Two million square miles of permafrost—an area two-thirds the size of the United States has now thawed since the beginning of the 20th century. And all that thawing permafrost is costing the Russian oil and gas industry billions of dollars to repair damaged pipelines and infrastructure as global warming changes the face of western Siberia.

The energy program head of Greenpeace in Russia, Vladimir Chuprov, after interviewing experts at Gazprom, concluded, “For Russia, the biggest threat of the permafrost melt is to oil and gas company infrastructure.” (from Carbon-Based)

Thawing permafrost presents even more of a threat: it could release frozen methane deposits and causing runaway global warming, mass-extinctions, and huge amounts of economic damage to global infrastructure and economic well being. In addition to Gazprom’s, that is.

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These are the fish which are most in peril from destructive, illegal or simple over fishing.  It lists 19 fish, two shellfish and one crustacean.

Cod we all know about and hopefully everybody avoids.  However the list also includes other common white fish, including hoki and pollock.

Then there are other common seafood: salmon, quahog, swordfish, red snapper, halibut and most types of tuna.

The list goes on and on and is truly astounding: you can read it all at the Greenpeace Red Fish List page.

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Now that the polar bear is about to receive over 128 million acres of critical habitat designation, the state of Alaska is taking legal action to challenge the decision.

Following the announcement that threatened polar bears are set to receive over 128 million acres of critical habitat designation, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell and Attorney General Dan Sullivan responded by taking legal action against federal protection of polar bears.

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You can now explore the Amazon, Madagascar, and Sebangau National Forest in Borneo through Google Earth.

On September 25, I wrote about a Google Earth tour (narrated by AL Gore) and new Google Earth tools and layers which help people to look at the possible effects of climate change under three different scenarios. Now, three new tours have been launched that allow the exploration of critical rainforests and real-life success stories.

The tours (embedded below) have a great wealth of information and inspirational stories bound into succinct Google Earth or YouTube videos.

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700 people stripped naked in French vineyards this week. Why? To try to influence world leaders to do more regarding climate change.

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Last month, I wrote about the world’s largest leather exporter leaving the Amazon. This week there is even bigger news. The world’s largest meat exporter is leaving.

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A new report released today says that if we shift our economy — to a greener, low-carbon economy — we will have more jobs, not fewer.

Earlier this week, Tony Blair (former prime minister of the UK) and the Climate Group reported that if we worked to avoid climate change we’d create 10 million new jobs by 2020 — worldwide. Another recent study by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council says that such a shift could increase employment in the EU by 2.7 million jobs by 2030.

One more report, released today by the Global Climate Network (an alliance of nine influential think tanks) comes to similar conclusions.

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I need to be very careful in what I say about this topic because it would be easy to scare people beyond what is rational.  I could also also easily make enemies in the Wheat industry which is about the last thing I’d like to do.  I’m going to try to hit the right balance, but it is risky.

Mycotoxins

Most people don’t know that Mycotoxins are a very real issue in our food supply.  These are nasty, natural chemicals that are produced by certain fungi that infect crops. This is not something new.  In Medieval times there was a wide-spread neurological disorder called “Ergotism.” It was caused by mycotoxins in the rye crop produced by a disease called “ergot.” The poor people who lived off of rye, rather than wheat, were disproportionately effected.

Mycotoxins are still an issue today.  2009 has been a particularly bad year for a toxin called “vomitoxin” in wheat, barley and pasta wheat.  Its not a secret, but unless you read the farm press or trade news, you would never know.  Sometime do a Google News search for “vomitoxin.”  If there is rain when these grains are flowering, they can become infected with a fungus called Fusarium graminierum. The disease starts by reducing the farmer’s yields, but it can also produce a toxin in the remaining grain called deoxynivalenol (more commonly called DON toxin).  The trade term, “vomitoxin,” comes from the physical response that animals have if they are fed too much of this contaminated grain (which is obviously not pretty).

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/09/20/an-agricultural-scientists-food-supply-worries-part-2-vomitoxin/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/09/19/environmental-protest-round-up-19-september/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/09/19/environmental-protest-round-up-19-september/#comments Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:49:53 +0000 Kay Sexton http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/09/19/environmental-protest-round-up-19-september/

Thursday this week seems to have been a key day for environmental protest.

Chinese pollution protest

In Fujian Province, eastern China, villagers blockaded a road to protest against high levels of lead in the blood of their children. Local residents are convinced that the children’s excessive lead levels are the result of pollution from the  Huaqiang Battery Factory. Authorities have ordered China’s environmental protection bureau to increase oversight of the plant. The protest comes in the wake of several similar protests against industrial plants that have succeeded in getting polluting factories closed down.

