Ocean currents can power the world, say scientists - Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/renewableenergy/3535012/Ocean-currents-can-power-the-world-say-scientists.html

A revolutionary device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world, scientists claim.

 

By Jasper Copping
Last Updated: 2:39PM GMT 29 Nov 2008

Existing technologies require an average current of five or six knots to operate efficiently, while most of the earth's currents are slower than three knots Photo: AP

The technology can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot - about one mile an hour - meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe.

Existing technologies which use water power, relying on the action of waves, tides or faster currents created by dams, are far more limited in where they can be used, and also cause greater obstructions when they are built in rivers or the sea. Turbines and water mills need an average current of five or six knots to operate efficiently, while most of the earth's currents are slower than three knots.

The new device, which has been inspired by the way fish swim, consists of a system of cylinders positioned horizontal to the water flow and attached to springs.

As water flows past, the cylinder creates vortices, which push and pull the cylinder up and down. The mechanical energy in the vibrations is then converted into electricity.

Cylinders arranged over a cubic metre of the sea or river bed in a flow of three knots can produce 51 watts. This is more efficient than similar-sized turbines or wave generators, and the amount of power produced can increase sharply if the flow is faster or if more cylinders are added.

A "field" of cylinders built on the sea bed over a 1km by 1.5km area, and the height of a two-storey house, with a flow of just three knots, could generate enough power for around 100,000 homes. Just a few of the cylinders, stacked in a short ladder, could power an anchored ship or a lighthouse.

Systems could be sited on river beds or suspended in the ocean. The scientists behind the technology, which has been developed in research funded by the US government, say that generating power in this way would potentially cost only around 3.5p per kilowatt hour, compared to about 4.5p for wind energy and between 10p and 31p for solar power. They say the technology would require up to 50 times less ocean acreage than wave power generation.

The system, conceived by scientists at the University of Michigan, is called Vivace, or "vortex-induced vibrations for aquatic clean energy".

Michael Bernitsas, a professor of naval architecture at the university, said it was based on the changes in water speed that are caused when a current flows past an obstruction. Eddies or vortices, formed in the water flow, can move objects up and down or left and right.

"This is a totally new method of extracting energy from water flow," said Mr Bernitsas. "Fish curve their bodies to glide between the vortices shed by the bodies of the fish in front of them. Their muscle power alone could not propel them through the water at the speed they go, so they ride in each other's wake."

Such vibrations, which were first observed 500 years ago by Leonardo DaVinci in the form of "Aeolian Tones", can cause damage to structures built in water, like docks and oil rigs. But Mr Bernitsas added: "We enhance the vibrations and harness this powerful and destructive force in nature.

"If we could harness 0.1 per cent of the energy in the ocean, we could support the energy needs of 15 billion people. In the English Channel, for example, there is a very strong current, so you produce a lot of power."

Because the parts only oscillate slowly, the technology is likely to be less harmful to aquatic wildlife than dams or water turbines. And as the installations can be positioned far below the surface of the sea, there would be less interference with shipping, recreational boat users, fishing and tourism.

The engineers are now deploying a prototype device in the Detroit River, which has a flow of less than two knots. Their work, funded by the US Department of Energy and the US Office of Naval Research, is published in the current issue of the quarterly Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering.

EcoDriving USA

http://www.ecodrivingusa.com/#/be-an-ecodriver/

--------------------------------------------------------------
What you people call your natural resources, our people call our relatives.
Oren Lyons, Onondaga elder

"How can we best serve all the children of all species for all time?"
William McDonough

If it can't be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted,
then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production.
Pete Seeger

Food Storage as Grandma Knew It

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/garden/06root.html
By MICHAEL TORTORELLO

