Category Archives: Abuse of public trust

Environmental abuse by major corporations

Abuse of public trust, All, Energy, Environment, Health, Justice, Protection

West VA gas explosion begs the question: are pipelines safe?

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Bloomberg reports that the fire that burned up a four lane interstate highway and melted houses near Sissonville, West Virginia yesterday on December 11, was caused by, “Natural gas escaping from a pipeline owned by NiSource Inc. (NI) … near the Lanham Compressor Station on the Columbia Gas Transmission system, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Charleston.” The company owns and manages fracking operations in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

CBS News reports, “Flames shot some 100 feet in the air and hopped the main north-south arterial Interstate 77, as emergency responders scrambled to cap the ruptured gas line … and bring the blaze under control.” See reports and updates on WSAZ.

The Charleston Gazette offers insights into the questions about gas pipeline safety. Two obvious issues are lack of government oversight for certain types of pipes, and a decline in safety as pipes age, with one source reporting that over half of the pipes in the US are over 50 years old:

…many gaps remain in the oversight of the nearly 2.5 million miles of pipelines that crisscross the United States … concerns about pipeline safety have grown, amid a boom in natural gas drilling in several states and in the wake of a string of serious accidents … the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned that many so-called “gathering” pipelines, which transport gas to processing facilities, escape federal scrutiny altogether.

Questions about pipeline safety recently received national media scrutiny from the public interest journalism organization ProPublica, from The New York Times and from the Philadelphia Inquirer … GAO report … said the federal pipeline safety office does not regulate most gathering pipelines in the United States, based on their location in remote areas … “out of the more than 200,000 estimated miles of natural gas gathering pipelines, PHMSA regulates roughly 20,000 miles,” the GAO said. “Similarly, of the 30,000 to 40,000 estimated miles of hazardous liquid gathering pipelines, PHMSA regulates about 4,000 miles.”

Two big extraction initiatives currently being pushed by the US fuel industry are fracking, which removes natural gas trapped inside of shale rock formations using a cocktail of highly toxic liquid which becomes waste which is later injected into the ground and has contaminated water supplies and caused earthquakes in several communities; and the “Tar Sands”/XL Pipeline project which calls for extracting oil by burning arid land and selling the oil to foreign countries after piping it from Canada to California. Both call for piping explosive and environmentally threatening fuels across the country. Advocates for public health, community safety, and environment sustainability ask why the U.S. government does not require that clean energy sources take the place of these dangerous and dirty fuel operations that destroy land and health.

Emerging evidence links injection of fracking waste to a dramatic increase in earthquake frequency. A new U.S. Geological Survey reports that in the 10 year period between 2001-2011, 95 quakes occurred in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado although in the prior 36 year period only 3 quakes took place. The study cites increases in oil and gas industry activity and the Denver Post quotes Justin Rubenstein, co-author of the report:

“This is a societal risk you need to be considering … At the moment, we’re the only people who have done this work, and our evidence is pretty conclusive.

The Times-Call reports that at a Boulder County hearing on fracking, school children members of Earth Guardians said,

“We are standing up for our future … Protect us from the dangers of fracking.”

“We deserve a fighting chance,” said Zapporah Abraham Paiss, a 13-year-old Centennial Middle School student. “With vibrant water, soil and plants,” said Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a 12-year-old Centennial School student.

Abuse of public trust, All, Energy, Justice, Protection
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Brawny Paper TowelsGreen Drinks friend Natalie B writes, urging us to:

LEAVE THESE PRODUCTS ON THE SHELF!
Did you know that the manufacturer of these products gives financial support to:

  • Alec (American Legislative Exchange Council) that supports the “Stand Your Ground Laws” and the Tea Party
  • Wisconsin Gov. Scott who is a union buster
  • Funding voter suppression bills

If you are middle and working class in America these products are not your friends. Leave them on the shelf!

