check out this amazing and disturbing photo essay by brendan corr called End of the Line. it deals with the dangerous and hazardous work of ship breaking, the piece by piece dismanteling of those gigantic cargo ships, naval vessels, and cruise liners. now almost all of this highly toxic and hazardous work takes place asian countries, mostly in India, Bangladesh, Turkey, China, and Pakistan. workers are often exposed to high levels of asbestos, heavy metals, and other contaminants. greenpeace has been involved in effective activism and campaigns to stop western nations from exporting ‘end of life’ toxic ships to poorer countries. greenpeace has even spotlighted 50 toxic ships, including the Pacific Princess - a.k.a. the love boat, in their campaign.
Archive for the 'environment' Category
wow. from treehugger, a great post on a stylish little diesel powered car that get 157 miles per gallon. hello! the car is called the Loremo AG. it weighs less than a thousand pounds, seats 4, diesel fuel powered (no hybrid technology), aerodynamic, has a modest 2-cylinder, 20 hp turbo engine, a top speed of 100 mph, and does 0-60 mph in ten seconds. no, it’s not a sports car. but who the fuck cares? did i mention it gets 157 miles per gallon? oh, and is anticipated to cost around $13,000? i’m sold. it hits the european market (wah!) in 2009. so cool!
giantmonster does love all things yeti. so when we heard reports that a lobster with white furry arms had been discovered, we knew two things: 1) aliens have been breeding sasquatches with other earth species (you knew that though). and 2) someone somewhere would get around to calling this new found hairy crustacean a type of yeti (if not, at least half-italian). behold - the yeti crab! found south of easter island near an underwater thermal vent. bbc news has the biggest photo i’ve seen so far.
2006 should be the year you give up red meat. i’m not joking. mad cow disease is no joke. here’s a recent story that should have been front page news but wasn’t: US Meat Supply at Risk of Mad Cow. mmmm … beefy! and if you know what a downer cow is, you’ll be unhappy to hear that, according to the USDA inspector general, downer cows are entering the US meat & food supply. downer cows are supposed to be banned as food source meat. but their entering the US food supply isn’t old news. it’s just not reported, or rather it’s lied about and covered up. and a report by the agricultural department found that it could not determine whether beef slaughterhouses and packing plants obeyed safeguards designed to keep mad cow disease from reaching humans. the regulations are largely ignored. yikes! but it’s not all bad for red meat lovers. if you’re hooked on the beef, then make a smart move to only eat organic meat from free range grass fed cows, such as napa free range beef or niman ranch. you just can’t trust factory farmed meat anymore. period.
a very cool, highly functional, & quiet design for renewable energy coming from england. the quiet-revolution is a vertical-axis wind turbine capable of generating 6kW. because of it’s blade design and single moving part, the quietrevoltion is not only quiet, but it allows for some cool lighting effects as well as display/advertising options. link via treehugger.
so .. a thought. ever since a swarm of bees made it’s home inside one of the walls of my house 2 years ago (this is common for old houses i guess) i’ve been thinking about being an apiarist (a beekeeper, yo! raising honey bees ‘n shit). not with the bees in my living room walls - no. those bees were safely taken away by a beekeeper a while back. raising bees is just a thought. and also a damn fine reason to invest in a rad costume for my honeybee-raising business! hell yeah! but would raising bees on a rooftop or backyard be doable when i move back to SF, or any major city for that matter? apparently so. according to a study by a French beekeepers’ association, city bees are healthier and more productive than country bees. from the BBC news article:
Urban bees enjoy higher temperatures and a wider variety of plant life for pollination, while avoiding ill-effects of pesticides, the study said.
who knew? anyway, this news makes me happy.
looking into installing solar panels on your home? cool - now you can get partially re-embursed for that long term sense of thinking. the california public utilities commission approved a $2.9 billion dollar plan for rebates for residential homes and businesses that install solar panels within the next 11 years. i’ve long thought that any new government buildings should utilize renewable power & incorporate some sort of solar or wind generating power system into the project/structure. the more common solar panel production becomes, the cheaper it will be to use & install. very cool news. you can check if your california energy provider offers discounts/rebates on alternative energy projects in your area.
