Just as the UK Government is stirring up public anger against human rights, writes Anna Grear, its fast-track development of shale gas and oil shows that we need these legal protections more than ever. A new report shows how the 'dash to frack' is endangering our most cherished rights - to health, water, security and life.
Fracking - human rights must not be ignored! Anna Grear | 30th October 2014 Comment Fracking Fossil Fuels Law Human Rights | Energy Politics UK fracking-eagle-ford-cut-2.jpg Fracking can violate the …
Over 90% of major armed conflicts between 1950-2000 occurred in countries containing biodiversity hotspots,writes Alex Reid, and more than 80% of these took place in the hotspot areas themselves. This poses a major challenge to the conservation community: to work in combat zones to strengthen environmental protection before, during and after conflicts. Or better still, to defuse incipient conflicts and resolve those under way, to reduce their toll on people, and nature.
War, human rights and biodiversity: turning conflict into conservation Alex Reid | 23rd March 2017 News Conservation Biodiversity Human Rights UK War eric-dooh-cut.jpg Over 90% of major armed …
Regulatory failures are allowing Danish pigs infected with lethal antibiotic-resistant bacteria into British farms, writes Andrew Wasley, with contaminated pork found in UK supermarkets, and three human infections recorded. The official response? Deny there's a problem, take no action, and hope for the best. Six people may have died from the bug in Denmark, but the UK is safe, surely?
Superbug-infected pigs get into Britain unchecked, contaminate food chain Andrew Wasley Bureau of Investigative Journalism | 14th October 2016 News Health Food Farming UK Denmark EU Regulation …
More than 31,000 animals were used in glyphosate 'safety' tests. Are we safe now?
Pesticide safety and flawed animal testing Emily McIvor | 28th February 2019 News Pesticides Monsanto PETA Food And Farming Animal Testing Thought Leaders animal-1554745_960_720.jpg More than 31,000 …
Antibiotics have saved countless millions of lives since the 1930s, but their power is failing due to their massive use in factory farming, horticulture, aquaculture and industry, says a new report from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Antibiotics. We must stop all inessential uses of antibiotics, or face a future where we risk death from minor injuries and routine surgery.
Restrict antibiotics to medical use, or they will soon become ineffective Laura J V Piddock Richard Meek Victoria Wells Hrushi Vyas | 23rd October 2015 News Health Farming Science Regulation UK …
On the final day of the trial of Caroline Lucas and other anti-fracking protestors, we ask - what about human rights? Entirely neglected by the government in its desperate drive to frack, they ought to trump all other policy considerations.
Fracking - why are human rights being ignored? Damien Short Karen Hulme Steffen Böhm | 25th March 2014 Comment Fracking Law Fossil Fuels Water Pollution UK Politics balcombe-demo-2.png On the final …
Australia's climate change commissioner and author of new book Here on Earth talks to Matilda Lee about Gaia's true principles, the power of the internet and why legally binding climate treaties are pointless
… the globalised common intelligence of humanity, is a massively powerful information … minister Michael Meacher on the place of humanity in the universe, intelligent design, … Are We The Virus? - James Lovelock Does humanity need to be cut out of the ecosystem? …
Extreme energy in the UK is arousing extreme reactions, write Jess Elliot & Damien Short. On the one side stand citizens committed to preserving the quality of the local and global environment. And against them, a government determined to let fracking rip, and police forces prepared to ignore legal norms to suppress the growing popular resistance.
Fracking is driving UK civil and political rights violations Jess Elliot Damien Short | 30th October 2014 News Fracking Law Human Rights Energy Politics UK barton-moss-steven-speed-cut.jpg Extreme …
The damage caused by fracking to people, communities and the wider environment will be put under the legal spotlight in public hearings in the US and the UK, write Damien Short & Tom Kerns. While the 'ruling' that emerges will be non-binding, it will provide an authoritative, expert dossier of fact and argument for real legal actions to follow.
Permanent Peoples' Tribunal puts fracking on trial Dr Damien Short Dr Tom Kerns | 23rd July 2015 News Law Fracking Energy USA UK frack-free-zone-cut.jpg The damage caused by fracking to people, …
With industry spinning that glyphosate is harmful to health, if at all, only with co-formulants like tallowamine, the World Health Organisation's cancer agency IARC has just released a Q&A document (below) stating that 'pure' glyphosate poses similar cancer and genotoxicity risks as its formulations. Banning particular co-formulants, as proposed by some EU countries, does not solve the problem.
WHO / IARC: glyphosate itself is the cancer and genotoxicity problem IARC | 11th March 2016 Comment Health Un Pesticides Toxics Regulation EU glyphosate-3d-vdw-cut-2.png With industry spinning that …
News headlines today suggest that a UN report on glyphosate residues has given the controversial herbicide a clean bill of health, writes Georgina Downs. But that's seriously misleading: the panel concludes that exposure to the chemical in food is unlikely to cause cancer. But that does not apply to those exposed to it occupationally or who live near sprayed fields.