  • Angel Soft toilet paper
  • Brawny paper towels
  • Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
  • Mardi Gras napkins and towels
  • Quilted Northern toilet paper
  • Soft ‘n Gentle toilet paper
  • Sparkle napkins
  • Vanity fair napkins
  • Zee napkins
  • Construction Products
  • Georgia-Pacific paper products and envelopes
  • Dense Armor
  • Densglass
  • Dryguard
  • FibreStrong
  • FireDefender
  • Flexrock
  • ToughArmor
    Textiles
  • Antron Carpet Fiber
  • Comforel
  • Coolmax
  • Cordura
  • Dacron
  • Lycra
  • Polarguard
  • Polyshield
  • SolarMax
  • Sommerelle
  • Stainmaster Carpet
  • Tactel
  • Thermolite
    Gasoline
  • Chevron
  • Conoco
  • Union
  • Union 76

More information at treehugger.com

Abuse of public trust, Health, Justice, Protection, Water

Terrible destruction: Appalachian mountaintop removal mining

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While residents of New Jersey and Pennsylvania deal with the health threat presented by fracking, people in the Appalachias continue to wage their long and mighty struggle to preserve their health and economy in the face of the ongoing destruction visited upon them by mountaintop mining, a practice scientists have called, “pervasive and irreversable.”

The New York times describes mountaintop removal as

…a radical form of strip mining that has left over 2,000 miles of streams buried and over 500 mountains destroyed. According to several recent studies, people living near surface mining sites have a 50 percent greater risk of fatal cancer and a 42 percent greater risk of birth defects than the general population.

Foto by Damon Winter/The New York Times
Ryan Massey, 7, shows his caps. Dentists near Charleston, W.Va., say pollutants in drinking water have damaged residents’ teeth. Nationwide, polluters have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times.

When Robert Kennedy, Jr. came to Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey and spoke about his fight to halt this practice, my younger son, Ari, a high school junior and I were there to hear him. Kennedy is an environmental lawyer, and years ago he fought to stop mountaintop removal mining on the premise that it violates the Clean Water Act. Kennedy won his court battle, but lawyers for the opposition filed a lawsuit disputing the meaning of the word “fill” relative to the practice of dumping left-over sludge into streams and rivers in that region, claiming that the sludge did not “fill” up the waterways since there was still water in them after the dumping occurred, and got permission to resume their destruction of nature and of people’s lives.

The Obama Administration is working to improved the lives of Appalachia’s residents by establishing a ban on mountaintop mining, but, big monied interests have the sympathy of the courts. On July 31, a judge overthrew new protections put in place by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and ruled that mountaintop mining operations they had blocked, could resume. This type of favoritism is not new.

Robert Kennedy Jr.’s fight agains the devastation

The Appalachian Center reviews The Last Mountain, a documentary featuring Kennedy which addresses this issue

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – the best national advocate the anti-mountaintop removal movement has – is an effective narrator and driving force throughout the film. He puts the destruction and willful violation of laws meant to curb such environmental destruction into passionate, thoughtful words.

For instance, standing atop a “reclaimed” mountain with mine safety consultant Jack Spadaro, Kennedy looks around at a “forest” that is nothing but scrub grass and picks up a chunk of rock that’s supposed to count as topsoil. He says, “The extraordinary thing about this is how many lies they have to tell to make this whole fiction work. They have to say this is a forest. They have to say this is soil. And the amazing thing is how many people believe them.”

Kennedy was also powerful when addressing one of the key areas of conflict among the residents of Appalachia: the notion that protecting the environment must come at the sacrifice of jobs. As Kennedy says in a discussion with Coal Association President Bill Raney, most of the coal jobs in Appalachia have been lost to mechanization, not to environmental regulations. Coal companies are extracting as much coal as ever with a fraction of the work force.

His explanation of idea of “the commons” and how the notion that America’s water and environment are owned by us all has been eroded is also very compelling.

