Children these days are busier than ever, overstimulated and overloaded with information and technology.

Some people swear by the calming effect of yoga on children. Yoga studios for kids, such as Butterfly Yoga in Ville Emard, are becoming increasingly popular. Teachers like Angie Continisio are convinced that today's children need to calm down.

"We're always in a rush to do things," she told CTV's Tarah Schwartz. "We're always running from one place to another. So I teach the children to breathe, to be grounded, to be present in the moment."

Children like the 8-year-old D'arcy McCready love it.

"It makes me feel in harmony and in a peaceful place," she said.

Yoga in the classroom

The elements of stress relief are catching on for even the youngest kids — many of whom face intensifying obligations in daily life.

On any given day at Coconut Creek Elementary school in Florida, it's likely that you'll find the children in an unlikely position: downward dog.

They lean on their hands with their bottoms in the air, swaying and breathing and centering themselves. Then, they curl up into child's pose and listen to their breath while steadying their heart rates.

In the coming weeks, their yoga practice will intensify to help the children deal with No Child Left Behind testing in March.

"There's a lot of high-stakes testing for No Child Left Behind," said Deborah Collins, a Florida-based school psychologist and co-developer of the yoga program. "A lot of the decisions are based on how they do, and the test is administered once a year. It creates a lot of tension."

To prevent the students from becoming too stressed — and to help them focus before the big day — schools throughout the country are counting on a technique that adults have long employed to deal with demanding work and home situations: yoga.

A study by California State University researchers in Los Angeles found that practicing yoga helps students' academic performance, overall health and behavior.

And teachers and parents are hoping this new yoga fanaticism in schools will help foster calmer, saner, healthier children.

"Today, children are stressed about everything," said Michelle Kelsey Mitchell, yoga instructor and executive director of YoKid, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization that brings yoga to schools for underserved children. "Our kids are overscheduled, they have a full day at school, and oftentimes they have a multitude of activities that they're involved in after school and on the weekends. They don't necessarily get a break, and when they do get a break, it's in front of the TV or it's playing a video game, which isn't a true break for them."

The added pressure of bullying issues, combined with a decrease in sports and outdoor activities can even lead to stressed-out, sleep-deprived 3-year-olds, said Jillian Moriarty, a Minnesota-based yoga instructor and creator of Happily Ever Active, a brand consisting of yoga gear and DVDs.

That's where yoga comes in.


But what do the kids actually do?

Yoga gives children breathing techniques and calming methods that they're able to call upon whenever life gets overwhelming, Mitchell said. And the inverted postures increase blood flow to the sleep centers of their brains, which helps them get a more restorative sleep at night.

In Mitchell's classes, she teaches kids ages 3 to 18 to lie down without sleeping. They learn how to appreciate their bodies and how to relax mindfully.

Mitchell even recommends starting yoga for the diaper set. She does stretching and breathing exercises with her infant.

"It can be anything from physically moving and stretching them, or taking opposite fingers to opposite toes, hugging them close and breathing deeply with them," she said. "They sleep better, they cry a little less, and they seem to be overall more happy."

While there aren't any statistics as to how many schools are bringing yoga to their students, the anecdotal evidence of yoga in the schools appears to be growing, and it's being offered in public schools, private schools and after school.

It's especially crucial that children take the time to breathe and relax now, said Feather Hawk, a children's yoga instructor at Ananda Kula, a Florida yoga studio.

"Everything today is constant stimulation, from the Internet to the television," he said. "They need to take an hour to disconnect and make room for play and self-expression."

The parents who usually drag their little ones into the studio tend to take yoga classes themselves, and they understand how important it is to take the time to decompress, Hawk said.

But the child-focused classes are very different. After all, it would be difficult to persuade a child to hold each pose silently for upward of 5 minutes while concentrating on nothing but his or her breath.

So instead, they are instructed to look like their favorite animal — and hold that crouching position. Or, they are led through a story based on the yoga postures, Hawk said. They might even color in pictures of people doing yoga positions so they become more familiar with the various moves.

Soothe vs. remove stressors

Not everyone is so convinced of yoga's magical cure for children, however.

Dr. Michelle Riba, professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan and past president of the American Psychiatric Association, said teaching yoga to children for stress relief is akin to putting a Band-Aid on a tumor.

"One might say, 'Why don't we de-stress them instead of doing something to fix the stress,'" Riba said. "It's like giving a medicine — and then giving another medicine to fix the side effects. Maybe people should look at trying not to put so much stress on the children."

