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13 February, 2017 – The EU must move swiftly away from coal power if it is to hit targets for reducing emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.
The post Europe warned to switch off coal power appeared first on Climate News Network.
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Hello!!!!!! Bedding is fun! Andy loves his bed!
Joan and pals bedded down!
Honey snuggled in the straw.
Ben David piglet bedded down next to Honey, his adoptive mom.
Eric’s first bed.
One thing we see time and again when we rescue pigs — especially those who’ve come from factory farms or been forced to live in pens consisting only of mud or in concrete-floored barns — is that bedding is what they seem to enjoy and want the most.
Noah and Portia hate to be disturbed when napping!
Now, I love to sleep, and nothing feels better than sleeping in soft, comfortable bedding. Sleep needs to feel safe, secure, warm, and snuggly — and no one appreciates this more than a pig.
The family that nests together stays together.
So today’s walk around the farm is all about pigs and going to bed! We will watch as our rescue-barn resident pigs make their beds and get ready to sleep. With the snow falling down right now and temperatures dropping into the teens, nothing says comfort like a warm, soft bed!
So sit back and watch some of our pigs get comfy — and I hope you all have an equally comfortable and happy sleep!
Eric started out snuggling on a stuffed pig, and now he does the same with his real friend Bob and in snuggly straw!
Bob and Eric now — Bob is the live version of the Gund pig above!
Read moreMillions of Americans have no health insurance. More than 50 million are woefully underinsured.
Meanwhile Big Pharma and profit-obsessed HMOs and hospitals are focused mainly on selling you overpriced (often hazardous) prescription drugs, on running expensive tests, and on keeping you on permanent health maintenance, rather than preventing the diseases that are so costly to treat.
We can’t afford to provide universal healthcare for all as long as our medical model is focused on treating the evermore serious and widespread sicknesses of the body politic (for example obesity and diabetes) rather than the underlying causes. However, with the right preventive and holistic approach, we could easily afford Medicare for All–and it would cost much less for both consumers and employers than what we are spending now.
We have a national healthcare crisis. Can we overcome our partisan and sectarian divisions, and mobilize the grassroots power of the majority of Americans who are sick and tired of living in Degeneration Nation to solve the crisis?
By Jack Pratt
Jack Pratt is Chemicals Campaign Director
Recently, EPA identified the first 10 chemicals for evaluation under our country’s newly reformed chemical safety law. That motivated me to see how easy it would be to find these chemicals in consumer products. The answer: very easy. In fact, while you’ve probably not heard of many of these chemicals, the products that contain them are likely all too familiar.
For decades our main chemical safety law offered little protection against toxic chemicals. Badly outmoded and outdated, the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 could not even restrict a known carcinogen like asbestos. Fortunately, last year, an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress passed legislation to reform the law. Included in that new law, the Lautenberg Act, was a requirement that EPA identify the first 10 chemicals to undergo risk evaluations. EPA released that list in late November, and included chemicals ranging from household names like asbestos to less well-known ones like Pigment Violet 29. All 10 chemicals had already been designated by EPA as chemicals in need of additional scrutiny.
To begin my toxic scavenger hunt, I had to first figure out which products use these chemicals. That is harder than it might sound. Companies are not required to include most ingredients on product labels (you can see that for yourself right now, if you have a cleaning product within sight). Nor are there comprehensive databases listing where chemicals are used—even chemicals that pose serious health and environmental concerns, like these 10 chemicals.
To figure out which products use these chemicals, I had to resort to some advanced Googling. I found some products by searching online for Safety Data Sheets containing the chemicals—these sheets of product information are required by OSHA for potentially harmful substances used in the workplace. Other products and product categories can be found by searching EPA’s CPCat: Chemical and Product Categories database and the National Institute of Health (NIH) Household Products Database. The databases are not exhaustive and are further limited because product formulations change often, so all of these sources had to be confirmed using other information.
Many product categories have no ingredient disclosure whatsoever. For instance, a flame retardant on the list (HBCD) is used in electronics, textiles and elsewhere, but little or no disclosure is required for such products. Even so, product testing has turned up some specific uses—as an example, the Ecology Center tested children’s car seats and found the flame retardant HBCD in certain models. Still, there’s just no way to know for sure where else that chemical might be found in our homes or workplaces.
Where products using these chemicals were identified, however, finding out how I could obtain the products was a cinch (see my list).
The Author’s Desk
Amazon is my go-to vendor for everything from diapers to razors—and it turns out it can also supply me with products containing PERC, 1-Bromopropane, TCE and many more.
