Great way to start celebrating our 1 year anniversary with this new short film from Greenpeace!

For a list of full credits, visit the website of the Writer / Director, Daniel Bird.

Give earth a hand!

http://www.greenpeace.org/me2

Here’s a first hand account by Goldman Prize winner Maria Gunnoe describing first hand the devastation residents are facing.

Mountaintop removal mining study will test Obama’s commitment to science
Just days after the Environmental Protection Agency approved the expansion of a massive mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia, a dozen prominent scientists published a landmark study documenting the severe environmental and human health damage caused by the practice — and called on the government to impose a moratorium.
The findings will test the Obama administration’s stated commitment to basing policy on science instead of politics.

Titled “Mountaintop Mining Consequences,“ the study by some of the nation’s leading environmental scientists appeared in the Jan. 8 issue of the journal Science. It takes a broad look at the impacts of the practice, which involves clearing upper-elevation forests, stripping the topsoil, and blasting the rock with explosives to get to the coal below. The resulting waste is pushed into the valleys, burying headwater streams.

The researchers found that mountaintop removal mining operators have destroyed around 500 peaks in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky, and about 2,000 miles of streams. They also found that efforts to restore the damaged sites have not prevented metals and other contaminants from moving into waters downstream. The study documents deformities found in young fish in water contaminated by mountaintop removal mine runoff — as well as higher disease and mortality rates in the coal fields’ human residents.

The authors include Emily Bernhardt, a biologist with Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in Durham, N.C.; Dennis Lemly, U.S. Forest Service research biologist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.; plant biologist Peter White of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Michael Hendryx with West Virginia University’s Department of Community Medicine; and William Schlesinger, the former dean of Duke’s Nicholas School who’s now with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y.

via The Institute for Southern Studies

Visit the National Resources for Defence Council to TAKE ACTION and send a message to Congress.

More First Hand Accounts from Kentucky residents and miners.

Carl Shoupe talks about Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in Kentucky

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Michael R. Taylor, J.D., was appointed Deputy Commissioner for Foods.  This was announced on the FDA’s website the day after the earthquake in Haiti.  Michael Taylor is a former top executive, lawyer and lobbyist with biotech giant Monsanto Co. He has rotated in and out of law firms, Monsanto, the USDA and FDA.

During his former stint in the FDA during the Clinton administration he helped write the rules to allow rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormone) into the American food system and our children’s milk. Which is perhaps why the FDA staffer who wrote Taylor’s bio seems to have all-but-forgotten his decade-plus of Monsanto work.  Michael Taylor and Monsanto are responsible for subjecting this country and many others to the increased risk of breast cancer (7 times greater risk), prostate cancer and colon cancer because of what they did to milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream with rBGH as well as to all the foods that rely on milk solids and other parts of milk.

As a bi-product of the rBGH fight Michael Taylor then led the ban on labeling of GM products all together.  This was labeled “the principal of substantial equivalence” which prohibits any distinction to be made between GM and traditional products.  Regardless of any testing or lack there of  on the possible effects of GM foods used for human consumption.  Even though Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried “serious health hazards,” and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.

He left the FDA in 1994 and a few years later became Monsanto’s Vice President in charge of lobbying in Washington.  As a lobbyist, Taylor argued AGAINST the Delaney Clause, one of the foundations of food safety regulation that prohibits cancer-causing chemicals to be added to food.

“The American Academy of Environmental Medicine this year said that genetically modified foods, according to animal studies, are causally linked to accelerated aging, dysfunctional immune regulation, organ damage, gastrointestinal distress, and immune system damage. A study came out by the Union of Concerned Scientists confirming what we all know, that genetically modified crops, on average, reduce yield. A USDA report from 2006 showed that farmers don’t actually increase income from GMOs, but many actually lose income. And for the last several years, the United States has been forced to spend $3-$5 billion per year to prop up the prices of the GM crops no one wants.

If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history.  That person is Michael Taylor.” – Jeffrey M. Smith*

It’s deplorable that Michael Taylor who has repeatedly and knowingly endangered the American people is once again in charge of our food safety.

A Winning Pair FDA & USDA!