Congressional Bills and The Law

Congressman Steve Rothman wrote to me about bills in Congress on both sides of the mountaintop mining issue. Democrats want to stop it, but Republicans want to prohibit any regulations of the coal mining industry. When people tell you there’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans, remember this fact. Rothman writes,
Like you, I believe that communities need to be protected from hazardous emissions and destructive practices that jeopardize their health and that of the surrounding ecosystem. As you know, H.R. 5959 was introduced by Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on June 19, 2012. If enacted, this legislation would require a study of the potential harm of mountaintop removal coal mining on the health of individuals in surrounding communities. If mountaintop mining is found to be harmful to health, a moratorium would be placed on mountaintop mining until it was deemed to be safe. This bill is currently pending before the House Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure and Energy and Commerce. The environment and the people of the Appalachians need to be protected from careless mining practices.

You may also be interested to know that, H.R. 3049, the so-called “Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act,” was introduced by Representative Bill Johnson (R-OH) on November 14, 2011. If enacted, this irresponsible bill would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act to prohibit the Department of Interior from regulating the coal mining industry, overturning 35 years of established precedent and putting our health and waterways at risk. I strongly oppose H.R. 3049 and any other legislation that would work to weaken the ability of federal agencies to regulate polluting energy industries and toxic run off into our rivers and lakes. This legislation is pending before the House Committee on Natural Resources.

Abuse of public trust, All, Food, Health, Justice, Protection

Diabetes kills. Support NYC’s huge sugar drinks ban.

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I’m really happy Mayor Bloomberg is pushing to ban on huge sugary drinks in New York City. Publicity about this alone will increase consciousness about just HOW bad these drinks are. They’re killing people! Stress on the body’s insulin producing system and being overweight are important factors contributing to the onset of Type 2 diabetes and sugary drinks are big contributors to obesity and exaggerated sugar consumption.

Although designer healthy food is annoyingly expensive and the elitist marketing scheme around it totally disgusts me, don’t let the marketers fool you: deals for good food can be found, or made, with a little effort. Growing some of your own fruits and veggies is one way to go. My family has a community garden plot that gives us fresh veggies all summer long, and we are learning to can and pickle extra produce to see us through colder months. A friend of ours grows edible plants in the windows of his home. A truly healthy diet is a low-cost diet too, since the ingredients for slow-cooked meals costs relatively little compared to processed foods, which anyway are unhealthy from the get-go. We think that we’re in such a big rush to get (where exactly?) that we have no time to cook and good food. Let’s not be rushing off to an early grave. We can dial down the speed of our lives, eat well in the company of friends, family and work colleagues: and change our habits, lives, health and futures, forever.

As one Facebook friend pointed out today, there are plenty of yummy foods out there. Making healthy choices means getting used to different tastes, not less delicious ones.

Diabetes today is an epidemic in poor urban neighborhoods

Harvard professor Frank Hu writes for the American Diabetes Association

… studies and randomized clinical trials show that type 2 diabetes is largely preventable through diet and lifestyle modifications. Translating these findings into practice, however, requires fundamental changes in public policies, the food and built environments, and health systems. To curb the escalating diabetes epidemic, primary prevention through promotion of a healthy diet and lifestyle should be a global public policy priority.

CBS news reports, “Since 1980, obesity in children has almost tripled to more than 12 million … Only 17 percent of students get the recommended one hour of moderately vigorous physical activity a day.” And the Daily News tells us, a “study published … in the (medical journal) Pediatrics, found that the percentage of adolescents age 12 to 19 with Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes nearly tripled from 9% in 1999 to 23% in 2008.”

And it’s an intentionally created epidemic

Are there unscrupulous businessmen out there planning to make sure children get less exercise and worse food in school, who are looking at the best ways to addict our kids to fat-making fast food and insulin blowing/tooth rotting sugary drinks so they will become diabetics at an early age? You can bet your bottom dollar those people are out there en force; and also that they’re extremely good at their jobs. The goal? To make very rich the pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies selling the medicines and paraphernalia diabetics need: monitoring supplies, leg stockings, wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, special shoes and hospital beds. The market is vast, and we haven’t yet considered the revenue this disease produces for the medical professionals and institutions who treat it.

In These Times author Susan J. Douglas writes

Type 2 diabetes is caused by excess weight, lack of exercise and poor diet, and is directly related to poverty … Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness and kidney failure in the country; it often leads to amputation. It’s the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and costs us $132 billion a year. And it’s preventable, save for the enormous financial interests involved in its preservation. “Bad Blood” brought together three American scandals–poverty, our morally bankrupt for-profit health care system and the practices of our nation’s fast food joints.

