ACID MINE DRAINAGE
The threat to fresh water supplies from mining is in addition to growing alarm at the leakage of sewage into rivers and underground water systems. Concern about the water situation was echoed by Dr Morne du Plessis, the chief executive of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) in South Africa. He said more than 98 percent of our freshwater supply was already accounted for, and that at current rates of supply and consumption, we'd run out of fresh water by 2025.
Latest news is that Dr Anthony Turton of the CSIR has been suspended for bringing the reputation of the CSIR into disrepute. This was after he highlighted the state of our national water quality on the TV programme 50/50 and in a written report.
What price the humble tree?
‘The true meaning of selflessness is planting a tree under whose shade you do not expect to sit’
Research indicates that suburbs that are well treed, achieve house sale prices that are some 30% greater than those equivalent suburbs without trees. So the practice of developers to denud their sites of trees, and then spend hundreds of thousands on spindly palm trees raises a question that only developers can answer.
The air that you breathe
The production rate of oxygen by trees is about 10kg per annum per tree.
Before you relax, secure in the knowledge that you can breathe again, the emissions caused by just one 100w light bulb will amount to about 864kg of C02 per annum. You need 86 trees
to absorb the C02.
More alarming perhaps is the C02 emission rate per litre of fuel - at 2.68kg per litre of diesel and 2.31kg per litre of petrol. Before we get too pedantic about indigenous and endemic trees versus alien species – we should consider the more critical issue of cooling the planet.
THE TOXIC CARROT
Carrots should be full of vitamin A, but the following is information from a farmer who grows and
packages carrots for some major supermarkets.
The small cocktail (baby) carrots you buy in small plastic bags are made using the larger crooked or deformed carrots which are put through a machine which cuts and shapes them into cocktail carrots. Most people probably know this already. What you may not know and should know is the following: once the carrots are cut and shaped into cocktail carrots they are dipped in a solution of water and chlorine in order to preserve them (this is the same chlorine used in your pool) since they do not have their skin or natural protective covering, they give them a higher dose of chlorine. You will notice that once you keep these carrots in your refrigerator for a few days, a white covering will form on the carrots, this is the chlorine which resurfaces. At what cost do we put our health at risk to have aesthetically pleasing vegetables which are practically plastic?
Please let us make this information available to as many people as possible. If you care about your family and friends, pass it on.
SPASTIC PLASTIC
So when did we start shrinkwrapping our vegetables, and why do you want your cucumbers and tomatoes in polystyrene and plastic. If it is to protect us from germs, the chances are it’s not having the desired effect. Several people have died in America from ecoli contamination of
vegetables that are packaged in plastic. Earthbound Farm and Dole may have to pay as much
as $110 million to settle cases arising from recent E. coli contamination in bagged spinach, a Seattle attorney representing 97 of the victims said. However, attorney Bill Marler said it will likely be at least a year before any settlement is reached. Marler said it will take at least that
much time to see the full effects of the illnesses.
How safe is bottled mineral water?
Samples were tested of bottled water from California, whose residents are by far the greatest consumers of bottled water in America. California generally has the most stringent standards and warning levels applicable to bottled water, but, testing of 103 types of water found:-
Fluoride at excessive levels, which can cause mottling or dental fluorosis (pitting of teeth), skeletal fluorosis (adverse effects on bones), and cardiovascular and certain other health effects.
Arsenic: Testing found that one or more samples of eight waters (8 percent) purchased in California exceeded the 5 ppb warning level for arsenic set under California's Proposition 65.
Trihalomethanes: Studies of people and animals exposed to THMs in their water have found elevated risks of cancer and potentially a higher risk of spontaneous abortions and birth defects.
The most frequently found SOCs were industrial chemicals (e.g., toluene, xylene, and isopropyltoluene), and chemicals used in manufacturing plastic (e.g., phthalate, adipate, and styrene). Some of the chemicals found (such as phthalate) may pose health risks
such as potential cancer-causing effects, even at relatively low levels .
Who’s monitoring our bottled water? Well may you ask.
Coenzyme Q10 – could it save your life?
