Category Archives: Toxics

Poisoning Continues, Now with Government Approval

2/23/2012 – 4:37 pm

Twenty years ago, as a young(er) toxics campaigner, I and many others worked to limit the effects of the industrial uses of chlorine.  Short version: when we put chlorine in the front end, we get a host of pollutants out the back end that persist in the environment and cause cancer, birth defects and reproductive [...]

By floegel | Also posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

“Pre-Positioned Weapons of Mass Destruction”

8/25/2011 – 2:44 pm

The tenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks is a bit more than two weeks away.  People in DC and New York were viscerally reminded of this when an earthquake – unusually strong for the east coast – rattled them Tuesday.  Although human-induced climate change may affect hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts and blizzards, earthquakes remain an [...]

By floegel | Also posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary, September 11th | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Drinking Dry the Sea

8/12/2010 – 11:40 am

Consider the environmental woes that confront us. Consider drinking dry the sea. They feel about the same.
Global warming, overfishing, deforestation, uncontrolled release of genetically modified material, nuclear waste.
So cut it down, make it manageable. Choose a single issue – say the release of toxic chemicals into our air, soil, water and our [...]

By floegel | Also posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

You Can Hide, But You Can’t Run

5/12/2010 – 9:57 am

Now that BP’s jury-rigged contraption to contain its massive Gulf of Mexico oil spew has failed, the company’s only resort is to continue pumping massive amounts of dispersant into the water near the wellhead, in an attempt to – what exactly?
The dispersant goes by the trade name “Corexit.” It’s supposed to be a pun [...]

By floegel | Also posted in Asides, Energy, Oceans, Oil | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Missile Envy

2/21/2008 – 10:45 am

Last night, a Standard Missile 3 rocket, launched from the USN Lake Erie, an Aegis-class cruiser in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii, struck a disabled spy satellite 150 miles over Earth. It is hoped the missile destroyed the satellite (confirmation of a “kill” will be made later today) and saved the planet from [...]

By floegel | Also posted in Commentary, September 11th | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Live the Dream!

2/6/2008 – 2:23 pm

It’s snowing in Burlington today, but it’s never too early to begin planning for spring break.
This year, you might want to throw the kids in a plane and hustle on down to EPCOT
at Walt Disney World. (EPCOT, btw, stands for “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” – a rare “triple redundancy” and evidence of just [...]

By floegel | Also posted in Asides | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Next To Godliness

12/20/2007 – 11:17 am

This isn’t a Christmas story, per se. It’s about soap. It takes place in Louisiana in June, far removed from the climate and symbols traditionally associated with Christmas, but the more I contemplate the “Christmas spirit” the more this story pushes to the front of my mind.
The June in question was 2001, before [...]

By floegel | Also posted in Commentary, Economy | Tagged , | Comments (1)