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
P.O. Box 1936
Carlsbad, California USA 92018-1936
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
Subject:
Mars Exploration Rover-2003 Project (NEPA scoping comments)
Date: April 6th, 2001
Dear Mr. Lavery:
I am opposed to NASA's continued use of extraordinary quantities of plutonium for any purposes in its outer space programs.
MER-2003 may carry as much as 365 Curies of plutonium in the form of up to 11 Radioactive Heater Units (RHUs). However, everything MER-2003 is supposed to accomplish could easily be done using solar-powered alternatives.
The Cassini space probe was launched in 1997 despite strong international protests, and had over 400,000 Curies of plutonium on board. Within a year of its launch the lunacy of the dangerous acts NASA was committing was proven by the failure of a similar launch vehicle, a Titan IVA, in August, 1998.
Then a month after the extremely dangerous flyby of Earth by the Cassini space probe in 1999, NASA lost a Mars probe to a simple mathematical error. A similar error could just as easily have doomed Earth to a Cassini dispersal of its plutonium payload -- 72.3 pounds of plutonium dioxide, mostly Pu 238, approximately the same mix (ratio of Pu 238, Pu 239, Pu 240, etc.) as for the proposed MER-2003 mission. The error involved a failure to convert, or a failure to properly convert, the weight of the space probe from English to Metric units. Since Cassini was an international project involving both measurements throughout, the same sort of accident could surely have happened there too. NASA got lucky, but NASA has no right to rely on luck. Luck always runs out sooner or later. By definition, it's not reliable.
NASA had claimed the chance of a flyby failure was "one in one million". Empirical evidence proved otherwise just one month later with the aforementioned Mars orbital insertion failure, and a few months after that, NASA lost yet another probe on Mars, to unknown catastrophic causes.
Cassini's mission to Saturn, after all the risk we Earthlings took to get it there, could yet end in failure. Why must we humans on Earth risk all this plutonium, in the flimsy containers NASA promotes as strong, for missions which have such high failure rates? Or for any mission? The science return isn't a good reason because the same missions could be flown with non-nuclear solutions. Yes, even Cassini, which could have been two smaller, non-nuclear missions. Solar power can be used today as far out as Saturn (ESA (European Space Agency) is sending a solar-powered probe past Saturn. If they can do it, we can do it. Certainly it is adequate on Mars, not just for electricity, but for heating purposes as well.
Although MER-2003 would not have any Radioactive Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs), of which Cassini had three, the proposed mission to Mars would nevertheless include "up to eleven" Radioactive Heater Units (RHUs) with a total of about 365 Curies (1.35 X 10^13 Bq) of plutonium. (NASA Notice 01-028, published in the Federal Register, Vol. 66 No. 36, Thursday, February 22nd, 2001, page 11184). Cassini carried about 127 RHUs, each carrying the same amount of plutonium as the MER-2003 RHUs are expected to carry -- 2.7 grams.
This is A LOT of plutonium. And for what? Heat can easily be generated when needed by storing solar power in batteries and discharging it through a resister at the time and near the location where it's needed. During Martian daylight hours a focusing mirror or lens could be used to produce heat. Various chemicals can be mixed and burned as well. There are lots of ways to produce heat, so RHUs are not necessary for this or ANY NASA mission.
I believe NASA is just trying to think of ways to use plutonium so that the plutonium infrastructure at DOE can remain in place, because the military uses plutonium RTGs for military satellites and for ground-based and water-based powered remote listening devices.
It is believed by this writer (for reasons I've described previously and posted at my STOP CASSINI web site) that the Titan IVA which blew up was in fact carrying a plutonium payload -- at least one Radioactive Thermoelectric Generator (RTG). Winds were out to sea when the launch occurred and it cannot be proven if there was or was not a release of any sort from that launch. There might well have been. (It was a "secret" military launch with NASA's complete assistance.)
There's no scientific necessity here at all. Furthermore, this sham means that ALL NASA's research is suspect. NASA has used blatant lies to get a forgiving American public to accept Cassini. These lies ruin NASA's honor and destroy her respect. By being so dishonest,even the "good" scientists at NASA are having their reputations permanently and horribly stained.
Cassini had a secret NASA never mentioned in any press conference or press release I ever saw, and which no reporter that I know of knew to ask NASA about at a news conference at any time.
That "secret", revealed only through a careful analysis of thousands of pages of documentation, was this: In the event of a flyby reentry, all 127 RHUs would have been completely incinerated. This despite NASA's claims that they would shield all the plutonium they launch, a claim made after SNAP-9A's global dispersal of 17,000 Curies of plutonium in 1964, a dispersal which, according to sworn testimony by the late Dr. Karl Z. Morgan (known as the "Father of Health Physics", the study of radiation's effects on the human body), NASA had claimed had a "one in ten million" chance of failure. Dr. Morgan himself related this well-documented story to this writer in an interview in 1997, via telephone.
