Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Genetically modified crops are being planted in farmlands at an accelerated rate. This is due to all of the supposed benefits associated with them. For example:

• Lower costs of production


• Fewer weeds


• More abundance and sustainable


• Less Soil erosion


• Cleaner Water


• Less carbon being emitted into the atmosphere

While all of these benefits are amazing in creating a lower polluted, more sustainable planet, we have to ask ourselves "what are we paying for this trade off?" There have been no conclusive studies as to the long term effects of consuming genetically modified foods. There need to be more tests conducted and more reports issued.

The population has been consuming genetically modified foods, sometimes without their knowledge, so we need to start the conversation of "is there a long term effect on humans who eat this food and if there is, is the trade off small enough to justify the continuation of planting these crops?"

Do you know how much of your food consumption contains genetically modified foods? I would love your opinion on this topic and potential ways to create more awareness in order to have a healthy life as well as a healthy planet.

Here is a link for an interesting video on the subject:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7727700015953778314#

(source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/14/92138/overuse-of-genetically-modify.html)

With the rising cost of gas prices and the effects on the environment that fuel has, its time we all start thinking about alternative fuel options. There are a few options currently available to consumers and one of them is biodiesel. Biodiesel is an alternative to petroleum diesel and consists of both new and used vegetable oils and animal fats. It’s also better for the environment since it reduces emissions of carbon dioxide into the air. According to the US Department of Energy biodiesel also “reduces greenhouse gas emissions because carbon dioxide released from biodiesel combustion is offset by the carbon dioxide sequestered while growing the soybeans or other feedstock” (http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/biodiesel_benefits.html). Another type of fuel is E85 which is comprised of ethanol and gasoline. Although it uses gasoline is still burns cleaner than unleaded gasoline.

Make sure you do your research when looking in to alternative fuel sources or hybrid cars so you can avoid greenwashing by the company selling the product. Items that need to be checked into include fuel economy, CO2 emissions, and just the general pollution the vehicle is emitting. Also there are new lines of hybrid SUV’s on the market, which are great since they consume less fuel however they are still an SUV and utilize more fuel than a compact car. Another type of greenwashing to watch out for are the car companies that produce a hybrid vehicle but the company themselves don’t practice being “green” in other ways.

~Melanie P.

With the recent elections coal became a very hot topic in the final 24-48 hours, where statements made by Barack Obama concerning the coal industry were all over the media and used in ways meant to sway voters in coal producing states away from the democrats and over to the republicans. In this recent article as is often the case with GreenWashing it is all in the words, in the case of coal the use of the term 'clean coal' we find out is how the industry is trying to remarket coal and to essentially sell the public on it's continued use. 

Everyday your name is being sold to random companies wanting to send you advertisements about their services and products. You may casually glance through a portion of it, and there is the rare usable coupon, but most of it ends up in the recycle bin or even the trash! The average person receives about 41 pounds of junk mail every year. Seeing as most advertisers don’t use post-consumer products, millions of trees are cut down every year to produce your junk mail. After the trees are cut, energy and water are wasted to turn it into paper, pumping tons of CO2 into the air. Finally, millions of tax-dollars are wasted delivering it all. The worst part is, junk mail is an irritation!


www.41pounds.org is an organization that will contact most of your junk mail companies and reduce it by 80-95% for 5 years helping you to help the environment!

Visit our website:

http://sites.google.com/site/ecomerge2008/