People Before Profit blog

Nuclear fallout, plastics mark human impact on planet, scientists say

Mon, 04 May 2015 12:23:00 +0000

"Plastics," was the one-word career advice Dustin Hoffman's character famously received in the 1967 film "The Graduate." The film heralded a new social era under way in America. But plastics and their technology twin, nuclear weapons, both going into mass production in the post-World War II years, actually marked a new planetary era that has put us all in a test tube, scientists say. Geological remains of the advent of nuclear weapons and mass industrial production of plastics in 1945-1950 mark the start of the era of human impact on our planet, they suggest.

A growing number of geologists who study the history of the Earth have been saying that we have entered a new geological era known as the Anthropocene, in which human action is changing the physical world around us. In a column earlier this year, New York Times science writer Andrew Revkin called this new "geological age of our own making" a real-life "experiment well under way, and we're all in the test tube."

Now, Revkin reported, 26 members of an international scientific working group on the topic, in a paper published in January, point "roughly to 1950 as the starting point, indicated by a variety of markers, including the global spread of carbon isotopes from nuclear weapon detonations starting in 1945 and the mass production and disposal of plastics."

In a summary of the paper, Dr. Jan Zalasiewicz of the University of Leicester, chair of the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, wrote: "Humans have long affected the environment, and ideas as to when the Anthropocene might start range from the thousands of years ago with the dawn of agriculture, to the Industrial Revolution - and even to the future (for the greatest human-made changes could still be to come)."

But, he said, the working group members suggest that "the key turning point happened in the mid-twentieth century. This was when humans did not just leave traces of their actions, but began to alter the whole Earth system. There was a 'Great Acceleration' of population, of carbon emissions, of species invasions and extinctions, of earth moving, of the production of concrete, plastics and metals.

"It included the start, too, of the nuclear age, when artificial radionuclides were scattered across the Earth, from the poles to the Equator, to be leave a detectable signal in modern strata virtually everywhere."

"The proposal .... is that the beginning of the Anthropocene could be considered to be drawn at the moment of detonation of the world's first nuclear test: on July 16th 1945."

The scientists base this finding on studies of the boundaries that show up in rocks and soil between "humanly modified ground" and natural geological deposits.

Nuclear weapons and plastics are perhaps the most controversial products of modern science. Their harmful impacts on human life range from the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to toxins in our air, water and soil. Now, we see that they are changing the Earth itself, and we don't know what the long-term consequences will be.

Zalasiewicz commented, "The evidence is pretty good that humans have changed the Earth pretty substantially and in novel ways. We're culturally evolving many times faster than biological evolution and that's driving this whole Earth-system change... where it's going to go is anybody's guess.... We have to become wise enough to manage the changes that we're creating."

Photo: "Ivy Mike," an atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the U.S. at Enewetak Atoll on Nov. 1, 1952. It was the world's first successful hydrogen bomb. Wikimedia

As California drought deepens, water debate sharpens

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 12:12:00 +0000

As drought-stricken California struggles to meet the mandatory water use restrictions Gov. Jerry Brown announced earlier this month, the governor is urging a sharp increase in fines for the worst violators, and moving to help local water agencies conduct environmental reviews more quickly.

On Apr. 28, Brown called for legislation to sharply increase fines up to a maximum $10,000 for the worst violations of the conservation orders. The current maximum fine is $500 per day.

Also under Brown's proposal, wholesale and retail water agencies, as well as city and county governments, will be able to issue penalties. They could enforce both local water restrictions and restrictions ordered by the State Water Resources Control Board. Monetary penalties would go toward local conservation efforts.

In a separate action, Brown directed state agencies to help local water agencies cut the amount of time needed to comply with state-required environmental reviews.

The proposed new penalties come amid continuing debate about Brown's unprecedented April 1 executive order mandating that over 3,000 urban water districts in the state cut their water use by an overall 25 percent this year compared with 2013. The order also directs the state to provide financial help to homeowners shifting to drought-resistant landscaping, and rebates for new water-efficient appliances.

The order focuses mainly on urban water uses like lawns, parks, public medians and golf courses, which take up less than a quarter of water use by people in the state.

"I would hope that we don't see this in some punitive way, but that we see the challenge ... the climate is getting warmer, the weather is getting more extreme and unpredictable, and we have to become more resilient, more efficient and more innovative," the governor said then.

A major bone of contention is the omission from the April 1 order of any mandatory or voluntary conservation targets for agriculture, which uses nearly 80 percent of water not designated for environmental conservation. Instead, irrigation districts were told to develop drought management plans and monitor groundwater levels, and the State Water Resources Control Board was told to go after illegal and wasteful water users.

In exempting agriculture from cutbacks, Brown has sided with farmers who say they have already suffered four years of drought as well as sharp cutbacks by state and federal water providers, resulting in more land left fallow and lower income for the agriculture industry. Thousands of farm workers have also been put out of work.

Many water and conservation experts say agriculture should be included in the cutbacks. An often-cited issue is increasing pumping of groundwater, which in some Central Valley areas has already caused the land to sink measurably. Until 2014, California was the only western state not regulating groundwater withdrawals, and the new regulations don't become fully effective until 2022.

Another issue is planting of highly profitable but water-guzzling crops like almonds. Many farmers also continue to use flood irrigation rather than the much more efficient drip irrigation.

Some environmentalists also call for limiting water use on land used to raise crops for animal feed.

The debate takes place against the background of an antiquated allocation system that gives priority, and lower rates, to holders of "senior" water rights - those claimed before California established a permit process in 1914 - with holders of "junior" rights claimed after that time receiving less.

Though California is the country's largest agricultural producer and employs over 400,000 people, the industry accounts for just 2 percent of the state's gross domestic product.

Meanwhile, cities facing the sharpest cutbacks are pleading for exemptions because they have invested in recycled or desalinated water, or face great demands for water during extreme summer temperatures, or rely on local sources rather than state resources.

Also sharply debated is the governor's failure to include the oil and gas industry in his mandatory restrictions. Environmentalists estimate that more than two million gallons of fresh water are used daily to stimulate oil wells through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and related processes.

The oil industry contends that such drilling produces more water than oil, and much of that water is provided to farmers. But environmentalists also point out that earlier this year, California's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources required oil companies to shut down 12 wastewater wells in the Central Valley because they are located close enough to underground wells for drinking or agricultural water to threaten contamination. Another 176 wells are undergoing investigation, and over 2,500 more wells are in areas that were never approved for wastewater injection.

Zack Malitz of the social action organization CREDO told Reuters earlier this year, "Gov. Brown is forcing ordinary Californians to shoulder the burden of the drought by cutting their personal water use while giving the oil industry a continuing license to break the law and poison our water. Fracking and toxic injection wells may not be the largest users of water in California, but they are undoubtedly some of the stupidest."

Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP

“Peace and planet” marchers at UN: “No more nukes!”

