Tag: environmental activism

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Activism Environmentalism Sustainability

What Does The Public Think Of Environmental Concerns?

By: Keith Barrett

Environmental concerns are often in the news and often aired by celebrities and the public.  However, the environment is a broad term and covers everything from global warming through to the quality of the air that we breathe, so what exactly does the term “environmental concerns” mean to people.

A Gallup poll in America addressed this in order to find out what was most the most pressing and worrying issue when it came to their environmental concerns.  The study, which had also run in a previous year, actually showed that all environmental issues had actually dropped, with American citizens putting more importance on other points of concern such as fuel costs and terrorism.  However, of the environmental concerns stated, the largest concern was the pollution of drinking water, with over 50% of those surveyed citing it as a particular worry.

Fears about water pollution

Second in the list, at 46%, was the pollution of rivers, lakes and of reservoirs, again hinting at the concern of the health and safety of drinking water.

Further down the list was the contamination of soil.  Contamination of soil could lead to toxic products or toxins getting into the food chain through the indigestion of contaminated product through animals.

This quickly shows that the environmental concerns on the mind of Americans are those that could directly affect them and their health.  This was backed up further with the next most common environmental concern being air pollution.  Air pollution has been linked to increased cases of asthma and other respiratory problems as well as allergies.

Towards the bottom of the list of environmental issues was the loss of tropical rain forests, followed by the extinction of plant and animal species.  Surprisingly, at the very bottom of the list was global warming with just 28% of people volunteering it as an environmental concern on their mind.

These figures definitely show that environmental concerns seem to be driven by how they could directly affect people and their families rather than how it could affect other countries or the World in general.  This is a worrying environmental issue in its own right considering that some of the most pressing issues are indeed global warming and rising sea levels all of which need to be tackled sooner rather than later.

Policy impacts

Looking at this evidence of views in the United States, it seems that there must be an impact here for policy makers. In order to really get the message across on a range of green topics, it appears to be clear that there’s a real need to get the public engaged.

At present, this evidence suggests that there is a real lack of dynamic energy when observing the way that such issues are being handled. Media stories often surround extreme cases, but the public want a more reasoned debate, with informative discussion of the key problems that are being faced.

Keith Barrett writes about environmental news and on varied topics relating to environmental issues. He believes that awareness of these issues is enlightening.


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Activism Agriculture Animal Rights Nature pestecide

A New Purdue University Study Reconfirms: Pesticides Kill Bees!

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A new USDA funded study performed by Purdue University verifies what many environmentalists have long alleged and several groups of scientists have proven. The massive beehive die-offs known as Colony Collapse Disorder are linked to factory farms and pesticides. In particular, researchers are pointing to a category of pesticides sold by the German company Bayer.

 

The Perfect Specicide System For Bees (brought to you by Bayer©)

According to this study  , the bee deaths are connected to neonicotinoid  class of pesticides, which use a synthetic derivative of nicotine. These chemicals are applied as a glaze to corn and soybean seeds prior to planting. They are then absorbed by the plant’s vascular system and the appear in pollen and nectar. Factory farms have planted MILLIONS of acres of farmland with neonicotinoid treated seeds since 2003, and this is not the first time danger has been shown. On July 23, 2010, Dutch toxicologist, Dr Henk Tennekes had a scientific paper published in the journal, Toxicology (online) titled, “Druckrey-Küpfmüller Equation For Risk Assessment” He then authored and published a book in regards to his research called “A Disaster in the Making”. The book explores the impact of neonicotinoids on the immune system of bees.

The newer Purdue study shows that Bayer’s products are far more poisonous to bees than the company wants the Government and people to think. The researchers found that “maize pollen was frequently collected by foraging honey bees while it was available: maize pollen comprised over 50% of the pollen collected by bees, by volume, in 10 of 20 samples.”
Bayer denies its pesticide has contributed to bee die-offs. (Bayer also continued to sell contaminated blood plasma causing thousands of hemophiliac patients to be infected with AIDS, as reported in the NY Times 22 May 2003, but thats another story of this evil and old company). The company says that bees do not seek corn and therefore only trace amounts of neonicotinoid containing pollen will return to hives. And to date, the EPA has propped up Bayer’s claims.

