Video: Glyphosate and GM threaten monarch butterflies

You may be aware that bees are under serious threat due to pesticides and other toxins in the environment. Likewise, the monarch butterfly risks becoming endangered, as genetically engineered corn and soya and other genetically modified crops have largely eliminated the monarch butterfly's sole food and breeding source, the milkweed. Glyphosate-based herbicides also destroy soil, plant, animal, and human health. A video explaining the plight of monarch butterflies as well as what you can do, is included with this article.

Big Green divestment call

I came across an article by Naomi Klein on The Nation magazine regarding a call for Big Green, that is the large mainstream environmental organisations, to divest in fossil fuels. According to this article, several mainstream environmental have stopped investing in fossil fuel companies, others have not. This article summarises the main points and provides a link to the original article.

Labelling Matters - A CiWF, RSPCA, WSPA and Soil Association campaign

The organisations Compassion in World Farming (CiWF), the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and The Soil Association are campaigning jointly for clear method of production labelling regarding dairy products and meat. This campaign, which was launched in Westminster, is an EU-wide campaign. Without clear labelling, there is the danger of buying factory farmed produce without realising it.

The Labelling Matters campaign calls for clear and simple labelling which convey the chief characteristic of the production system (e.g. factory farm, free range, organic). This will enable customers to know how the animals were kept. In writing this article, I am giving my backing to this campaign.

Video: GMO Film Project

I decided to share the video trailer to an upcoming film, GMO Film Project, which shows a father's discovery of GMOs via the symbolic act of Haitian farmers burning seeds in defiance of Monsanto's "gift" of 430 t of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds after the devastating earthquake of January 2010.

Organic farming can feed the world

Those who defend genetically modified (GM) crops claim that biotechnology is necessary to feed the world and that non-GM and organic farming alone is not capable of producing enough food for everyone. This is pro-GM propaganda.

The reality is that organic farming can feed the world, all that needs to be done is to change the methods of farming, including stopping factory farming and intensive farming which is bad for our health and for our planet. As well as this, wastage needs to be eliminated, and there needs to be a change from unhealthy diets to a healthy and varied diet (where this applies).

The UK on CET debate

I had hoped to post this article when the news was current, but was unfortunately extremely busy, and had little to no time recently. Nonetheless, in this article, I give my take on the debate regarding moving Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT) and British Summer Time (BST) an hour forward respectively, so that the UK would in effect use Central European Time (CET) in winter, and Central European Summer Time (CEST) in summer.

GMT (also known as Western European Time or WET) and UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) are identical for practical purposes, the difference is negligible (only a fraction of a second), and the same applies for BST (also known as Western European Summer Time or WEST) and GMT+1. Similarly, CET can be regarded as equivalent to UTC+1, and CEST as equivalent to UTC+2 for practical purposes.

Throughout this article, I will be referring to UTC only to avoid ambiguity, and because UTC (not GMT) has been the main reference for time worldwide since 1972.  Having said that, one can still use GMT as a synonym for UTC, BST as a synonym for UTC+1, etc.

US-style mega-dairy plans are withdrawn

On the 16th Februrary 2010 there was some great and welcome news, plans for the US-style megadairy in Nocton, 10 km south of Lincoln in Lincolnshire, had been withdrawn.  The animal rights and environmental campaign groups have done a great job, and so has everyone who supported the campaign against this mega-dairy.  However, I believe it is not over yet, as the corporation behind the proposed factory farm still owns the land.  The root cause of the problems facing UK dairy farmers, especially small and family farmers not paid a fair price at the farm gate, also needs to be addressed.

Video: Future by design

I just came across this video, and thought this is worth sharing.

This documentary is called "Future by design" and looks at the life and designs of futurist, inventor, and architectural designer Jacque Fresco, along with his vision for the future which suggests using automation and technology to benefit people, a high standard of living for all, and no more warfare amongst other things.

Future energy sources

This article looks at future energy sources. This mainly includes sustainable energy sources which do not harm the environment, which we can use today and in the immediate future. In order to safeguard our environment and planet, the non-renewable and highly polluting fossil fuels will need to be phased out as soon as possible, they will run out one day, and nuclear fission will also need to be phased out as soon as possible as it produces radioactive waste which typically takes a very long time to decay, millions if not billions of years.

The UK farming crisis

Back in 2004, the watchdog Corporate Watch UK published a report "A Rough Guide to the UK Farming Crisis" which shows the crisis facing UK farmers, in particular small and family farmers, and the role that multinational corporations including big supermarkets and big agribusiness, government policy, and globalisation have all played in this crisis.  Corporate Watch also suggests possible solutions.

Long lasting fast charging electric car battery (6 min charge time, 600 km range)

Many people think that battery technology has not advanced much. Indeed, when one thinks of battery electric cars, their batteries are considered slow to charge, and do not last long.

