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Important activist opportunity to help make a film about Haiti that goes deep into the country’s history, culture, and food insecurity issues.
Haiti was on people’s map after the horrible earthquake it suffered recently, and then… quickly off it.
Perhaps a much bigger issue for Haiti than this recent earthquake, however, is a food crisis it has [...]
In the spirit of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “War is Over (if you want it)” protests four decades ago, a disparate band of activists is now tackling our dysfunctional corpulent capitalist infrastructure. “Capitalism Is Over! If You Want It: Summer of Tough Love”, is a series of interruptions/actions by artists from around the world in response to the negative impact that capitalism has wrought upon our collective health, well-being and shared environment.
Scores of artists, writers and performers (including a bright pink capitalist pig) have been creating work that highlights the gross inequities and unsustainability of the capitalist model, as well as underscoring the urgent need to construct a more viable economic system that does not poison our planet and disenfranchise billions.
It’s that time of year again…your garden is overflowing and you can’t seem to eat fast enough! The zucchini and basil are multiplying faster than you can pick them and soon the tomatoes will start turning red right before your eyes. It is time to do something about it. A great way to make good [...]
Poor government oversight of an oil pipeline company contributed to a major environmental disaster in Michigan this week.
As workers tackle a 1 million gallon oil spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, citizens are eager to volunteer to help with oil-soaked wildlife. But public officials are discouraging them. According to one report, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and wildlife officials are saying asking volunteers not to to rescue oil-covered wildlife from the river and surrounding areas. “While the sentiment is appreciated, the unauthorized efforts have potential to harm human health, environment & affected wildlife,” Granholm wrote on Facebook Thursday. “Incorrect disposal of wastewater created when cleaning oil-covered wildlife contaminates … groundwater, surface water & drinking water.” What citizens can do is not so clear from the official pronouncements.
Editor’s note: This is the sixth installment of Sanctuary City, a fictional apocalyptic serial that appears regularly in Ecolocalizer. Read the previous chapter here.
The sun’s rays were beginning to break through the river mist as Haskal J. Lonesome finished digging his way to the edge of Beaver, Washington. For several days he had traversed the moss-draped rain forests, and even floated for part of his journey on a broken branch, as it drifted for miles down the waters of the Sol Duc River. Haskal’s thick moist pelt shivered in anticipation when he finally entered the perimeter of the village.
As we first reported yesterday over at FailDrill, massive geysers of oil spewed into the air and ocean in Barataria Bay on the coast of Louisiana on Tuesday, after a tugboat ran into an offshore drilling wellhead. The area is part of a network of ecologically sensitive estuaries and bayous that have been already battling toxic waves of oil from BP’s Gulf spill. At what point does it become clear that the continued pursuit of petroleum is just a really bad idea?
Last week Louisiana Judge Martin Feldman, who recently inexplicably overturned the Obama Administration’s offshore drilling moratorium, issued a statement flatly refusing to recuse himself from this case, even though he is heavily invested in offshore drilling and British Petroleum. Dr. Rachel Maddow highlights this, as well as just how incredibly pervasive the influence of the massive petroleum industry is within our government, academia and society. She clearly explains that we must fundamentally shift how we look at energy and what changes we desperately need to make today:
“The oil industry is the most profitable industry in the history of human enterprise, and as such it is basically the most influential too. Even if you look at the huge cost BP has incurred so far in cleaning up the disaster in the Gulf, it reached 4 billion dollars this week, that is still less than a third of BP’s profits from last year alone. If you look at all of the oil that has spilled into the Gulf of Mexico so far, as much as 184 million gallons of oil, you should know that all of that oil, everything in total that has spilled into the Gulf so far over this past 100 days, every bit of it represents a quarter of the oil we use in America in one day.”
Health impacts on children linked to pollution are estimated to cost billions annually.
One of the hardest-hit state economies in the nation, Michigan could save up to 1.5% of its gross domestic product annually by protecting children from environmental exposures, according to a new report released Monday by the Michigan Network for Children’s Environmental Health. Entitled The Price of Pollution: Cost Estimates of Environment-Related Childhood Disease in Michigan, the report examines direct and indirect costs for four childhood diseases that are linked in part or whole to environmental toxins.
The report estimates that the environmentally attributable costs of lead poisoning, asthma, pediatric cancer, and neuro-developmental disorders in Michigan is $5.85 billion annually with a range of $3.65 to $6.68 billion. Read the rest of this entry »
In an ongoing effort to help strengthen our local food system and eat more sustainably, we recently subscribed to OlyKraut’s seasonal CSA. Now every Thursday we get a new delivery of fresh organic locally-made sauerkraut deliciousness from the burgeoning women-owned company. So far the spicy curry kraut is my favorite, but there are still many different flavors that we haven’t tried yet, including spring nettle, spicy garlic and sea vegetable kraut. Supporting the local economy never tasted so good.
OlyKraut’s beautiful label illustration was created by the brilliant Olympia-based artist Nikki McClure.
Over-prescribed and under-consumed, prescription drugs are generating both environmental and law enforcement problems. A national take-back day September 25 is intended to heighten awareness of this important issue.
The growing national volume of unused prescription drugs is prompting the nation’s first drug take-back day September 25. When flushed down toilets — the usual management choice for many health care facilities and households — the drugs can pollute drinking water and may affect fish and other aquatic life. But national drug policies and regulations have thwarted many community take-back efforts.
Editor’s note: This is the fifth installment of Sanctuary City, a fictional apocalyptic serial that appears regularly in Ecolocalizer. Read the previous chapter here.
Each day was hotter than the one before it. Blistering new temperature records were broken every week, as the parched planet, blanketed in increasingly thick layers of pollution, continued to swelter and bake. Clean water sources evaporated and food was scarce. Drought ravaged the land and displaced billions.
Some people turned ugly very quickly. Racist scapegoating flourished; a few states began enacting hateful separatist immigration legislation, banning entry to anyone from another state or region. Residents had to constantly carry current citizenship papers; anyone found without proper identification was immediately sent to the work colonies in the scorching desert desolation of southern California or the contaminated Gulf Coast, never to be heard from again.
Minnesota anglers get out early to fish along the north shore of Lake Superior. Contaminants in some Superior sport fish contain high levels of some persistent organic pollutants.
More than 40 years after the first human health advisories were issued for fish consumption because of Great Lakes toxic contaminants, concerns remain. In at least one of the five Great Lakes, Erie, levels of mercury in fish are actually increasing after years of decline, according to a report publicized this week. Toxaphene levels in Lake Superior fish also persist at levels that could damage human health, although the primary route of contamination has changed since 1970.
Direct industrial chemical dumping contributed to health concerns then. Today’s primary source is often the atmosphere. Chemical contaminants can travel thousands of miles through the atmosphere before falling out and polluting the aquatic food chain. Another source is thought to be non-native zebra and quagga mussels and round goby, which can make contaminants in sediments available in the food chain.
Ecolocalizer covers important issues related to sustainability, local activism and our world. Our topics range from water, recycling and clean energy, to mass transportation, food production and political change. We all are connected, and everything is viewed through the lens of local action.
AP Photo by Patrick Semansky
Health impacts on children linked to pollution are estimated to cost billions annually.
Minnesota anglers get out early to fish along the north shore of Lake Superior. Contaminants in some Superior sport fish contain high levels of some persistent organic pollutants. 
