compact fluorescent lights dumping mercury directly into landfills from natural news: Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs have become all the rage over the past several years, touted by many as the preferable "green" way to light a home, save energy, and promote environmental responsibility. While they may use less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs, CFL bulbs are filled with toxic mercury that, when disposed of, contaminates landfills and the environment. A report released in 2008 from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection revealed that when a CFL bulb is broken, it can release dangerously high levels of mercury into the air.
robert f kennedy jr vs don blankenship: debate on mountaintop mining before a west virginia audience from guardian: It was an event billed as the smackdown between the baddest coal baron around and the environmental heir to the liberal Kennedy legacy, live on stage and in the heart of Appalachia mine country. Stage right, appropriately, was Don Blankenship, chairman of Massey Energy, a meaty impassive presence, his Kentucky drawl never picking up speed or volume. On the left, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has spent his life defending waterways, making lawyerly argument out of staccato bursts of statistics. The pairing at the University of Charleston was the perfect personification of America's deep divides: Republican versus Democrat; old industry v new, global warming denier v impassioned advocate for climate change laws. The battle in Thursday night's debate was over mountaintop removal mining, which blows the tops off mountains to get at thin seams of coal and of which Blankenship is the most notorious promoter. "This is the worst environmental crime that ever happened in our history," began Kennedy ... "It's a bunch of rhetoric and untruths," [Blankenship] returned. "This industry is what made this country great. If we forget that, we are going to have to learn to speak Chinese." Or accept early deaths, he argued, noting that expectancy in Angola is 39 years.
info commissioner: climategate scientists broke the law from climategate.tv: The scientific unit at the heart of the climate change emails scandal broke the law by hiding data from sceptics. Researchers at the University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for the data. The decision by the Information Commissioner’s Office comes months after controversial emails from the university’s Climatic Research Unit, a global leader in its field, were released on to the internet. In one email the head of the unit, Professor Phil Jones, asked a colleague to delete emails relating to a report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In another message, Professor Jones told how he had persuaded the university to ignore Freedom of Information requests from sceptics. Others showed how an eminent climatologist admitted it was a ‘travesty’ scientists could not explain a lack of global warming in recent years. The Information Commissioner’s Office yesterday revealed the university had failed in it duties under the Freedom of Information Act.
west virginia lawmaker drinks bottled ‘coal slurry’ to highlight plight of his constituents from raw replay: A West Virginia state Senator made a statement about the quality of his constituents’ drinking water by drinking a bottle of what he called ‘coal slurry’ on the Senate floor. WSAZ reported: "Senator Randy White (D-Webster) introduced a bill on the senate floor that limits coal slurry sites from making changes to their permits until the Department of Environmental Protection releases its findings on whether the ground water in these areas is safe to drink. Right now, there are 15 active coal slurry sights, according to White. This is where coal companies can inject coal slurry, the liquid and solid waste left over from the mining and preparation process, in abandoned underground mines. White says he drank the 12 ounces of liquid Thursday to make a statement. The senator tells WSAZ.com he wants other lawmakers to realize there are health concerns when it comes to drinking coal slurry water. He says lawmakers are elected to protect their constituents’ health and they need to be held accountable to make sure they’re doing just that. This video is from WSAZ, broadcast Mar. 12, 2009.
independent lab tests: metals in wv coal slurry from examiner: West Virginians eager to know what's in the slurry that coal companies pump into worked-out underground mines will have to wait until May for the state's answers, but preliminary independent tests suggest it contains heavy metals they wouldn't want to drink.
wv mercury releases focus of planned lawsuit from examiner: Two environmental groups have put PPG Industries on notice that they intend to sue over mercury releases into the Ohio River from a West Virginia plant. The West Virginia Rivers Coalition and the Washington, D.C.-based group Oceana filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue on Monday against PPG's Natrium plant. The notice was filed pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act. In a letter to company officials, the groups said the Wetzel County plant continues to release mercury at levels exceeding its waste water discharge permit. The plant produces chlorine by pumping saltwater through vats of pure mercury. Mercury is a neurotoxin that accumulates in fish. Ingesting mercury can cause nerve and brain damage to pregnant women, women of childbearing age and young children. Mercury also can lead to kidney damage in children.
study finds high-fructose corn syrup contains mercury from healthday news: Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies. HFCS has replaced sugar as the sweetener in many beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, but teens and other high consumers can take in 80 percent more HFCS than average. "Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement. In the first study, published in current issue of Environmental Health, researchers found detectable levels of mercury in nine of 20 samples of commercial HFCS. And in the second study, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a non-profit watchdog group, found that nearly one in three of 55 brand-name foods contained mercury. The chemical was found most commonly in HFCS-containing dairy products, dressings and condiments.
vaccines & other govt propaganda from infowars: In the seventh installment of his new audio blog, Alex Jones and his wife Violet discuss various government propaganda, as well as television programs, which advance the idea that those who don’t vaccinate will contaminate the rest of society. Violet discusses an episode of Private Practice which features a scenario where the mother of an autistic child had refused to vaccinate another child out of concern about the link between vaccine & autism. That action is portrayed as a dangerous misjudgment leading to the second child spreading measles– which the doctors see as evidence that the woman’s children should be taken by CPS. Alex also discusses USA Service ads that are promoted by Obama, government propaganda about the supposed dangers of marijuana smokers, the pro-abortion culture, and other issues. Click the player button below to hear the latest installment.
carbon-calculating supercomputer has huge carbon footprint from times online: For the Met Office the forecast is considerable embarrassment. It has spent £33m on a new supercomputer to calculate how climate change will affect Britain – only to find the new machine has a giant carbon footprint of its own. “The new supercomputer, which will become operational later this year, will emit 14,400 tonnes of CO2 a year,” said Dave Britton, the Met Office’s chief press officer. This is equivalent to the CO2 emitted by 2,400 homes – generating an average of six tonnes each a year. The Met Office recently published some of its most drastic predictions for future climate change. It warned: “If no action is taken to curb global warming temperatures are likely to rise by 5.5ºC and could rise as much as 7ºC above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Early and rapid reductions in CO2 emissions are required to avoid significant impacts of climate change.” However, when it came to buying a new supercomputer, the Met Office decided not to heed its own warnings. The ironic problem was that it needed the extra computing power to improve the accuracy of its own climate predictions as well as its short-term weather forecasting. The machine will also improve its ability to predict extreme events such as fierce localised storms, cloudbursts and so on.
fair use notice: this site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. we are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, & social justice issues, etc. we believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US copyright law. In accordance with title 17 usc section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
100% of fish in US streams contaminated with mercury* 
ads in a russian town promote marijuana* 
