bicycles, hormones, GE labelling, food, climate, dharma

Tue May 13 13:25:17 EDT 2008

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: tar sands:

"Canada is the only democratic nation to have made a literal  deal with
the devil, offering a few decades of comfort in exchange for the future
fiery hell of a world disrupted by human induced climate change. "

John  Bacher, author of Petrotyranny

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 12, 2008
Bicycles Pedaling Into the Spotlight

... A number of European cities have set the standard for bicycle use and
promotion, via pro-bike transportation and land use policies, as well as
heavy funding for bicycle infrastructure and public education. In
Copenhagen, for example, 36 percent of commuters bike to work. The city
plans to invest more than $200 million in bike facilities between 2006 and
2024 and estimates that by 2015 half its residents will bike to work or
school. In Amsterdam, cycling accounts for 55 percent of journeys to jobs
that are less than 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) from home. The government
has pledged to spend $160 million from 2006 to 2010 on bicycle paths,
parking, and safety. And Freiburg, Germany, a city with 218,000 people,
has allocated roughly $1.3 million annually for cycling since 1976; now
some 70 percent of local trips there are made by bike, on foot, or by
public transit...

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Bike/2008.htm

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hormone Replacement Therapy Linked to Ovarian Cancer

The Million Women Study, a trial in the United Kingdom of postmenopausal
women, has found that those receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
were, on average, 20% more likely to develop and die from ovarian cancer
than women who never received therapy.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/555597?src=mp&spon=17&uac=30649BV

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parliament denies Canadians mandatory labelling of GE foods
May 8, 2008

 A private member’s bill giving consumers the right to know if the food
sold in Canada contains genetically engineered (GE) ingredients was
defeated in the House of Commons today by a vote of 101 to 156. The
defeat of Bill C-517 effectively protects the economic interests of GE
companies like Monsanto over the rights of Canadians to know what they
eat.

Canada will continue to lag behind forty countries around the world,
including the UK, France, China and Japan which already have mandatory
labelling of GE foods.

http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/parliament-denies-canadians-ma

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Making a killing from the food crisis
"Right now Cargill is making approximately $471 000 an hour in profits"
Tuesday May 13th, 2008

While people around the world are suffering from hunger and protesting the
rise in global food prices, major grain traders, such as Cargill, are
reporting big profits. Making a Killing from Hunger, a report by
international NGO, GRAIN, says that the global food crisis is more than a
food shortage or a price blip, it's a structural meltdown, resulting from
globalization and neoliberal policies.

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1495&thisview=item&renewx=2008-05-13+11%3A16%3A59

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Civilization's last chance

The planet is nearing a tipping point on climate change, and it gets much
worse, fast.
By Bill McKibben
May 11, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-mckibben11-2008may11,0,7434369.story

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An excellent portal of Enviro-Health links, including issues such as lead,
children's enviro health, air pollution, pesticides, and more.

http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/envirohealthlinks.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Too Big, Too Costly & Too Polluting – Part 2: Who benefits and who loses
from the proposed Northern York Region power plant

Who really benefits from building a power plant that is many times larger
than needed to meet Northern York Region’s power needs?  Our new report,
Too Big, Too Costly & Too Polluting – Part 2: Who benefits and who loses
from the proposed Northern York Region power plant, digs into the
background behind Energy Minister Gerry Phillips’ decision to order the
construction of this excessively large and polluting power plant.

Our report points out that in 2005, the Ontario Power Authority told the
Ontario Energy Board that a plant 60 to 85% smaller than what is now being
proposed would be sufficient to meet Northern York Region’s power needs
and that well-designed conservation programs could eliminate the need for
the plant altogether.  And it points out that it is Alberta gas producers
along with a major power developer who benefit from the decision to build
an oversized power plant in Northern York Region, while the people of
Ontario are saddled with the costs and the pollution.

Find out what is really going on in Northern York Region by reading this
insightful report available on our website at
<http://www.cleanairalliance.org>www.cleanairalliance.org.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Green Dharma
by Georg and Brenda Feuerstein, Saskatchewan
FREE PDF DOWNLOAD

It brings us joy to make Green Dharma a free download for two simple reasons:
First, the environmental crisis is extremely severe, and green action is
of the utmost urgency. We are hoping that our book might stimulate its
readers into appropriate attitudinal change and responsible action.
Publishing this book through regular channels would take too long to reach
the public, as well as destroy a large number of trees and add to
pollution.
Second, we feel it is more appropriate to not charge for a book that
shares the Buddha Dharma.

Download the pdf here:
http://www.traditionalyogastudies.com/green_dharma.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Eulogies for Tooker and Stories for a
healthy mind, body and planet
http://www.greenspiration.org
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Join our email list by emailing us at:
greenspiration at web.ca
Write "subscribe" in the subject line
and tell us what city/country you live in
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<