Environmental Toxins - Time Magazine investigates the chemicals found in everyday products

The ingenuity of the chemical industry has created tens of thousands of new chemicals over the last century, which are now used in vast quantities in many everyday products. Unlike medicines and pesticides, governments have generally required no testing of these chemicals to show that they are safe.
While many synthetic chemicals are undoubtedly harmless, others, especially those mimicking natural hormones known as "endocrine disruptors" such as phthalates, are increasing being linked with disease and developmental abnormalities.
Time magazine has investigated this area with a series of stories on Environmental Toxins, including The Perils of Plastic (which amongst other things documents the growing scientific concerns about the safety of bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates), Pharma in the Plumbing and The Top 10 Household Toxins.

Recommended reading

Update:
Please note that as this is a Time Magazine story the "governments" referred to are successive US governments. Other parts of the world such as Europe and, judging from Erica's comment below, Australia have much stricter regimes. Even so chemicals such as phthalates and BPA are still found in Australian products.

Towards a Safe Climate - 14th April - A great event organised by the Climate Network

The Community Climate Network Queensland (CCNQ) has a great event coming up on the 14th of April. The Transition Towns network in Brisbane, including Transition Kenmore is part of the CCNQ and we encourage everyone to head down to this event.

Please join us for a great evening!

Towards a Safe Climate: A community forum and networking event
When: Wednesday 14 April 6.30 - 8.30pm
Venue: ETU Building, 41 Peel St, South Brisbane (MAP)

The night features speakers who will share their experiences at Copenhagen and the National Climate Summit; updates from Queensland on coal and sustainable jobs; and an open forum.
This event gives you a chance to learn about what is happening locally and around the world and how you and Transition Kenmore can contribute to the movement in Queensland to help reach a safe climate.

Free, Everyone is welcome.
Please RSVP online so we can cater light refreshments:
http://www.climatenetworkqld.org/RSVP

Here's the poster, click to enlarge

SPEAKERS

MC and speaker on the International scene post-Copenhagen:
David Hood, Adjunct Professor (QUT) and Climate Project Presenter

The National Scene: issues & actions from the National Climate Summit
Ewan Saunders, CCNQ

Coal, Climate and Queensland
Hava Mendelle, sixDegrees.org.au

Sustainable Jobs
Peter Simpson, Electrical Trades Union

Communities and the Climate Movement
Howard Nielsen, Pine Rivers CAN and Transition Towns.

Hunger pains: Series of ABC articles on feeding Australia and Urban Agriculture

ABC news has published a interesting series of stories looking at difference aspects of food and food supply.
Topics include urban agriculture, community gardens, the "local food" movement, pressures on farmers, costs of unseasonal produce and the challenges of feeding a growing world population in a world affected by climate change and fertilizer supply shortages.

Stories can be found here.

Transition Kenmore in the news

Transition Kenmore's permablitz of Louise Orr's garden featured in this weeks Westside News. If you didn't get a copy you can view the story online here.

If you have come across our blog after reading about Transition Kenmore in the news, and want to know more about permablitzs and how you can have your lawn turned into a productive vege garden then have a read of this. More information about the blitz of Louise's garden can be seen in our before, during and after posts.

Transition Kenmore is a local community group who cover not just Kenmore but the whole of the Pullenvale BCC ward. Our permablitz campaign is just one of the things we are up to at the moment in trying to raise awareness of, and take action against, issues of climate change and resource depletion. So if you are interested in taking some small steps towards more sustainable suburbs then come along to our Earth Hour dinner this Saturday, one of our monthly meetings, or get in touch at transitionkenmore 'at' gmail.com


Lastly thanks to the Westside News for their positive report on the work we are doing.

Transition Kenmore community dinner this Saturday for Earth Hour

Earth Hour is this Saturday the 27th of March

To do our bit Transition Town Kenmore will be holding a public community dinner this Saturday during Earth Hour.
We will gather in the Wal Cocking park on Moggill Rd (just down from the Kenmore Village round-a-bout near the newsagent, or where Moggill Rd meets Princeton St) from 7:30pm.
Bring a plate of food to share and what ever you need in terms of drinks, chairs, cushions
AND a candle or torch for the vigil from 8:30 -9:30

IF.......
you can't make it to the park please remember to switch off your lights at home, or at your friend's, as this movement is about showing solidarity of recognition for the need for a low carbon lifestyle.You can register your participation at http://www.earthhour.org.au/


"Since its inception in Sydney three years ago, Earth Hour’s non-partisan approach has captured the world’s imagination and became a global phenomenon.
Nearly one billion people turned out for Earth Hour 2009 – involving 4,100 cities in 87 countries on seven continents.
On Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. local time, Earth Hour will once again cascade around the globe, from New Zealand to Hawaii."

