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Archive for the 'Long Live Planet Earth!' Category

Edible Protein Packaging: Good For The Environment

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 19th September 2016

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Good Monday Morning!

From Think Progress:

The USDA Is Working On A New Type Of Sustainable Food Packaging

The good news is you can eat it.

Screen Shot 2016-09-18 at 10.22.09 PM

Think about the food you have sitting in your refrigerator right now: the blocks of cheese, the packages of apples, the cartons of eggs. Chances are that more than a few of those items are wrapped in plastic, and while some of those materials are recyclable, certain kinds of plastic food packaging — the thin film of plastic used to wrap cheeses or meats, for example— can’t be. That creates a stream of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable, fossil fuel-sourced waste that ultimately ends up adding to the 20 million tons of plastic waste floating around the ocean, not to mention landfills. What’s worse, that type of plastic wrapping doesn’t actually help keep food from spoiling, and might actually imbue food with harmful chemicals.

Luckily, researchers from the USDA have devised a different way to package things like meat, bread, and cheese. Instead of using plastic, they’ve developed an edible, biodegradable packaging film made of casein — a milk protein — that can be wrapped around food to prevent spoilage.

The United States produces a lot of milk, but milk consumption has been on the decline for years. So the USDA has been working for decades to find a way to take that excess milk — usually stored in powder form — and create something usable with it. Laetitia Bonnaillie, the principal investigator on the project, told ThinkProgress that the USDA has been working on creating food packaging from leftover milk products for decades. But it was only in the last few years that researchers cracked the code for making casein-based films competitive with plastic-films.

The biggest problem researchers faced with casein-based films, Bonnaillie explained, is that casein is extremely sensitive to water — a serious problem when you’re trying to create a product that is supposed to keep food sealed and dry.

“They are proteins, which love water, and they soak up moisture in the air,” Bonnaillie said. So the team at USDA decided to try adding pectin to the mixture, which Bonnaillie said acts like “a fishnet around the casein particles, to hold them in place.”

Adding pectin to the casein mixture created a film that, while still more sensitive to moisture than plastic, did not immediately dissolve in water or areas with humidity. Moreover, the casein-based film was actually more effective at blocking oxygen than plastic — 250 times more effective, according to Bonnaillie’s measurements. That keeps food from oxidizing and going stale, and also slows down the growth of bacteria.

“Number one product you want is a strong film because if it is too fragile there is no packaging you can make. But you also want it to be a good packaging, and be a good barrier against oxygen and moisture,” Bonnaillie said. “These are qualities that plastic is not good at. It does not block oxygen or light very well.”

There are still some issues associated with the casein-based packaging. Because it is moisture sensitive — and because one of the selling-points is that it is edible — the packaging can’t be used alone on store shelves, yet. In order to keep the packaging both stale and sanitary, Bonnaillie explained that the packaging would need to be used in conjunction with another, secondary layer of packaging. And while that might seem like it would just create more waste, Bonnaillie said that many products already use two layers of packaging —the plastic bag inside of a paper box, for instance. Bonnaillie also suggested that the casein-film could be used to make single-serving packaging for items like a soup or coffee, that, when dropped into hot water, would dissolve completely. The added benefit, she said, would be that the casein-film, when dissolved, would add protein to the food, making it more nutritious.

And it’s not just protein that could be added by the casein-film.

“Proteins are very good at encapsulating materials, so you could add other nutrients to it,” Bonnaillie said. Things like probiotics, or vitamins, could be added to the casein-packaging, creating a kind of single-serving coffee packet that, when dropped in hot water, would give you coffee with a side of probiotics — without all of the plastic.

Beyond food packaging, Bonnaillie said that the casein-based film could be sprayed directly onto food — or directly onto packaging — to create a moisture resistant barrier or add nutrients. Bonnaillie explained that, in tests, cereal flakes sprayed with the casein protein retained their crunch and were much stronger than cereal flakes sprayed with sugar, which is the traditional method producers use to make sure that cereal flakes don’t immediately turn soggy upon contact with milk. If nutrients were added to the casein before it was sprayed on the cereal, then Bonnaillie argued that it would be a more effective, and much healthier alternative to spraying with sugar.

