June 2007
No to GMOs, No to GM Science
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho exposes the scandals of GM science that promotes GM crops in the face of damning evidence for health and the environment, and warns that further indulgence in GMOs will severely damage our chances of surviving global warming
On first encountering GM science
I am a scientist who loves science, and would have happily remained [...]
THE NEW YORK TIMES IGNORES INFORMATION ON DANGERS OF SUNSCREENS
On June 19, the New York Times published an article “Saving Young Skin From the Sun’s Perils,” by its regular columnist Jane Brody. Brody warned that sunscreen “is a must for everyone starting at age six months … and should be reapplied every two hours,” especially for children. However, Brody is unaware of the dangers [...]
Wonky UK Organic Carrots
Around 50% of all food that is grown on UK farms is wasted somewhere between the field and our plates. For vegetables, most of this waste happens because of the incredibly strict specifications that supermarkets now impose. The latest casualties of this culture of waste are Prince Charles and my boss at the Soil Association, [...]
Racial Alchemy: Bioethics and the Skin Tone Gene
Since the 2005 discovery that the SLC24A5 gene variant plays a sizable role in human skin pigmentation, scientists have become increasingly intrigued by the possibility of genetically manipulating skin color. Curiously, however, this research is going on with little mention of the dreaded “R” word: race.
A recent New Scientist article, for example, expends almost 3,000 [...]
CORN-BASED ETHANOL ADDS TO GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS
In the past 12 months, the global corn price has doubled.
Because corn is the most common animal feed, this affects the price of milk, cheese, eggs, meat, as well as corn-based sweeteners and cereals.
In the U.S., milk prices have nearly doubled.
Butter prices in Europe have spiked by 40%.
Pork prices in China are up 20%.
In Mexico [...]
HELP SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING: NON-PROFIT OFFERS FREE PERSONAL CARBON IMPACT CALCULATOR
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, June 28, 2007 - A solution to global warming is right under our feet and we can make it personal,” says Peter Holter, COO of Holistic Management International (HMI). The non-profit uses natural methods to restore land, improve soil health, reverse desertification and improve biodiversity. The goal is to greatly increase the soil’s [...]
Physicians for Human Rights - US regime of psychological torture
Salon.com has just published new revelations on the roots of the US regime of psychological torture. In “The CIA’s Torture Teachers,” national correspondent Mark Benjamin writes about the “growing evidence of high-level coordination between the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military in developing abusive interrogation techniques used on terrorist suspects.”
After the Sept. 11 attacks, [the CIA [...]
GM Contamination At 21 km and Farther No Co-Existence Possible
Researchers find GM pollen cross-pollinated non-GM plants at
21 km and predict much worse. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
GM contamination rampant
Everyone knows by now that GM contamination of non-GM crops
and produce is inevitable. There have been142 contamination
incidents recorded worldwide since 1997, according to the GM
Contamination Register [1]. This is an underestimate, as not
every shipment of non-GM produce has [...]
PCHR Calls for Keeping Civil Society out of the Current Crisis
PCHR is gravely concerned by the latest decree issues by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas regarding the registration of civil institutions and organizations. The Centre views this decree as a first step in a crackdown on civil society organizations with the aim of closure or restricting its work during the state of emergency in the Occupied [...]
GE Brassica Trials - High Court Papers Filed
After much consideration papers will be filed today in relation to errors in law relating to approvals for field trials of GE Brassica. GE Free NZ (in food and environment) has decided that flawed decision making cannot go unscrutinised. Unfortunately there is no other legal redress for those making public submissions to challenge what appears to be [...]
The G(e)nomes of Zurich: Civil Society Calls for Urgent Controls on Synthetic Life
Scientists and industrialists in the controversial new field of synthetic biology (building life-forms from scratch) are meeting in Zurich, Switzerland this week amidst claims that the world’s first entirely human-made organism may be only weeks away from creation. Swiss and international civil society groups are calling for swift action to control this technology but the [...]
EU stands up to US pressure – unfazed by genetically modified ‘Herculex’
Brussels, June 25 2007 - EU member states today stood up to intense
pressure from the US and refused to allow a new strain of genetically
modified maize to be imported into the EU. The move has been welcomed by
Friends of the Earth Europe. [1]
European Commission documents show US pressure to ignore risk assessment
concerns and push GMOs [...]
Desalination: Option or distraction for a thirsty world?
