3/31/15

Clip: The Bravery of Rachel Carson billmoyers.com

  "The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world — the very nature of its life." -- From Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring


Biologist Rachel Carson didn't want to write the blockbuster Silent Spring but felt a responsibility to do so.  billmoyers.com

3/30/15

Winter Newton 2015

snow 2 15 15.jpg
by Ellie Goldberg

Did your roof cave in?
Did your gutters droop or fall?
Did the melt come inside?
And drizzle down the wall?

Did your pipes freeze and flood?
Did your driveway heave and crack?
Did your heating system fail?
Did shoveling break your back?

Did the sidewalks fill with snow?
Did branches bend or break?
Did power lines go down?
Did potholes spoil your day?

Do you love this new normal?
The extremes of heat and cold?
Do you have a back up plan
or a better place to go?

Support divestment now
to stop burning fossil fuel.
Then invest in cleaner power
for safer water, air and food.

Let's choose the wisest way
to tax carbon, risk and waste.
Trust efficiency, wind and solar
to conserve the human race.

            - 0 -

3/2/15


Poison Control and Pesticide Information Organizations Collaborate to Strengthen Pesticide Safety and Education

On February 23, 2015, the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), which supports the work of the nation’s 55 poison control centers, and the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC), a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon State University, announced that they have teamed up to focus on pesticide safety and education.

The two organizations will bring their collective expertise and experience to developing bilingual health and safety educational materials for the general public related to pesticides such as antimicrobials, herbicides, and insecticides.
 Newton Committee for Alternatives to Pesticides

To read the joint press release in full, see http://www.aapcc.org/press/41/

Information about Poison Prevention Week 2015, March 15-21, 2015 http://www.poisonprevention.org/poison.htm