Environment

Scott Walker and Ted Kaczynski in the Heartland

by Brendan Fischer — June 11, 2012 - 8:56am

-- By Brendan Fischer and Will Dooling

Now that he has survived a historic recall battle, what is next on Governor Scott Walker's agenda?

On August 9 of this year, Walker will be the keynote speaker at a benefit dinner for the Illinois-based Heartland Institute, a group that has recently come under fire for a billboard campaign linking those concerned about global warming to "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, serial killer Charles Manson, and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Heartland, a longtime member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has made climate change denial an increasingly large part of its policy platform over the last decade.

News

Walker Appointees Soften the Blow for Polluter -- Again

by Sara Jerving — May 31, 2012 - 2:00pm

Topics: Environment, Health

In the midst of a scandal over allowing a corporation to skirt punishment for records showing it dumped large amounts of human sewage sludge on land, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has now refused to require the corporation, Herr Environmental, to test for contamination of nearby wells.

Op-Ed

ALEC Slips Exxon Fracking Loopholes into New Ohio Law

by PRW Staff — May 31, 2012 - 10:32am

Topics: Energy, Environment

This piece was first published by Connor Gibson at GreenPeace and is being cross-posted by the Center for Media and Democracy.

Wake up and smell the frack fluid! But don't ask what's in it, at least not in Ohio, cause it's still not your right to know.

Ohio is in the final stages of making an Exxon trojan horse on hydrofracking into state law, and it appears that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) connected Exxon's lawyers with co-sponsors of Ohio Senate Bill 315: at least 33 of the 45 Ohio legislators who co-sponsored SB 315 are ALEC members, and language from portions of the state Senate bill is similar to ALEC's "Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act."

...disclosure of fracking fluids? On behalf of ExxonMobil?!

Guest Contributor

How the US Sold Africa to Multinationals like Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont, PepsiCo and Others

by Jill Richardson — May 25, 2012 - 7:30am

Topics: Agriculture, Genetic Engineering, Corporations

Projects: Food Rights Network

This story was first published by Alternet and is being cross-posted by the Center for Media and Democracy's Food Rights Network.

Driving through Ngong Hills, not far from Nairobi, Kenya, the corn on one side of the road is stunted and diseased. The farmer will not harvest a crop this year. On the other side of the road, the farmer gave up growing corn and erected a greenhouse, probably for growing a high-value crop like tomatoes. Though it's an expensive investment, agriculture consultants now recommend them. Just up the road, at a home run by Kenya Children of Hope, an organization that helps rehabilitate street children and reunite them with their families, one finds another failed corn crop and another greenhouse. The director, Charity, is frustrated because the two acres must feed the rescued children and earn money for the organization. After two tomato crops failed in the new greenhouse, her consultant recommended using a banned, toxic pesticide called carbofuran.

News

Media Coverage of Mad Cow: USDA Calls "Misleading," Columbia Journalism Review Calls "Sane"

by Rebekah Wilce — May 14, 2012 - 9:21am

Topics: Mad Cow Disease, Food Safety, Journalism

Projects: Food Rights Network

A downer cow at a California dairy was recently found to be infected with an "atypical" strain of "bovine spongiform encephalopathy" (BSE), or "mad cow" disease. There has been some significant media coverage of the case, and the USDA wants the media to know they are not pleased.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) press secretary, Courtney Rowe, issued a memo saying there were an, "unfortunate amount of misleading articles meant for our public."

Press Release

Syngenta Hired Guns Attack New Documentary

by PRW Staff — May 11, 2012 - 1:37pm

Topics: Agriculture, Corporations, Public Relations

Projects: Atrazine Exposed

For Immediate Release:

May 11, 2012

Contact: Paul Towers, Pesticide Action Network, 916-216-1082

Syngenta Hired Guns Attack New Documentary

PR firm and paid spokespeople mount aggressive response to new film "Last Call at the Oasis"

San Francisco, CA -- As a new film highlights water contamination throughout the U.S. Midwest from Syngenta's flagship herbicide atrazine, the world's largest pesticide company has mounted a PR counter-attack downplaying the human and environmental health risks of a chemical linked to birth defects, low birth weight and certain cancers. Atrazine was banned in the EU in 2003, leaving the U.S. market as one of Syngenta's most profitable and vigorously guarded markets.

News

Walker's Dept. of Natural Resources Fails to Prosecute Polluters

by Sara Jerving — May 9, 2012 - 11:02am

Topics: Environment

Projects: Wisconsin Protests

Attempts to make Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) more business-friendly by Governor Scott Walker's administration, has landed the agency in a scandal over the handling of the discipline of a suspected polluter. The Wisconsin State Journal broke a story May 6 that exposed a decision by Walker appointee DNR Executive Assistant Scott Gunderson to handle a complaint internally against Herr Environmental Inc., a waste hauler, rather than send the complaint to the Attorney General for prosecution, helping the company skirt what could have been a much heftier punishment. Wisconsin Rep. Joel Kleefisch was also implicated in the effort to get the polluters off the hook.

News

Syngenta Celebrates Earth Day by Ladling on the Pesticides

by Rebekah Wilce — May 7, 2012 - 7:35am

Topics: Agriculture, Corporations, Science

Projects: Atrazine Exposed

Herbicide manufacturer Syngenta had an interesting way of celebrating Earth Day this year, touting the joys of pesticides.

The multinational conglomerate sent out a press release during the approach to Earth Day exclaiming that "modern farming is grounds for Earth Day celebration" because, it continues, "conservation tillage and no-till farming are responsible for significant environmental benefits often overlooked by Earth Day observers." These "no-till" farming techniques, which reduce erosion and fuel use, depend "on the ability to control weeds, demonstrating the importance of the 50-year-old herbicide atrazine."

Guest Contributor

America's Mad Cow Crisis

by John Stauber — April 27, 2012 - 10:31am

Topics: Mad Cow Disease

Projects: Food Rights Network

Americans might remember that when the first mad cow was confirmed in the United States in December, 2003, it was major news. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had been petitioned for years by lawyers from farm and consumer groups I worked with to stop the cannibal feeding practices that transmit this horrible, always fatal, human and animal dementia. When the first cow was found in Washington state, the government said it would stop such feeding, and the media went away. But once the cameras were off and the reporters were gone nothing substantial changed.

News

ALEC’s Vision of Pre-Empting EPA Coal Ash Regs Passes the House

by Sara Jerving — April 23, 2012 - 8:21am

Topics: Corporations, Environment

Projects: ALEC Exposed

The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment on April 18 to the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012 (HR 4348) that would effectively pre-empt the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating coal ash, the waste from coal burning plants, as a hazardous waste. About 140 million tons of coal ash are produced by power plants in the United States each year. There are about 1,000 active coal ash storage sites across the country.

According to the EPA, the ash contains concentrations of arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and other metals, but the coal industry has claimed there is less mercury in the ash than in a fluorescent light bulb. However, the EPA found in 2010 that the cancer risk from arsenic near some unlined coal ash ponds was one in 50 -- 2,000 times the agency's regulatory goal. Additionally, researchers from the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, and Sierra Club have documented water contamination from coal ash sites in 186 locations. The new bill would strip the EPA's authority to regulate the ash and hand it over to the states.