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Some Tips On How to Avoid Plastic While Traveling
An Excerpt from the New Book, Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too
In 2007 I was recovering from surgery when I read an article and saw a photo that changed my life. The article was titled, “Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic… Are We?” and the photo showed the carcass of a dead albatross chick, its belly full of plastic pieces, such as the bottle caps I used and discarded on a regular basis. I looked at my own life and realized that through my unconscious overconsumption, I was personally contributing the suffering of creatures I didn’t even know existed.
That week, I committed to stop buying new plastic, and a passion and blog were born: My Plastic-free Life (known originally as Fake Plastic Fish.)
Since then, I have found that — with focus and attention — it’s not at all impossible to remove plastic from my life. In 2011, my plastic waste was just 2 percent of the US average and fit into a single plastic grocery bag.
One of the hardest parts of living plastic free, I have discovered, is traveling away from home. But with a little planning, I’ve found ways …more
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Fresh Water Demand Driving Sea-Level Rise Faster Than Glacier Melt
Trillions of Tons of Water Have Been Pumped Up From Underground Reservoirs in Every Part of the World, Says Report
By Damian Carrington
Humanity's unquenchable thirst for fresh water is driving up sea levels even faster than melting glaciers, according to new research. The massive impact of the global population's growing need for water on rising sea levels is revealed in a comprehensive assessment of all the ways in which people use water.
Photo Landsat/NasaFor three decades, Saudi Arabia has been drilling for water from underground aquifers. Engineers and
farmers have tapped hidden reserves of water to grow grains, fruit and vegetables in the desert of
Wadi As-Sirhan Basin.
Trillions of tons of water have been pumped up from deep underground reservoirs in every part of the world and then channelled into fields and pipes to keep communities fed and watered. The water then flows into the oceans, but far more quickly than the ancient aquifers are replenished by rains. The global tide would be rising even more quickly but for the fact that man-made reservoirs have, until …more
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New Book Examines the Future of Fracking
In Review: Under the Surface, by Tom Wilber
In 2004, Range Resources, a Texas-based oil and gas company, drilled its first exploratory wells in the Marcellus Shale, a vast geologic formation that stretches from the southern tier of New York State, through much of Pennsylvania, and into West Virginia and Ohio. The results were positive and the company kept quiet about its findings as it bought up mineral rights throughout the play. By 2008, just as the significance of the Marcellus was coming into public view, Range Resources had acquired drilling rights on more than 900,000 acres. Since then, the company has drilled more than 600 wells in the Marcellus Shale. In 2011 the company directed 86 percent of its capital budget to development in the region, which also includes the Upper Devonian and Utica shale formations (the Utica shale is even deeper than the Marcellus).
Book cover courtesy Cornell Press
Range is just one of many players — from geologists and landmen to lawyers and landowners — featured in Tom Wilber’s thorough account of the early years of drilling in the Marcellus Shale, Under the Surface: …more
(0) Comments The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled yesterday that United States’ “Dolphin Safe" tuna-labeling regulations unfairly discriminates against Mexico and probably needs to be modified to make an exception for Mexican fishermen, or dropped. It’s not totally clear what the economic implications of the ruling are, but this is definitely a big setback in efforts to protect marine mammals. The new ruling is a reversal of a September 2011 one on the same case where WTO arbitrators had decided that the labeling, while “more trade restrictive than necessary,” wasn’t actually discriminatory. Both the US and Mexico had appealed the decision in January, resulting in yesterday’s decision by the WTO appellate panel. Trade analysts say it’s possible that if the US fails to comply it could mean sanctions against American products in the global market. The decision was condemned by Earth Island Institute’s International Marine Mammal Project, which established the Dolphin Safe Tuna labeling program and monitors tuna companies around the world for compliance. “The WTO decision … is an outrageous attack that would ensure thousands of dolphins …more
(2) Comments Excerpted from the book Food Fight. To learn more about the Farm Bill and purchase a copy of Food Fight please visit www.foodfight2012.org “If we are not careful, we could lose the farm and the food system on our watch.” That drastic warning came from A.G. Kawamura in 2005, when he was secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Kawamura was not only alluding to how important forward-thinking policy is to the food system, but also to the fact that people who grow food for a living are becoming a dying breed. Already, agriculture is greatly diminished in terms of economic measures: it represents just 1.2 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product; services make up 77 percent and manufacturing 22 percent of GDP. It’s becoming a forgotten career path as well. Principal farm operators over age 65 now outnumber those under 35 by a ratio of more than seven to one. Over the next 20 years, 400 million acres of agricultural lands—an area roughly five times the size of all our national parks combined—will …more
(0) Comments Deep in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest live the Awá hunter-gatherers — an ancient, partially-contacted Indigenous peoples, now thought by some to be the “Earth’s most threatened tribe”. The nomadic Awá have always treaded lightly on Earth, carrying only their most precious possessions as they move through the forest — their children, pets, and bows and arrows. The rest, the forest provides: food in the form of babacu nuts, acai berries, and fresh meat; palm leaves to weave baskets from; sturdy vines to use as ropes, and resin from trees to burn for light. The matrilineal Awá’s love for animals, especially monkeys, is unique and endearing. Women are encouraged to suckle monkeys and other animals alongside their own children, an act they consider sacred. Most families raise a host of pets — from talkative parakeets to wild pigs, owls, and tamarins. A small number of Awá who avoid contact with outsiders are among few of the last uncontacted people on the planet. After the Awá were first contacted by outsiders in 1973, …more
(0) Comments Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless estimates that if we managed the world’s oceans better, wild seafood could potentially be a major protein source for our world’s ever-growing population. He says, “a fully productive ocean could provide the entire animal protein diet for a billion people, or 13 to 15 percent of the animal protein produced on the entire planet,” by 2050. His claim has been questioned by some fisheries economists, who say the numbers are way inflated, and by environmentalists opposed to the idea of promoting fish consumption at a time when the most of the world’s marine life is in peril. But the head of the largest international organization working to protect the world’s oceans, believes his theory makes practical sense, since one can’t effectively ban the eating of meat, fish, and animal protein. I spoke with Sharpless about his “Save the Oceans and Feed the World” idea and other threats to oceans when he was in San Francisco last month. An excerpt from our conversation (0) CommentsWTO Rules US Dolphin Safe Tuna Label ‘Unfair’ to Mexico
Decision a Big Blow to Dolphin Protection, Say Environmentalists
Who Will Grow Our Food?
A Forgotten Career Path — Old Farmers Outnumber Young Ones by a Ratio of Over 7:1
In the Amazon, World’s “Most Threatened Tribe” Faces Extinction
Illegal Logging and Development in Brazil Is Destroying Protected Habitat of the Nomadic Awá
Photo © Survival“Wild Fish Will be Critical to Feeding the World”
Conversation: Andrew Sharpless, CEO, Oceana
Photo by Ian UmedaIt’s rare to …more
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