Because the failure rate was so low (according to NASA's absurd fiction), there was, they felt, no need to have a containment system for the 2.1 pounds of plutonium dioxide aboard SNAP-9A.
But fail it did, and NASA needed to recover its reputation due to international outcry and protest, so they invented a flimsy and largely ineffective containment system for the RTGs and RHUs. But this containment system is so ineffective that NASA's own 1995 Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini mission EXPECTED a 33% to 66% release of plutonium fuel in a flyby reentry accident, mostly in vaporized form (the most dangerous form of the substance). In the Supplemental EIS NASA reduced the "EXPECTED" release amount to about 3%, having decided that the probe would, by some unknown clairvoyance, be tumbling "just so" in such a way as to release the least amount of fuel. And interesting fudging of the data, considering the decades of experience they have. I think it was nothing more than a political adjustment of the numbers. A 33% to 66% release, or even 100%, doesn't look nearly as innocuous as a 3% release. But all the numbers were fairy-tale numbers anyway. A 100% release was certainly possible. Every other guess was made of part prayer and the rest a rolling of the dice.
But regardless of how much NASA could fudge the RTG ablation and destruction numbers, for the RHUs on board, their was nothing they could do. They were still all goners. They would completely vaporize in any foreseeable reentry accident. There was no roll of the dice for them. No mathematical shenanigans could account for those little boxes surviving a flyby reentry.
So NASA lied! NASA never admitted this fact voluntarily in any press release or news conference, instead always claiming the plutonium was shielded and would be contained! And no reporter I saw had the sense, the guts, or the knowledge to ask. NASA did NOT build a proper containment system after SNAP-9A for the RHUs at all, and the containment/power system known as an RTG is at best improperly tested, and at worst not worth a damn.
NASA even admits, buried in the 1995 FEIS for the Cassini mission, that they don't know what the long-term capabilities of their containment system is. Yet still they proceed as if they are experts.
The Mars probe would not be doing a flyby of Earth, presumably, but it nevertheless could become uncontrollable while flying out to Mars, then return to Earth at a later date, when the containment system might have become brittle and useless (see page 4-104 of the 1995 FEIS for the Cassini Mission). And it might be coming back at a speed equal to -- or faster than -- Cassini's flyby.
NASA's foolishness is fine when it's NASA's own volunteer astronauts who first take part in the foolishness, and then if it comes to pass, pay the ultimate price. If they want to climb into NASA's rickety rockets and risk cancer and leukemia that's their business (a disproportionate number of astronauts seem to get these diseases, presumably from the radiation they receive in outer space). If they want to risk, for the sake and thrill of exploration, all the various hazards of space on board one of the most corrupt agency's contraptions, may God be with them as they go.
But to risk a global dispersal of large quantities of plutonium, 365 Curies for MER-2003, and 400,000+ Curies for Cassini, and millions more Curies in the past (some of which has been dispersed into our environment) and in the future too if NASA's 35-year plan as described in recent DOE documents comes to fruition, is NOT right. The people who will die from the dispersals of plutonium will not be able to prove NASA is the culprit -- lucky for NASA. Actually, not entirely luck. Premeditated. NASA's "containment system" practically guarantees not that there will be no release, but that the release will occur at high altitude if/when it occurs.
This saves no one, but it saves NASA from culpability by spreading the poison out globally. In the case of SNAP-9A, for instance, about 75% of the plutonium was spread into the Southern Hemisphere, and 25% was spread into the Northern Hemisphere.
One last point: If NASA is going to engage is such a deadly game of numbers, as to try to pretend it has "one in one million" failure rates, or that 72.3 pounds of plutonium can be rendered harmless by spreading it out extremely thinly throughout our environment, then NASA at least ought to play its game using standard conventions.
In the Federal Register notice to which this letter responds (NASA Notice 01-028), the amount of plutonium is described as "13.5 X 10^12 Bq". Normally, as I did above, this would be described as "1.35 X 10^13 Bq". It is this sort of sloppiness which makes many people not trust NASA's numbers.
Today's corrupt NASA should under no circumstances be allowed to launch plutonium in space. If any launching of plutonium is permitted ever, because no alternatives can be found, the limit should be not more than about .001 Curies, perhaps much less, and certainly not 365 Curies as for MER-2003, or 400,000 Curies as for Cassini. NASA must absolutely be forbidden from doing this!
