Yeah, yeah…I’m always going on about the fact that I have Parkinson’s disease(PD)and selfishly want to keep others from getting it. It’s so much fun to fall down, spill drinks, and not sleep for days at a time! Why should Michael J. Fox, your Grandmother, and I get all the fun and attention?? So it is with alarm that I read of U.S. plans to increase production and use of the pesticide methyl bromide, which has been shown to contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer and been implicated in causing PD in farm workers and people living in rural areas. Get this– signatories to The Montreal Protocol, an International treaty on reducing the use of ozone-depleting substances, approved the use of over 5,900 TONS of this particular poison on U.S. strawberry and tomato crops for 2008. This is a reduction from the current U.S. kleptocracy’s request for nearly 7,100 tons.U.S. stockpiles currently far exceed this amount, but the treaty participants, meeting in New Delhi this week, granted our Apocalyptophiliac-GOP-administration permission to manufacture more than 5,000 TONS of new methyl bromide–, according to the full article here, “stockpiles could then be drawn down to meet the rest of the agreed-on use.”
Administration Clonebot-drones state that, as of last year, U.S. stockpiles exceeded 11,000 TONS, but are not subject to the 2005 ban because they existed before the establishment of the treaty. Poison-industry moguls and their morally bankrupt legal reps had tried to block disclosure of the size of stockpiles, but in a rare case of W-era sanity, the EPA actually released some information following the conclusion of the industry’s failed litigation.
Two years ago, U.S. stocks of methyl bromide(MB) came to more than 18,000 tons, meaning that at least 3,500 TONS have been used in each of 2005 and 2006. The industry refuses to admit how much additional MB was made, sold, or used during this period.
In a breathtaking display of Orwellian muddlespeak, Drusilla Hufford, head of the EPA’s stratospheric protection division stated
“There’s a lot going on, but in order to continue the progress so you don’t have supply shocks or sudden unanticipated changes in the market, we found in the past that it is useful and helpful to the cause of ozone protection to have that reserve.
So the GOP-death machine is giving you and your loved-ones a great opportunity to develop devastating neurological conditions, skin cancer from ozone depletion, and possibly the further imbalance of earth’s precarious eco-system.
This is a good example of the interconnectedness of many issues that should concern all of us. It highlights the fact that Corporate interests do not care about your health or that of the planet. Rather than explore safer options, they will rely on existing cheap and deadly solutions, applied by immorally under-paid and often illegal immigrant labor to keep American produce unsustainably cheap. They will use every tactic available to them to assure that you and I and the media will not pay attention to their ever-more cynical and short-sighted attempts to increase short-term profits at the expense of disease and premature death. This is another glaring example of the Apocalyptophiliac Kleptocracys’ perversion of the EPA’s reason for being, and their never-ending attempts to portray science as a Liberal ‘special interest.’
VOTE, my friends. Give anything you can to the Progressive candidate or cause of your choice. Might I suggest www.EcoCenter.org as a relevant, powerful choice?