Combined, they make up an illness-industrial complex, in which big players in the food industry, insurance industry and medical establishment profit wildly. But they need more raw materials to keep them going, more fodder for their assembly lines. Poor people of color are that fodder, and very few of the rest of America seems to care.

Abuse of public trust, Education, Environment, Food, Justice, Protection

How major corporations control universities

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From May 11, 2012 article

Academic research is often dictated by corporations that endow professorships, give money to universities, and put their executives on education boards.

Here’s what happens when corporations begin to control education.

“When I approached professors to discuss research projects addressing organic agriculture in farmer’s markets, the first one told me that ‘no one cares about people selling food in parking lots on the other side of the train tracks,’” said a PhD student at a large land-grant university who did not wish to be identified. “My academic adviser told me my best bet was to write a grant for Monsanto or the Department of Homeland Security to fund my research on why farmer’s markets were stocked with ‘black market vegetables’ that ‘are a bioterrorism threat waiting to happen.’ It was communicated to me on more than one occasion throughout my education that I should just study something Monsanto would fund rather than ideas to which I was deeply committed. I ended up studying what I wanted, but received no financial support, and paid for my education out of pocket.”

http://www.alternet.org/story/155375/how_corporations_like_monsanto_have_hijacked_higher_education

Abuse of public trust, Environment, Health, Justice, Nature, Protection, Water

Tell the EPA to clean up Ford’s mess in Ringwood

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Journalist Jan Barry started the research on the tragic and intentional pollution of a housing development which was home to members of a tribe of Ramapough Indians in Ringwood, NJ, and collaborated with HBO to create Mann v. Ford, a moving documentary about the crushing impact this has had on the health of tribe members as well as the water source for the entire region. The site was prematurely de-listed by the EPA from its Superfund cleanup status, and several years later became the first site to be listed for a second time. Ford has resisted taking responsibility for the poisonous effects on tribe members of the toxic paint sludge it trucked in under cover of nightfall every day for many years, and has also resisted funding the cost of cleanup.

Make sure the EPA knows you support the clean-up of the Ramapough Indian’s by (Action 1) signing the Change.org petition and (Action 2) sending a letter to the EPA (download sample below).

Action 1

Sign the Change.org petition

The United States Environmental Protection Agency will soon decide how Ford Motor Company should clean up the 500-acre Ringwood (New Jersey) Superfund Site, where Ford Motor Company dumped tens of thousands of tons of paint sludge into old abandoned mine shafts, leaching landfills, the lawns of the Ramapough Mountain Indians, and the very trails of Ringwood State Park five decades ago.

All options are on the table – from doing absolutely nothing to controversially capping the sludge in place and leaving it there forever to completely removing all of the toxic waste. The people in Upper Ringwood are still suffering from devastating health impacts, staggering rates of premature deaths, rare cancers, and autoimmune diseases believed to be linked to the witches’ brew of toxins left in their homes, yards and community.

Astronomically high levels of lead and dioxin have been found in attics and yards, while the neighboring mines – including those in Ringwood State Park – sit just upstream from the drinking water source for one to two million people.

Action 2

Send a letter to the EPA! Be part of the EPA’s public comment process by customizing this sample letter and sending it to the EPA’s New York Office (the address is at the top of the letter). Just do it by the May 18 deadline! The original letter, with minor changes, was found on the Edison Wetlands Watch site but no author attribution appeared together with it, so I don’t know who to credit with its creation.

Resources
Mann v. Ford Facebook Page
Edison Wetlands Watch has good information too but it’s on a poorly coded web page which makes it very difficult to access.

Abuse of public trust, Food, Health, Protection

I just can’t buy my sons poisonous cereal any more

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Your lady friend made the big mistake of looking at the ingredients list of her son’s favorite cereals today and afterwards COULD NOT bring myself to purchase a single box. Corn syrup is one of the first/main ingredients listed and that stuff is DEATH. But oh boy, my sons love cereal.

