In the city of Richmond, people can get everything they need to start their own urban gardens, with a little help from the local library. The seedbank at the Richmond library is the brainchild of school teacher Rebecca Newburn. “I think it takes and connects a lot of dots for me - it’s creating community. People are coming together and we’re sharing our resources and sharing our skills.” The seeds are rented at no cost, but you do have to fill out the correct forms and attend a small workshop. Information on each type of plant is typed on index cards and color-coded to show how hard or easy they are to grow. The seeds may be free, but that doesn’t mean you get them for nothing. At the end of the growing season you have to bring back your new seeds, so somebody else can borrow them and keep the idea passing forward.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7612093

- Protecting the brains of our future generation needs to be a primary goal of any sane society. When you study child development and IQ’s, it is astonishing what even a few IQ points mean. Our society values mere dollars- if it’s cheaper, it’s better. Again the equation needs to place a reasonable price on IQ points to show a truer picture. Lose of IQ points alone should end coal. And what about other health impacts, with these reproductive and developmental toxicants, mutagens, and carcinogens? - Editor

If you want smarter kids, shut coal plants
A major new study by the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health finds:
“Closing coal-fired power plants can have a direct, positive impact on children’s cognitive development and health….prenatal exposure to coal-burning emissions was associated with significantly lower average developmental scores and reduced motor development at age two. In the second unexposed group, these adverse effects were no longer observed; and the frequency of delayed motor developmental was significantly reduced.
For the report- http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1289/ehp.11480
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/15/study-if-you-want-smarter-kids-shut-coal-plants/
(The book cover is not real but should be!)

- With natural gas being touted as the “bridge fuel,”  we need to look seriously at what this really means. We strongly recommend you watch and share with everyone the video “Split Estate”  (http://www.splitestate.com/buy_dvd.html) and now you can add an East Coast version with the 11 minute Vanity Fair video “Know the Drill.” We think that we know the costs of natural gas or petroleum, yet these new expansions right in people’s yards and using new technologies are revealing themselves to be horribly expensive, both in dollars IF we did full-cost accounting, and to life itself. Real estate prices are dropping along the Gulf as well- see Gulf property sales slide further on oil fears-  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100623/ap_on_bi_ge/us_oil_spill_real_estate . Shall we make our planet worthless bit by bit? Aren’t those solar panels, wind turbines and electric cars looking more and more beautiful? And more and more affordable when we total the true costs of fossil fuels? - Editor

A Colossal Fracking Mess 
As drillers seek to commence (natural gas) fracking operations in the Delaware River basin watershed and in other key watersheds in New York State -all of which sit atop large repositories of natural gas trapped in shale rock deep underground- concerned residents, activists, and government officials are pointing to Dimock as an example of what can go wrong when this form of drilling is allowed to take place without proper regulation. Some are pointing to a wave of groundwater-contamination incidents and mysterious health problems out West, in Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming, where hydraulic fracturing has been going on for years as part of a massive oil-and-gas boom, and saying that fracking should not be allowed at all in delicate ecosystems like the Delaware River basin.
 
The Sautners (who have drilling right next to their house) now rely on water delivered to them every week. The value of their land has been decimated. Their children no longer take showers at home. They desperately want to move but cannot afford to buy a new house on top of their current mortgage.
“Our land is worthless,” says Craig. “Who is going to buy this house?”

The people who have been burned badly by their firsthand experience with what you might call the New Natural Gas, and who have not gone silent, are spreading their message of acute disillusionment, ecological destruction, land-value decimation, and serious health concerns. As I sit and talk with the members of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, news reports from the tragic Deepwater Horizonleak in the Gulf pop up from time to time on their computers. The disaster serves as a grim backdrop to our conversation, reinforcing the hazards of pushing forward with experimental forms of drilling whose risks are not well understood.
For the video- Know the Drill
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/06/fracking-in-pennsylvania-20100

- This BP Gulf disaster has so many ramifications. One not mentioned is that it is a shot across the bow of one of the American major food systems- billions of food dollars a year are on hold, and it is likely that the economic and nutritional impacts could last decades, if not longer. With the diverse causes of weakening major food areas around the globe, it only makes sense to get actively involved in building comprehensive local food systems which inherently allow for greater adaptability in a changing world. This Gulf oil volcano is now said to be two Exxon Valdez spills every week.

When are we going to end this yet another corporate loophole that allows companies to douse our air and water and hide the chemical compositions of the products? Chemicals that can impact our health should not be a secret. - Editor

 
Plane dropping dispersants

The oil gusher also poses a less visible, but just as dangerous, threat to public health from the oil, its fumes, and the dispersants—the chemicals used to clean up the oil. All can be highly toxic and harm the health of those exposed to them, especially volunteers and workers engaged in cleanup operations and those with respiratory ailments, the elderly, and young children living on the Gulf Coast.
 
