Bees have been dying off around the world for more than a decade, a phenomenon known as “Colony Collapse Disorder,” or CCD. Each year commercial beekeepers have reported unprecedented losses. Most fruits, many vegetables, almonds, alfalfa and many other crops are dependent upon bees for pollination. Close to a third of the U.S. food supply requires the common honeybee in order to survive.
While much has been made over the “mystery” surrounding CCD, the problem began shortly after neurotoxic pesticides that are known to be particularly toxic to honey bees took over the global insecticide market — neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid and clothianidin are used as seed treatments in hundreds of crops. CCD began in the U.S. shortly after these insecticides were allowed for use by the EPA — and the EPA admits that “pesticide poisoning” is a likely cause of the problem.
According to the Pesticide Action Network:
“Governments in Italy, Germany, France and elsewhere have already taken action against neonicotinoids to protect their pollinators. And beekeepers there are reporting recovery. Yet regulators in the U.S. remain paralyzed, apparently captive to industry-funded science and a regulatory framework that finds chemicals innocent until proven guilty.”
In 2010, advisory panelists told the FDA that dental amalgam should not be used in children and pregnant women. Not a single one of the panelists agreed with the FDA’s eventual decision to permit amalgam use in children and pregnant women.
More recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its final report on dental amalgam. In the report, WHO committed itself to “to work for reduction of mercury and … facilitate the work for a switch in use of dental materials”. The report states that amalgam raises general health concerns and releases a significant amount of mercury. It also notes that alternatives to amalgam are readily available.
According to the WHO report:
“When released from dental amalgam use into the environment through these pathways, mercury is transported globally and deposited. Mercury releases may then enter the human food chain especially via fish consumption … Adhesive resin materials allow for less tooth destruction and, as a result, a longer survival of the tooth itself.”
Bees have been dying off around the world for more than a decade, a phenomenon known as “Colony Collapse Disorder,” or CCD. Each year commercial beekeepers have reported unprecedented losses. Most fruits, many vegetables, almonds, alfalfa and many other crops are dependent upon bees for pollination. Close to a third of the U.S. food supply requires the common honeybee in order to survive.
While much has been made over the “mystery” surrounding CCD, the problem began shortly after neurotoxic pesticides that are known to be particularly toxic to honey bees took over the global insecticide market — neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid and clothianidin are used as seed treatments in hundreds of crops. CCD began in the U.S. shortly after these insecticides were allowed for use by the EPA — and the EPA admits that “pesticide poisoning” is a likely cause of the problem.
According to the Pesticide Action Network:
“Governments in Italy, Germany, France and elsewhere have already taken action against neonicotinoids to protect their pollinators. And beekeepers there are reporting recovery. Yet regulators in the U.S. remain paralyzed, apparently captive to industry-funded science and a regulatory framework that finds chemicals innocent until proven guilty.”
Many nutritionists are currently recommending increased intake of fish and fish oils to raise consumption of omega-3 fats. But can the collapsing global fisheries support current, let alone increased, use of fish and fish oils?
There is little doubt about the ongoing worldwide collapse of fish stocks. Despite increasing fishing effort, global catches have been in decline since the late 1980s, and the number of collapsed stocks has been increasing exponentially since 1950. Projected forward, these trends could imply the collapse of all commercial fish stocks by the middle of the twenty-first century.
According to Primal Wisdom:
“In short, the drive to eat more fish and fish oils will only accelerate the rate of destruction of marine ecosystems … Perhaps people eating increased amounts of seafood will suffer the same fate as ocean fish. Seafoods commonly contain chemical contaminants that appear to impair fertility, including mercury, PCBs, PEs, and others.”
Household washing machines appear to be a major source of “microplastic” pollution. Microplastic refers to tiny bits of polyester and acrylic that have been detected on ocean shorelines worldwide.
Microplastic debris in marine environments has raised health and safety concerns. The plastic contain potentially harmful ingredients which go into the bodies of animals, and could be transferred to people who consume fish.
According to Science Daily:
“[Scientists] found … microplastic on shores in densely populated areas, and identified an important source — wastewater from household washing machines. They point out that more than 1,900 fibers can rinse off of a single garment during a wash cycle, and these fibers look just like the microplastic debris on shorelines. The problem, they say, is likely to intensify in the future”.
Some scientists are estimating that the chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) will soon result in 50 percent of all babies born worldwide having at least one birth defect. POPs include a variety of pesticides, industrial-use chemicals and compounds released from the burning of fossil fuels.
A new study is the first to directly link placental levels of multiple POPs to neural tube defects.
