More BPA Research

Bisphenol A, commonly abbreviated as BPA, is vile stuff—not the kind of thing a smart species knowingly introduces into its ecosystem.

And if a species were to willfully foul its nest with BPA, it would at least be wise to keep it out of direct contact with food.

That’s because BPA is an established endocrine disruptor. In June, the Endocrine Society relased a statement warning of the health threat presented by BPA. According to the statement, low-level exposure to BPA adversely affects male and female reproduction, thyroid function, metabolism, and could increase obesity.

Unhappily, our species hasn’t seen fit to ban BPA production. Instead, we’ve ginned up a robust and profitable market for it. BPA is a building block of plastic—and modern society remains highly dependent on cheap and abundant plastic.

According to a an industry source, U.S. BPA demand is growing at about a 4 percent annual pace. In Asia, the growth rate is much higher. That’s not surprising, given that BPA is commonly used in electronic gadgets, and Asia generally manufactures our electronics.

Nor have we seen fit to protect our food supply from the nasty stuff. Indeed, we literally pack food in it—BPA is a key part of the lining in cans for foodstuffs.

This week, another study has emerged showing that alarming levels of BPA leach out of can liners right into your green beans—and your baby formula. This one, by conducted by Consumers Reports, looked at 19 common supermarket products. “Almost all” of them showed measurable levels of BPA, CR found. Here’s more:

The highest levels of BPA in our tests were found in the canned green beans and canned soup. In Progresso Vegetable Soup, the levels of BPA ranged from 67 to 134 ppb. In Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup, the levels of BPA ranged from 54.5 to 102 ppb. Canned Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans Blue Lake had BPA levels ranging from 35.9 ppb to 191 ppb, the highest amount for a single sample in our test.
What does this mean? “A 165-pound adult eating one serving of canned green beans from our sample, which averaged 123.5 ppb, could ingest about 0.2 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight per day, about 80 times higher than our experts’ recommended daily upper limit.” (Emphasis added.)

Endocrine disruption, meet political corruption
Of course, the Food and Drug Administration has a much more expansive take on how much BPA exposure a human body can endure without harm than Consumer Reports. An FDA advisory panel found last year that the agency’s “basis for setting safety standards to protect consumers was inadequate and should be re-evaluated,” reports CR. But the FDA still hasn’t adjusted its policy toward BPA, and “Industry has been waging a fight against new regulations,” Consumer Reports says.

Unhappily, the chemical industry exerts major influence over our guardian of food safety. In a superb, must-read, award-worthy special series published this year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showed that for years, the FDA has “relied on chemical industry lobbyists to examine bisphenol A’s risks.” Sentinel journalists got hold of nine years worth of FDA emails on BPA. Get this:

In one instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s deputy director sought information from the BPA industry’s chief lobbyist to discredit a Japanese study that found it caused miscarriages in workers who were exposed to it. This was before government scientists even had a chance to review the study.
Most egregiously, the agency based its 2008 draft review declaring BPA safe on two studies funded by the chemical industry. And that’s not all: an industry trade group “wrote entire sections of that draft.”

While FDA bureaucrats play bump-and-tickle with industry chiefs to form policy on BPA regulations, NGOs have been testing consumer food products and finding significant levels of the damaging substance. The Consumer Union study was only the latest. Back in 2007, Environmental Working Group tested 97 canned products. Over half contained significant levels of BPA.

Infant formula showed particularly poorly: “1 in 3 cans of infant formula, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the government’s traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals.” In the two years since the Environmental Working Group tests, how many people have unwittingly exposed themselves—and their children—to endocrine disruption while FDA administrators cravenly kept their mouths shut? And now that yet another set of independent tests have revealed routine BPA contamination of supermarket staples, will the FDA now act?

One hopes, with the Bush Administration out of office, that the FDA will crack down on BPA use by the food industry. But the U.S. market for the stuff is controlled by extremely powerful corporations, including Bayer, Dow, and Sabic, a Saudi-owned chemical giant. Globally, BPA is an industry with $6 billion in sales. With cash like that at stake, Bayer, et al., aren’t going to merely skulk away. ““The industry has launched an unprecedented public relations blitz that uses many of the same tactics—and people—the tobacco industry used in its decades-long fight against regulation,” reports the Journal Sentinel.

Indeed, Big Tobacco and the BPA merchants don’t just share PR flacks: the tobacco companies put BPA in filters. According to the Journal Sentinel, “Lobbyists for tobacco closely followed the government’s assessment of BPA because of concerns that a ban on the chemical would affect cigarette filters and plastic packaging. The two industries share the same lobby firm, the Weinberg Group.”

Seems like a smart species would demand that those entities stop producing BPA—PR blitz withstanding. But that would entail the FDA cutting ties to industry and devoting itself to public health.

Save Money, Save The World, Don't Drink Soda

That Diet Soda Habit Might Be Killing Your Kidneys

By Deborah R. Huso

If you think you're doing yourself a favor by drinking diet soda instead of the real deal, think again. It's true you may be protecting your waistline from empty calories, but new research suggests you may be beating up your kidneys instead.

Over the weekend, researchers from the Nurses' Health Study in Boston released findings that indicate women who drink two or more diet sodas a day experienced a 30 percent drop in kidney function over the course of a two decades long study. More than 3,000 women participated in the study, the median age being 67. Lead researcher Julie Lin, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, says the outcomes were especially startling because the women surveyed all had health kidney function at the start of the research.

After critically analyzing the beverage intake of study participants, researchers found those who drank two or more diet sodas daily had a significant dip in the kidneys' glomerular filtration rate, which measures kidney function. Natural aging generally results in a decreased filtration rate of about 1 mL per minute per year after age 40. In contrast, the rate of those who consumed diet soda significantly decreased by 3mL per minute per year. The study showed no link between decreased kidney function and other beverages or any decreased function in women who had less than two diet sodas a day.

This doesn't mean your kidneys are safe, however, if you opt for regular sodas. A study published earlier this year in PLoS ONE, a journal of the Public Library of Science, showed that women drinking two or more cans of regular soda a day are nearly twice as likely to suffer from early signs of kidney disease as non-soda drinkers. Researchers don't understand the cause for certain but suspect it has to do with the intake of large amounts of high fructose corn syrup.

With some 26 million Americans suffering from chronic kidney disease, it's obviously become a national health problem. While studies to date on the relationship between kidney function and soda (diet or regular) have been small, they add more fuel to the fire for cutting soda intake, even if you're a diet drinker. When it comes to your health, water is always the best beverage.

Save Money, Save The World - Mow Less

I wrote this for the Treenex site a few weeks ago.

Mowing season has been longer in the North East US because of a cool, wet month of June. Mowing is at least a twice weekly chore – still! Who has that kind of time? Well, there are many ways you can reduce the amount and the frequency you mow.

Why is this important? There are at least 2 reasons and they both revolve around the air we breathe.

Emissions

If you use a gas powered mower of any kind, you’re emissions for the time you mow equal those of at least 4 cars idling in your driveway. Riding mowers emit more than push mowers, by volume mowed. This means even if you finish sooner, you’ve still emitted more COx’s, NOx’s, and SOx’s. Ew! And since the small engines are just starting to be regulated for emission control, it will be more than a decade until reduced emission models are common place.

Carbon Sequestration and Air Filtration

Because mowing grass less often means fewer emissions, it means the grass is allowed to do more to filter and use carbon that is already in the air. I’ll cover more on this very soon.

How To Mow Less (Before)

Set your mower up higher
By setting your mower to 3″ (7.5 cm) or more, you more rapidly achieve the above mentioned goals.

