"Shocking" new scientific reports of the self-destructive abuse
of our blue planet's oceans are enough to make anyone feel blue. Not
just those of us on the coasts or who've studied marine life for many
years. Without healthy oceans -- the fertile wombs of our worlds -- we
land dwellers are also lost. It's a simple equation: Oceans = life
support.
Because we are so focused on our terrestrial life, the marine world
is often our dumping ground, battlefield, or playground.
In the 21st
century we are at last turning our attention to the fact that our oceans
are so degraded, we face "the next mass extinction" -- and it's man-made.
If we humans created this disaster, then we can take action to help
stop it. We cannot leave saving our seas to scientists or governments.
Nor do we have time for the denial of compassion fatigue or despair. The
only antidote is engagement, education, and action. Here are ten simple
steps that we can do every day to help heal our oceans.
1. Declare No Driving Days -- By reducing our own
CO2 emissions, we decrease our carbon imprint and ease the pollution,
warming, and acidification of our oceans. Locomote more! Take public
transit. Save money and fuel. Support new green fuel technologies, cars,
and daily kick the habit of fossil fuels.
2. Eat Less Fish -- Overfishing has devastated
marine species from top to bottom. If you eat fish, then support
sustainable fisheries and don't eat farm-raised fish. The Monterey Bay
Aquarium has a handy shopping guide. And boycott goods from countries that still practice the primitive and brutal commerce of whaling.
3. Just Say No to Plastic -- Plastic bags, balloons,
water bottles all end up in our water systems. Slow to degrade and
often mistaken for prey by marine mammals, this plastic is choking our
seas. There are continents of plastic afloat in our waters. Recycle
responsibly; use stainless steal water bottles, cloth shopping bags, and
glass instead of plastic.
4. No Dumping: Watch what you flush. No
pharmaceuticals, cleaning products with bleach or phosphates, or kitty
litter. Flushable kitty litter has been cited as a major cause of seal
deaths from contamination and pollution. Use recyclable toilet paper,
towels and while we're at it, let's plant more oxygen-rich trees.
5. Stop Run-Off: This is a major man-made problem
that can be easily limited. Wash your car at a car wash that advertises
"Clean Green" to stop grease, anti-freeze, oil, and heavy metals from
draining into your water systems. Report any illegal dumping of paint or
pollutants. Inland farming dumps agricultural run-off that creates
"Dead Zones" -- vast areas of oxygen-starved seas that kills marine
life.
6. Support Your Bodies of Water: Adopt a local
wetlands, stream, river, bay, or ocean. Such grassroots organizations as
American Rivers, People for Puget Sound, and Sierra Club all offer
direct conservation activities from wetlands restoration to day-lighting
streams to beach litter pick-up. Or start your own group of citizen
naturalists.
7. Adopt Other Species: Whether it's Save the
Manatee Club, Orca Network, Save Our Wild Salmon, Whale and Dolphin
Conservation Society, or Seal Sitters there are many organizations
working to protect marine life. Joining grassroots organizations not
only educates us about marine life; it also expands our kinship system
to include others. It's the basic tenet we teach our children: To share.
Interspecies adoption works!
8. Commit Daily Acts of Climate Change: Instead of
feeling helpless and overwhelmed by the Big Picture of global warming,
educate yourself and your children about its causes and possible
remedies. Search websites such as Greenpeace's Stop Climate Change.
9. Support Marine Protected Areas: Like our
far-sighted national parks and forests, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
have proven that conservation of species and habitat actually works. The
benefits of MPAs are clear: cleaner waters, more fish, healthy coral
reefs, and a legacy for all next generations. See: http://www.mpa.gov/
10. Be Blue: We are all People of the Sea. Our species
evolved from the primal oceans and it is our oceans that will determine
our destiny and survival. After all, we're not just talking any more
about other species' extinction -- but our own. See: Heal The Ocean.
In the remarkable book, THE WORLD WITHOUT US, author Alan
Weisman notes that centuries ago, the seas were so abundant and healthy,
our ships actually collided with whales, some fish like groupers were
800 pounds, and long-lived sea turtles were 1,000 pounds. Coral reefs
shimmered with life. In our brief blip of geological time, humans have
stripped the seas -- from overfishing to pollution to military sonars
that deafen and destroy marine mammals.
Weisman imagines our "sea cradle" recovering perhaps only after our
species disappears. If we take the long view of geology, natural
selection may simply disappear our self-destructive, short-sighted
species. And the seas will recover, with or without us.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if it were with our help? Our bodies, like
our planet, are mostly made up of water. So whether you're land-locked,
conservative or democrat, whatever your faith, young or old -- every
last one of us literally lives by water.
Brenda Peterson is a National Geographic author. Her sixteen books include Living by Water, Build Me an Ark, and the recent memoir, I Want To Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth, which The Christian Science Monitor named as among "Top Ten Best Non-Fiction Books of 2010." Peterson is the founder of Seal Sitters. For more: www.IWantToBeLeftBehind.com and www.sealsitters.org
Editorial:
In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, the phase-out of
nuclear energy in Germany has been decided so quickly, and with so
little thought, that it skirts the edges of democratic legitimacy...