Screen Shot 2016-09-18 at 10.28.38 PM

Bonnaillie also said that her team has tested spraying the protein on pizza boxes as a grease repellent. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the use of perfluorinated chemicals as lining in pizza boxes, due to concerns over potential toxicity — Bonnaillie suggested that manufactures could use the casein-protein in its place.

Though the technology is still in its early stages, Bonnaillie said that, with the right industry partners, consumers could see packaging on the shelves in as little as a year. And while the cost of the material will almost certainly, at least at first, be higher than traditional plastic packaging, Bonnaillie hopes that both companies and consumers will see the benefit in packaging that is both more eco-friendly and potentially healthier.

“The consumer is more and more interested in saving the environment while also optimizing their nutrition,” she said. “There is definitely interest in this.”

🍅🌽🍉

Readers: What do you think? Progress? Good for the environment?

Blog me.

Happy Monday! Peace & Love

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

me

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Posted in Health & Well Being, I'll drink to that! Let's eat!, Long Live Planet Earth! | 14 Comments »

Young Inventor Finds A Solution For Ocean Garbage Patches

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 30th June 2016

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Good Morning!

I love when I discover someone who is doing something wonderful for the environment. As I’ve said before, we count on our environment to sustain our lives. If we don’t take care if it, we will for sure perish, and so will the plant and animal life, but Earth will continue to live on in whatever manner it is left in.

I so want us to take care of our Mother Earth so that we and all of the other life can continue to live and prosper on this beautiful rock that we reside on.

A write from ThinkProgress:

This 21-Year-Old May Have Found The Way To Clean Up The Plastic In Our Oceans

photo_0161791625nphbap-1024x538Boyan Slat wants to start the largest ocean clean up ever with the help of nets and ocean currents. He began testing his prototype this month.

Boyan Slat was just 16 when he realized he wanted to rid the oceans of plastic. It all happened after he dove into the problem in the most literal way while snorkeling in Greece and finding more drifting plastic than fish swimming.

“I thought, that’s a real problem. How can we come up with a solution for that?” Slat recalled during an interview with ThinkProgress.

Indeed, the problem is real and large. Around eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year, according to a 2015 study. In addition, recent research found so-called garbage patches in every major ocean. Plastic is so pervasive that it’s been found in sea ice, and also inside 50 percent of all species of seabirds, 66 percent of all species of marine mammals, and all species of sea turtles.

Once back in his native Netherlands, Slat delved into the topic as people told him that cleaning up the ocean was impossible. Still, Slat, a young inventor who by then already held the world record for most high-pressure rockets simultaneously launched, persisted until he found what he was looking for.

“I saw this animation where they used computer models to show that plastic actually moves” through ocean currents, Slat, now 21, said. “And then I thought, why should you move through the ocean if the ocean can move through you.”

Slat, chief executive officer of The Ocean Clean Up, has taken his eureka moment and turned it into a collection system based on floating barriers attached to the sea bed that use the ocean’s energy to gather plastic waste. After obtaining over $2 million through crowdfunding and more from Dutch government financing, Slat unveiled the first prototype last week in the North Sea, just off the coast of Netherlands.

prototype_on_water-816x544

Less than a mile in length, this prototype is but 10 percent the size of the actual system Slat wants to build to conduct what he describes as “the largest clean-up in history” on a large mass of marine debris floating in the Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The prototype will be in the North Sea for a year as the foundation tests if the system can withstand corrosion, storms, and more in the open sea.

