September 15th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
That cartoon isn’t just a coincidence, especially the part about the polluted water. Turns out, clean water violations are on the rise across the United States, with 10% of Americans being exposed to unhealthy drinking water. The culprit is agriculture and industrial practices and poor enforcement of regulations.
It all comes down to money. The Environmental Protection Agency recognizes the problem, saying today’s water does not meet public health goals and enforcement is unacceptably low, but state officials are handcuffed by lack of funding. So in the meantime millions of people are unknowingly ingesting toxins.
Via The New York Times.
Image credit: Mean Joe Green
Tags: water
Posted in The Environment | 1 Comment »
September 9th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 Monsanto, your friendly neighborhood producer of genetically modified organisms, is catching some heat for its water-hungry ways on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.
Molokai is where much of the research into the seed corn takes place, making Monsanto the largest employer on the island.
Putting people to work is awesome, but Monsanto’s massive farming operations gobble up a bunch land and suck down a lot of water. That’s the problem.
Monsanto wants to make money and maximize profits, so these research and farming facilities need to run full-steam ahead, which demands the lion share of the island’s water supplies.
So when a drought on Molokai dried up reservoirs, prompting the local irrigation company to demand water cutbacks of 20%, Monsanto petitioned for the right to take more water—threatening small farmers.
By law, two-thirds of Molokai’s water must go to homestead farmers, but companies like Monsanto drink up 84% of the irrigation system. That’s why local farmers are currently seeking legal action against Monsanto.
Via Fred Pearce’s Greenwash.
Image credit: ismaSan
Tags: GMOs, Monsanto, water
Posted in Organic Food, Political Action | 3 Comments »
July 15th, 2009 - Laura Klein
Water has gone to Washington.
 The Environmental Working Group presented an 18-month study to a congressional oversight hearing about the gaps in government regulation of the bottled water industry.
Summing up the problem nicely is Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the non-profit consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch:
“The Bottled water industry’s strategy has been to market bottled water as the safe and clean alternative to tap water…This myth has been used to trick consumers into paying thousands times more for a product that is the same or even more polluted than the water available from our faucets. Tap water in the United States undergoes rigorous testing for contaminants—as often as 480 times a month, far more than the once–a–week test for bottled water.”
FDA vs. EPA
Under the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, bottled water companies have complete latitude to choose what, if any, information to divulge to consumers about their water.
Compare that to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — the federal agency that oversees the nation’s municipal water utilities. All 52,000 nationwide community tap water suppliers need to produce an annual water quality report detailing the water source and pollutant testing results, as required under the Safe Drinking Water Act. (Although tap water does come with its own set of problems…)
Watered Down Labels
Furthermore, EWG researchers analyzed labels and websites from 188 bottled waters to learn which bottlers voluntarily disclosed the same information as required of community water suppliers. EWG found that many disclose little to no information at all on water source and purity.
What You Can Do
To sum it up, aqua junkies, I suggest that you:
- Buy a sturdy reusable water bottle which will save the on plastic waste and save you money
- Install a high quality water filtration system in your home
If you have to buy bottled, make it one that counts, like:
- Ethos: Available at Starbucks, this company gives .05 of every bottle to humanitarian water programs around the globe.
- Park City Ice Water: Uses 75% less energy to produce packaging than its counterparts
- Project 7: 50% of sales go to one of 7 critical areas including feeding the hungry, healing the sick, etc.
- Keeper Springs: Robert Kennedy’s own, all profits go to the environment
Tags: bottled water, Health, healthy living, tap water, water
Posted in Green Living, Health, Organic, Organic Living | 5 Comments »
July 3rd, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
Zany “right-wing conservative” Stephen Colbert supports big-business pharmaceutical companies, but he freaked when New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, told him “lady pee” laced with unfiltered estrogen from birth control pills is turning up in our drinking water.