Wed, 29 Apr 2015 11:25:00 +0000

NEW YORK - It was a picture perfect Sunday here on Apr. 26 for a peaceful march against the most violent instruments of war ever created by humanity: nuclear weapons. The demonstration was sponsored by Peace and Planet: Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just & Sustainable World.

Nearly 8,000 thousand activists assembled at Union Squares Park's north side on Broadway at E 17th St. to listen to speakers and then marched up Third Ave. to the United Nations to deliver eight million signatures.

I walked through the crowds and talked with people from all parts of the world who all had one thing on their minds: peace.

Here is what they said, in many cases, with passionate exhortation.

A retired New Yorker: "I am here to add my voice to this movement to abolish nuclear weapons...and I think it should start here in the United States." Standing next to him was a young woman from Kyoto, Japan. She knew very little English, but she uttered with great confidence, "No Nukes" and "Peace!"

Coyd, a young African American, taking pictures with his camera,said he was there "to make sure the world knows that we are all here!"

And Brooks Kelly, who was balancing his young daughter on his shoulders as he marched with a delegation from the U.S. Peace Council said, "I'm here for my children and their future." His friend, Joe, standing with him, added, "Yes! And it seems like the United States enters a new war every week."

Howard, another retired New Yorker, who said he wanted to put an end to defense spending, noted that "we need money for education, health care and a long list of other human needs..."

Gary, from Massachusetts Peace Action, which advocates the abolishment of nuclear weapons, said that on the day of his son's birth, June 12, 1982, the largest demonstration against nuclear weapons in United States history was held here in New York City and that following that demonstration there were treaties that limited the proliferation of nuclear weapons. "So," he continued, "protesting is worth it!"

Punctuating Gary's story later in the day was Diane Beeny from a New Jersey group called "The Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance Committee." She was wearing a vintage t-shirt distributed at the June 12, 1982 event. "I have been active in the anti-nuclear movement a long time," she said with obvious pride, adding, "For a peaceful, just and sustainable world we also need to fight against racism and economic inequality."

As the marchers assembled for their parade to the United Nations I spotted Vinie Burrows, the award-winning Broadway actress and women's activist, helping her peace associates hold up a huge banner. Burrows, who has fought innumerable battles for social justice, said it was "wonderful to be in solidarity with our Japanese brothers and sisters demanding no more war, no more nuclear weapons which result in human catastrophe like Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Kasuya Takako from Shizuoka, Japan was helping to carry a huge, beautifully colored banner with her associates from the organization, "Shizuoka Mothers' Congress Liaison Committee."

Ms. Takako is its chairperson.

She described how her two grandchildren, Ririha, 10, and Honoba, 8, drew some of the lovely pictures featured on their banner.

Dancing to a disco beat in the middle of Union Square and enjoying the celebratory atmosphere with her fellow unionists, I met "Cettina." She is Vice-President of Local 255 of the United Electrical workers (UE) from Vermont. She said they had come to New York to be "in solidarity with the Zenroren delegates from Japan" and her message was simply "No More Nukes!We are here especially because it is the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima."

Another UE worker, Gary DeLuke from Local 170 in West Virginia, felt very strongly about his presence at the march:

"I am here to connect with my fellow workers around the world-to find common ground with them-peace is important for working people because war means workers are fighting workers-war is very rarely in their interest."

Listening attentively to the speakers was a young Japanese man from Tokyo. His name was

Yohei Nakamura, a 23-year old chairperson of a student committee from Tokyo. "I am here for peace," he said, as he handed me a bouquet of tiny paper hand-crafted origami peace doves which were omnipresent throughout the event.

Resting on a bench in Dag Hammarskjold plaza, a park near the United Nations where the march ended, I met Franco Omar, holding on to a pole with a poster from the Peace and Planet Mobilization. Omar is from the Dominican Republic and lives here in the city. "I am here because nuclear weapons scare me," he said. "We not only have to worry about the violent potential of nuclear weapons, but also about the serious problem of the disposal of nuclear waste. I believe nuclear waste causes cancer."

A French delegation from Marseille included 80 members wearing straw hats and carrying blue banners that read, "Le mouvement De La Paix (peace); Empechons Les Guerres, Cultivons La Paix (prevent wars, cultivate peace). Radia and her husband Michel, were especially concerned that support is generated for NPR-the non-proliferaion treaty.

Jarvis Tyner, New York District chair of the CPUSA was standing tall throughout the march, greeting demonstrators and observing the dynamics of this international outpouring for peace and against nuclear weapons. Tyner, who is originally from Philadelphia and is a former union activist for the Teamsters, has just completed a pamphlet, "Black Lives Matter." For copies: NY@cpusa.org.

He said: "The ultimate weapon of terrorism is nuclear weapons. The Obama administration is fighting nuclear terrorism by negotiating with Iran." He asked, "So, when are we-the United States-going to take the necessary steps to rid ourselves of nuclear weapons? How are you going to eliminate terrorism if we don't eliminate nuclear weapons?"

As the day wore on the weather became cloudy and cool with marchers drifting home to well-deserved dinners and places to sit and relax. But one leaves such an event heavy with thoughts and understanding of what can be accomplished when people come together for a good purpose. One of the origami "birds" thrust into my hand had a message printed in it. It read,

"There is no excuse for nuclear weapons. Weapons of mass destruction can't be necessary for world peace. From Japan, the only country to be hit by nuclear bombs."

Photo: People participate in an anti-nuclear rally in Union Square in New York, Sunday, April 26, 2015. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the United States using nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. | Seth Wenig/AP

Today in environmental history: It’s Arbor Day!

Fri, 24 Apr 2015 11:00:00 +0000

According to author Miguel Herrero Uceda, the first Arbor Day in the world was celebrated in the small Spanish village of Villanueva de la Sierra in 1805, with the planting of a poplar tree. The objective was to highlight the importance of trees for health, hygiene, beauty, nature and the environment. Over time the custom of planting trees as a cultural commitment spread to other localities and nations. Trees also bear much historical, cultural, folkloric and religious tradition.

The first American Arbor Day originated in Nebraska City, Neb. On April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted in the state. Birdsey Northrop of Connecticut was responsible for globalizing it when he visited Japan in 1883 and delivered his Arbor Day and Village Improvement message. In that same year, the American Forestry Association made Northrop the chairman of the committee to campaign for Arbor Day nationwide. He also brought his enthusiasm for Arbor Day to Australia, Canada, and Europe.

Beginning in 1906, conservationist Major Israel McCreight of DuBois, Penn., argued that President Theodore Roosevelt's conservation speeches were limited to businessmen in the lumber industry. He recommended a campaign of youth education and a national policy on conservation education.Following that suggestion, on April 15, 1907, Roosevelt issued an "Arbor Day Proclamation to the School Children of the United States" about the importance of trees, and put forward the notion that forestry deserves to be taught in U.S. schools.

