Food & Health

A worker sprays carbofuran on a tree in Kannenfeldpark, in Basel, Switzerland. Photo by pppspics via Flickr.

As of the end of the year, one more pesticide will be absent from food crops grown in the United States.

In May the EPA ruled that the current residue limits of the insecticide carbofuran on food crops was too high, and the agency has now decided to fully revoke carbofuran tolerances (more commonly known as residue limits). What this means is no carbofuran residue on a food will be deemed acceptable as of 2010. The move follows in the footsteps of the European Union, which banned carbofuran nearly a year ago. But the U.S. ban isn't all that surprising--it has, after all, been three years in the making.

Culture & Celebrity

Image from Elizabeth Hurley

You've come a long way baby... Liz Hurley, of the Versace safety pin dress (after the fold for that one) and former girlfriend of Hugh Grant, sigh, (after the fold for him too....) has abandoned the London celebrity scene for the countryside. Not life on just any 400 acre farm, but one that is working and organic, complete with sheep and cattle.

But being a farmer doesn't mean that she is letting herself go. She may wear jeans and rubber boots but she is still watching her weight. So she has created an organic snack bar which contains oats from her own fields and is less than 100 calories. Just the thing when you are milking the cows.

Interact

Image Credit: donjd2 via Flickr

TreeHuggerForever writes:

It seems that lately there have been a lot more stories about coyote attacks on both livestock and people's pets. I know that this is mainly because of human encroachment on wildlife habitats. Still, it is devastating to both farmer's and pet owners...I don't really agree with killing any predators for doing what they are instinctively born to do. If it's okay for humans to kill animals for food, fur and pleasure, then what gives them the right to kill animals that kill for food? But the point is, farmers are losing valuable livestock and people are losing precious pets. What is the solution? Is there one?

So what do you think? Join the debate.

Business & Politics

Photo via First Strung

A new report from the Friends of the Earth says that cap and trade systems are dangerous. They allow traders to package emissions permits into complex financial products and sell them in bundles--much like they did with subprime mortgages. And we all know how that went.

Science & Technology

Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain

I Can See My House From Up Here!
The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is quite an impressive piece of hardware. It can stay in the air for more than a day, has a range of 3,400 miles, and at very high altitude (its record is 19,928 meters (65,380.6 ft)). Usually it's the military that would have control over these UAVs, but two Global Hawks have been turned over to NASA for environmental research flights .

Science & Technology

Photo via Esquire

We worried about the rise in dumped TVs when the switch to digital in the US occurred back in June. The UK is also switching to digital and figures show a frightening rise in dumped TVs, rising by 70% in the past year, with over half of them being upgradable. But they were dumped instead. As more areas switch to digital over the next two years, including London, just how much more of an impact can we expect, and can citizens be convinced that they don't need to dump their TVs at all?

Business & Politics

photo: David Blaikie via flickr.

With all the disappointing news about the UN climate negotiation talk shifting for reaching a legally binding deal in December to one which is merely politically binding, I thought I'd share this rather encouraging piece on analysis from Cleantech Group, which says the outcome of COP15 really doesn't matter much for cleantech investment:

Culture & Celebrity

Al Gore Heads to the Daily Show
That's just one of the questions Jon Stewart asks Gore when the former vice president sits down to talk about his new book about finding solutions to climate change. Consider this a companion piece to my earlier post defending Al Gore from the New York Times--and watch Gore prove himself to be the knowledgeable climate spokesman he is. Video after the jump.