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto support of genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn.  Vilsack was the origin of the Seed Pre-Emption bill in 2005, which many people in Iowa fought.   The bill took away local government’s possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds such as where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers.  Tom Vilsack was also the founder and former chair of the Governor’s Biotechnology Partnership.

Bill HR 875 nicknamed ‘The Criminalization of Organic Farming and the Take Over of the US Food Supply’

Monsanto is taking massive control over all farms through the falsely named “Food Safety” bills, introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband, Stanley Greenburg got rich from working for Clinton and Monsanto. The agriculture committee is loaded with people who have gotten large donations from Monsanto.  The biggest of the Monsanto bills introduced by DeLauro is HR 875.   Identical bills that have been enacted into law in the European Union resulted in 60% of the Polish farmers are now gone and 60+ UK farmers have committed suicide.  Iraq has been rendered helpless serfs by the theft of their country’s seeds and criminalization of farmers’ collection of their own seed.  By far the most devasting is India, where 182,000 farmers have committed suicide since the WTO and IMF got hold of agriculture and our Big Ag firms went in there, an additional 8 million farmers have left the land altogether.

By comparison to other nations the criminalization of our hard working family farmers is still in it’s infancy.  In Ohio, state ag department SWAT team raid on an organic CoOp, Pennsylvania ag department raids on horse and buggy Mennonites, California setting coliform levels so low fresh milk dairy farmers would need cows that produced pasteurized milk right out the udder, arrest and handcuffing of a single mother in front of her children for selling goat milk, the USDA paying its agents bonuses for foreclosing on farms.  HR-875 will make theses instances look like specs of dust in the devastation it wishes to unleash on Americans.

This is the death of organic food and the criminalization of seed banking.   It is a Monsanto take over and Taylor is here to run it with a few former Monsanto sidekicks – Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court), Ann Veneman (Executive Director of UNICEF).

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Keep the conversation going! Share informative articles such as this with friends, family and colleagues.  Knowledge is power! This is a topic you rarely if ever see on the news, it’s up to us to protect our family, friends and farmers.  Americans need to demand a food safety system that is independent of corporate interests.  Use your buying power; every dollar you spend with organic, local, Monsanto-free farmers, as well as the stores and restaurants that carry their food, is a vote against companies like Monsanto.

CLICK HERE TO DIGG THIS STORY

It will take you less then 5 minutes to read the facts below.  These scientific facts should lead to no other conclusion that top parties (former and present) at Monsanto should face criminal prosecution, not be rewarded with top seats in the American Government.

a VERY Brief Monsanto Background – Monsanto is responsible for the following:

• The Manhattan Project – under Monsanto operation conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb and nuclear weapons.
• Agent Orange – Dow Chemical and Monsanto were the main producers of Agent Orange.  Internal memos from them reveal that at the time Agent Orange was sold to the U.S. government for use in Vietnam it was known that it contained a dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), a by-product of the manufacture 2,4,5-T. The National Toxicology Program has classified TCDD to be a human carcinogen linked to the following diseases as reported by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs: prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
• DDT – Monsanto began producing in 1944 along with 15 other companies. People living in areas where DDT is used for IRS have high levels of the chemical and its breakdown products in their bodies.   These levels have been associated with profound affects on male fertility and neurological abnormalities in babies ingesting relatively large quantities of DDT from breast milk.
• Bovine Growth Horomone (rBGH, BST) - Bovine somatotropin (abbreviated bST and BST) is a protein hormone produced in the pituitary glands of cattle. It is also called bovine growth hormone, or BGH. Monsanto first synthesized the hormone in large quantities using recombinant DNA technology and marketed it as “POSILAC” beginning in 1994. The resulting product is called recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), or artificial growth hormone.  After many legal battles, bad press and public outcry against rBGH Monsanto sold its POSILAC Brand Dairy Product and Related Business to Elanco Animal Health, a division of Eli Lilly and Company in August 2008. Posilac was banned from use in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe, by 2000 or earlier. By 2009, in parts of the United States, consumer desire for “no artificial growth hormones” caused many milk products to become rBST-free
• Sued 100+ Family Farms – The non-profit Center for Food Safety listed 112 lawsuits by Monsanto against farmers for claims of seed patent violations.  Many innocent farmers settle with Monsanto (agree to use their GMO seeds) because they cannot afford the lawsuit from the giant company. Monsanto is frequently described by farmers as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” both because of these lawsuits and because of the questionable means they use to collect evidence of patent infringement.
• RoundUp - This is a deep rabbit whole that is a key element in the current Monsanto compan – I highly recommend watching The World According to Monsanto! Much of Monsanto’s seed products are genetically modified, often to make them immune to their pesticides. In a study by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, researchers found that “these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity (chemical driven liver damage).
• PCBs – Monsanto produced PCBs at plants in Sauget, Illinois and Anniston, Alabama. Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills.  And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents — many emblazoned with warnings such as “CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy” — show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew. Anniston is now one of the most polluted patches of land in America, so saturated with toxic, cancer-causing chemicals, that it’s in the dirt people walk on, in the air that they breathe, even in the blood that pumps through their veins. Due to PCB’s toxicity and classification as persistent organic pollutants, PCB production was banned by the United States Congress in 1976 and by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001.

