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Saturday Morning Multimedia: EWG on TreeHugger Radio
Pepsi to label Aquafina tap water
America's schools have a pesticide problem
The Onion on pollutants in people
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Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?
Cell phone radiation series - Part 2: 8 Ways to reduce your exposure
Infant formula: How to choose it & use it
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Cutting the Pork from U.S. Farm Bill
Sunscreen safety & DC drinking water
Perchlorate in people, kids' personal care products & plastics, and sunscreen
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Monthly Archive
Outside The Box: Head for the hills!
Ecosystems are fragile like a house of cards: add the wrong component in the wrong place and it can come tumbling down. Worlds are at war as this week’s OTB resembles a third rate science fiction novel and takes a closer look at species invasion and ecosystems in peril.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea
Packs of large, aggressive, and dangerous squid have taken residence in California’s Monterey Bay in this article that should double check for copyright infringement with Jules Verne’s famous novel.
Just how aggressive is this new addition to the Monterey Bay’s ecosystem? The predator’s nickname is diablo rojo (red devil in Spanish) and it not only attacks everything it sees but tries to eat it as well. The eating habits of this “Creature from the Black Lagoon” were described by one researcher, who said “[Their abundance] scares the hell out of me because these things eat so much. They are eating rockfish, hake and shrimp, lanternfish, anchovy, sardine - and actually they eat each other."
Unfortunately, the squid’s new home in Monterey Bay reflects the instability of its old environment, off the West Coast of South America, as well as a potential threat to its new one. The motivation for their emigration is suspected to be the diminishing supply of prey in their traditional waters caused mainly by human actions such as over-fishing. Will Smith isn’t going to hop out of his jet and kick this invader’s behind back to where it belongs ala Independence Day. Political solutions and regulations need to be found and enforced to ensure healthy oceans and ecosystems.
The Blob
Another invader from South America, salvina molesta, an incessantly expanding aquatic fern (read: weed) is threatening the ecosystem of Caddo Lake in Texas. In true cheesy science fiction fashion the town located on the shores of the lake is named Uncertain (so perfect that even I couldn’t have made that up).
This ever-expanding threat is so dangerous that it is officially banned in the United States. Salvina molesta is dreaded for its remarkable ability to double in size every two days and smother 40 square miles every three months. At that rate it would cover the entire state of Rhode Island in about 7 years. Yikes! I guess everything really is bigger in Texas.
Uncertain residents (why does this sound like a bad version of an Abbott and Costello routine?) are fighting back. $240,000 has been appropriated by the Texas State Legislature to fund resistance efforts, and heroes are engaged daily on the front line spraying a government-approved herbicide on the rapidly growing monster.
Unknowing boat travelers dragging the plant from lake to lake are thought to be the culprit behind the invasion, reflecting again how small actions have the potential to cause serious harm to ecosystems.
This land is mine land
Speaking of incessantly expanding invasions, the United States is experiencing a bonanza of western mining claims on federal public lands. Similar and just as worrisome as Salvina Molesta’s expansion, mining claims with the Bureau of Land Management have increased 80% over 4 years. Congress has recognized the problem and is currently holding hearings for reform legislation (H.R. 2262 for you policy wonks). This much-needed legislation would reform mining law put in place in 1872 during Ulysses S. Grant’s administration.
EWG Public Lands Analyst Dusty Horwitt testified at the hearings:
“Our research shows that in 12 Western states, mining claims have increased more than 80 percent since January 2003. Over an eight-month period, from last September to this May, the BLM recorded more than 50,000 new mining claims.”
Many of these claims are just miles from national treasures such as Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Mr. Horwitt pointed out there have been 805 claims 5 miles from the Grand Canyon since January 2003. Although they don’t contain the most recent data, these interactive Google mining maps from our December 2006 report help illustrate the severity of the problem.
Ask EWG: Is hydroponic produce organic?
This is our first Ask EWG video! We're pretty excited about it, but as a small nonprofit that focuses on research we're just getting the hang of this YouTube thing. If you've got any comments, suggestions, or original music we could use in our videos, please let us know by leaving a comment or sending an email.
Question: I bought hydroponic tomatoes at the store yesterday thinking they were organic, but when I looked again I realized that they weren't labeled "certified organic". Is hydroponic produce organic? How does it rate compared to conventional produce?
Answer: Hydroponic crops are grown in greenhouses, in solutions of chemicals and minerals, not in soil.
Just as with conventionally grown crops, growers often use synthetic pesticidies on crops grown hydroponically. But some of these crops can meet the organic standards using organic nutrient mixtures and no synthetic pesticides – when this is the case, you’ll see “organic” on the label.
Hydroponic does have some advantages. These fruits and veggies may contain fewer pesticides, since the need for chemicals to kill weeds and insects is reduced in greenhouses compared to fields. And they need less water to grow. On the other hand, certain diseases can spread quickly in greenhouses, and growing these crops is often energy intensive.
As with conventional crops, making the best choices for families, farmers, and the environment involves considering nutrition, pesticides and more. It’s important to pick produce low in pesticide residues - buy organic, or use our shoppers guide to find the fruits and veggies with the lowest amount of pesticides.
