Nestle makes money off bashing organics

http://www.grist.org/organic-food/2011-08-30-nestles-chairman-wants-you-to-be-scared-of-organic-food Dishealth creates wealth...for the already mega-rich.

Amazing candid photos of animals, and poacher, in the wild

Amazing candid photos of animals, and a poacher, in the wild, found on a hidden NY Times environment news subpage today. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/08/19/science/earth/20110819-mammals-7.html

Penn State study shows more modest economic impact from shale gas - News - The Times-Tribune

Penn State study shows the economic impact from shale gas was greatly overstated to benefit industrialists and gain approval despite environmental/health hazards.

Mercer County judge to hear Monsanto case - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

Mercer County judge to hear Monsanto case - bought by citizens affected by the company's pollution.

What's killing the killer whales?

Idaho factory farms free from pollution regs

http://www.grist.org/factory-farms/2011-08-25-forget-potatoes-idaho-now-grows-cafos

How climate change affects hurricanes

Climate change effects on weather events http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-08-29-climate-change-makes-hurricanes-like-irene-more-destructive

OK to buy soda with food stamps?

http://www.grist.org/food/2011-08-23-you-shouldnt-be-able-to-use-food-stamps-to-get-soda On Friday, the USDA rejected New York City's proposal to restrict the use of food stamps to buy soda. According to The New York Times, there was much rejoicing:

The decision was a victory for the soft-drink industry, which had lobbied against the proposal, and for advocates for the poor and underfed, who had argued that the government should not stigmatize them by taking away their right to shop like other consumers...

Dog training mistakes: Correct yourself before traveling with your dog

Top Seven Training Mistakes - Outside Magazine -- Dog training mistakes: Correct yourself before traveling with your dog

Monsanto GMO corn crop failure - losing bug resistance

Widely grown corn plants that Monsanto Co. genetically modified to thwart a voracious bug are falling prey to that very pest in a few Iowa fields, the first time a major Midwest scourge has developed resistance to a genetically modified crop. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904009304576532742267732046.html

Wine vs. Salmon: Water Wars Hit Sonoma County - The Bay Citizen

Vineyards' water use threatens endangered fish, authorities and environmentalists say 

Wine vs. Salmon: Water Wars Hit Sonoma County - The Bay Citizen

In Defense of Wilderness

The idea of preserving wilderness needs no defense. But wilderness needs defenders. 

Chattanooga's epic green revival

Read about Chattanooga's green revival, from downtown to new hip hoods to nature trails.

"Green" coalition pitching huge subsidy cuts to balance US budget

Interesting story here re: huge tax breaks and subsidies to oil/gas multinational corporations and other big business. http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/08/24/24greenwire-oil-arpa-e-top-list-of-subsidy-cuts-urged-by-s-57924.html

Pres. Clinton shares his healthy diet secret

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/diet-nutrition/story/2011-08-23/Bill-Clinton-declares-vegan-victory/50111212/1?csp=hf&loc=interstitialskip Balanced vegan diet is tops for health, vitality.

"But plants have feelings too" - dumb argument on all counts

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mikko-alanne/plant-feelings_b_932305.html

Saving the Last Wild Places - including oceans

National Geographic's Enric Sala and other marine biologists are spreading the word that there can be profits, and of course benefits to the earth, by protecting oceans instead of just depleting resources and polluting waters.

Got Milk Facts? New documentary film

Watch it: Got the Facts On Milk? http://www.milkdocumentary.com/

Fracking: An Earthquake Factor?

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/08/marcellus_shale_drilling_to_bl.html

Don’t Like Green Competitio? No Problem, Just Sue 'Em

Don’t Like the Competition Talking Facts? Take ’Em to Court
Three large plastic bag makers—Hilex Poly Company, LLC; Superbag Operating, LTD; and Advance Polybag, Inc. have filed a lawsuit in South Carolina. They are suing the ChicoBag Company, claiming that it has caused harm to their businesses. How? By stating facts: Plastic grocery bags are not biodegradable. They clog waterways, spoil the landscape, pollute the soil and water (and therefore us), and choke birds and marine mammals who mistake them for food. Once they end up in landfills, they may take 1,000 years or more to break down into ever smaller particles that continue to pollute the environment. (Free speech only for big businesses! No room for the true job creators: the independent companies trying to get into the bully-run market. Well, we'll continue just saying No to the bags at checkout, and use our cloth bags...and will look for ChicoBag)

Don't wanna pay more for organic meat? Eat less meat.

