Green Mission News – May 2017

Humans Produce So Much Junk, We Are Creating a New Geological Layer

The technofossils we leave behind will create a mark on the planet.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/03/humans_are_creating_a_new_geological_layer_of_technofossils.html

According to a conservative geological estimate from a team of international researchers led by the University of Leicester, all this stuff weighs 30 trillion tons. That’s 110 pounds—the weight of a semi-truck’s tire—for every square meter of the earth’s surface. The group also calculated that the sheer diversity of the types of technofossils we as a species have made—it already exceeds the number of biotic species living on Earth now, and may even “exceed the total biological diversity through Earth’s history.”

Creative people physically see and process the world differently

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2127804-creative-people-physically-see-and-process-the-world-differently/

 Go for glass, buy in bulk and give yourself time: 

Woman, 35, on how she adopted a ‘zero waste’ lifestyle… and how you can too

 

Protectors of the sacred Niyamgiri Hills

http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/prafulla-samantara/

‘Seed’ Documentary Explores the David-and-Goliath Battle With Food Corporations

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/seed_documentary_explores_battle_with_food_corporations_20170417

Scotland Sets Wind Record, Provides Enough Electricity for 3.3 Million Homes in March

http://www.ecowatch.com/scotland-wind-power-record-2357425827.html

Americans Need to Stop Trashing 15 Million Tons of Clothing Every Year

http://www.care2.com/causes/americans-need-to-stop-trashing-15-million-tons-of-clothing-every-year.html

How businesses are responding to rising demand for chemical transparency

http://saferchemicals.org/2017/04/14/how-businesses-are-responding-to-rising-demand-for-chemical-transparency/

Of foxes, henhouses and TSCA implementation: The chemical industry burrows into EPA’s toxics office

http://blogs.edf.org/health/2017/04/19/chemical-industry-burrows-into-epas-toxics-office/

Climate Change Will Make American Farmers’ Lives More Difficult

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/spare_a_thought_for_american_farmers_climate_change_is_going_20170409

‘We can save life on Earth’: study reveals how to stop mass extinction

https://news.mongabay.com/2017/04/we-can-save-life-on-earth-study-reveals-how-to-stop-mass-extinction/

Free bicycles reducing pollution in China

http://climatenewsnetwork.net/free-bicycles-reduce-pollution-china/

Half of All Species Are on the Move—And We’re Feeling It – As climate change displaces everything from moose to microbes, it’s affecting human foods, businesses, & diseases.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/climate-change-species-migration-disease/

How the mainstream economic vocabulary has been turned around in an Orwellian way

Democracy at Work’s Paul Sliker and Dante Dallavalle talk with Michael Hudson, one of the world’s six economists who accurately predicted the 2007-2008 financial crisis. His new book, J is for Junk Economics, reveals how the mainstream economic vocabulary has been turned around in an Orwellian way to mean just the opposite of what words used to mean.

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/40161-economist-michael-hudson-on-junk-economics

Abrupt Climate Change Is Happening Faster Than Before

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40204-abrupt-climate-change-is-happening-faster-than-before

Pruitt’s Rejection of Chlorpyrifos Ban Seems Based on “Alternative Facts”

http://www.earthisland.org/journal/rejection_of_chlorpyrifos_ban_seems_based_on_alternative_facts/

GROUPS APPEAL EPA’S REFUSAL TO BAN MAJOR PESTICIDE LINKED TO BRAIN DAMAGE IN CHILDREN

Environmental health groups ask court to order EPA to take immediate action to ban chlorpyrifos

http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2017/pesticide-linked-to-brain-damage-in-children%20

Monsanto’s activities have negative impact on basic human rights

http://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/main.php?obj_id=965946583

Stunning drops in solar and wind costs turn global power market upside down

https://thinkprogress.org/renewables-cheapest-new-power-globally-74910c78bbbe

Great Barrier Reef at ‘terminal stage’: scientists despair at latest bleaching data.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/10/despair-latest-coral-bleaching-data

Is soil the great new integrator?

From the drought-plagued Valle del Cauca in Colombia to the High Plains of West Texas, farmers are learning to work with the land instead of against it.