- We know that Exxon Valdez cleanup workers faced average oil mist exposure that was 12 times higher than government-approved limits, and those who washed the beach with hot water experienced a maximum exposure 400 times higher than these limits. Many of those workers suffered subsequent health problems and in 1989, 1,811 workers filed compensation claims, primarily for respiratory system damage.
- But what may be an even larger problem are the unknown, long-term health effects of the dispersants. BP has reportedly bought up more than a third of the world’s supply of these dispersants. The issue is that we do not actually know what chemicals are in many of these dispersants, or what their long-term effects will be since their exact makeup is kept secret under competitive trade laws. Dispersants accumulate in living organisms at very high concentrations and harmed the developing hearts of both Pacific herring and pink salmon embryos in the Exxon Valdez spill. The herring population has never rebounded, even 20 years after the spill, due to a combination of issues including disease and poor nutrition from decreased plankton production.
- The National Academies of Science 2005 report on these dispersants included several sobering cautions, including how the chemicals are tested in the first place. Most lab studies use the fluorescent lighting usually found in the labs when they test toxicity and chemical breakdown, but research conducted under conditions more equivalent to natural sunlight indicate that toxicity increases significantly after sun exposure - by 12 to 50,000 times as much.
http://climateprogress.org/2010/05/19/the-bp-oil-disaster-is-a-health-disaster-too/
Photo from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/05/oil_public_health_html

-This is AFTER hundreds of thousands of gallons have been dispersed into waters where we get food? - Editor
EPA demands less toxic dispersant
The Environmental Protection Agency informed BP officials late Wednesday that the company has 24 hours to choose a less toxic form of chemical dispersants to break up its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to government sources familiar with the decision, and must apply the new form of dispersants within 72 hours of submitting the list of alternatives.

The move is significant, because it suggests federal officials are now concerned that the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants could pose a significant threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s marine life. BP has been using two forms of dispersants, Corexit 9500A and Corexit 9527A, and so far has applied 600,000 gallons on the surface and 55,000 underwater. “Dispersants have never been used in this volume before,” said an administration official. Britain banned some formulations of the dispersant the government is now using, Corexit, more than a decade ago.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/climate-change/post-carbon/2010/05/epa_demands_less_toxic_dispersant.html

The U.S. National Institutes of Health says it has identified specific medical consequences of climate change that require further research. The NIH report highlights key disease categories and other health consequences researchers say are occurring or will occur due to climate change. The scientists said their study provides a starting point for coordination of federal research to better understand climate’s impact on human health and identify who will be most vulnerable and what efforts will be most beneficial.
For the report-
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/04/22/Climate-change-and-human-health-studied/UPI-74711271956325/

- People these days refer to an idea “going viral.” We reported on this Windowfarms Project months ago, and now, six months since it started, people are communicating via the internet from countries all around the world, with a growing number of “do-it-yourselfers” making constant improvements on this simple concept. “Ordinary people collectively solving environmental problems!” The short video is a fantastic example of how rapidly change can occur through a mass collaborative online. - Editor
 

Window Farming: A Do-It-Yourself Veggie Venture
For the 3 minute You Tube video- http://www.cityfarmer.info/2010/04/11/see-how-windowfarms-work/#more-4764
For the window farm website, including free instructions - http://www.windowfarms.org/
For an article and audio on NPR’s Weekend Edition- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125504307

- Here’s a useful tool when fighting coal- you don’t even have to believe in climate change to create coal consciousness! Thank you PSR! - Editor
 

Coal’s Assault on Human Health
Physicians for Social Responsibility has released a groundbreaking medical report, “Coal’s Assault on Human Health,” which takes a new look at the devastating impacts of coal on the human body. Coal combustion releases mercury, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and dozens of other substances known to be hazardous to human health. This report looks at the cumulative harm inflicted by those pollutants on three major body organ systems: the respiratory system, the cardiovascular system, and the nervous system. The report also considers coal’s contribution to global warming, and the health implications of global warming.
For the report- http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/psr-coal-fullreport.pdf
http://www.psr.org/resources/coals-assault-on-human-health.html

- We will not solve nor adapt to the climate problem without major changes in our massive out-of-balance food systems. When Michelle heard from the family doctor her children might be at risk, she took successful action away from the poor food norms of today and realized she needed to focus on the bigger picture. Good news!! - Editor
 

First lady meets with lawmakers on child obesity
First lady Michelle Obama invited a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Cabinet members to the White House Tuesday to help firm up plans for her national campaign against childhood obesity. The meeting signaled the first lady’s intent to be involved not just in talking about the problem, but in crafting specific solutions. The first lady plans to release specifics of her “ground-up” plan to fight child obesity next week, including steps to encourage schools to promote healthy eating, increase physical activity for kids, improve families’ access to healthy foods and give parents better information about healthy choices. Almost one-third of U.S. children are at least overweight, and about 17 percent are obese.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020202334.html
and for her personal experience in needing to improve her own children’s diet and exercise-
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/michelle-obama-makes-obesity-285946.html?cxntlid=daylf_artr