Blog
Protect people, not oil companies
Last week, BP's "top kill" effort, in which mud and other objects were forced into the blown-out oil well in the gulf to try and stanch the flow of oil, failed. Now, BP engineers are attempting to stop the gusher on the ocean floor by cutting the breached riser pipe on top of the well and placing a cap over the top of the newly-cut pipe. This strategy, if it fails, will most likely increase the flow of oil coming from the well. Read More
Bonn Negotiations, May 31st-June 11th, 2010: U.S. Submission
Last December, President Obama accepted a Nobel Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" and his "constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting.” He characterized the Prize as “as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.” Yet in Copenhagen, President Obama squandered a historic opportunity to embody this necessary leadership in the global fight against the climate crisis. Read More
Why are nanosunscreens still unlabelled and unregulated on the market?
Furthermore, none of the nanocosmetics or nanosunscreens on the U.S. market are subject to a premarket safety assessment by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would require special tests for effects unique to nanoscale ingredients before being put on the shelves (FDA, 2003). Read More
Nano in the Gulf oil spill: Two wrongs don’t make a right
A corporation has asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve one of their products containing manufactured nanoparticles for oil clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico. We sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson demanding this risky experiment not be allowed, citing the many health concerns posed by manufactured nanoparticles. The letter was signed by 17 public-interest organizations from the U.S., Canada, and South America. Read More
Bioenergy in the Draft American Power Act
Bioenergy has long been presented as the sustainable alternative to crude oil and natural gas. Though science suggests that bioenergy is unsustainable and has the potential to cause severe ecological damage, Congress has promoted bioenergy as the best alternative to our current dependence on foreign oil. The draft American Power Act (APA) is no different. It encourages unsustainable bioenergy production while also weakening current law that prevents deforestation. The draft American Power Act, if enacted, would result in global warming pollution and biodiversity loss. Read More
Resources for Journalists: Our Growing Addiction to Dirty Oil from Canada’s Tar Sands
In the wake of the drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, public support for more drilling is sinking and politicians are looking for alternatives to offshore oil. The resources linked to below are designed to assist journalists in covering one dangerous energy alternative that oil industry giants like BP are promoting: Canada’s tar sands. Read More
Friends of the Earth Sues, Petitions EPA on Failure to Regulate Biofuels
The Clean Air Task Force and Friends of the Earth filed both a lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals and a petition to EPA to reconsider elements of its recently released regulations on the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 amended the RFS, increasing the biofuels mandate to 36 billion gallons to be used by 2022. Read More
Venter’s “living” organism a wake-up call to regulate synthetic biology
On May 20, 2010, the J. Craig Venter Institute announced the creation of the first living organism with an entirely synthetic genome. Venter's lab inserted computer-created synthetic DNA based on the organism's natural DNA into the organism. This organism is now able to self-replicate. Much of the hype around this announcement proclaims that life has been made from scratch, but Venter only created a copy of what nature has created over billions of years. Read More