Greenspiration News: food, nukes, budget, meds
Angela Bischoff
greenspi at web.ca
Mon Feb 2 18:15:32 EST 2009
Greenspiration News
"So-called global warming is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to
make America energy-independent, clean our air and water, improve
fuel-efficiency of our vehicles, kickstart 21st century industries,
and make
our cities safer and more livable. Don't let them get away with it!"
Chip Giller, founder of Grist.org
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Comments on the 2009 Federal Budget
Budget Would Kill Support for Renewable Energy:
Climate Action Network
Yesterday's budget may jeopardize the future of renewable energy
development in Canada. Not only has the Government failed to keep
pace with
green stimulus south of the border, it has refused to extend the only
major
support program for renewable energy in Canada, the ecoENERGY for
Renewable
Power program. Leading Canadian organizations are shocked that while the
U.S. is finally moving forward on clean energy, the Harper
administration is
proposing to go backwards in critical areas.
Harper wrong to support false energy solutions and underfund green
economy
27 January 2009 (Toronto) - Greenpeace today condemned the Harper
government
for giving as much as $750 million dollars to nuclear energy and carbon
capture and storage instead of investing those funds in the green
economy
Canada needs for the future.
"The Harper government's millions to dangerous nuclear energy and the
pipe
dream of carbon capture and storage are an environmental travesty and an
unnecessary burden to taxpayers, said Dave Martin, Greenpeace climate
and
energy coordinator. These false solutions to our energy problems don't
deserve subsidies, green energy does."
The Harper government's budget is a miserable failure at seizing a
golden
opportunity to provide long-term investment for a green economy. The
government promised to create the 'jobs of tomorrow' in the Throne
Speech
yesterday, it failed to deliver.
Greenpeace and other Canadian environmental groups gave the Harper
government a wealth of ideas for building a green economy, including:
* provide significant, long-term investment in energy efficiency
programs
* invest sufficient funds to retrofit our homes and businesses to high
standards of energy efficiency,
* inject a massive increase in support into public transit, and
* kick start an Energy Revolution with a huge increase in green
energy.
A budget with significant green stimulus plans would have created new,
long-term green jobs and helped nurture innovation and the
manufacturing of
green technology.
"Canadians should consider the bleak future this government's budget
will
create for their children," said Martin. "The green future that our
children
need will only come from a government with the vision to develop a green
economy."
The Harper government's budget shows it doesn't know how to lead in an
economic crisis and take advantage of an opportunity to build a green
economy for Canada. The Obama administration has demonstrated such
leadership, announcing more than $50 billion for clean energy.
Greenpeace
has publicly praised the Obama green initiative.
The Harper budget also fails to contribute to the fight against global
warming. The Harper government has ignored Canada's target for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. The target of the
Harper
government would reduce emissions only three per cent below 1990
levels by
2020. Greenpeace and others call for a minimum reduction of 25 per
cent by
2020.
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Few Green Jobs, Little Green Infrastructure, No Green Energy
Sierra Club
“The biggest disappointment is the lack of fiscal support for
renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, and geothermal,” says
Mike Buckthought, National Climate Change Campaigner. “Instead, the
Government has chosen to sink $351 million into nuclear energy—which
is neither economically nor environmentally sustainable—and plans to
squander up to $1 billion over 5 years on carbon capture and
storage. The government’s own experts are telling them that carbon
capture and storage is ineffective and not an economically viable way
to get carbon out of the atmosphere.”
http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/media/item.shtml?x=2865
Seeing red: Budget panned by labour and environmental groups
BY RABBLE STAFF
http://www.rabble.ca/news/seeing-red-budget-panned-labour-and-
environmental-groups
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WHY CANADA NEEDS A FOOD POLICY
By Wayne Roberts
It's been said that our problems with healthcare and food begin with
the fact that the people in charge of food know and care little about
health, while the people in charge of healthcare know and care little
about food. When two of Canada's major food groups are donuts and
pop, and when our medical system is overburdened with alarming rates
of heart disease and diabetes, the way we keep food and health in
different sectors of the economy is no longer economical and the way
we divide government responsibility is no longer politic. While
various governments around the world flail their arms with various
efforts to protect the climate from global warming, even the justly-
praised Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fails to identify
food as an area for corrective action, and we all miss the
opportunity to deal with a food sector that is responsible for a
third of global warming emissions, most of which can be reduced while
also reducing world poverty and disease and improving farm income
http://web.uvic.ca/~ccgarden/?p=97
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Obama rolls out green agenda for U.S.
