Help me stop toxic strawberries

Dear Friend,
I just took action and hope you can too. California's Department of Pesticide Regulation is considering approval of methyl iodide, a carcinogenic pesticide, for use on strawberry fields. A panel of Nobel laureates and expert scientists called methyl iodide "one of the most toxic chemicals used in manufacturing," yet the State of California is considering allowing it to be sprayed and injected into the soil.

Will you join me in asking Governor-elect Jerry Brown to pledge to ban methyl iodide as soon as he takes office?

Governor-elect Brown has the power to decide whether or not methyl iodide should be allowed on California's strawberries. It's time to put our health, the health of farm workers, and children's health before the profits of the pesticide industry. The state should be finding safer, healthier ways to produce strawberries -- not allowing more toxins into our bodies and our environment. Please join me in signing the petition to Governor-elect Brown!

Take action here: http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5262

Come See Jared and Others Speak About Water!

Friends, Collegues, Fellow Environmentalists,

 

Clear your calendars  on the evening of December 8th!

 

As many of you know, our team at Below the Surface completed an expedition in September 2009 to better understand and film pollution sources along the Sacramento River, covering the nearly 400 miles of the Sacramento River and making our way down the nearly 450 miles of State Water Project.  

 

San Diego Coastkeeper has invited me to be 1 of 4 panelists to speak about this at their annual Signs of the Tide event.  The panelists will be discussing our team's observations on this expedition, the politics, science and at-home solutions for the water scarcity we find ourselves in as a region.

 

Check out the event at http://www.sdcoastkeeper.org/act/green-events-in-san-diego/signs-of-the-tide.html  and join us on December 8th from 6-8 pm at the Urban Corps of SD 3127 Jefferson Street 92010

 

See you then!

 

Jared

--
Jared Robinson Criscuolo - Explorer and Founder

BELOW THE SURFACE
A coast-to-coast exploration of America’s waterways
203 887 3272
www.belowthesurface.org

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How much biofuel was made from Algae in 2010?

How much biofuel was made from Algae in 2010?

 

http://polls.linkedin.com/poll-results/112552/duaha

 

 

Algal Biofuels: Will San Diego become the "Green Houston"?

Many have argued that Algal Biofuels hold promise as an alternative fuel source and that San Diego is well situated to become the "Green Houston".

Can biotechnology revolutionize the oil industry by creating algal biomass with high lipid content that can feed directly into industrial petroleum refineries?

Will San Diego County play a central role in this beyond the pilot plant?

Will refineries dot the horizon in the future and be colocated with the algal ponds so as to sequester the CO2 from the production process?

Modern algae research indicates many reasons to be hopeful that algae can play a competitive role in our alternative energy future. 

With regards to cost, a recent study indicated that there are many benefits to co-location with wastewater treatment facilities equipped with decomposers that collect natural gas.

Like many chemical feedstocks in production today, there will be little waste as we will be able to utilize many aspects of the biomass created from Algae production and once we are able to realize some economies of scale, it seems that the price of Algal biofuels will come down as well.

With the hundreds of thousands of species of Algae in the world, and through modern genomic advances, we are nearing the brink of an Algae revolution.

One concern of note is with growing non-native Algae in our Oceans, Rivers, and Lakes. Given the risks of algal blooms and unknown consequences of some of these newly discovered and developed species, it seems that scale-up of non-native species should be performed in pilot plants and production facilities as this stage of research. 

Growth of Algae in plastic bags with osmotic membranes is being researched as a means of containment, but hopefully not with non-native Algae.  A genetically modified algae should be investigated and risks assessed before carelessly contaminating the Ocean's with significantly altered DNA.  That's one massive experiment that could not be undone easily.