When you count all the things that are known to cause damage to the earth’s protective Ozone layer Methyl Bromide is 50 times more destructive! In fact Methyl Bromide is a deadly neurotoxin. Methyl Bromide has also been linked to gene mutation, chromosome damage, and DNA damage.
More conservative estimates rate this compound at 3 to 5 times more damaging than CFC’s but, in either case if there were alternatives to the use of this agent…why in the world wouldn’t you use them?
Methyl Bromide is injected into soil before many crops such as grapes, almonds, strawberries and others are planted. The Methyl Bromide sterilizes the ground before crops are planted. After harvest this chemical is used to decontaminate products and storage product areas. It kills nematodes, insects, rodents and weeds. Methyl Bromide also kills the Ozone.
Here we have a deadly neurotoxin, a chemical that is classified as a category 1 compound by the EPA, the most deadly category of substances that is still being used, by the millions of tons, today. Yet in 93% of the applications of Methyl Bromide there are less toxic alternatives available. Why is it still being used?
Though this chemical has been banned under the Montreal Protocol, and there are other products that could be used as an alternative; the U.S. ask for and was granted ‘critical use exemptions’ by the Montreal Protocol. How much Methyl Bromide does the U.S. use?
The entire developed, in 2006 used 5,000 tones of Methyl Bromide. The U.S. received an exemption to use 8,000 tons. While fewer and fewer nations are requesting ‘critical use exemptions’ for its use, the U.S. continues to cry, “We need’, “We have no other choice”. The U.S. is submitting requests into the year 2009.
The U.S. is looking more and more like ‘Audry II’ from ‘The little shop of horrors’, screaming “Feed me”, and like O.J. still looking for the ‘real killers’, the U.S. seems still to be looking for ‘alternatives’ to Methyl Bromide use that other nations have apparently been able to locate.
This is bad stuff folks. Another enormous hole in the Ozone is growing over the Antarctic this week. In the past 2 years a hole the size of Europe has opened researchers fear that as spring comes to the southern hemisphere, so too will more holes in the Ozone.
Follow the money! If there are alternatives available why wouldn’t you use them?
The U.S. claims, affordable alternatives are not yet available.
Can we afford the alternative of giving the U.S. everything it cries for?
As Janos Mate of Greenpeace International points out, Italy, Greece and Spain have nearly eliminated their agricultural use of Methyl Bromide.
George Bush says the Northwest Passage is an ‘international passageway’. That seems like a lot of syllables for Bush to be using in only two words, but Bush says a lot of things. Bush also used a lot of syllables when he said ’serious consultations’ need to take place regarding border security. Some language attributed to Bush just don’t sound very Bush’esque. Though he followed up with a Bushism we can believe when he added they were “working hard to get a plan ready”…now that is some Bush language we’ve all grown familiar with.
Paul Cellucci, US ambassador to Canada recently said it would benefit the US if Bush would accept Canada’s claim to the Northwest Passage.
I think we can safely read that as ‘if we all agree the Passage belongs to Canada, then it will be up to Canada to fund, protect and oversee the Passage.
Canada gearing up with a C$100m military training center in Resolute, and a deepwater facility near the Northwest Passage is certainly the first step toward giving Canada the ability to protect and oversee the Passage.
11 ships were able to use the Passage in 2006. With more and more of the polar ice melting more and more ships will be attempting to cut thousands of miles off their voyages.
No good deed goes unpunished. After the US handed the Panama Canal over to Panama they found the monumental canal in the hands of the Chinese. This illustrates the desperate need for another passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific if the opportunity arises.
It would do the free world quite a lot of good to assess in what hands the Northwest Passage should rest. The canal was cut through the very core of the Continental Divide. Until and if the Northwest passage opens up and becomes a truly viable route, the Panama Canal remains the most vital piece of water on the planet. Illustrating the importance of the this little bit of water is the fact that it shaves 4,500 miles off a trip by sea from Tokyo and London. Forget what that means to commerce, and just consider the meaning in military terms.
Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage And make a northwest passage to the sea Stan Rogers
The people of California have been voting in national elections since 1850 one would think that in 157 years they might be expecting the 2008 Presidential primary.
After all they have had more than a century and a half to find a safe and secure way to cast a vote. They should have seen this election coming.
But, the Secretary of State will now have 5 days to make a decision regarding the unassailability of California Votes in the February Presidential Primary.
Voters in California are finding security for there votes is merely an ‘add-on”. In the same way side impact airbags might be optional on some models, voter security may be optional.