Policy sets sights on energy independence
U.S. President Barack Obama announced a sweeping revision of U.S.
environmental policy yesterday that included a pledge to "lead" on
combating climate change and developing alternatives to oil as an
energy source.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Cars/Obama+rolls+green+agenda/1220992/
story.html
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Peace Pilgrim: An American Sage Who Walked Her Talk
From 1953 to 1981 a silver haired woman calling herself only "Peace
Pilgrim" walked more than 25,000 miles on a personal pilgrimage for
peace. She vowed to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the
way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given
food." In the course of her 28 year pilgrimage she touched the
hearts, minds, and lives of thousands of individuals all across North
America. Her message was both simple and profound. It continues to
inspire people all over the world.
This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good, falsehood with
truth, and hatred with love.
Peace Pilgrim Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8840144606
There is also an excellent documentary online at:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=6ySs2rLcPhU
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Bicycle Diaries BBC Podcast
The BBC recently made available a three-part podcast (audio) series
called the Bicycle Diaries that illustrates how the bicycle is used
today and what impact it has on people's lives.
Part one
A new bicycle system in Paris, France
Part two
Why cycling matters in Kampala, Uganda
Part three
How biking in New Delhi, India helps the economy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/
2009/01/090114_bicyclediaries_progone.shtml
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Bad Reactors
Rethinking your opposition to nuclear power? Rethink again
"We concentrated so much on nuclear that we lost sight of everything
else," says Oras Tynkynnen, a climate policy adviser in the Finnish
prime minister’s office. "And nuclear has failed to deliver. It has
turned out to be a costly gamble for Finland, and for the planet."
See
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2009/0901.blake.html
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Mothers Act Promotes Pregnancy as New Cottage Industry
Women of childbearing years represent the most lucrative market for
the makers of psychiatric drugs. The knowledge that infants were
being born with birth defects and suffering a withdrawal syndrome
when these drugs were used during pregnancy was hidden for decades.
Knowledge of these terrible risks would have caused a major drop in
sales to this customer base.
Ever since the warnings about birth defects started trickling out a
few years ago, the drug companies apparently have been plotting to
find ways to reverse their negative impact. But the most sinister
plot ever developed is a bill moving for approval in the US Senate
right now called the "Melanie Blocker-Stokes Mother's Act," to set up
the screening of all pregnant women for mental illness.
The bill is promoted under the ruse of screening for postpartum
depression. But a true picture of the target population of this
massive drug pushing scheme is evident in the propaganda submitted to
support the passage of the original bill in the US House of
Representatives and the programs already in place in various states.
<snip>
Full article: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0812/S00107.htm
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Radioactive fallout
Severity of leak at Chalk River never revealed
Ottawa Sun, January 28, 2009
Canada's nuclear agency misled the Prime Minister's Office over the
nature and extent of a radioactive spill at the troubled Chalk River
in December, a senior government official said yesterday.
"We are as upset as anyone," the official said.
The official was responding to an exclusive Sun Media story
yesterday, detailing the reactor leak Dec. 5 that released
radioactive tritium into the air.
Atomic Energy of Canada officials running the 51-year-old reactor
claim an additional 800 litres of radioactive water spilled during
the incident was safely recovered and stored at the nuclear facility.
But those claims have been cast into doubt by inconsistencies in
internal reports from the nuclear agency, and its own attempts to
keep the spill a secret from the media, the public and apparently the
highest echelons of the federal government.