“Improving soil health is like growing an asset”

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2017/march/is-soil-the-great-new-integrator

Suzuki wants journalists to forget the Dow Jones, report on climate every day

http://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/04/13/news/suzuki-wants-journalists-forget-dow-jones-report-climate-every-day

Q&A ‘The world shifts’: Gov. Jerry Brown talks California, climate change and President Trump

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-gov-jerry-brown-interview-20170415-htmlstory.html

Death and Life of the Great Lakes

http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=17-P13-00015&segmentID=6

Wilder Fires and Rising Waters, Climate Impacts Coming to America’s Door

Pair of new studies show how American climate refugees will ‘reshape’ population landscape of the nation

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/18/wilder-fires-and-rising-waters-climate-impacts-coming-americas-door

Anthropocene News:

 Trillions of Plastic Bits, Swept Up by Current, Are Littering Arctic Waters

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/climate/arctic-plastics-pollution.html?_r=0

Lake pollution rivals ocean ‘garbage patch’

Dr. Mason is a leading researcher on this topic, and conducted the first ever plastic pollution survey within the Great Lakes. 

http://www.westlakebayvillageobserver.com/read/2017/04/18/lake-pollution-rivals-ocean-garbage-patch

Shocking photos reveal plankton consuming microplastics

Every day, millions of tiny plastic fragments, known as microfibres, are released into the seas, where they are eaten by animals. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4420992/Shocking-photos-reveal-plankton-consuming-microplastics.html 

Scourge of the sea: Florida activists raise awareness of a major threat to our aquatic ecosystems

This widely-circulated image shows the shocking consequences of plastic pollution.

http://www.cltampa.com/news-views/environment/article/20858436/plastic-people-as-activist-fight-irreversible-damage-to-our-oceans-policymakers-are-indifferent

 Opportunities for plastics in a circular world

Plastic is an amazing material, with so many good uses, but its afterlife, in the form of plastic pollution, Is creating …

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/opportunities-plastics-circular-world

How a Warming Planet Drives Human Migration

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/magazine/how-a-warming-planet-drives-human-migration.html?_r=0

Kentucky Coal Museum Goes Solar

The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum will always commemorate the past, but now it’s also looking to the future by switching to solar power.

http://www.ecowatch.com/kentucky-coal-mining-museum-solar-2347877632.html

Court Orders EPA to Close Loophole, Factory Farms Required to Report Toxic Pollution

http://www.ecowatch.com/epa-factory-farm-report-pollution-2355997089.html

Regenerative agriculture: Bringing our soil back to life

https://www.optimistdaily.com/2017/04/regenerative-agriculture-bringing-our-soil-back-to-life/

Soil Carbon Alliance White Paper presents first calculations of how fast climate can be stabilized at safe levels

http://www.soilcarbonalliance.org/2016/12/17/new-soil-carbon-alliance-white-paper-presents-first-calculations-of-how-fast-climate-can-be-stabilized-at-safe-levels/

What is a ‘smart city’?

Definitions vary, but one goal is constant: to develop more sustainable and livable communities for all ages and abilities.

http://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/what-is-a-smart-city/439839/

Mitigating Climate Disaster Will Require Both Systemic and Lifestyle Changes

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40237-mitigating-climate-disaster-will-require-both-systemic-and-lifestyle-changes

Climate change action is good for the economy – and Britain is the proof

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/09/climate-change-good-for-economy-britain-john-major-global-warming

CLIMATE CHANGE IS MORE THAN A TECH PROBLEM, SO WE NEED MORE THAN A TECH SOLUTION

Climate change mitigation requires systemic social change, not just technological optimism

https://ensia.com/voices/climate-change-social-fix/

Climate Change as Genocide Inaction Equals Annihilation

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176269/climate-change_catastrophe/#more

3 Big Myths about Modern Agriculture

Myths get in the way of our ability to restore degraded soils that can feed the world using fewer chemicals

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/3-big-myths-about-modern-agriculture1/

Large, high-intensity forest fires will increase

Wildfire experts predict that by 2041, there will be four large, high-intensity forest fires for every three that occur now, with the number of days when conditions are conducive to fires increasing.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170410085510.htm

Climate Change will increase Turbulence on Flights

Dr Paul Williams, University of Reading

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/climate-change-will-increase-turbulence-flights

Scientists Fear Climate Data Gap as Trump Aims at Satellites

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/climate/trump-nasa-satellites-global-warming-data.html?_r=0&referer=&referer=

