DDT, Gone but Still Persisting…

Fifty years ago the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior used broad spectrum pesticides to try to eliminate pests that damaged crops and were hurting our forests. They sprayed tons of DDT from aircraft deployed systems. It did little to defeat the targeted species…as they were already at work and had laid their eggs before being exposed, but the environmental destruction was wide spread.

DDT was considered valuable because it was inexpensive to manufacture, could be deployed easily, and had an extended life in the field, which meant that it would work well over extended seasons and support reducing target populations over longer periods than other pesticides.

Today DDT is not allowed to be used in the United States, and most developed nations have banned it as well. It is, however, still used in South America, Africa, and Asia to combat different infestations and to reduce disease carrying pests that spread malaria and other infections.The US EPA removed DDT from service in the early 70s when it was classified as a probable human carcinogen by U.S. and international authorities. Specifically, DDT is:

• known to be very persistent* in the environment
• will accumulate in fatty tissues, and
• can travel long distances in the upper atmosphere.

The half-life* of DDT is projected at 15 years, that means that it persists in the environment, slowly losing power over time. And today, 45 years after it was taken off of our shelves, it can still be found in our soil and our water.

Using toxins for mass elimination of one or two insect species proved foolish. There was no protection for the thousands of other lifeforms exposed to these poisons, and many animals died along with the bugs. Fish were effected, too, as the sprays blanked streams and lakes, along with the land. Research today has found that there are DDT deposits in the beds below our ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers.

And though we can’t use DDT in the United States, we are allowed to manufacture it for international shipments, which means that it is being used in developing nations. Air deployed systems spray into the atmosphere, and the result is that the fine spray often lifts to the clouds, delivering it to far away regions the world over.

DDT isn't the only persistent organic pesticide of concern, there are many more being distributed and sprayed today in the USA and throughout the world. These products are primarily developed by the petrochemical industry, and they represent a major part of their market, and their profit. The necessary changes to regulations, for production and use, need to be enacted to counter the impact these toxins continue to have and the damage they are doing to our home (planet Earth).

Joni Mitchell may have said it best in her song "Yellow Taxi",   "...give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees!..."

Global Warming and Climate Change...our Green Earth is Waning

North America will look like this in decades ahead.

We are at the edge, as I have mentioned in my Facebook articles. And we are at fault for it...caused mostly by our greed, and made worse by our inability to assume responsibility for our actions.

The United States, contrary to Congress, is the primary cause of Global warming...with our excessive use of resources, upwards of 25% of the world's resources are employed in our lifestyle...and we are the largest carbon emitter of all nations.

First place in this dangerous category...what an honor.

Due to our uncontrolled growth in human population, and our out of control use of our natural resources, we have doomed our planet to ruin, and we have started---as effectively presented in the Sixth Extinction, an impressive research based volume by Elizabeth Kolbert, we have entered the next planetary extinction, one that we have caused and one that we will have to suffer over the next few centuries.

Though only a minority of world leaders are listening, Kolbert isn't the only one raising the alarm. Others have been telling us for more than half a century. In her world awakening "Silent Spring', Rachel Carson pointed to the toxins we were indiscriminately spreading over croplands and forests, without control and without concern...which began the destruction of many species, and which may have taken Carson herself, as she died of cancer before her book raised her warning. Rachel died, but the American EPA was formed from her work.

Today Congress, backed by industrial forces like the petrochemical giants (Koch, Dow, and DuPont among them), is working to take the enlightened power away from EPA to reduce the Clean Air and Water regulations that have made our best dent into our non-sustainable practises.

It is in our hands...and there are active forces afoot. The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), The Earth Institute (Columbia University), and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation are leaders among them. And though some of their challenges call for the elimination of the use of fossil fuels within the next 30 years (RMI), and the dedication of half of our planet under the Half-Earth Project in a call to conserve half the Earth for the rest of life (E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation), when closely reviewed we find they are both achievable and truly sustainable, with both economic and environmental protection engaged to ensure that they succeed.

Now it is time for us to use that backbone that evolution gave us, and stand against the greed that has lead us into extremis.

It's up to you...but it's up to me too!

Now is the time, this is the place... you are the person, there are no superheros headed this way...it's up to you.

This is a Socket Ball...no, not a soccer ball...though you can play soccer with it...it is a Socket Ball. Play outside with it all day...bring it in and plug in your light, your radio, your iPod or Cell Phone charger...and play with it inside too.