---
Bacteria afflicting Europeans is a new strain, WHO says
Tests
suggest it's a mutant form of two E. coli bacteria with
characteristics that make it especially virulent. The death toll hits
18, with hundreds sick.The E. coli bacteria responsible for a deadly
outbreak that has left 18 dead and sickened hundreds in Europe is a new
strain that has never been.......
Can we correlate the increase in the last 20 years of global deep oil extraction... and the exponential increase in global earthquakes, as is represented in this graph: http://thehorizonproject.com/earthquakes.cfm The cost of not using alternative energy outweighs the costs of developing it .... what is holding us back?
How long will we simply live in a state of denial of the global environmental and health damage done from extracting and burning fossil fuels. It is the #1 cause of toxic water and air pollution... it is the #1 cause of cancer...
global warming,... ocean acidification... death of first born dolphins and whales... children learning disablities and autism : http://ecodelmar.org/pcb ... never ending wars to make never ending profits for the filthy rich buccaneers... at the experience of the Lives of the poor... made into slaves wearing a uniform and waving a flag... enough is enough... it's way past the time to http://ecodelmar.org/GoGreen/
Most of us simply do not accept the environmental challenges we
are all facing... the cumulative changes are almost unthinkable... and
no humans have ever lived through what is on the horizon for our grand children...
... Sylvia Earle summed it up in 4 words when she was speaking about the state of the Oceans: "No... Blue... No Green"... http://ecodelmar.org/sylvia/
... The cold hearted corporate mentality that got us into this mess can not fix the problems it has caused... and continues to add more toxic waste to... while the republicans have sold out the Clean Water Act to industry... http://ecodelmar.org/clean_water
... Now Peace and civility are going to be essential to reduce chaos and live sustainably...
... Curbing the CO2 and Ocean Acidification is a top priority... from what
NOAA says, the Oceans, (as we know them), are already doomed... http://ecodelmar.org//NOAA/
... algae and jellyfish will become the norm... and lots of that algae
will be in toxic algae blooms... that's what happened when they
tried to seed the oceans with iron... now phytoplankton is reported to
be 40% down and falling at about 1% per year... and the Oceans are our
greatest source of oxygen... the following UNEP video sums this up well:
http://ecodelmar.org/UNEP/ ...
...
and although more trees are surely needed, plants and trees will start
to fail as CO2 levels go higher.... so we will need a wide scale
sustainably powered CO2 sequestration technology to bring down the CO2
levels... http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=106861
... and since the military is the largest single consumer of oil on Earth... real Peace is essential to save civilization... http://ecodelmar.org/Green_Military/
... Peace... and lots of Gardens of Eden... everywhere... and that's a
wonderful part of this new possibility... as my friend Shawn Tisdell
said so profoundly... "almost every problem we face, can be solved with a
garden"... http://ecodelmar.org/garden/
-
Green Incentives For Green Energy. Not Nukes!
___________________________________
Graph: Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (ppmv) and temperature
change (°C) observed during the past 160 thousand years and predicted
during the next 10 thousand years. Historical carbon dioxide data was collected
from Antarctic ice cores; temperature changes through time are relative
to the present temperature. Graph adapted from the Whitehouse Initiative
on Global Climate Change.
Future predictions are
model derived values based on IPCC
mean scenarios (Cambridge University)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://EcoDelMar.org/awareness/
..::
"Phytoplankton produce more oxygen than all plant life on Earth and are
vital in maintaining the earth’s atmosphere. They are also the
organisms most likely to be affected by global warming and climate
change.
..:: Fish species will be threatened by increasing
acidity ( - pH) through acidosis, which is a buildup of carbonic acid in
body fluids leading to death. Hyper-capnia, or excessive carbon dioxide
in the blood, threaten fish species of the future. A study concluded
that elevated levels of carbon dioxide can result in high levels of
mortality for amberjack and halibut.
A recent study concluded
that decreases in ocean pH by 0.5 units or more may severely disrupt the
internal acid-base balance of sea urchins, which can ultimately result
in their death.
Cephalopods such as squid might be particularly
affected by increased oceanic carbon dioxide because they require very
high amounts of oxygen supply to the blood to sustain their
energy-demanding method of swimming. Lower levels of pH can impair
oxygen supplies in these species, reducing oxygen capacity by about 50
percent with a pH decrease of 0.25 units.
..::
Ocean Acidification and the Effects to Open Ocean and Coastal
Ecosystems Presentation by Dr. Richard Feely, AGU Fellow and Supervisory
Oceanographer at the NOAA Marine Environmental Laboratory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NelQ2cxoEUc
..:: With NOAA under the dept of "commerce"... how can we expect anything but "business" as usual....
..:: "Ocean Acidification is now irreversible during our lifetimes...
It
will take tens of thousands of years for ocean chemistry to return to a
condition similar to that occurring at pre-industrial times (about 200
years ago)....
