Category Archives: Toxics

Will big biotech giants destroy Mexican corn? Join us and say no!

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GE Crop Circle Action Against GM Corn (Spain: 2006)

The Mexican government is likely to authorize the cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) corn in Mexico. And until now Mexican citizens, with the help of organisations like Greenpeace,  have managed to prevent agribusiness giants like Monsanto, DuPont and Dow AgroSciences from gaining approval in Mexico for genetically engineered corn.

But this looks like it could change.

The agriculture ministry in Mexico may allow foreign companies to plant genetically engineered corn on 2.4 million hectares of land. Continue reading →

EU bans three bee-killer pesticides: a light of hope for bees and agriculture

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Bees on a Honeycomb in the NetherlandsBijen op een Honingraat

The next time you see a bee buzzing around, it’s worthwhile remembering that much of the food we eat depends significantly on pollination these insects provide. But bees and other pollinators are declining globally, particularly in North America and Europe, putting this essential role in doubt.

In the US, the loss of 30-40% of commercial honeybee colonies since 2006 has been linked to “colony collapse disorder”, a syndrome characterized by disappearing worker bees. Since 2004, losses of honeybee colonies have left North America with fewer managed pollinators than at any time in the last 50 years. In recent winters, bees colony mortality in Europe has averaged about 20% (but up to 53% for some countries). Continue reading →

Don’t Drink The Water

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A coal ash impoundment at TVA Kingston Fossil Fuel Power Plant in Tennessee failed in 2008, spilling five times the volume of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. It was the worst in US history. The next year, the EPA, overseeing the clean-up operations, shipped 4 million tons of toxic coal ash by rail to an Alabama landfill in a region called the Black Belt.  The Black Belt, birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, has “the richest soil and the poorest people.” Continue reading →

Majority of EU countries support partial ban of bee-killing pesticides

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Greenpeace activists unfurl a huge banner reading 'Syngenta Pesticides Kill Bees' from the headquarters of the agrochemical company, Syngenta.

Brussels – A clear majority of EU countries have supported the European Commission proposal to temporarily ban three pesticides that are scientifically shown to be harmful to bees: imidacloprid and clothianidin, produced by chemical company Bayer, and thiamethoxam, produced by Syngenta. Continue reading →

Bees in decline: How long will pesticide companies deny science?

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Days before the key EU vote to ban bee-killer pesticides, Greenpeace is attending the annual general meeting (AGM) of Syngenta in Basel, Switzerland, in order to alert shareholders to the company’s role in the global decline in bee populations and ask them to challenge the chair of Syngenta board to stop marketing these deadly products.

Activists and beekeepers are demonstraing outside the shareholders’ assembly, while representatives of Greenpeace and the European Beekeeping Coordination are directing questions to the Syngenta board about the reputational and financial risk faced by the company in light of the probable ban. Last month, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a ban on bee-killer pesticides produced by Syngenta and Bayer.

Continue reading →

Texas explosion highlights risks to communities near facilities storing dangerous chemicals

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The disaster at a fertilizer facility in West, Texas Wednesday night has killed and injured many people according to news reports, and our thoughts are with those impacted by this tragedy. New aerial photos of the explosion show the devastation to the neighboring community, including a nearby school and nursing home. Continue reading →

Massive Texas fertilizer plant explosion kills an estimated five-15 people

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Click this map to see where more than 400 chemical plants are located.

Five-15 people are reported dead and at least 160 injured after an explosion from a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, a town north of Waco. Our thoughts are with those impacted by this tragedy.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has sent a large investigation team to the scene. The plant had 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia, a highly volatile gas used in making fertilizer. The town’s mayor said the explosion itself was like “a nuclear bomb,” and was picked up as a 2.1 magnitude tremor.

There are more than 400 high-risk chemical plants in the United States. Find out where they are located. 

As China Addresses Its ‘Airpocalypse,’ Coal Exporters Fear Loss Of Another Market

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Originally posted to Think Progress

China’s air pollution crisis is more evident than ever. A new research report, conducted under the World Health Organization’s Global Burden of Disease project, shows that over 1.2 million premature deaths were caused by PM2.5 pollution (fine particles like soot, mostly resulting from fossil fuel combustion). That accounts for 15 percent of the total deaths in China during 2010 and 40 percent of global air pollution-related deaths. The data also showed that Chinese people’s average exposure to PM2.5 increased 50 percent from 1990 to 2010, compared to 10 percent globally. Continue reading →

Fashion brands including Gap & Brooks Brothers dumping toxic wastewater in Indonesia waterways

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Let me tell you a story of a polluted paradise.

We used to call it ‘Parahyangan’ or the place where the Gods and Goddesses resided. The river in Indonesia that passes through it stretches 270 km from the Wayang Mountain to the Java Sea, giving life along its course.

A critical water source 

We call it the Citarum River. Ci and Tarum, “Ci” is water, and “Tarum” or indigo is a plant of the pea family that was widely cultivated over a century ago as a source of dark blue dye. It is also linked to the ‘Tarumanagara’ Kingdom, one of the country’s oldest Kingdoms, once victorious on the outskirts of the Citarum River. Today, millions of people depend on the river and surrounding area for agricultural and domestic use. Continue reading →

European agriculture at risk: time to ban bee-killing pesticides

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Most of the food served on our tables greatly depends on insects such as bees and their crucial pollinating role in agriculture, but the use of pesticides is increasingly placing the future of bees and our farming at risk.

A scientific review of pollinators and agriculture in Europe released by Greenpeace today highlights the ecological and economic importance of healthy bee populations.

The study stresses the urgent need to ban bee-harming pesticides. Such a ban would be a crucial first step towards protecting bee colonies and safeguarding the process of pollination from insects – instrumental to agriculture and food production in Europe. Continue reading →