TED Talk: Photographer Edward Burtynsky

By kimba | Published: November 11, 2009

Photographer Edward Burtynsky has made it his life’s work to document the impact of humanity on the planet using large format photography. His haunting photographs are at one and the same time beautiful, educational, and a look into the unseen world of rock quarries, the path of oil, the rise of dams – all urging us to seek our path to global sustainability.

“Oil collects a decades’ worth of photographing the world’s largest oil fields, refineries, freeway interchanges and automobile plants, in an attempt to comprehend the scale of production attending this most politicized of resources. …”

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Buy Local, Buy Organic, It’s Important!

By kimba | Published: July 17, 2009

I was inspired to write a post about looking for, and buying, local produce and food by this article I spied yesterday on Alternet.org about the soybeans used for making Silk soy milk.

Few Silk products are certified organic anymore, and some are processed with hexane, a neurotoxin. The use of hexane poses risks to workers in the plants and possibly the consumers of the product and is listed as an air pollutant by EPA. In Illinois alone, 5 million pounds of hexane are released into the environment by food processors Bunge, Cargill and Arthur Daniels Midland.

While the green “USDA Organic” seal is gone, hexane-processed soymilk can still be labeled “natural,” and if it contains organic ingredients, the label “made with organic ingredients” is still used.

A recent USDA report, “Emerging Issues in the U.S. Organic Industry,” points out two notable trends in American food: Conventional food corporations are taking over successful independent organic companies, and the corporations are becoming increasingly dependent on imported ingredients.

I like buying organic food as much as possible. I rely, for the most part, on my local Whole Foods grocery store for my supply, but I shop at the local farmer’s markets when I get a chance. Reading the article quoted above, even though it’s only about soybeans, makes me want to buy only from local growers, or to go one step further and get my own victory garden going in the yard.

The sad thing is what large corporations are doing to smaller, organic farms by purchasing produce from China.

The way to stop this is to stop buying ‘organic’ products that are produced by large corporations. And by buying from smaller vendors, and local producers, encourage them to resist the urge to sell out when an offer is made with your pocketbook.

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Clear Cutting In The Tongass

By kimba | Published: July 16, 2009

On Monday, the Obama Administration approved the U.S. Forest Service sale of timber to a Ketchikan mill in a roadless area of the Tongass National Forest. The Tongass National Forest is a 17 million acre temperate rain forest in southeast Alaska. It is home to both native Alaskan people and communities aas well as endangered species. It is the largest temperate rain forest in the United States.

President Clinton had signed Roadless Area Conservation Rule in 2001, which prevented companies from taking timber from roadless areas by banning road-building on about 58 million acres of national forest land nationwide. President Obama had supported the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in his campaign.

Road construction in national forests can harm fish and wildlife habitats while polluting local lakes, rivers, and streams. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule—which was made on the basis of extensive citizen input—protects 58.5 million acres of national forest from such harmful building. I will be proud to support and defend it. — Sen. Barack Obama, League of Conservation Voters Candidate Questionnaire

The sale was primarily approved by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to give an ‘economic boost to the area’.

I really understand what it means to be out of work. But at the same time, we can’t continue to create jobs that hurt the environment just to support people. This does not make any sense. What we need to do instead is promote job training in other fields. Loggers, and logging companies, just can’t expect to be supported this way. If they are out of work, they need to find other ways to support themselves. That may seem to be a harsh opinion, but it’s reality.

Read the report JuneauEmpire.com
Read what environmentalists have to say on EarthJustice.org.

This is also a financial boondoggle for the government.

In March, five environmental groups sued the most recent Orion North offering. They said the Forest Service had failed to incorporate new scientific information that had emerged since it last studied the area a decade ago. The judge did not agree, however.

The environmentalists have appealed to a higher court.

“Just building the road will cost four times as much revenue as the Forest Service is going to get from the timber sale,” said Waldo of Earthjustice. — JuneauEmpire.com

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