Planetsave

A recent study found that residents of Canadian communities who were exposed to emissions from polluting industries such as oil refineries, metal smelters, and pulp mills gave birth to more females than males, a reversal of the normal sex ratio. This is likely due to high levels of common air pollutants called dioxins and is not a surprising finding, according to James Argo, a medical geographer with the IntrAmericas Centre for Environment and Health, who conducted the study. “There is a very strong association [in the scientific literature] between chronic exposure to dioxins and an inverted sex ratio,” he said.

The study is the second phase of a three-part project to examine the links between early exposure to industrial pollution and the development of cancer. In the early 1990s, Argo documented the lifetime residences of 20,000 people who had cancer and 5,000 “control” subjects who did not have the illness. The database was developed to inform research about people’s exposure to industrial pollutants throughout their lifetimes, including prenatal exposure, Argo said.

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Passengers on a German train mistook a Halloween reveler dressed up as a gore-covered zombie for a murder victim and called the police.

The 24-year-old man fell into a drunken slumber on his way home from a Halloween party in Hamburg, police in the northern town of Bad Segeberg said Monday.

Believing his hands and face were smeared with blood, passengers alerted police after getting no response from him.

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CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Six in 10 Americans believe the use of corn to make ethanol has raised food prices and caused more people to go hungry, the latest evidence of a growing global backlash against alternative “green” fuels.

The Hormel Hunger Survey released on Monday also showed 53 percent of Americans polled believe government subsidies for ethanol production will help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, but nearly as many — 47 percent — oppose the subsidies because they increase food prices.

Last week Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, called for a five-year moratorium on biofuels, saying it was a “crime against humanity” to convert food crops to fuel at a time when there are more than 850 million hungry people in the world.

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BY: Max Lindberg

The California governor is at it again, this time telling a British magazine that he had never used drugs, this in the face of evidence he acknowledged using marijuana in the 1970’s, and we all remember the documentary of 1977, “Pumping Iron”, where he was shown smoking a joint.According to the article, Schwarzenegger told CQ marijuana, “That is not a drug, it’s a leaf.” He went on to say his drug was pumping iron. The governor’s press agent, Aaron McLear said the comments were made in a lighthearted context during an interview with Piers Morgan, one of the judges on “America’s Got Talent.”

And how interesting this so-called “lighthearted” comment in view of the fact the governor vetoed his state legislatures latest bill on industrial hemp. Read the Yahoo! News article, it’s worth a laugh or two.

By Anthony J. Gerst

The war-torn and ravaged nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo is a rather confusing issue. A rapid-fired crash course on the subject brings up some interesting facts, however. This nation has basically been at war since 1998, and the result has been an estimated 3.5 million deaths. There are more residents classified as internally displaced persons (IDP’s) than established citizens. OK, that may be a stretch but not by much.

Oddly enough in the nomadic camps throughout this nation, we find citizens from the entire region, as the populations of these camps are composed of people from Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Sudan and of course the Republic of Congo. So what on earth is going on here, in a nation that recently saw an outbreak of Ebola deep in its jungle recesses? Well, to understand anything of the area is to understand what makes the Congo go around. This nation is home to a vast array of precious metals and resources: found here are reserves of cobalt, copper, uranium, timber, gold and silver to name but a few. It is the control over these resources that brings about the constant battles within the Congo. On any given day, from 6-10 different factions are battling for control. Within this number are local indigenous peoples who are simply trying to stay alive.

Terror and terrorism is alive and well here, as the battles are waged at the expense of anyone in the vicinity. The groups battling have no honor; they are simply armed groups of masquerading hired thugs. They instill fear in the populous with rape and rampage. According to the UN, 90,000 people were forced to flea their homes in September alone. The ongoing warfare has prevented 150,000 people from receiving food aid from the UN World Food Programme. Read the rest of this entry »

By Max Lindberg

She moves from one challenge to another, always keeping in mind her passion for righting what she sees as environmental wrongs. 78-year-old Betty Krawczyk was released from the Alouette correctional center in Vancouver, BC, Canada on September 26th, to a welcoming party of supporters and the press, and proceeded to hit the ground running.

Then, as she told me in our latest Green Options interview, she headed for a nearby restaurant for a breakfast of bacon and eggs. Even though she professes to be a vegan, every once in a while she likes bacon, a food staple that goes back to her childhood on the family farm.

As you may know from my previous interview with Betty, she was imprisoned for ignoring a court order that forbade her from further demonstrations at a road building project at Eagle Ridge, a pristine area near Vancouver slated for development and the upcoming summer Olympics. She spent seven months in prison for her action, and came out of jail swinging.

Betty vowed to go ahead with an appeal of her conviction, and also plans to sue the contractors who helped implement her arrest, Kiewit & Sons, for damages to the environment. Then, at a welcome back rally on the steps of the supreme court in Vancouver, Betty announced her candidacy for mayor of Vancouver in the upcoming 2008 elections. Quoting from a release, she “underlined the importance of understanding that social problems and environmental problems are closely intertwined, and that one cannot be solved without addressing the other.” In our interview, she talked about Vancouver’s problems with more vehicles on the road and insufficient public transportation, crime, drugs and two housing alternatives for citizens, the rich and the very poor, and the growing number of homeless people wandering the streets. But I continually get from Betty her passion for the forests and waterways that surround the city of nearly 600 thousand. I suspect she’ll be out there again, physically protesting actions that others deem progress.