On the 31st October 2010, the website Taranfx (new Geeknizer), along with other websites, reported about an important breakthrough which a Berlin company called DBM Energy has made. DBM Energy already manufacture batteries which allow forklift trucks to operate in warehouses for 28 hours between charges. Working with Berlin energy supplier Lekker Energie, DBM Energy has invented a Lithium Metal Polymer battery, the KOLIBRI, which has had brilliant results when test driven in a car, with just a 6 min charge meant the car was able to travel 600 km, a new world record for an electric vehicle.

GM soya increases poverty, threatens health in South America

Further to our previous articles about organic food, and about Monsanto and GM, this post is about an article in GM Watch, which in turn showed an English translation of the original Svenska Dagbladet (or SvD for short) news article about the disastrous effects of GM soya cultivation in South America. Indeed, the conversion of South American agriculture to large-scale, industrial farming of genetically modified soya harms the environment, increases poverty, and threatening human health, two leading advocates for small farmers' rights have said to SvD during a visit to Sweden.

Spray-on film to turn windows into solar panels

Using a spray-on solar film, windows can become solar energy sources.  Back in August this year, it was reported that Norwegian company EnSol has patented such a thin film solar technology which can be sprayed onto any glass surface, such as house windows.  EnSol also plan on developing a solar film solution to coat exterior walls or to be used as part of roof tiles.  This can generate solar power for buildings, and a lot more efficiently than existing large solar panels, and this way every house can have solar energy generation.  Working in collaboration with the University of Leicester in the UK, EnSol are aiming to commercialise the solar film solutions from 2016 onwards.

Ban factory farming now

Factory farming, otherwise known as intensive farming, is an integral part of industrial food production.  The first factory farms were started in 1920s USA, and started in the UK during the late 1940s.  In order to get really cheap (and I would say unnaturally cheap) food, animals in factory farms are kept in really terrible conditions.  Factory farming is cruel to animals, damages animal health, damages our health through factory farmed produce, and damages our environment with pollution.  Lots of hidden costs, which are not reflected in the price of the factory farmed goods.  This type of farming is also heavily subsidised too which is also reflected in the cheap price.

I would recommend seeing the Food Inc. video, if you have not already done so, because it illustrates perfectly the disturbing truth about intensively farmed food and food in general, among other issues.

Videos: Monsanto and GM

This article shows two videos about Monsanto and genetic modification (GM). The first film is a trailer: The world according to Monsanto, an award winning investigative documentary.  The second video clip is by Greenpeace explaining why biodiversity needs to be protected and why GM as practised by Monsanto (and others, but Monsanto has a 90% share in the market) threatens biodiversity, food security, and sustainable agriculture.

Amazon deforestation slows but concerns remain

One of our previous articles was about the need to save our rainforests. There was some good news yesterday, the Guardian has reported that large scale deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has fallen dramatically last year according to official figures.

On the other hand there are concerns remaining. One of these concerns is about the vested interests lobbying to water down environmental protection laws in Brazil, reported in the Guardian back on the 3rd July. Unfortunately this amendment was approved by a special committee of the Brazilian Parliament (or to be precise, National Congress of Brazil) on the 6th July, as reported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

In praise of organic food

We have all heard of organic food, food produced with either no or minimal toxic chemicals, food "the way nature intended it to be". Organic food is in fact exactly how humans have eaten for millenia, it is only since the 20th Century that "conventional" food as we know it, involving toxic and polluting synthetic chemicals in the form of pesticides, insecticides, and fertilisers, and ghastly factory farming, all collectively known as intensive farming, have existed. This article explains not only why organic is best, but also suggests where to get organic.

Video: Waste = Food (documentary)

Shown in this article is the documentary video, Waste = Food. Released in 2006 by the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO (English version in 2007), this documentary explains the Cradle to Cradle design concept created by chemist Michael Braungart, and designer-architect William McDonough. The principle of the Cradle to Cradle design concept is that instead of creating more and more landfills filled with waste and unwanted products, products can be designed and manufactured so that the waste would instead become "food" for the biosphere (our Earth) or the technosphere (the products we make).

Billed as the next industrial revolution, this design concept is not only a form of recycling, it is a really interesting design concept which could be a major change in the way products are made and built, and this concept is environmentally friendly and sustainable. This ecologically sound design concept is explained in more detail in the video itself.

OLED wallpapers could make light bulbs obsolete by 2012

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) wallpapers require very little power to produce light, and uses 2.5 times less power compared even to energy saving light bulbs. At the same time OLED wallpapers can emit almost as much light as a flourescent lamp, if not more, whilst lasting longer than a fluorescent lamp. The OLED surfaces can be printed on walls in homes and businesses, and can even be printed onto road signs (and the lighting for the road signs can be solar powered).  OLED wallpapers can as a result make light bulbs obsolete and benefit the environment in terms of reduced energy needs and lower carbon dioxide emissions.

Avoiding harmful chemicals

There are various artificial and harmful chemicals used in all sorts of products we use or consume, whether its the food we eat, the homes we live in, or in cosmetics. I have read a special report by the Guardian called Chemical World which looks at such chemicals in these products, including the problems they can cause and question marks over their long term safety, and also recommends completely natural alternatives.