Category Archives: #ecology

An Involuntary Spy cited by Phawker.com

http://www.phawker.com/2015/07/09/editorial-the-revolving-outhouse-door-of-d-c/

taylorsplash

100 Best Sci Fi Books | I Must Read

An Involuntary Spy is named one of best 100 sci-fi books

Looking for best sci fi books? We have compiled a list of good sci fi books for all science fiction readers.

Source: 100 Best Sci Fi Books | I Must Read

Geoengineering: Like GMO on Steroids for the Environment

Pollution from a power plant using coal to generate electricity

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Geoengineering-Like-GMO-o-by-Kenneth-G-Eade-New-Year-Resolution-150102-574.html

It’s a new year, and everyone is talking about how it’s going to be better than the last year.  They’re making their New Year “resolutions,” which they plan to start right after the hangovers stop and are not likely to be kept; like losing weight, quitting smoking, getting more exercise, or saving money.  However, year after year, mankind has not made the resolutions that count, because it has not learned from the mistakes of the past.  Year after year, we make ourselves comfortable, but take our environment for granted, and in the process, destroy 16 million hectares of valuable forests every year, and waste tons of fresh water while 5,000 children die every day from drinking dirty water.  We unload 180 million tons of toxic chemicals into our rivers and oceans every year, and even poison the very food we eat and contaminate the groundwater we drink with pesticides so industrial agriculture can increase its yields, and toxic chemicals, so that the fossil fuel industry can produce more oil and gas and spout more carbon into the atmosphere, the dwindling forests, and our precious ocean, that we use as a huge toilet.

Yet we still rely on the irreplaceable ecosystems that we abuse and destroy to recycle the hundreds of millions of tons of trash we throw into them every year, to provide oxygen for the atmosphere, to filter water, for flood control, and for producing food and fuel.   Our activities in this Garden of Eden that provides so many free services for us are causing the extinction of species at up to 10,000 times the historical rate, toward a mass extinction, the likes of which the earth has not seen for 65 million years.  But in the last few days of 2014, our governments have finally allowed us to admit that our excessive carbon emissions, which are primarily caused by our dependence upon fossil fuels for energy, and exacerbated by deforestation for agriculture (which ironically also contributes to excessive carbon emissions,) are changing the climate of the earth.  Now that it is almost too late, we must act before our beach vacation destinations (not to mention New York and Miami) are underwater, and we have to cope with mega-droughts, unheard of floods, and super hurricanes and tornadoes, just to mention a few of the side effects of our irresponsible behavior.

You may think that we have finally learned from this experience, where we have done almost everything wrong, and developed dirty, obsolete fossil fuel mining and exploitation technology that has quickened our path to destruction.  You may think, as I do, since solar and wind power technology has improved and is cheaper than ever before, that weaning us off our dependence on fossil fuels as soon as possible is the most logical and reasonable way to deal with this crisis.  However, the same way that we have played God with our food, creating genetic modifications that could have never occurred in nature, the long-term consequences of which we have no clue, there is another option being developed for dealing with climate change that is even more frightening than the genetic engineering of food.

It’s called Geoengineering, or Climate Engineering, and, according to Dr. Matthew Watson from Bristol University, the potential effects of the technologies, which Dr. Watson (his real name, no relation to Sherlock Holmes) is helping to develop, are terrifying. Dr. Watson’s “solar radiation management” project, which mimics the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions by spraying sulfur particles into the atmosphere to block sunlight, may have a cooling effect by reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth, but it also causes irreversible damage to the planet’s ecosystems, starving plant life and reducing food supply.  But don’t worry, you’ll still be able to get your St. Tropez tan, because the sulfur particles are likely to destroy the ozone layer, which protects us and all the little animals from deadly ultraviolet radiation.  Other technologies focus on carbon dioxide “removal,” which include iron “fertilization” of the oceans, something that has been approved for small scale trials, which would increase the toxicity of the oceans and destroy ocean life.

Although these “experiments,” such as cloud brightening or artificial volcanoes, are mostly taking place with computer modeling, there are a growing number of conspiracy theorists who say that geo-engineering is already occurring and on a grand scale.  (Holy chemtrails, Batman!)  It is not likely that they are not right, but if they are, it won’t be the first time that unnatural agents were introduced into our environment and we weren’t told about it, like almost everything you eat, for example, if you happen to live in the United States.