I also found that purchasers’ reviews provided interesting insights. Lectra Clean Degreaser uses PERC. One Amazon reviewer gives the product 5 out of 5 stars, noting “I always keep a couple cans of this handy. It’s also an amazing bug killer. It will kill any fly, wasp or nuisance bug almost instantly upon contact. Put the small red tube in and you’ve got about 8 feet of accurate Armageddon for our insect friends.” Now there’s a reasonably foreseen use the product manufacturer perhaps didn’t intend!
The labels on these products are also of interest. At my local hardware store, I picked up a NMP-based paint stripper. That product is sold under the brand “Back to Nature” and includes a logo that urges browsers to “Go Green.” That’s pretty upbeat language for a suspected reproductive toxicant.
Generally, hardware stores are great places to find the chemicals on the first-10 list. Paint strippers using NMP and Methylene Chloride are readily available. Carbon Tetrachloride can be found in adhesives. Craft and hobby stores are good places to find others, like Pigment Violet 29 (used in some permanent violet paints) and 1-Bromopropane in certain adhesives.
Asbestos brakes
Nothing can beat an auto supply provider, however. There you can find TCE, PERC and 1-Bromopropane products for degreasing. It’s also where I located the coup de grace in the toxic chemical hunt: asbestos brake pads. Despite EPA’s inability to ban asbestos under the old chemical law, asbestos use has been curtailed by lawsuits, thanks to a clear link to mesothelioma. Still, both the state of California and domestic brake manufacturers indicate that asbestos remains in use in certain imported brake pads, as well as in some stockpiles of after-market brake pads for older-model cars. An online auto supply vendor shipped me asbestos brake pads, loose and unwrapped, rattling around in a flimsy cardboard box that includes a small warning label “contains asbestos fibers, avoid breathing dust.”
We can chuckle a bit at how casual a company was in shipping a product containing a deadly carcinogen, but this is serious stuff. The men and women who work with asbestos brake pads can get deathly sick, and so can their families when the fibers come home on clothing. Paint strippers containing methylene chloride are responsible for numerous deaths—people killed at work or at home.
Mechanics using brake cleaners in auto shops, janitors using stain removers, and dry cleaners using spot cleaning products are likely putting their health at risk every day at work. Pregnant women using these products, say, to prepare a nursery, might inadvertently be harming their developing fetus.
Tuesday, EPA will take the next step on these 10 chemicals, holding a public meeting to discuss and get input on what the scope of their risk evaluations should be (see their use dossiers on each of the 10 chemicals here). We should all watch closely and participate where we can to ensure that workers, kids, pregnant woman, and everyone else get the protection they deserve. And if you know of any other products containing these chemicals, please let me know. I still have some room on my desk.
14 February, 2017 – Innovative ideas by scientists and engineers to combat climate change build up a picture of what the world could be like without fossil fuels.
The post Fossil fuels bypass is not science fiction appeared first on Climate News Network.
Read moreMonday, February 13, 2017
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Horse soring is in the same league as cockfighting and dogfighting – knowingly and deliberately causing immense suffering to innocent animals for an entertainment spectacle. Above, rescued walking horses at the Doris Day Equine Center. Photo by Frank Loftus/The HSUS
Late last week, a bipartisan group of 155 members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to President Trump, asking him to give final approval to a U.S. Department of Agriculture rule that got sidetracked during the last days of the Obama administration. The rule was designed to fix serious deficiencies in the USDA’s existing . . .
The post More than 150 Republican and Democratic lawmakers urge president to stop cruelty to horses appeared first on A Humane Nation.
Over the past three decades, organic food, farming, and products in the U.S. have grown into a $50-billion-a-year powerhouse, representing more than 5 percent of all retail grocery sales. This growth has been achieved with little or no help from the White House, Congress or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and that’s been true no matter which party, Democrat or Republican, has been in power.
Although the majority of consumers—no matter whether they voted for Hillary (65 million), Trump (62 million), or stayed home and didn’t vote (92 million)—tell pollsters that they know that organic food is superior to chemical/GMO food, in terms of nutrition and environmental impact, and that they believe that pesticides, synthetic hormones, antibiotic residues and GMOs are dangerous, Congress keeps subsidizing industrial agriculture, factory farms, processed food and GMO corn-derived ethanol to the tune of billions of dollars a year. At the same time, lawmakers show little or no support for organic or transition-to-organic farmers or programs.
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, February 15, 2017 to[…]
Read moreNational Shelter Director Susie Coston takes us along for the ride as she bids her bovine friends good night at our New York Shelter!
One of our cow residents, Belinda, is currently wearing a coat at night to give her a little extra warmth. When she decides that she might prefer not to wear it, her friends come over to check on her and make sure everything’s all right! This is just one of many reminders we have the opportunity to see here at Farm Sanctuary that these incredible animals have rich emotional lives and form strong bonds of friendship and family, just like we do. Learn more about these intelligent and deeply social beings at The Someone Project.
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