Plutonium causes cancer, leukemia, and birth defects. These effects are not reduced by spreading the plutonium out -- it's not like you get a cold instead of cancer. Rather, all that happens is the RATE of these effects within a population is reduced as the dose goes down. But NASA would infect 6 billion people (today) with nuclear waste in the event of an accident -- a lot of people would each get a small dose, and some of those would get 10 or 20 times what other people might get. There is no such thing as a perfectly even dispersal.
Standard texts on plutonium indicate that inhaling quantities on the order of a millionth of a gram are sufficient to cause lung cancer in all cases. So one RHU contains about 2.7 MILLION lethal doses of plutonium, if spread out in particles of a millionth of a gram and given to each of 2.7 million people, all would die. Then 2.7 more could take their place, and 2.7 million more after that, for plutonium can keep on killing and killing and killing. The human population's dose from a NASA failure would average far less than a millionth of a gram, but it would be in everybody, and it certainly would kill many, many people, silently and stealthily. NASA "cooks" these numbers too, as it does the accident rates as previously discussed. By doing so, even after dispersing its plutonium throughout the environment, say, over New York City, Cassini would kill, in NASA's final analysis, only about 120 people worldwide. In other words, the hundreds of billions of lethal doses which would be spread throughout our environment for thousands of years would only kill 120 people, according to NASA. That's a cooked number, derived from averaging thousands of accident scenarios. Real scientists have suggested numbers in the millions or even tens of millions.
The half-life of Pu 238 is about 88 years. The half-life of Pu 239 is about 24,100 years.
Please keep me informed of all decisions regarding NASA's use of plutonium in space, and also I would appreciate acknowledgement of receipt of this letter, sent via email. Also, I would appreciate the names and titles of all NASA employees who read this letter and the dates they did so, and I would like to know all their communicated responses to other NASA employees or to the public or to any elected officials regarding this letter.
Thank you in advance for your time. Hopefully through this process we can uncover the truth about why NASA backs nukes and why reasonable scientists (dozens of whom I've interviewed) are being ignored on the issues I've written about.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, California
Webmaster, STOP CASSINI web site:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm
Founder and Editor of the Stop Cassini newsletter:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/index.htm
The above web site and newsletters document chronologically and unequivocally the lies NASA told about Cassini. Will NASA repeat that performance for MER-2003?
4/7/01
12:34:26 PM
TomPaine.com this weekend
THE WAY THEY ARE
David Corn's Loyal Opposition
In a recent letter, Barbra Streisand urged her Democratic pals to "keep reminding people" that they are the party of the people. That's more a wish than a description, according to Mr. Corn. He reminds us that, for all their ballyhoo about Bush's repudiation of the Kyoto Protocol, the Senate Democrats already took their own anti-Kyoto position. In 1997, the Senate approved a resolution decrying any global warming accord that mandates emission reductions for the U.S. without doing the same for developing nations. Every Democratic senator voted for this resolution, which passed 95-0. (By the way, the United States, which contains about 4 percent of the world's population, produces about 25 percent of its carbon dioxide.)
http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/04/06/index.html
TONY SOPRANO, THE TIMES, AND THE GLOBE
A TomPaine.commentary by Debra Cash
The Boston Globe sent an ultimatum to its freelancers. It demanded past, present and future rights to freelancers' work -- with no negotiation and no additional compensation. In Ms. Cash's case, that meant that unless she was willing to sign away rights to 17 years of work -- hundreds of articles -- for free and forever, she would never get another assignment from the paper. If she signed the contract, she had no guarantee of future work either. One commentator in Boston has called this a contract that only Tony Soprano could love.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/04/05/index.html
CHINESE SPY PLANE LANDS ON LONG ISLAND
Norman Solomon
One of the ways to test for media slant is to put the shoe on the other foot. A big story this month provides an opportunity for inquiry into the world of intense media spin.
http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/04/06/1.html
RALPH NADER AND THE RIGHT
An Excerpt from Trudy Lieberman's Slanting the Story Ralph Nader framed environmental and consumer issues as the larger interests of the public pitted against the narrow interests of big corporations. Over the last 20 years right-wing think tanks have turned this idea on its head. Through the media, right-wing think tanks have succeeded in portraying as special interests organized labor, consumer groups, environmental activists, trial lawyers, and advocates for children and the elderly -- any group whose agenda is contrary to that of corporations or to the ideological interests of right-wing think tanks.
http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/03/28/1.html
4/6/01
11:32:40 AM
Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board
Dear All –
Our attorney, Dan Bartley, and I have just had a grueling 2 weeks researching, drafting, filing and serving briefs for the hearings on April 10th. As I write, Dan is on his way to the courthouse to file the last 2 briefs -- our "reply" briefs to Pacifica's "opposition" briefs to our motions (1) to disqualify Epstein Becker & Green and (2) for a preliminary injunction prohibiting Pacifica from taking any substantial actions affecting Pacifica assets, governance, management, or operations until the case goes to trial. In addition, on Monday, we filed our "opposition" brief to Pacifica's demurrer to (motion to dismiss) our case. Their "reply" brief is due today. All of the briefs from both sides will be posted to our "legal archives" on our web page shortly.
