Ecoshock News Dec 15 Arms, Coal Protests, Safe Bears & Toxic Food
Friends, the nuclear arms race is still a growing threat to us all. Although you won't find it in the newspaper, or in what passes for television news, the United States and Russia have entered a new contest to build the worst weapons of mass destruction. It's a missile race not seen since the bad old days of the 1970's.
The United States has destabilized the balance of arms established long ago, by developing an anti-missile star wars space shield. According to United Press International, in mid-November, the U.S. Navy completed the first successful test of an anti-ballistic missile interceptor, launched from a cruiser in the Pacific Ocean. This test allegedly succeeded where multiple land-based tests from Fort Greeley, Alaska, have failed, despite billions of dollars poured into the big defense contractors.
In response, Russia is creating a new type of missile designed to evade such interceptors. President Vladimir Putin, a friend to the military, has $1.8 billion in new oil money to pour into missile development. A new variety of the land-based SS-27 Tool-M missile, and upgraded Beloved ICBM's launched from submarines, aspire to evade American defensive missiles.
One American military analyst wrote in the Washington Times: "You would think the Cold War never ended."
While we hear about Russian space station launches, and commercial rockets, we hear less about continuing testing of new nuclear missiles from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia's northern Arkhangelsk Region. These solid fuel monsters have such rapid acceleration they leave little or no time for detection and defensive action. They can also alter course with defensive maneuvers in mid-flight.
The new Russian submarine missiles use a different tactic: they fly absolutely flat across the ocean or land at a low level, making it difficult to find, and hard to predict.
Maybe we are going back to mutually assured destruction after all.
The Chinese, and even India, are also moving into space based nuclear capability.
Meanwhile, the nuclear peace movement has all but disbanded, while the arms race becomes still more threatening. This is why Doctor Helen Caldicott has returned to the United States to kick start a new nuclear awareness. Her book "THE NEW NUCLEAR DANGER: GEORGE W. BUSH'S MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX" is selling well. Find her web site at www.helencaldicott.com.
While major countries pour zillions of dollars into a crazy non-functional arms race, more than a billion humans go to be hungry. Many of our beloved cities could still be exterminated by an insane exchange of nuclear weapons. Wake up your friends to this danger.
---------
Nuclear weapons spread, and are fueled, by the civilian nuclear power industry. British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced November 30th new plans to expand nuclear power in Britain. Never mind the industry's long record of accidents and grave risks to whole regions of the country, we need more juice for wasteful electric gadgets.
But Blair's announcement was delayed at least a little bit, when Greenpeace climbers appeared out of the ceiling of the building where Blair was supposed to speak. At the Confederation of British Industry conference, the Greenpeace spider men lowered banners saying "Nuclear - Wrong Answer" and then sprayed confetti representing radioactive particles.
The security breach was considered risky enough to move Blair to a smaller room to announce his new risky strategy.
Stephen Tindale, the Director of Greenpeace UK, said:
"Today Blair is trying to launch a new nuclear age and we are here to stop him. Nuclear power is not the answer to climate change - it's costly, dangerous and a terrorist target."
-----------
Greenpeace was also active in Thailand this week. The group ended its three day occupation of the Map Ta Phut power plant, when the government agreed to a full review of its energy policy.
The protest was part of an extended tour of South East Asia by the flagship Rainbow Warrior. In the Philippines the group climbed and blocked the loading crane at a massive coal plant. In each country, Greenpeace has been trying to raise awareness about the severe climate consequences if Asia continues to build more and more coal-fired generating power plants.
It may seem far away to you, but we all get to enjoy the climate change resulting from carbon pollution. Greenpeace says Asia must find clean energy alternatives to power its economic growth.
The same for Europe. This week, Greenpeace planted a giant banner saying "CO2 Kills" on the most polluting coal plant in Germany. The owner is planning another ten new brown-coal fired units, which together will emit more CO2 than the entire country of New Zealand.
-------
Greens go hunting?