I like to think of options as…you know…things that are optional, not imperative.
Security for my vote, I consider to be imperative like…oh say the stirring wheel on my car.
Secretary of State, Debra Bowen was given a security report on nearly all of California voting machine models on Friday. In order for Bowen to ‘decertify and of the electronic voting machines she has to do so by this coming Friday.
California laws state these matters must be complete 6 months before the, Feb.5 2008, Presidential Primary.
Scant time indeed to make a final decision which many people consider to be life and death, while others judge their right to a free and honest vote the bedrock of democracy.
Following the money, as is always the ’smart’ thing to do, we can’t be surprised to learn that the least egar, least supportive of a free and honest vote are the very elections officials though-out California. Most are unwilling to toss millions of dollars spent on unsecured electronic voting systems down the toilet in favor of an honest and accurate, secure vote for the people of California.
The real mystery comes from why the non-secure systems were purchased in the first place. The word Diebold may be explanation enough.
On Monday in the state capital UC Davis investigators will present their finding on the security of the voting systems UC Davis’ computer science hacking team tested.
Representatives from the electronic voting machine corporations will be allowed to refute the UC Davis findings. Undoubtedly these companies will want to rebuff …as in re-polishing a turd type buffing…
Although Matt Bishop, US Davis computer science professor who led the hacking team, said he found no malicious source code he was ’surprised by the weakness of the security measures, both physical and electronic protecting the voting systems.
How long it would take to write and install ‘malicious source code’ in unsecured voting machines. The elections still 6 months away.
Bishops team of hackers found not only high-tech ways to breach the systems security, but low tech put your hand in situations at the polling places.
Bishop added they been given more time they would have found even more security flaws.
Bishop is a recognized expert in computer security and says “…the security seems like it was added on.”
The hearing on Monday will be open to the pubic. I hope the people of California can muster a vocal contingent…I think the security of my vote is as basic as brakes on my car…neither of which should be add-ons.
The leak was from unit 6 which is located at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. This unit was already closed by coincidence for maintenance.
Officials at TEPCO, (Asia’s biggest utility) “The contaminated water was released into the ocean and had had no effect on the environment.”
Let’s deconstruct that sentance. Contaminated water. Released ocean. No effect on environment. All-righty then.
After today’s earthquake in Japan I started wondering about nuclear waste being dumped into our oceans.
This isn’t a subject I had given a lot of thought to as I’ve always heard about the controversy surrounding the safe or unsafe containment of Nuclear waste was on land.
Yes, I’ve heard about nuclear powered ocean vessels rotting away in the far reaches of Russia, but I never considered that anyone, under any circumstances, would just drop this poison into the water intentionally…anywhere.
The US dumped an estimated 112,000 drums of nuclear waste into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans before the Senate declared a moratorium on this bad behaviour in 1982. Of course and sadly, the US isn’t the only country guilty of dumping nuclear waste into the ocean.
Now a new scheme has been hatched. Nuclear waste would be packed in containers and shipped out to sea and then buried.
Greenpeace estimates there are 80 known ocean dump sites where nuclear waste is routinely dropped. This does not account for the millions of litres of radioactive waste being pumped into the ocean from nuclear processing plants.
The Oslo Convention negotiated in 1972 the first regional treaty to regulate the dumping of waste waters at sea. The nuclear industry blocked the inclusion of radioactive wastes within the jurisdiction of the convention. So, while it was deemed illegal to dump organic sewage sludge, dredging spoils and the like, it was perfectly fine to dump radio active waste. Later that same year the London Dumping Convention “high-level” radioactive waste dumping at sea was banned.
Who do we supposed was left to define what was meant by ‘high-level’ waste? Yes of course… The International Atomic energy Agency! That was too easy wasn’t it?
By the way, that earthquake in Japan? The early official word is, just over 1 liter of radio active water was lost into the ocean. I think I relieved myself of that much liquid after I woke up this morning. Seems like a really small amount. We’ll keep an eye on later numbers.
This of couse was a horrible event and we mean in no way to diminish the loss of life that has occured there. We wish those impacted solace.
The news would have us thinking there are ways the NAFTA COULD go. The problem is, the plan is already in motion for the way NAFTA WILL go.
Here is a little background video. Lou Dobbs asks if the American people have the stomach to stop the SPP.
We will be posting on NAFTA and the SPP all this week.
Efforts by the public of both Canadian, and American citizens to slow down or call off this Orwellian agreement have fallen on deaf ears so far. Too few of the public are even aware of what the SPP has in store.