According to Prevent Disease:
“POPs released to the environment have been shown to travel vast distances from their original source. Due to their chemical properties, many POPs are semi-volatile and insoluble. These compounds are therefore unable to transport directly through the environment. The indirect routes include attachment to particulate matter, and through the food web. The chemicals’ semi-volatility allows them to travel long distances through the atmosphere before being deposited. Thus POPs can be found all over the world, including in areas where they have never been used and remote regions such as the middle of oceans and Antarctica.”
So-called “super weeds” that are resistant to herbicide are boosting costs and cutting crop yields for U.S. farmers. With world food stores already strained, diminished crop production is a serious problem.
The Monsanto corporation made billions of dollars through sales of Roundup herbicide and “Roundup Ready” crops genetically modified to tolerate treatment with Roundup. But the products have begun to cause rampant resistance among weeds.
According to Scientific American:
“Last month, representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and the Weed Science Society of America toured the Midwest crop belt to see for themselves the impact of rising weed resistance. ‘It is only going to get worse,’ said Lee Van Wychen, director of science policy at the Weed Science Society of America.”
There are new laundry detergents that can wash most clothes in cold water – but many people are sticking to hot water, even though it wastes energy. In North America and Europe, the idea that all clothes can be washed in cold water is relatively new, although it is routine in Japan.
About 75 percent of the energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions from washing a load of laundry come from heating the water.
According to the New York Times:
“Tide Coldwater was introduced in 2005. Several competitors followed with their own cold-water formulas, including Purex from Henkel, Wisk from Sun Products and Biokleen from a small company by the same name … Consumer Reports ranked Tide Coldwater among its top detergents last year”.
An interview with Lierre Keith, ex-vegan and author of the book The Vegetarian Myth, reveals the reasoning behind her belief that a vegetarian diet is not the answer to save our ailing planet.
Lierre argues that vegetarians and vegans have been led astray – agriculture, she says, is the most destructive thing humans have done to the planet, requiring the wholesale destruction of entire ecosystems.
According to Keith, from an interview conducted by the Matador Network:
“… [T]he planet is being destroyed by the social arrangement called civilization. And agriculture is the activity at the base of civilization … Yet the people who should care the most — environmentalists — don’t even identify agriculture as a problem. … [And a] vegetarian diet — and especially a vegan diet — does not provide for the long-term maintenance and repair of the human body … There is a whole generation of us here who believed in it and tried it until we did permanent damage to our bodies. It was all for nothing. It’s pointless suffering.”
To read the full interview, you can click on the link below.
A common weed killer that has been the subject of controversy for years appears to be causing harmful changes in soil and is potentially hindering yields of genetically-modified crops that farmers are cultivating, according to a microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. The news was reported in Science American in early August.
“Repeated use of the chemical glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup herbicide, impacts the root structure of plants, and 15 years of research indicates that the chemical could be causing fungal root disease,” said microbiologist Bob Kremer.
Problems with the weed killer have become more noticeable as farmers increase their use of Roundup Ready crops such as corn and soybeans. One of the biggest problems currently is spreading weed resistance to Roundup, Kremer told Scientific American. Other research shows that yields from the genetically altered crops aren’t any better than regular crops, Kremer said.
Concerns about Monsanto’s herbicide, Roundup, are at an all-time high. But according to a new report by Earth Open Source, one of the biggest concerns may be something that you’re totally in the dark about. Birth defects are linked to exposure to weed killers like this, the authors say, and it’s time to take action before it’s too late:
“Scientific research published in 2010 showed that Roundup and the chemical on which it is based, glyphosate, cause birth defects in frogs and chicken embryos at dilutions much lower than used in agricultural and garden spraying.”
They also cause endocrine disruption, damage to DNA, reproductive and developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity, and cancer – but regulators are ignoring the evidence, Earth Open Source says.
Concerns about Monsanto’s herbicide, Roundup, are at an all-time high. But according to a new report by Earth Open Source, one of the biggest concerns may be something that you’re totally in the dark about. Birth defects are linked to exposure to weed killers like this, the authors say, and it’s time to take action before it’s too late:
“Scientific research published in 2010 showed that Roundup and the chemical on which it is based, glyphosate, cause birth defects in frogs and chicken embryos at dilutions much lower than used in agricultural and garden spraying.”
They also cause endocrine disruption, damage to DNA, reproductive and developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity, and cancer – but regulators are ignoring the evidence, Earth Open Source says.
As proof of the dangers of cell phones and other electronic devices mounts, industry has responded with conflicting evidence that shows otherwise. So who do you believe? A new study published in Bioelectromagnetics reinforces the idea that mobile phone emissions do, indeed, have damaging effects on brain function, including sleep activity.
“This indicates that previous negative results are not strong evidence for lack of an effect and, given the far-reaching implications of mobile phone research, we may need to rethink the interpretation of results and the manner in which research is conducted in this field,” the study authors wrote.