Healthier grass is longer grass.
Longer grass is able to retain moisture better by shading its roots and having a more complex root system. Generally speaking, the longer the grass blade, the longer the root. So not only is there less evaporation (not what the blades give off, but what is directly evaporated by the sun and breeze), the grass has a chance to reach for more water that is deeper in the soil. You’ll have less irrigating to do and your grass will still be green during periods of drought. Longer grass also hinders weeds from getting a foot hold since the shade is so dense. This doesn’t allow for adequate sunlight to reach seeds or seedlings. All of these things make it so fewer chemicals are necessary for a green thick carpet of grass.

Less Frequent Mowings
Grasses that are typically chosen for lawns have a short mature length. This means they won’t grow to be a 3 foot tall stem of grass if left to its own devices. As they approach their mature length, they naturally slow their growth rate. By allowing the grass to stay longer like this, the more slowly it will strive to achieve its mature length/height. This results in needing to mow less frequently.

Longer grass also means an increase in photosynthesis and air filtration. The more green volume you have, the more filtration of dust and small particles occurs and the more photosynthesis occurs. Carbon dioxide is converted to plant nutrients with oxygen released as a by-product. Having an increase in green volume means you have an increase in carbon utilization and oxygen production.

Say your grass length is generally 2 1/2″ inches (6 1/4 cm) and your lawn is 25′x30′ (7.6 m x 9.1m). Changing from that 2 1/2″ to 3″ doesn’t seem like a huge change, does it? Well, when you calculate the green volume (length x width x height), you’ll find that you’re adding a huge sum! It would be as if you’re adding another 250 square feet of 2 1/2″ grass to your lawn! All for free and no added effort!

Increase Your Speed
By increasing the speed with which you mow, you decrease the amount of time the engine is running, reducing emissions. Most mowers have various speeds to move, so find one that is just slightly uncomfortably fast.

Change Your Pattern
By changing how you mow, you will spend less time mowing as well. If you have large areas to mow, mow in a spiral. This virtually eliminates the need to stop and turn, which makes mowing more efficient and faster for you! If you have smaller areas, choose the angle that allows you the longest distance between turns. It isn’t quite as efficient as spiral mowing, but it works very well.

Reduce engine speed.
Most engines also have a variable speed factor to them. Play with this a bit, but mow at the lowest possible engine speed. This will also reduce emissions (in theory – older engines often run cleanest at their highest setting).

Reduce The Amount Of Space Mowed (after)
By creating unmown spaces – not decks or walks or impervious ground covers – you decrease the need to mow, decreasing emissions. By making areas into garden spaces, you are also significantly increasing filtration rates. Microbes in the soil do massive amounts of filtration on air born chemicals. They also do quite a bit for carbon sequestration. So, between the open soil space and the perennial plants you place in there, you are increasing photosynthesis and air filtration.
And as I alway say, the less I mow, the less I mow! LOL I’d far rather spend time looking at my flower beds than sweating behind a mower.

Results
In the last 5 years, I have focused on reducing the amount of mowing our property requires. I have reduced it by at least 1/3, and more likely 1/2 by increasing the number and space of flower beds, raising the height on the mower and reducing the number of times I mow different areas. Drought prone areas are mown 1/2 as often as the more rapidly growing areas. Rather than mow for an hour each time, I’m mowing for 20-30 minutes. People rave about the flower beds and I get to sit on my deck and watch the bees and hummingbirds do their job!

As you can see, it takes time and a small amount of effort, but doing so actually reduces your efforts substantially AND helps the environment. How much better can it get?

Monsanto VP To Head Food Safety?

Fox to Guard Henhouse?
Former Monsanto VP May Be Named To Head FDA Safety

Working Group
By Susie Madrak
Tuesday Jul 07, 2009 7:00pm

Sometimes I'm just rendered speechless, and this is one of those times. Natasha
Chart via Sustainable Food at Change.org:

Obama's considering appointing a former Monsanto vice president, Mike Taylor, to
head the Food Safety Working Group at the FDA.

As Jill Richardson writes at LaVidaLocavore at the link above, Taylor thinks the
FDA wastes too much time on food safety inspections at meat packing plants.
Further, he believes that one of their main problems is that they have to slow
down their line speed too much.

Everyone who's read anything about the horrendous working conditions at US
meatpacking plants knows that incomplete kills before slaughter and worker
injuries increase dramatically when line speeds increase.

As also noted at the Ethicurean, Taylor is the reason milk from rBGH/rBST cows
doesn't have to be labeled. Bovine growth hormone is perfectly safe, after all.
Except for cows, or humans who drink its breakdown products in milk.

So yes, Mike Taylor is the person we have to thank for putting pus from
mastitis-infected cows into the milk supply, and exposing milk-drinking
Americans by the millions to greater cancer risks.

This guy is heading up a food safety working group.

I'm just swimming in the changeiness.

Kids, if you care about your food, you know what to do:

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

(There's a link instead of making a call if you go to the article website.)

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/fox-guard-henhouse-former-monsanto-vp

Garden Pictures

What a difference 4 weeks makes! This first picture was taken just about 4 weeks ago. You can see the peas, freshly cropped by the now deceased woodchuck #1. The onions and the tomatoes are in the background. The cord is strung for the tomatoes to climb towards, and their lines are in place to start winding around them as they grow.

This second picture, not quite in the same spot, and in need of some clouds to cut down on the contrast, shows the onions - completely overshadowed by the tomatoes that have grown well over halfway up their lines, and the pole beans right to the top and looking for more.

When it does cloud up, I'll take another picture, but I really wanted it to be as accurate to the day as possible. And hopefully, I'll remember in another 4 weeks, so show how tall everything has gotten.

I have tomatoes, the beans are blooming, and I could start harvesting onions and beets if I wanted. But, I'll let them continue growing and hopefully be able to can some beets and use the onions in bread and butter pickles. I used shallots last year and the pickles were just flat.

I use a highly modified gardening style. It's no-till and sort of layered. All of it is less than 3 years old, and most of it is only a year or less. I've tripled the size by putting layers of grass clippings from a local lawn service and composted leaf mulch from the town. Some of it has a layer of chicken bedding from my brother's, but that has only just started sprouting it's harvest of herbs, spinach and beans.

I use some "square foot gardening" techniques, but so many garden plants just can't be planted that way, so it isn't purely that style. The beets and the bush beans are planted that way. However, the Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, peppers, pole beans and peas aren't. Nor are the onions, but only because they do well planted with the tomatoes to help ward off fungal disease.

But this does allow me to have a fairly compact setting in which to gain the largest harvest.

Since the beans aren't ready to harvest yet, I can breathe for awhile. Hopefully I'll be able to finish mulching, as I've put another layer of grass clippings down in the walkways, and as close to the plants as possible, with some of it finished off with a layer of leaf mulch. I've run out at the moment, so will have to wait a few days to get another couple loads.

I do enjoy my life.

Corn Equals Fast Food

That the $100-billion fast food industry rests on a foundation of corn has been known more through inference and observation than hard scientific fact — until now.

Chemical analysis from restaurants across the United States shows that nearly every cow or chicken used in fast food is raised on a diet of corn, prompting fresh criticism of the government’s role in subsidizing poor eating habits.

"People had talked about what they observed or found out about, as individual journalists or individual consumers," said University of Hawaii geobiologist and study co-author A. Hope Jahren. But anecdotes do not add up to scientific proof, she said. "We got national data on how this food is being produced. It’s very objective."

Corn is central to agriculture in the United States, where it is grown in greater volumes and receives more government subsidies than any other crop. Between 1995 and 2006 corn growers received $56 billion in federal subsidies, and the annual figure may soon hit $10 billion.

But in recent years, environmentalists have branded corn as an icon of unsustainable agriculture. It requires large amounts of fertilizer and pesticides, both of which require large amounts of fossil fuel to manufacture.