The hearing of all three motions will be:
Tuesday, April 10th 9:00 a.m.
Before Judge Judith D. Ford
Alameda County Superior Court Department 31
U.S. Post Office Building
201 13th Street, Second Floor Oakland, CA
The public may attend and your support will be welcomed. Please, though, maintain respectful courtroom decorum at all times during the hearing. Pacifica is portraying us as "violent racists" in their briefs to the court. Let us all behave with the dignity and solemnity due for the occasion. These are crucial hearings. Now is the time for your prayers, positive energy, and blessings on our efforts.
Thanks,
Carol Spooner
Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board
(sponsoring the "listeners' lawsuit")
Web Page: http://home.pon.net/wildrose/remove.htm
P.S. As the "law clerk" on the case I have not been able to open my mail or respond to email for 3 weeks. Please forgive me for any rudeness.
Contributions to our legal fund can be made payable to: Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board, 1136 Wild Rose Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95401. Your gift to the Committee is NOT tax deductible, but your support of the cause of free speech radio is invaluable. Question, details? Call or email Carol Spooner, (707) 526-2867, wildrose@pon.net Thank you!
Tax deductible gifts of $500 or more to support our legal action can be made payable to our fiscal sponsor: Marin Health Fund/Public Media Project, P.O. Box 5402, Mill Valley, CA 94942. You will receive tax deduction receipt from them. Also, the Public Media Project has a special account to receive gifts of stock in support of our lawsuit. For details contact Linda Remy, lremy@well.com. Thank you!
This Bulletin Comes from The Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board, web page
http://home.pon.net/wildrose/remove.htm
To subscribe/unsubscribe email wildrose@pon.net
4/6/01
11:12:07 AM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
http://www.utne.com/webwatch/archive.tpl?d=04/06/2001
HEARING IS BELIEVING
by Robert Feinstein, Bent
-- Though most commonly associated with bats and dolphins, echolocation is also used by blind people. Robert Feinstein sheds light on how he learned to see with his ears by clicking and stomping.
FIELD GUIDE TO THE FTAA PROTESTS IN QUEBEC CITY
by SOA Watch/NE
-- Police and activists alike are preparing for the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, where officials from across the hemisphere plan to negotiate the Free Trade Agreement of the America's (FTAA) -- a sort of NAFTA on steroids. If you're planning to attend, this handy guide will help you speak your mind while staying out of harm's way.
BRIGHT IDEA: A GLOBAL RESOURCE BANK
website review by Leif Utne
-- Since the basic commodities that drive our economies are produced by ecosystems, says the Global Resource Bank, then let's replace central bank notes with ecocredits, an new Internet-based medium of exchange that stores the shared value of our ecoproduct wealth.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
4/6/01
11:09:19 AM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
U.S. CLIMATE STANCE TRIGGERS BOYCOTT THREATS
LONDON, United Kingdom, April 5, 2001 (ENS) - The USA's decision to abandon the Kyoto climate protocol is sparking a wave of calls from European environmentalists and Greens for consumers to take revenge on President George W. Bush by boycotting American firms.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-05-05.html
VETS ADVISE EU TO LEARN FOOT AND MOUTH LESSONS
BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 5, 2001 (ENS) - Once Europe has eliminated the current outbreak of foot and mouth disease, farmers and governments should introduce "standstill" periods for livestock, says Europe's veterinarians to help prevent future outbreaks.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-05-11.html
CLINTON MOBBED TOURING INDIA'S EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE
By Thakor Patel and Rezaul H. Laskar
BHUJ, India, April 5, 2001 (ENS) - Former U.S. president Bill Clinton capped a whistlestop tour of the areas worst affected by the January earthquake in Gujarat saying India and the United States should "work as partners till the villages are rebuilt and the people have work."