Arbor Day in the U.S. is celebrated on the last Friday of April. Observed in many countries still, it has the air of a quaint, innocuous old tradition, but it is a clear forerunner of the contemporary environmental movement. Trees are now understood to play a significant role in purifying the air of noxious pollutants, cooling the climate, retaining water in the soil, and providing much needed shade in our heavily concretized modern cities.

Adapted from Wikipedia

Study links Texas quakes to fracking

Fri, 24 Apr 2015 10:51:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) - With real-time monitors, scientists have linked a swarm of small earthquakes west of Fort Worth, Texas, to nearby natural gas wells and wastewater injection.

In 84 days from November 2013 to January 2014, the area around Azle, Texas, shook with 27 magnitude 2 or greater earthquakes, while scientists at Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey monitored the shaking. It's an area that had no recorded quakes for 150 years on faults that "have been inactive for hundreds of millions of years," said SMU geophysicist Matthew Hornbach.

When the volume of injections decreased significantly, so did the shaking.

The scientists concluded that removing saltwater from the wells in the gas production process and then injecting that wastewater back underground "represent the most likely cause" for the swarm of quakes, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

The scientists determined this based on where and when the earthquakes happened; computer models that track pressure changes; and company data from nearby wells. Hornbach said the timing and location of the quakes correlates better to the drilling and injection than any other possible reason.

"There appears to be little doubt about the conclusion that the earthquakes were in fact induced," USGS seismologist Susan Hough, who wasn't part of the study team, said in an email. "There's almost an abundance of smoking guns in this case."

This adds to other studies that linked injecting wastewater from energy wells to a tremendous jump in earthquakes in Oklahoma and southern Kansas, where there have been more than 950 magnitude 2 or higher quakes so far this year, according to the USGS.

On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Geological Society said it is "very likely" that most of the earthquakes that have shaken the state in recent years have been triggered by the subsurface injection of wastewater from oil and natural gas drilling operations. The society released a statement following an investigation into dozens of earthquakes recorded in central and north-central Oklahoma.

Unlike other research that linked quakes to the injection of wastewater, the SMU study also sees a secondary link in another part of the drilling process, when massive amounts of brine is taking out of the ground with the gas, said study co-author William Ellsworth of the USGS. Removing the saltwater changes the underground pressure, Hornbach said.

But the deep injection of the wastes still is the principle culprit, Ellsworth said. The controversial method of hydraulic fracturing or fracking, even though that may be used in the drilling, is not physically causing the shakes, he said.

The findings come amid heightened debate over oil and gas regulations, including efforts in some communities to ban drilling. In Texas, lawmakers are considering bills that would limit cities' abilities to do so.

The Texas Railroad Commission, the state's oil and gas regulator, hired its first seismologist last year to investigate potential links between quakes and fracking after Azle residents asked the agency to halt oil and gas activities. The seismologist has not offered any conclusions.

Meanwhile, SMU seismologists are still examining the cause of ongoing earthquakes in suburban Dallas. In February, researchers released preliminary results that showed a narrow fault line extending from Irving to West Texas. Researchers previously identified disposal wells as the source of seismic activity at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Photo: Fracking operations at the Eagle Ford shale in Texas. | Sarah Christianson/EcoWatch

Earth Day 2015: a call to action

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 12:32:00 +0000

On Earth Day 2015, humanity is facing increasing environmental dangers: climate change, air and water pollution, toxic chemicals spreading worldwide, soil and water challenges, and many more.

Movements to solve these mounting problems and crises are growing, from the 400,000-strong People's Climate March last fall to local struggles against fracking and the toxic effects of factory farms, to fossil fuel divestment campaigns, to opposition to coal and to explosion-prone oil trains. Workers and unions are increasingly part of these struggles, and there is an increasing awareness worldwide that international action is a necessity. These movements are essential elements of a growing broad coalition demanding action to address climate change and other environmental problems.

When corporations feel they can pollute our common water resources at will, when oil train explosions well beyond the capacity of any local fire department erupt in many communities, our shared environment is at risk.

When Exxon, Shell and other oil and gas corporations, the most profitable ever in the history of the world, work to exploit fossil fuels that must remain in the ground if we hope to prevent catastrophic climate change, our shared atmosphere is at risk, all for the profit of a handful of already super-rich.

When drought ravages California and increasingly threatens Oregon and Washington State (where the snowpack is at 24 percent of normal and melting faster than usual), yet Nestle and other companies continue to utilize water needed by all of us for their own private profit, this shared common resource belonging to us all is at risk.

As rainforest destruction continues to threaten the lungs of the world, as desertification spreads in many parts of the globe, as forest fires expand in number and intensity, as coral reefs die, as plastic contaminates the rapidly heating oceans, as factory farms pollute our soil, air and waterways, the natural world upon which humanity depends for life, for sustenance, for medicine, for diversity, for our very existence, is at risk.

Capitalism is at the root of many of these problems, and is the biggest obstacle to solving many of them as well. When private profit endangers the health and existence of all humanity, more is needed than technological fixes and tinkering with our laws and economic practices - though those changes are important and necessary, as is personal change such as recycling, reusing, and consuming in more environmentally responsible ways. Fundamental, systemic change is necessary to address the massive challenges to a healthy humanity and a healthy natural world.

On this 44th Earth Day, radical action is required more than ever. Every delay caused by corporate resistance and political gamesmanship by ultra-right Republicans fronting for Big Oil and other polluters means that the costs of change will be heavier, and that the impact of environmental crises will fall every more heavily on the poor, the oppressed, and the exploited of the world. Our common future requires common action by people in the billions, and this requires more struggle, more unity, more understanding, more coalition-building, than ever before. The super-rich can, for a time, use their excessive wealth to personally avoid the worst effects of climate change and other environmental problems, but all humanity will suffer for their short-range, short-sighted profit-taking at our common expense.

This year of environmental struggle will culminate this fall in Paris at a United Nations conference to negotiate an international agreement to curb harmful climate change. Millions from around the world will be watching, demanding real and aggressive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Countries from China to the United States to most of Europe are pledging to make significant changes to their energy production and environmental laws. But we know that these steps, important and ground-breaking though they are, will not be enough by themselves.

Fundamental transformation of our energy, economic, agricultural, and industrial systems and practices is needed. This can only be brought about by a force greater than that of the billionaires and their right-wing stooges, the force of billions of people fighting for survival. Environmental struggles joined with economic struggles joined with peace and justice struggles, across the globe, can bring into being the political power to create this fundamental change.

As these movements are growing, so too is our scientific and technological knowledge and experience. But there is no one magic bullet to solve these problems - it requires political will, political organization, and the power of the organized working class.

There are many ways to get involved right now:

* Join climate change demonstrations and petition campaigns, Earth Day activities, and civil disobedience campaigns to place the blame for the crisis on the system.

