Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Environment”

The Simple Complex

We’re being confounded by the issues.

The press, run by giant corporations by the way, wants you to believe the problems facing the United States are complicated. From the mass media we hear that we are a nation divided by a complex range of issues which they then fire at us like bullets from an Uzi, in a constant stream. We buy into this and define our stand on an issue by issue by issue basis. All you need do is take a look at your Facebook “newsfeed” to see this process at work. Over and over and over again we express our position on everything from same-sex marriage to health care rights to the environment to Julian Assange.

What Happened On Wall Street Today

There was a major sell-off on Wall Street today, with the market losing 2.3%, more than it’s lost on a single day since 2011. Why? Evidently the investment crowd is panicking because Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that soon, if the economy continues to improve, the Fed will quit printing new money willy-nilly for them to use to buy bonds in order to continue to stimulate the economy. In other words, they’re threatening to quit feeding the trolls.

Let me translate this for the hard-of-thinking.

Monsanto: Maker of the Rules

Percy Schmeiser
Percy Schmeiser

Many of you already have a pretty good idea to what ends Monsanto will go to spread their poisonous genetically modified crops. The company is playing hardball and they plan to win at any cost. Unless we bring them down soon, they’ll pose a larger threat to human life than global warming, world overpopulation and all forms of pollution combined. What Monsanto wants is nothing short of complete control of agribusiness on a global scale, through their patented genetically modified seeds combined with their chemical herbicides and pesticides.

Exactly how far will they go? Ask Percy Schmeiser, he’ll tell you.

There’s a video that’s been making the rounds, David Versus Monsanto, that tells the story of Schmeiser, a 70 year old farmer growing canola, or rapeseed, in Saskatchewan in the Canadian Midwest. In 1997, he found that some of the canola growing on his farm, from seeds he’d been developing for decades, had taken on the properties of Monsanto’s patented Roundup resistant variety of canola due to cross pollination from nearby farms.

The Ad Exxon Doesn’t Want You To See

We found this ad posted on Other98. It’s an interesting pull-no-punches ad, evidently crowdfunded and scheduled to be aired nationwide this past Tuesday night until it was pulled–according to Other98:

The following 30-second climate change ad has already aired in three major media markets across the United States, to great acclaim as the first nationally crowdfunded climate change PSA. It was scheduled to play during Fox’s State of the Union coverage this past Tuesday. Then Exxon sent a single email, and it was unilaterally taken off the air. Here’s the ad you weren’t allowed to see:

httpv://youtu.be/uXV6FW9Vg0I

Is There Radioactive Silverware In Your Future?

People in the government are now telling us we’ll be perfectly safe taking our meals using radioactive silverware.

You think I’m joking, right? Wish that I were, but I’m not. The folks who think we have no right to choose whether our food’s been genetically modified, are now trying to sneak a move behind our back that will end up unleashing tons of radioactive metal into the scrap market. Over the years the government has accumulated thousands of tons of the stuff that was used in various types of nuclear tests and even in warfare. Now the Department of Energy (DOE) would like to lift legal restrictions on the recycling of nuclear contaminated scrap, so the stuff can be melted down into consumer goods.

Will a radioactive spoon heat our soup for us? Or will a glowing radioactive zipper mean fewer awkward moments getting undressed in the dark after things get hot an heavy?

Monsanto: Yet Another Lie

We’re being lied to all the time and have been for at least all my life. Most of these lies are harmful to us. The fact that we accept them, knowing them to be lies, hurts us even more.

This morning I ran across another of those graphics that makes a political statement on Facebook. This one contained a quote by Ronnie Cummins with the Organic Consumers Association that said:

“GMOs aren’t meant to feed the world… they’re designed to sell Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup.”

What’s Wrong With Walmart Is What’s Wrong With America

A protest in Utah against Walmart. Photo by Joey Caputo
Today I ran across an old article, originally posted in 2010, 16 Facts About Walmart That Will Blow Your Mind by Ujala Sehgal on Business Insider. Actually, the piece was more slide show than article, but it succinctly explained some rather scary facts about this giant retailer. I thought I’d take this opportunity to go over some of the facts laid out in the article, with my own observations thrown in for good measure.

1. Walmart has more full-time employees — 2.1 million — than seven times the population of Iceland.

My first thought when I read this was about the irony of comparing any aspect of Iceland with Walmart.

Iceland was hit hard by the so-called “great recession” of 2007–2008. Prices on their local stock market dropped by 90 percent, inflation rose 18%, while unemployment increased by a factor of nine. Oh, at the same time all of the country’s biggest banks failed. However, Iceland has recovered nicely, not by bailing out the banks and leaving their private citizens to sink or swim. Instead, they concentrated their efforts on helping people get out from under crippling mortgages and prosecuted the bankers.

Guess what? It worked. According to Bloomberg their economy is now a shining example for the rest of us:

Nowhere To Hide From Industrial Pollutants

Back when I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s we knew about pollution, we just didn’t yet understand how pervasive it was. In those days, it was thought that the only thing needed to escape the ravages of industrial pollution was to get out into the countryside, away from bad city air and water. Smog and polluted water were seen as urban problems that didn’t exist in the country. Soil pollution wasn’t even on the radar yet for most of us.

httpv://youtu.be/Rj6UlN6nhYQ

We now know that there is no place to go to get away from chemical pollutants. Even arctic ice thousands of miles away from any source of pollution is infused with man-made chemicals. There are new types of pollution, as well. Yesterday we published a link to a very scary video on biological pollutants, crops that have had their genetics artificially “enhanced” by companies like Monsanto, and that are now cross pollinating with non GMO crops, threatening to wipe out whole varieties of plants that have been on this planet for as long as their have been humans.

It’s Time For A Monsanto Movie Party

It never fails. Every time we post on our Facebook page about the danger posed by Monsanto and their GMO products, we’re inundated by some right wingers who’re trying to pretend to be “reasonable” calling for more specific information. Their argument is that we need to be diligent when it comes to GMOs, but that the scientific evidence is that most of Monsanto’s genetically engineered products are perfectly safe and that the company is hard at work assuring that their products do no damage, either to the health of the world population or to the environment.

httpv://youtu.be/6VEZYQF9WlE

None of this is true. Monsanto has a long history, going back to the days when it was a chemical company paving the way for the introduction of Agent Orange, of hiding facts at its disposal about the dangers posed by its products. There is also ample evidence that GMO products engineered and marketed by Monsanto are a Sword of Damocles hanging over our future.

The Agenda

The way I see it, we’re preaching to the choir. If you’re reading this, then you most likely somewhat agree with us, or you are at least tolerant of the our viewpoint. Unless you’re a trolling teabagger, then you’re here because you want to go slack jawed and slap yourself, so you can go on Facebook and post a link to our site and tell everyone how laughable we are.

If you’re the latter, you’re going to be disappointed. You’ll not find much fodder for your amazement here. The way I figure it, we’re all voting for Obama and Mitt Romney’s full of it. There’s no reason to belittle that point and keep repeating what a scumbag hypocrite he is. It just pisses off the right, and makes us feel smug enough that we risk forgetting that we have work to do. We need to be figuring out what it is we really want.

If This Be Treason is an AlternativeApproaches Media website.