I walked down the aisle muttering to myself about how bad corn syrup is for people, and then spotted some of that healthy-looking stuff right at the end of the aisle, marked half price! I checked the labels. Yep! Real sweeteners like honey, molasses, sugar and no corn syrup, so I bought 8 boxes. This stuff is going to be here a long time if my boys don’t like it.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Does Weird Stuff to Your Body
While the commercials claim that it’s fine in moderation, the truth is that the whole problem with high fructose corn syrup in the first place, is that moderation is seemingly impossible. The syrup interferes with the body’s metabolism so that a person can’t stop eating. It’s truly hard to control cravings because high fructose corn syrup slows down the secretion of leptin in the body. Leptin is a crucial hormone in the body that tells you that you’re full and to stop eating. That’s why it’s so closely associated with obesity in this country. It’s like an addictive drug.

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/avoid-fructose-corn-syrup.htm

The Digestion of High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Hard On the Body
Acidic “foods”, which are void of nutrition, wreak havoc on the body. To compensate, the body will pull calcium and other minerals from our bones, teeth, and organs to keep our blood slightly alkaline. Enzymes must be produced to metabolize high fructose corn syrup and micro-nutrients must be utilized. High fructose corn syrup causes mineral imbalances and deficiencies, which can cause a host of other diseases and health problems.

http://www.organiclifestylemagazine.com/issue-5/high-fructose-corn-syrup-not-so-sweet-surprise.php

Abuse of public trust, Environment, Justice, Nature, Protection

Nature v. cookie money – lessons for Girl Scouts

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A couple of Girl Scouts were looking for material about the cookies sold each year as this organization’s main fundraiser and discovered much more than they wanted to. Their findings have put Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen at the center of a national debate on what an acceptable tradeoff can be to monetize natural resources in order to make money from items that are not truly valuable in and of themselves, when the cost is environmental destruction and sometimes, lives. The young scouts found out that Girl Scout cookies are made with palm oil derived from trees grown in groves that Orangutan habitat is destroyed to make open space for. In simple terms, Orangutans die in large numbers due to loss of habitat in order for Girl Scouts to have cookies to sell.

For Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, it all began with orangutans. Four years ago-inspired by the work of primate researcher Jane Goodall-the two friends from Ann Arbor, Mich., collaborated on a research report on the endangered primates to help qualify for their Girl Scout Bronze award, one of the highest prizes offered by the 3.2 million-member organization. Vorva and Tomtishen have both been scouts since they were five years old, and they take their roles and responsibilities seriously. So when they discovered that one of the major threats to orangutan populations in Indonesia was deforestation caused by the growth of palm plantations-and that the iconic cookies the Girl Scouts sell can sometimes contain palm oil from plantations on deforested land-the girls refused to simply do nothing. “Being a Girl Scout is about showing stewardship for the land,” says Vorva, who is now 16. (Tomtishen is 15.) “We knew we had to keep fighting.”

Making Girl Scout Cookies Better for the Planet | Rainforest Action Network http://www.ran.org/making-girl-scout-cookies-better-planet#ixzz1ov7nzi8d

Unfortunately, the Girl Scout organization has not demanded major immediate changes to their cookie formula and seems content to go along with the plan offered by agribusiness giants like Cargill, which is talking about plans to offer sustainably produced palm oil several years from now – probably hoping that by then, there won’t be any Orangutans left to protect. Girl Scouts has taken this position:

In its announcement Wednesday, the Girl Scouts said it has directed its bakers to use as little palm oil as possible, and only in recipes where there is no alternative. It wants its bakers to move to a segregated, certified sustainable palm oil source by 2015.

The Scouts will buy GreenPalm certificates to support the sustainable production of palm oil. The certificates offer a premium price to palm oil producers who are operating within best-practices guidelines set by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, an organization of palm oil producers, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, environmentalists and others.
Girl Scouts of the USA will also become an affiliate member of the roundtable.