* Participate in the fossil fuel divestment campaigns growing rapidly on college campuses, directed at pension and other funds inflating their stock valuation based on fossil fuels that need to stay in the ground. These campaigns expose the house of cards that is the fossil fuel industry. The super-profits of the oil, gas and coal companies are one reason why income inequality has been growing so sharply, and it is based on the illusion that all known reserves can be burned.

* Support and organize for "just transitions" to a green economy, to protect workers in fossil fuel and carbon industries, and the communities that currently depend on those industries. Make the oil and coal companies guarantee continued wages until workers are retrained and employed, or retired. Make those companies provide support for the many coal and oil towns decimated by closures.

* Get involved with local struggles on environmental issues: land use, fracking, oil spills, water use, or any others in your area.

* Oppose the right-wing deniers of climate change and of all science that threatens profits, and oppose Republican efforts to hamstring the Environmental Protection Agency and enforcement of environmental laws.

* Demand "people and nature before profits."

Here are useful links for finding an action near you:
http://www.earthday.org/2015
http://350.org/

Photo: A sign at the People's Climate March in London, Sept. 21, 2014. | Garry Knight (CC)

“Populist” conference calls for investing in “green economy”

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 11:38:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Progressive activists from across the United States met here Apr. 18 to convene the Populism 2015 Conference around the theme of "Building a Movement for People and the Planet."

The three-day gathering, organized by the Alliance for a Just Society, Campaign for America's Future, National People's Action and U.S. Action, focused on rebuilding America for the 21st century, creating jobs for all, raising wages, empowering workers and reversing inequality, eliminating institutionalized racism, guaranteeing women's economic equality, providing a high-quality education to every child, enforcing fair taxes on corporations and the wealthy, fighting for democracy and curbing the power of "big money."

This year's conference also took on the priority of a "green economy." As stated by the organizers: "In the upcoming fights around state clean power plans, we want to limit nuclear and fracked natural gas, increase renewable energy sources and energy efficiency in a way that builds opportunity and community wealth for low-income communities and communities of color, as well as win public and community control over the cost of energy, where it's purchased and how it's used - in short, what we call 'energy democracy."

An Apr. 19 workshop featured a group of panelists who spoke directly to the issue of a green economy - the need for creating such an economy not just for the future but now.

Cindy Weisner, an activist from the West Coast opened her remarks by saying, "The capitalist system is not only exploitative, but extractive." He explained how corporations are disturbing the natural environment of poor people and communities of color through power plants, fracking and pollution. Most often, power plants are established and operate in communities where there are a large number of blacks and Latinos and where most people are living in poverty.

The Environmental Protection Agency has developed a plan to reduce pollution. This plan, which includes the reduction of carbon pollution by 30 percent by 2030, also allows states, however, flexibility to choose how they will make these reductions.

Unfortunately, the EPA plan considers nuclear power and natural gas as good alternatives, does not address environmental justice concerns and allows for "cap and trade" (a legal limit on the quantity of a certain type of chemical an economy can emit each year).

It was concluded at the conference that beyond a strong EPA, organizing for action to pressure large corporations is a necessary component of the movement it will take to protect the environment. Demands must be made on states, the conference concluded, to meet energy needs with renewable energy sources, to target affected communities with investments, and to tax polluters.

Photo: James Bradford

Today in environmental history: Earth Day founded in 1970

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 10:21:00 +0000

On this date in 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated. Founded by U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day encourages all citizens to help protect our environment and contribute to a healthy, sustainable world.

The original message for the day was "New Energy for a New Era," paying attention to accelerating the transition to renewable energy worldwide.

In 1970 Americans were pumping leaded gas into their massive sedans, and industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Although mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson's 1962 bestseller Silent Spring, which sold more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries. Up until that moment, more than any other person, Carson raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and public health.

Earth Day 1970 capitalized on this emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-Vietnam War protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center.

The idea came to Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif. He realized that he could fuse the anti-war impetus with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, and force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Nelson recruited Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican congressman, to serve as his co-chair for a "national teach-in on the environment" and hired a staff of 85 to promote events across the land.

Twenty million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Isolated groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts, with bipartisan support.

The 20th Earth Day in 1990 went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. It stimulated recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Pres. Bill Clinton awarded Sen. Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 for his role as Earth Day founder.

Environmental awareness has blossomed all over the world, meeting, of course, a strong climate change denial effort on the part of big business. But each year on April 22 Earth Day remains a powerful focal point around which people could demonstrate their commitment.

Adapted from http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement

Photo: AP

Day of Remembrance of Destruction and Heroism observed in LA

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 16:18:00 +0000

Remarks delivered at the Arbeter Ring/Workmen's Circle, Sunday, April 19, 2015, on the 72^nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, edited for publication. The observance gave special prominence to the women in the Resistance, and included live music and two short documentary films.

LOS ANGELES - Earlier this week I had the honor to address a group of students at the University of Southern California's Hillel Center. Most of them had been educated in Jewish day schools and had become bas and bar mitsve. Yet not a single one of those with whom I spoke had ever heard of the Resistance during the Holocaust. A single reference to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising made it appear as though it began and ended on the first night of Passover in 1943.

The women whom we honor today are twice denied their place in Jewish history: The Resistance does not appear in the consciousness of Jewish Americans and, as for the women, well, forget them.

Bear in mind that last Thursday was observed here and in Israel as "Holocaust Remembrance Day." But when the day was established by the Israeli Knesset in 1953, it was named yom ha'zikaron la'shoah ve la'gvurah - the Day of Remembrance of Destruction and Heroism. In this country, even when the full Hebrew name is given, it is almost never translated in full. Yom ha'shoah and that's it. Why is that so?

There is one answer that is frightening in its implications: that victimhood is more useful than heroism.

There is also another possibility: that the heroes - women and men - of the Jewish Resistance were, almost without exception, radicals of one kind or another: Socialist-Zionists, Bundists, Communists. In the second half of the 20^th century, radicals were not "popular." And popularity, acceptance, was what most Jews craved above all else in the second half of the 20^th century.

Today, here, it is not popularity nor acceptance that we seek: it is memory. For it is in memory that we can find inspiration for our own times. It is the memory of those unsung heroines and heroes that can inspire us. We need to remember their courage, so that we can be courageous. We need to remember their deeds, so that we can be inspired to brave deeds of our own. And we need to remember the ideas and the ideals that inspired them. They dreamed of a world without hate and war. They dreamed of a world without exploitation and oppression. They dreamed of a world where children would grow up healthy and strong. We need to remember them. We need to be inspired by their courage to create the world for which they fought and died.