In a strictly technical sense, Cynthia Worley is not transforming her basement into a time machine. Yet what’s going on this harvest season beneath her Harlem brownstone on 122nd Street, at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, is surely something out of the past — or perhaps the future. The space itself is nothing special: Whitewashed granite walls run the width and depth of the room, 16 feet by 60 feet. A forgotten owner tried to put in a cement floor, but the dirt, which takes a long-term view of things, is stubbornly coming back. “It’s basically a sod floor,” Ms. Worley said. What’s important is that the shelves are sturdy, because Ms. Worley and her husband, Haja Worley, will soon load them with 20 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of onions, 30 pounds of butternut and acorn squash, 10 heads of cabbage, 60-odd pints of home-canned tomatoes and preserves, 9 gallons of berry and fruit wines, and another gallon or two of mulberry vinegar. The goodies in the pint jars and the carboys come from the Joseph Daniel Wilson Memorial Garden, which the Worleys founded across the street. The fresh produce is a huge final delivery from a Community Supported Agriculture farm in Orange County, which they used all summer. Packed in sand and stored at 55 degrees, the potatoes should keep at least until the New Year. The squash could still be palatable on Groundhog Day, and the onions should survive till spring. Ms. Worley, who counsels and teaches adults for the New York City Department of Education, and Mr. Worley, a neighborhood organizer and radio engineer, will let their basement-deprived friends store vegetables, too. The Worleys, like a number of other Americans, have made the seemingly anachronistic choice to turn their basement into a root cellar. While Ms. Worley’s brownstone basement stash won’t feed the couple through the winter, she said, “I think it’s a healthy way to go and an economical way.” According to a September survey on consumer anxieties over higher fuel and food prices from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in Ames, 34 percent of respondents said that they were likely to raise more of their own vegetables. Another 37 percent said they were likely to can or freeze more of their food. The cousin to canning and freezing is the root cellar. “I’ve been doing local food work for a long time,” said Rich Pirog, associate director of the Leopold Center, who conducted the study. “And I’m seeing an increase in articles in various sustainable ag newsletters about root cellaring.” According to Bruce Butterfield, the research director for the National Gardening Association, a trade group, home food preservation typically increases in a rotten economy. In 2002, the close of the last mild recession, 29 million households bought supplies for freezing, drying, processing and canning. Last year that number stood at only 22 million — a figure Mr. Butterfield said he expects to rise rapidly. Root cellars have long been the province of Midwestern grandmothers, back-to-the-landers and committed survivalists. But given the nation’s budding romance with locally produced food, they also appeal to the backyard gardener, who may have a fruit tree that drops a bigger bounty every year while the refrigerator remains the same size. While horticulture may be a science, home food storage definitely can carry the stench of an imperfect art. According to the essential 1979 book, “Root Cellaring,” by Mike and Nancy Bubel, some items like cabbage and pears do best in a moist environment below 40 degrees (though above freezing). To achieve this, a cellar probably needs to be vented, or have windows that open. Winter squash and sweet potatoes should be kept dry and closer to 50 degrees — perhaps closer to the furnace. Other rules of root cellaring sound more like molecular gastronomy. For example, the ethylene gas that apples give off will make carrots bitter. As a general principle, keeping produce in a cool chamber that is beneath the frost line — the depth, roughly four feet down, below which the soil doesn’t freeze — can slow both the normal process of ripening and the creeping spread of bacterial and fungal rot. These are the forces that will turn a lost tomato in the back of the cupboard into a little lagoon of noxious goo. But if you leave that green tomato on a vine and drape it upside down, it will gradually turn red in three or four weeks. “I’ve had fresh tomatoes for Thanksgiving,” said Jito Coleman, an environmental engineer who practices the inverted tomato — which should be a yoga pose — in a root cellar he built in the house he designed in Warren, Vt. People who squirrel away vegetables tend to be resourceful, and they do not limit themselves to the subterranean. Anna Barnes, who runs a small media company and coordinates the Prairieland Community Supported Agriculture in Champaign, Ill., says squash hung in a pair of knotted pantyhose stay unspoiled longer than others. Here, the cold is optional, too. It’s the bruising that comes from a squash sitting on a hard countertop, she said, that speeds senescence. (“You wouldn’t want to do it in the guest closet,” Ms. Barnes said. Or, presumably, wear the pantyhose again.) Taken to a do-it-yourself extreme, lots of places can become stockrooms. Margaret Christie has surrendered countless nooks in her 1845 Federal-style home in tiny downtown Whately, Mass., to laying away the crops she grows in the family’s half-acre vegetable plot. Ms. Christie, 44, a projects director for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, a nonprofit that supports community farming in western Massachusetts, also feeds her husband and three children from their milk goats, laying hens, pigpens and lamb pastures. This year, she swapped a lamb for 40 pounds of sweet potatoes, 40 pounds of onions and 40 pounds of carrots from a neighbor’s farm. This cornucopia has colonized the basement, along with the family’s own potatoes. “They’re sitting next to the Ping-Pong table,” she said, in “five-gallon buckets with window screens for the lids.” Onions, garlic and pumpkins dwell in an uninsulated attic — except in midwinter, when that space drops below freezing. Then the vegetables move into the guest bedroom. If that space has already been claimed, they occasionally hide out under the bed of her 11-year-old son. Their homegrown popcorn kernels have a way of turning up everywhere, courtesy of the neighborhood mice, who have developed their own taste for locally grown year-round produce. The contemporary American, for whom a pizza delivery is seldom more than a phone call away, is an oddity in the annals of eating. Elizabeth Cromley, a professor of architectural history at Northeastern University, said that at one time, “just about every house had special facilities for preserving food.” Professor Cromley has finished a book called “The Food Axis: Cooking, Eating, and the Architecture of American Houses,” which is to be published by the University of Virginia Press in 2010. She said that understanding food preservation is not a frivolous pursuit. More than 400 books instructed 19th-century Americans on how to plan a functional house, with a practical larder, basement and outbuildings, she said. “You’re not going to die if you don’t get a new dress,” she said, “but if you don’t know this, it will kill you.” Harriet Fasenfest, 55, who lives in Portland, Ore., has been playing with her food for a long time. A semiretired restaurateur, she started “hacking up” her small city lot in the Alberta Art District to grow food. (Her husband asked, “Where will we play Frisbee?” and Ms. Fasenfest replied, “The park.”) She also teaches classes on canning and created the Web site portlandpreserve.com. There is no digging a dry refuge from the seep and suck of a Portland winter. So in lieu of a traditional cellar, she applies the scientific method. “Last year I tried an experiment with four different varieties of apples,” she said, “to see how long it took them to rot. So I put them in a box in my shed and then they rotted. It worked!” When she’s not filling her 10-foot-by-10-foot shed, she experiments in the cubbyholes that sit alongside the outdoor cellar stairs. Copra onions, Ms. Fasenfest has found, store better than Walla Wallas. An indoor heating vent can cure butternut squash so effectively that it can probably last in cold storage until the economy turns around (whenever that is). Nevertheless, even those who rhapsodize about the pleasures of eating locally grown food year-round have to admit that the effort doesn’t always seem worthwhile. Ms. Fasenfest has been forced to conclude that the labor that went into growing and storing the 30 pounds of russet potatoes now beneath the stairwell was not really adequate to the reward. “If we had to survive off of those,” she said, “we’d be dead.” By MICHAEL TORTORELLO IN a strictly technical sense, Cynthia Worley is not transforming her basement into a time machine. Yet what’s going on this harvest season beneath her Harlem brownstone on 122nd Street, at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, is surely something out of the past — or perhaps the future. The space itself is nothing special: Whitewashed granite walls run the width and depth of the room, 16 feet by 60 feet. A forgotten owner tried to put in a cement floor, but the dirt, which takes a long-term view of things, is stubbornly coming back. “It’s basically a sod floor,” Ms. Worley said. What’s important is that the shelves are sturdy, because Ms. Worley and her husband, Haja Worley, will soon load them with 20 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of onions, 30 pounds of butternut and acorn squash, 10 heads of cabbage, 60-odd pints of home-canned tomatoes and preserves, 9 gallons of berry and fruit wines, and another gallon or two of mulberry vinegar. The goodies in the pint jars and the carboys come from the Joseph Daniel Wilson Memorial Garden, which the Worleys founded across the street. The fresh produce is a huge final delivery from a Community Supported Agriculture farm in Orange County, which they used all summer. Packed in sand and stored at 55 degrees, the potatoes should keep at least until the New Year. The squash could still be palatable on Groundhog Day, and the onions should survive till spring. Ms. Worley, who counsels and teaches adults for the New York City Department of Education, and Mr. Worley, a neighborhood organizer and radio engineer, will let their basement-deprived friends store vegetables, too. The Worleys, like a number of other Americans, have made the seemingly anachronistic choice to turn their basement into a root cellar. While Ms. Worley’s brownstone basement stash won’t feed the couple through the winter, she said, “I think it’s a healthy way to go and an economical way.” According to a September survey on consumer anxieties over higher fuel and food prices from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in Ames, 34 percent of respondents said that they were likely to raise more of their own vegetables. Another 37 percent said they were likely to can or freeze more of their food. The cousin to canning and freezing is the root cellar. “I’ve been doing local food work for a long time,” said Rich Pirog, associate director of the Leopold Center, who conducted the study. “And I’m seeing an increase in articles in various sustainable ag newsletters about root cellaring.” According to Bruce Butterfield, the research director for the National Gardening Association, a trade group, home food preservation typically increases in a rotten economy. In 2002, the close of the last mild recession, 29 million households bought supplies for freezing, drying, processing and canning. Last year that number stood at only 22 million — a figure Mr. Butterfield said he expects to rise rapidly. Root cellars have long been the province of Midwestern grandmothers, back-to-the-landers and committed survivalists. But given the nation’s budding romance with locally produced food, they also appeal to the backyard gardener, who may have a fruit tree that drops a bigger bounty every year while the refrigerator remains the same size. While horticulture may be a science, home food storage definitely can carry the stench of an imperfect art. According to the essential 1979 book, “Root Cellaring,” by Mike and Nancy Bubel, some items like cabbage and pears do best in a moist environment below 40 degrees (though above freezing). To achieve this, a cellar probably needs to be vented, or have windows that open. Winter squash and sweet potatoes should be kept dry and closer to 50 degrees — perhaps closer to the furnace. Other rules of root cellaring sound more like molecular gastronomy. For example, the ethylene gas that apples give off will make carrots bitter. As a general principle, keeping produce in a cool chamber that is beneath the frost line — the depth, roughly four feet down, below which the soil doesn’t freeze — can slow both the normal process of ripening and the creeping spread of bacterial and fungal rot. These are the forces that will turn a lost tomato in the back of the cupboard into a little lagoon of noxious goo. But if you leave that green tomato on a vine and drape it upside down, it will gradually turn red in three or four weeks. “I’ve had fresh tomatoes for Thanksgiving,” said Jito Coleman, an environmental engineer who practices the inverted tomato — which should be a yoga pose — in a root cellar he built in the house he designed in Warren, Vt. People who squirrel away vegetables tend to be resourceful, and they do not limit themselves to the subterranean. Anna Barnes, who runs a small media company and coordinates the Prairieland Community Supported Agriculture in Champaign, Ill., says squash hung in a pair of knotted pantyhose stay unspoiled longer than others. Here, the cold is optional, too. It’s the bruising that comes from a squash sitting on a hard countertop, she said, that speeds senescence. (“You wouldn’t want to do it in the guest closet,” Ms. Barnes said. Or, presumably, wear the pantyhose again.) Taken to a do-it-yourself extreme, lots of places can become stockrooms. Margaret Christie has surrendered countless nooks in her 1845 Federal-style home in tiny downtown Whately, Mass., to laying away the crops she grows in the family’s half-acre vegetable plot. Ms. Christie, 44, a projects director for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, a nonprofit that supports community farming in western Massachusetts, also feeds her husband and three children from their milk goats, laying hens, pigpens and lamb pastures. This year, she swapped a lamb for 40 pounds of sweet potatoes, 40 pounds of onions and 40 pounds of carrots from a neighbor’s farm. This cornucopia has colonized the basement, along with the family’s own potatoes. “They’re sitting next to the Ping-Pong table,” she said, in “five-gallon buckets with window screens for the lids.” Onions, garlic and pumpkins dwell in an uninsulated attic — except in midwinter, when that space drops below freezing. Then the vegetables move into the guest bedroom. If that space has already been claimed, they occasionally hide out under the bed of her 11-year-old son. Their homegrown popcorn kernels have a way of turning up everywhere, courtesy of the neighborhood mice, who have developed their own taste for locally grown year-round produce. The contemporary American, for whom a pizza delivery is seldom more than a phone call away, is an oddity in the annals of eating. Elizabeth Cromley, a professor of architectural history at Northeastern University, said that at one time, “just about every house had special facilities for preserving food.” Professor Cromley has finished a book called “The Food Axis: Cooking, Eating, and the Architecture of American Houses,” which is to be published by the University of Virginia Press in 2010. She said that understanding food preservation is not a frivolous pursuit. More than 400 books instructed 19th-century Americans on how to plan a functional house, with a practical larder, basement and outbuildings, she said. “You’re not going to die if you don’t get a new dress,” she said, “but if you don’t know this, it will kill you.” Harriet Fasenfest, 55, who lives in Portland, Ore., has been playing with her food for a long time. A semiretired restaurateur, she started “hacking up” her small city lot in the Alberta Art District to grow food. (Her husband asked, “Where will we play Frisbee?” and Ms. Fasenfest replied, “The park.”) She also teaches classes on canning and created the Web site portlandpreserve.com. There is no digging a dry refuge from the seep and suck of a Portland winter. So in lieu of a traditional cellar, she applies the scientific method. “Last year I tried an experiment with four different varieties of apples,” she said, “to see how long it took them to rot. So I put them in a box in my shed and then they rotted. It worked!” When she’s not filling her 10-foot-by-10-foot shed, she experiments in the cubbyholes that sit alongside the outdoor cellar stairs. Copra onions, Ms. Fasenfest has found, store better than Walla Wallas. An indoor heating vent can cure butternut squash so effectively that it can probably last in cold storage until the economy turns around (whenever that is). Nevertheless, even those who rhapsodize about the pleasures of eating locally grown food year-round have to admit that the effort doesn’t always seem worthwhile. Ms. Fasenfest has been forced to conclude that the labor that went into growing and storing the 30 pounds of russet potatoes now beneath the stairwell was not really adequate to the reward. “If we had to survive off of those,” she said, “we’d be dead.”