This is a Lifesaver cup...it makes good drinking water out of the trashyest water around. Not a throw away...the LifeSaver makes both sence and cents as it is reusable for months and not just a bottle filled with water. In fact the cost of the LifeSaver is returned in savings within a few weeks of use and in the end you still have it...to keep on using and using.

Its time for us to realize that corn shipped in from Ill. is no more tastier than locally grown corn, and our local stuff is fresher...has less of a carbon footprint...and supports the growth of our local economies...Farm to Table makes sense.

So let's get our head around the concept...Sustainability takes all of  us working for the same goals and outcomes. Are you Listening?

SUSTAINABILITY REQUIRES ALL OF US!





A bit surprised...I think Newt is right!

Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich represented the 6th District of Georgia from 1979 to 1999...when he resigned due to poor Republican performance and a reprimand from the House for Gingrich's ethics violations. So, it is a surprise to me that I look to him today for his concern for America and his position that Americans don't want a Red vs Blue nation...but a Red, White, and Blue one....

While I am not in agreement with some of his supporters, like the Koch brothers...I do feel he is right that the future of America, and perhaps the entire planet, is balanced on the needs, wants and desires of the citizens of our nations and of the world...not on extreme left or right views of what the world should be.

We want change that will improve our lives, and the lives of others, while reducing our debt, limiting entitlements where there is no need, or where there is overlap or redundancy and reducing government.

How does this fit into a blog on assisting the earth? Simple really, we need to get off of Top Dead Center and back into the game and America needs to stop arguing and begin leading again. The issues of Sustainability are all linked to how and what we do to improve the Earth now and way down the road into the future.

So Thanks Newt... really, Thanks...now the rest of you...reach out and make things happen.

US and China must lower emissions....MUST!

Kind of shows it all, doesn't it... with a population of 310 million the US is by far the worst carbon emitter, but if China continues to increase its emissions it will way out pace the United States...then we are all in for a World of ....carbon!

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Report...



   This is taken from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Climate Change 2013, also known as the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5):

   'Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia… The atmosphere and the ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased… Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850…'

NOW THAT'S A SHOCKER!
Here are a few pictures to help demonstrate the loss of glacier ice... 

Whitechuck Glacier 1973

Whitechuck Glacier 2006

With more than 95% probability being assigned to the cause...that of human kind pollution and use of fossil fuels...you should be certain that this earth changing situation is of our own making. Scientists being whom they are you will not get a stronger statement than this...and though it leaves an opening for the naysayers...we should be considering immediate action. Future generations will be forced to live much less productive lives because of our inaction... and yes, we are guilty of inaction... Now is the time to act.

Each of us needs to call our elected officials to stress the importance of action...to demand action. There are courses we can take... reduced use of coal, increased use of electric vehicles, Alternatives on an economically balanced grid, bio fuels...these are all examples of action that needs to be planned and effectively integrated into our industrial model... and a healthy profit model is viable through the application of these processes... Technology is present...the evidence is clear...and the time is past...so immediate action is required. World wide...not just here in the USA...we need to solve this for all human-kind.











Dead fish...dead rivers!

CNN in Hong Kong reported today... 

The Fuhe River is the scene of the latest disturbing example of river pollution in China.

Authorities cleared about 110 tons, that's 220,000 pounds of dead fish from a 40-kilometer (18 mile long) section of the river in the central province of Hubei, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday. 

The cause of the deaths, provincial environmental officials said, was the discharge of high levels of ammonia into the water by a local chemical plant in Yingcheng, outside the city of Wuhan. Samples taken at a water outlet from the plant on Tuesday indicated that ammonia density reached 196 milligrams per liter, a level "far in excess of the national standard," Xinhua reported, citing the provincial environmental protection department.

 Toxins in lakes offer strange surface contaminants...unexplained, yet for the color and the devastation that is ever present.

Lake Toxins in a Chinese lake near the Yangtez.

The World Health Organization says that natural levels of ammonia in groundwater are normally below 0.2 milligrams per liter and that surface waters can contain as much as 12 milligrams per liter. The Hubei environmental authorities ordered the company that runs the plant, Hubei Shuanghuan Science and Technology Stock Co., to suspend operations at the plant and sort out its pollution controls.

China has the most polluted rivers in the world, and some of the most threatening health problems related to filthy water.  

Citarum River

Yangtez (Yellow) River

These recent photos of life along the river show conditions that many of us can hardly imagine...but this is how life is in many countries of the world, including India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Russia and more...


The developed world is not exempt. In the USA the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers are danger zones, if not as bad as the Ganges and the Yangtez. Water, our most important resource, is threatened the world over.