New World follows Countdown's lead to phase out plastic bags | Newshub New World has decided to phase out plastic bags completely after the conclusion of its "bag vote" poll. The Foodstuffs-owned company was planning on implementing a charge on plastic bags based on responses to the online poll. Customers were asked to vote on whether they would support a charge, and how much they would pay. The poll did not allow customers to say whether they would support the removal of plastic bags from stores. Foodstuffs Managing Director Steve Anderson said in a media release "we missed an important question - no bag at all". "Many of our customers told us via email, Facebook, phone and in-store that they wanted this option." Plastic bags will be phased out of all New World supermarkets by the end of 2018. The change comes following Countdown's announcement during the "bag vote" polling that plastic bags will be removed from its supermarkets by the end of 2018. Newshub
Sustainable fishing | WWF New Zealand It is estimated that three-quarters of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited or overfished. Each year inefficient, destructive and/or illegal fishing practices kill millions of fish and marine animals as unwanted bycatch. Poor fisheries management, exacerbated by climate change, is the largest threat to ocean life and habitats ... and to the livelihoods and diets of more than a billion people. WWF internationally WWF has long campaigned for the sustainable management of the world's fisheries. Working with fishers to develop practical solutions to reduce bycatch.
Has Western capitalism failed? 23 September 2011Last updated at 00:06 Twenty years ago, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe seemed to prove the triumph of capitalism. But was that an illusion? My answer to this question would be no. We failed as regulators, we failed as supervisors, we failed as corporate governance managers, we failed as risk managers, and we also failed in the allocation of roles and responsibilities for international economic organisations. Some international organisations saw the crisis coming. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote It is very important to send clear signals of how we are going to address this debt problem without sacrificing growth and employment” End Quote Thus, they were ignored in an atmosphere of great prosperity where everybody was making a lot of money and everybody thought that innovation was the name of the game - and by warning that something could go wrong, you would look like you were holding progress back. So the crisis left a dire legacy.
The Regulation of Genetically Modified Foods Help on accessing alternative formats, such as Portable Document Format (PDF), Microsoft Word and PowerPoint (PPT) files, can be obtained in the alternate format help section. Health Canada's Mandate Health Canada is responsible, under the Food and Drugs Act and its Regulations, for provisions related to public health, food safety and nutrition. Through science-based regulation, guidelines and public health policy, as well as health risk assessments concerning chemical, physical and microbiological contaminants, toxicants and allergens in the food supply, Health Canada works to protect the health and safety of Canadians. Health Canada also conducts pre-market evaluations to assess the safety and nutritional adequacy of novel foods proposed for sale in Canada, including foods derived from biotechnology. Biotechnology is an umbrella term that covers a broad spectrum of scientific tools and techniques, including genetic modification and genetic engineering. Food Labelling Glossary
Environment for Kids: Water Pollution Science >> Earth Science >> Environment What is water pollution? Water pollution is when waste, chemicals, or other particles cause a body of water (i.e. rivers, oceans, lakes) to become harmful to the fish and animals that need the water to survive. Water pollution can disrupt and negatively impact nature's water cycle as well. Natural Causes of Water Pollution Sometimes water pollution can occur through natural causes like volcanoes, algae blooms, animal waste, and silt from storms and floods. Human Causes of Water Pollution A lot of water pollution comes from human activity. Oil Spills Some of the most famous incidents of water pollution have been oil spills. Acid Rain Air pollution can also have a direct effect on water pollution. Effects on the Environment Water pollution can have disastrous effects on the environment. Pollution in the water can reach a point where there isn't enough oxygen in the water for the fish to breathe. Water pollution warning sign Effects on Health
EcoStock turning food waste into millions - NZ Herald Food waste recycler EcoStock is turning other people's rubbish into millions of dollars. The Auckland business deals with eight double-decker buses of food waste every day - seven days a week. The company buys vegetable scraps, bread and packaged food from manufacturers, distributors and retailers, and reprocesses it before passing on the byproduct ingredients for stock feed and bio-energy. EcoStock managing director Andrew Fisher said it was important that companies were aware of solutions to sustainably deal with the waste they produced. "We all think about reporting profits as being the biggest thing, but in Europe it's not about reporting profits, it's about telling your customers what you're doing to reduce your environmental footprint and accelerate greenhouse gas reductions," Fisher said. The responsibility lay with business leaders. "It's about directors and CEOs actually drilling down and asking what resources can be given to get this done." "The technology is there.