David Suzuki hosting The Current Friday.

David talks to the founder of Nowtopia, Bill McKibbon on 350, and bird experts about the importance of birds and the consequences of their declining numbers..

You can listen to this on the internet by choosing the more westerly time zones.
http://www.cbc.ca/listen/streams.html

The program will be available later from the website.
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/index.html

The Corporation released for free

‘The Corporation’ Released for Free on BitTorrent

Filmmaker Mark Achbar just released an updated “official” torrent of it. Everyone is free to download, watch, discuss, and share it.
The new torrent download includes a high-quality rip of the master DVD and a 40 minute interview with Joel Bakan, the author of the book and writer of the film. Mark Achbar actually dedicated a computer in his garage to do nothing but seed.
Although the torrent download is free, the filmmakers encourage people to donate a small fee if they like what they see.(....)

The makers of “The Corporation just launched a Campaign for Corporate Harm Reduction (C4CHR) in collaboration with Hellocoolworld.com. The purpose of this campaign is to collect stories about the impact of the film, asking people what they did, or something they’ve heard happened as a result of the film.

“We want to create a feedback loop on the “what you can do” front, and perhaps turn it into a book. The torrent is a great way to stay in touch with people about our current activities Achbar” Achbar explained.

He added, “my only regret is that I didn’t put up my own torrent sooner.”

Environmental Health News: Front Page

Buy your tomato products in glass.
Eric

Bisphenol A linked to diabetes, heart disease in humans.

By Marla Cone Editor in Chief Published Sep 16, 2008

Canned food is a major source of human exposure to BPA.

People exposed to higher levels of a chemical in plastic food and beverage containers are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and diabetes, according to a new scientific study published today.

The research – the first large-scale study of bisphenol A in human beings – adds to evidence from animal tests that the compound may be contributing to an array of diseases and other health problems.

With about two million tons used worldwide each year, BPA is one of the highest-volume synthetic chemicals in the world, and it is found in the bodies of more than 90% of Americans. Traces of it leach from containers made of polycarbonate, which is a hard, clear plastic, and the epoxy linings of canned foods and beverages.

For the 1,455 U.S. adults tested, the more BPA in their urine, the higher their rates of heart disease and diabetes, according to research by a British team of scientists

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/

A Reporter at Large: The Island in the Wind: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_kolbert

The Island in the Wind

A Danish community’s victory over carbon emissions.

by Elizabeth Kolbert July 7, 2008

Once people on Samsø started thinking about energy, a local farmer explains, “it became a kind of sport.”
Photograph by Joachim Ladefoged.

Related Links

Slide Show: Photographs of the Danish island of Samsø, by Joachim Ladefoged.

Jørgen Tranberg is a farmer who lives on the Danish island of Samsø. He is a beefy man with a mop of brown hair and an unpredictable sense of humor. When I arrived at his house, one gray morning this spring, he was sitting in his kitchen, smoking a cigarette and watching grainy images on a black-and-white TV. The images turned out to be closed-circuit shots from his barn. One of his cows, he told me, was about to give birth, and he was keeping an eye on her. We talked for a few minutes, and then, laughing, he asked me if I wanted to climb his wind turbine. I was pretty sure I didn’t, but I said yes anyway.