My family had posters like this, along with the girlie pin-up posters, in the back of the butcher shop my grandfather founded. Along with a vegetable stand and grocery mart. For me, meat's a memory, but if you're still eating animal flesh, buy organic and humane-raised. And even better for your health and the earth, substitute beans, tofu, protein grains like quinoa, etc. For a good new GRIST article, click the link. http://www.grist.org/sustainable-food/2011-08-16-safe-organic-food-too-expensive-eat-less

Genetically modified crops ad claims busted

GMO marketers who pay their messages way into government offices and the media falsify "evidence" to support claims of efficiency, safety and health. This article from a journalist disputes the claims with science and sense: "So while we hear from GMO proponents about the wonders of these crops, the proof is in the fields.According to the FAO, sustainable practices have helped to “reduce crops’ water needs by 30 percent and the energy costs of production by up to 60 percent.” In one of the largest studies [PDF] of ecological farming, in 57 countries, researchers found an average yield increase of 80 percent. In East African countries, yields shot up 128 percent." Read on: http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-08-20-why-gmos-wont-save-world-nina-federoff-new-york-times

Real lives of pigs - at Play! Living natural lives - video

Watch pigs playing - intelligent and expressive animals when allows to live outside of horrific tiny metal cage-pens! More info at http://www.cok.net/blog/2011/08/hidden-lives-playful-pigs 

Turn poachers into farmers = produce food and save wildlife

The program, COMACO (Community Markets for Conservation),  began in Zambia in 2003 and has resulted in wildlife populations stabilizing and rebounding in areas once ravaged by poaching. In addition, local people – including some of the world’s poorest farmers – are now benefitting from higher crop yields and improved livelihoods....

Invention, destruction cycles reflected in art "Hall of Wonders"

New art exhibition tells stories of American invention, exploration and destruction - "Hall of Wonders" at Smithsonian American Art Museum. http://www.theurbn.com/2011/08/ecovore-gets-lost-in-a-hall-of-wonders/

World's water systems strained by growing population's food demands

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/water-systems-at-risk-from-growing-demand-for-food-expert

USDA might finally stop ignoring farm animal abuse. Might.

http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-08-17-baby-steps-usda-tiptoes-toward-fighting-animal-cruelty

Winemakers moving uphill in response to climate change

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2089383,00.html

Perry hawked pesticide interests, killed enviromental protections, as TX ag sec

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/08/19/19greenwire-presidential-candidate-perry-championed-pestic-66284.html http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/08/19/19greenwire-presidential-candidate-perry-championed-pestic-66284.html

Ellen speaks truth to power about factory farm abuse of animals

How does it affect your mnd and body to consume a once-living being who lived confined and deprived of living as God intended, and who died with terror and suffering?

Government sources underestimate value of climate change damage

http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2010/11/socialcost

Capybara Swimming in Wastewater Spotted by California Workers (08.18.11)

Plastics industry edited environmental textbook | California Watch

Plastics industry edited environmental textbook | California Watch

Windsor Chairmakers: Tradition With A Twist

ONE New England - Windsor Chairmakers: Tradition With A Twist

Elephants using tools, intelligence

US Govt buying $40 million worth of surplus chicken with tax dollars

Poor chickens abused their whole lives and died...for nothing but lining the pockets of those employed by industries propped up by tax dollars, and now getting a $40 million for overproduction. Another reason factory farms are bad: they suck up tax subsidies every year and "special" bailouts like this, further hurting the US economy and perverting markets. This is the opposition of a free market in action. It's a make work, make cruelty bondoggle. http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/16/news/economy/chicken_prices/

Blue Ridge wine pairs well with mountain views

Peaks of Otter, Bedford and hiking part of the Appalachian Trail

Human diseases spreading to wildlife, destroyed coral reefs

A new study finds that humans spread disease to wildlife, with grim results. A bacterium from our guts is now rampaging through coral reefs in the Caribbean. Those reefs were already in slow decline, but they took a huge hit starting in 1996, when a disease called white pox appeared in the Florida Keys.

Records suggest a vote for Perry = a vote for polluted water, land, air

Gov. Perry is an advocate of and has ties to large fuel and other corporations that pollute water, land and air and destroy ecosystems for profit and "jobs." He's against green-minded initiatives, saying they want jobs for sustainable ventures. The corporations aren't going to hire any more people with the extra profits that come from being excused from environmental responsibility and protections; their record shows most profits go to increasing executive salaries, bonuses and retirement packages. Which have increased exponentially, and continued increasing during economic downturns. Now for the report: http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/08/18/5816/what-expect-president-perry-environment-some-texas-sized-clues

The skinny on Pres. Clinton's vegan diet

Dr. Gupta on CNN... former President Clinton's vegan diet benefits.

The Story of Dao: documentary about captive, abused elephant

More farmers market = more jobs

Organic or natural meat farming: more jobs than industrial meat farming

http://www.grist.org/sustainable-farming/2011-08-15-grass-is-good-natural-meats-benefit-the-economy-and-family-farms

Forks Over Knives: Help for taking control of your health and life

Good interview with the producer of "Fork Over Knives," the highly acclaimed new film that critic Roger Ebert says "see it...it will save your life." http://www.cok.net/blog/2011/08/taking-five-brian-wendel-executive-producer-forks-over-knives

Overfishing, bycatch killing: waste and possible extinction

The ecological hazards of overfishing, the horrors of bycatch strangulation...well worth reading article in the Urban Times. http://www.theurbn.com/2011/08/a-global-crisis-the-scary-truth-behind-overfishing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theurbn+%28The+Urban+Times%29

The Nag Factor: How Do Children Convince Their Parents to Buy Unhealthy Foods?

The Nag Factor: How Do Children Convince Their Parents to Buy Unhealthy Foods?

Swap meat for nuts, put the kabosh on diabetes

...yet another study confirming what the truly knowledgeable, unbiased by industry sponsorship, nutritionists and researchers have long known. Replacing one serving of meat with nuts and found it resulted in a 21 percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes; replacing with whole grains reduced the risk by 23 percent; replacing with a  low-fat dairy product decreased it 17 percent percent. But remember low-fat and other dairy is linked to some  cancers and other health problems http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/swapping-nuts-for-meat-to-lower-diabetes-risk/?ref=science

What the average human looks like...and to some extent, acts like

Cool, insightful National Geographic video 

Factory farm run-off poisoning beaches, killed animals, sickened humans

The Plage de Saint-Maurice could be one of 100 pretty inlets on the north Breton coast except that, on a sunny August day, there was not a soul walking on the sand, not a single sunbather, not a single child with a bucket or spade. This summer, the beach is the symbol of an ecological calamity which has been 40 years in the making.

In the sand and mud of this narrow estuary, 38 wild animal corpses have been discovered since mid-July – a coypu, a badger and 36 wild boar. Killed by polluted seaweed that has been washing ashore along the Breton coast in great, stinking heaps since the 1970s. Only in the last few years has it been officially admitted that the proliferation of this primitive form of weed has been caused by nitrogen pouring into streams and rivers and then the sea, from the scores of intensive pig and cattle and maize farms in the heart of the Breton peninsula. In truth, the role of nitrogen pollution is not yet fully admitted. It is denied, against all the scientific evidence, by the farming industry and by the powerful French agri-pharmaceutical lobby.

How to Prevent Dog Bites - great illustrated poster

This is a great resource: a free, illustrated, easy to follow (and share) poster from Dr. Sophia Yin on How to Prevent Dog Bites. Get it here: http://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/preventing-dog-bites-by-learning-to-greet-dogs-properly?utm_campaign=LeadNurturing_How+to+Greet+a+Dog_Email1

Designing a more sensible toilet

...one that better handles both kinds of waste, uses less or no water, and is overall eco- and health-friendly for worldwide use. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/business/toilet-technology-rethought-in-a-gates-foundation-contest.html?_r=1

Chinese community protests factory pollution

Citizens speaking up even in China to protest factory pollution.

