Arctic: 2750 contaminated sites. Source: Bois (2009).
By Gundhramns Hammer June 7, 2015
No place on Earth escapes the impact of human activities. Not even the frozen poles. We humans have become geotrashing agents. As geotrashing agents, bluntly speaking, we have fucked up Earth. We have turned this planet into a waste dump. Let us take the Arctic, for example.
Bois (2009) has reported a total of 2750 contaminated sites (Table 1) where humans have dumped different types of pollutants (Table 2) in the Arctic alone.
Table 1. Number of contaminated sites in the Arctic.
Data from Bois (2009).
Country
Number
of contaminated sites
Alaska (USA)
509
Canada
662
Finland
169
Greenland
468
Norway (including
Svalbard)
524
Sweden
418
Russia
n/a
Total number of contaminated sites in the Arctic
2750
Table 2. Inventory of pollutants in the Arctic. Data from Bois (2009).
Obviously, Bois (2009) has done an excellent job investigating and recording the contaminated sites in the Arctic. It is a must to read. Unfortunately this is not the end of man´s geotrashing line. Things in the Arctic are bound to become even worse. Man´s geostrategic games are already changing in the North with the melting icecaps due to man-made global warming. Thus, there is a rush for the Arctic. Faced with an ever increasing mass of consumers always demanding new products in the global markets, oil and mineral companies will do their best to get the new resources to satisfy unsatisfiable customers. For the time being and at a time when we are running out of time, it seems that our goal still is nothing but to make this beautiful planet a barren land. How fucking stupid can Homo sapiens be? Only time wil tell.
References Bois R. des (2009). 2750 contaminated sites in Arctic. Polar Star Nº 2. Related article: NUUK AND
CONTAMINATED NOOKS AND CRANNIES IN GREENLAND
“You do not repair
the climate of an entire planet without staggering sacrifices unless the burden
is shared with something like parity. To put that as succinctly as possible,
the days of paradise for a few are drawing to a close. The game of finding someone
else in some convenient misery to fight our wars, pull our rickshaws, and serve
as the offset for our every filthy indulgence is just about up. It is either
Earth for all of us or hell for most of us.”
The iconic Tasmanian swift parrot is facing population
collapse and could become extinct within 16 years, new research has
found.
The researchers have called on the Federal Government to list the
birds as critically endangered.
"Swift parrots are in far worse trouble
than anybody previously thought," said leader of the study, Professor Robert
Heinsohn, from The Australian National University (ANU).
"Everyone,
including foresters, environmentalists and members of the public will be
severely affected if they go extinct," said Professor Heinsohn from the ANU
Fenner School of Environment and Society.
Swift parrots are major
pollinators of blue and black gum trees which are crucial to the forestry
industry, which controversially continues to log swift parrot
habitat.
The five-year study discovered that swift parrots move between
different areas of Tasmania each year to breed, depending on where food is
available.
The new data was combined with a previous study that showed
that swift parrots are preyed on heavily by sugar gliders, especially in
deforested areas.
The research predicted that the population of the birds
will halve every four years, with a possible decline of 94.7 per cent over 16
years.
A moratorium on logging in swift parrot habitat is needed until
new plans for their protection can be drawn up, said co-researcher, Dr Dejan
Stojanovic, also from ANU Fenner School.
"Current approaches to swift
parrot management look rather inadequate," he said.
"Our models are a
wake-up call. Actions to preserve their forest habitat cannot wait."
The
research has been published in the latest edition of Biological
Conservation.
Is the Plastic Trash Island floating in the Pacific Ocean
a myth? Are we getting poisoned?
How long do we have before a worldwide
disaster happen?
This Documentary includes interview from Capt. Moore
(Algalita Marine Research Institute), Anna Cummins (5 gyres Institute), Dr
Andrea Neal (Jean-Michel Cousteau), Surfrider Foundation and a variety of
Scientist and Doctors who have been researching how bad the situation is.
It
will give you a real idea of how much damage we are creating and how fast we
have to stop in order to survive the future.
By Gundhramns Hammer May 4, 2015 Select, paste & translate Upon hearing the name "pineapple", average Europeans or Americans might conjure images of the lushy tropical vegetation and its great variety of fruits.
For those of you hunting after pineapples, here are a few questions:
Do you like pineapples?
Do you enjoy eating this tropical fruit?
Do you know anything about the working conditions of the workers that slave away picking up the pineapples somewhere in the tropics?
Do you give a damn about them?
Do you care about the toxic chemicals used in pineapple monocultures?
Do you care about the social and ecological impact this crop has on the local communities and environment where this fruit is planted?
If so, we have an interesting documentary (Video 1) for you which will show you the truth multinationals do not want you to know about pineapples. We will go to Costa Rica to find out what is going on there:
Guerras de precios de los supermercados, residuos tóxicos
y frutas tropicales. Una producción de Guardian Films para Consumers
International y la OCU, este documental de investigación expone condiciones
sociales y ambientales inaceptables que padecen las comunidades productoras de
piña en Costa Rica ... y por qué los supermercados más importantes de Europa
deben compartir la culpa.
Video 1. The dark side of pineapples (El lado oscuro de las piñas). Uploaded by Consumers International.
This is basically what happens wherever pineapples are cultivated in the tropics, whether it is in Nigeria, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia, Panama (Fig. 1) or anywhere else.
Figure 1. Worker applying pesticides in pineapple (Ananas comosus) field in Panama. Source: OIRSA (2000).
It is a crop that requires human labour and intensive use of agrochemicals, particularly herbicides and insecticides.
Now you know. It is up to you whether you buy this delicious fruit when imported and sold in the supermarkets in your city.
Unless you grow them ecologically, which means no use of man-made chemicals and living in the tropics, pineapples (Ananas comosus) sold in our supermarkets always contain residues of dangerous agrochemicals such as glyphosate, and multiple organophosphate and organochlorine compounds such asaldrin, parathion, DDT, endosulfan, heptachlor, disulfoton, dimethoate (Gutiérrez et al., 2010), amongst others.
Consider yourself lucky if you can get this delicious fruit through fair trade which is being implemented in some tropical countries (e.g., Costa Rica).
But beware of tricksters that might use fair trade to do some wheeling and dealing!