Category Archives: Environment

Sand, Tar, Oil, Gas, Frack, Health, Life, Fail ?

clean-up-your-mess-love-mother

This is not only an environmental crisis, although that is bad enough since we all depend on clean air and water for basic survival, this is also a health and human crisis.

The quest for and extraction of fossil fuels has reached a level that is threatening us all.

Reality Check: Canada’s Oil Sands

“Each fact included in Oil Sands Reality check is carefully researched, referenced and reviewed by a scientific advisory committee. This website was created as a resource for citizens, media, investors and decision makers who wish to participate in a more informed debate about the impacts of oil sands development.”

http://oilsandsrealitycheck.org/ and  http://tarsandssolutions.org/

  ♦

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RoundUp: You, the Kids, Pets, Neighbors, Food, Air and Water too

In my post about GMO labeling, I saw the need for a post dedicated to RoundUp aka Glyphosate, but it’s hard to separate the two (GMOs and glyphosate) since most GMOs are designed to be grown with the use of RoundUp aka Glyphosate.

As I was writing, this post kept growing and growing (unlike anything sprayed with glyphosate) and contains something like 42 external links, just in case anyone wants to go nuts exploring the research… There’s probably enough info here without following any of the links (but please do sign the petitions at least) and you can bookmark the post in case you ever need to go deeper.

I’ve tried to break up some of the links with a few photos and a video, so hopefully it doesn’t look too busy, but it got to the point I really don’t know how to edit it without just saying something like

“GMOs and RoundUp aka glyphosate = REALLY REALLY BAD for everyone
and everything except company profits”

and deleting the rest, but after all the work I did, I just can’t do that. Someone else might be capable of turning this into several posts, but I’m not that someone else. Yet… Who knows who I will be when I regain all my brain functions? Anyway, consider this fair warning!

There is so much evidence of harm (REALLY BIG LONG TERM HARM) caused by eating foods that have RoundUp aka Glyphosate used on them (which would be most  processed and packaged foods that are not certified organic), but we are also breathing it in, drinking it, and tracking it into our homes from lawns that it gets sprayed on, pissing it out of our bodies, and making people, pets and farm animals sick (or dead) as well as killing unintended plants with pesticide drift drift drift and more drift, since it easily blows off the property it is applied to, and then affects the plants, critters and people next door too (toxic trespass).

This stuff is designed to KILL, and it isn’t selective. It will kill some things quickly, and some things slowly (and we are composed of some things it can kill slowly).

“Each year in the United States more than 1 billion pounds of synthetic pesticides – insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides and fungicides – are applied in agriculture, homes, schools, parks, playgrounds and daycare centers. The National Toxicology Program has found in animal bioassays that a number of widely used pesticides are carcinogenic. Case-control epidemiologic studies have found consistent, modest associations between pesticide exposures in utero and in early childhood and acute lymphocytic leukemia, childhood brain cancer and childhood non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Rates of childhood leukemia are consistently elevated among children who grow up on farms, among children whose parents used pesticides in the home or garden, and among children of pesticide applicators.” ~ Philip J. Landrigan, MD, chairman of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine and professor of pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City

This may be one of the most insidious everyday poisons we are exposed to.

GMO Baby

Baby Formula Manufacturers Seek To Avoid GMO Labeling With Last-Minute Amendment (Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners)

“The herbicide sprayed on most of the world’s genetically engineered crops—and gets soaked into the food portion—is now linked to “autism … gastrointestinal issues such as inflammatory bowel disease, chronic diarrhea, colitis and Crohn’s disease, obesity, cardiovascular disease, depression, cancer, cachexia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and ALS, among others.”

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GMO Food Labels

I see a little poster being shared all over facebook all the time telling people to look for a sticker starting with an 8 to warn us that the produce has been genetically modified.

Guess what?

We do not have laws to label GMO foods in North America, so you won’t see a sticker that starts with an 8 here! Not until we get laws to mandate them!

The original poster gives people such a false sense of reassurance.

So  I  modified it…

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2013… Friends, I Remember and Won’t Forget

skeleton 2

The world lost three amazing women and I lost three good friends in the first three months of this year. Linda left her poisoned body behind in January. Janine left her poisoned body behind in February. Connie left her poisoned body behind  in March.

I’m pretty sure MCS was not mentioned on any of their death certificates, but MCS  certainly had a far greater impact on each their lives, and their family lives than any listed cause of death did.

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“Sensitive” to Pollution #3

"Sensitive" to Pollution 3

Is there anyone who isn’t “sensitive” to pollution?

Ecocide as a Crime Against Humanity

Do you live in the EU? If so, please sign on to the current campaign to end Ecocide in Europe. Opportunities for  global involvement also exist (see below).

This short video describes the issue, please watch and get involved. We need legally binding laws for things to change, and this would be a good one.

“Ecocide is the extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystems of a given territory.  Ecocide should become a crime for which companies and individuals can be held responsible according to criminal law and the principle of superior responsibility.”

The Problem: Ecocide

Ecocide, the extensive destruction of ecosystems, is occurring today. For example:

  • Large-scale land use change that causes the direct destruction of habitats – as is the case with deforestation in most tropical rainforests;
  • Significant pollution whether deliberate or incidental – such as oil dumping and spills;
  • Open cast mining where entire landscapes are removed – as is the case with oil sands and some coal and gold mining;

http://eradicatingecocide.com/overview/what-is-ecocide/

Wish to End Ecocide

See  End Ecocide in Europe for more information on how you can get involved there.

Eradicating Ecocide has more information on global efforts.

Everyone can sign on here

UN and WHO say hormone-disrupting chemicals are a ‘global threat’

“Frankly, for BPA, the science is done. Flame retardants, phthalates … the science is done,” Zoeller said. “We have more than enough information on these chemicals to make the reasonable decision to ban, or at least take steps to    limit exposure.”

Phthalates are found in fragrances, laundry and other personal care and cleaning products, soft plastics, (PVC) and even in time released medications!!!

Exposures to these chemicals are currently very difficult to avoid, and require diligent personal effort and significant financial investments. But even that is not enough to avoid exposure.

edc_cover

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Toxic Trespass and Other Images

Simple images with catchy phrases are popular these days. I recently discovered that the photo program on my computer has more features to play with, and my brain is finally capable of a little bit of exploring. Computer graphics is something very different from the manual art I’ve learned and practiced in my life, so my attempts will surely improve over time as I learn more about the technology, as well as recover my visual brain functions and co-ordination.

I thought I’d share some of my early  attempts here. Feel free to download and use in a not for profit way if you find them useful. However, if you want to use them in any money making ways, please discuss it with me first.

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Imagine That A Compassionate World Is Possible

Imagine a Compassionate World

Please take a few moments every day to

Imagine That

A Compassionate World Is Possible

Do We Not Have the Right to a Healthy Environment?

The way things are now, polluters have more rights to pollute than we have to clean air and water. That is not the way it should be, and it can be changed.

air and water

In Brazil, they now have the right to a healthy environment!

From Ecojustice, where you can learn more and take action:

the Right to a Healthy Environment

But it’s not just chemical plants and industries that pollute our air and homes. 

People  also seem to expect the right to do what they want on their properties, even if that activity impairs the ability  of someone else next door or down the block to breathe  on their property.

Woodsmoke, tobacco smoke, pesticides, herbicides and toxic laundry products are some of the things that also leave the user’s property and enter neighboring  properties and homes, with sometimes devastating effects on the health of people and pets.

I think our right to do what we want on our own property should not include the right to prevent the next person from breathing properly on their property.

What do you think?