We got into Tranberg’s car and bounced along a rutted dirt road. The turbine loomed up in front of us. When we reached it, Tranberg stubbed out his cigarette and opened a small door in the base of the tower. Inside were eight ladders, each about twenty feet tall, attached one above the other. We started up, and were soon huffing. Above the last ladder, there was a trapdoor, which led to a sort of engine room. We scrambled into it, at which point we were standing on top of the generator. Tranberg pressed a button, and the roof slid open to reveal the gray sky and a patchwork of green and brown fields stretching toward the sea. He pressed another button. The rotors, which he had switched off during our climb, started to turn, at first sluggishly and then much more rapidly. It felt as if we were about to take off. I’d like to say the feeling was exhilarating; in fact, I found it sickening. Tranberg looked at me and started to laugh.

Samsø, which is roughly the size of Nantucket, sits in what’s known as the Kattegat, an arm of the North Sea. The island is bulgy in the south and narrows to a bladelike point in the north, so that on a map it looks a bit like a woman’s torso and a bit like a meat cleaver. It has twenty-two villages that hug the narrow streets; out back are fields where farmers grow potatoes and wheat and strawberries. Thanks to Denmark’s peculiar geography, Samsø is smack in the center of the country and, at the same time, in the middle of nowhere.

For the past decade or so, Samsø has been the site of an unlikely social movement. When it began, in the late nineteen-nineties, the island’s forty-three hundred inhabitants had what might be described as a conventional attitude toward energy: as long as it continued to arrive, they weren’t much interested in it. Most Samsingers heated their houses with oil, which was brought in on tankers. They used electricity imported from the mainland via cable, much of which was generated by burning coal. As a result, each Samsinger put into the atmosphere, on average, nearly eleven tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Then, quite deliberately, the residents of the island set about changing this. They formed energy coöperatives and organized seminars on wind power. They removed their furnaces and replaced them with heat pumps. By 2001, fossil-fuel use on Samsø had been cut in half. By 2003, instead of importing electricity, the island was exporting it, and by 2005 it was producing from renewable sources more energy than it was using.

The residents of Samsø that I spoke to were clearly proud of their accomplishment. All the same, they insisted on their ordinariness. They were, they noted, not wealthy, nor were they especially well educated or idealistic. They weren’t even terribly adventuresome. “We are a conservative farming community” is how one Samsinger put it. “We are only normal people,” Tranberg told me. “We are not some special people.”

Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database - Special Report

http://cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens2008/

Does your sunscreen work? An investigation of nearly 1,000 brand-name sunscreen products finds that 4 out of 5 contain chemicals that may pose health hazards or don't adequately protect skin from the sun's damaging rays. Some of the worst offenders are leading brands like Coppertone, Banana Boat, and Neutrogena.

More than a million cases of skin cancer are diagnosed in the U.S. every year, but FDA still hasn't finalized sunscreen standards first announced 30 years ago. Click here to tell FDA you're tired of waiting. Meanwhile, companies are free to claim but not provide broad spectrum protection. Until FDA requires that all sunscreens be safe and effective, Environmental Working Group's comprehensive sunscreen guide—including a list of 143 products that offer very good sun protection—fills in the gaps.

BIG OIL SCREWS EVERYONE

Every time Sohaila Rezazadeh rings up a sale at her Exxon station on
Chain Bridge Road in Oakton, USA her cash register sends the information
to Exxon Mobil's central computers. If she raises the price of gasoline
a couple of pennies, chances are that Exxon will raise the wholesale
price she pays by the same amount. Through a password-protected Web
portal, Exxon notifies Rezazadeh of wholesale price changes daily. That
way the oil giant, which is earning about US$3.3 billion a month,
fine-tunes the pump prices at the franchise Rezazadeh has owned for 12
years.

Now, however, Rezazadeh says she cannot stay in business. Credit-card
fees are eating her profit margins. Exxon, which owns the station land,
last week handed Rezazadeh a new lease raising her rent about 30 percent
over the next three years. She stuck a copy on the window of her station
to show customers who are angry about soaring pump prices. Rezazadeh has
told Exxon that she cannot make money with the rent that high. Her
territory manager's reply, she said, was simple: "When you go, leave us
the keys..." - Washington Post

Study links air pollution to blood clots in legs

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080512/pollution_study_080512/20080512?hub=TopStories

High-stakes battle over mining rights

High-stakes battle over mining rights

Century-old law giving prospectors right to drill on private land unites natives and non-natives

May 12, 2008 04:30 AM

Peter Gorrie
Environment Reporter

OMPAH, Ont.–Frank Morrison knew immediately what the red metal tag meant. He didn't understand why it was on his land.

It was a crisp, sunny morning in October 2006. Morrison, retired from the advertising industry, was cutting wood on the rolling, 40-hectare property, 100 kilometres north of Kingston, that he and his wife Gloria moved to six years ago.

The tag was attached to a tree that had been chopped to just over a metre high. A straight row of pink ribbons ran from it into the bush. Other trees had been crudely blazed.

All this meant that a prospector, without permission, had claimed the site for a potential mine.

Calls to the provincial Ministry of Northern Development and Mines confirmed that Oakville-based Frontenac Ventures Corp. had staked the claims – in fact, to 80 per cent of the Morrisons' property and, eventually, about 12,000 hectares in the area. The company was looking for uranium.

Under Ontario's century-old Mining Act, and across Canada and most of the world, all this is legal. In fact, secret staking is considered crucial to the industry.

"We found out very quickly that there is no help. The mining industry trumps everything," Morrison said recently in the couple's log home – partly finished and with construction at a standstill while the mine remains a threat.

The Morrisons are part of a gathering protest over mining rights that is uniting non-natives and Indians, and causing a major headache at Queen's Park.

The mining industry has long operated out of sight, and mind. Not any more: Soaring prices for uranium, platinum and other minerals have touched off a claims-staking rush across much of Ontario.

The race for resources has put the spotlight on the Act, which, under a system known as free entry, allows prospectors and mine developers almost unhindered access to public lands and much private property as well.

Indians say they're fighting for the right to control development on their traditional lands. The Morrisons and other non-natives are incensed that prospectors can arrive, unannounced, and dig for minerals under their feet.

The controversy has grown so high profile that Premier Dalton McGuinty promises to "modernize" the creaky law.

Much is at stake: Queen's Park is courting mining companies to boost the province's economy. Industry officials warn mining would die without free entry.

Prospectors depend on secrecy, said Neal Smitheman, lawyer for Frontenac Ventures. "They don't want to share information before staking ... It's easy to have your claim jumped."

On the other side, seven people are in jail for protesting mine developments, and more might join them next month.

AFTER FINDING THE METAL

Morrison contacted a local Indian group, the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, whose land claim covers most of the proposed mining territory.

After months of research and phone calls, non-natives and Indians joined forces.

On last year's national aboriginal day of protest, the Algonquins set up a blockade camp at Frontenac's base, a few kilometres from the Morrisons' place, where exploratory drilling was to be done. A short-term event became a peaceful vigil that continued for months. Non-native supporters, who refer to themselves as settlers, brought food and supplies, and communicated the story to the rest of the province.