The bottom line is that, instead of trying to manipulate our environment to get us out of this mess, which is how we got into the mess in the first place, we should find a way to live in harmony with it.  With the availability of cheap solar and wind power, this is actually possible.  Whether the economies of the industrialized nations and the industry that controls them and the governments that are supposed to regulate them will allow this to happen is the big question.

Kenneth Eade is a best-selling author and international lawyer based in Los Angeles, California www.kennetheade.com

 

It’s Time to Abandon the Chemical-Industrial Agriculture System

dreamstimemaximum_25883729

When I was in school, I remember learning about farming and crop rotation. Growing up for a time in Oklahoma City, the local 4H club was very active, and many children in my junior high school in California specialized in horticulture. Sadly, in my lifetime, the agriculture has been industrialized, and the control of the world’s food supply is now being sought by a handful of U.S. based corporations. Companies like Monsanto and Bayer, who manufacture pesticides, have contributed to the conversion of farming into an industrial enterprise, which is measured by its profitability rather than safety to the environment and the consumer.

In fact, agriculture uses more of the world’s water than any other utility, and the monoculture of non-nutritious products such as soy and corn used as the base for all processed foods have resulted in mass deforestation of essential oxygen producing natural habitats, extinction of species essential to the survival of the biosphere, and the destruction of biodiversity.

The irresponsible and unsustainable practice of chemo-industrial agriculture not only will result in an estimated one of every two children developing autism in the United States according to Dr. Stephanie Seneff from MIT, countless cancers, obesity and diabetes, it also will result in the same companies who are poisoning us controlling the world’s food supply. Already the overuse of pesticides threatens to destroy essential pollinators, such as bees, which will not only deprive us of a rich variety of foods we love, but also cause over a billion dollars of business to disappear. The agro-industrial giants don’t care about this, because they depend on selling you products made from wheat, corn and soy, which will continue despite the demise of the bees. I recently read an article which posed the question, “Even if genetically engineered foods were proven safe (which they are not) and increased agricultural yields (which they do not), did not harm the environment and reduce biodiversity and human health (which they do,) would it still be good idea to support them?

The answer is no, because to support genetically engineered foods is to allow the giant chemical companies to complete their monopoly and increase their chokehold on the world’s food supply. Just as I learned that crop rotation was essential to maintaining the strength of crops, so is biodiversity. There are already too few varieties of plant life produced in commercial agriculture. The switch to Roundup Ready type crops would contaminate the already weakened biodiversity with one type of seed that farmers would be forced to buy.

Already in India, over 270,000 farmers have committed suicide since the 90’s because of the corporate takeover of agriculture, which has stifled their ability to support their families. This sad trend will only continue, at the expense of the environment, unless the people take back their destiny from the United States military industrial complex. The same complex is attempting to take a stronghold in Africa, where free GMO corn seed is given out to try to hook farmers into being forced lifetime customers. In South America, indigenous farmers are being forced from their lands by agro-industrial giants.

What can we do as individuals to change this dangerous destiny? Buy organic, grow your own vegetables, and stop supporting industrialized agriculture. If we each make a small responsible step in this direction, we can help to improve our own health, while at the same time, helping to stop the runaway train that will spell the certain destruction of our environment.

Kenneth Eade is an attorney, environmentalist, and author of An Involuntary Spy, the first “GMO Thriller,” which can be purchasedhere.

Author Kenneth Eade launches new author web site

Please visit and check out my new web site, http://kennetheade.com for information and news about my books, An Involuntary Spy, and the Brent Marks Legal Thriller Series; A Patriot’s Act, Predatory Kill and HOA Wire.  Sign up for free offers, and read the latest news regarding bank fraud, Guantanamo Bay, The USA Patriot Act, and other issues that the books touch on.

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Coming to a table near you: Synthetic Food

loops

There’s a new twisted cousin to GMO foods already making headway ininfiltrating the food system. Synthetic biology is the science of designing organisms in the laboratory that make things more efficiently than in nature. And, like their genetically engineered predecessors, the public has already been inducted into the huge science experiment. Why? Because chances are you may have already eaten them.