Our ability to reduce ocean acidification through
artificial methods such as the addition of chemicals is unproven. These
techniques will at best be effective only at a very local scale, and
could also cause damage to the marine environment...
Reducing
CO2 emissions to the atmosphere is the only practical way to minimize
the risk of large-scale and long term changes to the oceans...
..:: "For all practical purposes in our lifetime... Ocean Acidification is "permanent", Emerson said.
..::
A San Francisco environmental group, the Center for Biodiversity, has
asked 10 states — Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii,
Florida, New York, New Jersey, Maine and Delaware — to declare their
coastal waters "impaired" under the Clean Water Act because of rising
acidity. Such a move could clear the way for the states to regulate
carbon-dioxide emissions.
"Though the SCIENCE is there, the
"political will" is NOT there," said Miyoko Sakashita, a lawyer for the
Center for Biodiversity. "At least this will raise awareness among
policymakers."
Though cuts in carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse-gas emissions might slow or reverse global warming, scientist
say it could take thousands of years or longer to reverse the increased
acidity of the oceans.
"For all practical purposes in our lifetime... Ocean Acidification is "permanent", Emerson said.
..::
The report, in Science magazine, brings together dozens of studies that
collectively paint a dismal picture of deteriorating ocean health.
..::
"This is further evidence we are well on our way to the next great
extinction event," said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the director of the Global
Change Institute at the University of Queensland in Australia and a
co-author of the report.
Methane release from the not-so-perma-frost..
-----------------------------------------------------------------
...
is the most dangerous amplifying feedback in the entire carbon cycle.
The permafrost contains a staggering “1.5 trillion tons of frozen
carbon, about twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere,” much
of which would be released as methane. Methane is is 25 times as potent
a heat-trapping gas as CO2 over a 100 year time horizon, but 72 times
as potent over 20 years! The carbon is locked in a freezer in the part
of the planet warming up the fastest (see “Tundra 4: Permafrost loss
linked to Arctic sea ice loss“). Half the land-based permafrost would
vanish by mid-century on our current emissions path (see “Tundra, Part
2: The point of no return” and below). No climate model currently
incorporates the amplifying feedback from methane released by a
defrosting tundra...
...
sometimes i wonder if the big gas, oil, and industrial cahoots are not
just getting rid of their mega-tons of stockpiles of chemical waste by
"fracking" it deep into the Earth and into the Gulf... because it saves
them money by not hav...ing
to recycle it... and those buccaneering knuckle-headed tycoons could
care less about coral reefs, dolphins and whales... it's all about
protecting their cash cow(s)... what ever happened to protecting our
Oceans and The Clean Water Act: http://ecodelmar.org/clean_water
-
and all those PCBs...
- http://ecodelmar.org/pcb
-
"Broadcast Blues" by Sue Wilson... as a Greenpeace environmental activist, i thoroughly applaud Sue Wilson's message as being perfectly aligned with protecting the environment... and while i was listening to her question/answer session after the film... it occurred to me that all of that "hate radio" she is warning us all about... that is taking over America's "air waves"... is actually wanted and promoted by a handful of giant corporations that essentially run our government... and have a symbiotic relationship with a taxpayer funded military... a corporate military needs willing participants who are listening to all that "hate radio" to keep them pumped up... to go get more oil... in the "name" of democracy... and to keep the entire war/economy in flight... which is killing the environment... the Oceans... the phytoplankton... without which... no species will be left behind... http://ecodelmar.org/For_Every_Action/
Mother finally finds her daughter... post tsunami...
Is this why you looked at the case histories of those who suffered
shattered lives from the agony of Aspartame Disease for years, and did
absolutely NOTHING!? Or is this Monsanto’s reward for your lack of
concern of this plague on the consumer public in 100 countries. You
worked for the ( government sponsored!) National Cancer Institute??!!
And you read the Bressler Report, the FDA audit, showing aspartame
triggered brain tumors, mammary tumors, ovarian tumors, pancreatic
tumors, uterine tumors, pituitary adenomas, etc., etc., and turned the
other way, even sent the cases where victims died from these brain
tumors. Just silence. No wonder when Dr. Olney made world news about the
brain tumor/aspartame connection you got on 60 Minutes defending
Monsanto. How long has this position been considered? How relevant it
was for Dr. Virginia Weldon (V.P.for Public Policy at Monsanto) to have
also been on that show since later she was considered for the FDA
Commissioner post. Perhaps you can understand why I call the FDA,
Monsanto’s Washington Branch Office.
I told you previously Monsanto who made Celebrex knows aspartame
hardens the synovial fluids and triggers agonizing joint pain. This is
their way to make even more money on the victims treating the problem
their product caused. Now that it has been publicized that 10 people
died in 13 weeks and the other problems I guess we won’t expect the FDA
to recall it -especially now that you will work for the company.
