Soil 18Qt Seed Starter Case Pack 4
[amzn_product_post]
Tag Archives: case
There are even more dead pigs in a Chinese river
There are even more dead pigs in a Chinese river
Reuters
In the week and a half since we first brought you the all-important details on those dead pigs filling the Huangpu River in China, officials have raised the body count to more than 16,000.
On Sunday, the government said the pulling-dead-pigs-out-of-the-water operation was “basically finished.” Chinese official media reports that some of the dead animals were traced by their ear tags to pig farms in Shaoxing, and their owners have been prosecuted. Farmers in Shaoxing have recently been charged with selling meat from diseased animals.
The New York Times points out the silver lining of the porcine flotilla: At least the diseased pigs aren’t ending up on dinner plates. As the government cracks down on contaminated meat, the only place to put them is in the river. Three cheers for food safety!
“Dead pigs have always ended up in Shanghai. This time they just went there by river, instead of by truck,” a Shaoxing pig farmer told The Guardian.
A Zhejiang environmental protection report in 2011 found that 7.7 million pigs were being farmed in Shaoxing. On average 2% to 4% will die, which means between 150,000 and 300,000 corpses need to be disposed of.
“If dumped, they cause bacterial and viral pollution, as well as 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of chemical oxygen demand,” the report said.
But, still, there are no provisions for proper disposal in place.
One big story here seems to be: Oh my god China is farming a lot of pigs. But heck, so are we. Tom Philpott at Mother Jones makes the case that U.S. factory farming of pigs and other animals is supergross too. Epic loads of pig shit contaminate our lands and waterways, even though the imagery is not quite as immediately horrifying.
And now, in the Sichuan province in central China, there’s a new, slightly different problem: The Nanhe River is clogged with about 1,000 dead ducks of unknown origin.
Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for
.
Read more:
Also in Grist
Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories
Read original article:
EPA sued over failure to protect bees from pesticides
EPA sued over failure to protect bees from pesticides
A federal courtroom will bee-come a hive of activity, with lawyers attempting to sting the government into action over buzz-killing insecticides.
The battle for the bees is headed to court.
Beekeepers and activist groups, fed up with the wanton use of insecticides that kill bees and other pollinators, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday. They are suing to try to force the EPA to ban or better regulate neonicotinoids and other pesticides that kill bees and butterflies and lead to colony collapse disorder.
From a press release put out by the Center for Food Safety, one of the plaintiffs in the case:
“Beekeepers and environmental and consumer groups have demonstrated time and time again over the last several years that EPA needs to protect bees. The agency has refused, so we’ve been compelled to sue,” said Center for Food Safety attorney, Peter T. Jenkins. “EPA’s unlawful actions should convince the Court to suspend the approvals for clothianidin and thiamethoxam products until those violations are resolved.”
The case also challenges the use of so-called “conditional registrations” for these pesticides, which expedites commercialization by bypassing meaningful premarket review. Since 2000, over two-thirds of pesticide products, including clothianidin and thiamethoxam, have been brought to market as conditional registrations.
“Pesticide manufacturers use conditional registrations to rush bee-toxic products to market, with little public oversight,” said Paul Towers, a spokesperson for Pesticide Action Network. “As new independent research comes to light, the agency has been slow to re-evaluate pesticide products and its process, leaving bees exposed to an ever-growing load of hazardous pesticides.”
The lawsuit comes a week after the European Union failed in an effort to ban the use of neonicotinoids. From The Independent:
To the dismay of environmental campaigners, but to the relief of the pesticide industry and some agricultural scientists, the vote resulted in a stalemate. 13 of the 27 European Union member states voted in favour of a ban, while nine voted against and five, including Britain, abstained.
The arithmetic of the vote meant that the necessary qualified majority — with votes weighted according to member states’ populations — could not be obtained, and so the vote was deemed inconclusive.