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By: Gavin Hudson

Most of us never question our decision to buy and drive cars because we identify cars with our culture. “Driving is what people do.” That’s been the unspoken motto of the last handful of generations and it’s the lesson we’re teaching our children. Handing over the keys to the car is our society’s rite of passage. We send our youth out onto roadways with thousands of other vehicles, each thundering around at up to 80 mile/hr (130 km/hr) and weighing as much as 40 tons (36,000 kg). Unlike most other dangerous rights of passage around the world, ours is visited upon children of both sexes. Those who make it home at the end of each day face the challenge of paying to own their vehicle — a life-long financial burden that averages between $250,000 and $360,000 per person, according to Motor Trend magazine.

Last night, I got behind the wheel of a car for the first time in a long time. I’ve never owned a car, and being in one usually makes me feel about as secure and comfortable as a vegan in a steak house — but not last night. There was the rush of independence in the autumn evening and a flood of old driving memories: going over the Golden Gate bridge, sneaking out at night from my parent’s house to court an old girlfriend, rolling through the countryside in a Mustang convertible, and making late night drives to the city with friends. I felt connected to a culture that I’ve tried so hard to eschew: the gas-guzzling, oil-pumping culture that stretches far and wide across freeway-laced landscapes.

After a long absence, I was again in touch with this culture — the auto-loving tribe of the developed world. I felt an affinity for all of these people in cars. They were people just like me: riding in their metal boxes, clogging freeways and roadways with red tail lights, like blood in the veins of some gigantic algal life form strapped to the land.

I feel good in the driver’s seat, and then I take a wrong turn. That damn truck won’t let me back into the lane. Somewhere inside me, the red arrow on my stress gauge crawls up a notch. I pull into a parking lot so that I could turn around, still thinking more or less benevolent thoughts. But now who does this guy in front of me think he is? Could he walk any slower? I’m in a stick shift, so to go any slower I’d have to come to a complete stop and switch into first gear. Finally, I have enough room to drive by, but I no longer feel goodwill toward all men and women. Read the rest of this entry »

By: Anthony J. Gerst

From Patagonia to the not-so-frozen Russian Tundra, unto the Brazilian tropical savannahs, the planet, “she be a changing, mate.” I consider it an honor to be writing for Planetsave. It is the freedom of pure expression that is the net-gem to be found here. Normally, when writing for this page, I narrow the focus down to a singular story. Within the feature blog I often present what I refer to as an activist’s listing. Today we will post an example of this writing style; remember, several of my blog postings are written this way. In today’s hustle and bustle so many of us seldom have the time to explore various avenues of activism; even we environmentalists are usually confined to a narrow focus of work within the field. So, upon occasion, I try and present a smorgasbord of actions in one location. Enjoy!

Once described as the land of the giants by Magellan, Patagonia, one of the richest and most diverse biological wonders on the planet, is in danger. With archaeological sites dating back to the 10th century BCE, recent discoveries would claim sites now go back as far as the 13th century BCE. This sparsely populated region of South America is interlaced with bogs, wetlands, rivers and coastal fjords. Not to mention the Alerce, a coniferous tree, the second largest living tree on the planet, the cypress forest of Guaitecas, and temperate rainforest home to many species found nowhere else on the globe. For instance we have the endangered puma, the huemul, and the fjords, which are used by blue whales, humpbacks, orcas, Chilean and black dolphins.

The government of Chili is in the process of wanting to construct a series of hydroelectric dams which will destroy a 1,200-mile expanse of this pristine ecologically needed CO2-reducing ecosystem. Part of this project would be undertaken by Brookfield Consortium, a Canadian company that would clear-cut a 1,400-mile path through many areas already designated natural preserves and parks. We are literally advancing human kind unto a precipice where no retreat is possible. When will we embrace an eco-friendly life style, realizing that we can still maintain a viable technological society; while we are at it, creating a global economic boom? One of the steps along this journey is to voice your concern in an effort to stop the above atrocity: www.savebiogems.org/patagonia/takeaction.

As an environmental writer I have a few regrets. One, the paper I use is not generated from Industrial Hemp. Two, that I cannot bring to you all the information that flows to me. Three, I can’t write about everything, so often this means prioritizing: in this battle it’s almost impossible to say one issue is above another, as they are all intertwined. So, as things escape along the linear equation we call time, one does their best to advance the cause of saving a planet from ourselves.

On September 21, the initial phase of a five-step process began, which has been battled for over the last seven-years by Ocean Conservancy and its partners. This project created the marine protected areas (MPAs) along the 1,100-mile drive along the scenic coastal highway of California. This is the first of its kind in our nation: kudos to California and their diverse array of citizenry. Having driven that highway I can say, to me anyway, there appears to be three states in one. Cali, you are indeed unique. To learn more about this great project go to the Ocean Conservancy’s page of resources.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida. He recently went head to head with Rodney Barreto Chair of the Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) in an effort to block the downlisting of the manatee. One would think the Chair of the FWC would be fighting for this issue. We have so much work to undo from this current administration. Send the good Governor of Florida a message of accolades.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Citing delays in reconciling energy legislation passed by both chambers of Congress earlier this year, two Democratic senators on Thursday unveiled a stand-alone bill to require 18 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be blended with U.S. gasoline supply by 2016.

Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat and 2008 presidential candidate, and Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, offered a bill that would raise the U.S. renewable fuel standard to 18 billion gallons by 2016, including 3 billion gallons from advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol.

Corn prices are at record levels mostly due to stellar growth in demand for ethanol. Iowa and Illinois lead the nation in corn production.

The ethanol measure could be tacked on to a farm bill that the Senate is preparing to debate in coming weeks.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global sales from clean energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal power and biofuels could grow to as much as $1 trillion a year by 2030, U.S. bank Morgan Stanley has estimated.

Global population growth and soaring prices for fossil fuels are driving the market, along with dropping costs in clean energy and concern about energy security and climate change, the bank said in a research note issued on Wednesday.

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