Cutting back on after-school activities would be the first step, Riba said.

But at a time when "tiger mom" is a household name, it's hard to be the mother who's keeping her children at home instead of at music class.

So yoga gives them the tools they need to take a break, no matter what they're doing.

"It's easy for kids to feel overwhelmed with busy schedules, academics, hectic home lives and increased social pressures," said Laurie Jordan, director of kids programs at Kaia Yoga in Connecticut. "Yoga helps them release excess energy, tension and stress while instilling a sense of calm, and helping kids develop self-awareness and self-soothing techniques which they can use in any situation."

Easy yoga positions for kids

Give your kid a quick fix with these easy yoga poses designed for children by Lisa Flynn, founder of ChildLight Yoga and Yoga 4 Classrooms, which are programs used in schools nationwide.

Big white star visualization: While lying in bed — or even sitting up with your head resting on your desk, imagine a big, bright, white star. Let the light of the star travel to your head, your shoulders and down your body, filling you with light and love with each breath. Notice how it feels to be filled completely with love.

Washing machine: Standing with your legs hip distance apart, keep everything from your waist down still while you swing your arms back and forth like a washing machine. Close your eyes, and try to wash away any bad thoughts with your washing machine. Go back to the standing position, and with an inhale, lift your arms up. Exhale and bring them back down to your sides.

Mountain pose: Stand tall and strong like a mountain, and find something to focus your eyes on. Inhale, and raise your shoulders to your ears. Exhale, and lower them down again. Inhale, and lift your arms up over your head. Exhale, and reach your arms to one side, feeling a nice stretch. Concentrating on your breath, do the same to the other side.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sc-health-0215-fitness-kids-yoga-20120215,0,6175391,full.story

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Related links:

Are you Eating Antibiotics without knowing it?
http://www.thenutritionpost.com/eatright/are-you-eating-antibiotics-without-knowing-it-probably.html

How to Avoid Genetically Modified Food (GMOs)?
http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-foods/how-to-avoid-gmos

Special Report: Children's Yoga
http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100318/mtl_kids_yoga100318/20100318/?hub=MontrealHome

The Benefits of teaching Yoga to Kids
http://www.canadianliving.com/health/fitness/the_benefits_of_teaching_yoga_to_kids.php

New Brunswick is trying to encourage Sustainable Community Development
A sustainable subdivision makes sense. The theory is easy to understand. Learn how this new subdivision concept is rapidly becoming the preferred alternative. Daniel Savard, MCIP, MBA, senior planner, N.B. Department of the Environment, describes the concept of Sustainable Community Design and introduces the goals of the series.

Project details:
http://www.gnb.ca/0009/0136/0005/index-e.asp

Energy storage has long been touted as the silver bullet needed for widespread renewable energy adoption but costs have remained high. Today, several projects hold promise.

Grid-scale energy storage is gaining momentum as batteries, flywheels and compressed air systems begin proving they can regulate frequency and ancillary services with the same efficiency of "spinning reserves" from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

“We still hear people say storage isn’t ready for primetime, but that isn’t the case because we already have 20-MW storage plants being built all over the country,” said Brad Roberts, executive director of the Electricity Storage Association (ESA).

As more renewable energy hits the grid, generators and independent system operators are looking to new storage systems to provide emissions-free backup and regulation when intermittency interrupts solar and wind power.

“We are interested in the potential of battery storage to be a game changer in our industry in both regulated utilities and commercial businesses,” said Greg Efthimiou, spokesman for Duke Energy, which operates more than 1,000 MW of wind farms.

Duke Energy is installing the country’s largest battery storage system, a 36-MW unit, near its 153-MW Notrees Windpower Project. The system will regulate frequency and store excess energy for use during peak demand. In Texas, where nearly 11,000 MW of generation comes from wind farms, grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas relies on standby gas turbines and steam coal generators to ramp frequency up or down as wind generation changes.

The Notrees battery system is funded by a $22 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and matching funds from Duke Energy, which will use Austin-based Xtreme Power’s proprietary dry cell technology.

Investment, Policy Gains

ESA’s Roberts said the $158 million in stimulus earmarked by the DOE for storage research generated $780 million in investments for battery, compressed air, flywheels and other systems.