Meanwhile, at Frontenac's request, a Kingston judge issued an injunction against the protest. In October, several Algonquins and non-natives, including Morrison, were charged with violating the order.

The case went to court in February. While charges against the non-natives were withdrawn, Associate Chief Justice Douglas Cunningham told the Algonquins to submit to the injunction or go to jail.

All but one agreed. The exception was Bob Lovelace, 59, a former chief who teaches at Queen's University in Kingston.

"I am in a dilemma," he told the court. "I want to obey Canadian law, but Algonquin law instructs me that I must preserve Creation. I must follow Algonquin law."

"There can only be one law – the law of Canada as expressed in this court," Cunningham replied as he imposed a six-month jail term and a $25,000 fine.

That wasn't the end of it. For technical legal reasons, a second set of charges was laid later last fall against the same group. A June 2 hearing has been set.

The camp continued until February, when the court ordered opponents to stay at least 200 metres away. The OPP charged four non-natives: They, too, are to be in court next month.

One of the Algonquins who will again stand before Cunningham is Harold Perry, 78, an honorary chief who moves and speaks slowly after a couple of strokes and heart attacks. He didn't want to comply with the order last time but acquiesced for friends worried he'd die in jail. He'll respond differently if issued the same ultimatum next month, he said over tea and sandwiches in the rural lakeside home he built nearly 50 years ago in a village called Ompah, 100 kilometres southwest of Ottawa.

"There comes a point at my age when if you don't stand up for your rights, what are you living for?"

Around the same time Lovelace was jailed, up in Thunder Bay, six members of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, or KI, an Indian community in Ontario's far north, got six-month terms for protesting development of a platinum mine.

In Eastern Ontario, critics fear the health and environmental impacts of an open-pit uranium mine, particularly that radioactive waste would ruin water sources and that the project would kill the tourism and cottage economy. But the heart of the dispute is who determines where mines are built.

Staking raises different issues on private and public land.

Like the Morrisons, most private property holders own just the surface rights to their land. Prospectors can stake for minerals without permission. If exploratory drilling or other work is to be done, landowners can negotiate for compensation. But if they object, they can't simply say "No." They must take their case to the provincial Mining Commissioner to decide.

"When your land is staked, what it really means is that you really have no rights at all," Gloria Morrison said. The claim staking has destroyed the value of their property, she said, but, far more, the experience shattered a lifetime of certainties.

"You believe in democracy, freedom of speech and justice in the courts. Then you're faced with one assault after another. It's like the ground is pulled out from under you."

On public, or Crown, land, mining can go ahead as long as the province approves, and it usually does.

Reserves are off-limits to miners, but the Act is an issue when Indians claim additional territory, which usually means Crown land.

In 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled, on a dispute in British Columbia, that Indians must be consulted before development occurs. Ontario's Liberal government says it concurs. But it and the courts interpret consultation as simply offering information and discussing how projects should proceed.

The Ardoch Algonquins and KI members argue that's not enough: "The government's view is that there will be consultation but at the end of the process there will be mining exploration," says Ardoch co-chief Mireille Lapointe. "That's not consultation. There needs to be the possibility it will lead to no exploration."

Now that free entry has moved out of the shadows, a reportedly divided Liberal cabinet is trying to figure out how to respond.

To defuse the controversy, the government says it supports freeing Lovelace and the "KI Six."

On the bigger issue: "We need to modernize the Act so that it is in keeping with our values and expectations at the beginning of the 21st century," McGuinty said in a recent written response to critics.

But it appears unlikely free entry will be abandoned, or that consultation will include a veto for Indians.

The government has no desire to curtail development, and some communities welcome it, Mines Minister Michael Gravelle said in a recent interview. "The real issue is how do we find the balance between the requirement to have consultation that's viewed as legitimate by First Nations and the need to maintain the investment climate, which is extremely positive in Ontario. It's a bit of a tightrope."

--  http://www.haliburtonfolk.com http://www.environmenthaliburton.ca ---------------------------------------------- `·.¸ ><((((º> .·´¯`·.¸.·<º))))><¸.·´¯·.¸ `·.¸.·´¯`·.¸ ><((((º> ¸.·´¯`·.¸><((((º> <º))))><·.¸.·´¯`·.¸><((((º>·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸ ·..·´¯`·. <º))))><.¸.·´¯`·.¸.·<º))))><   Eric Lilius Box 27 (1563 Eagle Lake Road) Eagle Lake, ON  K0M 1M0 CANADA W78.34.12/N45.07.09 705-754-9873 705-754-9860 (fax) --------------------------------------------------------------  The solution to your problem is to see who has it.  Ramana Maharshi     

Fwd: Living on Earth as if we want to stay

Who: Mike Nickerson, author of:
Life, Money & Illusion; Living on Earth as if we want to stay

What: Discussion on Sustainability and a way forward

Where: Haliburton Fish Hatchery - 66712 Gelert Road

When: Thursday, April 24, 2008, 7 - 9 pm

Sponsor: Gaia Centre, gaiacentre@sympatico.ca
www.gaiacentre.org
Carol Kilby
705-754-2474
____________________________________________

"Living on Earth as if we want to stay" is an international speaking tour drawing attention to the challenge of the day. Lanark, ON resident, three-time author, Mike Nickerson is facilitating workshops and participating in discussions around the theme of Nickerson's latest book, "Life, Money & Illusion; Living on Earth as if we want to stay" He and his wife, uranium activist, Donna Dillman are visiting communities across Canada and in the USA, from the last week of March until the end of September and will be in Haliburton at the Fish Hatchery, 66712 Gelert Rd, on April 24th from 7 to 9 p.m.

"Cures do not result from treating symptoms. The cause must be addressed. While Climate Change has captured public attention, it is a symptom of a greater challenge. That challenge is that the human species has grown to fill its planet," says Nickerson, who has spent his entire adult life, almost four decades, educating on sustainability issues.

"It is odd," he continues, "at a time when our biggest problems are the result of our size, that our leaders maintain that more growth is the solution. Like adolescents approaching adulthood, our society clings to its carefree past. Since most adults have been able to make that transformation successfully, there is good reason to believe that our society will also accept its maturity. With willingness to face the problems, the answers need not be complicated."

Nickerson's latest book, "Life, Money & Illusion: Living on Earth as if we want to stay," details the differing views on how to be successful in our changing times. One, the "Life" perspective, says we need to preserve and enhance ecosystems and communities, the other, the "Money" perspective, says we need to continuously ex pand production and consumption. These two approaches differ significantly on how they would deal with today's most serious problems.

Life, Money & Illusion, a 2007 Nautilus Book Award finalist, distributed by New Society Publishing, suggests a way forward, offering up new ways of organizing mutual provision (the economy) and a change in priorities that can lead to a long and joyous future.