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-05-02.html
CLIMATE CHANGE LINKED TO VANISHING TOADS
WASHINGTON, DC, April 5, 2001 (ENS) - For the first time, researchers have identified a direct link between global climate change and local factors that cause the death of amphibian eggs in the wild. Their report traces one link to another in a pattern that begins in the southern Pacific Ocean and ultimately results in masses of dead, rotting toad eggs in a small alpine lake many thousands of miles away.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-05-06.html
1,000th GOLDEN LION TAMARIN GETS BIRTHDAY GIFT OF HABITAT
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, April 5, 2001 (ENS) - The government of Brazil has created a new protected area to aid in the recovery of the golden lion tamarin - a tiny golden monkey that just a few years ago was on the brink of extinction.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-05-04.html
KLAMATH RIVER SALMON WIN A WATER BATTLE IN COURT
OAKLAND, California, April 5, 2001 (ENS) - Embattled salmon have won a fight over water in the drought stricken Pacific Northwest. A federal court judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cannot deliver water for agricultural irrigation without considering the needs of coho salmon in the Klamath River.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-05-03.html
EU TAKES BIRD CONSERVATION FIGHT TO THE FINNISH
BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 5, 2001 (ENS) - Finland's decision to build the Vuotos power plant in the country's northeast has landed it in hot water with the European Commission, which says the area, known as the mires of Kemihaara, is an important habitat for birds protected under the European Union's oldest piece of nature conservation legislation.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-05-10.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 5, 2001
Judge Dismisses Suit Aimed at Blocking Climate Debate
Companies Challenged to Voice Support for Kyoto Protocol
Environmental, Labor Groups Criticize Contractor Rule
Norton Promotes Fossil Fuel Exploration
Reagan/Bush Veteran Could Join Justice Department
No Mad Cow Disease Found in U.S.
Longline Fishers Must Carry Tools to Untangle Turtles
EPA Targets Nitrogen Pollution in Long Island Sound
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-05-09.html
4/6/01
11:04:40 AM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Doing environmental research? Search our news archives at: http://www.planetark.org/searchhome.cfm
Human activity harms giant panda reserve in China - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10410
Streams vital in removing water pollution - study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10412
University of Rhode Island fined $800,000 by EPA - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10427
FPL to build wind farm to power 80,000 Texas homes - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10415
Draft recommends US open land to drilling - paper - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10416
US green groups say bio-crops contaminating organic food - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10409
Warming tropical oceans drive climate changes - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10426
US green group seeks to save environmental programs - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10422
UPDATE - Britain gears up for offshore wind power - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10417
Sweden picks 10 towns for greenhouse gas cuts - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10414
Russia eyes windfall from greenhouse gas quotas - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10411
UPDATE - Russia tells Norway no nukes on Kursk - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10428
Lone Norway wolf has one day to freedom after hunt - NORWAY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10419
Greenpeace gives US firms deadline on climate pact - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10424
GM presence in seeds inevitable, EU group says - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10423
Training seen as key to tackle tiger poaching - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10413
EU to push for higher oil spill payouts - diplomats - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10425
UPDATE - Canada to examine idea of water exports - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10421
British Columbia proposes mandatory GM food labels - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10420
INTERVIEW - Amnesty guides Australian ethical investors - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10418
4/6/01
11:01:06 AM
Is Fluoride Adversely Affecting Minority Children?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 23, 2001
Is Fluoride Adversely Affecting Minority Children's Intelligence and Behavior? Dartmouth Researcher Finds Increased Uptake of Lead CANTON, NEW YORK --
The chemicals currently used to fluoridate much of the water in the US may be causing increased blood lead levels in children, results of a new study show.
Dr. Roger Masters of Dartmouth College and colleagues looked at data consisting of over 150,000 children's blood lead tests, and found levels significantly elevated in areas where chemicals known as silicofluorides (SiF), used in over 90% of the fluoridated water in the US, are used. Controlling for other factors associated with high blood lead, the odds of children having venous blood lead over the standard cut-off of 10ug/dL were significantly higher where SiFs were in use, with the odds often doubled or tripled for minorities.
"Our findings suggest that water fluoridation -- often justified by supposed benefits to minorities -- actually has extremely NEGATIVE effects. Given the link between high blood lead and hyperactivity, learning disabilities, drug use, and aggressive behavior, many of the stereotypical racially biased beliefs about Blacks and Hispanics have apparently been reinforced by the unsuspected effects of toxic chemicals intentionally added to the water supply" asserts Masters. The study, published in the journal "Neurotoxicology", reinforces the findings of two previous studies by the same researchers. Other data, now in press, show that controlling for other factors, SiF usage also contributes to significant increases in rates of violent crime, says Masters.
"Dumbing Down" and Behavioral Effects
"Apart from other dangerous effects, the tendency of SiF to enhance absorption of lead is of incalculable importance, because among the well-known consequences are its effects on intelligence and cognitive ability, which can be permanent and severe," according to Masters. Even at levels below 10ug/dL, researchers have found subtle but dangerous deficits in learning and behavior. A recent study conducted at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati found slight, but detectable, impairment at levels as low as 5ug/dL, half the current standard used for determining elevated lead levels. In addition, each increase of 1ug/dL was found to cause a 1% decrease in children's reading scores.
Along with causing learning problems, lead can have other adverse health effects as well, such as increases in ADD/ADHD symptoms, violent behavior, and drug use, studies have shown. (See http://fluoridealert.org/lead.htm for additional information) Are the Alleged Benefits of Fluoridation Worth the Risk?