Stephen Colbert is very entertaining, but this is a serious issue. Drinking water is taking the brunt of American’s obsession with pills and chemicals. In March, depression medications were found in fish across the U.S., and in June artificial sweeteners, like saccharin, also washed up in water.
Via Colbert Nation.
Tags: artificial sweeteners, drugs, fish, pharmaceuticals, water
Posted in Health, The Environment | 4 Comments »
February 2nd, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 Walt Whitman and Robert Frost will soon be spinning in their graves. Japan plans to use poetry to encourage people to cut down on toilet paper.
Apparently, wiping too much is a major cause of global warming in the country.
Researchers claim putting a poem at eye-level of someone sitting on the bowl can actually reduce toilet paper usage by up to 20%.
And Japanese turd-smiths have crafted catchy snippets like, “Fold the paper over and over and over again,” reports Reuters, or just “Love the toilet.” The group behind the idea wants to post these sayings in 1,000 public toilets.
Now, the rise in the number of public bathrooms in Japan is being blamed for the increased usage of toilet paper. Since it’s free, people are more inclined to be wasteful. The pooper poems should help save water too. Holy crap!
Via Earth First.
Tags: global warming, paper, water
Posted in Green Living, The Environment | No Comments »
January 15th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 Climate change is a serious problem. It’s beyond anecdotal at this point. The dangers are real. And its not just animals that are at risk.
Warming temperatures raise sea levels, threatening islands in the Pacific, and climate change increases the spread of deadly diseases, such as avian flu, cholera, tuberculosis and yellow fever. All of which harm humans.
And now, a new study claims global warming could starve 3 billion people by 2100. The majority of the victims will come from developing countries, but the effects might stretch as far as Europe and Russia.
Published in the journal Science, researchers believe there is a 90% chance 3 billion people will go hungry by the end of the century, due to dried up farmland and higher food prices, and the tropics and subtropics will be the hardest hit, where most of the denizens rely on locally grown crops. These regions could face their highest temperatures ever.
Scientists claim areas in the Sahara, like the Sahel Belt, a semi-arid region stretching across Africa, where farming employs 60% of the population, are at increased risk for desertification and drought, forcing people to move away, which will cripple the economy, where farming supplies 40% of the gross domestic product.
Industrialized nations are also at risk. Temperature changes in Europe and Russia have already impacted local harvests. Maize yields in Italy dropped 36%, France had a 50% cut in fruit production and in the USSR grain outputs dipped 13%, disrupting global grain prices.
And farmers in China are in trouble too. Climate change is threatening their water supplies.
Via NewScientist.
Tags: avian flu, climate change, disease, drought, farmland, global warming, water
Posted in The Environment | 1 Comment »
December 17th, 2008 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
Recycling on your own is pretty limited. You can reuse plastic containers and glass bottles, compost newspaper and bundle other recyclables, but barring the impractical, that’s about it, until now!
A Japanese company has invented an in-office paper shredder and recycler that actually makes usable sheets of paper.
The Meiko SEED paper recycling system can transform used business paper into 1,500 sheets of new paper.
It takes 10 hours to produce 1,500 sheets and requires 200 liters of tap water and 38 kWh of electricity. The environmental footprint looks like this:
- Virgin paper: 390.7 liters of water and 80.3 kWh of energy consumption;
- Recycled paper: 153.4 liters of water and 31.4 kWh of energy consumed.
Paper can be recycled up to 10 times. The Meiko system uses 30% less water than similar systems and costs a mere $86,000. Apparently that’s a competitive price because the company expects to sell 100 units in the first year.
Although cynics wonder what happens to the wastewater. A lot of paper is made with chemical coatings.
Via TreeHugger.
Tags: chemicals, electricity, evironmental, recycle, water
Posted in The Environment | 5 Comments »
April 11th, 2007 - Barbara Feiner
 If you’re dedicated to organic living and conservation, look for the WaterSense logo when purchasing or replacing a toilet. NSF International, a nonprofit certification agency, is working with the Environmental Protection Agency to verify toilets’ water efficiency and performance.
