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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
The denialist deck of cards
A video you simply must see |
David Roberts |
11 May 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Yikes. Everyone must watch this video, which comes to us from DeSmogBlog: And on a related note, this seems like a good time to link to The Denialists' Deck of Cards: An Illustrated Taxonomy of Rhetoric Used to Frustrate Consumer Protection Efforts. You will see that these perpetual, maddening arguments about global warming are not new. The techniques are the same and the goals are the same: protecting industry. All the more reason not to feed the trolls. And ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change skepticism, green living, health, lying liars (all these topics) |
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Oxy Frontin
Indigenous tribe sues oil company over pollution in Peru |
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11 May 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Oxy Frontin Indigenous tribe sues oil company over pollution in Peru A group of indigenous tribe members from Peru has filed suit against Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum in a U.S. court, claiming that the company's operations in the Amazon from 1975 to 1999 contaminated their food and water supplies, hurt their health, and led to the death of a child. The company -- known as Oxy to friends and foes alike -- & ... |
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| Topics: Big Oil, business, health, news, Peru (all these topics) |
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Speaking of fake 'butter' and industrial corn ...
Orville Redenbacher must be stopped |
Tom Philpott |
11 May 2007 |
Gristmill |
| My latest Victual Reality column looks at how perfectly wonderful foods like corn and butter get twisted up by food-industry marketers and flavor engineers, confusing people and often sending them scurrying in search of dubious, unhealthy, artificial substitutes -- which the food industry is only too willing to provide. As if on cue, out comes a New York Times piece on the horrors of microwave popcorn. Those unpleasant fumes that cloud the office when one of your co-wo ... |
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| Topics: food, green living, health, insanity (all these topics) |
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Good As Gold -- No, Better
Dan Peplow and Sarah Augustine, activists for indigenous health in Suriname, answer readers' questions |
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11 May 2007 |
InterActivist |
| Could you say more about the indigenous people of Suriname with whom you have been working so closely? How many different groups or ethnicities are there? In what kinds of environments do they live? How do they relate to the plants and animals of their environment, which are as threatened as they are by the toxic pollution caused by the mining operations? ... |
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| Topics: health, InterActivist, interview, mining, Suriname (all these topics) |
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Just because it's awesome
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David Roberts |
10 May 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Occasionally I like to revisit one of the greatest magazine feature leads ever written: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. Perfect. |
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| Topics: food, green living, health (all these topics) |
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Bien Suriname
Dan Peplow and Sarah Augustine, activists for indigenous health in Suriname, answer Grist's questions |
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07 May 2007 |
InterActivist |
| Dan Peplow and Sarah Augustine. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? We are co-directors of the Suriname Indigenous Health Fund. What does your organization do? Our organization supplies technology and support to indigenous communities that are impacted by gold mining. The communities we work with live in the rainforest deep in the interior of Surina ... |
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| Topics: health, InterActivist, interview, mining, Suriname (all these topics) |
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I Believe the Children Are Our Lab Rats
Pesticides could make kids dumb, diesel emissions make them sick |
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07 May 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| I Believe the Children Are Our Lab Rats Pesticides could make kids dumb, diesel emissions make them sick You know how we say we shouldn't wreck the planet for "future generations"? Turns out we're wrecking them too! A study from Indiana University says children conceived in the summer score lower on tests in school, and suggests that in-womb pesticide exposure may be to blame. "To recognize that what w ... |
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| Topics: green living, health, news, parenting (all these topics) |
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Pollan continues to fail to ever write anything less than awesome
The new NYT piece does not disappoint |
David Roberts |
27 Apr 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I can't believe no Gristian has yet commented on the latest Michael Pollan piece in the NYT. What, is saying 'Pollan has a new piece and it's awesome' getting tedious? This one focuses on the farm bill and how it makes us fat: A public-health researcher from Mars might legitimately wonder why a nation faced with what its surgeon general has called 'an epidemic' of obesity would at the same time be in the business of subsidizing the production of high-fructose corn ... |
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| Topics: food, green living, health, shameless self-promotion (all these topics) |
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How Much Wood Could a Wood Check Chuck?
