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A Tricky Supreme Court Case Might Completely Shift Cannabis Laws In Canada (Good News)

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As convoluted and confusing as legislation can sometimes be, there does exist the odd case where it actually works in the people’s favor.

Take, for instance, what is currently happening in a Supreme Court case involving a former weed banker named Owen Edward Smith. Smith was called to Canada’s Supreme Court because the Crown wants to appeal his acquittal and convict him of being a drug dealer.

Back in 2009, Smith was one of the leading cannabis bakers for the Cannabis Buyer’s Club of Canada (now operating under the name Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club), an organization that sold edibles and oils to medical marijuana users. Unfortunately, Smith was eventually charged because it was later revealed that only 5-10 percent of his clients were actually licensed medical marijuana users, obviously a big no-no under Canadian law.

But a tricky clause under 55(1) of the CDSA could be Smith’s mighty saviour. The clause allows for specific exemptions for pot possession. Furthering this exemption is a foggy regulatory scheme – called the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations -which allows people with illnesses to legally access pot, reports VICE Canada.

This means that if a lawyer can successfully argue that a ban on marijuana derivatives, such as edibles like pot brownies, violates medical users’ constitutional rights, it could completely shift Canadian marijuana laws.

” Depending on the ruling in the first medical marijuana case to hit the Supreme Court, medical users and recreational consumers might one day be able to walk in to stores and buy medicinal pot products straight off the shelf, similar to plants like Echinacea or St. John’s Wort,” wrote Sam Cooley of VICE.

But the clause that Smith’s lawyer, Kirk Tousaw, is capitalizing on has a sticky requirement, that is, a medical marijuana patient can only have dried bud on them.

Tousaw argued that the exemption is arbitrary and opens up medical users to the heavy hand of the law if patients want to cook weed into a brownie rather than smoke a joint. This grey areas makes it too easy for medical marijuana users to get into trouble under Canadian law, says Tousaw.

But Crown prosecutor, Paul Riley, argued that medical users claiming a non-existent exemption for extracts are just choosing an illegal form of medical marijuana over legally-available prescription drugs derived from pot, such as Marinol or Sativex. He also pointed to the option for patients to vaporize weed instead of turning it into something else.

Tousaw sees this case as an effective opportunity to expose the ambiguity of current marijuana legislation.

” At some point the endless cycle of litigation on this issue needs to cease,” Tousaw told the high court, saying the issue has been ambiguous for at least 15 years.

Surprisingly, Tousaw told VICE he felt that the court was receptive to his arguments.

” You don’t want to read too much into the tenor of the [judges’] questioning,” he said. ” But the Crown got the rougher end. We were in the happier position, because the other side has to convince to the court that the other [lower judges] got it wrong. It’s nice to be on that side of the fence. “

VICE asked about Tousaw’s proposition to the court to remove medical marijuana from the CDSA , which would automatically make medical marijuana – in all of its numerous forms – part of Canada’s Food and Drugs Act.

This would see it immediately classified as a ” Natural Health Product.”

Justice Thomas Cromwell put the implications of Tousaw’s bold request into context:

” You want us to dismantle the regime, ” he told Tousaw.

Tousaw described what his remedy would look like:

” The real change would be the consumer end. Consumers and patients can grow and possess without fear of criminal sanction. It takes patients out of the justice system and leaves commercial (buyers) and sellers highly regulated,” he said.

Of course, you’d still need a doctor to perform the role of gatekeeper in order for patients to obtain weed. However, Tousaw said that even physicians can create arbitrary rules for accessing medical pot, and added there is a legal precedent for the state to want to control or prohibit recreational marijuana.

He referenced a new policy being adopted by the BC College of Physicians that could see an age minimum of 25 placed on prescribing medical pot to ill patients, some of whom have neuropathic pain from ailments like cancer.

” Maybe doctors shouldn’t be the gatekeepers, maybe we need to make it naturopathic doctors; people who are familiar with herbs that understand the actual science and risk profiles,” he said.

We want to hear your thoughts about this new proposal. Do you think that marijuana should be classified as an over the counter “Natural Health Product” to become more easily accessible to those in need? Share with us in the comment section below!

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Adidas Wants To Turn Ocean Plastic Into Sportswear

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by Lorraine Chow

Would you buy shoes or clothes made from trash that is recovered from the ocean?

Adidas has partnered with Parley for the Oceans to develop materials made from ocean plastic waste to use in its products starting in 2016. The sportswear giant will also phase out plastic bags in its 2,900 retail stores around the world. Parley for the Oceans is a team of artists, musicians, actors, directors, fashion designers, journalists, architects, product inventors and scientists that addresses major threats to the world’s oceans.

“The conservation of the oceans is a cause that is close to my heart and those of many employees at the Adidas Group,” said Eric Liedtke, Adidas Group executive board member responsible for global brands. “By partnering with Parley for the Oceans we are contributing to a great environmental cause. We co-create fabrics made from ocean plastic waste which we will integrate into our product.”

As we previously mentioned, plastic-from plastic bags and bottles to tiny microbeads of plastic broken down from larger sources-is a major threat to marine life and marine ecosystems. The staggering 8 million tons of plastic tossed into the oceans every year also causes about $13 billion in damages annually.

“Our oceans are about to collapse and there is not much time left to turn it around. Nobody can solve this alone. Everyone has to be part of the solution. And collaboration is the magic formula,” said Cyrill Gutsch, founder of Parley for the Oceans. “We are extremely excited about this partnership. There is no other brand that carries the culture of collaboration in the DNA like Adidas. Together, we will not only focus on creating the next generation of design concepts, technologies, materials and products. We will also engage consumers, athletes, artists, designers, actors, musicians, scientists and environmentalists to raise their voice and contribute their skills for the ocean cause.”

Besides Adidas, many other major clothing companies are ramping up their sustainabilitypractices. Outdoor clothing company Patagonia is making efforts to get rid of toxic chemicals in their materials. Additionally, fast fashion retailer H&M is the world’s largest purchaser of organic cotton and has set up an in-store recycling program, which has brought in around 13,000 tons of clothing.

The announcement from Adidas coincides with the publication of their 15th annual sustainability report, which highlighted the company’s efforts to green up their gear. According to the report, the iconic sportswear brand has used more sustainable cotton than ever before, with 30 percent of all its cotton coming from sustainable sources, exceeding the originally planned 25 percent target. The company has committed to 100 percent sustainable cotton by 2018 and has also increased quantities of recycled polyester into their product line.

Adidas, along with Nike and Puma, made a major commitment to eliminating all discharges of hazardous chemicals throughout their supply chain and across the entire life cycle of their products by 2020. However, environmental groups such as Greenpeace criticized the sportswear brands last May for failing to take the critical steps needed to meet its target.

But now, in its most recent Detox Catwalk report, Greenpeace praised the clothing brand for its latest environmental initiatives. “Adidas is now back on track as a Detox leader. Two years after it crossed the line as one of the original Detox pioneers, Adidas began failing to meet its commitment. That was until global pressure from the Detox movement helped it get back on side in June 2014,” Greenpeace said. “Adidas has delivered on its commitment to ensure that 99 percent of its wet processing supply chain facilities in China publicly report data via the credible Institute for Environmental Affairs platform. It also publishes its list of suppliers and encourages facilities to divulge their respective customers when reporting data.

Source:

Canadian Indigenous Group Rejects $960Million, Halts Pipeline Plans

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(ANTIMEDIA) As the oil and gas industry seemingly attempts to swallow up pristine land at any cost, one indigenous band in British Columbia has proven an old adage false – not everything can be quantified with a price tag. The Lax Kw’alaams Band rejected an energy giant’s plans for a liquefied gas shipping terminal that would have given each member roughly $267,000 – bucking short-sighted gain in favor of sustainability.

Malaysian energy giant Petronas and its partners sought to build the $30 billion Pacific NorthWest LNG terminal on the isolated western coast of the Canadian province as part of the larger Prince Rupert pipeline project, and offered the 3,600-member first nations group nearly $1 billion to do so. But the group demurred.

“Hopefully, the public will recognize that unanimous consensus in communities (and where unanimity is the exception) against a project where those communities are offered in excess of a billion dollars, sends an unequivocal message this is not a money issue: This is environmental and cultural,” explained the community’s mayor, Garry Reese in an announcement.

Reaching a consensus after six public meetings, the Lax Kw’alaams felt the cultural and environmental consequences of a bustling shipping terminal would be too extensive to warrant their approval, no matter the monetary gain.

In a statement explaining their decision to refuse the offer, Lelu Island was a salient concern since the LNG facility was slated to encompass virtually its entire surface area. Not only would the band lose access to procure traditional plants and medicines, but over 400 culturally modified trees would be destroyed during the facility’s construction. Such cultural losses, they believe, couldn’t possibly be monetized.

Of vital importance to the coastal community’s well-being are its marine resources, so the construction process, location of the port’s infrastructure, and volume of shipping traffic all had to be considered. By Petronas’ projections, an average of one ship a day would traverse the delicate habitat, so the Lax Kw’alaams feared even if construction were accomplished with minimal negative effects, the ongoing activity would be too disruptive to the delicate marine environment. Even modified plans still seemed to risk major damage to the breeding ground of a local salmon species on which their livelihood depends on.

The relatively tiny group had such clout, in part, from tough indigenous rights law that was strengthened last year by Canada’s Supreme Court. Groups like the Lax Kw’alaams who do not hold treaties with the government, must be consulted for projects that will transpire on their land, and plans are subject to modification to suit the group’s needs. Though the law doesn’t expressly give such groups an ultimate veto power, the negative socio-political ramifications for any company choosing to forge ahead with undesirable plans, act as an unstated stopgap.

Canada’s fossil fuel industry hasn’t been faring well of late, and though this rejection represents another defeat for the energy giants, activists see a break in the clouds.

A separate project, the Northern Gateway Pipelines, has faced strong resistance from Aboriginal groups in both British Columbia and Alberta as well as from Alberta’s new premier Rachel Notley. Notley vowed ahead of her appointment that she would withdraw provincial support for the plans. “Gateway is not the right decision. I think that there’s just too much environmental sensitivity there, and I think there’s a genuine concern by the indigenous communities,” she said, as reported in the Calgary Herald. “It’s not going to go ahead. I think most people know that.”

Notley also stated she wouldn’t be pressuring the White House to complete the last leg of the stalled Keystone XL Pipeline, which is the controversial proposal to transport Canada’s tar sands oil across the US to the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Refusal by the small and relatively obscure group of Lax Kw’alaams to be purchased out of their traditional land is a beautifully symbolic but no less powerful event. In fact, it is a reminder of Margaret Mead’s compelling exhortation,

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”This article (Canadian Indigenous Group Rejects $960 Million, Halts Pipeline Plans) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TheAntiMedia.org. Tune in! The Anti-Media radio show airs Monday through Friday @ 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Help us fix our typos: [email protected].Follow @TheAntiMedia1

Multiple Airlines Will Now Refuse To Ship Hunting Trophies!

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In the wake of controversy over the poaching of endangered animals, a number of airlines are now refusing to ship hunting trophies. According to multiple reports, Emirates Airlines and others will now be refusing to ship endangered animals.

According to a recent press release from Emirates SkyCargo:

Please be advised that effective 15th May 2015 Emirates SkyCargo will not accept any kind of animal “Hunting Trophies” for carriage on Emirates services. This restriction shall be applicable to all animal hunting trophies, protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as well as includes species, that are not threatened with extinction now, meaning all CITES & Non-CITES species.

This decision is to support international governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, that are managing wildlife population towards sustaining the task to eliminate illegal trade and transportation of hunting trophies worldwide and saving wildlife heritage.

The list below, courtesy of traveller24, lists the airlines that have specific policies in regards to the shipment of hunting trophies.

Some major airlines, such as Delta, currently allow hunting trophies to be shipped, and are now facing pressure from different groups to join the embargo.

John Vibes writes for True Activist and is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war.

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French MPs propose forcing supermarkets to hand over all unsold food to charity

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The French MPs believe that despite a “national pact against food wastage” launched last year in France, measures preventing still-edible food being thrown away are “insufficient”.

They cited a World Food Organisation estimate that a third of food products on the planet that are still fit for human consumption are currently “lost or wasted”.

The MPs said they were targeting larger food chains as their “logistics and important stock” made it easier for them to organise such donations than smaller shops.

In France alone, each supermarket produces 200 tons of waste per year. The French throw away between 20 to 30kg of food waste each year, seven of which are unopened when they hit the rubbish bin – representing an estimated €400 (£318) of wasted food per home.