However, the question of a ban is likely to be voted on again fairly soon. If the issue remains deadlocked, it is possible that the European Commission, the EU civil service which proposed the ban in the first place, could act to bring one in on its own initiative.
John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who
, posts articles to
, and
. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:
.
Read more:
,
,
Also in Grist
Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories
See original –
Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, Brita, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, Uncategorized
Tagged case, environmental, epa, european, european union, food, government, network, politics, safety, technology, upton
Comments Off on EPA sued over failure to protect bees from pesticides
Soil 4Qt Seed Starter Case Pack 12
[amzn_product_post]
Soil 10Qt Seed Starter Case Pack 6
[amzn_product_post]
Everyone to Asia: We don’t want your stinkin’ unsustainable palm oil
Everyone to Asia: We don’t want your stinkin’ unsustainable palm oil
danielnugent
There’s great news this week for everyone except the people producing tons of unsustainable palm oil: Customers are jumping ship right and left, swearing off of the processed food grease that has become the top cause of deforestation in Southeast Asia.
Dunkin’ Donuts has agreed to phase out the palm oil it stuffs into its sweet, fatty pastry rings. The move came under pressure from the green-minded comptroller of New York state, Tom DiNapoli, who leveraged the state’s investment in Dunkin’ to bring about the change, 350.org-divestment-campaign style.
From the New York Times’ City Room blog:
The comptroller is best known for his role overseeing the state’s pension fund, not for pushing for breakfast-food reform. But in this case, the goals are one and the same: as of last week, the pension fund owned 51,400 shares of Dunkin’ Brands Group worth about $2 million, and Mr. DiNapoli seeks to prod companies in which the fund invests to embrace sustainable practices …
“Consumers may not realize that many of the foods and cosmetics they eat and use contain palm oil that has been harvested in ways that are severely detrimental to the environment,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement. “Shareholder value is enhanced when companies take steps to address the risks associated with environmental practices that promote climate change.”
Ironically, Dunkin’ had switched to using palm oil as a kind of healthy alternative (ha) during the Great Transfat Scare of the Mid-Aughts.
This week Norway, too, announced it has divested from Asian palm oil completely, due to environmental concerns. Reuters reports:
“We are very happy with this development in the palm oil sector,” said Nils Hermann Ranum, of Norway’s branch of the Foundation.
Still, he said that Norway should do more to pull out of other sectors that cause deforestation, such as logging companies, oil and gas firms, soy and meat producers.
Palm oil’s gotten too big for its own greasy britches, sending prices into the toilet as the market is “struggling to generate more demand,” according to Bloomberg. Struggle away, palm oil! We’ll find other ways to fatten up our terrible treats.
Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for
.
Read more:
Also in Grist
Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories
View this article:
Everyone to Asia: We don’t want your stinkin’ unsustainable palm oil
Posted in ALPHA, Amana, G & F, GE, Uncategorized
Tagged asian, case, food, goals, mr-, norway, shareholder, state, susie-cagle
Comments Off on Everyone to Asia: We don’t want your stinkin’ unsustainable palm oil
WA state legislator doesn’t understand CO2, transportation, science
WA state legislator doesn’t understand CO2, transportation, science
Ed Orcutt is confused.
Ed Orcutt is a Republican state representative in Washington, and he appears to be confused. As a member of the House Transportation Committee, Orcutt had a somewhat testy email exchange recently with a bike shop owner about a proposed bike fee. Reuters reports:
“You claim that it is environmentally friendly to ride a bike,” Orcutt wrote to Dale Carlson, the owner of three bicycle shops in the Tacoma and Olympia areas who voiced concern that a proposed $25 fee on bicycle sales of $500 or more could hurt his business.
“But if I am not mistaken, a cyclists has an increased heart rate and respiration … Since CO2 is deemed a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclist [sic] are actually polluting when they ride,” Orcutt wrote late last month.
Carlson thought Orcutt “was being sarcastic or something.” That wasn’t the case, but Orcutt soon felt compelled to apologize.
