Celebrities have a unique ability to engage people in environmental campaigns, writes Pat Thomas. Neil Young is a case in point: his latest album, The Monsanto Years, conveys an eloquent message of the dangers of GMOs and corporate power, and his upcoming European tour offers green campaigners a unique opportunity to engage a broader public in the fight for a green future.
… 2016 Activism GMOs Media Arts Music Farming Politics monsanto years_landscape-cut.jpg … On the one hand celebrity involvement can de-politicise issues which are absolutely political. There is also the issue of …
In his final State of the Union address, George Bush announced his support for the adoption of biofuels on a massive scale. But is the plan such a good idea? By Pat Thomas
… March 2007 News Biofuels Farming Gm Transport Politics Lobbying Biofuel Agribusiness Carbon … UK US Bio-fuels Climate Change Natural World Politics And Economics Science And Technology … opportunities in decades. Currently politicians, global food and fuel corporations …
Genetically modified food. It’s a big issue. Increasingly, we are handed the notion that GM food is just like any other food, only better, because of its almost magical power to solve our most immediate crises of poverty, hunger, fossil-fuel depletion and climate change.
… promise of GM. Why, then, the big political push for a GM solution? The answer … The failure to feed the world is a failure of political will and of free-market economics. … as a quick fix to deeply rooted cultural, political and economic problems. As with every …
What does Douglas Gowan know that everyone else wants to keep hidden? For 40 years the story of Brofiscin Quarry – now the most polluted place in the UK – has been suppressed...
… Brofiscin Risk Industrial Farming Health Politics And Economics Waste And Recycling … protect air and water. Into the midst of this political and social turmoil arrived the … absurd waterways has been an increasingly political hot potato, which led, in 1963, to …
What does Douglas Gowan know that everyone else wants to keep hidden? For 40 years the story of Brofiscin Quarry – now the most polluted place in the UK – has been suppressed...
… Brofiscin Risk Industrial Farming Health Politics And Economics Waste And Recycling may … protect air and water. Into the midst of this political and social turmoil arrived the … absurd waterways has been an increasingly political hot potato, which led, in 1963, to …
In the run up to the British general election, Pat Thomas says the various party manifestos are starved of sound policies on food security and sustainability
… 2010 Comment Food And Farming Election 2010 Politics And Economics plate.jpg In the run up … given by the election manifestos of the main political parties. Most of the documents …
Tested, assessed and treated as patients rather than mothers-to-be, it's no wonder women are afraid of giving birth naturally, says Pat Thomas as International Women's Day arrives
… Thomas | 7th March 2012 News Health Society Politics And Economics Birth Breastfeeding … special Flash 'em: how breastfeeding got political An exclusive interview with Claire …
The UK government is determined to bring GMOs to England', writes Pat Thomas, and changes in EU rules mean this could happen as soon as next year. The way to keep them out is people power - so go ahead and declare yourself 'GM FREE ME'!
… best defences defence against corporate lies, political corruption and media laziness. And … but simply corporate lobbyists who plot with politicians behind closed doors . They're … refusing to accept GM and corporations, politicians and regulators trying to push it …
Sustainability consultant Dr David Strong tells Pat Thomas why the way we think about sustainable building needs to be demolished and rebuilt
… Change Waste And Recycling Sustainability Politics And Economics Buildings Construction … ‘It’s an approach that doesn’t require political rhetoric and grandstanding, or …
As the UK Prime Minister welcomes the recommendations of his science advisors to 'go it alone' in Europe and embrace GMO crops, Pat Thomas wonders - whatever happened to the Precautionary Principle?