For more information, see:
http://www.SustainWellBeing.net/LMI/Welcome.html
http://www.SustainWellBeing/LMI/tour_to_come.html for tour details.
www.uraniumcitizensinquiry.com
www.ccamu.ca
Contact
Donna Dillman
613-259-9988

Plan would change outflows from Lake Ontario

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080329.LAKE29/TPStory/Environment
NTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION: REGULATING WATER LEVELS

Plan would change outflows from Lake Ontario

IJC wants to reduce risk of flooding in low-lying areas; environmentalists complain goal comes at the expense of wetlands

MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

ENVIRONMENT REPORTER

March 29, 2008

The International Joint Commission has issued a new proposal for regulating water levels on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River that critics say sacrifices environmental concerns in favour of the interests of shoreline property owners.

The IJC, a Canadian-U.S. body that oversees shared boundary waters, released a proposal yesterday that would attempt to change water outflows from the lake to reduce risk of flooding in low-lying areas. But the plan comes at the expense of rehabilitating wetland areas that have been severely damaged by the current water management regime.

Alone among the five Great Lakes, water levels on Lake Ontario are amenable to a high degree of human control, mainly through a massive power dam straddling the St. Lawrence River at Cornwall, Ont.

In the 1950s, when the current plan for managing outflows was drafted, the environment wasn't a top-of-mind issue, and the goal was to reduce water-level fluctuations for flood control, shipping, and hydropower development. But the approach has degraded more than half the lake's wetlands, an extensive area of riparian habitat about 133 square kilometres in size.

At a news conference yesterday, an IJC official said adopting a more environmentally friendly water management approach would likely increase losses due to flooding by about $2.75-million a year. But he also warned that those living around the lake and the river, Canada's most heavily populated region, would be more vulnerable to infrequent, catastrophic flooding that would cost more than $100-million. These losses would occur primarily in low-lying areas of Ontario, New York, and in Quebec around Montreal and Sorel.

The IJC official, engineering adviser Russ Trowbridge, said devastating flooding would be a risk at times when high water levels in the fall are followed by heavy spring runoff and difficulty allowing increased water flows due to ice conditions.

The IJC has spent five years and $20-million considering various water regulation options for Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, including one that would have placed wetland habitat recovery as a major goal by restoring part of the lake's pattern of natural water fluctuations, but demurred. "The potential damages to some interests were too great for us to implement it at this time," said Irene Brooks, acting chairwoman of the U.S. section of the commission.

She said governments would have to provide more funding to mitigate risks to shoreline property before the IJC would consider revising its approach.

Environmentalists condemned the IJC. "It really showed me that the real concern [of the IJC] is the protection of property values," said John Jackson, program director for Great Lakes United, an environmental group based in Montreal and Buffalo. "We are really distressed."

The IJC proposal hasn't been closely followed by Canadian governments, unlike in the United States where it has faced intense scrutiny.

New York Governor David Paterson issued a letter highly critical of the IJC to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, urging her to force the organization to adopt rules with more priority on the environment.

"The current protocol for water-level management has had a very negative impact on the ecology of Lake Ontario, severely damaging more than half of the wetlands (33,000 acres) bordering the lake," the letter said.

At the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, an aide to minister Donna Cansfield was unaware of it and couldn't comment. The Department of Foreign Affairs, which must concur with any IJC proposal before it can be adopted, was unable to comment. The IJC proposal is open for 90 days of public comment and will be subject to public hearings in June.

MINDEN:Free workshop in Minden on drinking water protection, septic maintenance and available grants

The workshop will be held at the following:
Minden, Royal Canadian Legion, Hwy 35 & 21, Thursday, March 6th, 6 to 9 p.m.

(Fenelon Falls, Ontario) Property owners can learn how to protect their drinking water and access grants for eligible projects at a free workshop in Minden, Royal Canadian Legion, Hwy 35 & 21, Thursday, March 6th, 6 to 9 p.m.

Experts from Kawartha Conservation, the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge Health Unit and Well Aware will be talking about and answering questions on proper septic maintenance, groundwater protection, well maintenance, well water testing and what projects are eligible for and how to access grants.

WHAT:

Free workshop for property owners on drinking water protection and available grants

WHEN:

Thursday, March 6th from 6 to 9 p.m.

WHERE:

Minden, Royal Canadian Legion, Hwy 35 & 21, Thursday,

• Sasha Lambrinos, Kawartha Conservation Stewardship Coordinator
• Anne Elmhirst, Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit
• Brenda Ibey, Well Aware

For more information, contact Sasha Lambrinos at 1-800-668-5722 or slambrinos@kawarthaconservation.com.


Kawartha Conservation is a watershed-based environmental organization focused on providing abundant clean water within a healthy landscape. It is one of 36 conservation authorities in Ontario providing natural resources management. The Kawartha Watershed intersects portions of the City of Kawartha Lakes; Township of Scugog; Township of Brock; Municipality of Clarington; Township of Galway-Cavendish & Harvey; and Township of Cavan-Monaghan.


www.kawarthaconservation.com

"Leading the way to abundant clean water within a healthy landscape"

Outspoken scientist dismissed from panel on chemical safety - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-epa29feb29,0,6191299.story

Deborah Rice, an award-winning toxicologist, was removed from a group of experts researching a widely-used flame retardant after industry lobbyists complained that she was biased.

By Marla Cone
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

February 29, 2008

Under pressure from the chemical industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed an outspoken scientist who chaired a federal panel responsible for helping the agency determine the dangers of a flame retardant widely used in electronic equipment.

Toxicologist Deborah Rice was appointed chair of an EPA scientific panel reviewing the chemical a year ago. Federal records show she was removed from the panel in August after the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying group for chemical manufacturers, complained to a top-ranking EPA official that she was biased.

The chemical, a brominated compound known as deca, is used in high volumes worldwide, largely in the plastic housings of television sets.

Rice, an award-winning former EPA scientist who now works at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, has studied low doses of deca and reported neurological effects in lab animals. Last February, around the time the EPA panel was convened, Rice testified before the Maine Legislature in support of a state ban on the compound because scientific evidence shows it is toxic and accumulating in the environment and people.

Chemical industry lobbyists say Rice's comments to the Legislature, as well as similar comments to the media, show that she is a biased advocate who has compromised the integrity of the EPA's review of the flame retardant.

The EPA is in the process of deciding how much daily exposure to deca is safe -- a controversial decision, expected next month, that could determine whether it can still be used in consumer products. The role of the expert panel was to review and comment on the scientific evidence.

EPA officials removed Rice because of what they called "the perception of a potential conflict of interest." Under the agency's handbook for advisory committees, scientific peer reviewers should not "have a conflict of interest" or "appear to lack impartiality."

EPA officials were not available for comment Thursday.

Environmentalists accuse the EPA of a "dangerous double standard," because under the Bush administration, many pro-industry experts have served on the agency's scientific panels.

The Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, reviewed seven EPA panels created last year and found 17 panelists who were employed or funded by the chemical industry or had made public statements that the chemicals they were reviewing were safe. In one example, an Exxon Mobil Corp. employee served on an EPA expert panel responsible for deciding whether ethylene oxide, a chemical manufactured by Exxon Mobil, is a carcinogen.

Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group, called it "deeply problematic from the public interest perspective" for the EPA to dismiss scientists who advocate protecting health while appointing those who promote industry views.

Lunder said it is unprecedented for the EPA to remove an expert for expressing concerns about the potential dangers of a chemical.

