Thank you...Rachel Carson...for your gifts

'The "control of nature" is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of bioloby and philosophy, when it was supposed that anture exists for the convenience of man. The concepts and practices of applied entomology for the most part date from that Stone Age of science. It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth.'

So concludes Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" ... her most noted book of several exceptional environmental works. This book, first published in 1962, set the stage for environmental movements throughout the world and still rings true today... man is part of nature, not excluded from it, nor exempt from the outcomes that we create in our attempt to over come natural trends and realities.

In my work, meger in compaison, I have looked at her efforts and tried to see if we have come to our senses ... and sadly I find that for many we have not. Ask if you would use DDT or its derivitives in your garden and you would probably say no, yet DDT is not gone...it is simply used in far away fields and its toxins are still in our food chain even today from past applications here in North America.

Rachel Carson died of cancer at the age of 56 in 1964, sad that we lost her so young...but you can still find power in her words and answers to how we need to proceed today to create a sustainable world in which to live and as an appropriate legacy for future generations.

What’s the impact of mixing chemicals together?

Tell me, what happens when you mix raspberry sauce into chocolate pudding? Well, if you like chocolate desserts…you may find the blending of flavors quite wonderful. Same thing with coffee and sugar… and say cream…not bad, right.

The point I am trying to make is that when things are mixed they act on each other. In these cases…with reasonable impact. But, what about adding vodka to orange juice? Different impact, and somewhat dangerous. Okay, so the real point… when we mix chemicals together in our water or on our crops…or even inside of our bodies, well…they have the potential to act upon each other and create new chemical compounds that may be dangerous.

This is especially true if these chemicals are toxins to start with… say different insecticides or pesticides used on or around those raspberries and the Cocoa … Consider that if these are broad spectrum pesticides that can kill the bugs and weeds, they probably can hurt us too. And if these dangerous chemicals are building up in our bodies they have the potential to combine and become even more toxic over time.

It is time to stop ignoring what we all should understand… toxins will impact all living things, we are not immune to them…only our size and the limits on the dosage help to reduce effects on us…and the more we accumulate over the years, the more damage they will do to us.

Oh, and we should be demanding that chemical combinations, not just isolated chemicals be tested for the toxic impact that they may cause.

How dirty is our air?

This photo of a North American city sums up much of what we deal with everyday. Our air, though some of the best in the world, is not always clean. In fact many cities are cautioned on an ever changing basis to watch their exposure to their air.

http://www.enviroflash.info/

In fact there are many State, National and International bodies who watch the ever changing environment and find the indicators of quality variation that define Air Quality and help us to understand why we must reduce pollution throughout the world for the sake of ensuring a sustainable planet for ourselves and for future generations to come.

Do a pesticide audit of your home...you will be surprised what you find!

Do you have dogs, cats, kids, birds… fish?

Do you use pesticides and herbicides around them?

It might be time to rethink your approach to pest control… or at least to read the labels! If you don’t read the label you will not know the proper process for use. Normally, we just take the bottle and spray away…when we should be reading every word as if our life depended on it…which it just might. Some place on the label is a list of active ingredients used in these pesticides.

I have Round Up for use on my yard, now Round Up uses a Monsanto developed synthetic, Glyphosate Intermediate (GI), for its herbicides…in fact it is one of the most used herbicides worldwide. Finding the name of this active ingredient on the spray bottle I had took me minutes…as it did on the Bengal Roach killer I had too… You see, they want you to be impressed with their marketing statements… how well it works to kill a broad spectrum of plants or insects… and not on the toxins in the product. Some of these products are pre-diluted to the appropriate dose rate, others are concentrated and you have to add water.

Commercial grade RoundUp is shipped at a 50% concentration when the application by sprayer calls for a .5% dose rate…and if done by air it is not to be more than .12%. This is an example of how it gets over used… hey what would your water mix be to reduce a 48-gallon barrel of herbicide at 50% concentration to .5% concentration or less? What you are tasked with doing is making a shift to ensure that 1% of your application is from the barrel and 99 gallons of water are added to that 1 gallon of concentrate. Most farmers don’t read the fine print… but more of them do than homeowners… we never read the details.

