Cease and Desist

The dominion of disposable plastic bags in our supermarkets may soon be coming to an end. Several countries around the world, and even certain cities within the U.S. have initiated a total ban against plastic shopping bags, while many supermarkets and other shopping outlets are offering incentives for costumers who choose to bring their own reusable alternatives with them to the store (BYOB- bring your own bag!). In similar cases, some local governments are considering further pressure to slow or halt the distribution of plastic bags by placing heaving taxes against them. Recently, Planet Green has released a list of cities around the world which have imposed the total ban on plastic bags.

These are all extremely important steps towards ensuring the health and safety of our world's ecosystems, especially in light of the giant floating island of garbage in the Pacific Ocean. It is twice the size of Texas by some reports, twice that of the continental U.S. by others, consisting mostly of discarded and non-biodegradable plastic products. The pollution of our world's oceans is far more critical than we might have guessed, and it is both entirely our fault and entirely our responsibility to fix it. We are making it increasingly difficult for fish and other marine life to survive in any kind of habitable environment. And besides global warming and the increasing taxation of industrial over-fishing, the most prominent offenders to the oceans' situation are, not surprisingly, plastics. They are so destructive, in fact, that even the United Nations has called for their increased regulation.

Besides the amendments we make to our own personal consumption, and the efforts of our governments to assuage our efforts, there are private groups working around the world to undo some of the damage inflicted upon world's oceans, and they have proved to be nothing short of heroic. Nextek Limited, for example, a company that is based out of the UK and Australia, is doing some really impressive stuff to counter-act plastic pollution. Although it boasts a variety of noble projects, the company's primary purpose is to process and recycle polymer plastics in a sustainable and responsible way, from discarded bottles and mixed plastics into clean, safe milk bottles and other products. By far their most impressive work is done at sea, where they collect the materials they need in order to forge these recycled gems. They sustainably gather floating plastics from the surface of the south Pacific ocean, while at the same time returning any accidentally captured sea life to the water. They then process the plastics in order to decontaminate them and subsequently recycle them. To read their full story, follow this link to Positive News.

How amazing! Congratulations to these benevolent and innovative businessmen who've created such a fantastic answer to plastic. They can't single-handily drain the ocean of its estimated 4 million tons of plastic pollution, but they have certainly set the bar in terms of environmental stewardship. Congratulations to the brave municipal governments who are taking the lead in this fight against pollutions by banning the use of plastic bags completely, and those who are on their way with a partial tax. And congratulations to you, the consumer, because it is your actions and assertions that ultimately have the power to make real change happen around the world!

It has happened!

It has happened! Despite the powerful neoliberal protestors, the United Nations has made an historic decision to recognize water as a fundamental and universal human right!

The resolution was brought to the U.N. general assembly several weeks ago from Bolivia, a country which has been fervently involved in issues of water rights for years. Countries like Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, which see water as a commodity rather than a human right, spoke out against the movement to no avail, as 144 nations voted last Wednesday that water should be viewed as a public trust, not a market commodity. There were 41 abstentions, and zero votes of "no." Abstaining was clearly the safer way to dissent for the opposers of this resolution, since voting against human rights is surely no historical record to boast.

Still, the outcome of this debate could not have been better! The right to safe drinking water and sanitation are now part of the guiding language for governments around the world, and we have all taken a huge step forward in the way we perceive and acknowledge human rights, particularly in regard to health and access to those resources which are a fundamental part of a healthful life. As Ms. Maude Barlow, water activist extrodinaire, put it last week on Democracy Now!: "[The resolution] is a moral statement, a guiding principle of the countries of the world, that they have taken a step in the direction of saying that water is a human right and a public trust, and that no one should be dying for a lack of water."

For more information about the vote, and to watch Ms. Barlow's full interview with Amy Goodman, click here.

Great Quote

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home- so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.

Yet they are the world of the individual person, the neighborhood she or he lives in; the school or college that she attends; the factory, farm, or office where she works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, and equal dignity without discrimination.

Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

-Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States and one-time Chairperson for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, upon presenting "In Your Hands," her booklet on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

GMO Sneak Attack

Giant agro-businesses like Monsanto have continuously been able to get sneak by with passing off their GMO-enhanced, foodish items as natural food products in the United States. But the tides are changing in other parts of the world, and people and governments alike are starting to take notice. For example, thanks to stringent food labeling laws, citizens in France currently enjoy the luxury of knowing exactly which of the foods they purchase are genetically modified or engineered. If a food product is made up of less than .1% of genetically modified organisms, a standard much higher than elsewhere in the E.U., then it is labeled as such in the supermarket, allowing consumers the right to make informed decisions about what they are buying and eating. Naturally, there is a certain feeling of security, a joie-de-manger, when sitting down for un repas en France.