An environment group in British Columbia has paid to end the killing of wildlife in the a vast region known as the Great Bear Rainforest. It's the first time a conservation group bought the guide-oufitting rights - to prevent hunting.
According to a front page story in the Vancouver Sun, in late November the Raincoast Conservation Foundation paid $1.35 million to get guide-outfitting rights to five regions along B.C.'s central coast. Instead of bringing in foreign hunters to bag grizzlies, black bears, wolves, cougar, mountain goats, moose and deer - the group will end foreign hunting.
The move comes in concert with the aboriginal tribes in all six nations in that territory, who have called for an end to American and European hunters arriving for the annual slaughter. Trophy hunting will become a thing of the past, but local residents and aboriginal people will be allowed to hunt for food.
The First Nations people are turning to eco-tourism, and say that people arrive now to look at the wildlife, not to kill it.
Ian McCallister of Raincoast said:
"There is no other example in North America where conservation interests have bought out such a large commercial hunting area before."
One of the major contributors to the stop hunting fund was Michael Mayzel, an executive vice-president of Daymen Photo Marketing. The former license holder, Leonard Ellis, has converted his guide outfitting business to leading wildlife viewing tours.
Finally, as we all suspected, a new study has found a common packaging material is highly toxic to the brain, even in low doses.
A research team at the University of Cincinnati has published a study in the journal Endocrinology. It shows that a chemical called bisphenol A, known as BPA, disrupts estrogen in the developing brain.
This chemical is widely used in consumer products as a lining for food cans, like soup for example, in milk container linings, and even in water pipes. The food industry continues to use BPA, even though it has been implicated in a variety of diseases - and developmental problems in babies and children.
BPA is an equal opportunity killer. It has been shown to increase breast cancer cell growth, and to increase the development of prostate cancer. Even tiny doses can affect the unborn fetus.
BPA is used to create plastic polymers, and it leaches into the food.
The author of the recent study, Doctor Belcher of the University of Cincinnati, questioned why industry and regulator agencies have failed to remove BPA from our food supply, even though plastics without BPA or other toxic chemicals are already available.
Apparently, the big food companies, and your government, just don't care what poisons you eat. Food for thought, or food for disease.
This has been news from Radio Ecoshock at www.ecoshock.org
The United States has destabilized the balance of arms established long ago, by developing an anti-missile star wars space shield. According to United Press International, in mid-November, the U.S. Navy completed the first successful test of an anti-ballistic missile interceptor, launched from a cruiser in the Pacific Ocean. This test allegedly succeeded where multiple land-based tests from Fort Greeley, Alaska, have failed, despite billions of dollars poured into the big defense contractors.
In response, Russia is creating a new type of missile designed to evade such interceptors. President Vladimir Putin, a friend to the military, has $1.8 billion in new oil money to pour into missile development. A new variety of the land-based SS-27 Tool-M missile, and upgraded Beloved ICBM's launched from submarines, aspire to evade American defensive missiles.
One American military analyst wrote in the Washington Times: "You would think the Cold War never ended."
While we hear about Russian space station launches, and commercial rockets, we hear less about continuing testing of new nuclear missiles from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia's northern Arkhangelsk Region. These solid fuel monsters have such rapid acceleration they leave little or no time for detection and defensive action. They can also alter course with defensive maneuvers in mid-flight.
The new Russian submarine missiles use a different tactic: they fly absolutely flat across the ocean or land at a low level, making it difficult to find, and hard to predict.
Maybe we are going back to mutually assured destruction after all.
The Chinese, and even India, are also moving into space based nuclear capability.
Meanwhile, the nuclear peace movement has all but disbanded, while the arms race becomes still more threatening. This is why Doctor Helen Caldicott has returned to the United States to kick start a new nuclear awareness. Her book "THE NEW NUCLEAR DANGER: GEORGE W. BUSH'S MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX" is selling well. Find her web site at www.helencaldicott.com.
While major countries pour zillions of dollars into a crazy non-functional arms race, more than a billion humans go to be hungry. Many of our beloved cities could still be exterminated by an insane exchange of nuclear weapons. Wake up your friends to this danger.