Vital groundwater depleted faster than ever

http://climatenewsnetwork.net/groundwater-depleted-faster/

Catastrophic Antibiotic Threat from Food

http://www.ipsnews.net/2017/04/catastrophic-antibiotic-threat-from-food/

THIS POLLUTED LAKE SHOWS WHY WE ARE ALL STAKEHOLDERS WHEN IT COMES TO CLEAN WATER

When environmental protection gets short shrift, the price we pay can be staggering.

https://ensia.com/voices/onondaga-protect-environment/

Trump’s climate demands roil U.S. allies

Documents show the administration pushed other G-7 countries to embrace larger roles for nuclear power and fossil fuels. They refused

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/trump-fossil-fuels-g7-tension-237129

Non-Profits Sue Monsanto Over Misleading Labeling of Popular Herbicide Roundup

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/04/12/non-profits-sue-monsanto-over-misleading-labeling-popular-herbicide-roundup

Solar hits big, brief milestone in California

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Solar-hits-big-brief-milestone-in-California-11063785.php

California Leads the Way in Solar Power

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/california_leads_the_way_in_solar_power_20170415

Nuclear giants limp towards extinction

http://climatenewsnetwork.net/nuclear-giants-limp-towards-extinction/

When climate change was part of the Farm Bill

https://www.iatp.org/blog/201704/when-climate-change-was-part-farm-bill

SNOW, WATER, ICE, PERMAFROST IN THE ARCTIC

http://www.amap.no/swipa2017

SUSTAINABLE FOODS SUMMIT: THE NEED TO LOOK BEYOND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

http://www.worldpressonline.com/PressRelease/sustainable-foods-summit-the-need-to-look-beyond-environmental-impacts-57406.html

How To Be A Climate Optimist

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-to-be-a-climate-optimist_us_58f8e237e4b086ce58980e7c

The Regenerative Economy: A New Approach to Capitalism

https://nextbillion.net/the-regenerative-economy-a-new-approach-to-capitalism/

Urban farmer turns town garden plot into permaculture experience

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-25/urban-farmer-turns-garden-plot-into-permaculture-experience/8466744\

Fighting climate change on the farm

http://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/Fighting-climate-change-on-the-farm-20170426

Iowa Producer Warns Of Corporate Risks

http://www.yankton.net/community/article_e2d7fb9c-2968-11e7-b65d-1399330a0bca.html

The Day You Changed The Economy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-day-you-changed-the-economy_us_5900cb65e4b06feec8ac9292

HOW THIS NEW FOOD LABEL MAY KEEP YOU FROM BEING POISONED

http://www.gmoinside.org/how-this-new-food-label-may-keep-you-from-being-poisoned-the-alternative-daily/

2017 Will Be Hottest Year In History As Global Warming Temperature Rises

http://www.technoexaminer.com/2017-will-be-hottest-year-in-history-as-global-warming-temperature-rises-1257.html

Permaculture – towards making life patterns sustainable

http://www.fairviewpost.com/2017/04/12/permaculture—towards-making-life-patterns-sustainable

Forest Gardening in Practice book launch – Painstakingly researched yet highly readable, and totally packed with fruity stories and lessons.

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/news/forest-gardening-practice-launch

How our plastic bag ‘greenwash’ plastic bag recycling story triggered a government investigation

The department of environmental affairs has launched an investigation into claims that “recyclable” plastic shopping bags 

cannot actually be recycled‚ following a Sunday Times report at the weekend.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2017/04/12/How-our-plastic-bag-‘greenwash’-plastic-bag-recycling-story-triggered-a-government-investigation

Transition Town artists will be part of Northern Spark

http://www.parkbugle.org/87726-2/

Villar proposes extended producer responsibility to limit plastic wastes

http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/04/10/villar-proposes-extended-producer-responsibility-to-limit-plastic-wastes/

Tender awarded for services to enhance Aboriginal participation in Queensland carbon farming

https://mysunshinecoast.com.au/news/news-display/tender-awarded-for-services-to-enhance-aboriginal-participation-in-queensland-carbon-farming,48882

Assessing the ROI of EPR

http://recycle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Assessing-the-ROI-of-EPR-RR-April-2017-Dimino-Cassel.pdf

[break]