“The question that we are trying to answer with this prototype is: can we build a floating barrier which is able to survive at sea for years,” said Slat. In the next twelve months, sensors will track the prototype’s every move and gather data to inform the development of the larger system. The North Sea’s minor storms are actually worse than the most powerful storms in the Pacific Ocean, Slat said. “It’s pretty safe to say that if it survives here it will survive anywhere, and certainly in the [area] of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch where we intend to deploy it.”

The Ocean Cleanup’s cleaning technology uses long floating barriers creating a v-shaped artificial coastline that catches ocean debris in its center. There, a solar-powered hydraulic pump and conveyor system scoop up waste that boats then collect and take to landfills or recycling centers. This suggests a massive logistical effort depending on how far from shore the system is placed, and the sorting of trash or other bycatch that would follow. Right now however, testing the floating barriers is crucial, so for the next year, they are focusing solely on the barrier. Therefore, plastic collection is unlikely. But “if that goes well we should be ready to deploy the first operational pilot system late next year, and that should put us on track to start the largest clean up in history by 2020,” Slat said.

Slat’s plan has received some criticism, however. One worry is that the barriers will cause too much bycatch — where marine life gets accidentally caught and dies, normally in fishing nets — though the foundation’s preliminary impact statement study found a low risk of that happening. “There shouldn’t be any impact because the barrier is 1.5 meters deep (roughly 4 feet),” Slat said. “It’s really small when compared to the Pacific Ocean, and the current flows underneath it.” Still, he said this test is part of making sure the system is safe. “We are not only testing the technology,” Slat said.

Chelsea M. Rochman, a marine ecologist at the University of Toronto who’s studied the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, welcomed the clean up plan, though she favors preventing plastic from reaching the sea in the first place. “I personally think that preventing it before it goes into the ocean … is better than placing something that large in the middle of the ocean where it’s very hard to monitor,” she said. “Putting things like what he’s doing at the mouth of a river may also be more effective.”

One example of a comparable system placed in a river is Baltimore’s inner harbor water wheel, also known as Mr. Trash Wheel. This device uses the Jones Falls River current to turn a water wheel which picks up debris into a dumpster barge. When the current is weak, a solar panel is in place to provide the necessary power. Since 2014, the cartoon-looking Mr. Trash Wheel has collected 420 tons of trash, including hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles, polystyrene containers, plastic bags, and million of cigarette butts, according to the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore.

mr_trash_wheel-816x544

The Inner Harbor Water Wheel, or “Mr. Trash Wheel” to locals, combines old and new technology to harness the power of water and sunlight to collect litter and debris flowing down the Jones Falls River.

But whether the plastic collection happens in rivers or oceans, Rochman said solving ubiquitous plastic pollution requires “people like Boyan, who are doing it on their own.” At the same time, she said, more top-down solution like the federal ban on microbeads approved in December or plastic bag bans need to happen. Furthermore, developed countries have to help emerging countries in creating better waste management, she said, since emerging nations are increasingly contributing to plastic pollution. In fact, more than half of all plastic reaching the oceans comes from China, Indonesia, the Philipines, Thailand, and Vietnam, according to the Ocean Conservancy.

“I don’t think there is one solution to plastic debris, I really don’t,” said Rochman. “I think it’s like hundreds of little things and the more that we have that are out there and that are highlighted, I think the greater chance that we have.”

*****

Readers: This is so cool. This young man, Slat, has come up with a wonderful idea, and it seems like it is going to work. So I’m excited that in spite of people telling him it was impossible, he held his vision and persisted. As much as I agree with Chelsea M. Rochman, we need to prevent plastic from reaching the sea in the first place, the fact is right now, we have seas full of plastic, and something needed to happen to rid our oceans of the debris that is harming the wildlife.

The fact that Slat, got two million in crowdfunding just tells you how many people are concerned about our oceans and want to do something about it. It took Slat’s epiphany and vision to see it through. I applaud him. I’m excited to see this come to fruition. The fact that plastic has been found in sea ice, and also inside 50 percent of all species of seabirds, 66 percent of all species of marine mammals, and all species of sea turtles, is just heartbreaking. I can’t imagine that his invention would leave the sea life in a worse state than they are now. Let’s hope that it’s safe for our underwater friends, and this year of testing will confirm that.