California restricts formaldehyde in wood products |
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27 Apr 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| How Much Wood Could a Wood Check Chuck? California restricts formaldehyde in wood products It may be a land of earthquakes, smog, and drought, but California's doing something right. In the latest in a string of forward-thinking green policies, state air regulators passed restrictions on formaldehyde in wood products that are the restrictiest in the world. "There is no safe threshold for this carcinoge ... |
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| Topics: California, green living, health, news, toxics (all these topics) |
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At Least the Couch Is Clean
DuPont, 3M criticized for production of 'probable' carcinogen |
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26 Apr 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| At Least the Couch Is Clean DuPont, 3M criticized for production of "probable" carcinogen Public furor is simmering over a chemical used in Teflon, Scotchgard, and other miracles of non-stick, stain-resistant living. Protesters picketed DuPont's annual shareholder meeting in Delaware yesterday, upset over the company's environmental and labor policies -- including its production of PFOA (perf ... |
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| Topics: business, grassroots activism, health, news, toxics (all these topics) |
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Now This Is Corn-fusing
Study says ethanol fuel could cause more health problems than gasoline |
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18 Apr 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Now This Is Corn-fusing Study says ethanol fuel could cause more health problems than gasoline Time to trot out Alanis, cuz this is what the kids call "ironic": a study from Stanford University says widespread use of ethanol in vehicles could have serious health effects. Atmospheric scientist Mark Jacobson ran computer models comparing air quality in 2020 based on use of both gasoline and E85, a blend of 85 percent ... |
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| Topics: energy, ethanol, health, news (all these topics) |
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Message on a Bottle
On aluminum bottles |
Umbra Fisk |
04 Apr 2007 |
Ask Umbra |
| Umbra, Are aluminum bottles safer than Nalgene bottles? I'm looking at getting Sigg bottles for my self, wife, and son. Vendor agnostic, are the materials used by aluminum-only vendors safer than those that incorporate Lexan? Chris Webber Seattle, Wash. Dearest Chris, I swear, I pick questions and only then do I notice that yet again I have chosen one from Seattle. It is not a conspiracy. I just wanted a question to go with our r ... |
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| Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, green living, green products, health, toxics (all these topics) |
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Deca Dent
Washington state first in the nation to ban PBDEs |
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04 Apr 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Deca Dent Washington state first in the nation to ban PBDEs Washington state will be the first in the nation to phase out nasty fireproofing chemicals called PBDEs, which show up in the bodies of people and wildlife and may cause neurological damage. Yesterday, the state Senate passed a measure that will eventually ban home items containing deca, the most commonly used PBDE; the House had already approved the bill, and no ... |
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| Topics: health, news, toxics, Washington (all these topics) |
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Then There's the Short Term
Long-term radiation risks lower than some daily hazards, study finds |
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03 Apr 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Then There's the Short Term Long-term radiation risks lower than some daily hazards, study finds Living in fear of a nuclear meltdown? Now you can relax! A new study says the long-term risks faced by survivors of two of the world's most notorious nuclear episodes -- the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the 1945 bombings of Japan -- are lower than the risks caused by urban air pollution, obesity, and smoking. ... |
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| Topics: energy, green living, health, news, nuclear power (all these topics) |
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Green consumerism: Getting the rat poison out of the baby food
So to speak |
Gar Lipow |
02 Apr 2007 |
Gristmill |
| No, as far as I know, no baby-food maker ever used rat poison as an ingredient. The point is that we don't have to worry about it; if you have an infant switching off milk, you can shop the baby food counter confident that none of the choices will contain rat poison. However, as a consumer, buying 'green' is not quite so easy. Hastening the end of our civilization is a routine ingredient in most of the things we buy. By spending a little extra time and money, we can some ... |
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| Topics: food, green living, green products, health (all these topics) |
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More beef = fewer babies?
Growth promoters in beef may damage sperm |
Julia Olmstead |
29 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| As reported by the BBC, a University of Rochester study found recently that men whose mothers ate lots of beef during their pregnancies had lower sperm counts than the sons of women who ate little or no beef while pregnant: Among sons of mothers who ate a lot of beef, 17.7 percent had a sperm concentration below the World Health Organization sub-fertility threshold of 20 million sperm per millilitre of seminal fluid. The figure for the sons of lower beef consumers ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, green living, health (all these topics) |
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Punishment for gluttons?