… - 'harmonisation' is what this is called in political and regulatory parlance - it … And it serves as proof that Europe's politicians and regulators are failing to put … 'innovation' has, in the mixed up world of political rhetoric, become the unquestioned …
Antimicrobial resistance is a ticking time-bomb not only for the UK but also for the world, warns the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies
… feed to boost yields. But is there really any political will to tackle the problem at … around somewhere beneath the radar of our politicians and policy-makers. It's … G8 ministers when they meet in London to put political point scoring and media …
Ethical consumerism in the UK is currently worth £29.3 billion, yet 60 per cent of us feel we don't have enough information to make an ethical decision. There is an ever-growing array of eco labels, but what do they tell us? Or fail to tell us? Pat Thomas explains
… Intriguingly, the number of ethical or political consumers – people who make … and interest in other traditional forms of political activity are on the wane. Eco labels …
Just over one week ago, the Ecologist posted a story on its website detailing the Environment Agency's failure to sue Monsanto for dumping tonnes of highly toxic chemicals in a Welsh landfill site.
… Pesticides Landfills Fresh Water Health Politics And Economics Waste And Recycling …
Over 1,000 juvenile delinquents showed a 44 per cent drop in antisocial behaviour when put on a low sugar diet. So why is the government completely ignoring what we are feeding our children, and yet is happy to spend £2,500 on administering each ASBO?
… Risk Drugs Food And Farming Health Politics And Economics ASBOs_MAIN.jpg Over … psychologists, prison authorities and politicians acknowledge the proven link …
It’s fair to say that we have our share of robust discussions in this office. Opinions get aired, fingers get pointed, occasionally voices get raised. It’s all in a good cause. Setting the world to rights isn’t always a civilised tea party.
… Community Green Living Climate Change Energy Politics And Economics Society Archive_220.jpg …
The Environment Agency (EA) is within weeks of letting Monsanto escape its liability for dumping thousands of tonnes of cancer-causing chemicals – including all the ingredients of the DDT defoliant Agent Orange – in two quarries in Wales.
… Landfills Agribusiness Cancer Health Politics And Economics Pollution Science And …
The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a hefty warning to the cosmetics industry - clean up your act or else. The question is: will the agency follow through?
… so many people throughout the world, is politically very powerful. More lapdog than …
“We’re busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do...”
… We may never know; when it comes to food politics there are agendas wrapped in plots … after scandal build and then blow over as politicians become more adept at misdirection …
Bird flu has been raging through Asia for more than a decade. But it is only recently that most of us have started to pay attention to the story. Pat Thomas seperates fact from fiction and asks whether this is a random act of nature or yet another man-made disaster.
… a more or less daily flow of such tales. Politicians looking for political capital are talking about …
It’s easy to feel so overwhelmed by the problems facing our planet that we turn away to whatever will cheer us. Pat Thomas shows us the pattern of climate change denial
… and groups of (largely anonymous) scientists, politicians and economists, who debate the … moment to step in? In the macho worlds of politics and ecological debate, it is all too … from real life; the failure of our politics, which has forgotten the moral fibres …
Humans have been breastfeeding for nearly half a million years. It’s only in the last 60 years that we have begun to give babies highly processed convenience food called ‘formula’. Pat Thomas investigates
… the focus of global marketing strategies and politics, lawmaking, lobbying support groups, … – medical, socioeconomic, cultural and political – that regularly undermine women’s … with an acquiescent media which, through politically correct editorialising aimed at …
The human species has been breastfeeding for nearly half a million years. It’s only in the last 60 years that we have begun to give babies the highly processed convenience food called ‘formula’.
… the focus of global marketing strategies and politics, lawmaking, lobbying support groups, … – medical, socioeconomic, cultural and political – that regularly undermine women’s … with an acquiescent media which, through politically correct editorialising aimed at …
Aspartame is the most controversial food additive in history. The most recent evidence, linking it to leukaemia and lymphoma, has added substantial fuel to the ongoing protests of doctors, scientists and consumer groups who allege that this artificial sweetener should never have been released onto the market and that allowing it to remain in the food chain is killing us by degrees.
… cause cancer in animals. Eventually, however, political muscle, won out over scientific …
In the midst of a growing list of bizarre decisions taken by the current UK government - particularly with regard to the environment - the recent commitment to growing more genetically modified crops must surely come out on top, argues Pat Thomas...
… the 'property' of science. It is a social, political, economic, moral and ethical issue … is also a keen test of democracy and how well politicians are in tune with the will of the … we don't want it. The question is: are our politicians going to follow our agenda - or …