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Tag: Climate Change

PCBs Poison America’s Teachers & Students, But EPA & Monsanto Won’t Take Responsibility

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

A toxic chemical that used to be prevalent in construction materials may still be hiding in the walls of thousands of American schools, and experts believe the EPA is doing too little to prevent it from poisoning a new generation of children.

Polychlorinated biphenyls, a family of chemicals better known as PCBs, were commonly used in building materials until 1979, when they were finally banned due to the threat they pose to human health.

But the damage had already been done, according to Al Letson, the host of the Reveal podcast.

Aquatic ‘First Responders’ Form Mosquito Fleet To Halt Climate Change & Shell Oil

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

After years of marches and land-based blockades, environmental activists are now taking to the seas to stop the growth of the fossil fuel industry and protest the environmental threats facing them.

Inspired by actions last year against Shell Oil Co.’s plans to drill in the Arctic Circle, which included a kayak-based blockade, activists in the Pacific Northwest are forming a new “Mosquito Fleet” — a swarm of tiny boats that they hope will have a big impact by acting together.

Lois Canright, a fleet member who recently completed her first action, told MintPress News, “To me, the most important thing that I can do for me and everyone on this planet is to try and lower emissions down and to try to throw some wrenches into the fossil fuel infrastructure, especially because they’re trying to expand it in our region.”

The fleet took to the waters earlier this month, joining an effort by Break Free PNW to halt traffic from major fossil fuel export terminals operated by Shell Oil and Tesoro, another fossil fuel giant, at March Point in Anacortes, Washington, on the Puget Sound in the Salish Sea.

Teflon Pollutes The World: Deadly Chemical Spreads Into Global Water Supplies

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Earlier this month, climate and health activists from West Virginia and Ohio met with their Dutch counterparts to discuss the pollution caused by a chemical that was once a key ingredient in the non-stick coating Teflon.

Members of Keep Your Promises, DuPont, a group targeting contamination caused by PFOA, also known as C-8, in the United States, traveled to Dordrecht, Holland, to compare notes on this toxic chemical once dumped from a factory there. That factory, once owned by DuPont, was sold to Chemours, a spinoff company, last year.

PFOA has become so ubiquitous in water and food supplies that 98 percent of the U.S. population has trace amounts in their bloodstream, but amounts rise dramatically for factory workers and even residents who live in proximity to factories where PFOA was produced.

Chomsky: Mainstream Media Owned By Those Who Would Destroy Civilization With War

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

During an interview published last month, noted scholar, linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky spoke out against the corporate-controlled media.

Six multinational corporations control most of the mainstream media outlets in America, and Chomsky is perhaps one of the best-known media analysts to criticize the deleterious effect this has on democracy and freedom of speech.

“The Mainstream Media are an ideological instrument. They have owners,” he said in the video recorded at a Nov. 17 panel on Germany’s role in world affairs, hosted by independent media outlet acTVism Munich.

Chomsky was responding to a question from Zain Raza, senior editor of acTVism, who asked why protests and other forms of activism are attacked by the media. As an example, he cited the frequent protests in Munich against NATO and the U.S. drone bombing program, which operates out of Ramstein Air Base, one of dozens of U.S. military bases in Germany.

After Bottling Michigan’s Clean Water, Nestle Comes Under Fire For Ties To Snyder Admin

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

As celebrities, corporations and citizens alike donates thousands of gallons of bottled water to the lead-poisoned residents of Flint, Michigan, Nestle, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of bottled water, has come under fire for its ties to the state’s water woes.

The global food and drink giant teamed up with Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi to deliver up to 6.5 million bottles of water to 10,000 school students in Flint. Celebrities including Madonna and Jimmy Fallon have pledged tens of thousands of dollars toward relief efforts.

Although Nestle controls over 70 bottled water brands, some local activists are pushing back against the company’s involvement in relief efforts. On Sunday, New Era Detroit published a warning: “On the behalf of New Era Detroit we ask that you not purchase Nestle’s or Ice Mountain bottle (sic) water which is owned by Nestle.”

Local Doctor Tried To Warn About Flint Water Crisis In August

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Though widespread outcry has only recently erupted over the people of Flint, Michigan, being poisoned by lead in the city’s tap water, activists and local medical experts had been sounding the alarm about the issue well before it became a national headline. Lead poisoning leads to irreparable brain damage and may be linked to a recent outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease.

Gov. Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency earlier this month amid widespread demands for his resignation after it became apparent that the people of Flint have been drinking lead-contaminated water for two years.

Flint’s water crisis stretches back to April 2014, when Darnell Earley, the city’s state-appointed emergency manager, switched Flint’s water supply to the polluted and corrosive Flint River. In January 2015, the city warned 100,000 residents that their water may contain toxic levels of trihalomethanes, or THMs, a byproduct of chlorination that has been linked to cancer, kidney and liver failure, and birth defects.

Residents had been getting sick for months prior to that warning, according to an April 2015 report from Laura Gottesdiener. Writing for Al-Jazeera America, Gottesdiener relayed the experiences of one Flint family: