Featured

News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 7, No. 38

By |

Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“The carbon numbers just don’t add up and we need to be looking at other options.” — Brian Launder, an engineer in the U.K., says large-scale geo-engineering can help fight climate change (see below). *THIS WEEK*
– Women on top in Rwandan Parliament
– Can ‘geo-engineering’ save the Earth? – Veteran PTSD on the rise as new therapies emerge
– Heavy spin cycle on Iran reporting

THIS WEEK ON NEWSDESK.org
* Women on Top in Rwandan Parliament
Women will form the majority in Rwanda’s national parliament, making it the first country in the world to have more female legislators than men.

Featured

Alphabet Soup

By |

From A to V, Newsdesk.org presents a complete overview of the 22 propositions that San Francisco voters will consider on November 4 — from public power and Junior ROTC to waterfront redevelopment and legalizing prostitution. Photo: San Francisco ballot receipt

Featured

News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 7, No. 37

By |

Important but overlooked news from around the world. *This Week*
– “Transition towns” tackle climate change
– U.K. takes cue from U.S. sex offender law
– Slight freedoms for Suu Kyi
– ‘Fair trade’ cola gains ground in Europe
– Zimbabwe comments deepen on Newsdesk.org

THIS WEEK ON NEWSDESK.org
* “Transition Towns” Tackle Climate Change
Transition towns — part of a grassroots movement to help communities adopt carbon-neutral lifestyles — are slowly spreading from England, where they number in the scores, to America, New Zealand and elsewhere. The Christian Science Monitor reports that the “transition movement” helps equip communities with tools for living in a world of climate change and declining oil reserves. The concept was born three years ago when permaculture professor Rob Hopkins and his students came up with a plan for community-wide sustainable living in his hometown of Totnes, United Kingdom. Since then more than 100 communities worldwide have joined in, three of which are in the United States: Boulder, Co., and Sandpoint and Ketchum, Idaho.

Featured

Under the Influence?

By |

Long before San Francisco voters make it to the polls, they’ve been subjected to sustained influence-advertising campaigns that even affect the city-sponsored voter guidebook. Photo: San Francisco polling place/Steve Rhodes

Featured

News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 7, No. 36

By |

Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“So they’ll have the same amount of plastic to recycle.” — Elizabeth Griswold of the Canadian Bottled Water Association says Toronto’s ban on plastic water bottles wouldn’t stem the tide of plastic soft-drink containers (see “Water,” below). CONTENTS:
*The SF Truthiness Report*
Invasion of the policy pushers
*Top Stories*
The perils of pyrethins, and other pesticide problems
The British Army’s PTSD troubles
Forests saved by pollution problem? *Water*
Bottled water may be tapped out of Toronto
The state wants your raindrops
*World*
India: Farms or factories?

Featured

The Perils of Pyrethrins, and Other Pesticide Problems

By |

A new class of pesticides is making a growing number of people sick — leading to death in some cases — according to a recent report by the Center for Public Integrity. Pyrethrins, derived from chrysanthemums, and their synthetic equivalents, pyrethroids, first started showing up on the market in large quantities a little more than a decade ago, but they’re now in mosquito nets, flea collars, gardening products, lice shampoo and countless other products. In some cases, they are sprayed by misters directly over fast-food restaurants. The Center’s report found a 300 percent rise over the past decade in the number of reported cases of severe reactions to pyrethrins and pyrethroids. Together, they accounted for 26 percent of all fatal and serious pesticide reactions in the United States in 2007.

Featured

No Place Like Home

By |

Buffeted by gentrification, targeted for redevelopment, San Francisco’s black communities are emptying out at an unprecedented rate. The population dropped from 13 percent in 1970 to 6 percent in 2005, a decline that’s not expected to slow. Photo: Juneteenth celebrants/Gretchen Robinette

Featured

News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 7, No. 35

By |

Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“They’re afraid that what they call ‘foreign interests’ will use the Indians to then exploit the Amazon.” — Activist Tim Cahill on the politics behind Brazil’s battle over indigenous land rights (see “Top Stories,” below). CONTENTS:
*Top Stories*
In South America, land rights go native
Journalist’s slaying stirs up trouble in Russia’s hinterland

TOP STORIES
* In South America, Land Rights go Native
A group of new reports finds that land-rights battles in South America may be tipping in favor of indigenous peoples. In Brazil, the Supreme Court is deciding on the right of Amazon natives to live in their ancestral homelands.

Featured

Recipe for School Success? Add Three Eggs

By |

In India, there apparently is such a thing as a free lunch — for 140 million students, adding up to the largest school lunch program in the world. Simply adding three eggs per week to the student diet is credited for helping lower the elementary-school dropout rate from 12 to 2 percent since 2002. Photo: Feuillu

Featured

News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 7, No. 34

By |

Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“In the old days we practiced subsistence agriculture and we felt a sense of control. Now everything is more complicated and lots of people are desperately in debt.” — A community activist in India’s Punjab state, on the dark side of the Green Revolution (see “Top Stories,” below). CONTENTS:

*Top Stories*
India’s recipe for school success?