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.

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