Manure message

And in the UK, journalist and television presenter Jeremy Clarkson found his own bit of global warming, on his doorstep! Seven members of group Climate Rush visited his home and left steaming piles of horse manure on his drive, along with a message reading ‘This is what you’re landing us in’. The protestors, all women, chose Clarkson because he has a sceptical attitude to climate change. Clarkson is the presenter of Top Gear, a car programme, and has recently driven to the Arctic. In the past he has made inflammatory remarks about the effects of climate change, describing walkers who demand access to land as ‘urban communists’ and cyclists as ‘Lycra Nazis’.

New Zealand animal foods protest

And finally on the same day, 17 September, a New Zealand protest against palm kernel imports ended inconclusively.  The company, Fonterra, is a dairy supplies specialist and also a cooperative with over 11,000 dairy farming members in New Zealand.  Greenpeace claims there is both local and international concern about the nature of the palm oil industry globally and protestors chained themselves to the cranes of the ship delivering the imports.  Feed imports for livestock are an increasing contentious issue – Greenpeace says that corn and grain farmers in New Zealand have supported their action because their own products have been outpriced by cheap imported livestock foods and that endangered species are being further threatened by land clearance fuelled by the palm oil export industry. 14 protesters, charged with unlawful boarding of a ship, will be appearing in court next week.
New Zealand sheep courtesy of PhillipC at Flickr under a creative commons licence

]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/09/19/environmental-protest-round-up-19-september/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/09/01/charlie-the-tuna-faces-extinction/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/09/01/charlie-the-tuna-faces-extinction/#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:43:46 +0000 Jace Shoemaker-Galloway http://ecoworldly.com/2009/09/01/charlie-the-tuna-faces-extinction/

According to Greenpeace and the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST), Pacific tuna could face extinction by 2048, due to overfishing, pirate fishing and exploitation.

In a news conference held last week, the two groups recommended a 50 percent reduction in tuna catches and asked the Taiwan government to support the Western and Central Pacific Fishery Commission (WCPCF), to “close the four pockets of international waters in the Pacific Ocean as marine reserves to sustain the tuna stock.”  The WCPCF, also known as the Pacific Tuna Commission, is a decision making body comprised of 27 countries and territories around the world that manages tuna fishing in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/09/01/charlie-the-tuna-faces-extinction/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/29/ice-sculptures-in-china-and-india-to-mark-100-days-to-copenhagen-climate-conference/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/29/ice-sculptures-in-china-and-india-to-mark-100-days-to-copenhagen-climate-conference/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:06:39 +0000 Zachary Shahan http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/29/ice-sculptures-in-china-and-india-to-mark-100-days-to-copenhagen-climate-conference/
Yesterday, marking the 100-day countdown to the world-changing climate change conference in Copenhagen, Greenpeace presented beautiful ice sculptures in China and India to “to symbolise the ‘disappearing future‘ for the 1.3 billion people in Asia at risk of water shortage as a result of climate change” and “to show ‘the world washed away’ by glacial melts. They also engaged in several other creative demonstrations around the world to encourage climate action in Copenhagen in December.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/29/ice-sculptures-in-china-and-india-to-mark-100-days-to-copenhagen-climate-conference/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/08/25/shipping-rules-protect-the-antarctic/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/08/25/shipping-rules-protect-the-antarctic/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:53:47 +0000 Chris Milton http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/08/25/shipping-rules-protect-the-antarctic/

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has agreed new rules which ban the transportation and use of heavy grade oils by ships in the Antarctic Ocean.

The change was agreed during the 2009 meeting of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee and is scheduled to come into force in 2011.

In essence it will only allow ships to use only lighter grade oils which, if spilt, evaporate more easily, are easier to clean up and are far less damaging to wildlife.

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]]> http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/08/25/shipping-rules-protect-the-antarctic/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/24/obamas-grandma-gets-solar-panels-on-her-kenyan-home-from-greenpeace/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/24/obamas-grandma-gets-solar-panels-on-her-kenyan-home-from-greenpeace/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:49:35 +0000 Zachary Shahan http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/24/obamas-grandma-gets-solar-panels-on-her-kenyan-home-from-greenpeace/
Greenpeace’s “Solar Generation” activists installed solar panels on President Obama’s Grandmother’s house in Kenya last week.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/24/obamas-grandma-gets-solar-panels-on-her-kenyan-home-from-greenpeace/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/08/20/greenpeace-exposes-oil-industrys-really-dirty-face/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/08/20/greenpeace-exposes-oil-industrys-really-dirty-face/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:16:48 +0000 Zachary Shahan http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/08/20/greenpeace-exposes-oil-industrys-really-dirty-face/

We can’t expect much from the oil industry, but Greenpeace’s newest finding is as ugly as it gets.