But we are not allowed this luxury of food security in the United States. And the Obama administration has recently reaffirmed their commitment to the secrecy of genetically modified foods, as they plan to vehemently deny our right to truth through labeling. Perhaps it is because a former Monsanto lobbyist is currently our country's chief agricultural negotiator that the Obama administration plans to argue a position against mandatory GMO labeling at a conference of the United Nations' Codex Committee on food labeling next week. This conference will determine the future of global food labeling rules, which has the GMO-happy and agro-business friendly United States Government squirming in its boots. The position paper put together by the U.S. to be submitted before the committee next week ridiculously states that to label genetically modified and genetically engineered food products as such would be "false, misleading, or deceptive." Apparently, our government believes that it would be somehow bad for us to know the truth about what we are eating.

And all of this is going on fairly under the radar. If the administration had it their way, labeling rules would be abolished before we even knew they were an option. But organic food producers, public health advocates, environmental groups and concerned citizens alike are fighting back, petitioning to the FDA and the department of agriculture to reconsider this inappropriate stance on food labeling. To read the letter addressed to FDA Deputy Commissioner of Food Michael Taylor and USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, click here. To sign a petition opposing the sneak attack on GMO labeling, click here!

Iceberg, right ahead!

Ok so this isn't really a joke, but more like something from a frightening apocalyptic tale in which the benevolent majesty and power of the earth is unleashed, and transformed into a dangerous, vengeful force. According to the Associated Press, hundreds of icebergs which were once a part of a massive ice floe in the antarctic are now slowly, gracefully, ominously gliding across the ocean towards the southern island of New Zealand.

A maritime warning has been issued to ships in the area, as chunks of ice which average to be about a mile in depth are drifting farther north, in larger numbers than can be considered normal or appropriate for the area.

Climate change is undoubtedly culpable in this scenario, as Neil Young, a scientist working for Agence-France-Presse, has postulated. He told the AP that "If the current trends in global warming were to continue, I would anticipate more icebergs as the large ice shelves break up." Certainly this is a massive symbolic reminder that we cannot afford any further politicization of an issue which is, more than anything, at the pith of our very survival.

Perhaps if the icebergs were floating nearby Copenhagen there would be more of a rustle?

Pants on Fire

Conservative media just loves to get you riled up, even when they aren't necessarily telling the truth. A few weeks ago FoxNews ranted and raved over a UNESCO Public Health Report which suggested sexual education for children under the age of 10. According to the lunatics at Fox, the main point of the UNESCO report, which was geared toward reducing rates of HIV and STI transmissions worldwide, was that the U.N. was advocating to "Teach Masturbation to 5 Year Olds." And Life News brilliantly reported that the UNESCO guidelines "Call on Children to Promote Abortions." Wow. Way to miss the point, guys. Instead of focusing on the fact that UNESCO was attempting to reduce the number of children who engage in dangerous sexual activity at increasingly younger ages by providing educational guidelines that could be implemented by teachers worldwide, they fell back on their small-minded "beliefs" about what children that age "should" be learning.

In fact, what the guidelines suggest is actually a gradual exposure to issues of sexuality, starting at ages 5-8, when basic sexual topics are explored, and becoming increasingly detailed as children age, culminating with a curriculum for 12-15 year olds about contraception, abortion, and abortion alternatives, including the risks of improvised pregnancy terminations.

Considering that at the end of 2007, 30 million people worldwide were living with HIV, 2 million of those being children, it would seem as if any measure necessary to impede the spread of this deathly illness would be a positive measure. But in the skewed world of Christian extremism, voiced by the right-wing punditry, outdated morals and cultural elitism are more important than working to solve a global epidemic.

What is frightening is the power that these pundits have to coerce us into agreeing with them by using sensationalized, and even falsified information. It is absolutely misleading to report that UNESCO wants to teach masturbation to children. In fact, according to Time magazine, the 102 page UNESCO document mentions masturbation only five times, twice to explain to 5-8 year olds what the term actually means. So beware the lying pundits, because if they can stretch the truth on a matter as important as children's health, there's no telling what else they could do to try and sway our opinions. They insult our intelligence by thinking they can make up our minds on our behalf, but we are stronger than they think. We have the ability to make a distinction between right and wrong despite and without any zealous persuasion. We are stronger than they think.

