September 2008
Issue No. 415
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This toxic life
They’re in our homes and our workplace, in the air we breathe and in the food we eat. Wayne Ellwood argues that toxic chemicals are changing the nature of nature.
The Polymer Revolution
A history of plastic.
Message in a bottle
It’s a fashion statement and an environmental nightmare. Zoe Cormier examines one of the most successful marketing ploys ever – bottled water.
Plastic is forever
The facts about plastic
Sea of garbage
The good ship Alguita sails an ocean choked with plastic. Blog by Anna Cummins.
Plastic plants
As oil supplies dwindle, the plastic industry is pinning its hopes on biomass. Not a great idea, reasons Jim Thomas.
Abandon the toxic treadmill!
Things you can do to avoid toxic plastics. PLUS the Action / Campaign directory.
News, views, and & voices
NI Special Feature
Cambodia: Year Zero on trial
What can be wrong with putting five notorious Khmer Rouge leaders on trial? Plenty, argues lawyer Brooks Duncan, as he examines the nature of the long-awaited, and foreign-funded, trials currently underway.
Letter from Cairo
What love’s got to do with it
Maria Golia on conflicting loves in Cairo
Currents
Currents Coal Special
A special on coal – including the ‘clean coal’ con, windpower in China, success in Bangladesh and activism everywhere.
'Clean coal' con
Desperate industry’s ludicrous claims exposed
'Territory, autonomy, dignity... and no coal'
Jorge’s community is part of the 500,000-strong Wayúu indigenous group, and it is not only their home in the northern foothills of the Sierra de Perijá which is under threat.
Breaking China’s coal addiction
Renewables revolution is there for the taking
Black holes and demonstrations
Positive outcome, but at a cost of seven campaigners lives, killed by police during a demonstration against the GCM coalmine in Bangladesh.
Power surge
Activists scrub the grubby face of globalization clean
Word power
The language of prejudice...
by Mitchell & Richardson
Speechmarks
Stevie Smith (1902-71)
British poet
Seriously...
Life on Mars
True tales of a mixed-up world
Big Bad World
Big Bad World 415 - Peak Oil
Polyp’s peak oil fun ride
Making Waves
Youssou N'Dour
Senegal’s beacon of good music and positive energy Youssou N’Dour talks to Ed Stocker
Mixed Media - Music
Alive
Chinese Mongolian ‘Björk’ steps into Tibet controversy
Umalali
The Garifuna Women’s Project from Central America
Mixed Media - Film
El Baño del Papa (The Pope’s Toilet)
A film about the Pope’s toilet. Directed by Enrique Fernandez and Cesar Charlone
Time and Winds (Bes Vakit)
Written and directed by Reha Erdem
Mixed Media - Books
Children of the Revolution
This is a book that highlights how people caught in between places are denied identity, perspective and intimacy.
In Defense of Lost Causes
Superstar philosopher Slavoj Zizek writes in defence of lost causes
Dancing, dying, crawling, crying
Stories of continuity and change in the Polynesian community of Tikopia by Julian Treadaway
Southern Exposure
Earthworks 2008 cartoon competition
Earthworks 2008: highlighting cartoonists from the global South taking part in the Biennial Ken Sprague competition.
Essay
Things to do before I retire
Things to do before I retire… humble thoughts from the diary of GW Bush, as revealed by Stefan Simanowitz
Country Profile
Botswana
Since independence in 1966, Botswana’s annual growth rates have been the highest in the world – bar none. It is estimated that were it not for the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, growth rates would be one or two per cent higher today.
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
I don’t know about you but I’m both an inveterate label reader and a sceptic – have been for years. Cans, boxes, bottles: you name it, I read it. It’s a bit of an in-joke at our family dinner table. There’s Dad reading the label on the pickle jar again. Maybe it comes from growing up when consumerism was still in its infancy and the wonders of modern science were accepted without question.
‘Better living through chemistry’ was more than an advertising slogan back then – it was, in those innocent times, a declaration of faith in modernity. Then came DDT, asbestos, agent orange and horrors of Love Canal. Suddenly, corporate chemistry didn’t look so good anymore.
Today it’s more of the same. The toxic substances in your sunscreen, shower curtains, plastic bottles and cleaning products may be killing you. Chemical companies are literally getting away with murder. Profits trump human health – the industry continues to peddle poisons with little accountability while resisting any attempts to regulate their trade.
So I read labels, recycle like crazy, shun food additives and try to limit my intake of hazardous chemicals.
But it’s not enough. As citizens we have the right to know what poisons are out there. We need to push our lawmakers to get tough. How can we allow industry to poison people for profit in the 21st century?
Wayne Ellwood for the
New Internationalist Co-operative
