Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
The climate impacts of food choice in the United States are analyzed and the impacts from life-cycle transportation and life-cycle production are compared.
Big news in the fight to protect bees: The Environmental Protection Agency just released a stunning new report admitting that popular neonicotinoid pesticides are partially to blame for the massive bee colony collapse.1
This new development is remarkable because the federal government is now finally admitting, after over 20 years in use, that “neonics” are killing bees. Yet, farmers are still spraying dangerous bee-killing neonics on tens of millions of acres of farmland across the United States while bees continue to die off in droves.2
The EPA has been notoriously slow at responding to this crisis, and its previous efforts to restrict neonics use have not gone far enough. We must ramp up pressure on the EPA to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides once and for all.
Bees and other pollinators play a vital role in our food production system by enabling the production of many of the nuts, fruits and vegetables in our diets. In total, pollinators make possible an astounding 35% of global food production and contribute more than $24 billion annually to the U.S. economy. But the number of managed honeybee colonies in the United States has declined from 6 million in the 1940s to just 2.5 million today – jeopardizing our food supply and domestic agriculture industry.3
And the outlook for bee colonies is getting worse. A recent survey, funded in part by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, revealed that U.S. beekeepers lost over 42% of their colonies between April 2014 and April 2015, a significant upswing of losses from the previous year.4
Now that the federal government has admitted the definitive proof that neonics are contributing significantly to the collapse of bee colonies, it’s time for the EPA to take action to ban these dangerous pesticides nationwide before any further harm is done to bee populations.
Tell the EPA: Ban dangerous bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. Click the link below to sign the petition:
The teachings of Falun Gong are based on the principles of zhēn眞, shàn善 and rěn忍 (which translate approximately as truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance)[1]articulated in the two main books Falun Gong[2] and Zhuan Falun.[3]Falun Gong is an introductory book that discusses qigong, introduces the aforementioned principles, and provides illustrations and explanations of exercises for meditation. Zhuan Falun is considered the central and most comprehensive exposition on the teachings of Falun Gong.
According to the book Falun Gong, “Fǎlún” (Buddha Fǎ) is a great, high-level cultivation way of the Buddha School (different from Buddhism), in which assimilation to the supreme nature of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, is the foundation of cultivation practice.”[4] In this concept, “cultivation” refers to upgrading one’s xīnxìng (mind-nature) through abandoning negative attachments and assimilating oneself to “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance”. “Practice” refers to the five meditative exercises that are said to purify and transform one’s body. Cultivation is considered essential, and the exercises are said to supplement the process of improving oneself.[5][6]
Some aspects of Falun Gong’s teachings are considered implausible and peculiar by observers, and Falun Gong’s conservative and moralistic views on subjects such as sexuality have attracted controversy.
Falun Gong or Falun Dafa(literally, “Dharma Wheel Practice” or “Law Wheel Practice”) is a Chinese spiritual practice that combines meditation and qigong exercises with a moral philosophy centered on the tenets of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance(Chinese: 真、善、忍). The practice emphasizes morality and the cultivation of virtue, and identifies as a qigong practice of the Buddhist school, though its teachings also incorporate elements drawn from Taoist traditions. Through moral rectitude and the practice of meditation, practitioners of Falun Gong aspire to better health and, ultimately, spiritual enlightenment.
Falun Gong was first taught publicly in Northeast China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. It emerged toward the end of China’s “qigongboom”—a period which saw the proliferation of similar practices of meditation, slow-moving exercises and regulated breathing. It differs from other qigong schools in its absence of fees or formal membership, lack of daily rituals of worship, its greater emphasis on morality, and the theological nature of its teachings. Western academics have described Falun Gong as a qigong discipline, a “spiritual movement”, a “cultivation system” in the tradition of Chinese antiquity, or as a form of Chinese religion.
Although the practice initially enjoyed considerable support from Chinese officialdom, by the mid- to late-1990s, the Communist Partyand public security organizations increasingly viewed Falun Gong as a potential threat due to its size, independence from the state, and spiritual teachings. By 1999, government estimates placed the number of Falun Gong practitioners at 70 million.[1] Tensions culminated in April 1999, when over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered peacefully near the central government compound in Beijing to request legal recognition and freedom from state interference. This demonstration is widely seen as catalyzing the persecution that followed.
On 20 July 1999, the Communist Party leadership initiated a nationwide crackdown and multifaceted propaganda campaign intended to eradicate the practice. It blocked Internet access to websites that mention Falun Gong, and in October 1999 it declared Falun Gong a “heretical organization” that threatened social stability. Human rights groups report that Falun Gong practitioners in China are subject to a wide range of human rights abuses: hundreds of thousands are estimated to have been imprisoned extrajudicially, and practitioners in detention are subject to forced labor, psychiatric abuse, torture, and other coercive methods of thought reform at the hands of Chinese authorities.[2] As of 2009 at least 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners had died as a result of abuse in custody.[3]Some observers put the number much higher, and report that tens of thousands may have been killed to supply China’s organ transplant industry.[4][5] In the years since the persecution began, Falun Gong practitioners have become active in advocating for greater human rights in China.
Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi has lived in the United States since 1996, and Falun Gong has a sizable global constituency. Inside China, some sources estimate that tens of millions continue to practice Falun Gong in spite of the persecution.[6][7] Hundreds of thousands are estimated to practice Falun Gong outside China in over 70 countries worldwide.[8][9]
Uploaded on May 22, 2011
1999年4月25日發生了震動世界的法輪功萬人北京上訪事件，事件真相被中共封鎖至今已有15年，”4.25法輪功萬人上訪真相”仍作為被禁的關鍵詞，被中共嚴密封鎖和抹黑。
那一天，一萬多名法輪大法修煉者從四面八方來到北京國務院信訪辦公室所在地和平請願。從清晨到夜晚，歷時十多個小時，無暴力、無口號、無擾民、無垃圾、善意平靜，創造了在中共幾十年極權統治下不曾有過的官民成功對話、圓滿解決問題的獨有範例，也為
LONDON (AP) — British health officials say that drinking any alcohol regularly increases the risk of cancer, in tough new guidelines that could be hard to swallow for a nation where having a pint is a hallowed tradition.
Britain’s Chief Medical Officer advised both men and women not to drink any more than 14 units of alcohol, or about six pints of beer a week, which still carries a low risk of liver disease or cancer. Previously, men had been allowed up to 21 units a week.
The guidance also clarified advice to pregnant women, recommending they avoid alcohol “as a precaution.” In a departure from previous advice, the government said there is no “safe” level of alcohol for pregnant women.
Britain also recommended people have several alcohol-free days a week.
BEIJING (Reuters) – Farmers are illegally growing genetically modified corn in China’s northeast, said environmental non-profit Greenpeace on Wednesday, in a report that may generate further distrust of the government’s ability to ensure a safe food supply.
Beijing has spent billions of dollars to develop GMO crops that it hopes will ensure food supplies for its 1.4 billion people but has not yet approved commercial cultivation amid deep-seated anti-GMO sentiment. The new findings seem to confirm concerns that Beijing will be unable to supervise the planting of GMO crops once commercial cultivation is permitted, leading to widespread contamination of the food chain with GM varieties.
In its report, Greenpeace said 93 percent of samples taken last year from corn fields in five counties in Liaoning province, part of China’s breadbasket, tested positive for GMO contamination.
