Imagine the consequences of 20 years of nuclear waste dumping in the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea that surround the Italian Peninsula and its islands.

It’s an unfolding crisis that has the international community alarmed, including the fishing interests in Japan.

We’re talking about the coasts of 22 countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and a pending ecological and public health disaster which is being allegedly swept under the rug by the Italian government.

I only learned about it recently in a Counterpunch post on the nightmare, passed along …

Tags: Africa , Asia , Calabria , cancer , Cetraro , Cunsky , disasters , drums , ecology , Ecomafia , europe , fishermen , Greenpeace , Ilaria Alpi , Italy , Japan , Mediterranean Sea , mercury , Middle East , nuclear waste , radioactive dumping , robot sub , tumors , Tyrrhenian Sea

5 Comments |

Link to this post |

|

Bookmark

For everyone’s good, we need to leave the oceans well alone for a while.

That’s the recommendation of over 100 scientific papers assessed by the Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York, England. All these papers suggest that the demonstrably successful marine protected area (MPA) scheme should be dramatically expanded until it covers at least 20% of the world’s oceans – and maybe even up to one-third of them.

Why? Because many fish stocks are in deep crisis – not just depleted but at such dangerously …

Tags: conservation , europe , fish , marine conservation , oceans , sustainability

Add Comment |

Link to this post |

|

Bookmark

Fruit and vegetables are under a lot of pressure these days. It’s not just about taste, or how and where they’re grown – they have to be glamorous as well.

Late last year, I was horrified to find that the European Union was scrapping laws on the precise measurements of 26 types of fruit and vegetable. What horrified me was that there were laws to scrap. It seems that years ago, strict guidelines were laid down prohibiting the sale of foodstuffs that don’t reflect a standardized shape – …

Tags: conscious consumerism , europe , food , organic , science

4 Comments |

Link to this post |

|

Bookmark

There are two ways to persuade people that fossil-fueled cars are a blight. The popular method is to offer alternatives while suggesting why you “really shouldn’t” . And then there’s the other way.

Last week, TechCrunch ran an article suggesting that California was going to ban black cars because they soak up the most heat. The Washington Post got hold of it, then Rush Limbaugh added fuel to the flames (most unlike him, I know)  by advising listeners to buy up black cars before they became …

Tags: amsterdam , ban , cars , electric , europe , fuel , petrol , technology

2 Comments |

Link to this post |

|

Bookmark