Got a question for our researchers? Send it in! We'll select one (or a few) for next month's edition of Ask EWG.
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Need health insurance? Here's an idea...
Science has been demonstrating recently that there are links between increasing rates of chronic diseases in the US and environmental exposures. If you are lucky, you have health insurance that will help you deal with it. But, if you are one of more than 50 million uninsured Americans, you might want to consider other options. Like marrying a Canadian. From the website Hook-a-Canuck:
Millions of children die annually due to environmental hazards
In the poorest parts of the world, one in five children will not live longer than their fifth birthday and this is mainly because of environment-related diseases, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) report released on Friday. The report is first in its kind to highlight exposure of children to numerous harmful chemicals in various stages of development.
"Children are not just small adults" said Dr Terri Damstra of WHO. "Children are especially vulnerable and respond differently from adults when exposed to environmental factors, and this response may differ according to the different periods of development they are going through. For example, their lungs are not fully developed at birth, or even at the age of eight, and lung maturation may be altered by air pollutants that induce acute respiratory effects in childhood and may be the origin of chronic respiratory disease later in life."
According to the report, over 30% of disease in children worldwide can be credited to environmental factors. The numbers are higher in poor environments due to malnutrition, lack of clean water and limited healthcare, etc.
EWG has been arguing this point for years as well. We tested the umbilical cord blood from 10 babies and found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in it. Children are born with chemicals in them, and they continue to be exposed to even more industrial chemicals throughout their life. We need better regulations that would protect the most vulnerable populations.
Saturday Morning Multimedia: EWG on TreeHugger Radio
This week's edition of TreeHugger Radio featured an interview with EWG Analyst Kristan Markey, who discussed our report on sunscreen safety and efficacy. You can listen to the episode or go to TreeHugger for more information.
And, just for kicks, Billiam the Snowman and Congressman Kucinich on the CNN/Youtube Democratic Debate.
Pepsi to label Aquafina tap water
Ahh . . . there's nothing quite like a cold refreshing bottle of $2 tap water.
In a surprising decision to call a spade a spade, Pepsi has agreed to change the label on its Aquafina bottled water to list its source: public reservoirs. From the Reuters article:
"If this helps clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources, then it's a reasonable thing to do," said Michelle Naughton, a Pepsi-Cola North America spokeswoman.
The label will read "Public Water Source", which is really just a vague way of saying "Tap Water." Coca-Cola's Dasani is also purified tap water.
I highly doubt that the new labeling will even put a dent in Pepsi's bottled water profits, but it's a step in the right direction, and proof at least that complaints about the environmental disaster that is bottled water are reaching the right ears.
Looking for a great reusable water bottle? Ask EWG has you covered. For more on the water fight, check out Think Outside the Bottle.
America's schools have a pesticide problem
We talk a lot about pesticides around these parts, and with good reason. Marc Lame talks a lot about pesticides, too. He's an entomologist and professor at Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and he's on a mission to stop the excessive and unnecessary use of pesticides in America's schools.
According to Lame, 80% of schools use pesticides even when there's no pest problem -- and since the chemicals don't work as preventatives, children and staff are exposed for no good reason. From the Newswise clip:
The most widely used insecticides are nerve poisons, which cause nerves to fire in an uncontrolled manner and disrupt endocrine (hormone) systems, Lame said. Prolonged exposure to these chemicals can result in similar effects on the human nervous system, with symptoms ranging from vomiting to severe breathing problems. Although research is limited, these endocrine disrupting pesticides are suspected in problems ranging from ADHD to autism to infertility, Lame said.
Which is just what you want your children exposed to, right? The solution, according to Lame, is to remedy situations and problems that invite pests to begin with, and deal with problems when they happen. Lame's book, A Worm in the Teacher's Apple: Protecting America's School Children from Pests and Pesticides outlines such a system, termed Integrated Pest Management.
(Via TreeHugger)
The Onion on pollutants in people
Oh, The Onion. From an article titled EPA Warns Human Beings No Longer Biodegradable, snip:
WASHINGTON, DC—The Environmental Protection Agency issued a bulletin Tuesday warning the bodies of American citizens, with their large concentrations of artificial, synthetic, and often toxic substances, have been reclassified as industrial waste.
Funny! Except that it's not. From EWG's Body Burden Report:
In a study spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in collaboration with Commonweal, researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood from 10 babies born in August and September of 2004 in U.S. hospitals. Tests revealed a total of 287 chemicals in the group. The umbilical cord blood of these 10 children, collected by Red Cross after the cord was cut, harbored pesticides, consumer product ingredients, and wastes from burning coal, gasoline, and garbage.
Read the rest of The Onion article and snicker, then check out EWG's Human Toxome Project to learn more about the pollution in people.
Message Received: Growing organics in the Fairness Amendment
Remember the petition we asked (and asked, and asked) you to sign to tell Congress to Grow Organics?
Yesterday a team of EWG staffers descended on the Hill to deliver the petition -- 75 feet long -- to Representative Kind. When the Farm Bill comes to the floor of the House at the end of this week, Reps. Kind (D-WI) and Flake (R-AZ) will present the Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment -- a bi-partisan amendment that will reduce direct payments to the largest landowners and agribusinesses and use those savings to bolster programs in nutrition, conservation, and rural development, as well as provide more support to socially disadvantaged farmers.