Thoughts?

Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

me

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Posted in Health & Well Being, Long Live Planet Earth!, Travel | 22 Comments »

Vantablack: The blackest material on Earth

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 25th June 2016

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Good Morning!

For you science freaks, this is cool.

From Science Alert:

vantablackss_1024

WATCH: The blackest material on Earth can make dense metal float

One of the very first things you’ll learn in science class is that if something is denser than water, it sinks. A rock or a hunk of metal is denser than water, so no surprises what happens when you chuck one of those into a pond, but styrofoam is less dense than water, so it floats. Strangely enough, crude oil is slightly less dense than salt water, so that’s why it floats on the surface of the ocean.

Now that we’ve established the rules, let’s break them, using the coolest material ever – Vantablack, the blackest material on Earth.

In the video above, scientists from Surrey Nanosystems – the British company that invented Vantablack back in 2014 - demonstrate how the material is somehow able to make an aluminium disk float in a tub of water.

As you can see in the footage, both the aluminium and the water aren’t particularly happy about the situation, because the water is doing everything it can to bulge up and over the aluminium, but the incredibly hydrophobic Vantablack coating keeps repelling it away.

When the aluminium is dunked and retrieved from the water, it’s completely dry.

So what the hell is this physics-breaking substance? It might look like it, but Vantablack isn’t a paint, pigment, or fabric – it’s a special coating made from millions of carbon nanotubes, each one measuring around 20 namometres by 14 to 50 microns (1 nanometre equals 0.001 microns).

According to Surrey Nanosystems, a surface area of just 1 cm squared would contain around 1,000 million of these nanotubes.

When it was first unveiled back in 2014 as the blackest material ever produced, it could absorb all but 0.035 percent of visible light, making it borderline invisible to our eyes. In March, the team managed to make it even more black, and claimed that no spectrometer in the world is powerful enough to measure how much light it absorbs.

The reason Vantablack can render a dense aluminium disk buoyant is because, not only is it incredibly black, it also has ultra-low surface energy. As the video above explains, the coating’s low surface energy combined with the area of the disk helps to give it positive buoyancy. So cool.

To see more of this crazy stuff in action, here’s the newest iteration of the immeasurably black Vantablack:

!!!!!

Pretty cool huh? What’s on your mind this morning?

Blog me. 

Thanks for being here with me!

Erica: It is one of the reasons why I am so pro Hillary. Sympathy only gets you so far, and as we women have seen and experienced, it doesn’t take us far enough. Men will never be able to empathize with us women. Only a woman can do that. It’s time we women ban together and as you say, “…vote the male misogynistic bastards out.” I’m with ya.

George/WP: You know I don’t hate men. I hate the things they do. You’ve been here long enough – you should know that by now. For once I agree with you and plan to do that. Just watch me.

DSCC: Nicely stated. I too cannot stress enough that Hillary needs those coattails…long and flowing. It’s up to us to get off of our lazy asses and give them to her. I HOPE America gets it.

Social Butterfly: Thanks for posting, Loved it. If so many are for gun control laws, and we know the majority are, we/they need to speak out and call Congress. There is no more sitting through silence and wishing things would change. We the people have to demand change.

Wayne: Thank you for posting this. It is just so sickening to me. I signed the petition from MoveOn. I encourage everyone else to sign as well.

Helen: My pleasure. I thought of getting a Samsung but decided to go with the iphone for convenience since I have a mac. The camera on the Samsung is such a better quality than the iphone 5s. I hope you’re enjoying it.

Right on, MoveOn.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

me

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Posted in After Dark, Good Reads and Good See'ds, Long Live Planet Earth! | 9 Comments »

State Of Emergency In The Peruvian Amazon

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 6th June 2016

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Good Monday morning!