After a brief shutdown, Atomic Energy has continued to operate the
reactor even though officials there say they have not found the
source of the leak, and it might reoccur. <snip>
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/National/2009/01/28/8170251-sun.html
Nuclear Accident at Chalk River Appalling
OTTAWA--After firing the chair of the Canadian Nuclear Safety
Commission, Linda Keen, in 2008, after she refused to allow the Chalk
River reactor to operate until key safety upgrades were completed,
Stephen Harper assured Canadians, "There will be no nuclear
accidents." Turns out he was wrong.
As reported by Sun Media, the antiquated reactor spilled radioactive
tritium into the atmosphere on December 5th and for the past six
weeks has been spilling an estimated 7000 litres of water a day into
the Ottawa River from a cracked pipe. “Officials say, don’t worry,
the water is only slightly radioactive. Somehow, that doesn’t make
me feel better,” said Green Party Leader, Elizabeth May. “This
reactor was put back into action after serious safety concerns were
brought to light and unfortunately those safety concerns are now a
reality.”
To make matters worse, the problems at the plant are veiled in
secrecy. According to reports, Atomic Energy Ltd. waited four days
to report the spill to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and
then underreported the amount of the spillage. The public was told
the plant was having technical challenges. <snip>
http://www.greenparty.ca/en/media-release/2009-01-28/nuclear-accident-
chalk-river-appalling
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Why a Nuclear Free World is Important
by Roger Herried
The nuclear power industry has been claiming that it can rescue us
from climate change and the coming energy crisis. Wrong! The
arguments from this failed industry should not be trusted and, in
fact, represent a disastrous misuse of economic resources at such a
critical moment. Their last experiment in science fiction has left
the world neck deep in deadly wastes and economic boondoggles. <snip>
The nuclear fuel cycle is the Achilles heel of the nuclear fission
culture. From the mining of uranium to growing plague of nuclear
wastes, we have watched the attempts to deal with the nuclear
Pandora's box fail.
Full article: http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=304&Itemid=1
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Living City: A Critical Guide
The Nature of Thiings
Airing Thursday Feb. 5, 8 p.m. on CBC-TV
What's wrong with Canada's cities? What's right? Award-winning urban
affairs columnist Christopher Hume takes a cross-country journey to
explore the sustainability, viability and liveability of Canada's
population centres.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/livingcity/
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Mad Cow Sacred Cow
The Lens
Airing Tues. Feb. 3, 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBC Newsworld
A meat-loving man is now afraid of his food and decides to explore
links between the crises in beef, farming and global food production.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/thelens/2009/madcow/
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Just How Corrupted Has American Medicine Become?
Bruce E. Levine
After reading "The Neurontin Legacy -- Marketing through
Misinformation and Manipulation" in the January 8, 2009 issue of the New
England Journal of Medicine, one may conclude that (1) America's prisons
would be put to better use incarcerating drug company executives
instead of
pot smokers, and (2) society may need a return of public scorn via the
pillory for those doctors who are essentially drug-company shills.
<snip>
Exactly what does it take for drug executives to do jail time?
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-e-levine/just-how-corrupted-has-
am_b_15
7145.html>
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SSRI Pushers under Fire
A lengthy article in New Zealand's Scoop.com by Evelyn Pringle
focuses on renewed fall out from the GlaxoSmithKline fraudulent
misrepresentation of the pediatric Paxil trial. An unsealed expert
report by
Dr. Joseph Glenmullen filed in Paxil-related litigation, showed
evidence that the GSK manipulated the numbers on adverse events
related to suicidality in clinical trials back in 1989, to make it
appear that Paxil
did not increase the risk of patients experiencing suicidal behavior
when, in fact, trial subjects on Paxil were eight times more likely
to attempt or commit suicide than patients taking placebos.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0901/S00008.htm
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China blames pollution for surge in birth defects
The government's acknowledgment of the problem is a victory for
environmentalists, who say the rate of defects is highest in coal-
producing regions.
"The statement from the National Population and Family Planning
Commission once again proved that coal burning is not only a climate
killer, but one of the major health hazards in China," Greenpeace
China said in a statement Sunday.
"It was clear that the pollutants caused damage to the DNA," said
Tang Deliang, a coauthor of the study.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-birth-
defects2-2009feb02,0,3417123.story
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