"It's a scary world if we create a precedent that says scientists involved in decision-making are perceived to be too biased," she said.

Rice was unavailable for comment Thursday.

In addition to her testimony for the Maine Legislature, Rice has been quoted in media reports saying there is enough scientific evidence to warrant bans on deca. "We don't need to wait another five years or even another two years and let it increase in the environment, while we nail down every possible question we have," she told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last March.

In a May letter to an assistant administrator at the EPA, Sharon Kneiss, a vice president of the American Chemistry Council, called Rice "a fervent advocate of banning" deca and said she "has no place in an independent, objective peer review." She told the EPA that Rice's role on the panel "calls into question the overall integrity" of the EPA's evaluation of chemicals and that Rice may have influenced the other panelists in their review of deca.

Top EPA officials met with the industry group's representatives in June and promised to take action, according to a letter that EPA Asst. Administrator George Gray sent to the group last month. In that letter, Gray said the EPA found "no evidence" that Rice "significantly influenced the other panelists."

Environmentalists are concerned that Rice's removal could result in a less protective standard.

After EPA officials dismissed her from the five-member panel, they removed her comments from the panel's report on deca and removed all mention of her. Three months later, at the request of the chemical industry group, the EPA added a note to the panel report that Rice was removed "due to a perception of a potential conflict of interest" and that none of her comments were considered in their review of the chemical.

EPA documents show that Rice's comments while serving on the panel focused on technical, scientific issues. For example, she advised the EPA to consider the cumulative effects of not just deca, but chemicals with similar neurological effects.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said he was disturbed by Rice's dismissal and the Environmental Working Group's findings about pro-industry panelists.

"If this information is accurate, it raises serious questions about EPA's approach to preventing conflicts of interest on its expert scientific panels," Waxman said.

The conflict of interest policies of another environmental institute, the National Toxicology Program, also has come under fire. Last March, a major consultant for a federal center that evaluates reproductive hazards of chemicals was fired after The Los Angeles Times reported that the firm had financial ties to 50 chemical companies or associations.

Rice specializes in neurotoxins -- chemicals that harm developing brains. Before she went to work for the state of Maine, she was a senior toxicologist at the EPA's National Center for Environmental Research, where she had a major role in setting the EPA's controversial guideline for exposure to mercury in fish.

In 2004, the EPA gave Rice and four colleagues an award for what it called "exceptionally high-quality research" for a study that linked lead exposure to premature puberty in girls.

Many toxicologists and other environmental scientists have said they are highly concerned about flame retardants known as PBDEs, polybrominated diphenyl ethers.

In laboratory tests, PBDEs have been found to skew brain development and alter thyroid hormones, slowing the learning and motor skills of newborn animals.

Two of the compounds, called penta and octa, were banned in 2004. Before the ban, amounts in human breast milk and wildlife were doubling in North America every four to six years, a pace unmatched for any contaminant in at least 50 years. Now they are decreasing.

Scientists had initially thought that the deca compound was not accumulating in people and animals as the other PBDEs were. But it appears that deca turns into other brominated substances when exposed to sunlight, and now many scientists say it, too, is building up in the environment worldwide. Deca has similar effects on animals' developing brains as the banned PBDEs.

The chemical industry contends that low doses pose no danger and that the compound is necessary to prevent fires in many consumer products. In addition to TVs and other electronics, deca is used in furniture textiles, building materials and automobiles. About 56,000 tons were used worldwide in 2001, mostly in the United States and Asia.

Only Maine and Washington state restrict use of deca; both passed laws last year that phase out some uses. Similar bills have been introduced in California but have not passed.

marla.cone@latimes.com

Carbon capture, nuclear energy big budget winners

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/story.html?id=c400b024-8022-48e0-8888-70ca4eac4546&k=78432

By Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service

Published: Tuesday, February 26, 2008

OTTAWA - The Harper government sprinkled a series of new environmental measures into the federal budget on Tuesday, including a $300-million boost for nuclear energy and a $240-million investment to clean up pollution from coal-fired power plants in Saskatchewan.

Meantime, it abruptly announced the termination of a popular program that offered tax rebates on energy efficient cars that had been widely criticized by most of the car manufacturing industry.

"Canadians demand and expect that action is being taken to reduce harmful emissions and to crack down on polluters," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a prepared speech to the House of Commons. "Today we are taking action to fulfil our commitments to a cleaner, healthier environment."

Though Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of his government have recently described global warming as one of the greatest threats facing humanity, Flaherty's budget speech did not mention any concerns about climate change and adaptation.

The $300 million for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited will nearly triple the budget of the Crown corporation, which develops nuclear products and reactors. The budget indicates that the funding would help AECL develop an advanced CANDU nuclear reactor and maintain safety and operations at its Chalk River facilities.

The Chalk River reactor was shut down over safety concerns last fall, but Parliament passed emergency legislation to reopen it in December because of fears of a global shortage of medical isotopes produced at the facility.

The $240-million investment for the coal industry in Saskatchewan is earmarked for new technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions and store them underground.

The government is also offering more tax incentives for green investments and beefing up environmental law enforcement. But for the average consumer, an incentive program that was introduced in the 2007 budget, offering tax rebates of up to $2,000 an new energy efficient cars will no longer be available after December of this year, while a special tax on gas-guzzling vehicles remains in effect.

Honda Canada, other manufacturers and environmental groups criticized the program the so-called "feebate" program, explaining that it was poorly designed and would not effectively encourage consumers to choose energy efficient cars.

The government is also setting aside $66-million over two years to set up an electronic monitoring infrastructure for carbon-trading, for proposed regulations to crack down on pollution from industrial facilities and to allow for a market trading system that puts a price on emissions.

Environmental groups said the new measures, including a $250-million aid package for car manufacturers, were not a sign of responsible leadership.

"The government has missed the boat on climate change once again" said Stephen Hazell, the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada. "What we have are a number of industry subsidies masquerading as environmental investments and it just doesn't work.

http://www.environmenthaliburton.ca    

FENELON FALLS: Free workshop on drinking water protection

Free workshop in Minden on drinking water protection, septic maintenance and available grants

The workshop will also be held at the following:
Minden, Royal Canadian Legion, Hwy 35 & 21, Thursday, March 6th, 6 to 9 p.m.

(Fenelon Falls, Ontario) Property owners can learn how to protect their drinking water and access grants for eligible projects at a free workshop in Minden, Royal Canadian Legion, Hwy 35 & 21, Thursday, March 6th, 6 to 9 p.m.

Experts from Kawartha Conservation, the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge Health Unit and Well Aware will be talking about and answering questions on proper septic maintenance, groundwater protection, well maintenance, well water testing and what projects are eligible for and how to access grants.

WHAT:

Free workshop for property owners on drinking water protection and available grants

WHEN:

Thursday, March 6th from 6 to 9 p.m.

WHERE:

Minden, Royal Canadian Legion, Hwy 35 & 21, Thursday,

• Sasha Lambrinos, Kawartha Conservation Stewardship Coordinator
• Anne Elmhirst, Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit
• Brenda Ibey, Well Aware

For more information, contact Sasha Lambrinos at 1-800-668-5722 or slambrinos@kawarthaconservation.com.