Most of the resulting corn is fed to livestock who didn’t evolve to subsist entirely on corn. In cattle, eating corn increases flatulence emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — and creates an intestinal environment rich in e. coli, a common cause of food poisoning. That necessitates mixing cow feed with antibiotics, in turn producing antibiotic-resistant disease strains.

Many of those livestock end up in high-calorie, low-nutrition franchised fast foods, which have been repeatedly linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Fast food’s biggest selling point is its low price — and that, say industry critics, is largely possible because of corn’s ubiquitous cheapness.

"We’re seeing that corn is the number-one reason that fast food is so cheap and available," said Meredith Niles, a food policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety who was not involved in the study. "U.S. programs are subsidizing obesity in this country."


Jahren’s team analyzed hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and french fries from multiple McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s restaurants in six U.S. cities.
In both types of meat at every location, a telltale configuration of nitrogen and carbon traces showed that the animals had eaten corn-heavy diets; in the case of beef, 150 out of 162 samples came from animals that ate nothing but corn. Fries were prepared in corn-based oil.

The results weren’t surprising, said New York University food studies expert Marion Nestle, but underscored the fact that "most people aren’t aware of the extent to which corn ingredients permeate the food supply."

Nutrition aside, Jahren urged consumers to consider the implications of what they eat. "When you give a nickel to fast food, invariably it goes right back to the corn industry," she said.

For Niles, the results are a political challenge.

"We have a new President taking his place in the White House. It’s a great opportunity to rearrange agricultural policy and to think about obesity," she said. "This study shows that it comes down in a lot of ways to one product."

Cleaner Coal? Not for TN Town

500 Million Gallons of Sludge Flood Town
By Samira J. Simone,
CNN

(Dec. 24) -- A wall holding back 80 acres of sludge from a coal plant in central Tennessee broke this week, spilling more than 500 million gallons of waste into the surrounding area.
The sludge, a byproduct of ash from coal combustion, was contained at a retention site at the Tennessee Valley Authority's power plant in Kingston, about 40 miles east of Knoxville, agency officials said.

The retention wall breached early Monday, sending the sludge downhill and damaging 15 homes. All the residents were evacuated, and three homes were deemed uninhabitable, a TVA spokesman told CNN.

The plant sits on a tributary of the Tennessee River called the Clinch River.

"We deeply regret that a retention wall for ash containment at our Kingston Fossil Plant failed, resulting in an ash slide and damage to nearby homes," TVA said in a statement released Tuesday.

TVA spokesman Gil Francis told CNN that up to 400 acres of land had been coated by the sludge, a bigger area than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Video footage from the areas affected by the TVA pond breach showed sludge as high as 6 feet, burying porches and garage doors. The slide also downed nearby power lines, though the TVA said power had been restored to the area.

Francis said Environmental Protection Agency officials were on the scene and estimated the cleanup could take four to six weeks.

Some of the goop spilled into the tributary, but preliminary water quality test show that the drinking water at a nearby treatment plant meets standards.

"I don't want to drink it. I doesn't look healthy to me," Jody Miles, who fishes in the Clinch River, told CNN affiliate WBIR. "Do you reckon they can bring all this life back that's going to die from all this mess?"

Still, there is the potential for more sludge to enter the water supply through waste runoff.

"We're taking steps to stabilize runoff from this incident," Francis said.

Although video from the scene shows dead fish on the banks of the tributary, he said that "in terms of toxicity, until an analysis comes in, you can't call it toxic."

One environmental attorney called that statement "irresponsible." The ash that gives sludge its thick, pudding-like consistency in this case is known as fly ash, which results from the combustion of coal.

Fly ash contains concentrated amounts of mercury, arsenic and benzine, said Chandra Taylor, staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center.

"These things are naturally occurring, but they concentrate in the burning process and the residual is more toxic than it starts," she told CNN.

Appalachian environmentalists compared the mess with another spill eight years ago in eastern Kentucky, where the bottom of a coal sludge impoundment owned by Massey Energy broke into an abandoned underground mine, oozing more than 300 million gallons of coal waste into tributaries.

The water supply for more than 25,000 residents was contaminated, and aquatic life in the area perished. It took months to clean up the spill.

"If the estimates are correct, this spill is one and a half times bigger," said Dave Cooper, an environmental advocate with the Mountaintop Removal Road Show, a traveling program that explains the effect of an extreme form of mining.

While the full scope of the TVA spill is being determined, coal critics are already concerned about its long-term effects.

Cleaning up the mess, which could fill nearly 800 Olympic-size swimming pools, could take months or years, Taylor said.

"We're very concerned about how long it's going to take" to clean the spill, she told CNN.
Cooper agreed, saying, "It's 4, 5 feet deep. How are you going to scoop it up? Where are you going to put it?"

Bees Dying From Pesticide By Bayer

Bayer on defensive in bee deaths
German authorities look into allegation that RTP maker's pesticide harms environment

Critics claim that clothianidin is to blame for devastated bee colonies.

Sabine Vollmer, Staff Writer

Bayer CropScience is facing scrutiny because of the effect one of its best-selling pesticides has had on honeybees. A German prosecutor is investigating Werner Wenning, Bayer's chairman, and Friedrich Berschauer, the head of Bayer CropScience, after critics alleged that they knowingly polluted the environment.

The investigation was triggered by an Aug. 13 complaint filed by German beekeepers and consumer protection advocates, a Coalition against Bayer Dangers spokesman, Philipp Mimkes, said Monday.

The complaint is part of efforts by groups on both sides of the Atlantic to determine how much Bayer CropScience knows about the part that clothianidin may have played in the death of millions of honeybees.

Bayer CropScience, which has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, said field studies have shown that bees' exposure to the pesticide is minimal or nonexistent if the chemical is used properly.

Clothianidin and related pesticides generated about $1 billion of Bayer CropScience's $8.6 billion in global sales last year. The coalition is demanding that the company withdraw all of the pesticides.

"We're suspecting that Bayer submitted flawed studies to play down the risks of pesticide residues in treated plants," said Harro Schultze, the coalition's attorney. "Bayer's ... management has to be called to account, since the risks ... have now been known for more than 10 years."

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Natural Resources Defense Council is pressing for research information on clothianidin.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the pesticide in 2003 under the condition that Bayer submit additional data. A lawsuit, which the environmental group filed Aug. 19 in federal court in Washington, accuses the EPA of hiding the honeybee data.

The group thinks the data might show what role chlothianidine played in the loss of millions of U.S. honeybee colonies. Researchers have been puzzled by what is causing the bees to disappear at what is considered an alarming rate. The phenomenon, known as colony collapse disorder, threatens a $15 billion portion of the U.S. food supply.

In the U.S. diet, about one in three mouthfuls comes from crops that bees pollinate.

Scientists are looking at viruses, parasites and stresses that might compromise bees' immune system. In the past two years, Congress has earmarked about $20 million to boost research.

Clothianidin, sold under the brand name Poncho, is used to coat corn, sugar beet and sorghum seeds and protect them from pests. A nerve toxin that has the potential to be toxic for bees, it gets into all parts of the plant that grows from the coated seeds.

In 1999, French regulators banned an older relative of Poncho and subsequently declined approval for clothianidin. French researchers found that bees were a lot more sensitive to the pesticides than Bayer CropScience studies had shown.

Three months ago, German regulators suspended sales of chlothianidine and related chemicals after the family of pesticides was blamed for the destruction of more than 11,000 bee colonies.

The Julius Institute, a state-run crop research institute in Germany, collected samples of dead honeybees and determined that clothianidin caused the deaths.

Bayer CropScience blamed defective seed corn batches.

The company said that the coating came off as the seeds were sown, which allowed unusually high amounts of toxic dust to spread to adjacent areas where bees collected pollen and nectar.

Bayer paid about $3 million in damages, Mimkes said.

