It should no longer come as a surprise when fresh evidence of corruption emerges from the inextricably tangled web of collusion between governments and gigantic multi-national corporations. But sometimes it just gets personal. At the top of HuffPo first thing this morning is the release of a study detailing research that has been deliberately hidden, about birth defects from the ubiquitous herbicide, Round-up:
"Industry regulators have known for years that Roundup, the world's best-selling herbicide produced by U.S. company Monsanto, causes birth defects, according to a new report released Tuesday.
The report, "Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?" found regulators knew as long ago as 1980 that glyphosate, the chemical on which Roundup is based, can cause birth defects in laboratory animals.
But despite such warnings, and although the European Commission has known that glyphosate causes malformations since at least 2002, the information was not made public.
Instead regulators misled the public about glyphosate's safety, according to the report, and as recently as last year, the German Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, the German government body dealing with the glyphosate review, told the European Commission that there was no evidence glyphosate causes birth defects."
Well, they certainly had me fooled! Until very recently I spewed that stuff all over the gravel driveway at Wit's End, to keep the weeds down - and even worse, all over various invasive species especially the thorny, dreaded, hydra-headed multi-flora rose! God knows how many butterflies and hummingbirds died as a result.
So thanks, government regulatory agencies, for informing me that Round-up is hideously toxic!
From the report summary:
"All these concerns could be addressed by an objective review of Roundup and glyphosate inline with the more stringent new EU pesticide regulation due to come into force in June 2011. Just such a review was due to take place in 2012. However, shortly after the Commission was noticed of the latest research showing that glyphosate and Roundup cause birth defects, it quietly passed a directive delaying the review of glyphosate and 38 other dangerous pesticides until 2015. This delay is being challenged in a lawsuit brought against the Commission by Pesticides Action Network Europe and Greenpeace."
To understand just how such abominations fall seamlessly into place in a world where industries like Koch, Monsanto, Bayer and Blackwater select and subsequently own politicians (did you think your vote mattered?), set aside some time to watch this ruthlessly unsentimental movie - or for brevity, the major themes of which are amplified with surgical precision on this post at Decline of the Empire:
Latest from global warming:
ReplyDeletehttp://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=238365&mid=1809747#M1809747
Seriously, PLovering? The world isn't warming? Have you not noticed the record-breaking heat waves, droughts and the incredible fucking wildfires??
ReplyDeleteAtlanta's burning up. This is nuts, seriously. Normally, there are an average of 10 days in June that are in the 90's, and that's usually in the latter part of the month. Last June, there were 19 days in the 90's and this year, the first eight days have all been in the 90's and the forecast for the next two weeks is for the 90's. And, no rain in sight...and we had only an inch, or less, in May. Considering the ozone issue and its effect on the trees, if you then throw in brutal heat and no water, I think we know what that spells. It's called Dubai.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Dubai without the enormous wealth that enables it to import everything essential to support life in a desert.
ReplyDeleteMorroco Bama, I think by the end of this summer most of us will not recognize our world - let along in a few years down the road.
Gail: Do you truly believe our record-breaking heat waves, droughts, and wildfires are the works of Mother Nature?
ReplyDeleteIf so, shares in my Dear Departed Communications Company are dirt cheap at the moment.
Not at all, PLovering. I believe what SCIENCE HAS BEEN TELLING US FOR SEVERAL DECADES - adding greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere by burning copious quantities of fuel WILL destabilize the climate leading to extreme and dangerous weather, which just so happens to be exactly what we are seeing happen. And it's going to get worse. The number of events will multiply, the range will expand, the intensity will increase, and the amount of outside help survivors of disaster can expect will dwindle to nothing.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't take a conspiracy theory to explain trees dying from pollution, people getting cancer, oceans becoming acidified, and species disappearing. People are trashing the planet right in the open. The only thing secretive about it is the mass delusion that we can shit in our nest indefinitely with no adverse consequences.