From Think Progress:

Gold Mining Has Devastated The Peruvian Amazon

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Aerial view taken from a police helicopter shows a jungle devastated by gold mining in an area known as La Pampa in Peru’s Madre de Dios region. Illegal wildcat mining has been ravaging pristine jungle and contaminating it with tons of mercury.

When Meraldo Umiña moved to the Madre De Dios region of Peru in 1983, the toxic gold rush that’s destroyed swaths of Amazon rainforest there was in its infancy. There were no laws regulating informal or illegal mining, and artisanal miners like him were few.

“Gold was cheap,” Umiña, 59, told ThinkProgress in Spanish — “a gram was about $12.” Using simple but still harmful chemical methods, miners worked just by the rivers then, and the gold was easy to get, he said. There was no need to encroach on the jungle, and no financial incentive to use machine-intensive techniques of extraction.

But as the 1980s waned and the 1990s rolled in, the Peruvian economy that had been in shambles improved as insurgency groups were defeated, and corrective macroeconomics took hold. Foreign markets turned their eyes on Peru. The price of gold gradually increased, Umiña said, and people from other areas of the country soon saw the same opportunity he had discovered years before and migrated to Madre de Dios. “People started to invade the lands of established residents,” he said, and “it was hard to control the labor.”

Yet land disputes were just the first bump that mining brought to the least populous department of Peru. Alluvial mining, in which small gold flecks are sifted out of sandy sediments deposited by runoff from the Andes over centuries, has now also caused a wide range of environmental harms that have reached catastrophic levels in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. Most miners in Madre de Dios use liquid mercury to extract gold from soils they explore with suction hoses, and during the purifying process, the mercury is burned off and at best recovered in water if miners have the equipment available. Mercury pollution contaminates soil, water, and air — and when it enters the human body, it can harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and immune system.

Now some four decades after mining moved into Madre de Dios, rivers are polluted, fish are toxic, people have elevated levels of mercury running through their blood, and deforestation is rampant, according to authorities and studies. Between 1999 to 2012, illegal mining in Madre de Dios went from less than 25,000 acres to more than 123,000. For perspective, one acre is roughly the size of a football field, which means large forests that served as biodiverse carbon sinks are instead greenhouse gas emitters thanks to mining machinery, all while soaking up toxic waste.

All reached for this story agree that a state of emergency issued last week for Madre de Dios is unlikely to alleviate a problem that’s been years in the making. The country is also poised for presidential elections in less than a week, and experts said any emergency plan will suffer from the uncertain policies of a new administration. Experts also agree that balancing the livelihood of informal miners versus the pressing need to end illegal mining will be a lengthy, cumbersome process as regional and national agendas often conflict with each other.

“The outlook is quite grim, and this probably won’t change in many years,” Gisselle Vila, social scientist and professor at the Catholic University of Peru, told ThinkProgress.

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This aerial photo shows a deforested area known as La Pampa, in Peru’s Madre de Dios region

Environmental degradation has been a problem in the Amazon for decades. But whereas before deforestation stemmed from poor subsistence farmers, now industrial activities like oil extraction and mining are playing a larger role in the world’s biggest rainforest. Attention on the topic has intensified in recent times in every Amazonian country facing the long-lasting effects of chemical pollution, particularly after the collapse of two dams in Brazil tainted the ecology of two states and caused the largest environmental disaster in Brazilian history.

For its part, Peru has been dealing with series of oil spills — most recently in the north of the Amazon — while in the south it’s tried to stifle illegal mining to no avail. In fact, mining pollution has become so severe that last week Peru declared a 60-day emergency to curtail mercury poisoning from illegal gold mining. “Forty-one percent of the population of Madre de Dios is exposed to mercury pollution,” Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal said when announcing the move, Reuters reported. The government said it will give uncontaminated fish to residents, set up mobile health clinics and monitoring centers, and implement educational campaigns. There are also talks to start a massive reforestation plan, though all reached for this story doubt the emergency plan because of the presidential elections. President Ollanta Humala will leave office on July 28.