UN News June 17

YOUNG ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS TELL THEIR STORY AT UN CHILDREN’S CONFERENCE

A young Australian filmmaker and an Indian child combating water waste are among the 700 children from over 100 countries that are sharing their stories on how to create a better, healthier planet at a United Nations environment conference in Norway.

The biannual Tunza International Children’s Conference, organized by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with the Norwegian NGO Young Agenda 21, and with Bayer AG as one of the main sponsors, began today in Stavanger.

One of the largest global children’s conferences in the world, the weeklong gathering brings together children between the ages of 10 and 14 who are engaged in environmental issues, aiming to increase their awareness and equip them with skills to promote environmental projects in their communities.

“The 700 children attending the Tunza Conference are a powerful sign of the creativity, energy and dynamism that children are capable of to protect our planet,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“We can all learn from them, and we should all take heart in the fact that increasing numbers of children are becoming a force for positive change as we move towards greener lifestyles,” he added. In addition to presenting environmental projects, participants will go on field trips and learn about energy, climate change and fair trade, as well as plant trees in support of UNEP’s Seven Billion Tree Campaign. They will also learn about becoming an eco-journalist, photographing the environment and planning practical environmental projects.

This year, in partnership with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UNEP will highlight the initiatives of dozens of young activists through “My Story” – a series of short video clips that will be posted at www.unep.org.

Among the stories are those of a 13 year old in Australia who is making a documentary called “A Kid’s Guide to Climate Change,” for which he interviewed a local indigenous leader, visited a wind farm and a wave generator, and built a model solar car.

Other examples include a 14 year old in India who is campaigning against water waste in his community, a 13 year old in Cameroon who is running clean-up campaigns and tree plantings, and a 13 year old in the United States who has helped organize a recycling drive and collected 100,000 pounds of e-waste.

This is the seventh edition of UNEP’s Tunza International Children’s Conference, which has encouraged hundreds of children in recent years to take action on environmental issues.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE WILL HELP STOP DESERTIFICATION, UN AGENCY SAYS

Poor farmers and herders in countries bearing the brunt of desertification and land degradation can help stop or reverse those processes by engaging in sustainable agriculture, the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says.

Marking World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, which is observed on 17 June, IFAD said in a statement that poor farmers and herders can form part of the solution with the assistance of international agencies.

“Ill-conceived agricultural practices, traditional or intensified, only make things worse as their poor populations have no choice but to adopt short-term survival methods, putting more pressure on increasingly scarce local resources,” IFAD said. “Climate change is increasing that pressure, and exacerbating droughts.”

This year’s theme for the Day is combating land degradation for sustainable agriculture.

The agency called for more efficient water use, improved cropping systems and better forest management, adding that hardier seeds will also help poor farmers withstand droughts and floods.

IFAD, which is tasked with reducing rural poverty, said more than two thirds of its projects are now located in ecologically fragile and marginal areas, where nearly half the world’s poor live.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a separate message marking the Day, said it was time to recognize that drylands and marginal lands are not waste lands and could be devoted to biofuel production or other uses.

“Rather, they are potential areas for agricultural intensification for both food and energy needs. Let us renew our commitment to reversing land degradation and desertification,” he said, adding that the UN Convention to Combat Desertification “could offer a long-term solution to producing more food for more people” and should be fully implemented.

Katrina Kids' Lung Problems

Why is Formaldehyde still allowed to be used in this country?

Kids in Katrina trailers may face lifelong ailments
By JOHN MORENO GONZALES,AP
Posted: 2008-05-28 01:29:50
BAY ST. LOUIS, MISS. (AP) - The anguish of Hurricane Katrina should have ended for Gina Bouffanie and her daughter when they left their FEMA trailer. But with each hospital visit and each labored breath her child takes, the young mother fears it has just begun.

"It's just the sickness. I can't get rid of it. It just keeps coming back," said Bouffanie, 27, who was pregnant with her now 15-month-old daughter, Lexi, while living in the trailer. "I'm just like, `Oh God, I wish like this would stop.' If I had known it would get her sick, I wouldn't have stayed in the trailer for so long."

The girl, diagnosed with severe asthma, must inhale medicine from a breathing device.

Doctors cannot conclusively link her asthma to the trailer. But they fear she is among tens of thousands of youngsters who may face lifelong health problems because the temporary housing supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency contained formaldehyde fumes up to five times the safe level.

The chemical, used in interior glue, was detected in many of the 143,000 trailers sent to the Gulf Coast in 2006. But a push to get residents out of them, spearheaded by FEMA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not begin until this past February.

Members of Congress and CDC insiders say the agencies' delay in recognizing the danger is being compounded by studies that will be virtually useless and the lack of a plan to treat children as they grow.

"It's tragic that when people most need the protection, they are actually going from one disaster to a health disaster that might be considered worse," said Christopher De Rosa, assistant director for toxicology and risk assessment at the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the CDC. "Given the longer-term implications of exposure that went on for a significant period of time, people should be followed through time for possible effects."

Formaldehyde is classified as a probable carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the Environmental Protection Agency. There is no way to measure formaldelhyde in the bloodstream. Respiratory problems are an early sign of exposure.

Young children are at particular risk. Thousands who lived in trailers will be in the prime of life in the 10 to 15 years doctors believe it takes cancer to develop.

FEMA and CDC reports so far have drawn criticism.

A CDC study released May 8 examined records of 144 Mississippi children, some of whom lived in trailers and others who did not. But the study was confined to children who had at least one doctor's visit for respiratory illness before Katrina. It was largely inconclusive, finding children who went to doctors before the August 2005 storm were still visiting them two years after.

A bigger, five-year CDC study will include up to 5,000 children in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, and CDC officials said it should begin next year. But members of Congress point to the decade or longer it could take for cancer to develop and say a five-year look is inadequate.

"Monitoring the health of a few thousand children over the course of a few years is a step in the right direction, but we need commitment," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

Thompson has introduced legislation to force FEMA and CDC to provide health exams for trailer residents who believe formaldehyde made them ill. The bill is similar to $108 million legislation for workers who labored at the World Trade Center site.

Arch Carson, professor of occupational medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, said preliminary exams alone for trailer residents could cost more than the trade center bill. But he said class-action lawsuits over the formaldehyde - at least one has been filed - could be even more expensive, costing many billions of dollars.

"It would be best for the government to get its act together now," Carson said.

More than 22,000 FEMA trailers and mobile homes are still being used in Mississippi and Louisiana.

FEMA and the CDC say they will create a registry of those who stayed in trailers for possible future study. But they admit that the task of keeping track of everyone is made difficult by the rush to get families into other housing.

The parents of McKenzie Whitney, a 1-year-old girl with wavy auburn hair, are running low on money and options for caring for the sick girl.

Born into a FEMA trailer, McKenzie was out of the dwelling in August 2007 after a 10-month stay. Her mother, Kacey Whitney, 22, a housekeeper, and her father, Kevin Whitney, 30, a maintenance man, juggle the pressures of post-hurricane life with tending to the child.

"Sunday night when I was going to work, as I was walking up to the front door, she just threw up. She had a fever. We went to the hospital and they wound up keeping her overnight," the girl's mother said. "She's always had a cold, always."

Like Lexi, McKenzie is treated with a nebulizer, a boxy breathing machine that turns medication into mist. It is prescribed to patients with moderate to severe symptoms, and requires children to inhale for 20 minutes.

Dr. Shama Shakir, a Bay St. Louis pediatrician who treats Lexi and Kacey at the Coastal Family Health Center, said that before the storm she prescribed nebulizers about twice weekly. Lately, she is doing so up to 12 times a week.

"You give them the most potent steroids, the most potent antibiotics, and still they have the symptoms," Shakir said. "I worry about what will become of these children long-term."