We're going to be part of it in as visible as way as possible. So come along. RSVP to transitionkenmore 'at' gmail.com if you want to let us know you're coming or just come along.

The assault on science and reason

"As the cacophony of voices attacking climate science grows, I have to wonder: where are the journalists? Have they forgotten their job description? In any other field, if such an obvious, misinformed lobby arose, would they rate any attention?

Well, maybe.

During organized tobacco's war on science, many newspapers reported propaganda created by paid tobacco lobbyists as a legitimate alternative to mainstream science. Other industries took up the same strategy: producers of CFCs who paid ozone hole deniers, and asbestos vendors who refused to acknowledge guilt in killing their own workers in the most horrific way in the cause of making a quick buck. In South Africa, according to a Harvard study, over 300,000 people died unnecessarily because the Mbeki government chose to believe pseudo-science when reality did not suit the president's politics."


So starts an excellent post by "vocal local" Phil Machanick on how the climate change denial industry is recycling the same strategies used in previous science denial campaigns and the astounding habit of the media to be taken in every time.

Also of grave concern is the seeming elevation of unsubstantiated opinion to the same level as scientific evidence as part on an all out attack on any piece of science that doesn't fit ones particular ideology. As a scholar of science myself, I would humbly suggest that when one's political ideology comes into conflict with the fundamental physical and chemical processes that govern the universe, its probably time to reconsider your opinions.

Or as Phil says more elegantly than I can:

"Science is not a matter of opinion: a theory stands or falls by how well it fits the evidence, including how well its predictions stand up to measurement. By attempting to turn climate science, and indeed any science that offends a particular special interest, into a matter for debate where the evidence counts for less than personal preference, we risk reverting from a society of reason to a society of superstition."

This assault on reason is prominent in Australia as well, in response to the recent climate change report from CSIRO and the BOM (two of Australia leading and most respected scientific organizations) Liberal Senator Julian McGauran attacked CSIRO scientists as politically biased. It is of course difficult to accuse thermometers, rain gauges and satellites as having a political bias, hence the rise in attacks on the scientists themselves when their evidence unequivocally points to a warming world.

In our technologically advanced society, science and scientists provide us with explanations for much our forebears could not answer, what causes infectious disease?, is vaccination safe?, why is the average temperature of the earth warmer than that of the moon? Before he opens his mouth next time scientists report information he doesn't like, I hope Senator McGauran will consider the implications for a society who, due to repeated smear campaigns, no longer trust scientists and scientific knowledge and whether such a society is on a path to long term prosperity?

Meanwhile, NASA are reporting that it is almost certain a new 12 month global temperature record will be set this year (see a summary here or download their draft paper here), darn physics.

New must read CSIRO and BOM report on climate change in Australia

"Two of Australia's leading climate science agencies – the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) - have produced a snapshot of the state of the climate to update Australians about how their climate has changed and what it means".

The report is just 6 pages long and written for a general audience but provides essential information to understand how the Australian climate has changed over the last 50 years and how it will likely change into the future.

Download the report here

Key conclusions include:

1) Temperatures over the whole Australian continent has risen over the last 50 year, with increases in the number of record hot days and decreases in the occurrence of record cold.

2) Rain fall has been variable but has decreased significantly in the south east and south west.

3) Sea level has risen over the last century, with the speed of sea level rise almost doubling by the late 20th century.

4) Concentrations of heat trapping greenhouse gasses, which are measured in Australia and in other locations around the world, are rising rapidly.

5) Climate change is already visible across Australia, caused by humans and will cause this country will become hotter, and in many places, drier as this century progresses.

None of these conclusions will be a surprise to people familiar with the science and effects of climate change, but if you want a short, easy to read primer on climate change in Oz, look no further.