*Jeffrey M. Smith, International Best Selling Author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods from Chelsea Green Publishing. Smith worked at a GMO detection laboratory, founded the Institute for Responsible Technology, and currently lives in Iowa—surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans.

More detailed Monsanto Articles

BioIntegrity.org |  OrganicConsumers.org |  Vanity Fair 2008 feature article | Combat-Monsanto.co.uk

http://thoughtbubble.org

via Motionographer

Founder of Treehugger.com at GEL Conference 2009 (via The Life Simple)

Thanks to popular films like Food Inc., Monsanto is becoming more of a household term.  But who is Monsanto?  Where did they come from?  Why can saying their name alone bring such outrage that their nickname is the ‘devil’?

Below you will find a great 10 part documentary series free on YouTube in HD.  Since this one company is now controlling a majority of the worlds food supply and it’s unlikely to ever hit your evening news in a big way, take the time now to educate yourself.  Learn more, see how you feel about the company form your own opinions and open up dialog with your friends and family. If you have any trouble viewing the videos below view them on YouTube here.

The World According to Monsanto | part 1 of 10

part 2 of 10

part 3 of 10

part 4 of 10

part 5 of 10

part 6 of 10

part 7 of 10

part 8 of 10

part 9 of 10

part 10 of 10

PHOTO BY: KIESHA JEAN

If you have had the privilege to see Food Inc.  you have seen the horrible truth behind GMO companies.  They are destroying the heart of our great nation by controlling, unlawfully suing and spying on hard working honest farmers.   H.R. 6637, The Genetically Engineered Farmer Protection Act, places liability from the impacts of genetically engineered organisms on the biotechnology companies that created the GMOs, and protects farmers from law suits by biotechnology companies. Dennis Kucinich is fighting for the right to protect farmers from large companies such as Monsanto with H. R. 6637.  Kucinich is proud to give strong and unwavering support to our organic family farmers.

Please fill out the petition below to have North Carolina Congressman Heath Schuler protect farmers rights and support Bill H. R. 6637.  I know our audience reaches far beyond the mountains of Western North Carolina.  If you agree with this bill, please sign the petition and I will forward your information to your elected official.

View the full H. R. 6637 bill

Sign the Petition

You can also share your personal message with Congressman Heath Shuler by clicking here

This message is very near and dear to me.  Our farmers sustain our life with the food that they provide, please help give them a voice.  We can make a difference!  Share this link with your friends | family | coworkers | followers & Digg this submission below.   The bigger the audience the bigger the voice.  Thank you.

note to news and onlines sources: you have our full permission to share this message either in part or whole on your site.

Here’s a short video we cut together from the Warren Wilson College 2009 Mountain Green Sustainability Conference. We decided to open up a dialog with vendors, speakers and attendees asking a simple question, “What does green mean to you?”.