The storage industry has been calling for creation of an ITC to further stimulate growth. With passage of Assembly Bill No. 2514 in September, California began the process of developing a portfolio standard for energy storage.

Full article:
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/08/energy-storage-industry-grows-to-integrate-wind-solar

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Related articles:

Renewable Energy Development: Smaller Projects That Think Big
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/print/article/2011/10/renewable-energy-development-smaller-projects-that-think-big

World's First Hybrid Solar-Geothermal Power Plant Underway
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/08/worlds-first-hybrid-solar-geothermal-power-plant-is-underway

World Water Day
March 22, 2012
http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/

Earth Hour
March 31, 2012
A record 134 countries & territories participated globally. In Canada, over 420 cities, towns & municipalities took part.
http://www.earthhour.org/ or
http://earthhour.wwf.ca/earthhour/index.html

Toronto Yoga Show
March 30-April 1, 2012
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, ON
http://theyogaconference.com/

Green Living Show 2012
April 13-15, 2012
Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place, Toronto, ON
http://www.greenlivingonline.com/torontoshow/

International Biomass
April 16-19, 2012
Denver, CO
http://www.biomassconference.com/

Analytica 2012
23rd International Trade Fair for Laboratory Technology, Analysis & Biotechnology
April 17-20, 2012
Neue Messe, Munich, Germany
www.munich-tradefairs.com

Earth Day Canada
April 22, 2012
Various, ON
http://www.earthday.ca/pub/

Organic City Gardening
April 25, 2012 (7pm-8pm)
High Park Library, Toronto, ON
Join Cathy Kozma, Toronto Master Gardener & trained horticulturalist, for a presentation about organic gardening i an urban environment. Topics incluse organic control of pests, weeds, and disease.
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca

WasteExpo 2012
May 1-3, 2012
Las Vegas, NV
http://www.wasteexpo.com

IFAT Entsorga
May 7-11, 2012
Munich, Germany
http://www.ifat.de/

Clean Pacific 2012
May 15-17, 2012
Long Beach, CA
http://www.cleanpacific.org/

Solid Waste & Recycling Conference
May 20-23, 2012
Bolton Landing, NY
http://www.nyfederation.org/

Achema
June 18-22, 2012
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
http://www.achema.de/

Air & Waste Management
June 19-22, 2012
San Antonio, TX
http://www.ace2012.awma.org/

2012 APWA
Sustainability in Public Work Conference
June 25-27, 2012
Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.apwa.net/sustainability

Planet in Focus
October 10-14, 2012
Various, Toronto, ON
http://planetinfocus.org/

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For more event listing, please visit:
http://transitiontoronto.ning.com/events
http://www.planetfriendly.net/calendar/
http://www.alive.com/calendar.php

AURORA, ON, Jan. 19, 2012 /CNW/ - Another school has removed its Wifi, following warnings that the system emits potentially harmful microwave radiation.

"Schools are in the business of helping children, not hurting them so we shouldn't be taking chances," said Brenda Glashan, principal of the Aurora Montessori School, a private elementary school of 350 students north of Toronto.

Last May the World Health Organization warned that radiation from WiFi, cell phones and other wireless devices may cause cancer. Researchers have since reported that WiFi from laptop computers causes damage to human sperm.

Several Ontario private schools have since removed their wifi systems, but many public schools continue to install them despite the health warnings.

Aurora Montessori school is known for its advanced computer lab, and now hardwires all of its internet connections.

Parents Vote to Turn Off the WiFi
http://www.safeschool.ca/Parents_Vote_No.html
(Background http://www.safeschool.ca/Health_Warnings.html)

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/907785/aurora-school-removes-wifi-to-protect-children-s-health

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Related links:

Artificial electromagnetic fields - Are they affecting your health?
http://www.alive.com/articles/view/23187/electromagnetic_fields

Cell Tower Invasion - Is your neighbourhood safe?
http://www.alive.com/articles/view/22894/cell_tower_invasion

British Columbia School Removes Wifi to Protect Children's Health
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/865383/british-columbia-school-removes-wifi-to-protect-children-s-health

Ban mobile phones and wireless networks in schools, say European leaders
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/8514380/Ban-mobile-phones-and-wireless-networks-in-schools-say-European-leaders.html

Elizabeth May Wages War Against Wi-Fi
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/elizabeth-may-wages-war-against-wifi/article2112597/

Measuring, Reporting and Reducing your Environmental Footprint
Date: November 2, 2011 (8:30am-4:30pm)
Location: Humber College, North Campus (Toronto, ON)