Like many administrations before, the incoming president will inherit thousands of informal miners like Umiña who may have lawfully leased lands but nonetheless live in a legal limbo since laws were introduced in 2002. Moreover, thousands of uncounted illegal miners live off protected wildlife areas, or pay natives to exploit ancestral lands like those that exist in Madre de Dios. Thus far, efforts to formalize procedures have failed and policing hasn’t fared much better. In February, more than 1,000 police and soldiers raided camps and dynamited and dismantled mining machinery valued at $3 million, the Associated Press reported. That raid came on the heels of many others, but Umiña, vice president of the Peruvian National Society Of Small Scale Mining (SONAMIPE), said illegal miners often know of the raids ahead of time and simply return to the camps once officials leave.

Illegal miners “have methods of communications, they have Internet, they have cell towers. As soon as police are leaving for the camps they know and prepare,” Umiña said. “We believe there is terrible corruption when it comes to policing.”

Formalizing miners has proved a daunting task plagued with bureaucratic hurdles since the idea was introduced almost three administrations ago. Part of the problem is that the government has used a uniform policy for all artisanal mining, experts said, when in fact, mining in Peru is different depending on the region. In the highlands mining mostly happens underground whereas in the rainforest it happens outdoors. As a result, the one-size-fits-all standard creates confusion or permitting tools simply don’t exist. For instance, getting a permit for tree logging is a requirement prior to mining, but Umiña said no agency gives out that permit. “The state doesn’t have the will to say who will authorize the land,” he said.

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Hundreds of police officers gather for the second day of an operation to eradicate illegal mining in the area known as La Pampa, in Peru’s Madre de Dios region in Aug. 2015.

Experts and activists reached agreed with Umiña. “There was no will,” Franco Arista, gold program manager for the nonprofit Solidaridad, told ThinkProgress in Spanish. He said about 70,000 artisanal miners have tried to formalize across Peru, but only 2,000 miners from the highland have succeeded. “None of those are in Madre de Dios,” he said.

Some studies suggest that at least 90 percent of gold mining in Madre de Dios is either illegal or informal, and note that dangerous mining practices now threaten other parts of Peru as the price of gold is generally on the rise. Through May, gold was over $1,200 per ounce. On a good day, a mining team of about 10 people in Madre de Dios can get about 45 grams (just over an ounce and a half). Some 87 percent of Peruvian gold goes to Switzerland and Canada, while the rest goes to the United States and Italy.

While much-needed revenue is moving into areas that would otherwise profit from agriculture, tourism and fishing, mining is bringing an added harm that’s making conservation and even public health more complicated. That’s because sustainable mining is difficult to achieve. On top of that, mercury is intertwined with gold mining, yet often miners mishandle the substance or simply disregard proper practices. Important “soils are being washed to extract gold,” said Arista. “Mining there needs extensive technical assistance.”

In the past 20 years, more than 3,000 tons of mercury have been dumped into Amazonian rivers, according to the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law. Moreover, some 78 percent in Madre de Dios, a region of more than 100,000 people, have elevated levels of mercury. Some natives even reportedly go over the safety levels by a factor of six.

Peru, the top gold-producing country in Latin America, has been unable to placate this mounting problem for multiple reasons, including business pressure. “In Peru, people can mine almost anywhere they want,” said Lenin Valencia, researcher at the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law. In part, the corporate mining lobby has pushed against laws that could hamper them while national politics have traditionally favor business and the market as a source for solutions and growth, Valencia told ThinkProgress.

However, other forms of politics are also at play. Vila, the social scientist, said pro-mining local governments and regional candidates are many times at odds with the central government — or have a different agenda altogether — causing “a divorce in their vision of development.” As a result, strong police actions become the only alternative to the lack of coordinated political solution, said Vila, who went on to add “policy should be less oriented towards criminalization and more towards flexibility.”