Economists: Every $1 of electricity from coal does $2 in damage to U.S. We all knew coal is harmful — we figured people just ignored that harm because of their profit margins. But according to the prestigious American Economic Review, harm from coal-fired electrical plants costs more than twice as much as the electricity they generate. All told, coal plants cause $53 billion in damage every year. And none of that even takes climate impacts into account. Health effects from coal-fired plants — increased deaths from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates — comprise more than a quarter of pollution-related damages from U.S. industry. That's a conservative estimate, done by centrist economists, that leaves out the health effects of climate change altogether. The findings show that, contrary to current political mythology, coal is underregulated.
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) Freshwater 101: Pollution As technology improves, scientists are able to detect more pollutants, and at smaller concentrations, in Earth’s freshwater bodies. Containing traces of contaminants ranging from birth control pills and sunscreen to pesticides and petroleum, our planet's lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater are often a chemical cocktail. Beyond synthetic pollution, freshwater is also the end point for biological waste, in the form of human sewage, animal excrement, and rainwater runoff flavored by nutrient-rich fertilizers from yards and farms. These nutrients find their way through river systems into seas, sometimes creating coastal ocean zones void of oxygen—and therefore aquatic life—and making the connection between land and sea painfully obvious. When you dump paint down the drain, it often ends up in the ocean, via freshwater systems. In the developed world, regulation has restricted industry and agricultural operations from pouring pollutants into lakes, streams, and rivers.
Is ethical optimal Plane Search Shows World's Oceans Are Full of Trash Before Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, sea trash was not a global headliner. But as hundreds of objects sighted off the Australian coast as possible aircraft debris turn out to be discarded fishing equipment, cargo container parts, or plastic shopping bags, a new narrative is emerging in the hunt for the missing plane: There's more garbage out there than you think. Most of it is plastic. "This is the first time the whole world is watching, and so it's a good time for people to understand that our oceans are garbage dumps," says Kathleen Dohan, a scientist at Earth and Space Research in Seattle, Washington, who maps ocean surface currents. Dohan plotted the movement of debris in a time-lapse video that shows where objects dropped into the ocean will end up in ten years. The term "patch" suggests this floating detritus is packed together in an oceanic version of a landfill. Great Pacific Garbage Patch the Largest Plastics Ingested by Birds, Turtles, Whales
Distributed Leadership and The New Flow. (A note to the reader: This post is long. And in 2011, when we all have the concentration of monkeys, reading something beyond 500 words can be a challenge. Well, it is for me anyway. A few weeks ago on Google Plus, Ishan Shapiro ( @notthisbody ) sparked off an inquiry about 'Distributed Leadership'. “Being of service to the individuals and collective – reciprocal enhancement of the individuals and collective.” What does that mean Eddie, you ask. Let me continue. I have been thinking along similar lines for a while. Having been influenced a lot from the likes of John Hagel , who advocates the value of small acts that can potentially lead to big things, as well my personal explorations into system thinking (amongst other things) - I have found that these ideas have finally morphed together in one semi-cohesive whole. I call it "Ecosystem Leadership" in my head although that word doesn't fit 100%. It began with an inquiry into myself on the beach. Right, ok, Eddie.
Animals Eat Ocean Plastic Because it Smells Like Food, Thanks to DMS-Producing Algae As the oceans fill with plastic debris, hundreds of marine species eat astonishing amounts of it. Yet the question of why so many species, from the tiniest zooplankton to whales, mistake so much of it for food has never been fully explored. Now a new study explains why: It smells like food. Algae are consumed by krill, a small crustacean that is the primary food source for many sea birds. It turns out that floating plastic debris provides the perfect platform on which algae thrives. “DMS is the dinner bell,” says Matthew Savoca, a doctoral student at the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the study. Plastic debris has been accumulating rapidly in the world’s ocean, roughly doubling every decade. Scientists have long known that ocean plastic is consumed because it looks like food. But the study of how odors might play a role in marine animals’ consumption of plastic is the first of its kind. “This does not disprove that plastic might look enticing,” he says.