:: Stop Flow of Toxic PCBs From Sunken Ships Bombed for Navy Target Practice ::
:: New Coalition Formed to Protect Human Health and Marine Environment ::
:: SAN FRANCISCO-- The Center for Biological Diversity has joined the Basel Action Network and Sierra Club in their effort to eliminate dangerous chemicals from our oceans. The coalition formally petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency today to regulate toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) released into the ocean as a result of the Navy's Sinking Exercise (SINKEX) Program.
http://LINKTV.org/video/4158/earth-focus-episode-15-greening-the-military
The Department of Defense is the single largest consumer of petroleum in the U.S and the US military is the biggest purchaser of oil in the world. In 2006 the
US Military consumed 117 million barrels or 320,000 barrels per day.
Who approves the payments for all that OIL... and who profits from the sales of this #1 cause of climate change and Ocean Acidification.
If the scientists are correct, our own military may be the #1 cause of our looming human extinction...
This video report from 12 retired military Admirals and Generals is openly stating that irregardless of the profits, the military must go to an alternative "Green Energy" ASAP to avoid the repercussions,
if it's not already too late.
Even slightly acidified seawater is toxic to the eggs and larvae of some fish species. In others, including amberjack and halibut, it can cause heart attacks, experiments show. Acidified waters also tend to asphyxiate animals that require a lot of oxygen, such as fast-swimming squid.
If CO2 emissions continue at their current pace, the pH of the ocean is expected to dip to 7.9 or lower by the end of the century -- a 150% change.
The last time ocean chemistry underwent such a radical transformation, Caldeira said, "was when all the dinosaurs went extinct."
B52 bomber (only pictured above) consumes 3,300 gallons per HOUR...
Who approves the payments for all that OIL... and who profits from the largest sales on Earth...
In 2006 Air Force consumed around 2.6 billion gallons of jet-fuel which is the same amount of fuel U.S. airplanes consumed during WWII (between December 1941 and August 1945). The mighty B52 bomber (pictured above) consumes 3300 gallons per hour, the F16 Falcon burns 800 gallons per hour and the KC-135 Statotanker an aerial refueling tanker aircraft consumes 2650 gallons per hour.
The Department of Defense is the single largest consumer of petroleum in the U.S and the US military is the biggest purchaser of oil in the world. In 2006 the US Military consumed 117 million barrels or 320,000 barrels per day.
An environmental news magazine that puts a human face on the environment by featuring under-publicized stories about how changes in our environment are affecting everyday people.
The "fully burdened" cost of fuel accounts for the cost of transporting it to where it is needed, Geiss said. And moving fuel by convoy or even airlift is expensive.
"In some places you have to fly it in by plane or by helicopter and drop off bladders of fuel," he said. "Those costs can be an additional $200 a gallon. To complete that mission with weapons a system in a remote location in Afghanistan, for a week, you (might) need 1,000 gallons. For us to get that in there, it's going to cost us maybe $200 a gallon. So that's $200,000."
In some places, Geiss said, analysts have estimated the fully burdened cost of FUEL might even be as high as $1,000 per gallon.
Energy consumed by a combat vehicle may not even be for actual mobility of the vehicle, Geiss said, but instead to run the systems onboard the vehicle, including the communications equipment and the cooling systems to protect the electronics onboard.
One combat vehicle, Geiss said, operates an 800-horsepower power plant -- of which only 200 horsepower are used for mobility. The rest is to power the vehicle's subsystems.
"What is it cooling? Electronics and sensors, some for the engine," Geiss said. "That's how significant this other stuff is."
From the Carbon Monitoring for Action (Carma) website, the list of worst polluting countries by their power stations (in tons of CO2):
* US - 2,530 million
* China - 2,430 million
* Russia - 600 million
* India - 529 million
* Japan - 363 million
* Germany - 323 million
* Australia - 205 million
* South Africa - 201 million
* UK - 192 million
* South Korea - 168 million
Americans, apparently, are unaware of how the federal government’s
illegal, foreign wars sap the economy and rob every household. The Iraq
war cost alone is 20 percent of the size of last year’s entire U.S.
economy. Instead of investing that sum at home, “which would have
produced income and jobs growth and solvency for state and local
governments, the US government wasted the equivalent of 20% of the
economy in 2010 in blowing up infrastructure and people in foreign
lands,” Roberts says.
“The US government spent a huge sum of money committing war crimes,
while millions of Americans were thrown out of their jobs and foreclosed
out of their homes,” he added. Viewed another way, the Pentagon
continues to expand and put people to work to modernize its 700-800
bases abroad in order to dominate every corner of the globe while public
works and public employment in America are going into the toilet.
.... if there is a link between the massive extraction of deep oil and recent earthquakes represented in the graph: http://thehorizonproject.com/earthquakes.cfm ... if the connection is validated... it would provide tremendous support for developing the clean alternative energy.... even if big oil is never held morally or
financially liable... the people can see the damage done and would
revolt against noon-stop wars and profiteering over oil extraction... Fossil Fuels are the number 1 cause of pollution... it's the #1 cause of cancer...
global warming... ocean acidification... and the never ending wars to make more profits for the buccaneers... enough is enough... it's time for http://ecodelmar.org/plan_B/
... the United States flew 580,000 bombing runs over Laotians an average of ONE EVERY EIGHT MINUTES for NINE YEARS. Today, Laotians live and die among 80 million unexploded munitions, some of them valuable as scrap metal or turned into flower boxes, many of them as dangerous as the day they dropped from the sky...