And, as Ken Cook pointed out, the amendment also provides "the most significant increase we've ever seen proposed for organic food and farming."
According to Rep. Kind, "This is about choice. This is giving farmers the options and the tools on how they want to work their own land -- and sustainable agriculture is the way they want to go."
So we here in the office are having a round of applause for all of you who signed the petition. But it's not over yet -- we've got an amendment headed to the floor, but the only way to make it a reality is to make sure your Representatives know that you expect them to support it.
Call your Representative and ask him or her to support the Fairness Amendment. You can find your Rep's phone number at Project Vote-Smart by entering his or her name or your 9-digit zipcode (don't know it? Find it here).
Down and dirty: WVE on household hazards
You mop your floors, clean the tub, and scrub your toilet until it shines. Or, if you're like me, you make your significant other do it for you. But have you ever stopped to think about why we spend so much time keeping our living spaces clean?
If you answered "because otherwise it's gross," you're on the right track. Dirt is... well, dirty, and we all figure that by keeping clean and keeping bacteria and vermin at bay we're doing what's safe for ourselves and our families.
While they certainly wouldn't recommend that you give up cleaning altogether (can't win 'em all I guess), a new report from Women's Voices for the Earth questions the safety of many conventional cleaning products. From the Executive Summary of the report, titled Household Hazards: Potential Hazards of Home Cleaning Products:
Household Hazards was written to provide information on certain chemicals in cleaning products which may pose health hazards. Specifically, it looks at the research on cleaning chemicals such as monoethanolamine (MEA) and ammonium quaternary compounds linked to asthma, and glycol ethers, alkyl phenol ethoxylates and phthalates linked to reproductive harm (e.g. birth defects and fertility problems).
WVE also formed a national coalition -- the Safe Cleaning Products Initiative -- which asks companies to clearly list the ingredients of their products on the packaging and to replace potentially hazardous chemicals with safer ones. Want to take action? Sign their petition for safe cleaning products.
In my apartment we've switched to homemade cleaners and environmentally friendly products for everything but the toilet. What are your cleaning techniques?
Outside the Box: Conventional wisdom
Conventional wisdom is by definition logical, predictable, and normal — in other words, a snooze fest. This week the devil buys ice skates and pigs brush up on their aviation skills as OTB takes a closer look at conventional wisdom.
CW: The Bush Administration thinks global warming is a politically motivated myth generated by elitist intellectuals. President Bush’s stance was consistent enough for Will Ferrell to lampoon, and with his ties to the energy industry his policy seemed set in stone.
OTB: The Wall Street Journal claims President Bush is seriously considering emission caps to help combat global warming after intense lobbying from domestic business leaders and foreign allies. He must really be feeling the heat if he is considering changing policy after two terms of denial and stall tactics. Next, Charlton Heston will be advocating for gun control. After this reversal anything is possible. Well, almost: Surprise, surprise, Dick Cheney is strongly opposed to emission caps. Now that is conventional wisdom to take to the bank.
CW: Organic food might contain fewer pesticides, but it has a much lower yield.
OTB: A three-year study authored by University of Michigan professors reveals organic farms may have yields equal or great to conventional pesticide laden methods. Organic farming is also more beneficial for the environment as run off from fertilizers can create dead zones. Excited by the possibilities of organics? View EWG’s work on the subject and pay close attention to the organics provision in the upcoming congressional Farm Bill.
CW: As this article so delicately puts it, “Talking about climate change at a Formula One race might at first glance seem like praising celibacy in a brothel.”
OTB: Formula One racing, an organization which governs the rules and sets standards for a series of races called the Grand Prix, is claiming it wants to be a leader in fighting global warming. While the current rules promote burning as much gas as possible to cross the finish line first, the governing body is considering a switch to smaller engines and even converting to bio-fuel. President Bush would surely approve.
'I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog.'
"'What might it be that you've got in the box?'
"And Smiley says, sorter indifferent-like, 'It might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, maybe, but it ain't—it's only just a frog.'
"And the feller took it, and looked at it careful, and turned it round this way and that, and says, 'H'm—so 'tis. Well, what's he good for?'
"'Well,' Smiley says, easy and careless, 'he's good enough for one thing, I should judge—he can outjump any frog in Calaveras County.'
"The feller took the box again, and took another long, particular look, and give it back to Smiley, and says, very deliberate, 'Well,' he says, 'I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog.'"
Apparently Julie A. MacDonald didn't see anything special about the California red-legged frog either. MacDonald's the former deputy secretary of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who was forced to resign after an investigation found she may have ignored science to render decisions favorable to interests with influence in the Bush Administration. The croaker, immortalized in Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1865), was one of at least eight endangered species affected by MacDonald's rulings, which are now under review. The Sacramento Bee reports:
The new reviews will reopen some intensely fought endangered species battles. They range from removing protections for a jumping mouse in Colorado to shrinking the critical habitat designed for the Southwestern willow flycatcher and the Canada lynx.In California, the agency will be reviewing MacDonald's role in drastically reducing the critical habitat set aside for the California red-legged frog. Last spring, the agency designated 450,288 acres as critical habitat for the amphibian . . . Under MacDonald's guidance, the frog's final critical habitat was 39 percent smaller than scientists had proposed.