There are also some unanticipated means by which bees are exposed to the pesticides, largely caused by hefty sized commercial “factory farmers”. The highly automated world of automatic monoculture uses giant mechanical seed planters. The seeders need a powder  applied to prevent the polymers used to bond the chemicals to the seeds from clogging up seed coating machine and the seed planters. This powder, along with small amount of pesticides collect in and on the seed bins. As the tractor does its rounds these bins shed a powdery waste of pure poison. This waste is dangerous to bees. The powder can contain up to 700,000 times the bee’s lethal dosage of neonicotinoid, and so of course any bees that come into make contact with it are killed. These initial population losses begin to weaken the hives.

As the pesticide cloud comes to rest on plants in close proximity to the fields and into the soil and water, there is lasting danger to bees as the pesticides are persistent in the foodchain. An dif these chemicals hurt bees, you can be sure humans, plants and other animals in the area are at risk. Any flowers or even your own home garden near treated crop fields can harbor the poison. Bees gather nectar and pollen from the flowers and other plants and will bring the neonicotinoids back to the hive. Although these small levels of the pesticide do not kill the bees, their immune systems become compromised, leaving hives vulnerable to other pressures. Also, newly developing larvae are affected by exposure to pesticides through the stored pollen, bees only source of protein. The cascading effects of these small but continuous doses can potentially devastate an entire hive. Scientists found neonicotinoid pesticides in every sample of dead and dying bees as well as in pollen the bees collected and brought back to the hives, not only in this study, but in several studies now.

The Human Hive Mind

US regulatory agencies follow a policy of relying on manufacturer funded and provided data to conclude the safety of pesticides and herbicides. Although a leaked document in 2010 revealed that EPA scientists found Bayer’s research on its neonic pesticides to be suspect, the agency has not acted to stop the sale or use of these products.

Bayer has profited over one billion dollars from its two neonic products imidacloprid and clothianidin. Given Bayer’s immense wealth and power, it seems unlikely the EPA will take action, particularly in a presidential election year. This means Colony Collapse Disorder is likely to continue to devastate bee populations, leaving reverberating effects on the environment for generations to come. Honeybees are responsible for 80 per cent of all pollination as they collect nectar for the hive, t The mortality rate is the highest in living memory

This type of insecticide was banned in France, Slovenia and Germany after this step the bee populations began to rise again.

 

Tell the EPA and the US President to take action BAN neonic products like imidacloprid and clothianidin.

 

 
Sources:

http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/purdue-study-implicates-bayer-insecticide-bee-die-offs

http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120111KrupkeBees.html

http://www.panna.org/blog/banner-week-bee-science-zombie-flies-poisonous-planter-exhaust

 

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Activism Environmentalism

The Film "Pick Axe": An Activist Success Story!

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A Heartwarming Environmental Story That Will Make You Smile; It’s One of My Favorites, Maybe It Will Be Yours Too!


Pick Axe, though filmed in 1999, is a heartening film that documents the work of environmental activists taking a stand to protect an old growth forest from logging at Warner Creek in the Willamette National Forest of Oregon.  While old growth forests are technically considered protected land, after a forest fire (possibly the result of arsen in this case), it was opened up to logging as “salvage” wood.  Now forest fires are a natural part of a forest’s life cycle and given time to recover, they will actualy strengthen a forest and its ecosystems.  This of course can’t happen if those trees are cut in the meantime.  The community of activists that came to be known as “Cascadia Free State” protected this chunk of forest by occupying and blockading the logging road for many months keeping out loggers and police alike.

There are two things that made me fall in love with this film.  The first is the incredible community that was formed.  The film is crafted by the activists themselves and gives a very true picture of what their time on that logging road was like.  The second is that there is a happy ending (who doesn’t like those?).  In the end, Warner Creek was saved and the activists who were arrested (toward the end of the film) were set free.

I watch this film every time I start to feel disheartened or frustrated about the effectiveness of working for change.  It is hard not feel disempowered when you are up against people with so much money and power.  But the fact is, people have brought about change in the past, and that knowledge should empower us to bring about change in the present and the future.  You may not be able to save the entire planet, but you can work to better your corner of it and when we all put our efforts together, who knows what we have yet to achieve!

Below is the film in its entirety. Enjoy!