There are literally dozens of women whose stories we could relate and many of those stories are to be found in the archives in Warsaw and at Yad Vashem in Israel. Most are written in Yiddish. Too few Holocaust historians read Yiddish well, especially the handwritten notes written immediately after liberation. There is one outstanding exception: Yuri Suhl's compilation of histories of resistance from all over Europe, from Belgium to Greece, that concentrates, of course, on the Eastern European centers of Jewish life and creativity: Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The book is They Fought Back: The Story of the Jewish Resistance in Nazi Europe.

I have chosen just a few stories to recall - very briefly - in a few minutes.

In her memoir, in toyt un oyfshtand - "In Death and Uprising" - the ghetto fighter Tsivia Lubetkin writes of the young women who served as contacts, or "go-betweens," connecting the ghetto and the Polish underground, as well as Jewish resistance groups across Poland:

"The women go-betweens were in danger at every turning. There was always the danger of a sudden raid, when the Germans would inspect every passenger and all their belongings. There was the danger of being caught and shipped off to a labor camp or a concentration camp. But the greatest danger was to be recognized as a Jewish woman. The Germans had their telltale signs: they would peer into the faces of passersby and if someone appeared extremely sad, they would immediately suspect her of being a Jew. So at the times of greatest tension, the women go-betweens had to show cheerful, laughing faces. Very often they found themselves at the very brink of death before they were able to carry out their missions. One after another, they fell into the hands of the Germans, and many were killed.

"I see before my eyes the image of Lonka Kozyebrodska..., who... when the war broke out...

came to us and declared: 'I am prepared for anything and place myself in service to the Movement.' "A pretty young girl, blond, with a gentile appearance, educated - she won the love of people and whoever came into contact with her loved and admired her. She fairly radiated youthful energy. But her most special attribute was her spirit. In addition to speaking Yiddish, Polish and Hebrew, with which she grew up at home, she mastered French and German at the university and also quickly learned English, Russian and Ukrainian. She knew no boundaries in her activity and there was no goal she was unable to reach.

"I remember that we would pack her valise and hide the dangerous materials in a hidden compartment, our hearts trembling at the thought: 'Who knows what may await her?' We were also worried about her parents. For months they would wait anxiously, fearing for the fate of their beloved daughter. Did we have the right to throw her continually into the face of countless dangers? Nevertheless, her parents never objected to her missions. To the contrary, they always strengthened her with their concern and love. Lonka would smile and cheer up both her parents and us: 'Don't worry, everything will be in order.' She was certain about the justice of her deeds, her enthusiasm, her strong character and about her ability to quickly orient herself to the unexpected, and that she would carry out her missions successfully."

Adina Blady Szwajger survived to write her autobiography, mer gedenk ikh nit: der varshever kinder shpitol un der yidisher vidershtand - "I Remember Nothing More: The Warsaw Children's Hospital and the Jewish Resistance." She was responsible for saving the lives and sheltering two leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising after the Uprising ended - Marek Edelman and Yitskhak Tsukerman, known as Antek. Working with the Jewish Fighting Organization, she played a key role in helping other survivors live on the other side of the ghetto walls until the Red Army liberated Warsaw.

She was a blond, blue-eyed, married medical student when the war began. The medical school was closed. In March 1940 she began work as a nurse in the Jewish Children's Hospital in the ghetto, which was finally sealed off from the rest of the city in November. Medicine and supplies - though scant - were smuggled in by ghetto children and the work crews that were taken out of the ghetto daily.

Adina caught typhus, recovered, and carried on. Not to break under this weight of grief, which was fresh every day as beloved patients died, was a matter of honor.

In that hellish place lay scores of children too sick to move, waiting to be thrown aboard the trucks or slaughtered on the spot by the Ukrainian guards. Adina took a flagon of morphine, went to the infants' ward, and - one by one - assured that they would not be killed at the brutal hands of the enemy.

On January 25, 1943, Adina was assigned by Marek Edelman to leave the ghetto and become one of the couriers - the go-betweens - to serve as a contact between the Jewish Fighting Organization and the underground Polish Land Army. She became the doctor for other couriers and for Jews hiding on the "Aryan" side. She had to perform abortions on Jewish girls in hiding: The cries of newborn babies would have betrayed whole families.

"Little Wanda with the braids"

Finally, a story of a woman who is somewhat more familiar, even in the vast wasteland of ignorance about the Jewish Resistance. Part of her story - carefully redacted, of course - was even told in a film.

Niuta Taytlboym was born in 1917 or 1918 in Lodz, Poland. She belonged to the illegal Communist "Pioneer" children's organization, and to the revolutionary youth organization, "Spartacus," which led to her being expelled from several schools. In 1936 she began to study history at Warsaw University.

After the Nazis had driven the Jews into the ghetto, she escaped during the major liquidation action of 1942. Thereafter, she often returned to the ghetto as the contact of the Communist Polish Workers Party (PPR) and the "People's Guard" resistance group. She brought arms, newspapers and information into the ghetto. She participated in many armed resistance acts against the Germans in Warsaw. There is this story told about her:

A young girl with pale, innocent eyes enters a German headquarters office. She wears a colorful peasant kerchief on her head, and two long blond braids hang down below her shoulders. There is a basket in her hand. She barely pauses at the entrance, declaring that she is there on a personal matter. Inside, a tall, broad-shouldered German with SS symbols on his uniform rises to his feet. He gazes in wonder at the girl and calls out, "Do you people also have a Lorelei?!" The girl takes a revolver from the basket, shoots him and walks out calmly.

The background of this encounter was doubtlessly the events of early 1943. "Wanda," Niuta Taytlboym's underground name, had shot three Gestapo agents who lived on Chmielna Street. One German survived. Niuta put on a doctor's uniform and bravely entered the hospital, killing the police guard at the isolation ward and the surviving Gestapo agent.

The Gestapo called her "Little Wanda with the braids." "They put a price on her head of 150,000 zlotys.

The day after the outbreak of the Ghetto Uprising, on the 20^th of April, a detachment of the "People's Guard" attacked a heavy machine gun squad that was firing from the ghetto wall on the ghetto fighters in the brushmakers' district. They killed two German soldiers and two Polish policemen, then withdrew. Among that detachment of the "People's Guard" was Niuta Taytlboym.

We live in a town that imposes our commercial culture on the world through film and television. We are awash in actual and aspiring writers for these mass media. How many exciting, action-driven films - complete with explosions and shootings - could be made from these and hundreds of other stories. And how much spirit, courage and inspiration could be stirred by such films and TV productions! To repeat what I said earlier, we need to remember the ideas and the ideals that inspired them. They dreamed of a world without hate and war. They dreamed of a world without exploitation and oppression. They dreamed of a world where children would grow up healthy and strong. We need to remember them. We need to be inspired by their courage to create the world for which they fought and died.

Photo: A group of Polish and Jewish Partisans in the Yanov Forests in Poland. Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation.