Join in the Conversation:

Share a short video asking you, your friends and family, “What does green mean to you?”
Email your answer, video, or link to hi@WeAreGreen.tv

Related and Suggested Posts:
Mountain Green Sustainability Conference

FUEL is an insightful portrait of America’s addiction to oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy solutions. Director, Josh Tickell, a young activist, shuttles us on a whirlwind journey to track the rising domination of the petrochemical industry — from Rockefeller’s strategy to halt Ford’s first ethanol cars to Vice President Cheney’s petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation — and reveals a gamut of available solutions to “repower America” — from vertical farms that occupy skyscrapers to algae facilities that turn wastewater into fuel. Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists, policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America’s complicated, often ignominious energy past and illuminate a hopeful, achievable future, where decentralized, sustainable living is not only possible, it’s imperative.

Selected Appearances by Barbara Boxer, Richard Branson, Sheryl Crow, Laurie David, Larry David, James Gennaro, John Paul DeJoria, Larry Hagman, Woody Harrelson, Jay Inslee, Jack Johnson, Robert Kennedy Jr, Bud Mcfarlane, Willie Nelson, Julia Roberts, Josh Tickell, Neil Young, Smudo, Jim Woolsey, Neil Young

http://thefuelfilm.com

Submit WeAreGreen.tv to their Great Green Blog Challenge!

The proposed wind permitting bill, the subject of the first 250 MW Action email, has been changed to the point it would EFFECTIVELY BAN all wind power in Western North Carolina!! Even worse, this bill appears ready for a committee vote this coming Tuesday, evidently taking advantage of this holiday weekend to slip it under the proverbial radar.

1. EMAIL – copy and paste these committee  member email addresses [ bob.atwater@ncleg.net; don.davis@ncleg.net; david.weinstein@ncleg.net;joesam.queen@ncleg.net; charlie.albertson@ncleg.net; ab.swindell@ncleg.net; John.Snow@ncleg.net] and send a message with the subject  “Restore the Wind Permitting Bill, Don’t BAN Wind Power!”
2. CALL as many of these members as you possibly can. If we can flood their in-boxes and answering machines with support for the original language by Monday and Tuesday, this irrational, covert effort to ban wind power can be prevented.
3. SHARE this post with anyone who you think cares about clean energy, good jobs, environmental protection and will contact these committee members immediately!!!!

Phone Numbers

Austin Allrand 919 733 5876
Bob Atwater (committee Chair) 919 715 3036
Ellie Kinard 919 733 5804
Don Davis 919 733 5621
David Weinstein 919 733 5651
Joe Sam Queen 919 733 5705
John Snow 919 733 5875A. B. Swindell 919 715 3030

The information below is from Dr. Dennis Scanlon, Professor at ASU Boone, who has been actively involved with the Wind Working Group, who developed the original language.

“The NC Senate Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources is set to vote on revised version of Senate Bill 1068, Permitting Wind Energy Facilities in NC, on Tuesday July 7th that will ban all wind energy projects in the NC mountains, driving away jobs, economic benefits, and clean electricity from the region.

The original text of this bill was to clarify that wind turbines 100 kW or below were excluded in the North Carolina Mountain Ridge Protection Act. Wind turbines above 100 kW were excluded from the North Carolina Mountain Ridge Protection Act to the extent allowed by a local county or government. This allowed local governments to decide how to use local resources.

However, the new revised text of this bill states that ” “Tall buildings or structures” include wind turbines for the generation of electricity and wind energy facilities as defined in G.S. 113A-103. “Tall buildings or structures” do not include:
a. Water, radio, telephone or television towers or any equipment for the transmission of electricity or communications or both.

b. Structures of a relatively slender nature and minor vertical projections of a parent building, including chimneys, flagpoles, flues, spires, steeples, belfries, cupolas, antennas, poles, wires, or windmills.windmills when the windmill is a solitary structure and is not used to generate electricity for the public for compensation.”

This will essentially eliminate all wind energy projects in the NC Mountains. Keeping hundreds of new jobs, millions of local economic development dollars, and renewable electricity out of our state.

It is unclear to me how the NC senate can expect our utilities to meet their REPS requirements if they are banning the most cost effective resource?

And its not as if the bill doesn’t protect the environment, viewshed, and ecological habitats that are sensitive in the NC mountains. In fact, in the original bill a permit would not be issued by the state for wind energy projects that “significantly impacted” viewsheds, avian species, and ecological habitats from the following areas, Blue Ridge Parkway, Appalachian Trail, State Parks, National Parks, Spruce Fir Habitats, Important Bird Areas, and Natural Heritage Areas.