French supermarkets already hand over large amounts of unsold foodstuffs to charity, with Secours Populaire, one association, saying half of the meals it distributed to the poor last year came from big food stores.

Gaëtan Lassale, head of the French federation of food banks, welcomed the proposal, saying: “Donations already work very well in France thanks to tax break incentives, but this text is a good thing as it will enable us to gather even more unsold produce.”

However, he told Le Journal du Dimanche the proposed law would put charities under financial strain as they would be forced to invest in “cold storage, refrigerated lorries or hangars” to store the food.

“Who will pay?” he asked.

Officials of the European Commission recently tabled proposals to allow national governments to extend the list of foods that do not require best-before dates, in a move which they believe will mean 15 million tons less food a year is discarded by households wrongly worried that it is no longer fit for consumption.

In the UK, the Government has estimated that unnecessarily discarded food costs the average British household £480 a year, rising to £680 for a family with children, the equivalent of about £50 a month.

Families still discard 7.2 million tons of food and drink every year, most of which could have been eaten.

Britain has not yet backed the EU proposals and has instead urged a full investigation into safety aspects of the change.

Wealthy businessman buys $8 million rescue boat and saves thousands of migrants in makeshift vessels

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BY: MATTHEW CHIN

Civil unrest in parts of the Middle East has left many citizens to gamble between makeshift boats on the open ocean and the danger ashore.

Taking to the sea, many are trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe. According to Amnesty International, last year 218,000 migrants tried to escape and 3,500 drowned, making it “the deadliest sea crossing in the world.” Amnesty International said the rate of those crossings are 50 per cent higher than last year and hundreds have already drowned this year. The cause of drowning is due to impractical makeshift boats that are often over packed, causing the boats to sink.

After a cruise on their private yacht witnessing a floating jacket said to belong to a drowned victim, Christopher Catrambone and his wife Regina Catrambone decided to take matters into their own hands. Catrambone, a wealthy businessman from the United States, invested $8 million and bought a 40-metre-long rescue boat, two drones, and hired a 20-person crew including sailors, rescuers, doctors, and paramedics to save those stranded at sea. Their vessel named “Phoenix” will cruise under the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), an organization based in Malta that saves lives at sea. The vessel operates between Italy and Libya.

Photo by: Massimo Sestini

In a BBC article, Catrambone said, “We are making history in many ways by being the first civilian ship to use such grand technology. We hope that this is going to change the environment for rescue at sea. We’re innovators here. We’re trying to do something that no-one else has been able to do. We’ve put our money where our mouth is.”

In their first mission, they rescued 271 people including over 100 women and children. In just 60 days, Catrambone and his crew saved 3,000 lives.

The journey between Libya and the nearest Italian shore is in Sicily, a distance just over 520 kilometres and to travel in a boat with a motor takes less than a day. Migrants land on islands in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea such as Lampedusa and Malta, but both islands don’t have the resources or the capacity to keep up with the amount of arrivals.

Migrants who are rescued are often dehydrated and hungry due to the long distance they travel. On the Phoenix, they’re given blankets, water, an energy bar, and if they are in severe condition the medical team will look after them.

Photo by: Giles Clarke

In a NPR article Catrambone said, “Thousands of people are dying. As we stand here we just received news that 10 more migrants died.” No European country has a search-and-rescue operation fully dedicated to saving migrants at sea, according to Catrambone. Italy abandoned their search-and-rescue mission in 2014 due to EU members saying they were unable to fund it.

Concerned that offering aid would promote taking the risk to escape, politicians remain stagnant. Martin Xuereb, the director of MOAS and Malta’s former Chief of Defence disagree with politicians and said in an interview with Sky News, “Politicians need to remove politics from search-and-rescue and put saving lives at the top of the agenda.”

The Phoenix will redeploy in May this year, committed to saving the lives of those stranded at sea.

Sources: esflc.org, francetvinfo.fr, nydailynews.com, blogspot.com,

Sanders to unveil free college tuition bill

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is set to unveil on Tuesday legislation that would provide free tuition at four-year public colleges and universities.

Sanders, who’s running for president on the Democratic ticket, had originally called earlier this year for two years of free tuition.