"Even if fluoridation does provide some modest benefit in regard to tooth decay, society really needs to take a good hard look at its priorities here," says Paul Connett, Ph.D., of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), an international coalition of organizations helping to raise awareness of fluoride's health and environmental hazards. "With rates of ADD/ADHD at record levels and still rising, is a minute benefit to teeth worth the risk of higher lead levels?" asks Connett. "In fact, several recent studies have shown that rates of tooth decay do NOT rise after water fluoridation is stopped, but may actually decrease. If people want to take the gamble with fluoride (a known enzyme poison) it makes more sense to do as the Europeans do, and use topical fluoride instead," he maintains.
Untested Chemical
"Most people would be shocked to learn that there have been no adequate studies of long-term low-level exposure to silicofluorides," states Masters. "Even the EPA admits it has no data on the health and behavioral effects of SiFs."
"Shouldn't we stop intentionally exposing 140 million Americans to an untested chemical until the risks are extensively and objectively evaluated by independent researchers?" asks Dr. Masters. For additional information on the latest study, as well as other related information, go to http://fluoridealert.org/lead.htm Source: Neurotoxicology 2000; 21: 1091-1100
Contact:
Roger Masters, PhD, Foundation for Neuroscience and Society, Dartmouth College, phone: 603-646-2153, email: Roger.D.Masters@Dartmouth.edu (Questions related to fluoride - -- lead association)
Paul Connett, PhD,
Fluoride Action Network
St. Lawrence University
Phone:315-379-9200, Fax: 315-379-0448
Email: pcon@fluoridealert.org or media@fluoridealert.org
4/6/01
10:57:54 AM
The "Trojan Fish" Syndrome
Joseph Mendelson, J.D., Legal Director, Center for Food Safety
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org
says:
"Two University of Purdue researchers found that when you engineer human growth genes or other growth genes into fish, you get superfish. These huge fish have human growth genes in every cell of their bodies. And it turns out that the females are attracted to the larger male fish, the ones that are genetically engineered with these growth hormones. So they have a selective advantage. The genetically engineered males create more offspring. However, the researchers also discovered that these new growth hormones cause a one-third greater mortality in the offspring. So here you have Darwin on his head. You have a selective advantage in the genetically engineered fish, as far as reproduction, but their offspring are dying at a one-third greater rate than the offspring of the normal fish. Scientists found that putting 60 genetically engineered fish into a population of 60,000 native fish could render the entire species extinct in as little as forty years. This 'Trojan Fish' syndrome demonstrates the extraordinary ecological threat of genetic engineering.
Meanwhile, our own Food and Drug Administration is in the process of approving these fish."
4/6/01
10:54:20 AM
Multiple Sclerosis - Milk connection?
Health Freedom Resources - Public Awareness Announcement #20
This PAA centers around the connection between Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes and the consumption of dairy products.
It is brought to you by the Not Milk Man himself, Robert Cohen.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a common neurological disease, affecting approximately 300,000 Americans. Two-thirds of those diagnosed with MS are women.
Most researchers believe that MS is an auto immune disease. Auto means "self." The body's reaction to a foreign protein is to destroy that antigen-like invader with an antibody. The antibody then turn upon one's own cells. That is an auto-immune response. In the case of MS, the body's response is to attack the outer membrane-protecting nerve cells, or the myelin sheath.
Symptoms of MS include tingling or numbness of the limbs, paralyses, and vision problems. Sometimes MS patients experience slurred speech accompanied by chronic pain.
MS costs approximately $2.5 billion each year in America. MS is found in milk-drinking populations. It is interesting to note that Eskimos and Bantus (50 million living in East Africa) rarely get MS. Neither do those native North and South American Indian or Asian populations that consume no dairy products.
Many physicians have noted a dairy link to MS. Many little clues have been reinforced by one very large clue, just published. Each clue provides a piece of the puzzle.
Norway has the highest rates of milk and dairy consumption in the world. Dr. Ashton F. Embry analyzed geographical regions, and provides this dairy clue:
He writes:
"...In Norway MS is up to five times more common in the inland farming areas than in the relatively nearby coastal fishing areas."
John McDougall, M.D., cites the British medical journal Lancet in pointing out that a diet filled with dairy products has been closely linked to the development of MS. (The Lancet 1974;2:1061)
Dr. Luther Lindner is involved in clinical MS experiments at Texas A & M University College of Medicine. Lindner, a pathologist, writes on his website:
"It might be prudent to limit the intake of milk and milk products."
http://www.sky.net/~dporter/MSCFSABX.htm
A worldwide study published in the journal Neuroepidemiology revealed an association between eating dairy foods (cow's milk, butter, and cream) and an increased prevalence of MS. (Neuroepidemiology 1992;11:304-12.)