The EPA launched the WaterSense program last year to highlight high-efficiency products and services designed to conserve water, one of our most precious natural resources. This voluntary labeling program is available to all companies that partner with the EPA and manufacture, sell or distribute household plumbing fixtures.
The certification process consists of product testing, which ensures high-efficiency toilets consume no more than 1.28 gallons per flush, while successfully meeting all required performance testing. According to the EPA, the average household could save enough water to supply a year’s worth of drinking water to 150 of its neighbors.
Certified products will be included on an EPA product registry and will bear the WaterSense label. Ongoing annual inspections will ensure continued compliance. A more detailed list of requirements can be found here (PDF file).
The WaterSense program is expected to extend to high-efficiency bathroom sink faucets in the future, with possible expansion to showerheads, irrigation control equipment and other commercial equipment.
Additional water conservation tips for consumers can be found on NSF’s website.
Book Pick of the Day: Let’s Save Water
Tags: conservation, toilet, water, water conservation, watersense label
Posted in Organic Living | No Comments »
July 26th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
Did you know that children lose proportionally more fluids through sweat than adults do?
As a parent who embraces organic living, one of your top health priorities this summer is proper hydration, which affects children both physically and mentally.
The following hydration tips have been provided by Dr. Jennifer Trachtenberg, a board-certified pediatrician in New York City and clinical instructor of pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine:
- Encourage your children to drink water at the age of 6 months.
- Hold off on juices until after age 1 to help encourage the taste for water as a thirst quencher.
- Try giving your children water with or after meals, as they will be thirstier after eating. Today, bottled water comes in many convenient shapes and sizes for easy portability for families on the go.
- Serve as a role model for your children by drinking water in front of them. Try to change your habits when it comes to drinking sugary or caffeinated beverages.
- Depending on their age, children need approximately 18 to 32 oz. of fluid daily, including water, 2–3 cups of low-fat milk and 4–6 oz. of 100% juice.
Photo courtesy of Nestlé Waters North America
Tags: dehydration, kids health, summer, water
Posted in Health | No Comments »
June 8th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
 A few thoughts about the environment today, which happens to be World Ocean Day. If you plan to spend any hot afternoons at the beach this summer, take a few minutes to reflect on the wondrous oceans that cover two-thirds of our planet. Even if your schedule is crazy-busy, be sure to sign The Ocean Project’s petition to urge the United Nations to officially recognize June 8 as World Ocean Day. More information is available in Tuesday’s blog entry.
“Every year, the ocean just seems a little bit smaller,” says Dr. Kathleen Sullivan Sealey, an associate professor of biology at the University of Miami and principal investigator of the Earthwatch Institute’s Coastal Ecology of the Bahamas project. “There is more trash washed up on the beach with every tide in all shapes, materials and languages. There are fewer fish and conch around for local consumption and greater fears as new information is circulated about health threats in contaminated coastal waters.”
The Earthwatch Institute recruits global volunteers to support scientific field research. You can work alongside leading scientists, conducting research and learning about what it takes to protect a sustainable environment. Earthwatch is now celebrating its 35th anniversary, and more than 4,000 volunteers from all 50 states and 79 countries participated in field research last year. Can you think of a better way for those of us who support organic living to spend some vacation time? Click here to find out about upcoming volunteer projects—from exploring wildlife habitats in Kenya to conducting field experiments in Costa Rica to improve the ecological sustainability of shade-grown coffee.
“We need to act like our actions matter, because they do matter,” says Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, president-elect of the International Sea Turtle Society and a former principal investigator of an Earthwatch sea turtle project in Baja California, Mexico. “We must act like our actions affect others, because they do affect others. We need to evolve our ways as if our life depended on it, because our life does depend on it. To take on the pressing issues facing our ocean planet, we need more creative, innovative and progressive-minded people who understand that it’s one ocean, indivisible, after all.”
Tags: environment, global warming, oceans, pollution, water
Posted in The Environment | No Comments »
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