The Vermont independent argued in a statement Sunday that the U.S. needs the “best-educated workforce” in order to remain competitive globally.

“That will not happen, if, every year, hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and if millions more leave school deeply in debt,” said Sanders, the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee.

His legislation would eliminate undergraduate tuition at public colleges and universities, the statement said, and would expand work study programs. The measure would also “substantially lower” student debt and bring down rates on student loans, it said.

Sanders, who has been trying to cast himself as the most progressive candidate, called in February for federal and state governments to invest $18 billion per year in public higher education in order to make tuition free for two years.

Hillary Clinton, considered the Democratic frontrunner, hasn’t discussed too many specific policy proposals yet, including college tuition and student debt. MSNBC reported late last month that Clinton would soon unveil a college student debt plan.

Watch John Oliver’s Hilarious Rant Exposing the Horrors of the Chicken Industry

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Last night on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver exposes how chicken farming in the U.S can be cruel and inhumane-and not just for the chickens. “The U.S. poultry industry is dominated by four gigantic companies: Pilgrim’s, Tyson, Perdue and Sanderson Farms,” he explains. Oliver readily admits that animal cruelty is a major issue in modern chicken production, but, in his weekly segment, he focused on the often glossed over life of a chicken farmer, which “has been tough for a long time,” he says.

Oliver cites the many studies that show most chicken farmers live below or near the poverty line. Oliver explains how chicken farmers are contracted out by the chicken companies and how these chicken farmers often have to go into massive amounts of debt to build their chicken houses. The chicken farmers own the property and the equipment and the chicken companies own the chickens, he explains. That means chicken farmers own everything that costs money and the chicken companies own everything that makes money, says Oliver.

What happens when chicken farmers complain about the cruel conditions they are subject to? “Every time that I’ve spoken out against the poultry companies’ wrongdoings, they retaliate by cutting my pay, cutting my chickens back or cutting the quality of my chickens that I get,” said one poultry farmer.

Watch how the chicken industry and government officials have responded to chicken farmers’ concerns:

Sea Level Rise Is Happening Faster Than Anyone Thought

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CREDIT: Shutterstock

Global sea level rise isn’t just happening – it’s happening much faster than previously thought, according to new research from climate scientists at the University of Tasmania, in Australia.

The study, published Monday in Nature Climate Change, found that sea level rise has been speeding up over the past two decades compared to the rest of the 20th century. This contradicts previous satellite data dating back to 1993, which appeared to show sea level rise accelerating in the 1990s, but slowing slightly over the past decade.

“That slowing has puzzled scientists because it coincides with an increase in water entering our oceans from Greenland and West Antarctica,” Christopher Watson, the study’s lead author, said in a press statement.

To understand the apparent slowdown in sea level rise, researchers at the University of Tasmania looked at other factors that might impact sea level measurement, such as changes in the height of the Earth’s land surface. First, Watson and his colleagues compared data from tide gauges – which measure sea level height relative to a specific set of coordinates – to satellite data, which measures the height of the sea surface using radar.

Data collected from tide gauges can be skewed by things like earthquakes or sediment settling, which can change where the tide gauge is located relative to the coordinate points it’s measuring. That change in location can affect the gauge’s measurement of sea level. To account for these issues, Watson and his colleagues used GPS stations to understand how tide gauges have risen or fallen – where no GPS stations existed, they used computer modeling to estimate how the tide gauges might have changed position.

Using the newly recalibrated data, the researchers found that sea level rise between 1993 and 1999 – the earliest segment of satellite data – was overstated. According to satellite data, over that six-year period, global sea level rose 3.2 milimeters (about .12 inches) per year; using Watson’s recalibrated data, sea levels probably rose closer to between 2.6 to 2.9 mm (about .1 to .11 inches) per year. This over-estimation of sea level rise gave the appearance of sea level rise slowing in the previous decade, when it was actually accelerating at a rate of between 0.041 and 0.058 mm (.001 to .002 inches) per year.

“We see acceleration, and what I find striking about that is the fact that it’s consistent with the projections of sea level rise published by the IPCC,” Watson told the Guardian. “Sea level rise is getting faster. We know it’s been getting faster over the last two decades than its been over the 20th century and its getting faster again.”

