I visited Hidcote Manor Gardens in Warwickshire earlier today. They have several honey bee hives and a notice board claiming three different reasons for the decline in honey bee colonies across the UK. “The number of honey bee colonies in the UK has halved in recent years. This is probably due to: 1. The use […]
Tag Archives | Pesticides & Other Chemicals
Great Barrier Reef ‘Research’ – A Litany of False Claims
WE may live in the information age, but how true are many of the scientific claims we read and hear? For ten years the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, has been campaigning to ‘Save the Great Barrier Reef’. [1,2,3] When the WWF campaign was first launched in June 2001 it was claimed Diuron was […]
Which Pesticides Should be Banned?
NICK Heath is worried about the future of the Great Barrier Reef. He has a Bachelor of Commerce and after ten years in business and consulting, moved into political and policy advice for government. He’s now the national program leader for water at WWF-Australia. He’s been spearheading the ongoing WWF campaign to ‘Save the Great […]
Environmental Elements that Cause Illness: A Note from Krista Peterson
Pesticides, plastics, and VOCs are some of the numerous chemicals that come to mind when we think about pollutants. However, not all substances that can contaminate our air and water are manmade. Many materials found in nature can become pollutants if we misuse them. (more…)
Clean-up Just Stirs Up
The green-forced “clean-up” by General Electric of PCBs in Hudson River sediments has — to no one’s surprise — backfired. Read more here.
Burning China’s Trash
After surpassing the United States as the world’s largest producer of household garbage, China has embarked on a vast program to build incinerators as landfills run out of space. But these incinerators have become a growing source of toxic emissions, from dioxin to mercury, that can damage the body’s nervous system. Read more here. And […]
Keeping Carbon Dioxide in the Soda – or Not
YESTERDAY the US President, Barrack Obama, urged action to curb “dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink”. If you consider carbon dioxide a “dangerous contaminate” and want to get rid of the carbon dioxide in say the soda, before you drink it, then shake the bottle first. Fizzing allows dissolved carbon dioxide gas […]
Pesticide Ban to ‘Wipe Out’ Carrot Crop
DESPITE intense opposition from farmer groups and scientists, the European Parliament voted last week to approve new regulations that could ultimately outlaw up to one-quarter of the pesticides on the European market. Read more here. [Subscription only.]
European Union to Ban Lots of Pesticides
The European Union (EU) is developing a new ‘Thematic Strategy for Pesticides’ including a proposed new ‘Sustainable Use Directive’. According to the UK’s Pesticide Safety Directorate the new regulation could outlaw up to 85 percent of pesticides currently used by farmers and render conventional agriculture as it is currently practised unachievable. Professor Sir Colin Berry, […]
Lead Poisoning in Australian Children
ELEVEN per cent of Mount Isa children have lead poisoning, a Queensland Health study has confirmed. The results, released today in Mt Isa, confirm stories in The Australian in recent weeks and years. The study shows that of 400 children aged one to four in the mining town, 45 had blood levels higher than 10 […]
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.