GreenWatch

B. McPherson Is this the future? Residents of Beijing are choking on smog. The miasma is spreading. According to Xinhua News now 50 more cities are reporting high levels of air pollution. Eleven of those come up as “severely polluted”. The smog currently covers 980 000 square kilometres of land. Authorities are hoping for a change in weather to sweep the air pollution out to sea. While Chinese health authorities have set the pollution danger at the second highest level, the World Health Organization(WHO), has a different take on the problem. On Sunday the levels of fine particulates in the heart of the city measured 198 micrograms per cubic metre. WHO sets a safe maximum at 25 micrograms per cubic metre. Authorities have initiated a ban on outdoor barbeques and fireworks. It is unlikely that they are the chief polluters in that country. Coal fired electrical plants, steel works, chemical works and cement production are all big contributors to atmospheric pollutants.

B. McPherson Is glyphosate on your food slowly poisoning you? Over the past decade many people have discovered that they are intolerant to the protein gluten. Gluten found in wheat, barley and rye that are staples in many western based diets. It seems as if an epidemic of gluten intolerance has broken out. Some people have mused that people are using the gluten intolerance as the latest fad. But these people really are sick. The question arises as to whether there are more sick people or better diagnosis of symptoms. Maybe a bit of both. Now a troubling new paper published online by Interdisciplinary Toxicology draws possible connections between trace amounts of glyphosate in the gut and gluten intolerance, a condition that now affects about 5% of the N. American and European population. Scientists have had glyphosate on their radar for a while now, suspecting it of causing birth defects and cancers. While it is not particularly toxic to humans, small amounts over

B. McPherson How many of these children will develop cancers? Tokyo Electric Power Company continues to bob and weave around the truth of what is really happening at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power station. Since the disastrous tsunami , explosion and meltdown of the power station, the for-profit electrical company has played fast and loose. February 6 th they revealed that radioactive levels of water on the seaward side of the ruined reactors were one thousand times higher than allowed. They had the readings last July, but did not reveal them because the Stronium 90 count read 900 000 becquerels per litre and they thought that too high so they retested the water, found it really was five million and kept it quiet for seven months. Since the disastrous earthquake hit Japan in 2011 crippling the nuclear power station, a litany of coverups and missteps has continued. Little attention has been paid to the real human cost of the wrecked plant. Perhaps the most pathetic

B. McPherson One might ask why two poisons are now being sprayed on our food crops. While the federal officials would say that routine reviews are done on pesticides the cynic would say that they were pressured into it by the Ecojustice Foundation . The Pest Management Regulatory Agency has announced that they will review the safety of 383 products that contain 23 active ingredients. These are chemicals currently in use in Canada. While many of these chemicals have exotic sounding names, one, 2,4-D is familiar to farmers and householders alike. It is used on golf courses and GM food crops to kill broadleaf plants. This plant hormone causes broad leafed plants to outgrow their roots. This is the major ingredient in Agent Orange. It has become the go to chemical to kill broad leaf weeds. According to the American EPA, the annual usage in that country is 46 million pounds of 2, 4-D. While the links between 2,4-D exposure  and cancer, kidney failure, spontaneous abortion

B. McPherson Killer whales herd and kill white-sided dolphins Monday a pod of transient Killer Whales demonstrated to the public how they got their name. Ferry passengers leaving Departure Bay in Nanaimo witnessed a large pod of the orcas herding a large group of dolphins into shallow water. They then proceeded to slaughter them. Amateur video footage showed the killer whales leaping into the air and diving. The dolphins were fleeing as best they could. As the scene was being filmed ferry passengers were heard laughing and expressing awe at the movements of the orcas. They probably had no idea what was really happening. Most people on the coast know only our resident population of orcas. These whales depend on salmon for their diet. They are not usually interested in eating seals or dolphins. There is another population of killer whales that pass through Georgia Strait periodically. They hunt marine mammals. As efforts to return the Strait to health have begun to p