The same is true with the insecticides… in my house I had a fungicide, a roach designated pesticide…which kills a broad spectrum of insects, and a broad spectrum flea, ant, and roach pump spray… all with side effects that I had to
look up using the chemical name, not the product name… And I had to dig to find out that the Bengal spray and the broad spectrum spray could kill my cat and make young kids sick…

By the way, the toxins will seek out the fat and marrow in all animals…and it will stay there for a very long time. As it turned out…Round Up, which says it breaks down right away… really doesn’t. In fact the Monsanto company says it breaks down in 60 to 90 days on land and faster in water…but studies showed that in water it stays measurable for up to 6 months, and in a Michigan State study it was detectable a year after it washed off the field and into the stream where the testing sample was drawn.

And every one of the products in my house was deadly toxic to fish… and once the fish get dosed…these products develop follow on chemicals due to oxidation known as epoxides…which were 10 times more toxic than the original toxin. So…don’t let your cat eat your fish if you are using these toxins in your home! Birds too…though a little less…

How would these products get into your fish tank?

Easy…you used a spray, now the chemicals are airborne…you smelled them… and they settle into the fish tank. Bengal Bug Spray… Bug Be Gone hand pump… or that Raid spray or the house ‘Bug Bomb’ you used to kill the flies and fleas. It all becomes airborne and it all settles down and enters your pet’s food dish or the fish tank…or the bird cage…and there goes ‘Goldie’ … she didn’t die of old age, she died of bug spray…and every other animal in the home…kids and adults included…are exposed to these toxins and they are accumulating an increasing dose rate with every exposure.

Fast way to kill your cat!!!

Cat's have a unique nervous system and nuroanatomy... so they respond differently to nurotoxins than other four legged creatures. One fast way to eliminate all nine of their lives is to use a DOG anti-flea and tick treatment on them. DON'T MIX THEM UP!!!

Oh, and by the way... Cat nervous systems are very close to Human nervous systems... and we respond badly to Dog Anti-flea chemicals too. So don't let your children do the application on any of your pets (cats or dogs). In fact you need to wear gloves and you should let the biggest person (man) apply these chemicals if you must use them... the bigger you are the lower the retained dose... inhaled or skin absorped... recieved.

Is NASA doing an important job?

NASA's Galileo spacecraft photographed this asteroid on its way to orbit Jupiter and its moons for its mission from 1995 to 2003. The spacecraft may have died in the Jovian atmosphere but the data it sent back is still being examined and new findings are being uncovered.

Most recent is the discovery of a subsurface ocean of molten or partially molten magma beneath the surface of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io according to a new study by scientists at UCLA, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Michigan.

The voyager spacecraft project with Voyager I and II has been in operational for more than 35 years... these two vessels have left our solar system and are entering deep space...and though their primary mission eneded in the 1980's, these spacecraft are currently in extended mission status, tasked with locating and studying the boundaries of the Solar System, including the Kuiper belt, the heliosphere and interstellar space.

Do we need to do this type of science? It represents hundreds of millions of dollars per launch, billions and billions annually... should we be using our limited national resources on these types of experiments, or should we be closing down the space adventure for the sake of solving our domestic and international problems here on earth?

What;s On Our Blueberries?

I love Blueberries...and it is reported that they love us... high in many things...and antioxidents.

But one example of whats on them is Phosmet, a general purpose toxic used as a herbicide and pesticide... also used to kill rats, mice and more.

Phosmet is a moderately toxic compound by ingestion but requires the signal word WARNING on the label because it is more highly toxic by other routes of exposure. It has a moderately high toxicity through the skin and a very high
toxicity through inhalation.

Typical of other organophosphates, phosmet is an inhibitor of the enzyme cholinesterase. Symptoms of acute phosmet poisoning include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Acute exposure at high levels may result in muscle spasms, loss of muscle coordination, mental confusion and drowsiness. The insecticide may also adversely affect breathing and salivation.

It is a neurotoxin, possible carcinogen, and highly toxic to polinators (bees) that is present in more than 11% of tests on blueberries. Another example is the fugicide Boscalid...which is found in 34% of Blueberries tested. Not identified as a toxic source for humans... but it kills birds, fish, and rodents... not much of a reach to find it as an influencer in damaging humans in some way.