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The Tambopata River, which traverses the Tambopata National Reserve in Madre de Dios.

CREDIT: FLICKR/ESBUX

Experts and activists reached also said the emergency declaration seemed to be coming too late and didn’t include more funding for agencies to respond accordingly. “But it was necessary. I hope this is the beginning of more serious actions,” Valencia said. Yet whether swift actions will come before the environmental wound grows deeper is unclear, and for many, unlikely in the short term.

Presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of convicted President Alberto Fujimori, favors formalizing small-scale mining, but said she wants to start from scratch.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who in polls is trailing the former Peruvian first lady by 5 percentage points, wants to continue the formalization process while creating a financing bank for miners who want to be environmentally friendly through better technology.

Umiña, the miner, is in the meantime taking matters into his own hands. He said he’s leading a small group of miners who want to be certified as environmentally friendly in buying equipment that extracts gold without the use of mercury, or even borax, which is a substance that can remove gold from soils while polluting less. Environmental mining means investing more time to extract the gold, Umiña said, but it’s the only way forward.

“We know that mercury is a toxic liquid that evaporates and accumulates in people and the environment, so we have to figure out a way to reach economic, environmental and social sustainability,” said Umiña, adding his group is reaching that goal. “And once that happens and others see us,” he said, “everybody will want to work like this.”

*****

Readers: I wish people had the foresight to see just how devastating their actions were before things become devastating. We seem to always be cleaning up the messes we make, and not just when they are small and manageable, but when they have escalated and gotten way out of hand…when damage is almost irreversible to the planet and its inhabitants.

After decades of using equipment that pollutes the environment, only now environmentally friendly equipment is being considered. When will we ever learn to prevent damage on the onset when it is first discovered instead of when it becomes a state of emergency?

Greed at the expense of the environment and human lives. Not much has changed with our behavior.

What’s your take? Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

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“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Climate Concerns: The Controversial Keystone XL Pipeline

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 18th November 2014

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Good morning!

From Think Progress:

American Indian Tribe Calls Keystone XL Vote An ‘Act Of War’

Indigenous groups from across the US and Canada gathered in DC in April to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline.

Indigenous groups from across the US and Canada converged on DC in April to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline.

CREDIT: ALICE OLLSTEIN

As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote this week on a bill to force approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which the House of Representatives already passed on Friday, American Indian groups who would be directly impacted by the tar sands project are converging on Washington D.C. to voice their opposition.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, whose territory in South Dakota lies along the proposed route of the pipeline, released a statement last week calling Congressional approval of the project an “act of war against our people.”

In a call with reporters on Monday, President Cyril Scott of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe vowed to fight back should the pipeline win government approval.

“Did I declare war on the Keystone XL pipeline? Hell yeah, I did,” said Scott. “I pledge my life to stop these people from harming our children and grandchildren and way of life. They will not cross our treaty lands. We have so much to lose here.”

Scott arrives in D.C. on Tuesday and plans to “rattle the doors” on Capitol Hill ahead of the evening vote. He said he hopes to draw special attention to the fact that the pipeline would cross one of North America’s largest fresh water sources, an aquifer that provides water for a full quarter of the nation’s farmland.

“I’m going to talk to every senator and anybody who will talk to me,” he said. “I will tell them, ‘It’s not a matter of if the pipeline will contaminate the Ogallala Aquifer, but when. And if you contaminate the aquifer, we can’t drink, we can’t grow crops. Where are we going to get our water, from Congress?’”

Besides the environmental threat of the pipeline, which Scott called an “atrocity against all humans,” the Rosebud Sioux say the U.S. government has not met its treaty obligations to ask the tribe for approval of projects that cross their territory. “The U.S. government does not consult us,” he said, noting that concerns brought to the Department of Interior and to the Department of State have been so far ignored. “We have a sovereign nation. We have our own constitution and laws here. But they violated my people’s treaty rights once again.”