this is the tiniest car i have ever seen. it’s called the tango and it seats two (as in 2-to-tango). neat! it’s made by commuter cars. the tango is just 5 feet tall, 39 inches wide, and 8.5 feet long - allowing it to park perpendicular to the curb. it’s also all electric, can go from 0-60 in 4 seconds, and on a full charge has a travel range of about 70 miles. perfect for city driving.
wanted to give a shout about a great website: greasecar.com. convert any diesel car to run on 100% vegetable oil and/or waste oil. yes! check out their conversion kits - very nice, yes. and their info on setting up your own grease fuel filter system. just pick up all your grease from local restaraunts and drive on. completely avoid buying gas again. very great resource.
radness! a student in utah named Brent Singleton is undertaking the task of building a 1932 classic ford coupe into a hybrid vehicle!!! i’m soo happy to hear people doing this! also, brent & other students are working on a system they can then develope into a kit so other folks can make the conversion! link found via treehugger.
more fun with meat! please take a minute to read the article on common dreams titled Chemical Farm. something to think about:
Eighty percent all antibiotics in the United States are given not to people to cure disease but to animals to make them fatten up and enable them to survive unhygienic confinement in factory farms
also, for insight into the factory chicken farms, check out the book titled Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America’s Favorite Food by steve striffler. you can also read an excerpt from the book. the point of all my posting about food these last few days is basically in terms of your health it would be best to only eat organic meats and organic dairy or just go off of eating meat and dairy (or just non-organic dairy) altogether.
yet another glaringly obvious reason to go organic, or at least never use genetically modified foods. research has found that genetically modified peas cause allergic damage in mice. specifically lung damage. GM foods are bad. studies show that animals actually avoid eating GM grain if given choice. GM foods are based on maximizing profit and are meant to benefit factory farms and factory farming techniques. your best source for food is to shop at local farmers markets (find one in california) and food co-ops, or buy certified organic foods from your grocer. more on avoiding GM foods here and the campaign to identify and label GM foods.
wow. i wish this was available here in california. i’d switch in a second. bullfrog power is the first green power company & electricity retailer - deriving 100% of it’s power from renewable and ecologically safe methods. 20% from wind power and 80% from safe hydroelectric sites. that’s 100% clean power! of course, it’s from canada too. man, those canadians are good.
while keeping ANWR in mind, there’s a photo gallery show at san francsico city hall titled Crude Reflections: ChevronTexaco’s Rainforest Legacy. you can view the photo exhibit as a slideshow online. but there’s a lot more to read about and a lot more to see. take a look at the website chevrontoxico.com. you can read about the history of what is called the “Rainforest Chernobyl”.
From 1964 to 1992, Texaco drilled for oil in the northern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, known as the “Oriente”. The company left 627 open toxic waste pits and other facilities which continue to leak highly toxic waste, affecting more than 30,000 local people.
view maps of Chevron-Texaco’s operations, read about the PR firm hired to mislead the public on the contamination and devastation by Chevron-Texaco. read about the historic case Aguinda v. ChevronTexaco. or just watch a video titled Ecuador’s Black Plague to see for yourself. and here is that same oil company posting record profits (same thing last year) in the face of deliberately dumping 18.5 billion gallons of toxic waste directly into the rainforest. incredible.
from the treehugger website, these great LED christmas lights are awesome! i dig decorating for christmas. but always hated the excess amount of power needed to run lights. well, these LED xmas lights not only look cool, but they use 80% less energy than standard christmas lights. and, they’re LEDs so the bulbs won’t burn out! a store called amberleaves has the best price at $9.95 for a 50 light strand. they are also available at gardener’s supply company (in white too) and brookstone.
