Excellent Article - Please read: 10 Environmental Disasters to Remember on Earth Day

10 Environmental Disasters to Remember on Earth Day
By Jeff Biggers, AlterNet
April 21, 2009


Ten tragic lessons in our nation's environmental history that should never be forgotten. And one climate destabilization tragedy in the making that needs our urgent help.

1. Extinction: Three Species Per Hour

According to a United Nations report released in 2007, our planet is at risk of losing three species per hour. Ahmed Djoghlaf, the head of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, declared: "We are indeed experiencing the greatest wave of extinctions since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. Extinction rates are rising by a factor of up to 1,000 above natural rates. Every hour, three species disappear. Every day, up to 150 species are lost. Every year, between 18,000 and 55,000 species become extinct."

PLEASE READ THE FULL ARTICLE: http://www.alternet.org/story/137555/

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Michigan Grandmother Wins Environmental Prize

Richard C. Paddock San Francisco Correspondent
Link to full article below

SAN FRANCISCO (April 19) -- A Michigan grandmother who has fought pollution by factory livestock farms will be awarded the coveted Goldman Environmental Prize here tonight, along with activists from five other regions of the world.

The prize, which comes with an award of $150,000, is the world's largest prize for grass-roots environmental activists. It was established 21 years ago by San Francisco philanthropist Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda.

One recipient is chosen from each of six continental regions: North America, Central and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and islands and island nations.

Tom Dusenbery, Goldman Environmental Foundation/AP

Lynn Henning, a Michigan farmer, samples water in December. Henning was due to receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize Monday in San Francisco.

"Goldman Prize recipients are proof that ordinary people are capable of doing truly extraordinary things," Goldman said in a statement issued by the Goldman Environmental Foundation. "Although the prize winners represent a wide variety of nations and work on very different issues, they have much in common. All have shown conviction, commitment and courage."

Lynn Henning will represent North America at the gala ceremony. For a decade, the 52-year-old family farmer has battled with large factory livestock farms over the pollution caused by their operations in rural Michigan.

The farms are known as "concentrated animal feeding operations." The largest raise millions of animals in enclosed spaces and produce as much waste as medium-sized cities. Unlike cities, however, they are not required to treat the waste, which includes feces, urine, pesticides, hormones, carcass parts and E. coli bacteria.

The waste is collected in large vats or open pits and then periodically sprayed on fields as "fertilizer," polluting groundwater and creating toxic fumes. Some farmers are paid to spray the waste on their own farms.

These livestock farms have recently been identified as among the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, the Goldman Environmental Foundation said.

Henning and her husband farm 300 acres of corn and soybeans in Lenawee County within 10 miles of a dozen concentrated animal-feeding operations. Henning's parents-in-law, who live close to one factory livestock farm, have both been diagnosed with poisoning from hydrogen sulfide, one of the chemicals produced by these farming methods.

Please read the full article; awesome! http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/michigan-grandmother-wins-environmental-prize/19445100?sms_ss=email
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Vegetarian trend helps environment

Vegetarian trend helps environment
Rebecca Young - Staff Writer
November 19, 2009 Link to full article below

Many students on campus have a new way of going green these days and it's all about eliminating the red.

Being vegetarian, or not eating meat, is one way students can contribute to saving the globe. Not to be confused with vegans (people who eat no animal products such as eggs or cheese) vegetarians do not eat meat. Some will eat seafood while others will not, but abstaining from meat has positive effects for the global environment and resources.

"We spend a lot of farmland growing food for animals," Brother Dan Klco, a professor in the biology department, said.

In fact, about 40 percent of food grown worldwide is for animals. In more developed countries the percentage is as high as 70 percent. In addition to using land and food for animals, Americans spend a lot of other resources to maintain a very large and corn-fed cattle population, Klco said.

Please read the full article: http://www.flyernews.com/articles/volume/57/issue/17/id/5353/category/news

Bush rushes through harmful environment laws

Bush rushes through 'harmful' environment laws
New Scientist staff and Reuters
03 November 2008

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15105-bush-rushes-through-harmful-environm\
ent-laws.html?full=true&print=true
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15105-bush-rushes-through-harmful-environm\
ent-laws.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

As the US presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush
administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before
leaving power.

The rule changes include getting wolves off the Endangered Species List,
allowing power plants to operate near national parks, relaxing regulations for
factory farm waste and making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations.
None have found much favour with environmental groups.

Even some free-market organisations have joined conservation groups to urge a
moratorium on last-minute rules proposed by the Interior Department and the
Environmental Protection Agency, among others.

"The Bush administration has had eight years in office and has issued more
regulations than any administration in history," says Eli Lehrer of the
Competitive Enterprise Institute. "At this point, in the current economic
climate, it would be especially harmful to push through ill-considered
regulations."

The Bush team has urged that regulations be issued no later than Saturday, so
they can be put in effect by the time George W. Bush leaves office on 20 January
2009.
Hard to undo

If they are in effect then, it will be hard for the next administration to undo
them, and in any case, this may not be the top priority for a new president,
says Matt Madia of OMB Watch, which monitors the White House Office of
Management and Budget through which these proposed regulations must pass.

"This is typical," Madia says of the administration's welter of eleventh-hour
rules. "It's a natural reaction to knowing that you're almost out of power."

According to Madia, industry is likely to benefit if Bush's rules on the
environment become effective. "Whether it's the electricity industry or the
mining industry or the agriculture industry, this is going to remove government
restrictions on their activity and in turn they're going to be allowed to
pollute more and that ends up harming the public."

What is unusual is the speedy trip some of these environmental measures are
taking through the process.

For example, one Interior Department rule that would erode protections for
endangered species in favour of mining interests drew more than 300,000 comments
from the public, which officials said they planned to review in a week, a pace
that Madia calls "pretty ludicrous."

Rules only go into effect 30 to 60 days after they are finalised, and if they
are not in effect when the next president takes office, that chief executive can
decline to put them into practice - as Bush did with many rules finalised at the
end of the Clinton administration.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto denied the Bush team was cramming these
regulations through in a hasty push.