Wildfire is first of many more due to California drought

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 15:16:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - As California continues to endure historic drought conditions, this and strong Santa Ana winds are two factors contributing to vicious and more frequent wildfires. Dry conditions are expected to continue this week, and in the southern part of the state, the National Weather Service has predicted conditions that will cause fires to quickly grow out of control. One such brushfire occurred on Apr. 18, forcing mandatory evacuations near LA and having scorched 1,020 acres by Apr. 20, when it was 55 percent contained. And the worst, experts say, could be yet to come.

The Apr. 18 incident was the result of an unattended cooking fire, and was, of course, exacerbated by the arid conditions, growing from 30 to 175 acres in just three hours. Even as evacuation orders have been lifted and the wildfire is now 60 percent contained, heavy, low-lying smoke is still expected to cling to surrounding areas throughout the early part of this week, causing potential visibility and breathing issues on roadways, according to CalFire. Fires like this are a problem, said meteorologist Brett Rathbun, who remarked, "The excessive drought across California can cause fires to spark even easier because the ground is so dry and lacks moisture."

"We don't know when the drought will end," said Felicia Marcus, chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board. "Californians need to step up. We don't even know if it will rain much in the next year." After four years of steadily worsening drought, as climate change continues to rear its ugly head, it's time for Californians to "make real lifestyle changes," which means, above all, adhering to water restrictions. But even such measures won't stop the problem of wildfires, especially if conditions continue to become drier.

And according to Benjamin Cook, a climatologist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, that's exactly what's going to happen. He said, "Climate change is going to lead to overall much drier conditions toward the end of the 21^st century than anything we've seen in probably the last 1,000 years."

And rain won't save us, added Noah Diffenbaugh, a climatologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. That's because the hotter weather means whatever water falls to the ground is going to evaporate that much more quickly. "We're on the cusp in California of having every year be a warm year, which means that when low precipitation does occur, there's going to be a much higher risk that that low precipitation produces drought."

"There are a lot of opportunities to deal with these potentially significant droughts in the future," said Cook. "But we just need to be a little bit proactive about it and we need to plan ahead."

In particular, said Diffenbaugh, issues like California water policy, water management, and infrastructure need to be changed to accommodate the climate that exists today. Those systems "were built in an old climate," he noted. "And the reality is, we're in a new climate."

Howard Kunreuther, professor of operations and information management at Wharton University in Pennsylvania, said this megadrought could serve as a harsh wake-up call to Californians, including Angelinos, who might become more aware of the importance of water conservation. "People forget how water is used in many different ways," he said. "The minute you bring up a point like that, people pay attention, and recognize that the things they do today could be beneficial for things that happen in the future that they hadn't really thought about."

Part of the problem, he noted, is that, while another enormous wildfire "is not necessarily going to happen tomorrow, it could happen a few months from now. But it isn't on people's agenda to think about it, and they normally don't think about the water tied into the forest fires." You can "start constructing scenarios as to what could happen," but "how do you get those people to take those scenarios seriously?"

"This isn't something that's going to be solved overnight," he concluded. "But taking steps along the lines of conserving [water] will be a way to deal with [the drought]. The more people do that, the more they will benefit."

Photo: Kevork Djansezian/AP

Today in environmental history: Naturalist John Muir is born

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 13:45:00 +0000

April 21 is John Muir's birthdate in 1838 at Dunbar, Scotland. Muir emigrated to the United States in 1849, and was educated at the University of Wisconsin, 1859-63. He traipsed through a number of Midwestern states studying botanical specimens, and shortly after the end of the Civil War walked from Indianapolis to California, keeping a diary of his observations and thoughts.

He is best known for his sojourn in Yosemite Valley from 1868 to 1874. As a naturalist, explorer and conservationist he also visited Nevada, Utah, and Alaska. For a decade, 1881-91, he settled on a fruit farm near Martinez, Calif.

At his urging, Congress established Yosemite National Park in October 1890. He subsequently campaigned to save America's forest reserves and became friends with President Theodore Roosevelt, who set aside 148 million acres of additional forest land for preservation.

Muir wrote several books. The Sierra Club website provides the complete text of each book in HTML, organized by chapter, usually with the original illustrations. that are available in printed and digital editions.

John Muir co-founded the Sierra Club with Professor Henry Senger, a philologist at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1892, now the nation's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than two million members and supporters. The Sierra Club has succeeded in protecting millions of acres of wilderness, and has helped to pass the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act. The Sierra Club is one of the nation's leading forces in trying to move away from the dirty fossil fuels that cause climate disruption and toward a clean energy economy.

Muir died in Los Angeles on December 24, 1914. The 550-acre Muir Woods National Monument, near San Francisco, is named for him.

In Alaska, on July 18, 1890, he wrote these poetic words:

"How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountaintops it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make - leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone - we all dwell in a house of one room - the world with the firmament for its roof - and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track."

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Today in environmental history: Deepwater Horizon spills into Gulf of Mexico

Mon, 20 Apr 2015 11:07:00 +0000

On this day in 2010, an oil rig run by British Petroleum (BP) exploded in the Gulf of Mexico 41 miles off the Louisiana coast, resulting in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The fire and explosions on the platform - perhaps caused by escaping methane gas - killed 11 workers and injured 17. The rig eventually sank, and the damage to the drilling equipment resulted in an unrelenting flow of oil from the well directly into the gulf. Attempts to staunch the flow were unsuccessful because of the difficulty in working at a depth of approximately one mile below sea level. At the height of the disaster, the well was pouring as much as 60,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. The damage to marine wildlife and the surrounding coastal areas is immeasurable.

Oil on beaches was relatively visible and removable. But the Louisiana coastline is characterized by wetlands, marshes and waterways very difficult to reach. These areas are breeding grounds and home to the many varieties of seafood that comprise Louisiana Cajun cuisine. In subsequent months, the oil had reached other Gulf Coast states, polluting over 1,000 miles of shoreline.

The spill damaged the fishing and tourism industries, leaving over 10,000 people unemployed. This incident took place shortly after the one-year mark of Barack Obama's presidency, and was quickly seen as a test of his administration, especially by contrast to the George W. Bush response to Hurricane Katrina. Obama got a $20 billion compensation fund from BP to help the locals recover.

An investigation after the spill revealed the role of Halliburton - Dick Cheney's oil company - in the malfunction. It also showed BP and Transocean employees on the rig overlooking early warnings of an impending eruption. Engineers were found to have deleted thousands of incriminating emails they had been ordered to save.

In the trial against BP and its partners, substantial fines were levied, and BP's value as a company declined markedly. A spill of this proportion served as a powerful ecological wake-up call. More and more, hard questions are being asked about offshore drilling, and whether it should be permitted at all, much less in sensitive areas subject to longterm or permanent destruction. As the U.S. becomes more energy independent, environmental activists and ordinary citizens are asking, "At what price?"