On Monday, Orcutt hit the brakes and made a U-turn.
“My point was that by not driving a car, a cyclist was not necessarily having a zero-carbon footprint,” Orcutt wrote in an email delivered to constituents. “In looking back, it was not a point worthy of even mentioning so, again, I apologize.”
Orcutt’s comments provide some insight into a twisted way of thinking. Cyclists breathe hard, so they’re just as bad as drivers! False equivalency! Republican science!
I mean, politics as usual.
Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for
.
Read more:
,
Also in Grist
Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories
Continued:
WA state legislator doesn’t understand CO2, transportation, science
Posted in ALPHA, Amana, GE, LG, Uncategorized
Tagged amana, business, case, orcutt, politics, republican, susie-cagle, three
Comments Off on WA state legislator doesn’t understand CO2, transportation, science
Entire food system may be contaminated with BPA and other plastic nasties
Entire food system may be contaminated with BPA and other plastic nasties
You still probably shouldn’t cook your turkey in plastic.
Eat organic all you want. Avoid plastic like the plague. It may not matter after all — you could still be ingesting a lot of nasty bisphenol A and phthalates, chemicals that leach from plastics and potentially disrupt human endocrine systems.
A study by Sheela Sathyanarayana published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology compared one group that avoided BPA and pthalates in accordance with written directions and another group that ate a catered, local, organic diet prepared without use of plastic for cooking or storage.
The researchers assumed that urinary BPA and pthalate levels would drop in the catered group compared to the group using written instructions — people are generally bad at following advice from their doctors after all. “Instead we saw big spikes and increases in the catered diet group and no changes at all in the written education group,” she says.
Sathyanarayana’s team tested the food samples in the catered group to find the source of contamination. The culprits: milk, cream, and ground coriander. “I honestly don’t know why the spices were more contaminated or why the dairy had higher contamination, but I do know it’s consistent with other reports,” she says. …
The authors conclude in their study: “It may be that our findings reflect an isolated rare contamination event because of unusual processing or a packaging abnormality. It also could be the case that the food supply is systematically contaminated with high phthalate concentrations, which are difficult to identify.”
It could! Oh god, oh god, it really could.
Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for
.
Read more:
,
Also in Grist
Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories
Originally from:
Entire food system may be contaminated with BPA and other plastic nasties
Posted in GE, Uncategorized
Tagged bpa, case, epidemiology, grist, king, sathyanarayana, susie-caglesea, twitter, written
Comments Off on Entire food system may be contaminated with BPA and other plastic nasties
Multibillion dollar question: How gross was BP’s negligence?
Multibillion dollar question: How gross was BP’s negligence?
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill was gross. Really gross. But what about BP’s negligence in creating that gross oil spill? Was that negligence also gross?
If you’re already tired of hearing the word “gross” over and over, you might want to tune out news of a trial that began today in New Orleans. The U.S. government and Gulf Coast states are seeking billions of dollars from BP in damages and fines. One of the key decisions that the federal judge must make in the case is whether BP was grossly negligent in causing the deadly explosion and subsequent oil spill, or whether the company was merely negligent. The stakes are big — big with a capital B. Billions of dollars are at stake.
The government says the company’s negligence was totally gross. But, like somebody who farts in an elevator and then asks everybody to please stop whining because they didn’t try to make it smell so gross, BP is denying that claim. From a statement issued by BP:
“Gross negligence is a very high bar that BP believes cannot be met in this case,” said [BP General Counsel Rupert Bondy]. “This was a tragic accident, resulting from multiple causes and involving multiple parties. We firmly believe we were not grossly negligent.”
If U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier rules that the company was grossly negligent, then it could be fined up to $4,300 per barrel spilled under the Clean Water Act. (Barbier is hearing the case without a jury.) The government says 4.1 million barrels spilled, having reportedly backed away from an earlier estimate of 4.9 million barrels. If the judge accepts that figure, and also rules that BP was grossly negligent, the company may have to fork out $17.6 billion to the American people in Clean Water Act fines alone.