Coenzyme Q10 can be regarded as the spark plug that ignites the fuel mixture and sets the creation of energy going. Energy is life and as coenzyme Q10 is a crucial component of the energy cycle it may be regarded as a life-giving constituent of every human body cell. The consequences of a deficiency of the coenzyme in body cells will be a reduction in energy and a slowing down
of life-giving metabolic processes.
Dr Karl Folkers a pioneer researcher in coenzyme Q10 has stated "coenzyme Q10 is necessary for human life. Morbidity is associated with a deficiency of coenzyme Q10 of about 75% and death may occur somewhere between a deficiency of 75 and 100% At somewhere between 25 and 75% deficiency, overt disease states may appear”.
These can range from high blood pressure and heart attacks to an impaired immune system leading to cancer, as well as less life-threatening complaints such as periodontal disease. An adult body contains only about 2000mg of coenzyme Q10 so it is up to us maintain this by means of a sensible diet and supplementation with the pure material.
The highest dietary sources of CoQ10 come from (in descending order according to content): fresh sardines and mackerel; the heart and liver of beef, pork and lamb; and the meats of beef and pork along withpork, eggs. There are plenty of vegetable sources of CoQ10, the richest currently known being spinach, broccoli, peanuts, wheat germ and whole grains -in that order
although the amount in size is significantly smaller than that found in meats. Also, it is important to note that these foods must be fresh and unprocessed (no milling, canning, freezing, preserving, etc.), plus grown/produced in an unpolluted environment to be to considered viable sources.
CHEAP SOAP
Unilever, the makers of Dove soap are the worlds largest consumers of palm oil, and responsible for 60% of the destruction of the rainforests in Borneo.
A quarter of the forest lost in the last 10,000 years has been destroyed in the last 30 years.
Greenpeace estimate 98% of Indonesia’s rainforest will be gone in 20 years. Most of it razed for palm oil plantations. Watch the amazing video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI7pQFyjso
"Whether it's used as an additive in soap, cosmetics or food, or processed into a biofuel, palm oil
is one of the worst culprits in the climate crisis. Most of it comes from the disappearing, ultracarbon- rich rain forests of Indonesia and Malaysia, of which a whopping 74 million hectares have been cleared and burned to make way for palm oil plantations. That burning releases enough carbon dioxide into the air to rank Indonesia as the No. 3 such polluter in the world. It also destroys the last remaining habitat for orangutans, Sumatran rhinos, tigers and other endangered wildlife.“ "So how can we keep dead orangutans out of our hair, out of our food and out of our gas tanks? Consumers should scan ingredient labels for palm oil and palm kernel oil (and derivatives such as palmitic acid) and choose brands that don't contain them.
Every 5 minutes, enough KitKats are manufactured to outstack the Eiffel Tower, while a year’s
production would stretch around the London Underground more than 350 times.’Making such a
huge quantity of KitKats takes a lot of raw materials. The Nestle factory receives about 100
tonnes of refined palm kernel oil (PKO) from Cargill every week, which is used in the
manufacture of KitKat in the UK only.
Dead orangutans in your margarine?
A Greenpeace report says 1,600 orangutans were killed on palm
oil plantations in 2006.
And Nestle says:
The Greenpeace report exaggerates Nestlé’s role, as the Company uses a negligible proportion of world production in a variety of products, including KitKat,” the company said in a statement.
“Nestlé does not use crude palm oil but rather buys products derived from palm oil from reputable manufacturers.
LETTER FROM A RESIDENT
Hi there. guarding the frogs in the area - one evening, after dark, I had just driven into Randjiesfontein, and saw a young bullfrog on the centre line on Elevation, just after the boom. There was more traffic after me, and I just had to hope the frog would be ok. Alas, the next
morning, that frog had been squashed. I can't understand how, because it was right on the white line still, so someone would have gone out of their way to drive over it, as it was "frozen" in the
headlights, and did not move away.
I would like to suggest putting up some traffic signs to "Beware, Bullfrogs crossing" or something of that nature.
Bullfrogs do a wonderful job of helping rid the area of pest such as insects, mice and (unfortunately) ground nesting bird eggs and young. They deserve the best chance at survival in this busy world.
Kind regards, Gina Hall
One dead frog is one less frog.
DRIVE CAREFULLY
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