---------
Nuclear weapons spread, and are fueled, by the civilian nuclear power industry. British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced November 30th new plans to expand nuclear power in Britain. Never mind the industry's long record of accidents and grave risks to whole regions of the country, we need more juice for wasteful electric gadgets.
But Blair's announcement was delayed at least a little bit, when Greenpeace climbers appeared out of the ceiling of the building where Blair was supposed to speak. At the Confederation of British Industry conference, the Greenpeace spider men lowered banners saying "Nuclear - Wrong Answer" and then sprayed confetti representing radioactive particles.
The security breach was considered risky enough to move Blair to a smaller room to announce his new risky strategy.
Stephen Tindale, the Director of Greenpeace UK, said:
"Today Blair is trying to launch a new nuclear age and we are here to stop him. Nuclear power is not the answer to climate change - it's costly, dangerous and a terrorist target."
-----------
Greenpeace was also active in Thailand this week. The group ended its three day occupation of the Map Ta Phut power plant, when the government agreed to a full review of its energy policy.
The protest was part of an extended tour of South East Asia by the flagship Rainbow Warrior. In the Philippines the group climbed and blocked the loading crane at a massive coal plant. In each country, Greenpeace has been trying to raise awareness about the severe climate consequences if Asia continues to build more and more coal-fired generating power plants.
It may seem far away to you, but we all get to enjoy the climate change resulting from carbon pollution. Greenpeace says Asia must find clean energy alternatives to power its economic growth.
The same for Europe. This week, Greenpeace planted a giant banner saying "CO2 Kills" on the most polluting coal plant in Germany. The owner is planning another ten new brown-coal fired units, which together will emit more CO2 than the entire country of New Zealand.
-------
Greens go hunting?
An environment group in British Columbia has paid to end the killing of wildlife in the a vast region known as the Great Bear Rainforest. It's the first time a conservation group bought the guide-oufitting rights - to prevent hunting.
According to a front page story in the Vancouver Sun, in late November the Raincoast Conservation Foundation paid $1.35 million to get guide-outfitting rights to five regions along B.C.'s central coast. Instead of bringing in foreign hunters to bag grizzlies, black bears, wolves, cougar, mountain goats, moose and deer - the group will end foreign hunting.
The move comes in concert with the aboriginal tribes in all six nations in that territory, who have called for an end to American and European hunters arriving for the annual slaughter. Trophy hunting will become a thing of the past, but local residents and aboriginal people will be allowed to hunt for food.
The First Nations people are turning to eco-tourism, and say that people arrive now to look at the wildlife, not to kill it.
Ian McCallister of Raincoast said:
"There is no other example in North America where conservation interests have bought out such a large commercial hunting area before."
One of the major contributors to the stop hunting fund was Michael Mayzel, an executive vice-president of Daymen Photo Marketing. The former license holder, Leonard Ellis, has converted his guide outfitting business to leading wildlife viewing tours.
Finally, as we all suspected, a new study has found a common packaging material is highly toxic to the brain, even in low doses.
A research team at the University of Cincinnati has published a study in the journal Endocrinology. It shows that a chemical called bisphenol A, known as BPA, disrupts estrogen in the developing brain.
This chemical is widely used in consumer products as a lining for food cans, like soup for example, in milk container linings, and even in water pipes. The food industry continues to use BPA, even though it has been implicated in a variety of diseases - and developmental problems in babies and children.
BPA is an equal opportunity killer. It has been shown to increase breast cancer cell growth, and to increase the development of prostate cancer. Even tiny doses can affect the unborn fetus.
BPA is used to create plastic polymers, and it leaches into the food.
The author of the recent study, Doctor Belcher of the University of Cincinnati, questioned why industry and regulator agencies have failed to remove BPA from our food supply, even though plastics without BPA or other toxic chemicals are already available.
Apparently, the big food companies, and your government, just don't care what poisons you eat. Food for thought, or food for disease.
This has been news from Radio Ecoshock at www.ecoshock.org
posted by Alex Smith at
7:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home