No, the UN has not given glyphosate a 'clean bill of health' Georgina Downs | 17th May 2016 News Pesticides Health Toxics Un Regulation Media one.jpg News headlines today suggest that a UN report on …
Pesticides remain the 'elephant in the room' for Michael Gove, the environment secretary, and DEFRA. But until the issue is properly addressed the environmental crisis and fears for human health will only continue, argues GEORGINA DOWNS
Is the new UK Agriculture Bill a triumph or a travesty? Georgina Downs | 14th September 2018 Comment Pesticides Agriculture Bill DEFRA Thought Leaders gove_snowy_3271751b.jpg Pesticides remain the …
Doctors have been told to limit their use of antibiotics to limit the spread of microbial drug resistance, writes Emma Rose. But 40% of the UK's antibiotics are used on farms, of which 85% is fed to disease-free animals. We can no longer ignore the massive agricultural overuse of the drugs, now a major driver of antibiotic resistant infections.
Antibiotic resistance - what about routine misuse in farming? Emma Rose | 11th September 2015 Comment Health Farming Regulation UK EU pigs-in-pen-cut.jpg Doctors have been told to limit their use of …
The return of the lynx to the British Isles could bring many benefits, writes Niki Rust, not least to the ecology of our woodlands, ravaged by too many deer. But we must not forget the human factor: livestock farmers may fear the arrival of a top-level predator, and their support will be essential to the success of any reintroduction.
Reintroduce lynx? Fine - but we must control the apex predator Niki Rust | 27th April 2015 Comment Ecology Farming Predators UK eurasian-lynx-norway-cut.jpg The return of the lynx to the British …
A new Ecology Party would work for a change in values, a paradigm shift in which human beings learn to work with the grain of the natural world, instead of against it.
… Party’ Feb, 2005), the environment – and humanity’s relationship with it – would be the … the aim of political ecology is to re-embed humanity in nature. One of the main aims of … of wounds between human groups and between humanity and the planet. It would move from …
Human rights violations have been reported at plantations in virtually all major tea producing countries, while tea growing itself has a profound effect on the local environment. William McLennan reports
Environmental damage and human rights abuses blight global tea sector William McLennan | 13th April 2011 News Tea Africa Food And Farming Pesticides billy-final-tea-image.jpg Tea being loaded in …
Apparent 'victories' in the fight against toxic chemicals - like the EU's failure to re-approve glyphosate yesterday - are illusory, writes Jonathan Latham. The real problem is not one of specific 'bad actors', but the entire system that allows new, likely to be toxic compounds to pollute the environment in near-total ignorance of their impacts. It's time to take our campaigning to a whole new level.
The problem is not glyphosate, or DDT, or BPA - we must challenge the entire system! Jonathan Latham | 20th May 2016 News Toxics Pesticides Regulation Corporations Campaigning Science …
Sources close to Defra have revealed that the UK's badger culls were an outright failure. They killed well under the target number of animals, and were unable to meet Defra's own 'humaneness test'
Badger culls were ineffective and inhumane Oliver Tickell | 28th February 2014 News Farming Natural World UK Health badger-cull-failure.png Sources close to Defra have revealed that the UK's badger …
The UN Committee on World Food Security in Rome has today launched a new report examining the impact of chemical intensive, industrial food system on human health. GEORGINA DOWNS responds.
Expert panel identifies unacceptable toll of food and farming systems on human health Georgina Downs | 17th October 2017 News Un Pesticides Food Health Cancer 405530.jpg The UN Committee on World …
The zealous participation of European Greens in the campaign to thwart Rocco Buttiglione is indicative of the capture of green politics by an unreconstructed, unreformed and unelectable left
… holistic view of the individual, society and humanity's place in the web of life. Green … with, rather than against, the grain of humanity and nature. This was an attractive, … nurturing extends to the relationship between humanity and planet, between human beings and …
USAID, the UK's DFID and the World Bank are among those covering up for severe human rights abuses against indigenous peoples in Ethiopia's Omo Valley, inflicted during forced evictions to make way for huge plantations, writes Will Hurd. Their complicity in these crimes appears to be rooted in US and UK partnership with Ethiopia in the 'war on terror'.
US, UK, World Bank among aid donors complicit in Ethiopia's war on indigenous tribes Will Hurd | 22nd July 2015 News Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Ethiopia UK USA Farming Development …
New research suggests that we are heading for an "ecological Armageddon" that will affect all life on the planet, including humans. COLIN TODHUNTER investigates.
… various forms of structural violence on humanity, including the waging of chemical …
Cancer is just one of of the outcomes of the genetic damage inflicted by nuclear radiation, writes Chris Busby, and perhaps one of the least important. Of far greater long term significance is the broad-scale mutation of the human genome, and those of other species, and the resulting genomic instability that causes cascades of heritable mutations through the generations.
It's not just cancer! Radiation, genomic instability and heritable genetic damage Chris Busby | 17th March 2016 News Health Radiation Nuclear Science War Politics UK USA chernobyl-cut.jpg Cancer is …
All 193 UN states will sign a declaration today to fight the spread of drug-resistant 'superbugs', writes Alastair Kenneil. The problem is often blamed on over­prescription of antibiotics by doctors. But that's to ignore the massive use of antibiotics on animals in factory farms, both to prevent infection and to assist weight gain - turning farms into superbug breeding centres.
… an end to pig factories, for our health and humanity's sake. Alastair Kenneil is a …