[snip]
MacDonald, for instance, was found to have leaked endangered species information to the California Farm Bureau Federation and the conservative Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation that she did not make available to environmental groups.
The worldwide crash in populations of frogs and other amphibians has been well documented—some 90 percent of yellow-legged frogs in the Sierra Nevada have disappeared.
Green Goodbye
Cremation is a big environmental issue, as well as the choice of most Australians. While the process reduces us to ash, it also produces pollutants and carbon dioxide that goes directly into the atmosphere. According to estimates of the Australian government, one cremation produces up to 50 liters of carbon dioxide and it takes about 70 minutes.
An environmentally friendly alternative is being buried at an eco-cemetery that buries the body in a way that helps the environment. Advocates of green farewells argue that even though we have about 6.5 billion people on the planet, no attention is paid to how we dispose of their remains.
“Our last emission shouldn't be the biggest of our lives," says Roger Short, professor at Melbourne University. “"We need to think how we can lower our carbon footprint, and we could do an awful lot after death, if we left behind a tree."
To read more about this, check out this Brisbane Times article.
Saturday Morning Multimedia: Nellie gets a makeover
Sustainlane.com is a user-driven directory of green products and business -- think social bookmarking meets the yellow pages. They've got a series of videos about a community of friends, The Unsustainables. This video about cosmetics is called Skin Deep (hey! clever name!). To find out what's in your personal care products, visit EWG's Skin Deep database.
FEMA trailers on the cheap
Looking for a cheap mobile home? I know some people who are looking to get rid of theirs...
FEMA provided more than a hundred thousand trailers to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Last year, stories of families made sick by the toxic trailers started showing up -- tests showed unacceptably high levels of formaldehyde (a carcinogen used in preserving and embalming that can cause respiratory problems). But FEMA was slow to respond. FEMA lawyers even sent a memo:
"Do not initiate any testing until we give the OK. ... Once you get results ... the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."
Rep. Waxman (D-CA) calls it "infuriating", but I'm pretty sure that's an understatement.
Toxic sludge and treasures in Lake Okeechobee
Thousands of years of history were revealed this summer as drought drained the water from Lake Okeechobee in the Florida Everglades. Native American tools and jewelery, a hundred year old fishing boat, and ancient human remains are just a few of the things that archaeologists have pulled from the lake's muddy, expanding shores.
The legacy of more recent years of habitation around the lake? Toxic muck left over from years of dumped wastewater and litter (big litter. We're talking about tractor tires and speedboat motors). Isn't it nice to know how we'll be remembered?
The nice part of having the toxic mess exposed is the opportunity to clean it up:
In little more than two months, contractors with the South Florida Water Management District have hauled away 2 million cubic yards of sludge — enough to fill nine football stadiums from the field to the nosebleed seats, said Tom Debold, water district supervisor on the muck-removal project.And that was only 2% of the estimated total muck (ETM -- it's a technical term).
The wastewater management team and the Army Corps of Engineers had been hoping to be able to sell the sludge as landfill for construction, but it turns out the stuff is just too toxic. At 9 milligrams per kilogram, the arsenic content is more than four times the residential limit for fill. There isn't much to be done with it; at the moment, it's sitting in piles waiting for the environmental okay and Army Corps permit to be buried in trenches in the levee.
They're building a museum to contain all the artifacts found on the site. Think they'll include a nice big hermetically sealed container of toxic sludge?
Breathing easier with Enviro-Paint
When I was little, I loved the smell of house paint. I have asthma, though -- the kind of asthma that lands you in the hospital at two in the morning because your inhaler just isn't cutting it -- so whenever I tried to sneak into a room that was being repainted my mother would shoo me out of it.
What is it in that fresh-paint smell that's such a trigger for asthmatics? Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are chemical gases released by a wide array of home products, including many cleaners, furnishings, pesticides and permanent markers. They can cause heart and lung problems and make up a large part of both indoor and outdoor air pollution.
Mark Gluck was tired of dealing with asthma attacks from exposure to paint fumes. Plenty of other people are as well, it turns out. Lucky for them, Gluck decided to do something about it -- last March he started his own business. Enviro-Paint does interiors and exteriors using paints with low odor and low or no VOCs, and Gluck makes an effort to use other sustainable painting tools and to recycle as many of his materials as possible.
Thinking of repainting? If you're in Arizona you could always contact Enviro-Paint for an estimate. For the rest of the country, resources like Green Seal can help you find environmentally friendly paints. Building Green TV covered exteriors in Episode 6; if you missed it, you can check out the episode guide on buildinggreentv.com.
GreenFest Philly: Who doesn't love a block party?
September 9th sounds like a good day for a green street festival, doesn't it?
The masterminds behind GreenFest Philly think so. What debuted last year as the one-block South Street Green Festival is now a four-block extravaganza with music, speeches, art, clowns, a fashion show and a green wedding -- for starters! The festival will feature an emphasis on ecologically conscious building design, and there's already an impressive line-up of activities just for the young'ns. Since last year's smaller-scale event drew 6,000 people, it's a safe bet that GreenFest Philly will be huge.