Deven Galloway, 27, lived in a FEMA trailer in Bay St. Louis for seven months with 4-year-old son DeReion. The boy uses a nebulizer for asthma.

"One day he was like, `I'm going to take more so I can go ahead and be finished for a long time,"' said his mother. "I had to tell him it didn't work that way."


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
05/28/08 01:29 EDT

UN News May 14 Billion Tree Campaign

‘BILLION TREE CAMPAIGN’ BLOSSOMS TO SEVEN TIMES ITS SIZE, UN AGENCY SAYS
New York, May 13 2008 3:00PM
A grassroots campaign to plant trees around the globe has announced that it is raising its target from 1 billion trees to 7 billion trees, the United Nations <" http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=535&ArticleID=5806&l=en">announced today.

The campaign, which is under the patronage of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Kenyan Green Belt Movement founder Professor Wangari Maathai and Prince Albert II of Monaco, also announced today that in 18 months it has seen two billion trees planted, double its original target.

The campaign was launched by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in 2006 as a response to the threat of global warming.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said today: “Having exceeded every target that has been set for the campaign, we are now calling on individuals, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments to evolve this initiative on to a new and even higher level by the crucial climate change conference in Copenhagen in late 2009.”

Tree planting remains one of the most cost-effective ways to address climate change. Trees and forests play a vital role in regulating the climate since they absorb carbon dioxide. Deforestation, in turn, accounts for over 20% of the carbon dioxide humans generate, rivaling the emissions from other sources.

Trees also play a crucial role in providing a range of products and services to rural and urban populations, including food, timber, fibre, medicines and energy as well as soil fertility, water and biodiversity conservation.

In terms of geographic distribution, Africa is the leading region with over half of all tree plantings. Regional and national governments organized the most massive plantings, with Ethiopia leading the count at 700 million, followed by Turkey (400 million), Mexico (250 million), and Kenya (100 million).

The two billionth tree was put into the ground as part of an agroforestry project carried out by the UN World Food Programme (<"http://www.wfp.org/english/">WFP). It has now planted 60 million trees in 35 countries to improve food security.
2008-05-13 00:00:00.000

UN News May 8

USING ART TO INSPIRE ACTION ON THE ENVIRONMENT – NEW UN CAMPAIGN
New York, May 7 2008 4:00PM
Art can be a catalyst for environmental action – that’s the message today from a United Nations seminar and exhibit which are bringing together artists from around the world.

Mia Hanak, Founding Executive Director of the Natural World Museum, which is co-sponsoring the events in New York, said that, “art is a vehicle for environmental action and social change. Our collective goal is to ignite people’s passion for being a part of the global solution and together inspiring people to take bold actions in finding new ways to embrace sustainable lifestyles.”

The seminar and art exhibition are also sponsored by the UN’s Environment Programme (UNEP) and Department of Information (DPI), under the title, “art changing attitudes toward the environment.”

Seven artists from different regions of the world are exhibiting photographs focusing on the environment at UN Headquarters in New York until the end of May.

Indian-born photographer Subhankar Banerjee has photographed the Arctic region over the past eight years and said today that the area suffered from negative perceptions as a “hostile wasteland” and that its indigenous peoples had also suffered from intolerance. “I hope that my work would help unlearn many of these intolerances against a whole part of our planet and our indigenous friends who call this home,” he said.

The events are part of the http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/tolerance/seminar.html
Unlearning Intolerance Seminar Series which was initiated by the UN in 2004. Eric Falt, Director of Outreach with DPI, said that the aim was to “examine intolerance, as well as to explore ways to promote respect and understanding among peoples.”

“In previous years,” he said, “the series has focused on anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, genocide and the role of the media in promoting tolerance.”

Ms. Hanak said, “We are sending out a call to action through the arts to break down our barriers and activate environmental and social transformation. We can each do our part in turning the tide in public awareness - and just remember one person can make a difference and together we can create change.”
2008-05-07 00:00:00.000

MIGRATORY BIRDS THREATENED BY CHANGING ENVIRONMENT, UN WARNS
New York, May 8 2008 6:00PM
Numbers of migratory birds – considered to be some of the best gauges of the state of global biodiversity – are plunging in the face of a changing environment, the United Nations Environment Programme (<"http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=535&ArticleID=5803&l=en">UNEP) warned today.

Marking World Migratory Bird Day, the agency said that the decline is being recorded for many species along all of the main migration corridors, which birds utilize on their journeys, spanning thousands of miles, between their breeding and wintering grounds.

“Migratory birds are some of the most extraordinary creatures on the planet and in many countries bird watching is an economically important leisure and tourism activity,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“But migratory birds are more than this. Their dependence on healthy habitats and ecosystems makes them among the key indicators as to whether the international community is truly addressing the decline and erosion of the planet’s nature-based assets.”

The Day – focusing on the theme “Migratory Birds – Ambassadors for Biodiversity” – will be marked on the weekend of 10-11 May with concerts, films and other public events to highlight the ever-increasing threat to migratory birds and to global biodiversity.

Although the reasons behind the drop in numbers of migratory birds are complex and are specific to certain species, the overall decline is a reflection of the larger environmental problem tied to the global loss of habitats and biodiversity.

UNEP noted that 41 per cent of the 522 migratory waterbird populations on the routes linking Africa and Eurasia are witnessing their populations drop, and it has been reported that numbers of migratory songbirds using the same corridors are also on the decline.

Meanwhile, numbers of Boreal birds in the Western Hemisphere, such as the Canadian Warbler, which migrate from northern Canada to South America, are plummeting because they are losing their forest breeding grounds.

Vulnerable to changes in the environment, migratory birds are dependent on stop-over sites to rest and refuel as they make their long voyages, but these locations are threatened or disappear as a result of agricultural, urban, infrastructural and industrial development.

Climate change also plays an important role, as climbing global temperatures result in larger deserts and more frequent storms, which could lead to rising sea levels and impede migration.

Pollinator Protection

1/26/08 Cell Phones Disrupt Sleep - What Do They Do To Dormant Bees?

Arnetz, who spoke to AFP in a telephone interview from the United States, said he and a team of researchers from Sweden's Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in Michigan had found that mobile phone radiation appeared to cause insomnia, headaches and concentration difficulties. Over a period of 18 months, the scientists studied 35 men and 36 women between the ages of 18 and 45, intermittently exposing some to 884 MHz wireless signals, the equivalent of the radiation received when talking on a cell phone. Others meanwhile were placed in the same conditions but received only sham exposure. "The ones who were exposed reported headaches, it took longer for them to fall asleep and they did not sleep as well through the night," Arnetz said, claiming his was the largest study so far on the subject.

If this exposure can disrupt our sleep, what does it do to bees near cell towers, heavy cell phone users and users of other wireless equipment - including wireless internet?

http://www.pollinator.org/

From the looks of this map, all but 14 states are reporting colony collapse disorder of their European honey bee population...
Map of U.S. States Reporting Colony Collapse Disorder

The following is a 5 page pdf of FAQs on CCD
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/FAQ/FAQCCD.pdf

Article:
Mystery Ailment Strikes Honeybees
By GENARO C. ARMASThe Associated PressSunday, February 11, 2007; 11:17 PM
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey production, the livelihood of beekeepers and possibly crops that need bees for pollination.
Researchers are scrambling to find the cause of the ailment, called Colony Collapse Disorder.

Reports of unusual colony deaths have come from at least 22 states. Some affected commercial beekeepers _ who often keep thousands of colonies _ have reported losing more than 50 percent of their bees. A colony can have roughly 20,000 bees in the winter, and up to 60,000 in the summer.

"We have seen a lot of things happen in 40 years, but this is the epitome of it all," Dave Hackenberg, of Lewisburg-based Hackenberg Apiaries, said by phone from Fort Meade, Fla., where he was working with his bees.