Scott emphasized that the “war” he is declaring is a legal one, not a physical one. To bolster his tribe’s efforts, he is calling for a meeting of all the tribes in the Great Sioux Nation in the coming weeks. “When I was elected and took my oath of office, I said I would protect the next seven generations,” Scott told reporters. “I have that obligation not only as president, but as a warrior of the tribe.”

Native American activists across the US and Canada have been organizing for years to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline and other fossil fuel projects that threaten their land, air and water. O.J. Semans, a Rosebud Sioux tribal member with the voting rights group Four Directions, credits concern about the pipeline for boosting voting turnout by 5 percent this year compared to the last midterm election. “By participating in the process and electing individuals that understand our culture and protect our sacred land and water, natives can make a difference,” he told ThinkProgress.

But while tribal members make up 9 percent of South Dakota’s population, Semans acknowledged that they’re a constituency often ignored. “A lot of the voters in tribal country became a little upset because candidates don’t come around here until there’s an election,” he said. “They don’t work with us when they’re in office, just when they’re running for office.”

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the Keystone XL pipeline Tuesday evening. Party leaders note that the bill is just 1 vote away from the 60 votes needed to pass. John Thune (R-SD) is one of the sponsors of this week’s Senate bill to build Keystone XL and the state’s senator-elect Mike Rounds (R-SD) is a vocal supporter of the pipeline.

Semans said tribal members opposed to the pipeline have options both inside and outside the political process, including testifying before the state’s public utilities commission “about how destructive it is to our water,” suing the federal government for violating its treaties with tribe, and directly petitioning President Obama to reject the pipeline.

President Obama has suggested, but not confirmed, that he would veto the bill, but even federal approval could be stymied by courts and commissions in the states along the pipeline’s route.

Should all else fail, the Rosebud Sioux and eight other tribes in South Dakota have set up a “Spirit Camp” directly in the proposed path of the pipeline.

“We are using every alternative to protect Mother Earth,” said Semans. “We have been camped there for 6 or 7 months, and will stay until we get this resolved.”

When ThinkProgress asked about the difficulty of maintaining the camp through an abnormally frigid winter, Semans replied: “We’ll survive.”

*****

Readers: The Senate votes on this today. I’m not for it. The pipeline would pump oil from Canada, across American soil, and down into the gulf where it will be sold –  it will have no affect on our gas prices. Yes, the pipline would create jobs but only temporary ones until it is complete. And then only 50 people would be employed permanently. That’s not much job creation.

“If my Republican friends really want to focus on what’s good for the American people in terms of job creation and lower energy costs, we should be engaging in a conversation about what are we doing to produce even more homegrown energy? I’m happy to have that conversation.” – Obama

I feel for and support the Rosebud Sioux. The Rosebud Sioux are not giving up. If you’re against this pipeline too, now is the time to voice your opinion and support the Sioux. They cherish their land and the health of the environment, and their people.

Unfortunately, like so many OTWs, they too are pushed aside and given little time until their votes are needed or until they want something for them…like the land they (whites) gave back to them, after they (whites) stole it from them. So much for a Treaty that really doesn’t mean anything, when it’s not being honored.

What else is new from the repubs? And it isn’t just the repubs. Some Dems are for this too. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) is facing a re-election runoff against her repub rival in Louisiana in a few weeks. Funny thing is Landrieu is championing a Republican bill written by her Senate runoff rival!

Can it get any more crazy around here? Don’t answer that.

Thoughts? Blog me.

Howie: I apologize. You have shared personal information about you and Carr before – how you met, his two brothers etc. I was just curious, but it seems I may have offended you or was asking questions that were too personal. I understand. Please accept my apology. I HOPE you and Al are well.

Peace & Love…

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

me

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Posted in Health & Well Being, Human Rights and Equality, Journeys within, Long Live Planet Earth!, Political Powwow | 48 Comments »