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]]> http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/08/20/greenpeace-exposes-oil-industrys-really-dirty-face/feed/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/08/17/lead-poisoning-of-children-causes-chinese-villagers-to-storm-factory/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/08/17/lead-poisoning-of-children-causes-chinese-villagers-to-storm-factory/#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:24:21 +0000 Jennifer Lance http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/08/17/lead-poisoning-of-children-causes-chinese-villagers-to-storm-factory/

615 children have been poisoned by lead in the Chinese province of Shaanxi prompting angry parents to “rampage” the factory responsible.

The children have “dangerously high amounts of lead in their blood”, according to the Guardian.  Angry parents stormed the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Company tearing down fences and destroying coal trucks in response to the news.

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]]> http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/08/17/lead-poisoning-of-children-causes-chinese-villagers-to-storm-factory/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/17/worlds-largest-leather-exporter-backs-out-of-amazon/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/17/worlds-largest-leather-exporter-backs-out-of-amazon/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:57:11 +0000 Zachary Shahan http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/17/worlds-largest-leather-exporter-backs-out-of-amazon/
Just a couple of weeks ago, soya traders agreed to extend a moratorium on buying soya linked to Amazon destruction. However, as discussed in January, 80% of Amazon deforestation is from cattle farming. With continued involvement of major international organizations and companies — Greenpeace, McDonald’s, Nike, Wal-Mart, and Carrefour — a giant leap in protection of the Amazon was made a few days ago.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/17/worlds-largest-leather-exporter-backs-out-of-amazon/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/10/greenpeace-and-kimberly-clark-accused-of-greenwashing/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/10/greenpeace-and-kimberly-clark-accused-of-greenwashing/#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:59:42 +0000 Cindy Tickle http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/10/greenpeace-and-kimberly-clark-accused-of-greenwashing/

Last week Greenpeace said it was okay to buy Kimberly-Clark (K-C) products again so I loaded up my shopping cart with Kleenex, Scott paper towels and Cottonelle toilet paper.  After years of fighting, Greenpeace and K-C finally reached an agreement.  The corporation will begin sourcing fiber responsibly, and the NGO will end its Kleercut campaign.  It seems pretty cut-and-dry to me.  Or is it?

Sites such as Treehugger.com and Grist.org applauded the agreement.  Even the environmental organization, ForestEthics told Grist that K-C’s new sourcing policy “is among the strongest in the world … truly impressive.  ForestEthics congratulates Greenpeace and allies for a campaign well run.”  Wow, I’m getting all teary-eyed just reading the accolades.  I think I need a Kleenex.  So why are some folks crying foul?

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/10/greenpeace-and-kimberly-clark-accused-of-greenwashing/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/06/greenpeace-ends-kleercut-campaign-against-kimberly-clark/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/06/greenpeace-ends-kleercut-campaign-against-kimberly-clark/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:18:50 +0000 Cindy Tickle http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/06/greenpeace-ends-kleercut-campaign-against-kimberly-clark/

It’s a good day for Kleenex.  After almost five years of hard campaigning, Greenpeace promised to end its Kleercut campaign against Kimberly-Clark, the world’s largest tissue-product manufacturer of Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle products.  During a joint news conference in Washington D.C., the large corporation and the controversial non-governmental organization (NGO) announced an historic agreement that will ensure greater protection and sustainable management of Canada’s Boreal Forest.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/08/06/greenpeace-ends-kleercut-campaign-against-kimberly-clark/feed/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/08/05/kimberly-clark-announces-goal-to-become-sustainable/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/08/05/kimberly-clark-announces-goal-to-become-sustainable/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:08:49 +0000 Wenona Napolitano http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/08/05/kimberly-clark-announces-goal-to-become-sustainable/ Kimberly-Clark, makers of Kleenex, Cottonelle, and Scott products has ”set a goal of obtaining 100 percent of the wood fiber for its products — including its flagship brand, Kleenex— from environmentally responsible sources. By the end of 2011, the company will no longer use any pulp from the Boreal Forest unless it is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified. The policy also prevents the company from cutting endangered forests, and increases the company’s use of FSC-certified pulp and recycled fiber globally.”

Finally.

Greenpeace and countless other activists have been after Kimberly- Clark since 2004 trying to get them to stop clear cutting ancient forests, especially the North American Boreal.

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]]> http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/08/05/kimberly-clark-announces-goal-to-become-sustainable/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/07/30/greenpeace-praises-brazil/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/07/30/greenpeace-praises-brazil/#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:29:06 +0000 Zachary Shahan http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/07/30/greenpeace-praises-brazil/

Brazil soya traders agreed to extend a moratorium on buying soya linked to Amazon destruction this week and Greenpeace was quick to give them a big thank you from the world.

International companies such as McDonald’s are happy, and companies like Nike, Wal-Mart and Carrefour are asking for more.

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