The country's bee population had already been shocked in recent years by a tiny, parasitic bug called the varroa mite, which has destroyed more than half of some beekeepers' hives and devastated most wild honeybee populations.

Along with being producers of honey, commercial bee colonies are important to agriculture as pollinators, along with some birds, bats and other insects. A recent report by the National Research Council noted that in order to bear fruit, three-quarters of all flowering plants _ including most food crops and some that provide fiber, drugs and fuel _ rely on pollinators for fertilization.

Hackenberg, 58, was first to report Colony Collapse Disorder to bee researchers at Penn State University. He notified them in November when he was down to about 1,000 colonies _ after having started the fall with 2,900.

"We are going to take bees we got and make more bees ... but it's costly," he said. "We are talking about major bucks. You can only take so many blows so many times."

One beekeeper who traveled with two truckloads of bees to California to help pollinate almond trees found nearly all of his bees dead upon arrival, said Dennis vanEnglesdorp, acting state apiarist for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

"I would characterize it as serious," said Daniel Weaver, president of the American Beekeeping Federation. "Whether it threatens the apiculture industry in the United States or not, that's up in the air."

Scientists at Penn State, the University of Montana and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are among the quickly growing group of researchers and industry officials trying to solve the mystery.

Among the clues being assembled by researchers:

Although the bodies of dead bees often are littered around a hive, sometimes carried out of the hive by worker bees, no bee remains are typically found around colonies struck by the mystery ailment. Scientists assume these bees have flown away from the hive before dying.

_ From the outside, a stricken colony may appear normal, with bees leaving and entering. But when beekeepers look inside the hive box, they find few mature bees taking care of the younger, developing bees.

_ Normally, a weakened bee colony would be immediately overrun by bees from other colonies or by pests going after the hive's honey. That's not the case with the stricken colonies, which might not be touched for at least two weeks, said Diana Cox-Foster, a Penn State entomology professor investigating the problem.

"That is a real abnormality," Hackenberg said.

Cox-Foster said an analysis of dissected bees turned up an alarmingly high number of foreign fungi, bacteria and other organisms and weakened immune systems.

Researchers are also looking into the effect pesticides might be having on bees.

In the meantime, beekeepers are wondering if bee deaths over the last couple of years that had been blamed on mites or poor management might actually have resulted from the mystery ailment.

"Now people think that they may have had this three or four years," vanEnglesdorp said.

Mid-Atlantic Apiculture: http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/index.html
Penn State University Entomology Dept.: http://www.ento.psu.edu/
American Beekeeping Federation: http://www.abfnet.org/

From Organic Gardening - May 2007

1/3 of North American food supply derived directly from (rather than created for food for other foodstuffs) plants requiring "active" pollination (rather than self pollination)
More than 100 crops are grown in North America that require active pollination
It's estimated pollinators help create over $3 billion in crops for US growers.
Worldwide estimates - $40 billion.
2005 was the first year since 1955 that bees were imported to assist in pollination of crops due to low numbers of bees.
24 states reporting Colony Collapse Disorder within its borders.

International News Articles

12/19 The Grist Weekly News
12/12 NIOSH Science Blog
Black Balloon Video
10/30 Green Cars
10/26 Live Earth Carbon Foot Print Report
Updated 12/20- Greentech E News
12/12 Alliance For Climate Protection News
12/20 - updated UN Summit Notes
Updated 12/20 Wilderness Society Newsletter
7/6 Live Earth Concerts, Project and Pledge

Articles and Ideas To Use

Canticle of The Sun by St. Francis of Assissi
12/20 Focus The Nation
12/20 The Grist Weekly News
12/20 Green Christmas Ideas
12/12 NIOSH Science Blog
11/9 Electronic Vampires Electric
10/30 Green Cars
12/20 - updated Energy Bill
9/26 Drywall For Soil Amendment Gardening
8/15 Lead Test Kits - Child Protection
8/4 Indoor Air Quality
8/4 Harvesting Seeds - Gardening
8/2 - Becoming Carbon Neutral - Conservation
Updated 10/19 Eating For The Environment - Conservation
Change The World One Lightbulb At A Time - Conservation
7/13 Protect The Pollinators - Gardening

Alliance For Climate Protection News

12/11 Dear Friend,

In less than forty-eight hours, I will step on stage at the UN Climate Conference in Bali. With me I will bring hundreds of thousands of messages demanding a visionary global treaty be completed and brought into effect by 2010.

If we want to solve the climate crisis, we need to demonstrate the broad public support for action together. That's why it is vital you sign our petition right now by visiting:
http://www.climateprotect.org/standwithal

Over the past few months we've taken many positive steps towards uniting governments worldwide around the goal of solving the climate crisis. Just over a week ago on December 3rd, Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was sworn in. His first formal act in office was to ratify the Kyoto Treaty. This was a clear demonstration of Australia’s priorities.

Yet this progress has not swayed the Bush Administration. With thousands of delegates gathered in Bali for the UN Climate Conference, this is our last chance in 2007 to show the world how serious the American people are about ending the climate crisis. That's why it is so vital all of us join together and demonstrate the political will of our country.

Only two days remain before I deliver your messages to the delegates meeting in Bali. Over the past few days more than 174,612 people have added their voices. Don't miss this incredible opportunity to demonstrate your support for a visionary global treaty to end the climate crisis.
Sign our petition, then reach out to everyone you know and ask them to sign today by visiting:
http://www.climateprotect.org/standwithal

Your activism and enthusiasm for this cause inspires me every day.
Thank you,
Al Gore

10/07
Last week, our founder and chairman Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless efforts to help solve the global climate crisis. But he's not working alone -- millions of people across the country and around the world know that climate change is a critical issue that we need to act on, and now.

You can do your part today by urging your friends and family to join the movement. By joining with the Alliance for Climate Protection and its founder Al Gore, we strengthen the global commitment to harnessing solutions to the climate crisis. Our increasing numbers will demonstrate to leaders in every time zone and on every continent that halting climate change is a top priority.

Mr Gore said it best: "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."

Please help today by clicking here to tell your friends to get involved and join the campaign to solve the climate crisis..

The solutions are within reach. Together, we can solve this.

Sincerely,

Cathy Zoi
CEO

P.S. Please donate to the Alliance for Climate Protection . We will be launching an international campaign to engage people from all walks of life on the urgency of the climate crisis and the solutions available. By donating to the Alliance, you are helping us reach more people and alert leaders across the world that action on climate change is a top priority. Please donate today.

Save Our Environment Action Alerts

11/20/07
Stop Overfishing
Last year Congress passed a new version of the nation's fishery management law to put an end to decades of overfishing in our oceans. The new law requires fishery managers to follow the recommendations of scientists on how much fish can be caught on a sustainable basis.
Click here to act today and help make sure the Bush administration follows the requirements of the new law!
Right now, under pressure from a few members of Congress and small numbers of fishermen, the National Marine Fisheries Service is about to approve a fishing plan for summer flounder (also known as fluke) that would let fishermen catch 25% more fish than the scientists say is sustainable.
This would violate the new law. But that's not surprising, since the fishery managers have allowed overfishing on summer flounder for 20 years.
This is one of the first rules of the new law that are being reviewed and the administration needs to know that YOU are paying attention.
Please urge the Bush administration to follow the requirements of the new law and stop overfishing summer flounder.
If this plan moves forward, a terrible precedent will be set. From here it is a slippery slope that could result in overfishing many other fish populations, hurting marine mammals, and causing habitat destruction.
Please make your voice heard on this important issue.
Click here now to the tell the Administration to stop destructive overfishing of summer flounder and obey the new ocean fishing law!
Thank you for all your hard work.
Sincerely,
Julie WatermanCampaign Director, SaveOurEnvironment.orginfo@saveourenvironment.org

Kyoto Protocol

11/28 Australia elects prime minister who wants to ratify Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol climate treaty may soon welcome a new industrialized country to the fold. Australia's newly elected prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has announced he will act in the next few weeks on a campaign promise to have Australia ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which would make the United States the only industrialized country in the world not to agree to making mandatory reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions under the treaty. Showing just how eager the new prime minister is to get busy reducing greenhouse gases, Rudd met with government officials about ratifying Kyoto the day after his decisive electoral victory over the conservative outgoing Prime Minister John Howard on Saturday. Rudd has also promised a gradual withdrawal of Australia's 550 troops from Iraq and has indicated he intends to formally apologize to Australia's aborigines for the country's policy of separating children from their families to speed the assimilation process from the 1930s to the 1970s. Not to be outdone, President Bush, um, pardoned two turkeys ... before sitting down to eat a different one.