The April 1, 2001 issue of the Journal of Immunology will contain a study linking MS to milk consumption. It has long been established that early exposure to bovine proteins is a trigger for insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Researchers have made that same milk consumption connection to MS.
The July 30, 1992 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine first reported the diabetes auto immune response milk connection:
"Patients with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus produce antibodies to cow milk proteins that participate in the development of islet dysfunction. Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that an active response in patients with IDDM (to the bovine protein) is a feature of the auto immune response."
In October of 1996, The Lancet reported:
"Antibodies to bovine beta-casein are present in over a third of IDDM patients and relatively non-existent in healthy individuals."
Two months later (December 14, 1996), The Lancet revealed:
"Cow's milk proteins are unique in one respect: in industrialized countries they are the first foreign proteins entering the infant gut, since most formulations for babies are cow milk-based. The first pilot stage of our IDD prevention study found that oral exposure to dairy milk proteins in infancy resulted in both cellular and immune response...this suggests the possible importance of the gut immune system to the pathogenesis of IDD."
THE MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS / MILK CONNECTION
Michael Dosch, M.D., and his team of researchers have determined that multiple sclerosis and type I (juvenile) diabetes mellitus are far more closely linked than previously thought. Dosch attributes exposure to cow milk protein as a risk factor in the development of both diseases for people who are genetically susceptible. According to Dosch:
"We found that immunologically, type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis are almost the same, in a test tube you can barely tell the two diseases apart. We found that the auto-immunity was not specific to the organ system affected by the disease. Previously it was thought that in MS auto-immunity would develop in the central nervous system, and in diabetes it would only be found in the pancreas. We found that both tissues are targeted in each disease." (Journal of Immunology, April, 2001)
4/6/01
10:51:11 AM
Vegetables Without Vitamins
by Susan Callaway, R.N.
Imagine the surprise of going online and discovering that the vitamin and mineral content of vegetables has drastically dropped.
That's what happened to nutritionist, Alex Jack, when he went to check out the latest US Department of Agriculture food tables. The stunning revelation came after Jack compared recently published nutrient values with an old USDA handbook he had lying around. Some of the differences in vitamin and mineral content were enormous-a 50% drop in the amount of calcium in broccoli, for example. Watercress down 88% in iron content; cauliflower down 40% in vitamin C content-all since 1975.
Jack took his findings to the USDA, hoping for a reasonable explanation. That was two years ago. He's still waiting. So is Organic Gardening magazine, which published an open letter, seeking an explanation from Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture. Glickman didn't respond, but USDA employee, Phyllis E. Johnson did. Johnson (who is head of the Beltsville area office), suggested to Organic Gardening that the nutrient drain should be put in context. According to her, the 78% decrease in calcium content of corn is not significant because no one eats corn for calcium. She further explains that the problem may not even exist at all; that the apparent nutrient dips could be due to the testing procedures. For example, "changes in the public's perception of what the edible portion is may determine what parts have been analyzed over time." In other words, back when the old food tables were made up, people may have been eating the cobb too, so they got more nutrients.
The vitamin drain
We decided to look into this further. Jack had used a 1975 version of the food tables for his research. We dredged up a 1963 version. After comparing the nutrient values for over a dozen fruits and vegetables, it was clear that the nutrient value of many foods has dropped, in some cases drastically. For example, the amount of vitamin C in sweet peppers has plummeted from 128 mg to 89 mg. The vitamin A in apples has dropped from 90 mg to 53 mg. The fall-offs seem to be limited mostly to vegetables, and some fruits.
Some vegetables appear to be gaining vitamins-at least vitamin A. Carrots, for example, have more of the vitamin now than they did in 1963. Why is a mystery. But the phenomenon has apparently occurred just in the nick of time. The National Academy of Sciences has issued an alert that it takes twice as many vegetables to get the daily requirement of vitamin A as previously thought. Carrots and pumpkin are exempt from the caveat.
Despite the apparent increase of vitamin A in carrots, most vegetables are losing their vitamins and minerals. Nearly half the calcium and vitamin A in broccoli, for example, have disappeared. Collards are not the greens they used to be. If you're eating them for minerals and vitamin A, be aware that the vitamin A content has fallen from 6500 IUs to 3800 IUs. Their potassium has dropped from from 400 mg to 170 mg. Magnesium has fallen sharply-57 mg to 9. Cauliflower has lost almost half its vitamin C, along with its thiamin and riboflavin. Most of the calcium in pineapple is gone-from 17 mg (per 100 grams raw) to 7. And the list goes on and on.