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard/AP

Amidst drought, the grass is only greener for LA’s wealthy

Mon, 13 Apr 2015 22:31:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - During what is now California's worst drought in at least 1,200 years, agencies are ambivalent over how to convince Angelenos to cut water usage. Potential options include everything from educating residents to rationing, fines, and threats. While a recent executive order was issued by Gov. Jerry Brown requiring a 25 percent cut in water use from 2013 levels, communites are left to struggle with how exactly to achieve that goal. Part of the solution may be getting the wealthy to cooperate with working class people.

Retired resident Dorothy, 65, has lived in LA's Palms neighborhood for 11 years. She told the People's World, "For people who have a decent salary, life is quite comfortable. But we do have a big problem with the water. Unless we cut consumption by a quarter or even a third, we could end up with a real disaster. And so far, many people are not doing their part to save water, despite what they say. They're just going about business as usual. And bottled water and those types of solutions are sometimes out of reach for the poor."

The woman, who emigrated from Germany, said she never ceases to be amazed by how people come along to make a quick buck off of every crisis. She referred to the recent trend of lawn-painting companies - organizations that dye the dried lawns of the upper class a healthy shade of green to keep up appearances. One such company is LawnLift, started by 45 year-old mortgage broker Jim Power, who said, "Most homeowners have no clue how to water their lawns" anyway. According to the LA Times, Escondido resident Sean McDaniel, holding his two pet poodles and gesturing at his emerald lawn, said, "I painted the lawn two days ago." One can buy a 32 oz. bottle of this lawn paint from LawnLift's website for the not-so-low price of $45.95.

"It's all well and good that the wealthy are having their lawns painted green," Dorothy remarked, "but that's not a solution."

Newsha Ajami, director of Urban Water Policy at Stanford University's Water in the West program, said communities need to employ a wide range of conservation measures, rather than just expecting residents to act on their own. She said that levying fines for wasting water is likely a fast way to change behavior. "You need to quickly get to the point," she said.

Jonathan Parfrey, a former LA Department of Water and Power commissioner and executive director of Climate Resolve, added, "We need to soak the rich for soaking their lawns. You gotta price water accordingly so it gets their attention."

One extreme, said Beverly Hills resident Daniel Fink, could be curbing lawn-watering entirely for a while. "California is in the fourth year of the worst drought, and has about a year's worth of stored water left," he said. "But one wouldn't know it looking at all the still-green lawns. We have to stop watering our lawns. The water just isn't there anymore. I know that would be unpopular, but is it better to wait until the taps run dry?"

This drought, Dorothy lamented, "is one example of how we're all going to suffer from climate change."

Photo: A freeway sign in LA advises people to conserve water. | Richard Vogel/AP

Environment issues hurt poor people most, say speakers at LA forum

Fri, 10 Apr 2015 10:19:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Lawmakers and others at a public forum here this week said that environmental issues in the area and nationally are impacting poor people the most. An example is the water conservation mandate issued by Governor Brown. Poor working-class communities conserve more than do communities such as Beverly Hills or Newport Beach.

There needs to be a change forum, participants said, but information needs to get out to the communities regarding the need for immediate action at all levels of government.

Among those making that declaration at the Apr. 8 forum on environmental justice were members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources including California U.S. Reps. Judy Chu, D-Monterrey Park; Normal Torres, D-Pomona; Linda Sanchez, D-Orange; Allen Lowenthal, D-Long Beach; Maxine Waters, D-Calif.; Grace Napolitano, D-Calif.; and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.

Grijalva, who chairs the congressional committee and is a member of the Progressive Caucus, told those gathered that "40 years of environmental policy issues are under attack.

"With this in mind the community needs to improve actions," he said, "to preserve and expand environmental policies and it is especially necessary to involve communities of color in environmental justice issues."

Grijalva told the audience that this was the reason for holding the Environmental Justice public forum in the local community.

Hilda Solis, the former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the first part of the Obama administration and now on the sLos Angeles Board of Supervisor represents the area in which the forum was held. She also reminded the audience that "environmental issues disproportionately hurt low income people."

Torres, who represents a district that is located in the San Gabriel Valley, expressed the need to continue a dialogue with the community over environmental issues. Torres said this is necessary in order to build on actions to oppose those who want to reject any policy that will expand on environmental justice issues. Torres said, "When it comes to environmental issues poor are disproportionately affected. Poor communities seem to pay a higher price than wealthy communities.

Congressional Progressive caucus members Chu and Waters emphasized the fact that environmental justice is a civil rights issue and that poor communities are far more likely to view environmental issues as very important to them, viewing healt, and community economics as part of the civil rights issues. Co Chu and others said they are often told by the Republican leadership in the House that dealing with environmental issues cost too much.

" It costs too much in the long-run," Sanchez said. "Our communities need to push back and say, it costs too much not to act."

Most of the panel agreed that poor communities are marginalized by mainstream environmentalists, government agencies and public officials and the media when comes to addressing environmental issues.

The Public forum on Environmental Justice emphasized the following issues: 1.) Climate is a civil rights issue, a health issue, an economic issue, and an environmental issue as a health. 2.) Poor communities are concerned about global warming because they disproportionately live in the most vulnerable areas. 3) Green access is a civil rights issue as well as a health, economic, and environmental justice concern. 4.) Climate, health, and environmental justice are part of the civil rights revolution that continues today. 5.) The structural obstacles to climate, health, and environmental justice funding must be challenged and changed.

The last speaker was a local high school student from Franklin High School. She wondered why her classmates who were invited to attend a mountain retreat in Yosemite Valley had never before come in contact with nature and in fact never had been informed about environmental issues. She viewed this as a travesty and declared that this must change.

Grijalva informed the audience that a follow-up forum will be scheduled with more emphasis on community-based actions and participation. This was the first type of environmental justice forum held in the Los Angeles area. Full remarks can be viewed at www.cityprojects.org/blog/acchiees/36584.

Photo: Rep. Grijalva, D-Ariz. | AP

Today in environmental history: Bill McKibben steps it up with 350.org

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 13:08:00 +0000

On this date in 2007, Bill McKibben begins to organize against climate change with a walk across Vermont, his home state. Begun as "Step It Up," 350.org has evolved from climate scientists' finding that atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide - CO2 - above 350 parts per million is unsafe for life on Earth.

"If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from [current levels] to at most 350 ppm."

That's Dr. James Hansen talking, former head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and one of the world's most respected climatologists. When he says that climate change is incompatible with human civilization, people ought to sit up and take notice.

That "350 ppm" is where 350.org gets its name: "ppm" is simply a way of measuring the ratio of CO2 molecules to all of the other molecules in the atmosphere. Many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments agree that 350 ppm is the "safe" level of carbon dioxide.