The original bill protected high recreational areas from wind energy projects by providing state oversight (a permit would be required from the state before any facility could be constructed), while allowing local government to decide how they wanted to utilize local wind resources. In fact, counties such as Ashe and Watagua had already established local guidelines to wind turbines that included requirements for different sizes, and in Ashe County, a height restriction. Other mountain counties are moving forward with wind projects, but I don’t suppose our legislators have bothered to pay attention to what is happening in their own districts.

Come Monday morning, I will personally be contacting committee members, as I am shocked as to how Raleigh has no idea about the feasibility of wind energy in the mountains, and the economic benefits to the communities, residents, and governments that wind energy brings to the places that need it most.

While I strongly supported the original S1068 bill, I stand strongly opposed to the revised version.”

We are totally dumbfounded as to why you would even think to ban something that will only help our economy and environment.

Thank you Ken Wolfe for bringing this to our attention!

Majestic Birds Make a Big Impact at the Mountain Green Conference

By far one of the most popular attractions at the conference was the Carolina Raptor exhibition!  The center brought 3 of it’s educational birds to visit for the day including two owls and a hawk.  The raptor center does it’s best to rehabilitate and release birds back into the wild.  The birds that are part of the education program are unable to be returned to the wild but sure do a huge service for their kind.  The raptors make a tremendous impact on children and adults which helps to tell their story and raise funds to help rescue and rehabilitate others.   In the very near future WeAreGreen.tv will be visiting the center and we hope to tell you more about their incredible story and share some amazing photos and video!

With your support, you can help other orphaned raptors be released into the wild.

Click Here to make a donation

Bald Eagle Release on The 4th of July! “Carolina Raptor Center will release a bald eagle in honor of North Carolina’s veterans and fallen service men and women. The event will be at McGuire Nuclear Station’s EnergyExplorium. The free event begins at 8:30 AM, led by military and political leaders, culminating with the eagle release at 9:15 AM. Local and state dignitaries expected to attend with keynote speaker Colonel Charles A. Dunn II of Pope Air Force Base. Local veteran and Mayor of Davidson, John Woods will release the eagle.”  Click Here for more info on this event.

Race Car Driver Leilani Munter Making a Difference at Top Speed!

Kelly Miller (Senior Vice President & Executive Director of the Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau) introduced Leilani Munter a.k.a. Carbon Free Girl.    Leilani is a biology graduate, racecar driver, vegetarian and environmental spokeswoman.  Her keynote speech helped to inspire both young an old to do all that is possible to help the environment.

Leilani’s extraordinary mission to stay carbon neutral has proven to be quite the challenge yet she remains strong.  Leilani is going the extra mile only accepting ‘Green’ sponsors for her race car.  This challenging step has kept her off the track for a short period while on her mission to green her car.

So, any of you forward thinking green businesses out there who want a cool female racecar driver as part of your marketing contact:

Leilani’s Eco Dream Team

Blown Away by Speaker Eric Henry of TS Designs!

TS Designs prints and dyes T-Shirts.   What sets them apart is their 3-part bottom line that focuses equally on People, Planet and Profit.  They use local and organic cottons and top quality low impact dieing process.

We were so blown away by Erics A+ quality shirt and mission that we’ll soon be dedicating a few post to the companies incredible mission and achievements.

One of these future post will include the full video of his presentation at the Mountain Green Sustainability Conference.

TS Designs has an industrial location with:

• A small farm that employees volunteer in and benefit from.
• Solar panels on the roof
• Bio-diesel station out front along with a Bio-Diesel Co-op facility
• Walking path
• Beehive
• Natural landscaping based on permaculture
• Compost & compost heating
• Recycled carpet
• Water free urinal and grey water toilet

… I mean really what has your business implemented lately!  Just buying recycled paper, take it up a notch or ten. Click here to see a full tour of the complex and be inspired.

Some of our Favorite Vendors at the Conference

The image above is from the Living Roofs display.  The plants they use are so pretty, I would need to have a roof top garden just to admire them.  I was really impressed with Alkemi Recyled Surface Material I’ve never seen such beautiful textured material green or otherwise a really impressive product.  Click below to see images