Australian farmers gate their land from frack profiteers

With government officials swayed by potential gas profit revenue, farmers have to fight to protect the health of their landing from drilling. http://www.skynews.com.au/businessnews/article.aspx?id=650024&vId=

Don't entrust food and health to Monsanto

Get the facts beyond the well-funded PR: Monsanto not only sues and closes down independent family farms, but sucks up tax dollars and is altering food/land to the detriment of our health. http://www.takepart.com/news/2011/08/10/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-monsanto

'Fracking': Did Energy Department report clear up controversy?

'Fracking': Energy Department report weighted to help industry at the expense of communities and land health? Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to release vast supplies of natural gas trapped in shale deposits can be conducted in an environmentally responsible way, a federal energy panel has concluded, but only if major steps are taken, including greater transparency by the gas-drilling industry, the close monitoring of groundwater quality, and the adoption of rigorous emissions standards.

Famous NW Pacific Salmon "run" trickling to extinction

Controlling dam and industrial/business use of the Columbia River is key to salmon and fishery survival. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/opinion/the-salmon-deserve-better.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211

To Your Health: Film makes a difference

Now on DVD - watch it, encourage schools and libraries to get it. 

Textile Museum's Green Art & Ethos Exhibition

ECOVORE visits the Textile Museum's GREEN exhibit.

Drought killing U.S. crops, depleting reservoirs: amazing but scary photos

http://lightbox.time.com/2011/08/11/picturing-the-american-drought-george-steinmetz/#1

Chimps, Apes as Guinea Pigs? Wrong on all counts

Stop Using Chimps and Apes as Guinea Pigs: New York Times http://nyti.ms/pzS64w

Farnsworth Art Museum: Wyeth Works On Loan from Japan

ONE New England - Farnsworth Art Museum: Wyeth Works On Loan from Japan

Noel Vegan exercise tips

How to know if "organic" really is?

Heavy, effective lobbying by large-scale food producers for amendments and exceptions to use of the organic label has diluted the word “organic.” This new article offers some guidance. http://www.takepart.com/news/2011/08/10/completely-somewhat-an-almost-there-o-you-know-how-organic-your-oo-is

Movie preview: The Real Horse Whisperer

As seen in the documentary "Buck," Buck Brannamen uses wisdom and empathy to work with horses, and has proved that real cowboys (all too rare) don't "break," but build bonds. He's got muscle, too. 

Mayor Bloomberg sets example for billionaires making a difference with their dollars

http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update99 Thumps up for a great mayor, philanthropist, person and billionaire.

Meatless Monday hospital hosts community markets

'Meatless Monday' Means Loyola Gottlieb Hospital Walks The Talk and it hosts community markets to share the health-wealth.

Sierra Club efforts helping more than nature-lovers

Check out what Sierra Club is doing, and find background on how to stop the weakening of protections that reduce air, water and soil pollution.

Putting a dollar value on nature, ecosystems to try to sustain them

A new article on efforts to quantify the value of nature's services to humans, which could help persuade govt and business decision-makers to slow ecosystem destruction: in today's New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/science/09profile.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210 And for more enlightenment and fascinating anecdotes about the function, degradation, and the future of ecosystems and their animals and plants (plus adventures in nature), read "The Fate of Nature" by Charles Wohlforth http://www.fateofnature.com/

Back to School: Student Tips for Anxiety, Perfectionism and Worry

Back to School: Student Tips for Anxiety, Perfectionism and Worry

Cheese: not sustainable...some kinds worse than others

Cheese not eco...cheese subsidizes and promotion via USDA...read here: http://www.grist.org/sustainable-food/2011-08-08-is-your-cheese-killing-the-planet

Justice: What's Right? Take the Harvard course for free

http://www.justiceharvard.org/watch/

Citizen vs Consumer

Citizens or Consumers? from Jeffrey Abelson on Vimeo.

Hubway Bikeshare debuts in Boston