Since the beginning of human civilization, our atmosphere contained about 275 ppm of CO2. Beginning in the 18th century, humans began to burn coal, gas, and oil to produce energy and goods. The amount of carbon in the atmosphere began to rise, at first slowly and now more quickly. Many of the activities we do every day, like turning the lights on, cooking food, or heating our homes, rely on energy sources that emit CO2 and other heat-trapping gases. We're taking millions of years worth of carbon, once stored beneath the earth as fossil fuels, and releasing it into the atmosphere.

Right now we're at 400 ppm, and we're adding 2 ppm of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year. Unless we are able to rapidly turn that around and return to below 350 ppm this century, we risk triggering tipping points and irreversible impacts that could send climate change spinning truly beyond our control.

So far, we've experienced about one degree (Celsius) of warming, and the impacts are frightening. Glaciers everywhere are melting and disappearing fast, threatening the primary source of clean water for millions of people. Mosquitoes, which like a warmer world, are spreading into lots of new places, and bringing malaria and dengue fever with them. Drought is becoming much more common, making food harder to grow in many places. Sea levels have begun to rise, and scientists warn that they could go up as much as several meters this century. If that happens, many of the world's cities, island nations, and farmland will be underwater. Meanwhile, the oceans are growing more acidic because of the CO2 they are absorbing, which makes it harder for animals like corals and clams to build their shells and exoskeletons. All around the globe, we're stacking the deck for extreme weather - like hurricanes, typhoons, blizzards, and droughts - which exacerbates conflicts and security issues in regions that are already strapped for resources.

The Arctic and Antarctic are sending us clear messages that climate change is occurring much more rapidly than previously thought. In the summer of 2012, roughly half of the Arctic's sea ice went missing (some scientists estimate the volume of summer sea ice loss as high as 80 percent). The entire Arctic region is undergoing drastic changes, threatening vital habitat for countless species (yes, including polar bears) and the livelihoods of many indigenous communities. This is also bringing us closer to dangerous tipping points, like the breakdown of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from quickening permafrost melt.

This is the science of climate change. It is no longer up for debate: Our climate is changing profoundly and rapidly, and human activity is the cause. The political implications are obvious: The Earth cannot support the effects of climate deniers in public office.

Adapted from 350.org

GMO labels on food: Chicagoans dish out activism

Fri, 03 Apr 2015 11:35:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Backed by advocacy group Food & Water Watch and fueled by a demand for health and transparency, residents took to the streets Apr. 2 to support the Genetically Engineered Food Labeling Act. They encouraged state Sen. Donne Trotter to do the same, as that legislation would require the Food and Drug Administration to label genetically engineered foods, thus granting people their right to know what they're eating and how it is produced.

To that end, Chicagoans on the city's south side delivered hundreds of petitions they had collected over the past few weeks, plus a coalition letter of 30 small businesses and other local groups in or near Trotter's district. It's the latest support for the bill also known as SB 734, which currently has 20 senate co-sponsors and community backing from groups including the Sierra Club, the Illinois Public Health Association, and the Illinois Farmers Union. Food & Water Watch has joined the fight in keeping with their tradition of ensuring safety, accessibility, and sustainability of food and water, and consumers are now taking charge with their support.

"At the heart of this campaign is consumer rights," said organizer Alyssa Hartman. "People deserve to know what they are eating and what they're feeding their children. Illinoisans have a right to know everything they can about the food they purchase, and the state legislature has a responsibility to ensure that transparency to constituents."

This development in the battle for GMO (genetically modified organism) accountability comes on the heels of a call for reform on the local level, in which the Illinois Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (PIRG) issued an open letter Mar. 8 calling on Jewel-Osco grocery stores to label its store brand products for GMO ingredients.

"As a coalition of community groups, small local farmers, grocery stores, schools, and public health, consumer, and environmental advocates in Illinois," said the PIRG, "we write to ask you to support your customers by agreeing to label your store brand products. There are many reasons to be concerned about GMO foods. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN has warned that some 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers turn to genetically uniform, mass-produced crop varieties. Because GMOs usually don't undergo safety testing before they're brought to market, many consumers are worried about their long-term impact. Further, some GMOs are designed for increased pesticide use, which has been linked to serious health and environmental affects."

Food & Water Watch was amongst the local groups who endorsed the open letter, of which there were 31. Included were such groups as the Southeast Environmental Task Force, who have been at the forefront of the fight in south Chicago against harmful piles of petcoke that are causing health issues, and the Illinois Farmers Union, which has supported SB 734. The letter was also endorsed by 13 national organizations.

"As a citizen of Illinois, I want the politicians that I help elect to stand up for my rights," said activist Erik Malone. "I hope Senator Trotter heard us today and chooses to give the folks that live here a say in what they are purchasing by labeling GMOs."

Photo: Food & Water Watch Illinois

Today in environmental history: Mojave Desert spared a nuclear waste dump

Thu, 02 Apr 2015 14:23:00 +0000

This date in 1999 recalls a colossal environmental victory.

Ward Valley, Calif., was decided upon in 1988 as the preferred location for a nuclear waste dump to be operated by U.S. Ecology. The state of California had to buy the Mojave Desert acreage from the Bureau of Land Management, and then grant the firm permission to build only 20 miles away from the Colorado River. For a decade legal, cultural and environmental issues, involving the rights of local Native Americans, an endangered species of desert tortoise, as well as the track record and competence of U.S. Ecology, roiled the state.

Such environmental activist groups as Greenpeace and the Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition, joined with the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance (CRNNA) to stop the project. In late 1995, they occupied the land, coming and going to conform to policies on camping in the desert. At a demonstration in front of the Federal Building of Los Angeles in December, CRNNA called upon the sacred importance of the environment to the Native communities. The Department of Interior refused to grant the CRNNA standing, however, thus denying the native peoples a voice in the required Environmental Impact Statement on the dump. Later the CRNNA filed a claim under the Civil Rights Act due to the sacred status of the Ward Valley. Rev. Jesse Jackson agreed with the analysis of "environmental racism," and became a strong ally.

For the next couple of years the encampments continued. Activists blockaded the dumpsite entrance, even after the Department of Interior ordered the occupation closed. Volunteers kept arriving from near and far to try and stop the dump. Afraid of provoking a confrontation, the Bureau of Land Management removed its law-enforcement officers from the area. The occupation ended in June 1998, but the activist coalition continued to pressure state officials, including Governor Gray Davis, to cancel the project.

On April 2, 1999, U.S. Ecology and the state of California lost a federal lawsuit. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt refused to sell the land to the state, and with a final U.S. Court of Appeals judgment the next year, the Ward Valley nuclear land dump plan came to an end.

There really is no 100% safe way to store radioactive waste for all time. Any waste dump anywhere is in effect a time bomb waiting to explode. Other energy and industrial waste is also problematic. Technological advances require responsible disposal or conversion for dangerous by-products. Although consciousness over these issues has grown exponentially, the people's will is far ahead of governmental policy in most countries, including our own.

For more information see here.

Photo: http://www.h-o-m-e.org