Because sea levels can naturally fluctuate as water is exchanged between land and sea, Watson notes that the rate of increase is too small to be statistically significant – though he told the Washington Post that it’s clear that sea levels are now rising at roughly double the rate observed in the 20th century, something that will have potentially huge ramifications for coastal areas across the world.

“Accelerating sea level is a massive issue for the coastal zone – the once-in-a-lifetime inundation events will become far more frequent, and adaptation will need to occur,” Watson told the Post. “Agencies need to fully consider the impact of accelerating sea level and plan accordingly.”

Is Your Nail Polish Toxic? ” EcoWatch

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It has long been known that exposure to toxic chemicals in many beauty products can lead to an array of negative health conditions. So when The New York Times released the second part of an investigative report on nail salon workers, it confirmed something that many of us know (and perhaps willfully ignore): the beauty industry has an ugly truth.

You’ve probably smelled the pungent fumes that hit your nose as soon as you enter a nail salon-now imagine working in it. As nail salon employees across the country pamper, slough and polish their customers hands and feet, they inhale clouds of acrylic dust, nail polish fumes and removers and other harsh chemical ingredients day in and day out.

The outcome is not pretty. The Times described tragic instances of workers’ “children who are born slow or ‘special,'” or how they suffered miscarriages, cancers, chronic coughs and painful skin afflictions. The paper described:

The prevalence of respiratory and skin ailments among nail salon workers is widely acknowledged. More uncertain, however, is their risk for direr medical issues. Some of the chemicals in nail products are known to cause cancer; others have been linked to abnormal fetal development, miscarriages and other harm to reproductive health.

A number of studies have also found that cosmetologists-a group that includes manicurists, as well as hairdressers and makeup artists-have elevated rates of death from Hodgkin’s disease, of low birth-weight babies and of multiple myeloma, a form of cancer.

In one particularly memorable vignette, Ki Ok Chung, a manicurist for nearly 20 years, said that her fingerprints have nearly disappeared due to her work with files, solvents and emollients.

Not only are they at risk to many serious medical concerns, many of these workers (who are mostly women and many undocumented) are also subject to exploitive treatment and receive shockingly low pay, the newspaper revealed in the first part of the series.

“There are so many stories but no one that dares to tell them; no one dares to tell them because they have no one to tell,” Nancy Otavalo, a 39-year-old manicurist who suffered a miscarriage last year, told the Times. “There are thousands of women who are working in this, but no one asking: ‘What’s happening to you? How do you feel?’ We just work and work.”

The report also pointed out what’s commonly known as the ” toxic trio ” in many nail polish varieties: toluene, dibutyl phthalate (or DBP) and formaldehyde, that have been linked to a slew of health conditions.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, overexposure to toluene “may cause irritation to eyes and nose, weakness, exhaustion, confusion, inappropriate feelings of happiness, dizziness, headache, dilated pupils, runny eyes, anxiety, muscle fatigue, inability to sleep, feeling of numbness/tingling, skin rash, and in more serious cases of overexposure or intentional abuse, liver and kidney damage. DBP, which has banned in the European Union (EU) since 2003, “can cause irritation to eyes, stomach and upper respiratory system, and prolonged exposure to high concentrations may be hazardous to human reproduction and development,” the EPA said. Formaldehyde, can cause skin irritation and rashes, and will be banned in the EU by 2016.

Cosmetics industry officials, however, have denied that the chemicals lead to any health problems. DBP, toluene and formaldehyde “have been found to be safe under current conditions of use in the United States,” Lisa Powers, a spokeswoman for the Personal Care Products Council, the main trade association and lobbying group for the cosmetics industry, told the publication. “The safe and historical use of these ingredients is not questioned by the Federal Drug Administration.”

But one doctor, who has treated many nail salon workers, described the awful symptoms he’s commonly seen.

“They come in usually with breathing problems, some symptoms similar to an allergy, and also asthma symptoms-they cannot breathe,” said Dr. Charles Hwu, who works in Flushing, Queens in the report. “Judging from the symptoms with these women, it seems that they are either smokers, secondhand smokers or asthma patients, but they are none of the above. They work for nail salons.”

While limited exposure to these chemicals is fine for the occasional mani-pedi, it’s the health of the person wielding the brushes and solvents we should also be thoughtfully considering. With summer around the corner and flip-flop season approaching, perhaps you should think carefully about your next visit to the nail salon.