what a great last 2 days! first, arnold’s lame reform agenda failed miserably. thank you! and what is reform? limiting the power of teachers and labor unions, or limiting the influence of big business like insurance & drug companies? seriously, what a waste of money. it would have been better to say ‘let’s give this money directly to our schools.’ but no. now, he’s as good as gone. and now today i read Alaskan refuge drilling pulled from House bill. from the SFGate article:
At least 22 Republicans had told the House leadership they would not vote for the sweeping bill unless the drilling provision was removed and they are given assurances that it will not return after House and Senate negotiators hash out a final measure.
so good to hear good news.
congress is hard at work. certainly not in investigating the falsified information in the lead up to the iraq war. no. but the senate has said yes to big oil by allowing drilling in the artic national wildlife refuge. the senate vote of 52-47 in favor of drilling directs the Department of the Interior to begin selling oil leases within four years in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. so will ANWR oil fill your tank? is it worth it? keep in mind: this oil will not be available for 10 years, will only reduce our dependance on foreign oil imports by 4%, and the damage done to the environment will be irreversible. yes, you can read these entirely bullshit propaganda websites (anwr.org or anwr.com) sponsored by energy & oil companies set up promoting the drilling in the alaska. but drilling in ANWR is just another political favor by the corrupt republican party. The House of Representatives decides next week on whether to keep the drilling measure in the bill. contact your representative and let them know this is no good.
in mexico, missouri, a new biodiesel plant is scheduled to open in november of 2006. the $27 million plant, will turn soybeans into diesel fuel and add 30 million gallons of biodiesel to the 25 million gallons currently produced in missouri. that will make it the largest biodiesel plant in the world. currently the state of iowa has the largest biodiesel plant, with production at 37.5 million gallons per year. of course, if you have a diesel and some time, you can always make your own biodiesel. or just use vegetable oil.
watch this fast moving nasa satellite video of hurricanes & tropical storms rolling through the atlantic. from june 2005 up until now. some storms seem to sputter & spin out randomly in the atlantic while others make a bee-line for the gulf. and you can just see tropical storm wilma form as the movie ends.
here’s one. The Price of Cheap Beef: Disease, Deforestation, Slavery and Murder. it’s a good commentary written on beef imports from brazil to the UK. also available on the Common Dreams website.
found this on Treehugger.com: Eco-Cement! sustainable cement products made by TecEco. according to the folks at TecEco, the secret formula (and addition of magnesium oxide) means their eco-cement & bricks take less energy to produce. and, it reduces landfill by turning “virtually any solid waste†into concrete. but there’s more: for up to a year, eco-Cement absorbs carbon dioxide from the air. all around, eco-cement is easier to recycle, uses less energy, reduced CO2, and reduces landfill. i hope this process really takes off!
really amazing photographs by Poul Beckmann of some even more amazing beetles and bugs! check out Living Jewels when you get a chance. the beetles are quite beautiful. you can buy books and prints as well. nice stuff. the beetle photos are Copyright 2004 Poul Beckmann.
did i say satan? i meant to say Monsanto, global corporate agri-chem giant, maker of agent orange, and enemy to small local farmers around the world. well, it’s the same thing really. i saw this headline and felt very sad: Brazil legalizes genetically modified crops. ouch! also learned that Brazil is the second largest producer of soy in the world. this will effect all of the world. but if the gm-crops are used only for the production of alternative fuels then it may be okay. but again, it is monsanto.
more good environmental news: deriving plastics from citrus fruits! from Cornell University news:
A Cornell University research group has made a sweet and environmentally beneficial discovery — how to make plastics from citrus fruits, such as oranges, and carbon dioxide. In a paper published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (Sept. 2004), Geoffrey Coates, a Cornell professor of chemistry and chemical biology, and his graduate students Chris Byrne and Scott Allen describe a way to make polymers using limonene oxide and carbon dioxide, with the help of a novel “helper molecule” — a catalyst developed in the researchers’ laboratory.
The work is being done in the Coates Laboratory, with half of the 18 researchers looking for ways to make reusable and recyclable materials from abundant and environmentally friendly sources. very cool!