Friday, December 17, 2010

You need to know...

TreeHugger.com
TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. Partial to a modern aesthetic, we strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information. We publish an up to the minute blog, weekly and daily newsletters, weekly radio interviews, and regularly updated Twitter and Facebook pages.

(taken from the TreeHugger website)

You need to know....

The Environmental Defense Fund

Environmental Defense Fund’s mission is to preserve the natural systems on which all life depends. Founded in 1967 as the Environmental Defense Fund, the EDF tackles the most serious environmental problems with:

Their Mission Statement:

Environmental Defense Fund is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 700,000 members. Since 1967, we have linked science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society's most urgent environmental problems.

Environmental Defense Fund is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are access to clean air and water, healthy and nourishing food, and flourishing ecosystems.

Guided by science, Environmental Defense Fund evaluates environmental problems and works to create and advocate solutions that win lasting political, economic and social support because they are nonpartisan, cost-efficient and fair.

Environmental Defense Fund believes that a sustainable environment will require economic and social systems that are equitable and just. We affirm our commitment to the environmental rights of the poor and people of color.

As an American organization, Environmental Defense Fund will always pay special attention to American environmental problems and to America's role in both causing and solving global environmental problems.

(from the EDF website)

The Cornucopia Institute

Seeking economic justice for the family-scale farming community. Through research, advocacy, and economic development our goal is to empower farmers - partnered with consumers - in support of ecologically produced local, organic and authentic food.

TWILIGHT EARTH ARCHIVES
Twilight Earth is dedicated to saving the Environment through shared News, Discussion, Advocacy and Activism. Use this link to scan their archives for the last 2 years. Interesting to see how much progress has been (and has not been) made on many environmental issues during that time. Also keep up to date on what is happening now.

WTF?! EPA SAYS RIP TO BEES
"It's not just the State and Defense departments that are reeling this month from leaked documents. The Environmental Protection Agency now has some explaining to do, too. In place of dodgy dealings with foreign leaders, this case involves the German agrichemical giant Bayer; a pesticide with an unpronounceable name, clothianidin; and an insect species crucial to food production (as well as a food producer itself), the honeybee. And in lieu of a memo leaked to a globetrotting Australian, this one features a document delivered to a long-time Colorado beekeeper."

Thursday, April 8, 2010

What Happened to Earth Day?

I don't acknowledge Earth Day any more. I have become a little jaded about the whole concept. Back in the 70's, I was a little hippie chickie with granny glasses and flowers in my hair and I cared about EVERYTHING!!!! Earth Day was a huge deal to me at that time. It was a chance for the citizens of the Earth to come together on something we ALL have in common...life on planet Earth.

Margaret Mead said it:
"EARTH DAY is the first holy day which transcends all national borders, yet preserves all geographical integrities, spans mountains and oceans and time belts, and yet brings people all over the world into one resonating accord, is devoted to the preservation of the harmony in nature and yet draws upon the triumphs of technology, the measurement of time, and instantaneous communication through space.

EARTH DAY draws on astronomical phenomena in a new way – which is also the most ancient way – using the vernal Equinox, the time when the Sun crosses the equator making night and day of equal length in all parts of the Earth. To this point in the annual calendar, EARTH DAY attaches no local or divisive set of symbols, no statement of the truth or superiority of one way of life over another. But the selection of the Equinox makes planetary observance of a shared event possible, and a flag which shows the Earth as seen from space appropriate."

That is the Earth Day I celebrated. What happened? Last week I heard an ad for an Earth Day Celebration at a water/amusement park in the local area, inviting everyone to come to the park to celebrate Mother Earth. Yes, let's drive our cars, make more trash, waste water and pay our money in celebration of Mother Earth. I just don't get it.

Don't you think Mother Earth would be better served if that amusement park hadn't covered her face with asphalt. Maybe if they had left the trees and plants? What if all the wildlife that lost their habitat had been left unmolested? That sounds like a celebration of our Mother to me.

Doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose of having Earth Day if you have to drive your carbon footprint to get the the celebration???? Shouldn't Earth Day be about staying home and taking stock of all the blessings that our planet bestows on us every day, not just on one day in April?

I guess, as with every other holiday we have in this country, somebody has found a way to make money from Earth Day, so the true meaning has pretty much flown out the window for most Americans. If you would like to read about what the original intent and purpose of Earth Day really was, you can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day .

More cool Earth stuff:
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/ NASA site for pictures of Mother Earth
http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/efs/ Astronauts Views of the Home Planet
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-earth.html Photo gallery NASA
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/ Astounding pictures from the Hubble Telescope WOW!!!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Excerpt from essay by Frank Morton, Wild Garden Seeds/Shoulder to Shoulder Farm

"Corn, soy, canola, and cotton have been the Biotech ag-industrial hits thus far. In these crops, Monsanto and Biotech have overcome consumer objection by pure stealth, avoiding labeling and public oversight at every turn in the United States. The fact that production of these GM ag-dustrial foodstuffs has now well out-stretched conventional versions of the crop species, can only be attributed to the fact that consumers have no way to avoid GMOs except by purchasing Certified Organic products. If a "NON-GMO Certified" label emerges, as a choice distinct from Certified Organic, I still believe we would see these trends in Biotech-stock fortunes make a sudden reversal. Witness the recent run from Monsanto’s Prosilac (rBST) by dairy cooperatives, once consumers had their say. The investment rating for Monsanto stock is CC—the most risk-laden class for investment."

Please read the entire essay here.

http://www.wildgardenseed.com/article.php?id=3

2009 POSTED UPDATE TO THIS ARTICLE FOLLOWS THIS.

GMOs At The Brink

See Entire Article Written by Frank Morton at Wild Garden Seeds

http://www.wildgardenseed.com/article.php?id=7

"Brink" is an old Norse word indicating some critical boundary, an extreme edge, a verge, beyond which something will occur. The run up in acreage for GMOs has paralleled other unnatural growth rates in the financial world. We have watched the dramatic reversal in financial fortunes since September 2008. That was a brink if ever there was one. We are not yet beyond that verge."

2008 PREDECSSOR TO THIS ARTICLE POSTED AHEAD OF THIS ONE.

"Understanding Glyphosate"

Article Written by Frank Morton.

"Roundup Herbicide, generically known as glyphosate, functions systemically as a cation binder, inhibiting the uptake and utilization of trace minerals like manganese, molybdemum, iron, et al., as well as the major nutrients potassium and calcium. By shutting down cell metabolism and normal immune response to common (normally non-pathogenic) Fusarium spp. found in all soils, glyphosate acts as a promoter of disease via the root zone. This is its normal mode of action against weeds. Roundup also stimulates soil fungi to sequester minerals, especially potassium, and has been shown to induce K-deficiency, even in Roundup Ready corn. RR-soybeans do not fix nitrogen efficiently because Rhizobium bacteria cannot function symbiotically with a crop exuding glyphosate into the root zone. The N-fixation enzymatic system requires molybdemum and iron, which are unavailable under the influence of glyphosate.

RR-crops indeed translocate a significant portion of their absorbed glyphosate directly into the root zone, bypassing the soil-surface photoreactions that typically break down direct glyphosate spray. Once in the root zone, glyphosate strongly effects soil ecosystems by stimulating reproduction of some fungal species and suppressing others. Sprayed weeds’ decomposing roots and RR-crop root exudates can supply a constant glyphosate ‘drip rate’ influence on these soil ecosystems that induce a "pathogenic tendency" on crop-fungal relationships. Crop residue decomposition continues to supply glyphosate to the root zone of subsequent crops, resulting in yield losses for up to 18 months in some studies. Glyphosate readily travels with runoff waters from fields, and results in high mortality to amphibians in ditches and streams draining RR-farms. To understand glyphosate, imagine a systemic magnet for essential cellular nutrients that disrupts ecological relationships and turns harmless neighbors into flesh eating monsters."