And that figure doesn’t include additional fines and compensation for damage that the spill caused, which is expected to be billions more, over and above the tens of billions of dollars in settlements and cleanup costs to date.
If Barbier rules that the company was just plain ol’ negligent, however, the Clean Water Act fines would be capped at $1,100 per barrel. If he also accepts BP’s claim that no more than 3.1 million barrels of oil was spilled, then the company could be liable for up to $3.4 billion in Clean Water Act fines.
Opening arguments began in Barbier’s courtroom this morning, despite press reports that the parties are mulling a $16 billion settlement. That proposed settlement is opposed by environmental groups, which criticize the sum as paltry and say it is unlikely to be enough to fully restore the Gulf of Mexico. (This morning’s courtroom action doesn’t preclude the possibility that a settlement might yet be reached.) Without a settlement, the trial could take months to resolve. Hundreds of lawyers are involved, all ready to take their share. From The Washington Post:
The list of exhibits runs nearly a thousand pages, and lawyers have filed 126 depositions and the names of about 80 potential witnesses. The plaintiffs’ team has essentially built an entire new firm, with 300 lawyers, paralegals and support staffers dedicated to the case. BP has a similar battery of attorneys from four of the nation’s most prestigious firms.
Gross.
Read more:
,
Also in Grist
Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories
Continued here:
Multibillion dollar question: How gross was BP’s negligence?
Posted in GE, LG, Uncategorized
Tagged american, barbier, case, climate, climate & energy, judge, mexico, washington
Comments Off on Multibillion dollar question: How gross was BP’s negligence?
Apple CEO wonders who would want to work for an oil company
Apple CEO wonders who would want to work for an oil company
On Friday, ExxonMobil passed Apple to become the most valuable company in the world. We were all very happy to see that happen, because who really cares about Apple stuff when we’ve got Exxon’s newest offerings to lust after. (True gas geeks know no greater thrill than when Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson busts out his signature “one more thing”.)
This is all lies and “jokes”; it is, as we noted last week, disconcerting that oil companies continue to make money hand over fist. (In a few days, ExxonMobil will announce its 2012 earnings, so we’ll revisit this theme then.) But we have an ally in our frustration, it seems — Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Tim Cook, speaking last June
From 9to5Mac.com:
Speaking to employees on the current controversies around Apple’s income and future, Cook reportedly told his workers and colleagues that “we [Apple] just had the best quarter of any technology company ever.” Cook expressed this with immense satisfaction and appreciation for his teams that made this happen.
Cook further added, likely referring to gas and fuel juggernaut Exxon, that “the only companies that report better quarters pump oil.” “I do not know about you all, but I do not want to work for those companies,” Cook reportedly said.
There’s a bit of snobbery at play in that quote, I’ll readily admit. But it’s an interesting reflection of both competition and modernity. Apple is a company predicated on the future, on innovative tools for communication. ExxonMobil is a company built on developing ever more streamlined systems for repeating a 100-year-old business model. It’s a weird race, like two horses on different tracks that happen to be going the same speed. The battle is California versus Texas, white collar versus blue, future versus past, green(ish) versus brown, technology versus natural resources.
In some ways, it’s a distillation of two halves of the country. And, according to section VI, subpart 8 of the Rules of Capitalism, the winner isn’t determined through elections or reasoned debate. The winner is determined by stock price.
Update: IF that’s the case, good news for Apple, which has currently regained the lead. Go horses!
Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.
Read more:
,
Also in Grist
Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories
Follow this link –
Posted in GE, Uncategorized
Tagged apple, battle, business, capitalism, case, ceo, climate, cook-deerkoski, exxonmobil, winner
Comments Off on Apple CEO wonders who would want to work for an oil company