Thought is free. Peace.

World Water Week

According to statistics collected by the U.N., there are approximately 880 million people worldwide who live without access to a safe drinking water source. EVERY DAY about 5,000 children die from water-borne illnesses related to poor sanitation and a lack of access to clean drinking water, and every year 2.2 million people die from the same cause. By 2030, the number of people living in areas of severe water stress could rise to 4 billion. This enormously detrimental predicament is being addressed by human rights advocates, development and aid agencies, and local initiatives which fight to have water declared as a human right, implement reliable water system infrastructures, and to promote sustainable water use, so as to stifle and prevent further suffering related to this dire human need. The problem is also being addressed by private companies, who seek to earn large profits from the growing global scarcity of fresh water drinking supplies. It has already been estimated that the global water market is worth nearly 250 billion dollars, and that figure is set to rise to a staggering 660 billion by 2020. Basically, there is a lot of money to be made off of the commoditization of our survival. In order to prevent the privatization of water, the most basic necessity to human life, it is imperative that human rights organizations work in conjunction with environmental groups to address the situation at hand; and this past week a global meeting of a variety of stakeholders proved to be an excellent example of such benevolent cooperation.

Last week was marked by a seven-day convention of over 2,500 parties from 130 countries, representing 175 different organizations, all gathering in Sweden to address the world's most urgent water-related issues. The Stockholm Water Symposium was organized by the Stockholm Water Institute, and featured a variety of workshops, lectures, and discussions which focused on water security and provision in terms of development, aid, sustainability, and public health. The global summit offered up an environment within which both contrasting and corresponding state policies would be examined and analyzed, and solutions to the world's pressing needs would be presented. Regarding the availability of water as a natural resource in relation to its comparative uses, many nations from both the industrialized and the developing world were presented with the effects of their agricultural practices. Similarly, the unregulated pollutants in drinking water, such as wastewater, pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptor's, herbicides and pesticides were discussed across country lines; as well as the power of farm lobbyists in effecting policy. In terms of solutions, several ideas and initiatives were discussed, including the formation of plebiscites demanding water as a basic human right; water as a public trust, an idea supported by the U.N. senior advisor on water issues, Ms. Maude Barlow; and ecosystem restoration, which is an emerging movement spreading wide across the globe in hopes of establishing clean and safe watersheds for the benefit of our ecosystems and our drinking supply.

Also this week, a report was publicized at the symposium by the water advocacy organization Circle of Blue, indicating that people worldwide view water issues as surpassing the threats of climate change, becoming the most crucial environmental problem to face humanity. The desperation, disease, and death which are caused by a lack of access to clean drinking water and healthy sanitation practices were seen by a majority of the 1,000 respondents from 15 different countries to be a fundamental human concern. The most prominent facet of this concern, according to the survey, was water pollution and the public health crises that emerge from a lack of proper sanitation. Water scarcity was also a top priority for the respondents. The results varied by state, which developing countries showing greater concern for water issues in general. With most all of the environmental efforts within industrialized nations seeming to revolve around climate change in recent years, the results of this survey prove to be a startling glimpse at the immediate plight of human beings around the world.

And in terms of climate change, the participants in the Stockholm Symposium released a statement last week directed at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, where world leaders will meet to reach a resolution on a global cap on greenhouse gas emissions. The statement asserts that water must be considered as an integral facet of climate change and its effects, and states that "water is a key medium through which climate change impacts will be felt. Managing the resource effectively, including through well-conceived IWRM [Integrated Water Resources Management] approaches and at a trans boundary level, is central to successful adaptation planning and implementation, and to building the resilience of communities, countries, and regions."

The Stockholm Symposium is the second gathering to address water issues in 2009, the first being a forum organized in March by the World Water Council which included governments, water utility companies, and groups associated with environmental research and education. The forum was widely criticized by activists who claimed that the forum was exclusionary and promoted private interests moreso than advocating for the earth and the world's poor. The Stockholm International Water Institutes' program, conversely, was celebrated for its global perspective and its focus on real issues. Hopefully the convergence of participants at this massive gathering will result in resonating thought and policy geared towards water sustainability and improved access to safe drinking water at no charge to those who need it. The next World Water Week has already been set for September 5-11, 2010. Mark your calendars!