Gland, Switzerland - Making drinking water out of sea water is a growing trend but a potential threat to the environment that could also exacerbate climate change, says WWF in a global review of desalination plants worldwide.
The WWF review, Making water: Desalination - option or distraction for a thirsty world?, shows that some of the [...]
NZ Prime Minister loses the plot over climate change
Auckland, New Zealand - Prime Minister Helen Clark has lost her way in the climate debate and is making bizarrely incorrect and misguided statements on the subject, says Greenpeace.
“I am shell-shocked that the leader of New Zealand is so confused over the biggest threat that this country faces,” said Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Vanessa Atkinson.
“And this [...]
Council of Europe: Amnesty International calls for action against renditions
Europe’s political leaders must take a stand against rendition and secret detention, wherever they occur. The facts have been established over and over again, yet the decision-making bodies of the Council of Europe and the European Union have yet to publicly condemn the US’s secret rendition and detention programme, much less demonstrate any commitment to [...]
SRI LANKA: The situation of torture worsens in 2007
On the International day for the elimination of torture the special consideration of the extremely harsh conditions prevailing in Sri Lanka relating to the observance of human rights needs to be stressed. Abductions, forced disappearances, killing of persons after arrest, torture and other gross abuses of human rights are accompanied by the failure of the [...]
Organic Exemption Confirmed But Spina Bifida Cause Not Addressed.
Soil & Health is celebrating that organic flour millers and bakers do not have to add folic acid to their products although nearly all other bread in Australia and New Zealand is to have folic acid mandatorily added, following the Australasian food Ministers final decision.
“The integrity of organic products has been protected by this decision, [...]
Forest & Bird welcomes protection of high country lakes
Forest & Bird has welcomed the Government’s announcement that it will improve protection of landscapes around high country lakes.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter and Land Information Minister David Parker announced today that changes will be made to the tenure review process to better protect landscapes around high country lakes.
Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell said [...]
New study from Pilots for 9/11 Truth: No Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon
Pilots for 9/11 Truth obtained black box data from the government under the Freedom of Information Act for AA Flight 77, which The 9/11 Report claims hit the Pentagon. Analysis of the data contradicts the official account in direction, approach, and altitude. The plane was too high to hit lamp posts and would have flown [...]
THE BURGEONING GLOBAL MOVEMENT: A RESPONSE TO KATE DAVIES
I so appreciate Kate Davies’ thoughtfulness and enthusiasm [in Rachel's #909, responding to my article from Orion.] Her writing demonstrates a deep knowledge of the inner and outer workings of social change organizations in the United States. I want to respond to her points, however, because I believe she simplifies a book (and a social [...]
Organic consumers shouldn’t pay for GM contamination – representatives of 70 organic companies tell Miliband
Today (Thursday 21 June), a delegation representing 70 organic businesses [1], with a combined turnover of about Ł950,000,000, urged the Secretary of State for the Environment not to make organic consumers pay for GM contamination. The Government currently proposes to allow up to 0.9% GM in organic food without the GM companies being liable for [...]
Emergency Motion on Protecting the Honeybee
Honeybees have been disappearing worldwide. 1 Across the United States, beekeepers have been losing 30 to 90% or more of colonies in a “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) that’s causing huge economic losses not only to beekeepers but also to fruit and vegetable growers. CCD has been reported from Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and [...]
Intergovernmental scientific body fires shot across geoengineer’s bow
An intergovernmental scientific committee of the London Convention on ocean dumping agreed, earlier today, at its closing plenary in Spain, to a tough consensus “statement of concern” warning that iron fertilization of ocean surfaces - as an attempt at commercial carbon sequestration - has environmental risks and lacks scientific evidence of effectiveness.
The statement was triggered [...]
Osama bin Laden May Have Chartered Saudi Flight Out of U.S. after 9/11
Just in case you weren’t yet convinced the federal government may have overlooked a few things in its investigation of the 9/11 attacks, check this out:
On Wednesday, Judicial Watch released new documents from the FBI related to the “expeditious departure” (as the FBI puts it) of Saudi nationals, including members of the bin Laden family, [...]
A RESPONSE TO PAUL HAWKEN’S ‘TO REMAKE THE WORLD’
Hooray for Paul Hawken! His article “To Remake the World” in Rachel’s
News #908 and his new book “Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement
in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw it Coming” are
extremely timely and thought-provoking.
Hawken has put his finger on a global phenomenon that has been growing
since the 1999 protests against [...]
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