You can get involved by volunteering or, if you're the professional type, offering your presentation services. If you're the poetic type, you can submit your eco-verses to the poetry contest. Looking to get hitched? You and your honey could be chosen for the festival's free green wedding! You've got a couple days left to submit your application.
Outside the Box: Show me the money!
Need smart, sound financial tips? Contact a broker. Interested in the bizarre ways people are making money using kegs, beetles, and rats? Read on, because this week’s Outside The Box is green in more ways than one.
Keg Stand
Kegs across the nation have been mysteriously disappearing in the past few years in a matter sure to concern college students everywhere. Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute (where do I apply!), reported industry losses of close to $50 million a year from the missing kegs. The problem is simple economics and a twisted form of recycling. A keg deposit is typically around $20, but with metal prices rising scraping a keg at a metal yard can fetch a hefty $55 depending on the location. Thieves are making a tidy profit from snatching unprotected empty kegs and costing consumers. Michigan has tripled its deposit fee and other states could follow if the problem persists. Remember, this kind of recycling is not only illegal, but wasteful since kegs can be used for 20 years or longer. Make a stand for the environment (and your wallet) and protect your kegs!
It’s Been A Hard Day’s Night
...And insect smugglers have been working like dogs illegally trying to ship a container filled with 1,500 dead beetles from Thailand to a French collector. Some of the beetles were endangered species, including the ground beetle, noted for its ability to spray foul -smelling gas from its abdomen. The black market for wild animals is the third-most profitable smuggling operation behind only illegal weapons and drugs- and that is something to make a stink about.
Tastes Like Chicken
Hundreds of rats are being shipped alive across China and being consumed in restaurants throughout the country. Unlike the beetle smuggling it is completely legal, although gross and yucky. China’s upper class likes to eat exotic food and the millions of rats displaced by a flooded lake fit the bill. Dishes at these restaurants can cost as much as $20! Bon Appetit.
'Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.'
Thanks to Jack Nicholson's Oscar-winning performance in Chinatown, the story of how Los Angeles stole the water from the Owens River may be the best-known environmental crime in U.S. history. (OK, I'm showing my age. Chinatown is from 1971, and in 2000 Erin Brockovich also brought home an Oscar for Julia Roberts. Brockovich is above-average entertainment. Chinatown is art.) But finally there's a happy ending.
"I can now officially declare that the Lower Owens River is a river," a California Superior Court judge announced last week.
Almost 100 years after developers sent agents posing as farmers and ranchers into the Owens Valley to secretly buy up the water rights and divert it to LA, the river is flowing again. After decades of bitter lawsuits, in December the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began directing water back into the river – only a fraction of its historic flow, but enough that the LA Times reports that "the area has unexpectedly quickly become home again to various fish and other wildlife."
The Times also has a nice slideshow and a video of a kayak trip down the river. It doesn't have Faye Dunaway or Roman Polanski, but does have some nice footage of the Owens River Sucker. Not Jack, the fish.
Iceland tops the European Happy Planet Index
The European Happy Planet Index ranked Iceland as the best in Europe today, according to the new report released today by the New Economics Foundation.
According to the Telegraph article.
“The Happy Planet Index is a break from traditional economic analysis because it attempts to combine objective and subjective criteria to understand the relationship between "experienced wellbeing" and a country's material circumstances. It contrasts with measures such as the UN's Human Development Index, which uses life expectancy, education and gross domestic product (GDP) to predict wellbeing.”
The survey reveals that Europe is now worse at creating well-being than it was 40 years ago. But, Iceland’s example shows that happiness does not have to come at a great cost to the Earth.
According to Nic Marks, founder of the foundation's Centre for Well-being, "Iceland's combination of strong social policies and extensive use of renewable energy demonstrates that living within our environmental means doesn't mean sacrificing human well-being."
The Scandinavian countries ranked the best, while often compared to U.S., the UK scores 21 out of 30. Europe as a continent has almost 3 times too much of global share of carbon emissions.
Saturday Morning Multimedia: H520 off the hook
This week, in what many would term an unfortunate setback, Vermont's House of Representatives was unable to override the Governor's veto on an energy bill that would have provided incentives for renewable energy and an increased tax on the Vermont Yankee nuclear energy company. We feel for you, Vermont.
For more on this topic, you can read this article -- or you could just watch this video, in which three guys from Vermont explain climate change and Bill H.520. Oh, did we mention it's a RAP VIDEO?!?
via Gristmill
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Two days left to Grow Organics!
We're almost there! In the past week, more than ten thousand people have signed the petition to Grow Organics. We only need a couple thousand more to meet our goal, and we've got just over two days to do it.
So far more than 50 of you have posted about the Grow Organics campaign on your blogs, and many more of you have mentioned it on forums and on myspace. But with only two days left, the time has come for direct action: If you know anyone who would want to sign this petition, drop them a line to make sure they've seen it!
In Congress, work on the Farm Bill continues -- for an analysis of the latest, head on over to Mulch.