Also - China Making Post-Kyoto Deal?
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/11/13/122452/95/?source=weekly

Taken From Wikipedia.com -
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, assigning mandatory emission limitations for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to the signatory nations.
The objective of the protocol is the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."[1]
As of December 2006, a total of 169 countries and other governmental entities have ratified the agreement (representing over 61.6% of emissions from Annex I countries).[2][3] Notable exceptions include the United States and Australia. Other countries, like India and China, which have ratified the protocol, are not required to reduce carbon emissions under the present agreement.
There is some debate about the usefulness of the protocol, and there have been some cost-benefit studies performed.

The treaty was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, opened for signature on March 16, 1998, and closed on March 15, 1999. The agreement came into force on February 16, 2005 following ratification by Russia on November 18, 2004. As of December 2006, a total of 169 countries and other governmental entities have ratified the agreement

State and Local Governments CAN Make A Difference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Greenhouse_Gas_Initiative

11/28 Midwestern governors sign greenhouse-gas reduction pact
The governors of six Midwestern states and the premier of Manitoba signed on to the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord last week, the first such multi-state program in the U.S. Midwest. For those of you keeping track at home, along with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the Northeast and an agreement among West Coast governors, about 48 percent of the U.S. population is now represented in some form of regional GHG reduction program. The Midwest agreement commits Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Manitoba to setting up a regional cap-and-trade system for trading emission credits. Credit trading would begin in 2010, but no reduction goal has been established yet. Indiana, Ohio, and South Dakota also signed on, but only as observers. At the same conference, 12 Midwestern governors agreed to various other goals, such as aiming to have 30 percent of the region's electricity come from renewable sources by 2030, and working to increase the use of biofuels.
The agreements: Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord [PDF], Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Platform for the Midwest [PDF]

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, or ReGGIe) is a regional initiative by states in the Northeastern United States region to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The RGGI is designing a cap and trade program for emissions from power plants. In August 2005, the RGGI staff working group proposed an emissions reduction program that would start in 2009 and lead to a stabilization of emissions at current levels (an average of 2002-2004 levels) by 2015. This would be followed by a 10% reduction in emissions between 2015 and 2020. The proposal would also allow participants to purchase offsets to meet 50% of their emission reductions.
As of December 20, 2005, seven Northeastern US states were involved in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Massachusetts and Rhode Island dropped out at the last minute; Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney objected to a lack of opt-out provisions if energy prices exceeded a certain threshold.[1] Massachusetts rejoined on January 18, 2007, on the order of newly elected Governor Deval Patrick.[2] California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has also expressed interest in California joining the initiative [1]. It is believed that the state-level program will apply pressure on the federal government to support the Kyoto Protocol.
Participating states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island
Observer states and regions: Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Eastern Canadian Provinces.

Climate Change Action Plan
A parallel effort to reduce emissions in the Northeast is the New England Governors/Eastern Canadian Premiers Climate Change Action Plan, which calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 10% below 1990 levels by 2020. For comparison: the EU aims to reduce emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 and the average reduction required under the Kyoto Protocol is 5.2% by 2012. On December 20, 2005 seven states, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" committing themselves to move forward with the program. Special provisions are made in that document for Massachusetts and Rhode Island to join the effort at any time prior to January 1, 2008.
In addition, the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) is building a Regional Greenhouse Gas Registry (RGGR) to help track emissions in the region. This effort is similar to that of the California Climate Action Registry.

Business Ways To Save

With all the hype about “going green,” you may have already started replacing household cleaners with organic ones or maybe you’ve even traded in that gas-guzzling car for a hybrid, but why stop there? Check out some office-greening opportunities below. The possibilities are endless!
11/28 Update under #4

1. Replace petroleum-based ink with soy-based ink
Ink made from soybeans is not only better for the environment but better for your company’s bottom line, as well. Soy ink has lower levels of volatile organic compounds than ink made from petroleum, so it emits less harmful toxins into the air. Soy ink produces brighter and sharper colors because of the innate clearness of the soybean oil, which petroleum and other vegetable oils don’t have.

Paper with soy ink is easier to recycle because soy-based ink is easier to remove in the de-inking process of paper recycling than petroleum-based ink. Prices for color soy-based ink are comparable to those for petroleum-based ink, but less soy ink is needed per print job and soy ink reduces paper waste, so you are actually saving money! If those reasons aren’t enough, by using soy-based ink, you are also supporting American crops rather than relying on the foreign oil industry.

Soy ink is currently only available for commercial printers, however, and can’t be used for personal printers or ballpoint pens. Most ink manufacturers produce at least one soy ink, so check with your local ink manufacturer about purchasing soy ink.

Quick Stats

Soybeans only use about 0.5 percent of the total energy that is needed to create the ink.
About 90 percent of the country’s daily newspapers with circulations of more than 1500 use soy ink.
About one quarter of commercial printers in the United States operate using soy ink.
When soy ink reaches its full potential, it will consume 457 million pounds of soybean oil a year.
EPA Project Summary: Waste Reduction Evaluation of Soy-based Ink
Soy is “Greening” the Toner Cartridge Industry

2. Eliminate vending machine waste
Coffee-making vending machines may save you from caffeine-withdrawal headaches in the morning, but they don’t help out the environment. If your office vending machine dispenses its own cups, make sure they are recyclable or see if the machine allows you to use your own reusable mug instead of dispensing a plastic cup each time it makes a beverage.

Even better, provide machines that allow employees to make their own beverages. This cuts down on waste and energy usage! If you don’t think you can go without a vending machine, however, consider asking the machine provider to de-lamp the machine. This will save a significant amount of energy, considering the lights and ballasts in a typical refrigerated vending machine use about 180 Watts. You can also add an occupancy sensor on the machine that reduces the vending machine’s power requirements during periods of inactivity.

Quick Stats

A typical refrigerated vending machine consumes 400 Watts — at a rate of 6.39 cents per kWh, that’s an annual operating cost of $225.
De-lamping vending machines can save $100 every year.
Energy Efficient Beverage Vending Machines
VendingMiser Energy Controls For Vending Machines

3. Cut down on office transportation
Offer carpool-matching services that allow employees to find co-workers that live near them. Also, encourage biking and walking to work by providing bike racks outside of the office. Then reward those who do take advantage of these environmentally friendly transportation options! Parking incentives such as parking spots close to the office or shaded/covered parking may entice workers to buddy up for their commutes. Improve e-mail and video teleconferencing capabilities to allow for more telecommuting, and try to provide flexible work schedules for employees, so they can work four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days.

Check out Sharetheride.com for a Phoenix-wide carpool matching service provided by Valley Metro.