Kawartha Conservation is a watershed-based environmental organization focused on providing abundant clean water within a healthy landscape. It is one of 36 conservation authorities in Ontario providing natural resources management. The Kawartha Watershed intersects portions of the City of Kawartha Lakes; Township of Scugog; Township of Brock; Municipality of Clarington; Township of Galway-Cavendish & Harvey; and Township of Cavan-Monaghan.


www.kawarthaconservation.com

"Leading the way to abundant clean water within a healthy landscape"

The forgotten story of the Northwest's only uranium mines |

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2004191779_pacificpuranium24.html

Sherman Alexie was a teenager when he first felt threatened by the uranium mines near his home on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

His grandmother had died from esophageal cancer in 1980. A few years later, his mother and some other tribal members took out a road map and began marking red dots on every home where someone had cancer.

The roads where the ore trucks rumbled by were pocked with red.

"I remember at that point knowing at some point in my life I'm certainly going to get sick," recalls Alexie, the acclaimed author who now lives in Seattle and recently won the National Book Award. "I have very little doubt that I'm going to get cancer."

Such is the legacy of the Northwest's only uranium mines. At least for those who even know they exist.

read more

Luz » Blog Archive » Welcome to Luz!

This comic is the creation of Claudia Dávila, a free lance illustrator in Toronto.
http://www.transmission-x.com/luz/2007/10/26/hello-world/

Welcome to Luz!

Thanks for visiting my web comic about Luz! She’s a city girl on a mission to gather “the knowing”: knowledge and experience about sustainable survival for humans, specifically in urban centers. Occasionally we’ll glimpse into Luz’s musings about the human condition and our connection, or lack thereof, to the natural world. You’ll meet her neighbours, friends, and mom and grandma, all of whom have knowledge of their own to share with Luz. Whenever it’s appropriate I’ll include commentary and links to more information relating to the content of each episode.

I hope you enjoy this weekly strip, while accumulating “the knowing” for yourself as the post-petroleum era approaches.

Plastic (Not) Fantastic: Food Containers Leach a Potentially Harmful Chemical: Scientific American

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a ubiquitous compound in plastics. First synthesized in 1891, the chemical has become a key building block of plastics from polycarbonate to polyester; in the U.S. alone more than 2.3 billion pounds (1.04 million metric tons) of the stuff is manufactured annually.

Since at least 1936 it has been known that BPA mimics estrogens, binding to the same receptors throughout the human body as natural female hormones. And tests have shown that the chemical can promote human breast cancer cell growth as well as decrease sperm count in rats, among other effects. These findings have raised questions about the potential health risks of BPA, especially in the wake of hosts of studies showing that it leaches from plastics and resins when they are exposed to hard use or high temperatures (as in microwaves or dishwashers). (more)

Haliburton County Uranium Update

Edward Burtynsky

Uranium Tailings #12, Elliot Lake, Ontario, 1995

chromogenic print

http://www.cowlesgallery.com/

FUME Public Meeting Wed., Feb. 13, 2008 at 7pm

FUME is hosting a public meeting on Wednesday, February 13, 2008, 7:00pm

at the Glamorgan Community Centre in Gooderham.

We have invited a number of local people to speak about FUME,
as well as the various aspects of uranium mining and exploration and
its effect on our community, our health and our environment.
There will be time afterwards for questions and comments.

Coffee and tea will be served.
Please spread the word!

Everyone is welcome.

We held an initial meeting last Friday.Turnout was fantastic!
As our support grows we will be forming committees to work on the various
aspects of this fight.
There is a lot of work to be done!
Work has already started on a Youth Committee.
If you know of any youth who would like to be more actively involved in this issue,
Please let them know about us.

Please contact us if you'd like more info.

Contact us at

fighturanium@gmail.com

or visit us on the web at

www.fighturanium.com

March 15 Bancroft Uranium is hosting a public information session

Lloyd Watson Centre in Wilberforce.

Open House at 6pm followed by a presentation at 7 and then a question period.

We would like to get as many people out there as we can.We're aiming for 100 or more.

We will have yellow armbands for people to wear.

March 7 SAGE (Safe and Green Energy),are hosting

an evening with Dr. Michael Mehta,

Weighing The Risks of Nuclear Energy

Toward A Renewable Energy Strategy for Ontario

An Evening with Dr. Michael D. Mehta

Friday, March 7, 7:00 pm

Peterborough Public Library

345 Aylmer Street North

Admission: Free(donations accepted)

A Question and Answer session will follow Dr. Mehta's presentation

Coffee and tea will be served

Michael D. Mehta specializes in science, technology and society with a focus on health and environmental risk issues. Dr. Mehta is Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta and Executive Director of thePopulation Research Laboratory. The Population Research Laboratory at the University of Alberta is the largest social sciences research centre in Western Canada.

Dr. Mehta has authored the following books:

· Risky Business: Nuclear Power and Public Protest in Canada

· Biotechnology Unglued: Science, Society, and Social Cohesion

· Nanotechnology: Risk, Ethics and Law

· Environmental Sociology: Theory and Practice

Here's a link to some info on Dr. Mehta's book: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/166564510.html.

Brought to you by SAGE

For more information, email goSAGE@yahoo.ca

Finally, we have updated the website and blog site with a new 'NEWS' section and events on the 'Events' page.

Our support is really growing! We anticipate a good turnout at our meeting Wednesday as well as at the Bancroft meeting Friday. Hope to see you there!

Regards,

Christine and Robin

FUME (Fight Uranium Mining and Exploration)

www.fighturanium.com

Uranium Mining and Exploration in Haliburton

http://f-u-m-e.blogspot.com/

Agroup of activists dedicated to the defence of our environment and the preservation of the beauty of the Haliburton Highlands. Our aim is to change the mining act, stop uranium mining and exploration and investigate the possibility of raising a class action lawsuit against the government for putting the health and welfare of its citizens in danger.
Contact us at: fighturanium@gmail.com

Uranium Exploration in the Haliburton Area

As you may or may not be aware, the Highlands East and Bancroft areas are actively being staked and claimed for potential uranium mining and exploration. Currently, roughly 17% of Monmouth township has been staked (appox. 8500 acres). This includes both private property and crown land.

El Nino Ventures,
One of the two larger stakeholders in Monmouth, has claimed a total of 9,765 acres in Faraday, Cardiff and Monmouth townships and is currently exploring the Amalgamated Rare Earth claim in Monmouth. Another prospector has claimed roughly 5,000 acres in Monmouth.

Your land could be staked! In Ontario, most property owners hold only the surface rights and not the mineral rights to their land. This means a prospector (anyone who applies and pays the $25 licence fee) could come on to your land without being required to notify you and claim the mineral rights. The mineral rights holder can then start exploring (this could include drilling, digging, stripping, building roads, etc. ) on your land. Under the Ontario Mining Act, there is nothing the surface rights owner can do to stop this. But we can try! For more information on mining and mineral rights in Ontario, follow this link to the Government of Ontario website.

Check out http://f-u-m-e.blogspot.com/ for more information about Uranium Mining and Exploration in Haliburton County

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