It is no secret that the U.S. military has used the ocean as trashcan for munitions in the past. Peter discussed at the Old DSN how federal lawmakers were pressing the US Army to talk about it's massive international program to dump chemical weapons off homeland and foreign shores. "The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels." Brian
pointed me to the Daily Press's in depth coverage of this whole issue. Registration is free and only takes a minute or two and is extremely worthwhile.
Included at the site are maps of disposal sites (downloadable as pdfs), stories, descriptions of items dumped including nerve and mustard gas, and rather
depressing pictures some are below the fold (all from the Daily Press).
Hundreds of dolphins washed ashore in Virginia and New Jersey
shorelines in 1987 with burns similar to mustard gas exposure. One
marine-mammal specialist suspects Army-dumped chemical weapons killed
them. (Photo courtesy of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in New
Jersey)
The SS William Ralston filled with 301,000 mustard gas bombs and
1,500 1-ton canisters of Lewsite -- sinks in the Pacific off San
Francisco in 1958 (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army)
Defending our Oceans
The front line of environmental crime
On the surface, the ocean may look calm and serene. But, beneath the surface
is a different story. All around the world, our oceans are in crisis. Whale slaughter continues to put endangered species at risk and pollution from land-based sources is turning the oceans into a dumping ground. Throughout
the seven seas, there are many industries committing crimes against nature,
but no one is holding them accountable.
Greenpeace and the Italian environmental group Lega Ambiente
have been compiling lists of ships that have disappeared off Italy and
Greece as they pursue reports of boats laden with toxic substances being
sunk.
With the glaring exception of the military and reckless industrial tycoons... WE THE PEOPLE demand that the common industrial "money
saving" practice of TOXIC OCEAN DUMPING BE STOPPED... ... and because no one can manage what they can't measure... we need to
know the FACTS that have been hidden from the public, who simply don't understand why they are dying of cancer, please see the
most current data at:
GIGA TONS of toxic chemicals, dispersants, solvents, and PCBs dumped by industry and the
military into the only known Living Oceans in the entire universe...
these chemicals are known to be Toxic to Living cells, such as
phytoplankton... thereby impairing the ability for phytoplankton to absorb giga tons CO2...
and to make the Life giving OXYGEN that PHYTOPLANKTON has freely
produced for millions of years until we started
burning mountains of COAL and tankers of OIL driving Life on Earth to the brink of extinction... for profit... virtually stealing the raw materials from Nature.
The environmental issues we all face today are directly related to the
giga tons of CO2 and industrial toxic chemicals dumped into the
atmosphere and waterways leading to the Oceans.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Planned "Toxic Chemical Release", Report On Rising Levels:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mercury and PCB Pollution RISE Dramatically (EPA)
Releases of mercury, PCBs, lead and dioxin into the environment
increased significantly between 2006 and 2007, according to the annual
"Toxics Release Inventory," published by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
"This information underscores the need for fundamental transparency
and provides a powerful tool for protecting public health and the environment,"
said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "Serving the public’s right
to know is the crucial first step in reducing toxic chemicals in the places
where we live, work and raise children."
The "Toxics Release Inventory" classifies all releases together,
including legal and illegal dumping, disposal in mine reclamation ponds
(which leach into groundwater) and disposal in toxic dump sites.
Between 2006 and 2007, PCB releases INCREASED by 40 percent, due to disposal
of supplies manufactured before the substances were banned in 1979. Mercury
releases, mostly due to mining, INCREASED by 38 percent. Dioxin releases
increased by 11 percent, and lead releases INCREASED. Overall releases
of all persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals or metals also increased.
PCBs and dioxins are well know to be highly toxic to marine life and children.
Both accumulate in animals (including human) bodies and disrupt the body’s
hormonal and reproductive systems. Lead and mercury can cause neurological
and behavioral problems, particularly in children. All four pollutants
are especially dangerous to pregnant women and children, due to their effects
on the body’s development.
According to the "Toxics Release Inventory," slight decreases
in air and water pollution occurred between 2006 and 2007 -- 7 percent
and 5 percent, respectively.
In December 2006, the Bush administration implemented a rule diluting the
thoroughness of the EPA’s toxic release reporting program. In March
of this year, however, President Obama signed a law overturning the Bush
policy.
"The public does have a "right to know" about the toxic
chemicals in the air and water," said New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg,
who authored the law. "The Bush administration diluted the law and
let industrial facilities hide the critical data about the toxic chemical
emissions. It is time to restore the public’s "right to know"
about the release of toxic chemicals in their communities."
www.epa.gov
PCBs are also present in natural gas pipelines as a result of the
historical practice of oil 'fogging'. Reclaimed transformer oils,
containing PCBs, were used...