Bottled Water Companies vs. California’s Epic Drought ” EcoWatch

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As the drought in California rolls into its fourth year, causing mandatory water cutbacks by cities and private citizens and concern about the state’s enormous agricultural sector, bottled water plants in the state are attracting increasing attention attention and controversy. Bottled water accounts for a tiny fraction of the water consumed in the state but it’s become something of a symbol of who gets access to water for profit and who is being forced to cut back.

Last week, Starbucks announced that it would be moving the production of its “globally responsible” Ethos Water brand from California to Pennsylvania within the next six months. Its Pennsylvania facility already bottles the water sold on the east coast.

Starbucks’ senior vice president of global responsibility and public policy John Kelly said, “We are committed to our mission to be a globally responsible company and to support the people of the state of California as they face this unprecedented drought. The decision to move our Ethos water sourcing from California and reduce our in-store water reductions by more than 25 percent are steps we are taking in partnership with state and local governments to accelerate water conservation.”

Ethos Water was founded in 2002 in Southern California, promising to donate a percentage of each sale to water projects in developing countries, currently amounting to five cents on the sale of each $1.95 bottle of water. The company was bought by Starbucks in 2005. Ethos has created partnerships with organizations such as the Oscars. Environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio was seen carrying a bottle at the awards ceremony, and fellow environmentalist Matt Damon has appeared in an ad for the brand.

The move follows a recent article in Mother Jones calling attention to the fact that its West Coast bottling plant is located in Merced, California, drawing its water from private springs in Baxter a few hours north of Merced, as well as from Merced city water. Both Baxter and Merced are in areas of “exceptional drought.”

“While bottled water accounts for just a small fraction of California’s total water use, some residents are nonetheless fed up with bottling plants that profit off their dwindling water supply,” said Mother Jones. “Protesters have begun staging events at Nestlé’s bottling facility in nearby Sacramento.”

Nestlé’s facility buys millions of gallons of Sacramento municipal water and also bottles spring water shipped in from Northern California counties. A grassroots group called the Crunch Nestlé Alliance has been organizing to shut down the plant.

Residents in Merced are also concerned about the Safeway-Lucerne Foods bottling plant in the city that’s pulling groundwater from local wells as they’re being asked to cut back on showers and stop watering their lawns.

The Merced Sun-Star quoted area resident Jandrea-Marie Gabrielle saying at a city council meeting, “Perhaps watering lawns are the least of California’s worries. You might think that in the midst of a drought emergency, diverting public fresh water supplies to bottle and selling them would be frowned upon.”

And while Starbucks is closing its bottled water facility, another will soon be opening in the arid state. The Crystal Geyser Water Company will be opening a plant in Mount Shasta that will take hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a day from an aquifer that feeds the Sacramento River and provides drinking water for millions of people. The converted Coca-Cola plant is expected to begin operations this fall. While a company executive said it’s working with area residents to make sure its activities “will not impact the environment in any detrimental way,” local citizen Raven Stevens pointed out, “Crystal Geyser in one day plans to pump more water than any three of my neighbors will use in an entire year.”

California currently has no limits on the amount of groundwater that can be pumped from private property, although state regulations on water withdrawal from the most endangered aquifers with start phasing in after 2020-when the drought could be a decade old. Bottled water companies using water tapped on private property are exempt from the mandatory water cuts placed on cities and towns in March.

“Bottling water is a legal use of water under the law,” said Nancy Vogel, spokeswoman of the California Department of Water Resources.

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4 Reasons Why This is The Future Food

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The future food is called Entomophagy; the practice of eating insects – including arachnids and centipedes – and it is becoming popularized with every eco awareness campaign. I’ll explain concisely: It’s Nutritious. More iron than spinach and all 9 amino acids can be found in cricket flour. It looks like we’ve got a superior nutrient rich …

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Your Old Laptop Can Bring Change In Enormous Ways

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So I just got off the phone with Becky Morrison, the founder of Globetops, an organization that receives your unused old laptop, cleans ’em up and sends them to social entrepreneurs in remote or technologically-deficient parts of the world. Maybe this sounds trivial, but as an active member of humanitarian organizations, I can tell you that it isn’t being done …

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