If there is any progress being made we will be looking for it this week and posting where and which efforts are having success….if any.
The old joke ‘if you want to feel like a real woman, then wash this shirt and get me a beer’ may actually have more truth to it than we previously thought.
I don’t mean to imply men don’t do laundry. But, the constant contact with household cleaners usually does fall upon the human female. So it’s remarkable to find a connection between a class of toxic chemicals widely used in household detergents and the feminization of male fish.
This development has been studied for about the last 10 years. Nonylphenol ethoxylates, (NPE) known as estrogenic, means contact with this chemical will actually stimulate the production of estrogen.
There’s some irony! Maybe washing shirts really does make me feel more like a woman.
I don’t know if the mature male fish that carry eggs in their testes exhibit female behavior, but eggs in the reproductive system is definitely a female trait.
Canada and Europe have tighter restrictions imposed on the use of NPEs than the US.
In the US the answer to the use of these toxic class chemicals appears to be awarding certificates, maybe bronze plaques to companies that voluntarily commit to the use of safer substitutes for NPEs. How’s that for feminization? Why not a nice scrapbook page for their memory book too?
Voluntarily reducing the use of toxic chemicals is a ‘good thing’ as Martha Stewart would say. Procter & Gamble and Unilever have voluntarily substituted NPE’s with other chemicals in their products. Wal-Mart is still trying to hop on the green-train by rewarding companies it does business with that find alternatives to NPEs.
The Sierra Club thinks it’s time the EPA takes action to restrict or ban the use of this class of chemical.
Feminized or intersex fish have been found nearly everywhere. This leads me to agree with the idea that more than on estrogen stimulating, endocrine blocking chemical is being introduced into the environment and in more than one way.
Meanwhile, male salmon are loosing their urge to swim up stream, and becoming more amiable to staying home with the kids and keeping house.
More tomorrow on Phthalates, Nonylphenol ethoxylates, the Feminization of Marine life and the Human Male.
The danger of pesticides is a three-way merge onto a dangerous roundabout.
While Canadians are worried about the dangers coming their way from the US, Americans are worried about the dangerous pesticides being imported from Canada. Meanwhile the US exports banned or unregistered pesticides to Mexico.
25 % of all fresh and frozen produce in the US is imported, 50% of which is imported from Mexico. Canada is the second largest market for US agricultural exports and US exporters are the dominant suppliers of produce exporters to Canada.
In March of this year The US EPA and the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency gave the first joint approval of a NAFTA ‘harmonized label for pesticide.
The first product called Avadex in Canada, and Far-Go in the US is an herbicide that “Warning labels state that it should not be applied directly to water, to areas where surface water is present, or to intertidal areas below the mean high water mark.” “The use of this chemical in areas where soils are permeable, particularly where the water table is shallow, may result in ground water contamination.” “Have a high potential for runoff into surface water where there are poorly draining or wet soils with slopes toward adjacent surface waters, frequently flooded areas, areas over-laying extremely shallow ground water, areas with in-field canals or ditches that drain to surface water, areas not separated from adjacent surface waters with vegetated filter strips, and areas over-laying tile drainage systems that drain surface water.”
Is there any type of land being farmed that doesn’t fall under the above classification?
It defies logic that the US and Canada, known for ‘feeding the world’, now depends on importing food from the world to be feed?
Importing and exporting, and shipping and receiving. Fast tracking, highway building, and labeling. NAFTA, SPP, NAF, NASCO, CTCS and the rest of the alphabet look strangely like a perpetual motion profit machine. A machine engineered by a basket full of corporations that walk hand-in-hand into the sunset with our good will, our health and our money in their pockets.
Road expansion construction is already underway on miles and miles of the NAFTA superhighway.
NASCO repeatedly insists they are not now, nor have they ever been behind building a ’supercorridor’ and that the ’superhighway’ already exists in the form of the north and south running I35.
So much conflicting information surrounding this superhighway must certainly come from all the secrecy surrounding this colossal NAFTA project.
Interstate 35 does already exist, but the path it takes may be the only thing NASCO recommends leaving the same.
The 3 respective Governments seem to be signing on for 1 Nation of super colossal proportions, which will certainly change our lives.
Envisioned by the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) task force report were: a North American court, a North American inter-parliamentary group, a North American executive commission, a North American military defense command, a North American customs office and a North American development bank.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership office (SPP) has formed working groups comprised of representatives from the largest North American corporations.
These groups are operating behind doors sealed so tightly that the list of membership has never been published nor has any of their work product.