The CLEAN WATER ACT of 1972 was clearly created to protect Americas
rivers, streams, and tributaries that carry water for drinking and
eventually arriving to the only Living Oceans in the known universe.
Now a single word, "navigable", threatens to undo years of protection
against the industrial dumping of millions of tons of known carcinogens
into our Rivers and Oceans.
Because of the wording "navigable waters", the law might not
apply to small creeks that lead to rivers... "Court Cases are now being
"lost" because industry is dumping into a "small stream" that flows
into a river, rather than the river itself," said David M. Uhlmann, a
law professor at the University of Michigan who led the environmental
crimes section of the Justice Department.
Hundreds of Million of Americans get their drinking water from sources
fed by waters that are now vulnerable to exclusion from the "Clean Water
Act" of 1972.
Half of the major polluters might become outside the "navigable" regulatory reach.
In many US states, big polluters say the "CLEAN WATER ACT of 1972" no
longer applies to them... and are therefore refusing to renew or apply
for permits, making it impossible to monitor what they are dumping, say
US officials.
Setting an example, the US Air Force Base near Clovis, N.M., for
instance, recently informed the E.P.A. that it no longer considers
itself subject to the CLEAN WATER ACT of 1972.
More than 200 "oil spill" rulings have recently become "delayed".
"We are, in essence, shutting down our Clean Water programs in
some states," said Douglas F. Mundrick, an E.P.A. lawyer in Atlanta.
"This is a huge step backward. When companies figure out the cops can't
operate, they start remembering how much cheaper it is to just dump the
tons of toxic leftovers into a nearby creek."
"If you can get Glenn Beck to say that government storm troopers are
going to invade your property and check into your mud-puddles, farmers
will panic in the Midwest and "light up" their congressmen’s
switchboards," said the coalition member, who asked not to be
identified.
Our task must be to free ourselves of this prison by widening our
circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of
nature in its beauty. ( including phytoplankton )
-Albert Einstein
TOP 10 US WATERWAYS UNDER ATTACK
------------------------------------------------
Parkersburg News and Sentinel:
America's Ohio River leads the nation in toxic discharge:
A NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP has released a study indicating two
rivers are among the TOP 10 WATERWAYS for total toxic discharge... The
bulk of the New River's 14 MILLION pounds of toxic discharge is largely
the result of the U.S. Army Radford Army Ammunition plant in Radford,
Va. The study claims the plant is responsible for more than 13.6 million
pounds of toxic pollutants into the New River. Calls to the West
Virginia Department of Environmental Protection office in Parkersburg
were referred to Charleston. After several days of leaving messages,
officials in Charleston referred questions to Melyssa Savage, Title III
program manager for the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and
Emergency Management Agency. Savage was out of the office...
Tennant said. "Publishing of this information and making it available to the PUBLIC has a real impact."
Tennant said companies listed in the report very well might see this and issue corporate directives to clean up.
According to ORSANCO, the OHIO RIVER is a SOURCE of DRINKING WATER for
more than three million PEOPLE and more than 25 million PEOPLE live in
the Ohio River Basin.
The Emergency Management Agency contact person, was 'out of the office'...
... this "51 second" video won first place at the Cannes Film Festival and when you watch it you'll see why... it is one of the most touching videos you will ever see...
... "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field ... I'll meet you there ... When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about ... Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense... ~ Rumi (1207-1273)
And The Regulators Knew All Along That The World's...
Most-Wide-Selling Herbicide ... Causes The Problems ...
WASHINGTON -- Industry regulators have known for years that Roundup,
the world's best-selling herbicide produced by U.S. company Monsanto,
causes birth defects, according to a new report released Tuesday.
The report, "Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in
the dark?" found regulators knew as long ago as 1980 that glyphosate,
the chemical on which Roundup is based, can cause birth defects in
laboratory animals.
But despite such warnings, and although the European Commission has
known that glyphosate causes malformations since at least 2002, the
information was not made public.
Instead regulators misled the public about glyphosate's safety,
according to the report, and as recently as last year, the German
Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, the German
government body dealing with the glyphosate review, told the European
Commission that there was no evidence glyphosate causes birth defects.
Published by Earth Open Source, an organization that uses open source
collaboration to advance sustainable food production, the report comes
months after researchers found that genetically-modified crops used in
conjunction Roundup contain a pathogen that may cause animal
miscarriages. After observing the newly discovered organism back in February, Don Huber, an emeritus professor at Purdue University, wrote an open letter
to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack requesting a moratorium on
deregulating crops genetically altered to be immune to Roundup, which
are commonly called Roundup Ready crops.
In the letter, Huber also commented on the herbicide itself, saying:
"It is well-documented that glyphosate promotes soil pathogens and is
already implicated with the increase of more than 40 plant diseases; it
dismantles plant defenses by chelating vital nutrients; and it reduces
the bioavailability of nutrients in feed, which in turn can cause animal
disorders."