And if you're hungry for even more talk on organics and a whole lot of other topics, check out one of the 23 blogs who posted a link to the petition in the past week!
Amy Pritchard, Charlotte Local Food, Cooler than the Cat, Crafty Celtic Housewife, Darlene, Edible Nation, blog of Edible Communities, EnviroMom (great name, don't you think?), someone's Experimentation with Blogs, Food Person, Foodphiles, Girl Detective, Green Talk, Heart Rock Garden, Local Food North Nevada, Mind Body Spirit
, Mint Green Lifestyle, Mothering on the Spectrum, One/Change, Organic Connection, Rawket Science, Tempest in a Teapot, The Future Earth, The Perfect Bite, This Modern Period, Up the Down Staircase, and of course Worsted Witch.
Thanks so much to everyone who's been spreading the word -- keep up the good work!
Image: Organic apples on Oz Farm in northern California.
What's not for dinner? Great Lakes fish.
So much for "gone fishing".
A report by the Canadian watchdog Environmental Defence has revealed that many types of Great Lakes fish are "somewhat or completely unfit for human consumption". And, the organization warns, fish advisories will increase as more categories of fish are found to be dangerously contaminated.
The report, Up to the Gills, examines fish advisories issued by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. While the organization is quick to point out that fish is a healthy source of nutrients for humans, they (rightly, I think) want to draw attention to the fact that pollution regulations on the Great Lakes are too lenient:
"[...] toxic contamination levels suggest that we are still treating the Great Lakes as a toxic waste dump,” said Aaron Freeman, Policy Director of Environmental Defence. “We are clearly not doing enough to protect this vital ecosystem. We need stronger pollution regulations and a real plan from the federal and provincial governments to clean up the Lakes.”
The organization also points out that all fish is subject to some contamination. The biggest toxic concerns for the Great Lakes include mercury, PCBs, pesticides, dioxins and furans, many of which are also a problem for ocean and farmed fish. The report makes several recommendations, including -- wait for it -- reducing pollution!
A little fuzzy on fish consumption? EWG's tuna calculator will help you figure out how much canned tuna you can safely eat a week, and seafoodwatch.org has a guide to what fish to buy (and why).
Arsenic and old lies in Baltimore
Today's villain is brought to you by the letter C, for Coverup:
Back in early June we posted a story about a couple of Jersey City journalists who were arrested for crossing police barricades to collect samples of contaminated soil on school grounds. That story revolved around a Paramus, NJ middle school and piles of soil contaminated with high levels of pesticides. The Superintendent of the district knew about the contamination five months before the information was made public and made no effort to clean it up until public outrage forced her hand.
But five months is nothing, or at least that must be what residents of south Baltimore are thinking after a city task force released its report on Tuesday. It turns out that high levels of arsenic found this spring in a south Baltimore park were caused by faulty smokestacks on a nearby chemical company -- 30 years ago.
Torn filters on the smokestacks of Allied Chemical Company released arsenic, a carcinogen, into the air -- and onto the waterfront park. Arsenic testing performed on behalf of the company in 1976 showed contamination as high as 10,000 parts per million, but the chemical company withheld that information when advising on the reopening of the park.
So south Baltimore kids have grown up playing in arsenic-laced dirt. A report released in June by the federal agency responsible for toxic substances concluded that the tainted soil was not a threat to children's health unless they ate it, but levels of arsenic in the park far outweigh the 10 ppm EPA limits for drinking water -- and as this 2001 arsenic factsheet shows (pdf), children don't have to eat something to ingest it.
Does anyone else feel like there should be someone keeping a closer eye on these things?
Before you send your children out to play in the yard...
It was recently revealed in a new study that among some of the other “ingredients” that can be found in fertilizers Americans use on their lawns and gardens are steroids, drugs and fragrances. How does this happen you may ask? The “biosolid” fertilizers are partially made from the sludge left over after sewage is treated, which, as one can imagine, would make for quite the concoction.
Of course, wastewater-treatment officials (oh, these are the guys who produce the sewage byproducts) claim there is no cause for concern – all is well. And, how do they arrive at this rosy conclusion? They say the levels of these drugs, steroids and fragrances are at such low levels it won’t pose any health risks to you and your toddlers as they roll around in the back yard, or play in the sprinkler during a hot summer day.
I for one would love to believe that, but maybe a little more information from scientists and public health officials with no ties to the fertilizer industry is required so consumers know exactly what they are spreading on their lawns.
You can find more information about sludge fertilizers and how they may be affecting you at the Center for Food Safety.
Outside the Box: Green goes gray and more
Outside the Box is Enviroblog's weekly column of stories "outside the norm and refusing to conform."
Packaging lite:
In the competition for the title of "Official Greenest Corporation in the Universe", what you sell is only slightly more important than what you sell it in. Cincinnati's Enquirer is reporting that many of the country's biggest consumer goods and packaging companies have begun investigating ways to package products more sustainably. By packaging products in ways that pack more easily and produce less waste, companies can save money (on materials and shipping) and the Earth at the same time.
Below the fold: rude cows, and the environmental movement grows up.
