Uncategorized

We need to stop blaming victims of breast cancer and start researching envirotoxicity

Having been touched by breast cancers in numerous women important to me, I've long been astounded by the extent to which discussions of the subject start by blaming women -- you picked the wrong parents, you didn't have your kids soon enough, you forgot to have kids, you ate too much, you ate the wrong things ... on and on and on.

Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D, an environmentalist and brilliant poet, writes about the medical-industrial complex and its instant assumption that the genesis of cancer is in the genes in her outstanding book Living Downstream. Sadly, her message seems to have been shrugged off by industry and the agencies charged with protecting public health. The media watchdog group FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) has a nice new piece in the February 2009 issue (alas, not yet available online) on the media's code of silence with respect to the environmental causes of cancer.

It's worth a trip to the library or magazine stand to check it out.

Meanwhile, there's a good discussion of the topic that starts at about 18:40 in this week's "CounterSpin," the FAIR radio program.

The bottom line: environmental insults are at least as significant as the usual factors discussed around incidence of breast cancer in the US -- but are studied far less, and are almost entirely absent from the wave of feel-good pink bushwa that floods the media every year during "Breast Cancer Awareness Month."

The sterling SF Bay-area group Breast Cancer Action has been a real leader in refusing to allow industry to bury the connection between their emissions and women's breast cancers. For a good example of their work, check out this factsheet on breast cancer and the environment.

DFHs take over, threaten Big Agribusiness

"Biofuel companies are worried about the impact California's low-carbon standard could have in that state and elsewhere."

Freaking hippies. If God had meant people to use land for growing food instead of fuel for cars, he wouldn't have created lobbyists.

Movement for metro pollinators spreading

Let loose the bees! Like the surging movement for backyard chickens, bees also have urban anthropic allies, and Denver is the newest metropolis to allow beehives in town. Led by the intrepid Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) crew, bees will now be invited to pollinate mile-high metro-veggies, just like in Seattle, Minneapolis, and San Francisco.

Enjoy the ordinance's entertaining rules on how hives are to be kept at DUG's site, but consider that native bees are also to be encouraged.

Check out this article on Sacramento's Urban Bee Project, which tries to bolster biodiversity and urban pollination through the planting of vegetation favored by native bees, such as the cantankerous 'headbonker.' Me, I'd plant any damn thing if I thought something by that name might come bumbling by.

Announcing a new blog from veteran coalfield journalist Ken Ward

I dare say no one knows more about coal mining and its impact on communities, economies, industries, the environment, and the climate than Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward. He's been on the front lines for years, filing his award-winning reports from West Virginia and the coalfield region.

Now he's launched a new blog: Coal Tattoo. Bookmark it.

Here's a clip from his first post:

Save the North American biped!

Biden says U.S. is ready to reengage on climate change

Vice President Joe Biden is in Germany today for a meeting on international security issues. Climate change got a strong shout-out in his remarks. Here's the relevant section:

We also are determined to build a sustainable future for our planet. We are prepared to once again begin to lead by example. America will act aggressively against climate change and in pursuit of energy security with like-minded nations.

Our administration's economic stimulus package, for example, includes long-term investments in renewable energy. And we believe that's merely a down payment. The President has directed our Environmental Protection Agency to review how we regulate emissions, start a process to raise fuel efficiency, appoint a climate envoy -- and all in his first week in office, to demonstrate his commitment.

Source: Federal News Service

Fresh off fishery win, Oceana’s Jim Ayers talks with Grist about climate fight

Jim Ayers, the onetime top aide to former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles (D) and now the Pacific region leader for conservation group Oceana, draws on a deep well of both political and environmental experience. That’s a combo we like at Grist, especially in folks willing to talk shop with us. Ayers did that today, stopping […]

Friday music blogging: Dan Roberts

You know who's awesome? My little brother!

No, wait, maybe that's not the best way to start. Let's start here:

I am far, far from a jazz head. I do dabble, however, with the occasional group that has its roots in jazz but mixes in healthy doses of rock, funk, prog, or electronic dance music. Think, for example, Medeski Martin & Wood, Wayne Horvitz, The Bad Plus, Brad Mehldau, Jaga Jazzist, Marco Benevento ... that kind of stuff. (Yes, I'm aware those artists sound nothing like each other, but you know what I mean. Or maybe you don't.)

Anyway, it so happens that Washington D.C. is blessed with another hot up-and-coming jazz pianist who works in a similar genre. If you're in D.C. you may have seen him playing around in various trios, quartets, occasionally alone -- or if you happen to be active military, you may have seen him playing on USO tours in Kuwait and Iraq with Al Franken, via his job as pianist for the Army band, recently rechristened [wince] Downrange.

His name is Dan Roberts, and his new album is called Can't Not. It's rocking my world, and not just because it shares my DNA. Check it out.

Carbon pricing needs to supplement, not undermine, other means of cutting emissions

In solving the climate crisis we need to avoid creating the type of large secondary emissions trading market Kyoto did. Large secondary emission markets constitute a whole new sector with strong incentives that conflict with a really large drop in emissions. Maybe carbon traders are so noble and dedicated to saving the planet that financial self-interest won't influence them. But, if your view of human nature is that incentives matter, then a strong secondary market creates a group of people with the wrong ones. If incentives matter, then a secondary carbon market runs a real risk of becoming the new sub-prime.

For example, it has been noted that the European Emission Trading Scheme and other emission markets tend to be subject to high volatility, something that undercuts long term success. Large price variations for emissions permits discourage long term investment in savings, because it is hard to predict the value of the savings. Volatility can also lead to crashes, where emission prices temporarily drop near zero, which further reduces investment in reductions. The problem is traders tend to profit in the short term from volatility, because prices that vary encourage a larger number of transactions; more transactions produce more profit. While there are regulatory approaches that can discourage such volatility, such as high mandatory minimum emissions prices, financial industries in general tend to resist this type of regulation.

The pristine U.S. Arctic has been protected from industrial fishing

It's a watershed day for Arctic conservation.

Facing dramatic evidence of climate change in the Arctic, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted unanimously on Thursday to prevent the expansion of industrial fishing into all U.S. waters north of the Bering Strait. There are no large-scale commercial fisheries currently operating in the U.S. Arctic, and now there won't be.

Nearly 200,000 square miles of pristine Arctic waters -- an area bigger than California -- will remain untouched by the extensive fishing nets, miles of hooked longlines, and destructive bottom trawls of industrial fishing. This means that the unknown but crucial fish species such as Arctic cod will stay put as the heart of the ecosystem.