Although glyphosate was originally due to be reviewed in 2012, the
Commission decided late last year not to bring the review forward,
instead delaying it until 2015. The chemical will not be reviewed under
more stringent, up-to-date standards until 2030.
... The Oceans on Earth are currently known to be contaminated with industrial toxic waste chemicals... ( see: http://ecodelmar.org/pcb ) and since these toxic chemicals are designed to kill plants and animals... and were dumped worldwide into the Oceans... potentially impacting phytoplankton... now down 40% since the early 1950's ... ( http://ecodelmar.org/phytoplankton )
What is killing the Phytoplankton in the Oceans...
The Vital Link Between the Ocean's Health and Human Health...
and the PCBs known to be circulating in Earth's Oceans and biosphere...
... here is the question...
The "abstract" below is related to several "safer" replacements for PCBs...
...while the text of the abstract states the toxicity is "less" when
compared to PCBs...
yet the "quantity" of (10 to 56 µg/L) is extremely
low...
µg/L = PPB = part per Billion
mg/L = PPM = parts per Million
.... if these "safer" replacement chemicals are considered "toxic"
at such extremely low trace levels...
and the newer chemicals are "stated to be" less toxic than PCBs... when
realizing that dolphins and whales are now testing at well over 1,000
PPM .... Houston, we have a problem.... because industry has
already dumped tons of PCBs into rivers that obviously drain into Oceans... what may not be so obvious to the industrial mavericks is
that dumping their toxic pesticides and herbicides into the Ocean is
killing the vital phytoplankton that produces most of the oxygen on
Earth...
... if these new and supposedly "safer" replacement chemicals are
toxic to algae at such low trace levels.... what are the toxic effect
of the much higher levels of PCBs in the Oceans now, potentially linked to the 40% loss of phytoplankton
throughout the Oceans today...
( http://ecodelmar.org/phytoplankton
)
----------------------
ABSTRACT:
----------------------
Laboratory studies were conducted to determine the acute or chronic
toxicity of seven potential polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) replacement
products (six phosphate esters and one water-glycol mixture) to the alga
Selenastrum capricornutum and three species of invertebrates.
Significant reductions in algal biomass after 14 d of incubation were
measured in tests with five phosphate esters at nominal concentrations
ranging from 0.10 to 10 mg/L. The acute toxicity of six phosphate esters
tested against a daphnid (Daphnia magna), a midge (Chironomus plumosus)
and an amphipod (Gammarus pseudolimnaeus) was moderate, ranging from
1.1 to 18.0 mg/L. The water-gylcol mixture was nontoxic to algae and
invertebrates at the highest nominal concentration tested (100 mg/L).
Chronic toxicity tests based on nominal concentrations indicated
that five of the six phosphate esters tested against daphnids reduced
survival and reproduction at concentrations ranging from 10 to 56 µg/L.
whereas only one of three tested against amphipods significantly reduced
growth and survival at concentrations of 31 to 128 µg/L. Emergence of
midges exposed to three phosphate esters for 30 d was significantly
reduced at concentrations of 36 to 319 µg/L. The water-glycol mixture
tested was much less toxic to algae and invertebrates than were the
phosphate esters. These data indicate that the potential hazard of
phosphate esters to the environment is significantly less than that of
PCBs.
Greenpeace is calling for all governments put in place a global network
of marine reserves, covering FORTY PERCENT of the world's OCEANS... In
addition, marine pollution will only be stopped if all nations take
responsibility for their excessive consumption and adopt a "ZERO Waste"
to Ocean plan including waste reduction and recycling...
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/media-center/news-releases/growing-danger-of-plastic-poll/
Monsanto History ::
1901 :: "Monsanto" name was first used for business purposes.
Monsanto became heavily involved in the creation of the first nuclear
bomb for the Manhattan Project during WWII.
In 1967, Monsanto entered
into a joint venture with IG Farben. (The) German chemical firm that was
the financial core of the Hitler regime, and was the main supplier of
Zyklon-B to the German government during the extermination phase of the
Holocaust." [5], [6] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monsanto
Monsanto's creation, 'Agent Orange' contaminated more than 3 million civilians and servicemen,
and an estimated 500,000 Vietnamese children have been born with
deformities attributed to Agent Orange, leading to calls for Monsanto to
be prosecuted for war crimes.
Internal Monsanto memos show that Monsanto knew of the problems of
dioxin contamination of Agent Orange when it sold it to the U.S.
government for use in Vietnam.
1991 :: Monsanto was fined $1.2 million for trying to conceal the discharge of contaminated waste water.
Monsanto was ranked fifth among U.S. corporations in EPA’s Toxic Release
Inventory, having discharged 37 million pounds of toxic chemicals into
the air, land, water and underground.
1997 :: The Seattle Times reported
that Monsanto sold 6,000 tons of contaminated waste to Idaho fertilizer
companies
Today "PCBs" are considered one of the gravest chemical threats on the planet.
Monsanto produced PCBs for over 50 years and they are now virtually
omnipresent in the blood and tissues of humans and wildlife around the
globe.