And what about mixing with other chemicals? While there are some studies on how these pesticides impact plants and animals, almost no testing is done to determine the Crossover-impact of these chemicals when mixed together and given the opportunity to restructure themselves into new compounds.

These are only two examples of the dozens of pesticides use don Blueberries... wow...the magic of modern chemistry.

Promote increased natural solutions by talking with your government representatives at Local, State, and National levels... don't just stand by and ignore the consiquences of our actions, and then hold our chemical manufacturers and the AgriGiants accountalbe for what they are putting out there. Remember if it is on a plant that you eat...like blueberries...it is in your body and will probably lodge itself in your soft tissue...and remain there for decades to come.

http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/

Higher milage per gallon...is that the answer?

One of the demands of the EPA is the auto manufacturers develop plans to increase the mileage of the autos that they sell us. Honda is currently advertising a 40-MPG Civic ...not a Hybrid... but a standard auto that is getting 40 MPG. Ford is on track to deliver the same thing with some of its models as well.

But is higher mileage per gallon the right answer?

There is a debate over this, and the oil giants and auto makers are all for staying the course. Increase mileage and we will continue to purchase gas at its increasing price...even though the demand will fall off with the shift away from gas guzzlers. Keep in mind that the oil industry knows...or at least I hope they know, that oil reserves are falling as we are past Peak Oil...and if they don't do something they will go from being the top companies in the world to oblivion...just like saddle and harness manufacturers of past days. Oil is on its way out...plain and simple, its just a matter of time.

So again, is higher mileage the right answer...well, Yes and No...both at the same time. We will not transition to alternative vehicles and different fuels instantly. We know that we have had alternative options for decades, but industry and the consuming public have not fought for the change. In fact General Motors started a production run of electric vehicles in 1990 with its prototype EV1, which went into production in 1996 and was leased out until 1999, but they cancelled its test program in 2002... explained by them as due to low public interest.

Now we have electric vehicles with up to 400 mile driving distance, and Hybrids with potentially unlimited range...but due to delays in entering into this the costs are high...the Tesla will run over $90,000.00... and the others don't dip below $25,000.00. The public may want EVs, but they can't yet afford them.

So, Higher gas mileage is a short term solution that we can all adopt willingly, but zero emmisions alternative vehicles are the future. These are not just electric, by the way. They could be fuel cell systems producing electric charges for the power train, or H2 vehicles using Hydrogen to fuel their turbins, or we could and should shift to Natural Gas...where we can produce excellent motivational energy and not yeild any Greenhouse Gasses... or perhaps some other applicaiton of energy that we have yet to devise, like magnetism.

Within our lifetime however we will be off of the gas powered internal combustion engine and onto other things.

Me... my bicycle is tuned and gets me to the shops just fine...following the prime examples set in the Neatherlands, and here in Orlando where many find the bicycle lanes a faster way to cruise the town.

Natural Beauty... throughout America and the world.

Perhaps a reasonable perspective is important... Our nation is truly beautiful, and we as the stewards of its resources are accountable for maintaining it for all of time... one generation after the other.

Our obligation, under the terms presented by local, national, and international credos on sustainability demand that we preserve the earth in a meaningful way that works for man today and for future generations to come.

As an example, the mission of the ICLEI, an international consortium of Local Governments for sustainability, is to build and serve a worldwide movement of local governments to achieve tangible improvements in global sustainability with special focus on environmental conditions through cumulative local actions.

Ensuring our future... during our lifetime and that of our children and all of the children to come, marks the importance of our efforts for this process.

Take a moment and enjoy the beauty of America...these photos are recent shots of North Carolina from along the Blue Ridge Parkway... Beauty and clean resources for all to share and enjoy.

Adopting a Precautionary Approach...Sustainability At Its Best

The world around us depends on our understanding ... and on our ability to gauge reasonable and acceptable steps when it comes to our actions as the Shepard of our environment.

When we pollute we need to recognize our impact on the earth and act to correct our mistakes. When we create new science, be that chemical applications for use in agriculture, or construction, or energy, or for the elimination of pests...we need to think our steps through and act with reason before we deploy our inventions to 'solve' our perceived problems.