The USDA refuses to act
What's the deal on this nutrient drain? We decided to ask USDA ourselves, so we contacted the head of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, whose job it is to track the vitamins in food, among other things. Mr. Edward B. Knipling responded to our inquiry with a restatement of Ms. Johnson's letter to Organic Gardening magazine. So we pressed for a better answer. Isn't the agency concerned that Americans may not be getting the vitamins they think they are? What about the food pyramid? Won't a nutrient drain upset the pyramid? Already the National Academy of Sciences is telling us our vegetables don't have as many vitamins as they're supposed to. Will the USDA double the required servings of vegetables to make up for the vitamin loss? So far, no answer from the agency.
The question is, what is the nature and extent of the problem? Vegetables are a major source of nutrition. Without them, humans miss out on important vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. Many nutrients (such as folate) weren't measured in the past. If they are also disappearing, the extent is unknown. What about more exotic nutrients such as flavonoids, or compounds like I3C? These aren't tracked by the USDA. Are they disappearing also?
- 90% of women and 71% of men get less than the RDA for vitamin B6. Dietary vitamin B-6 intake and food sources in the US population: NHANES II, 1976-1980. Kant AK, et al. 1990.
- Men with the lowest amount of vitamin C have a 62% increased risk of cancer and a 57% increased risk of dying from any cause. Vitamin C status and mortality in US adults. Loria CM, et al. Am J Clin Nutr 72:139-45, 2000.
- Lutein and zeaxanthin reduce the incidence of cataract by 22%. A prospective study of carotenoid and vitamin A intakes and risk of cataract extraction in US women. Chasan-Taber L, et al. Am J Clin Nutr 70:509-16, 1999.
- People with low levels of retinol, beta-carotene, vitamin E and selenium are more likely to get cancer. Serum retinol, beta-carotene, vitamin E and selenium as related to subsequent cancer of specific sites. Comstock GW, et al. Am J Epidemiol 135:115-21, 1992.
- Supplemental vitamin D reduces the risk of colon cancer by half compared to dietary vitamin D which reduces it 12%. Calcium, vitamin D, and dairy foods and the occurrence of colon cancer in men. Kearney J, et al. Am J Epidemiol 143:907-17, 1996.
- The area of China with the lowest micronutrient intake has the highest rate of cancer. Supplementation with vitamin E, selenium and beta-carotene lowers the rate. Vitamin/mineral supplementation and cancer risk: international chemoprevention trials. Blot WJ. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 216:291-6, 1997.
- American children have inadequate levels of vitamin E. Vitamin E status of US children. Bendich A. J Am Coll Nutr 11:441-4, 1992.
- Flavonoids protect against stroke. Dietary flavonoids, antioxidant vitamins, and incidence of stroke: the Zutphen study. Keli SO, et al. Arch Intern Med 156:637-42, 1996.
According to one study, less than one-third of Americans get the minimum five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, let alone the recommended nine. According to Balzer's data, the percentage of Americans who buy healthy groceries is about 10%. The other 90% relies on ketchup, onions, fat-free snacks, ice cream, cheese and Sweet Tarts as their source of nutrition. Now we find out that even if a person accidentally eats a vegetable, it may not contain the nutrients it's supposed to. What can a person do?
Vitamin supplements work
"...the nutritional content of produce is not as important as things like appearance and big yield. In other words, the view of commercial growers is that food is a product in the same way that running shoes are a product. Looks are more important than substance."
Supplements have proven their worth in scientific studies. Cancer, heart attacks, bone loss, stroke and macular degeneration-most any degenerative disease you can think of can either be prevented by, or ameliorated by, the right nutrients given in supplement form. Over the long term, the benefits can really add up. For example, nurses who took multi-vitamins containing folic acid for fifteen years slashed their risk of colon cancer by 75%. Folate from food didn't work as well. No one knows why, although bioavailability problems may be to blame. It's estimated that about 90% of the population gets less folate per day than necessary for health (400 micrograms).
The USDA is apparently unconcerned and not interested in the vitamin drain, despite its mandate to ensure high quality safe foods. In her letter to Organic Gardening, Ms. Johnson said that the nutritional content of produce is not as important as things like appearance and big yield. In other words, Ms. Johnson espouses the view of commercial growers that food is a product in the same way that running shoes are a product. Looks are more important than substance. That view of vegetables and fruits reduces your spinach salad to pretty roughage, and your chances of meeting RDAs to slim.
The USDA can be accessed at http://www.usda.gov. The food tables are available online.
The folks who do the food testing are in the Agricultural Research Service which can be accessed at
www.ars.usda.gov
*1963 values have been set at 100%
4/6/01
10:45:00 AM
HYPOTHESIS FOR THE CAUSE HENCE THE SOLUTION FOR THE GLOBAL HUMAN IMMUNE DEFICIENCY