A 'new company' name "Solutia"... was spun off from Monsanto, as a way
for Monsanto to divest itself of billions of dollars in environmental
cleanup costs and other liabilities for its past actions - liabilities
that eventually forced Solutia to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The key to Monsanto's metamorphosis into a biotechnology company was the
run away success of the herbicide "Roundup" (glyphosate)...
Today, "Roundup" (glyphosate) remains the world's biggest herbicide by tonnage of sales.
Monsanto eventually achieved this by introducing into crop plants genes
that give resistance to glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup).
This meant farmers could spray Roundup onto their fields as a weedkiller
even during the growing season without harming the crop plant.
Monsanto's corporate strategy led them for the first time to acquire
seed companies. During the 1990s Monsanto spent $10 billion globally
buying up seed companies - a push that continues to this day.
As a result, Monsanto is now the world's largest seed company,
accounting for almost a quarter of the global proprietary seed market.
In 2008 the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations
condemned corporate profiteering: "The essential purpose of food, which
is to nourish people, has been subordinated to the economic aims of a
handful of multinational corporations that monopolize all aspects of
food production, from seeds to major distribution chains, and they have
been the prime beneficiaries of the world crisis. A look at the figures
for 2007, when the world food crisis began, shows that corporations such
as Monsanto and Cargill, which control the cereals market, saw their
profits increase by 45 and 60 per cent, respectively."
Monsanto spent $6,560,000 for political lobbying in 2010. $1,030,000 was
to outside lobbying firms with the remainder being spent using in-house
lobbyists.[29] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monsanto
As scientist Jim Lovelock observed, "Although the weight of the Oceans is 250 times that of the atmosphere, it is only one part in 4,000 of the weight of the Earth."
1/4000 = 0.00025
Therefore, only 0.025 % of Earth's mass is Water. Yet we tend to think of our Oceans as vast and an endless resource, free to everyone.
Scientists also point out, "If the Earth were a globe 12 inches in diameter, the average depth of the ocean would be no more than the thickness of a piece of paper, and even the Deepest Ocean Trench would only be a tiny dent, one third of a millimeter deep. (0.3 mm = 0.01 in)
Since the Ocean's mass is 0.025% that of Earth's, our Oceans can be appreciated as the scarce and only living Oceans in the entire universe. Mars might have some frozen mud.
Knowing the Earth's "surface" is 70.8% water, often leads the public to jump to a popular conclusion... there might be more Ocean than Earth.
Unfortunately, this popular conclusion leads to a "global assumption"... that pollution might be absorbed and simply rendered harmless... within the Ocean's vastness.
Millions of Tons of toxic chemicals are discarded into rivers worldwide, while the industry leaders "cross their fingers" in a futile false hope that the chemicals will quietly be absorbed by the living Oceans.
Plastic does not really "break down", but it does break into tiny bits of plastic "dust". PCB's, already in the Ocean, are attracted to the plastic bits like a magnetic sponge. Marine animals eat the plastic bits, and become toxic with PCB's, causing immune system failure.
As the toxins slowly distribute worldwide by the Ocean's conveyor belt currents, the entire food chain is affected, from the tiny coral polyps that make world's largest reefs, to whales feeding on plankton and other particles suspended in the water column, including PCB laden plastic "dust".
An impairment to the immune systems of living creatures is being observed globally, from the tiny coral polyps, to the giant killer whales, and finally the humans themselves, seated at the top of the food chain, consuming the industrial leftovers, that do not bio-degrade in nature for hundreds of years.
Now PCB's are being dumped onto agricultural land or incinerated into the atmosphere by industry in another futile attempt to rid themselves of chemicals they synthesized and are responsible for. I say the manufacture must not be allowed to dump these toxic chemicals in the rivers and must take them back for recycling: http://ecodelmar.org/TakeItBack/
While we are still scrambling to name the new coral reef diseases, and counting growing number of species that are becoming extinct, all the while with more funding going to concern over the stock market.
As a free nation... we the people... spent more of our own tax dollars exploring the mud on Mars than protecting the only "Living Oceans" in the known universe... as our planet become less inhabitable for humans. Who is really steering this over-heating planet, big business persons? Is bowing to the stock market index given a higher priority than the World's Ocean Health index, in Washington... http://ecodelmar.org/MBA_blindness
As we all awaken to the collapse of our Oceans, finally we begin to see the consequences of giving the "green light" to industry for dumping millions of tons of "known toxins" into the only known living Oceans in the entire universe.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, must be looking down on the Oceans and their bleached coral reefs... with salty tears in his eyes. Link to The Cousteau Team results: http://EcoDelMar.org/results
Our Oceans
We have the only living Oceans in the entire universe, unless you know of another one.
Our planet is running full-steam-ahead by giant industrial strength polluters.
Industrial pollution is impairing the immune system of life in the Oceans.
Tons of toxic chemicals are still being dumped into rivers worldwide by industrial giants, who will destroy the Oceans, in order to make more profit.