The teen activists and environmentalists welcomed the announcement as a good first step, but said much more needs to be done.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44718393/ns/world_news-world_environment/#.T11L7piId5b

Also see Girl Scouts Activists, Rainforest Action Network and Union of Concerned Scientists Respond to Palm Oil Cookie Announcement by Girl Scouts USA

Abuse of public trust, All, Environment, Food, Health, Plants, Pests, Rescue, Water

Death of the Honey Bee: the Decline of Mankind

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Sadly I’m finding more support for something that I have long suspected. Monsanto is a major player in the deaths of honey bees, which could in turn cause mankind to starve. The shame is that it is not a direct cause so many are duped into believing that these genetically manipulated products cause no harm. For a long time bee colony deaths have been attributed to pests, pesticides, and environment. The primary pests were Varroa mites which are like microscopic vampires sucking the life out of the bees. But healthy bee hives where there is no smoke or antibiotics have been able to survive these attacks. There are a variety of pesticides which also kill bees but these are obvious because death is fairly immediate. The biggest factor in the environment seems to be widening holes in our planet’s ozone layer. These holes are allowing more ultraviolet light to come through causing an increasing incidence of human skin cancer, as well as the deaths of frogs and many insects. However, while these attacks are significant most bees have been surviving in spite of them.

Then Monsanto comes on the scene. They took a previously used bacterial disease, Bacill Thuringiensis ( also known as “Bt” ), but instead of spraying it on the plants as was previously done, Monsanto incorporated Bt into the produce itself, genetically. Spraying put most of the poison on the outside of the plants where bees had less contact. Genetically modified plants are the poison. Genetically engineered plants containing Bt were approved for use with the understanding that there would be no harm to non-target insects. (There was no mention of us humans, of course.)

So Bt was studied for its effect upon bees, but only as a direct cause of death. The actual mechanism for death seems to be ingestion of the poison by bees through plant nectar and pollen, then Bt produces a sort of bee Alzheimer, if you will. Normally when bees die of other direct causes, the bodies are piled outside of the hives by workers. Bt affected bees get memory loss and lose their ability to navigate to and from the hive. In the winter months, when the bee has to travel further to get food, they simply lose their way and don’t return home. Beekeepers just find an empty hive in the spring when they go to check on their colonies.

There are scientists who are giving us a 30 year life span until starvation. Personally, I would think that event could come sooner unless some is done to stop the present proliferation of Bt-laced products as well as the build up of Bt levels in water and soil along with the increasing cross pollination of Bt plants with organic ones. Some organic farmers are even using Bt pesticides since they are listed as “natural”. This only adds to contamination levels, hastening the time when honey bees could become extinct.

Abuse of public trust, Energy, Environment

Are We Going to Have An Energy Crisis?

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J asks: “Hi Kim, I I just read a book call Long Emergency about peak oil. How serious is this really? The book predict that our economy which is base on cheap oil will collapse when the oil runs out in 10-20 years.  Are you making preparations for this crisis?”

J, that a great question! But, it seems to me that the bigger problems we’re having may be climate change and a diminishing supply of clean water, since basically oil is a fuel and there are fuel alternatives we can use in their place that are cleaner and also renewable. I do think our economy and lifestyles will dramatically change in the future, because now so much of our lives revolve around consumerism and extravagant consumption, and we’re damaging the earth too much by living this way.

If we stop amassing money to make purchases, making the purchases, thinking about what we’re going to purchase next, thinking about how to “manage” our money and assets, thinking about how to acquire more items and assets than the next guy and managing pollution and other problems related to the discharge of chemicals we use and produce and the absurd amount of items we discard: that will leave huge chunks of time open in our lives, and we haven’t thought a lot about how we would fill those open spaces with something better.

I put “manage” in parentheses because, of course, we don’t manage our money: we hand it over to the finance and insurance industries. When our investments profit, the companies in those industries profit too, and they use their profits to buy up land and the essential processes and commodities citizens need to run our societies – like the transportation and energy industries, and  food production. Having these cards in their pockets makes it easy for these giants to dictate where and how well we live, and it makes it pretty easy for them to exploit the earth and natural resources which really, belong to everyone – or should.