Older and wiser:
Greenpeace Australia Pacific is tapping its oldest resources. Environmentally-minded seniors are getting involved by joining in Greenpeace's Grey Power campaign, which urges political action at every age. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, some write letters and some are on the frontlines, but others, like Rosamund Darrow-Smith, take a slightly different approach:
"I'm what I call an urban guerilla," she says in the unlikely setting of a Petersham terrace. "I get beautifully dressed and go to events where I know important people will be."
After those events, Darrow-Smith pulls the important people aside and charmingly explains her position on environmental issues. She says
"They don't expect [to be given a green lecture]. They think all greenies have dreadlocks or something."
We at Enviroblog wonder: when will Greenpeace US start a Gray Power initiative?
They could at least say 'excuse me'.
Burping ruminants have become the target of government research in the UK, where every day Britain's 10 million cows produce 100-200 liters of methane -- each. Methane is a greenhouse gas with even stronger effects than carbon dioxide. Scientists hope to be able to reduce livestock emissions by producing a more easily digestible feed -- current field tests involve sealing sheep in tunnels to analyze the air quality before and after the animals have eaten. The Times Online article points out not once but twice that most livestock methane emissions come from belching and not from, ahem, "the other end" as is commonly believed.
EU, U.S. will share safety data on cosmetics
Ever wonder about the safety of your imported cosmetics?
Last week, the United States and the European Union agreed to trade information on safety of cosmetics. The agreement is planned in hopes of improving trade in cosmetics. According to this Wall Street Journal article,
“Health standards for a significant number of products are at stake -- about 3 billion euros worth of cosmetics are exported to the U.S. from the EU each year, and 1.5 billion euros travel the other way.”
Besides helping trade, the new agreement will also help sharing public
health information about the products on market. Maybe this is a first step
in making U.S. cosmetics safer? To read about EWG’s cosmetics
investigations, check out our Skin Deep database.
Organics: Growing bigger every day
I read blogs for a living.
Okay, I also write, and edit, and coordinate, and track numbers, and a whole host of other things. But every day I receive links to interesting, diverse blogs where people who may have nothing else in common can agree on this one thing: they want to see more support for organics.
EWG Action Fund's Grow Organics petition, which asks Congress to include strong provisions for organics in this year's Farm Bill, is nearing 18,000 signatures. That's a lot of people who want better access to organic food, but we know there are plenty more out there. Our goal is to have 30,000 signatures by July 15th.
"But Amanda," you're thinking, "that's 12,000 signatures in less than ten days! Can we do it?"
I think we can. I know there are well over 12,000 more people out there who will sign this petition -- but they can only sign it if they see it. So spread the word! Post it on your blog (you can pick up a badge here), Join the Facebook group (and kudos to the person who originally came up with that idea), and email your friends and family. Tell Congress to Grow Organics!
Plenty of people are talking about the Grow Organics campaign, so if you're looking for some good blog-reading, well, look no more! If you're a coffee drinker, check out Coffee and Conservation. The family at Owlhouse have chosen to spend the year traveling and volunteering on organic farms, and they've got some amazing stories to tell. Kim (of Culinate) wrote a guest post about the campaign in the Thought Kitchen, where sustainable clothing company Nau blogs. 2-10 is a self-described eco-bloggin', tree huggin', dancin' crunchy mama, and she thinks organics are the way to go. Plenty Magazine's Action blog is the new-media version of 50 Things YOU Can Do to Save the Earth. Bonnie at The Ethicurean urges readers to "do -- not just chew -- the right thing", and when you're done she'll fill you in on all the food news that's fit to print. Blue-Green Marble's readers were treated to a follow-up post on organics and the farm bill, and over at Homemade the call to action is slipped neatly into a post about farmers and salad. I even came across the petition posted on Craigslist!
Keep up the good work! Post about the petition on your blog this week, and I'll put you right here in the roundup next week. Did I miss your blog? Drop me a line with a link!
Al Gore live webcast today
Have you been counting down the days to the Live Earth concerts? We've been pretty quiet on the subject here at Enviroblog, but not because we don't care -- we've just been too busy keeping you in the loop about sunscreen, corporate greenwashing, and which water bottles are safest. The Big Day is getting close, though, and we're starting to feel that Live Earth vibe.
Want to get into the spirit? Check out today's live webcast with Al Gore at MSN's Live Earth site -- Mr. Gore will be answering climate change questions submitted via email and MSN's SoapBox video application starting at 1:30pm. You can also sign the Live Earth pledge. Make the commitment and you may see your name on screen during the performances! Remember, all the concerts in the world won't make a bit of difference unless we change our carbon-emitting ways.
Who's in your Zipcode Village?
In a world where web-empires have been built on connecting you to people across the country and across the world, it can be easy to lose sight of what's going on in your own backyard.
Enter Zipcode Village, a new project from Bradley Berman (who brought us HybridCars.com) and Angie Karran. Users register for a free account, enter their zipcode, and are automatically connected to the people, news, events and businesses in their neighborhood. According to the website,
First and foremost, Zipcode Village is about meeting people, exchanging ideas, and having fun—in other words, creating more meaning in our lives.
You mean it's about... meeting people? Like, in person? What a radical idea!
