A Dream for a Better World

Analysis Discloses the Amount of Ecological Damage Caused to Developing Countries by World’s Richest Countries

AmazonWarrior — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:27:11 +0000

The environmental damage caused to developing nations by the world’s richest countries amounts to more than the entire third world debt of $1.8 trillion, according to the first systematic global analysis of the ecological damage imposed by rich countries. There are huge disparities in the ecological footprint inflicted by rich and poor countries on the rest of the world because of differences in consumption. The researchers examined so-called “environmental externalities” or costs that are not included in the prices paid for goods but which cover ecological damage linked to their consumption. They focused on six areas: greenhouse gas emissions, ozone layer depletion, agriculture, deforestation, overfishing and converting mangrove swamps into shrimp farms. The team confined its calculations to areas in which the costs of environmental damage are well understood.

Could Gaucho Be the Culprit in the Deaths of World’s Honeybee Population?

AmazonWarrior — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:24:53 +0000

Some scientists believe that there is reason to believe that Gaucho, a pesticide, and other members of a family of highly toxic chemicals — neonicotinoids — may be responsible for the deaths of billions of honeybees worldwide. They believe that these pesticides, which are applied to seeds, travel systemically through the plant and leave residues that contaminate the pollen, resulting in bee death or paralysis. The French refer to the effect as “mad bee disease” and in 1999 were the first to ban the use of these chemicals, which are currently only marketed by Bayer (the aspirin people) under the trade names Gaucho and Pancho. Germany followed suit this year. In 2002, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted an emergency exemption allowing increase use of Gaucho. The agency also granted a conditional registration for its close relative, Pancho, allowing the chemical on the market with only partial testing.

EPA Announces Chemical Found in Packaging is Carcinogenic

AmazonWarrior — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:22:54 +0000

The next time you make some microwave popcorn or cook a frozen pizza, consider this: The packaging of many of these products contains a chemical that the Environmental Protection Agency considers potentially carcinogenic and wants businesses to voluntarily stop using by 2015. Studies show that this chemical – perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA –is present in 98% of Americans’ blood and 100% of newborns. It doesn’t break down and thus accumulates in the system over time. PFOA is used to make Teflon pans, Gore-Tex clothing and to prevent food from sticking to paper packaging. The industry says that while the EPA’s carcinogen concerns are based on animal tests, there’s no evidence that PFOA is harmful to humans. Public-health advocates counter that the industry is being disingenuous and that there’s never been a chemical found that affects animals but has no effect on humans.

Large Donation Given to the FDA Chairman’s Research Center Appears Suspicious

AmazonWarrior — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:35:20 +0000

A retired medical supply manufacturer who considers bisphenol A to be perfectly safe gave $5 million to the research center headed by the chairman of a Food and Drug Administration panel about to rule on the chemical’s safety. The donation from Charles Gelman is nearly 50 times the annual budget of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center, where Martin Philbert is founder and co-director. Philbert did not disclose the donation to the FDA, and agency officials learned of it when reporters asked about it. Gelman said he considers the chemical, which is used to make baby bottles and aluminum can liners, to be safe. The decision of Philbert’s committee is expected to have huge implications on the regulation and sale of the chemical in items such as baby bottles, reusable food containers and plastic wraps. Since the late 1990s, studies have linked bisphenol A to cancer, heart disease, obesity, reproductive failures and hyperactivity in laboratory animals.

A Grizzly Bear Population Doing Better Than Once Thought

AmazonWarrior — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:33:37 +0000

A five-year grizzly bear study by the US Geological Survey shows that an isolated population of grizzly bears in northwest Montana is doing much better than previously believed; after completing a DNA analysis of grizzly bear hair samples and then running a statistical analysis, the USGS came up with a figure of 765 bears, compared to previous estimates of 200-300. The study will surely be cited as evidence that all is well by those who are arguing that it’s time to remove the bear from the threatened species list, a program that has long been criticized by many Republicans as overly burdensome.

Reintroduction of the Mallorcan Toads Causing Danger to Wild Populations

AmazonWarrior — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:31:49 +0000

An effort to bring endangered Mallorcan toads back from the brink of extinction has blighted them with an infectious fungus that is wiping them out. A recent paper in Current Biology details how the captive breeding and subsequent reintroduction of the Mallorcan Midwife Toad – on the red-list of endangered species – has infected populations in the wild with Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a fungus that has been threatening amphibians worldwide for the past ten years. The fungus hasn’t been as devastating to the midwife toad as to other amphibian species. A valuable lesson is that breeding programs must be monitored to make sure they don’t become hot beds of infections for the very species they are intended to save.

Navy’s Dolphins and Sea Lions on Terrorist Patrol

GoodNPlenty — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:20:44 +0000

The Navy’s sea mammal program started in the late 1950s. Now, about 75 dolphins and 25 sea lions are housed at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego Harbor as part of a Navy program to teach them to detect terrorists and mines underwater. The base briefly opened its doors to the media for the first time since the start of the war in Iraq. The display came a few weeks after the Navy announced plans to send up to 30 dolphins and sea lions to patrol the waters of Washington state’s Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, which is home to nuclear submarines, ships and laboratories. Both species can find mines and spot swimmers in murky waters. Working in unison, the dolphins can drop a flashing light near a mine or a swimmer. The sea lions carry in their mouths a cable and a handcuff-like device that clamps onto a terrorist’s leg and then sailors can then use the cable to reel in the terrorist.