Quick Stats

Driving 10 percent less, by walking, cycling, carpooling, or taking public transit, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 0.2 to 0.8 tonnes per year, depending on the vehicle.
According to AAA, the cost for owning and operating an average size car is 52.2 cents per mile, when driven 15,000 miles per year.
Carbon dioxide is the number one contributor to the greenhouse effect, and cars produce about 30 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions.
Car Sharing – use cars only when you need them
Carpool Crew – search for people with similar interests with whom to carpool
Learn About Carpooling from the U.S. EPA

4. Switch out certain light bulbs and monitoring lighting usage
11/28 Lighting A Business - NY only
We obviously can’t work without lighting, but we can do our best to cut down on unnecessary use of lighting, especially in the evenings and on weekends when no one is in the office. Since exit signs are lit up 24/7, they use up a lot of energy and therefore add a lot to your office electricity bill. Make sure all office exit signs are illuminated using compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), light emitting diodes, neon lighting or electroluminescent lighting technology. These will cut down on energy use and lower your electricity bill.

Replace old fluorescent lighting fixtures that are likely using T-12 lamps with T-8 fluorescent lamps. With T-8 lighting, you’ll get better color, less flickering and T-8 lamps use 20 percent less energy than T-12 lamps.

Occupancy sensors are a good idea for areas of the office that aren’t used as much as others, such as the break or conference room. These sensors will detect when a person enters the room and turn on the lights. When they sense no one is in the room, the lights will turn off. These are easy to install and relatively inexpensive.

Visit WattStopper to browse occupancy sensor options.

Quick Stats

Replacing tungsten bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps typically makes an immediate cost savings of between 50-80 percent, and CFLs last up to ten times longer.
Over its life span, a fluorescent tube will save 640 kWh of electricity compared with the equivalent 100-watt standard bulb. This reduces the production of carbon dioxide, a green house gas, by half a ton and sulphur dioxide, which causes acid rain, by 3 kg.
According to a US Department of Energy (DOE) end use study from 1995, lighting accounts for about 29 percent of the energy use in a typical office.
ENERGY STAR Lighting – save the planet and save your money
Department of Energy - tips on how to improve your lighting and save energy/money
Economics of Energy Efficient Lighting for Offices

5. Make the most of your office equipment
According to the Department of Energy, office equipment accounts for 16 percent of an office’s energy use. The use of computers, printers, copiers and fax machines adds up, but simply turning your computer’s sleep mode on when you’re not using it can save energy.

It is a myth that activating a computer screen saver saves energy; it actually wastes more of it. In addition to putting your computer to sleep when you are away, make sure to turn the machine off when you leave the office for the night. Certain printers, copiers and fax machines also have sleep modes that can be automatically activated when the machine senses inactive periods. Also, consider consolidating these machines by purchasing a machine that performs multiple office functions.

If you’re looking to purchase new office equipment, visit ENERGY STAR to browse office equipment that cuts down the use of energy and reduces pollution.

Regularly cleaning the coils of your office refrigerator and defrosting the freezer will cause the refrigerator to operate better. It will also operate better if it is kept full, so if you’re refrigerator is too big for the amount of people in the office, fill the extra space with water bottles.

Quick Stats

A Lawrence Berkeley Lab study from 1999 estimated that one workstation (computer and monitor) left on after business hours is responsible for power plants emitting nearly one ton of CO2 per year.
If every US computer and monitor were turned off at night, the nation could shut down eight large power stations and avoid emitting 7 million tons of CO2 every year.
IBM estimates it saved $17.8 million worldwide in 1991 alone by encouraging employees to turn off equipment and lights when not needed.
EPA - Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions at the Office
EPA - Conservation Tips for Business
Guide to Help you Buy and Use Environmentally Friendly Office Equipment

6. Keep an eye on your paper usage
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, each employee in a typical business office generates 1.5 pounds of waste paper per day. That’s a lot of paper – most of which can be recycled or not used at all. There are several ways to cut down on how much paper you use, but if you must use paper, make sure to recycle it! This will not only help out the environment, but it will also benefit your bottom line.

Ways to use less paper

Make hard copies only when necessary. View documents on your computer instead of printing them out, and use e-mail to send documents rather than printing them or sending them via “snail mail” or fax.
Use a stick-on label on the first page of a fax instead of a full cover sheet.
Reuse paper that only has printed material on one side. Keep a bin for this paper by any printers, fax machines or copiers to use as draft paper.
Make sure all printers and copiers are set up to print on both sides of each sheet of paper. Some older machines may not have this function, but as those machines wear out, replace them with ones that have a double-sided printing function.
When buying paper

Buy recycled paper. Make sure to purchase paper with the highest percentage of post-consumer recycled content available.
Only buy paper that is PCF (processed chlorine free). According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, PCF paper contains recycled content produced without elemental chlorine or chlorine derivatives. Any virgin paper in the product is totally chlorine-free (TCF). PCF paper is preferred over TCF because recycled content is used in the former type of paper.
Use unbleached and uncolored paper. If you need to use colored paper, use pastel colors.
Buy products in bulk to minimize packaging.

Quick Stats

A single-sided 10-page letter costs $0.55 to mail; that same letter, copied onto both sides of the paper, uses only five sheets and $0.34 in postage.
A ton of 100 percent recycled paper saves the equivalent of 4,100 kWh of energy, 7,000 gallons of water, 60 pounds of air emissions, and three cubic yards of landfill space.
In the U.S., over 40 percent of municipal solid waste is paper – about 71.8 million tons each year.
The Green Office - Buy Environmentally Friendly Office Supplies
Conservatree - Find Information on Different Types of Recycled Copy Paper and More

7. Monitor heating and cooling systems and water usage
According to a TIME magazine article, heating, cooling and powering office space are responsible for almost 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. and eat more than 70 percent of total electricity usage. You can save about 10 percent on your electricity bill by just adjusting that thermostat by one or two degrees.

Ways to save money and energy

Use automatic setback thermostats. These thermostats automatically adjust the temperature settings for weekends and evenings when people are not in the office.
Consider outside air economizers that use outside air to cool down buildings when the air outside is cooler than the air inside.
Think about solar shading. You can use a reflective roof coating and/or window films and shading to reduce the amount of heat from the sun that penetrates your office building.
Keep the blinds closed. In the winter, this will conserve heat in the office, and in the summer, it will keep heat out.
Save on utilities

Add aerators to existing faucets. This can cut faucet water usage in half and save energy when using hot water.
Fix leaks. One dripping faucet can waste up to 20 gallons of water per day.

Quick Stats

Heating, cooling and ventilation accounts for 39 percent of the energy use in a typical office.
An adjustment of only a degree or two can cut heating or cooling bills by two to three percent. Extending that to three or four degrees can produce savings of 10 percent or more.
Water heating in an office can account for nine percent of the total energy load.
Leaky faucets that drip at the rate of one drop per second can waste up to 2,700 gallons of water each year.
EPA - Using Plants to Reduce Heating and Cooling Needs
EPA - Water Efficiency for Businesses

8. Consider all of your options
Hire an energy manager or transportation coordinator. It may be beneficial to have someone in the office whose sole job it is to set up carpooling or keep track of office recycling and energy use. The money spent on paying somebody to hold this position will be well worth it when you get your utility bill and help save our planet.

Use non-toxic cleaners or insist your janitorial service use them when cleaning your office. According to the Portland Office of Sustainable Development, cleaning products are responsible for 10 percent of the poisonings reported to poison centers nationally. A lot of cleaners wind up going down the drain and toxic chemicals sometimes then end up making their way into groundwater or waterways. Chemicals from these cleaners also end up in your office air and can have negative health effects.

Join Energy Star to promote energy efficiency. Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy that looks to help companies save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. According to the Energy Star Web site, with the help of ENERGY STAR, Americans “saved enough energy in 2006 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 25 million cars — all while saving $14 billion on their utility bills.”

Make sure all business meetings and conventions follow specific green standards..

Sources:
Wikipedia
EPA
egeneration
Oregon.gov
TIME.com
NRDC.org
Carpooltool.com
Clean Air Campaign
Bannock Planning