The SPP lists some 20 groups and does disclose the ‘nature’ of their assignments. Harmonized Pesticides (labeling) aviation policy (no-fly coordination) borders and immigration are just a few of the assignments for which these working groups are drawing up blue prints.
Now we know why all the secrecy, but the offices of the SPP inside the NAFTA office of the USDC wants the public to believe something different. “We did not want to get the contact people of the working groups distracted by calls from the public.” Geri Word SPP.
Word, suggested the work products were ‘described on the SPP website, so publishing actual documents did not seem to be required’.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade (FAITC) invites Canadians to ‘add your voice to the discussion’ on its website, while in the US meetings have been held in buildings able only to hold only a small number of citizens leaving in some cases hundreds upon hundreds of opposition voices locked out of these so called public meetings.
It sounds like NAFTA will be the end of soverinty for these 3 nations.
If you feel like you’re at a square dance that’s being called in a foreign language, it’s because you are. Welcome to the NAFTA Dance. Where the power elite is the belle of the ball, and the public, that’s you, is the whore in the hall.
Mexico, Canada and the US have joined hands and are now forming a circle that is becoming impossible to penetrate. Impossible to penetrate because as more of the public is becoming aware of exactly what affect NAFTA is going to have on our futures the heavier the veil surrounding NAFTA becomes.
Among a litany of fast-track recommendations the Council of the Americas recommends being implemented by the end of this year are:
1. Establish a set of rules that provide legal protection for companies that conduct risk assessments and share information on vulnerabilities with the appropriate government entities. (Protection from litigation resulting in bad risk assessments resulting in harm to the public?)
2. Implementing preclearance pilot projects. (Well underway, this moves customs processes further inland from actual border crossings. This move constitutes moving potentially catastrophic events into the hearts of Canada and the US rather than keeping these events in the nation in which they originate.)
3. Improve the benefits of voluntary business participation in security programs. (Little needs to be said regarding business doing anything voluntary as it applies to anything much beyond the profit margin.)
4. Further simplify the NAFTA rules-of-origin requirements. (US$30billion in trilateral trade has already been simplified to the point our health protection is becoming virtually non-existent.)
5. Simplify NAFTA certification process and requirements. “The long-term goal should be to eliminate the NAFTA certificate on shipments.” (Eliminating the administrative burden on producers of finished goods)
6. Withdraw or suspend the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. (US and Canada should lower their standards by mitigating legitimate risks while minimizing disruption to legitimate trade.)
Potential meaning: Lower your health and safety standards as it pertains to imports.
Raise the potential for dangerous cargo getting past the borders and moving inland.
Leave border crossings free from congestion so that goods can still move freely across the border should there be a catastrophic event inland.
Spend all resources necessary for the promotion of trade rather than finding innovative, safe and secure ways of protecting and feeding our own citizens.
Those yellow bricks paving the NAFTA superhighway appear to be made of gold. Who is financing the fancy footwork of the NAFTA dance?
The same way water seeks its own level; NAFTA seeks to level the field between Canada, the USA and Mexico.
Under the guise of creating a seamless commercial endeavor between the three countries, it appears NAFTA will in fact create a North American Union similar to the way the European Union was created. Smaller less economically developed nations could share in prosperity and economic growth by becoming members of the larger ‘Nation of Commerce’. NAFTA will certainly lead to the same situation on the North American Continent. This scheme, for better or for worse, is rolling full steam ahead.
I can think of no other country that may guard its sovereignty more tenaciously than Great Britain, who did not sign on to the EU.
So why are people in Canada and the US only now starting to take a look at what may become of their sovereignty? The answer is simple answer is much of the nuts-and-bolts of this agreement have been parsed out to the people one tiny bite at a time, with many of the facts being concocted in high-level secret meetings where the public has not been made privy to these facts.
NAFTA has been served to the people in small bites that are easily swallowed, digested and passed. The pile of facts surrounding these digested pieces is now beginning to smell.
Proponents of the NAFTA, nearly without exception, are large corporations who stand to rake in even more profits and smaller business that hope to become larger by this agreement.
The battle cry for the seamless integration of these three nations is Security and Prosperity as the name (SPP) Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America would indicate. But, it isn’t clear what part of our security will be enhanced by this plan. What is clear is that the Security OF Prosperity will be enhanced.
Does the seamless transportation of goods from Mexico to Canada through the USA make us more secure?
Is prosperity the definnition of security? According to the CEO’s of industry and the Politicians the answer is yes.
