Stephan: Here is some more good news about the agricultural toxins that have polluted the lives of so many Americans, particularly children. The use of chlorpyrifos has now been limited. According to Earthjustice which has been instrumental in getting this accomplished:"Anyone living near where chlorpyrifos is used can be exposed to unsafe levels through air (drift) or drinking water, according to government studies, which note that food is a method of exposure too. Government reports show that farmworkers and people who live, work, or go to school near agricultural fields where chlorpyrifos is used experience dangerously high levels of exposure and are at elevated risk of harm."
I urge my readers as strongly as I can to eat organic food to the highest degree you can. The toxins in American food grown by the industrial chemical monoculture agricultural industry are horrifying, and the toxin level in the bodies of most Americans is appalling and the source of countless health problems. I know organic produce is more expensive but I assure you it is much cheaper than cancer or MS.
The pesticide chlorpyrifos is commonly applied to various crops including corn across the United States despite its threat to child development. Credit: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty
Two decades after the Environmental Protection Agency ended household use of chlorpyrifos over concerns about its impact on the brains of children, the neurotoxic pesticide is still widely applied to crops across the United States, according to a report published Wednesday.
“The review of these data shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that people, most alarmingly young children, are being exposed to unsafe levels of chlorpyrifos in their food and water.” —Rashmi Joglekar, Earthjustice
Earthjustice, along with farmworker and public health groups, has pressured the EPA to ban chlorpyrifos through legal action. In what the group hailed as a huge victory, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in April ordered the agency to ban all food uses of the pesticide or retain only those that are safe for […]
Stephan: At the last minute, the Biden administration moved to delay the eviction crisis, but it is still an issue and, as this article lays out, the legalized bribery corruption of the American Congress is on full display.
Boston tenants, faith leaders, and small landlords rally and march, calling for a stronger, longer federal eviction ban as part of a National Day of Action to Prevent Evictions in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 13, 2021. Credit: Lane Turner/The Boston Globe/Getty
As the national eviction moratorium, originally created for the pandemic, is set to end on July 31, a new report finds that the real estate industry has been lobbying for federal regulators to end the policy for months.
The report by Accountable.US, which calls itself a government corruption watchdog group, finds that Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania), who both raised objections to the eviction moratorium as early as December of last year, have pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars each from real estate groups. Crapo has taken nearly $281,000 and Toomey $183,000.
Real estate groups have filedlawsuits in courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, trying to get the eviction moratorium struck down. Meanwhile, the influential National Association of Realtors has lobbied across Washington to get the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) moratorium ended.
Stephan: The Great Salt Lake was once a kind of internal sea in Utah. Now it so diminished some wonder whether it may disappear. This is yet another climate change alarm bell warning us the earth's ecosystem is undergoing radical change as a result of human activity.
The water levels at the Great Salt Lake have hit a historic low, a grim milestone for the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River that comes as a megadrought grips the region.
The severely diminished Great Salt Lake
On Saturday, the US Geological Survey announced average daily water levels had dropped about an inch below the previous record of 4,191.4ft (1,278 meters) above sea level, which was set in 1963.
The new record comes months earlier than when the lake typically hits its lowest level of the year, indicating water levels could continue to drop even further, said Candice Hasenyager, the deputy director of Utah’s division of water resources.
Receding waters are already affecting a nesting spot for pelicans, which are among the millions of birds dependent on the lake. Sailboats have been hoisted out of the water to keep them from getting stuck in the mud. As more dry lakebed is exposed, arsenic-laced dust blows into the air that millions breathe.
People for years have been diverting water from rivers that flow into the lake to water crops and supply homes. Because […]
Stephan: "This is perhaps one of the most lethal cases of profiteering in history," this report says, and I agree. Everything is a grift today driven by obscene greed.
Click through to get the full report
A nurse vaccinates a person at the Covid-19 inoculation center at Centro Cultural Jaime Torres Bodet in Mexico City on July 27, 2021. Credit: Manuel Velasquez/Getty
Pharmaceutical corporations’ vaccine monopolies are increasing the cost of inoculating the world’s population against Covid-19 by as much as 500%, a briefing paper published Thursday revealed, underscoring what public health advocates say is the need for a People’s Vaccine.
“Immediate action must be taken now to deliver a People’s Vaccine… with access prioritized according to need and not ability to pay.” —The People’s Vaccine Alliance
The paper, authored by the People’s Vaccine Alliance and entitled The Great Vaccine Robbery(pdf), shows that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are charging governments as much as $41 billion more for their vaccines than the cost of production. Colombia, for example, has been paying twice as much as the United States for Moderna vaccines, and the country has potentially been overcharged by as much as $375 million for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech doses combined.
The report’s authors analyzed how mRNA-type vaccines like those sold by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are made. The vaccines, which were […]
Stephan: The corruption of the American government by corporate special interests is breathtaking. You have been hearing lots about the infrastructure bill Biden is trying to get passed. What you aren't hearing is the billions built into the bill to sweeten the pot for the carbon industry that is causing the climate change problems in the first place. This is disgusting.
Pumpjacks operate at the Kern River Oil Field in Bakersfield in 2015. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed a law intended to counter Trump administration plans to increase oil and gas production on protected public land. Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press
The Senate’s New bipartisan infrastructure bill is being sold as a down payment on addressing the climate crisis. But environmental advocates and academics are warning the proposed spending bill is full of new fossil fuel industry subsidies masked as climate solutions. The latest draft bill would make fossil fuel companies eligible for at least $25 billion in new subsidies, according to an analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law.
“This is billions upon billions of dollars in additional fossil fuel industry subsidies in addition to the $15 billion that we already hand out to this industry to support and fund this industry,” said Jim Walsh, Food and Water Watch’s senior policy analyst. Scientists say that to meet the goals of the international Paris climate accord, the U.S would need to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 — and […]