For example, Synbio vanillin, which has the right to carry the “natural” mark, marketed by International Flavors & Fragrances as an alternative to artificial vanilla flavor, is being secretly sold to food companies who are already using it in their packaged foods since the summer of 2014. Like its GMO cousins, no safety testing is required of this new food technology, because it has earned the GRAS designation of “generally recognized as safe.” The FDA’s approach to food safety is, “if it looks like a duck, and acts like a duck, it’s a duck,” even though it may have the genes of a fish, or, in the case of synbio foods, yeast. What’s more, many of the companies who buy the food products are not told that they are synthetic, and, unlike GMO foods, it is virtually impossible for the consumer to discover if they are in a processed food.

Most vitamins and amino acid supplements on the market are synthetic, and have been for some time. They have been criticized in some studies as being lacking in nutritional value and it is unknown how the body processes them, if it does at all.

One thing is for sure. As more and more people are born on the earth, chemical companies will be using the excuse of feeding them as a way to produce more new and bizarre “Frankenfoods.”

Kenneth Eade is a best-selling author and international lawyer; the author of An Involuntary Spy, a GMO Thriller.

Plant a flower, save a bee

http://www.discoverwildlife.com/forum/bless-the-bees-by-kenneth-eade-t12644.html

Hello! I’ve just read the book Bless The Bees: The Pending Extinction Of Our Pollinators And What We Can Do To Stop It by Kenneth Eade, has anyone else read it? It used a huge amount of references (I read it on the Kindle and about 42% of the book was references haha!) and totally opened my eyes to the problems that bees and other pollinators have to deal with every day. Obviously I’d known that pesticides were a problem, but didn’t even think of some of the things that contained them (Dog flea treatments, duh, I should have known that one!), and I hadn’t really read much into GM crops before.

The section about pesticides and GM crops which contain pesticides is very interesting, and pointed out the effect these things have on humans too, which makes it shocking that they haven’t harmed the pollinators more to be honest. However, he seemed to be making it sound as though ALL GM crops are terrible, when he was only referring to the ones which had added pesticides or pesticide resistance. I would have liked it if he had also discussed the other types of GM crops and provided evidence as to their effects on the environment and health as well, as I have to admit I’m not very clued up on them! I do agree that all products containing GM crops and/or pesticides should be clearly labelled though, then consumers could vote with their wallet and really begin to make a difference. I guess this is why companies like Monsanto spend so much money trying to stop laws like that being enforced!

While the author sometimes revealed his hate for the US government and big business, but to be fair with the things he points out in the book (All backed up with references) he does seem to have a good point. The book is mainly centred towards the USA, but does this by showing how Europe have dealt with the issues.

It starts off quite depressing, but actually towards the end it made me quite glad to have been born in Europe, as it sounds like things are a lot worse in the USA with far less hope for the consumer. I think it would have been better if there was more of a focus on what the reader could do to help the situation though, basically all that was said on the subject was: eat organic, sign petitions and grow your own. It would have been much better if the writer had dedicated more of the book to ideas of what individuals can do to help pollinators. The vast majority of the book described the terrible situation, and only one small chapter actually talked about what could be done, and even then it felt a bit hopeless after the other chapters. For example, his “eat organic” thing felt a bit pointless considering he had spent so long previously talking about how pesticides stay in the soil for 12 years and are spread by infecting other plants in various ways, and that one farmer in Oregon found his farm to be infected years after a pesticide or GM trail (sorry, can’t remember which and I know I should have checked first!) had been undertaken about 50 miles away! So even organic food can be infected without us knowing!

However I’m glad I read it, I was glued to it the past couple of mornings and am stumped on what to read next now! It’s really got me thinking about little changes I can make to help pollinators and also stop risking my health by eating pesticide covered food!

So has anyone else read this book? What did you think? And what other methods do you use to help bees and other pollinators?

– Erika :)

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Re: Bless The Bees by Kenneth Eade

Postby kennetheade » Wed Nov 05, 2014 3:09 pm

It is very simple, Erika. Bees need a variety of flowers in order to thrive. Commercial agriculture has limited the types of flowers that bees collect nectar and pollen from because commercial beekeepers are used to pollinate crops that are infested with pesticides, and biodiversity in areas between commercial farms has been destroyed. Natural habitats have been devastated to make way for commercial agriculture and housing. People in urban areas or rural areas away from commercial agriculture can help by planting a variety of flowers in their gardens or on their terraces that bees crave. You can find these flowers in chapter 11 of “Bless the Bees.”

Plant a flower, save a bee. What could be more simple than that? And it’s something all of us can do.

Kenneth Eade
Author, Bless the Bees