Biotechnology Companies Seek Patents on Drought-resistant Crops

GoodNPlenty — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:18:55 +0000

A handful of the world’s largest agricultural biotechnology companies are seeking hundreds of patents on gene-altered crops designed to withstand drought and other environmental stresses, part of a race for dominance in the potentially lucrative market for crops that can handle global warming. Three companies — BASF of Germany, Syngenta of Switzerland and Monsanto of St. Louis — have filed applications to control nearly two-thirds of the climate-related gene families submitted to patent offices worldwide. Many of the world’s poorest countries, destined to be hit hardest by climate change, have rejected biotech crops, citing environmental and economic concerns.

Top Scientists Urge U.S. to Fight Global Warming

GoodNPlenty — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:17:06 +0000

A group of 1,700 leading scientists called on the US government last June to take the lead in fighting global warming. Citing the unprecedented and unanticipated effects of global warming, the scientists, including six Nobel prizewinners, presented a letter calling for an immediate reduction in US carbon emissions. The letter warns if emissions continue unabated, the nation and the world will face more sea level rise, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, snowmelt, flood risk, and public health threats, as well as increased rates of plant and animal species extinctions. The scientists call on the government to reduce emissions on the order of 80% below 2000 levels by 2050; but as a first step, the scientists call for a 15-20% reduction on 2000 levels by 2020.

Probe Finds that White House Distorted Climate Change Data

Dogwood — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:13:37 +0000

An investigation by the NASA inspector general found that political appointees in the space agency’s public affairs office worked to control and distort public accounts of its researchers’ findings about climate change for at least two years. The probe came at the request of 14 senators after The Washington Post and other news outlets reported in 2006 that Bush administration officials had monitored and impeded communications between NASA climate scientists and reporters. From the fall of 2004 through 2006, the report said that NASA’s public affairs office “managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public. News releases suffered from inaccuracy, factual insufficiency and scientific dilution.”

Scientists Question FBI’s Evidence Against Ivins

Dogwood — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:12:07 +0000

For nearly seven years, scientist Bruce E. Ivins and a small circle of fellow anthrax specialists at Fort Detrick’s Army medical lab, in tactics that the researchers considered heavy-handed and often threatening, were interviewed and polygraphed as early as 2002, and reinterviewed numerous times. Their labs were searched, and their computers and equipment carted away. The FBI eventually focused on Ivins, whom federal prosecutors were planning to indict when he committed suicide. Colleagues and friends of Ivins remained convinced that he was innocent; he had neither the motive nor the means to create the lethal powder that was sent by mail to new outlets and congressional offices in 2001. They contend that the FBI has no evidence and that a lot of the tactics that they used were designed to isolate him from his support. The FBI just continued to push his buttons.

Ford Papers Reveal Two Warren Commission Members had Doubts about JFK Assassination

Dogwood — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:10:08 +0000

Former President Gerald Ford secretly advised the FBI that two of his fellow members on the Warren Commission doubted the FBI’s conclusion that John F. Kennedy was shot from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. The new details were included in 500 pages of the FBI’s large file on Ford, released in part last August in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act that the Associated Press and others made on the day Ford died in December 2006. Apparently, the fact that Ford served as the FBI’s eyes and ears inside the commission has been known for years. Long ago, the government released a 1963 FBI memo that said Ford had volunteered to keep the FBI informed about the panel’s private deliberations, but only if that relationship remained confidential. The FBI agreed. It was also well-known that Ford was an outspoken proponent of the bureau’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy while acting alone.

Is Our Economy Putting Earth in Jeopardy?

Dogwood — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:07:34 +0000

Most of us accept the need for a more sustainable way to live, by reducing carbon emissions, developing renewable technology and increasing energy efficiency. But a growing band of experts think that these efforts to save the planet are doomed and futile as long as our economic system is built on the assumption of growth; that is, if we are serious about saving Earth, we must reshape our economy. To most economists, however, economic growth is as essential as the air we breathe. They see no limits to that growth. In recent weeks it has become clear just how terrified governments are of anything that threatens growth, as they pour billions of public money into a failing financial system. So the question is: how do we square Earth’s finite resources with the fact that as the economy grows, the amount of natural resources needed to sustain that activity must grow too?

Hurricane Victims Can Sue FEMA over Formaldehyde Concerns

Dogwood — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:05:59 +0000

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed to act for at least a year on warnings that trailers housing refugees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde, according to a House subcommittee report released on October 6. Instead, the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry demoted the scientist who questioned its initial assessment that the trailers were safe as long as residents opened a window or another vent, the report said. That appraisal was produced in February 2007 at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which had received thousands of complaints about fumes since providing the trailers to families left homeless by the devastating 2005 hurricanes. Formaldehyde is known to cause cancer, chronic bronchitis, eye irritation and other ailments. The subcommittee’s report came three days after a federal judge in New Orleans ruled that FEMA can be sued by hurricane victims who claim they were exposed to toxic fumes.

FBI Short in White-collar Crime Investigators

madvs100 — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:00:38 +0000

According to current and former bureau officials, the FBI is struggling to find enough agents and resources to investigate criminal wrongdoing tied to the country’s economic crisis. The bureau slashed its criminal investigative work force to expand its national security role after the Sept. 11 attacks, shifting more than 1,800 agents, or nearly one-third of all agents in criminal programs, to terrorism and intelligence duties. The cutbacks have left the bureau seriously exposed in investigating areas like white-collar crime, which has taken on urgent importance in recent weeks because of the nation’s economic woes. The cutbacks have been particularly severe in staffing for investigations into white-collar crimes like mortgage fraud, with a loss of 625 agents, or 36 percent of its 2001 levels.