Authorities in Honduras last week filed criminal charges against senior officials of Entremares – a wholly-owned subsidiary of mining giant Goldcorp – based on evidence from aid agency CAFOD of severe water contamination. This raises numerous questions about the ability of international courts and the Honduran judicial system of prosecute corporate criminals on criminal charges, which lay in a jurisdiction beyond that of Free Trade Agreements and the protection of international financial institutions like the WTO.
After raucous protests that have raged throughout the year, China may shut environmentally hazardous plants. The largest smelter of copper in the world, China has doubled its amount of ecological disasters this year, and the government is making a show of tightening regulations. In this case, the battle may be won, but the war is far from over.
Great article about fracking in Wyoming, Texas and Pennsylvania.
In attempts to remove pollutants from the diets of livestock, scientists are lacing cattle feed with oregano and decreasing its protein content. Although Atkins would be totally pissed, this seems to reduce the nitrogen present in the cows’ manure. Problems remain, however, as the totally cruel methods of livestock raising, mixed with the methane gas produced by ruminant animals, still provides what is arguably the worst source of pollution in the world.
From Bloomberg Businessweek: “Scientists have noted a possible increased risk for attention disorders in children who were exposed to organophosphate pesticides while in the womb. The effect was not significant at the age of 3 but clearly showed at age 5, according to the report from California researchers that appears in the Aug. 19 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.”
Also from Infoshop: “Rachel Maddow and Paul Krugman, among others, have been in a tizzy recently about the unpaving of roads. One result of Congress’s refusal to renew counter-cyclical stimulus grants to state and local government is that fiscally strapped governments are cutting back on highway maintenance. Specifically, dozens of counties in several states are replacing asphalt roads with gravel. As Maddow summarized, in her August 9 broadcast:
“The Wall Street Journal reported recently on the growing number of places across the country where local governments are unpaving the roads. They are turning paved roads into gravel roads because paved roads too expensive to maintain. It is not one little town‘s whacky Luddite solution. It‘s happening in North Dakota, more than 100 miles of road in South Dakota, in 38 counties in Michigan, and it‘s happening in Ohio, and it‘s happening in Alabama, and it‘s happening in Pennsylvania.”
… YAY!