We are, after all, accountable to the earth and to all of the creatures on the earth for our actions. We need to preserve all life, for we are part of a biosphere...not set apart from it. We need to undertake a Precautionary approach to the introduction of chemicals, or to the Genetic Modification of animal species or plants... coming to understand what we have created before we blindly enter into an irreversible campaign which, once undertaken, may change our planet forever.

The three E's of Sustainability call for us to understand this and to raise it as one of our primary banners...Environment, Economy, and Equity... done effectively calls for society to demand a precautionary approach to all of our solutions to all of our issues and problems.

Places where we need to immediately apply this:

• Pesticides (weed and insects)... because chemicals that kill simple fungi (example) may also attach themselves to the food chain and kill all along the chain at each link.
• Geological exploration to improve the recovery of resources may threaten our air and water...through the release of toxins in any number of ways
• Development of current energy resources may leak...if preventive systems are not tested fully and backed up as needed
• Nuclear incidents due to natural or human disasters may out weigh the use of reactors for the production of energy
• GMO programs ... have no history to tell us what synthetic modifications produce long term...say 20...or 40...or 100 years down the road. Assuming we get that far after a GMO incident modifies our world around us.
• Or the over use of nutrients or application of newly developed nutrients on crops...may poison our waters beyond recovery, saturate them with nitrates and kill all the fish, or poison the birds and wild life that depend on that part of the food chain.

We need to take a precautionary approach to ensure sustainability of a safe environment, a healthy economy, and equity on a global and generational basis.

Worst Polluter in the US...

In operation since 1989, the Red Dog open pit mine operations is located in Northwest Alaska in the DeLong Mountains of the Brooks Range, 82 miles north of Kotzebue, 55 miles from the Chukchi Sea, and 106 miles above the Arctic Circle. It is situated within the Northwest Arctic Borough. The mine is self-reliant, with power generation, an airport, worker housing and ocean shipping facilities.

The Red Dog pit-mine generates air and water pollution in the hundreds of millions of pounds of carcinogens and toxicants (481,578,816 lbs *) annually. They are dumping these into the air and water...and though they may be located hundreds or even thousands of miles away from our general population the pollutants are carried to us and to the rest of the globe through routine circulation of water and air currents.

Red Dog is one example...and they are not acting to clean up their operations...not to the degree needed to make them safe for humankind. Raise the alarm... Don't weaken the EPA by unfunding its budget and thus preventing its ability to hold the line against corporations who view our clean air and water as a needless expense.

(*source data taken from the EPA Toxics Release Inventory Program 2002 data release)

recognized
carcSuspected
Cardiovascular or Blood Toxicantsinogens

There are a million things happening...Billions really.

There are several companies around the world... Dupont, GE, EXXON-Mobile, Koch Chemical as examples... companies who pollute our world... fight the logic of the EPA's rules to keep our water and air clean...argue against Climate Change...cause if the truth comes out that they are causing it...well they might just be held accountable.

Then we give subsidies to the Oil Industry; 4-Billion dollars in 2010...this is just plain unbelievable. The cumulative industry profits for oil companies has doubled in 2010, over 40 Billion Dollars for one year, and 2011 will be higher. This isn't because we are using more. Not even close. The Petrochemical and fuel companies are making increased profits on decreasing consumption through the recession of 2010. They make their profit as a percentage of the cost of crude...and though they purchase oil for refining in advance...that speculation thing...they bill it out as a part of their 'last in' pricing scheme.

Here we are giving them Corporate Welfare and they are raking in the ever increasing profits. It does not make sense...but what are our alternatives? Oh, wait a moment...Simple... Alternative Energy and increased use of energy resources that we can harness... specifically Natural Gas. We have an amazing reserve of Natural Gas and as we are past Peak Oil we need to understand that even with reduced consumption we will find that oil continues to increase in price. The only way to lower that cost is to drastically reduce the consumption which will ground the speculation to a halt.

Oh, and we need to stop funding the cleanup of their waste... companies that pollute should have to fund the cleanup. We don't do that... we clean it up using tax dollars...social solutions that should be corporate solutions...hold them accountable and they will find the solutions that will make sense now and into the future and help to meet that Sustainable goal that we have for our world to come.