E.U. Push on Animal Welfare May Open New Trade Front With U.S. - NYTimes.com

BRUSSELS — One of the first things the European Union’s new health and consumer affairs commissioner did after taking office was to approve the planting of a genetically modified potato in Europe — riling environmentalists but giving hope to U.S. officials that an end to a long trade dispute over biotech crops might be in sight.
But John Dalli, who began his first official visit to Washington on Monday, may open a new, potentially disruptive front: animal welfare.
In an interview ahead of the trip, Mr. Dalli said he planned to tell his American counterparts that he intended to propose a new law on animal welfare.


(by James Kanter - NY Times - Published April 26, 2010)
Read the full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/business/global/27dalli.html?pagewanted=1&src=busln

Photographer of endangered wildlife in race against time, apathy - CNN.com

Washington (CNN) -- Joel Sartore's photograph of gentle Bryn is a permanent record, but she has been lost forever.

The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit died in 2008 shortly after the picture was taken. She was the last of her kind.

(See more portraits and read the full article at cnn.com)

Sartore, who has worked for the National Geographic Society for two decades, called the brief shooting session with the doomed rabbit a "solemn occasion," knowing she would not be around much longer.

Bryn is one of dozens of animals profiled in a new book, "Rare: Portraits of America's Endangered Species," by the award-winning photographer.

Sartore, a Nebraska native, traveled the country to get glimpses of 69 species -- red wolves, Hawaiian orchids, hellbenders (a prehistoric-looking salamander), and sea turtles -- all now or once hanging on the verge of extinction.

As the United States celebrated Earth Day on Thursday, Sartore talked with CNN recently about his passion for raising awareness about preserving the variety of animal and plant life before it is too late.

Read the full article at cnn.com:

Photographer of endangered wildlife in race against time, apathy - CNN.com

Early Animal Rights Poem Discovered: A Mouse's Plea : NPR

He was just an ordinary mouse, nothing special. He lived, very briefly, 237 years ago, in the laboratory of a great chemist, Joseph Priestley. Here he sits, in his cage.
A painting of a forlorn mouse in jail
Benjamin Arthur

There were lots of mice in Priestley's lab. He had made his reputation as one of the first scientists to identify oxygen. He studied mice to figure out what happens inside animals as they breathe. This meant he regularly opened them to examine lungs, veins, arteries, to see that blood changed color when it moved through lungs. And since tuberculosis -- or "consumption" -- was the scourge of that era, lung research seemed like a valuable thing to do.

But animals didn't last long in Priestley's lab, especially mice. So many died that his lab assistant, a young woman named Anna Barbauld, decided that Priestley should give his lab animals a little more respect. It was, after all, 1773, just a few years before Lexington, Concord and the Declaration of Independence. On both sides of the Atlantic, "inalienable rights" were a rallying cry, and Anna, a young wife and poet, decided to write a protest poem. She called it "The Mouse's Petition to Dr. Priestley, Found in the Trap where he had been Confined all Night."
Early Animal Rights Poem Discovered: A Mouse's Plea : NPR

Sea Shepherd Whale Defense Campaign Saves 528 Whales - Sea Shepherd

 Sea Shepherd News 

Operation Waltzing Matilda is a Spectacular Success
The Japanese whaling fleet set out for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with a permit issued by the Japanese government to kill 935 protected Minke whales, 50 endangered fin whales and 50 endangered humpback whales. Their objective was to kill 1035 whales in total.
Intervention by the three ships of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society prevented them from taking that number. Sea Shepherd crewmembers were successful in cutting that kill quota by more than half. Their success at saving the humpbacks was 100%, and their success at saving fin whales was 98%.
Of the fifty humpback whales that were targeted, they did not take a single one.
Of the fifty fin whales that were targeted, they managed to kill only one.
Of the 935 targeted Minke whales, they killed 506.
In total, the illegal Japanese whalers murdered 507 whales.
Sea Shepherd successfully saved 528 whales- our biggest impact on the whale quota to date.

Read the full article:
http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100412-1.html

MIT researchers create super efficient 'origami' solar panels | MNN - Mother Nature Network

"This was a fully 'bio-inspired' idea," said researcher Jeffrey Grossman, a theoretical physicist at MIT. "I was hiking up at Lake Tahoe in California and noticing the shapes of trees, and wondering, 'Why do they have a given shape over another?'"

EcoATM Aims to Decrease E-Waste | Recycling for Charities

The green movement is here and there are efforts on all fronts to make sure it not only stays around but continues to grow. The ideas and creativity behind the Green movement have showed that everyone has the capabilities to recycle. Although, it may be on different levels some more intense than others, the opportunity to recycle now may find you instead of you having to look for it. That is exactly the case in Omaha, Nebraska where the new EcoATM has made its way on to the scene.
The Nebraska Furniture Mart is the first location to install the EcoAtm, and is serving as a test study for a possible advance in a future release. EcoATM is a San Diego start up company that used to be known as Remobile. The have developed a self-service kiosk, also known as EcoATM which is focused on decreasing the amount of e-waste in the environment along with promoting an easy and convenient way to recycle old cell phones. The e-cycling stations inspects all cell phones and assigns them an up to date secondary market value and then provides an in store payment. If the phone has no monetary value the consumer can assign it to the recycling bin and off it goes.

EcoATM has declared the Nebrasksa machine an instant success, since its September 21st start up date. The success comes on two fronts both with the number of cell phones recycled and the amount of trade up purchases. On the very first day the station received 23 phones to be recycled and on the second day paid out over $100 for recycled phones it received.
EcoATM has big plans ahead of them, planning on installing kiosks across the nation. By setting up stations in San Diego, Texas, Washington State, and Vermont in this quarter alone. EcoATM also has plans for a massive roll out of the machines to happen in the second quarter of next year. Eventually the machines will be able to recognize other devices such as MP3 players, digital cameras, notebooks, printers, and storage devices.
The machines use a camera based system to assess the condition of the cell phones. The cameras are able to detect signs of wear and tear from a cracked screen to missing keys and to determine the value of the device. The question that may arise here, is can a machine inspect the device with the same accuracy as a human? This question is still up in the air but nonetheless with the success of the EcoATM in Nebraska there will be many more stations to test that question.
With technology becoming a friend of the Green movement, there will be more innovating approaches to protect the planet. The EcoATM is just one of many new ideas that have arisen to attack the overwhelming amount of e-waste that is being released into the environment.
http://www.recyclingforcharities.com/blog/?p=60

Homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and missions directory for USA & Canada!

Grieving Kettleman City mothers tackle a toxic waste dump - Los Angeles Times

Each had miscarried or given birth to a child with birth defects. Their pain gave them strength to fight for justice.
March 30, 2010|By Louis Sahagun

Reporting from Kettleman City, Calif. — On a rainy afternoon in a cramped trailer, the five homemakers listened as state officials with clipboards asked personal questions: Did they or their husbands smoke, drink or take illicit drugs? Had they been exposed to pesticides or other toxic substances in the United States or Mexico? Do their families have histories of birth defects?

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE RESOURCES

invisible5: ej_resources

Start tracking toxics in your community with this list of onlines resources, books, research, data, documents, and links to organizations.

invisible5: ej_resources