Monday Morning Water Cooler

by: JayinPortland

Mon May 18, 2009 at 04:44:46 AM PDT

Since AAF is on hiatus until September, I guess he won't mind if I pick up water issues in the meantime...

India can coordinate a nationwide election for over 700 million eligible voters, yet "the world's largest democracy" doesn't seem to be too concerned with the fact that it still can't ensure access to clean water for its rural poor -
That incredible coordination doesn't translate to the treatment of water. India still lacks sanitation facilities for about 700 million people. On top of that, 200 million don't have access to drinking water. Those that do have no guarantee it is actually safe.
Great piece from my old hometown paper, The Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger, on the federal crackdown on oceangoing cargo and cruise ships that use our oceans (because they do belong to all of us...) as their illegal waste dumping grounds.
The Center for Biological Diversity has filed suit against US EPA under the Clean Water Act for failing to recognize the impacts of ocean acidification.
A "voluntary" (uh-oh...) plan has been struck amongst six Asia-Pacific nations to protect the threatened Coral Triangle.
The more things 'change', the more they stay the same. EPA has just signed off on 42 of 48 new "mountaintop removal" mining permits. Appalachian Voices provides us a tour of just one such site in West Virginia.

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Is Ecological Agriculture Productive?

In Lim Li Ching's paper Is Ecological Agriculture Productive, a number of examples from around the world are examined to see if ecological agriculture can feed a growing world population. The very short answer is YES, organic can feed the world. The long answer is below.

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Are your Skittles destroying the rainforest? Part 1

by: rossl

Sun Jan 04, 2009 at 15:37:31 PM PST

(This breaks my heart. We are killing one of our closest living relatives so we can eat trans-fat free junkfood. - promoted by Jill Richardson)

Today, I've decided to start a series on palm oil and palm ingredients - and alternatives to them. I'm in the process of building a website on the same subject ( http://www.nomorepalm.com ), but that will take a bit of time, and time is not something worth wasting in this context.

A specific type of vegetable oil may not sound like a particularly interesting subject, but palm oil is no ordinary vegetable oil. It is one of the more destructive forces on our planet today. Or maybe I should say that the machine of people and corporations in place to grow and distribute palm oil is one of the more destructive forces on our planet. Either way, consuming this ingredient - which is in an unbelievable amount of foods and cosmetics and other things - is something which makes one responsible for encouraging this.

If you want some outside info, here's a good place to start: http://www.cspinet.org/palmoil...

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