Rising costs affect consumers |
Clark Williams-Derry |
28 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| One of the side effects of the rapid increase in ethanol consumption in the U.S. is that corn -- the main feedstock for ethanol -- has gotten much more expensive. Just take a look at the futures markets: the July 2007 corn contract started climbing last fall, which was about the time people started to realize just how quickly demand for corn-based ethanol was growing. Obviously, rising costs trickle down to consumers in all sorts of ways. If corn prices st ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, energy, ethanol, food, green living, health (all these topics) |
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Pangea's labyrinth
Great finds in the search for green cosmetics |
Yolanda Crous |
26 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I smell yummy. Very very yummy. So yummy, in fact, that my roommate's dog just tried to lick all the yumminess off my face. Still, even that salivary interlude couldn't kill my French Rosemary With Sweet Orange buzz. I'm on a mission to replace all my pharmacy-bought personal care products with non-toxic, petrochemical-free alternatives. Alas, it's been slow going, especially in the skin care department. It took me years, after all, to find cleansers and moisturize ... |
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| Topics: fashion, green living, green products, health (all these topics) |
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Playing with food
Er, food data that is |
Clark Williams-Derry |
23 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I'm not much of a gourmand, but I do love to play with food. Well, food data, anyway. So when I happened upon the Food System Factoids blog, I totally pigged out. The menu may not be for everyone, but if you have a craving for analyses of food pricing trends, or evaluations of carbon emissions from U.S. agriculture, you'll find plenty to satisfy. Take, for instance, this post on the relative change in prices of soft drinks and processed fats vs. fruits an ... |
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| Topics: food, green living, health (all these topics) |
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IV League
Karen Bowman, environmental-health nurse, answers readers' questions |
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23 Mar 2007 |
InterActivist |
| Karen Bowman, president of Karen Bowman & Associates Inc. I'm intrigued by environmental-health nursing as a career path -- I'd never heard of it until now! How did you become an environmental-health nurse, and how does the average person do so? -- Marta Lindsey, San Francisco, Calif. I am so glad you asked -- and if I can do it, you can do it too! As you learned from my initial bio, I've been in oc ... |
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| Topics: health, InterActivist, interview (all these topics) |
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Rethinking the bottom line
Bill McKibben questions thinking as usual when it comes to climate. |
Anna Fahey |
21 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The old thinking, as author and thinker Bill McKibben explains in today's LA Times, goes like this: bigger is always better, growth is good no matter what, and a booming stock market is the ultimate measure of our success. McKibben illustrates the kind of lopsided priorities that naturally flow when we're ruled by the bottom line, pointing to a scarcely-reported White House report that said the U.S. would be pumping out almost 20 percent more greenhous ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, Bill McKibben, farmers markets, food, green living, health, local food (all these topics) |
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On the Ball: Freeze right there!
Skating arenas can be bad for your health |
Sarah K. Burkhalter |
21 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I avoid ice skating at all costs, because I value my tailbone. And now I have all the more reason to stay home, as a CBC News investigation finds that ice-resurfacing machines in hockey and skating arenas can spew particulate matter to a health-endangering extent. At 14 percent of arenas studied across Canada, skaters were breathing in pollution just as dirty as the air next to Canada's busiest highway. Says researcher Kenneth Rundell: We found the ice-rink at ... |
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| Topics: green living, health, sports (all these topics) |
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Coal kills
Report from India |
Gar Lipow |
20 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Daphne Wysham, co-director of the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network sends the following from Angul, Orissa, the heart of India's Coal Belt, on March 15, 2007: The smell of burning coal in household fires hangs in the air. Bicyclists carry heavy bags of coal from the mines to sell for a few rupees. They are overtaken by huge lorries carrying more than the tonnage they are supposed to carry -- all part of the black market in coal -- down busy streets, with cattle l ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, coal, energy, health, India (all these topics) |
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'Drop-dead gorgeous guts'
Metamucil's bold new marketing, uh, move |
Tom Philpott |
20 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Most people know intuitively that when they eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, they feel better and probably even look better. It's a virtuous circle, and you can try it at home. Eat fresh produce. Feel better. Look better. Crave fresh produce. But the food-pharmaceutical industry (yes, they're related) doesn't make much money when you eat a lot of fresh produce. It makes much more sense to them if you eat a lot of 'value-added' (i.e., highly processed) ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, green living, health (all these topics) |
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Healthy cars
Also known as bikes |
Sarah van Schagen |
20 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Is your car safe?I'm not talking seat belts and air bags. Nope, I'm asking about that new-car smell. Take a big whiff, and ask yourself again: Is your car safe? What you smell may be part of a toxic soup of chemicals off-gassing from parts like the steering wheel, dashboard, armrests, and seat. These chemicals can include bromine, chlorine, lead, and other toxins that contribute to a litany of health problems ranging from decreased fertility to liver, kidney, th ... |
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| Topics: cars, green living, health, toxics (all these topics) |
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