In addition to the social benefits of engaging in local community, Karran and Berman remind us of the environmental benefits. Although Berman is
a self-confessed hybrid car geek, he understands that gas-electric vehicles are, at best, a very partial solution. Consuming less petroleum by living, working, and shopping locally—and leaving the car in the driveway—will beat a hybrid any day of the week.
The site is just getting started -- my zipcode, for example, has no users yet. Once it does, I'll be able to use it to swap and sell stuff I don't want anymore, read about community news, find recommendations for doctors and businesses, and meet neighbors with similar interests. It's like Craigslist through a magnifying glass (but without the "missed connections" section, at least for now).
Last Action Hero: The Sequel
A couple of months ago, I ranted against the mainstream news media's rush to hail Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as an environmental hero. His feel-good, pro-consumption, technology-will-save-us brand of green just seemed too easy, too politically expedient and too soft on industry for me. In short, I outed myself as what the governor would call a no-fun, tree-hugging, Prohibitionist at the frat party.
Now the California Air Resources Board, the agency in charge of turning the governor's declaration of war on global warming into actual policies, is suffering a very messy public meltdown. The story is full of he-said/she-saids, finger-pointing and, duh, politics. But it seems to start with interference by the Schwarzenegger Administration – some say Arnold's advisers, some say the governor himself – aimed at softening or slowing down the board's tough global-warming regs to make them easier on industry.
Last week Schwarzenegger fired the chairman of the air board, saying he had refused to back the Administration's "early action steps" on global warming and air pollution. Not so, said the ousted chair, I was fired because I argued that those steps didn't go far enough. Yesterday, the air board's executive director quit in protest, saying:
"I believe the governor cares deeply about air quality, but no one in his inner circle does. The day-to-day orders that we receive from the Governor's Office are to do less, to delay, to not burden industry."
Then came a report in today's LA Times that even as the governor has been jet-setting around the world preaching the need for bold action on global warming, back home his administration is helping the construction industry stall tough new air quality rules. Scientists say the 112,000 tractors, backhoes and other construction vehicles in the state are California's second-largest source of diesel pollution; the industry, as usual, is crying that spending more money on cleaner equipment will slow down the economy and cost jobs. (For more, check out Angry Toxicologist.)
If you follow environmental politics in Sacramento, it's hardly breaking news that the governor's talk is greener than his walk. Arnold's minions are also working to kill this year's most ambitious environmental legislation, a bill calling for a ban on all remaining brominated and chlorinated fire retardants. But this air board mess calls into question the depth of his commitment on what's supposed to be his signature environmental issue. He's running head-on into the painful truth – well beyond inconvenience – that stopping or slowing global warming is not going to be easy. It's going to be hard, harder than most of us can imagine, and there's no way to make it palatable to industries who want to keep doing business as usual. If he really wants to be an environmental hero, Schwarzenegger had better muster the political will to match his rhetoric.
(This just in: Schwarzenegger has named a new chair of the air board: Mary Nichols, who headed the ARB under former Gov. Jerry Brown, was chief of the air division at U.S. EPA in the Clinton Administration, and then was state Resources Secretary under former Gov. Gray Davis. She's not the type to go easy on industry, so maybe she'll lend Arnold a backbone.)
Outside the Box: Ship shape & smelly energy
Enviroblog's new weekly column, Outside The Box, features stories outside the norm and refusing to conform.
This week's Outside the Box highlights people finding creative uses for mundane and even gross materials. It might just be the only place on the web with Viking ships, cow dung, plastic bottles, and ethanol all in one feature. Yes, that's right, I'm bragging about it.
Viking Quest
Who said recycling had to be boring? Not these Juneau conservation groups building a twenty-foot Viking boat reusing old fishing rods, nets, and 5,000 plastic drink bottles. Instead of conquest and plunder this longship will serve as a constant (and creative) reminder about the long-term damage plastics can wreck on the high seas. And why the heck not? These conservation groups had a brilliant idea if you ask me. In addition to inspiring recycling, it seems like a fantastically inexpensive way to build a boat. My grandfather always said the best way to simulate owning a boat was to take a cold shower while ripping up $100 dollar bills. If I am ever going to command a vessel this is probably my best bet. The question is…can they make me a Cutter?
Waste Not
Cow dung is now being used to produce gas -- but not the kind traditionally associated with manure. A Nebraskan company, E-3 Biofuels, has discovered a method to use cow pies to reduce the price of ethanol up to 30 cents a gallon. Basically, the byproducts of the ethanol making process are fed to the cows, and the er… byproducts of that are then used as an energy source to make ethanol. It all makes for a very elegant and somewhat yucky system. If it lowers the price I’m paying at the pump though, I will go out there and shovel it myself.
McDiesel anyone?
McDonald's has announced today that it will reuse its supply of cooking oil to manufacture biodiesel fuel for its UK delivery trucks. Biodiesel will be created by combining rapeseed oil and cooking oil and will cut carbon emissions, saving about 1,675 tonnes of carbon per year.
Did McDonalds change its policy worldwide? Of course not. However, there is more pressure on companies in the U.K. and Europe to not just talk about environmental strategy but to actually prove that they're doing something to help the environment. In U.S. McDonalds was giving away little Hummers in Happy Meals less than one year ago.