In this program we will examine how waste, water, energy, emissions and greenhouse gas environmental footprints are the basis for comparative advantage in Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility and Socially Responsible Investment reports today.
We will introduce the concepts of ecological and environmental footprint, discuss the approaches used by "best practice' companies, examine Enviro-Stewards 5-step system to environmental footprint assessment and explore continuous improvement to meet footprint and overhead cost reductions. Learn about achieving sustainable operations through the evolving concepts of industrial metabolism, materials flow and substitution, input-output analysis, life cycle assessment and industrial symbiosis.
http://www.sustainabilitylearningcentre.com/Public-Courses/measuring-reporting-and-reducing-your-env

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Spreading Roots: Working Together to Protect our Urban Trees
Date: November 3-5, 2011
Location: Various (Toronto, ON)

This three-day tree symposium, Spreading Roots, celebrating the UN International Year of Forests brings together a wide range of people-professionals and passionate amateurs, researchers and citizen advocates, nursery growers and backyard gardeners, policy makers and hands-on stewards-to explore the critical issues affecting urban trees and to examine what can be accomplished if we work together to ensure that our cities' trees flourish.
http://www.spreadingroots.ca

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Waterlution Toronto Hub: Water & the City: Mobilizing Leaders
Date: November 3, 2011 (6-9pm)
Location: The Richmond, 477 Richmond Street West (Toronto, ON)

Join us in launching: The Waterlution Toronto Hub "Building active networks of water leaders; hosting space for real progress"
With special guest Michael D'Andrea, Director of Water Infrastructure Management at Toronto Water, to Provoke your mind. And surprise performances to stimulate your senses.

Register at http://waterlutiontorontohub.eventbrite.com/ - Space is limited!

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Health Canada's Hazardcheck
Date: November 5-6 (10am-3pm)
Location: Various (Selected Home Depot locations across Canada)

Description: Did you know? Canadians spend an average of 90% of their time indoors, so it's important that our homes are safe and healthy places to live. At the Hazardcheck event, a Summerhill Impact representative will provide information on health risks that may be present in your home, such as carbon monoxide, radon, lead and mould, and their potential health impacts. For more information, or to find a store near you, visit: www.summerhillgroup.ca/hazardcheck.

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Facilitation Workshop 101
Date: November 5, 2011
Location: University of Toronto St George Campus (Room location is given upon registration)

A major part of movement building is lots of meetings. Meetings can be inspiring, hellish, or somewhere in between. The quality of a meeting depends a lot on good facilitation. Facilitators aren't supposed to run the show, and they do more than keep track of who wants to speak. Come learn and share strategies for fostering good communication, equity, active listening and effective decision making for meetings of all shapes and sizes. Register: http://www.toolsforchange.net/2011/08/14/facilitation-101/

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Advanced Pruning, at Riverwood Conservancy
Date: November 5, 2011 (9am-12noon)
Location: Riverwood Conservancy, Mississauga, ON

A follow-up course to Pruning Basics with Ease, this 3 hour workshop by Jim Lounsbery offers a more in-depth view of pruning such plants as rhododendrons, Japanese Maples and evergreens plus the specialized pruning techniques of pollarding and espalier. A slide presentation and discussion on planting and some insect problems may be presented if time permits. Space is limited for this workshop at the MacEwan Field Station. Call or email to reserve your space.
Cost: $20 Members/$25 Public for one pruning workshop, or $30 Members/$40 Public for both pruning workshops (this workshop & Pruning Basics with Ease on Oct. 29)

http://www.theriverwoodconservancy.org

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CCNM Naturopathic Seminars
Date: November 2, 8, 17& 28 (6:30pm-8:30pm)
Location: Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (1255 Sheppard Ave East, Toronto, ON)

Wednesday, November 2, 6:30 p.m.
Hypertension and High Cholesterol

Tuesday, November 8, 6:30 p.m.
Diabetes: Naturopathic Approaches

Thursday, November 17, 6:30 p.m.
Home Remedies for the Cold/Flu

Monday, November 28, 6:30 p.m.
Osteoporosis: Naturopathic Approaches

Please feel free to send this message to anyone who may be interested in attending. If you would like to register for any of these sessions, please visit the “News and Events” section of our website, www.ccnm.edu.

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Canadian Waste & Recycling Expo
Date: November 8-10, 2011 (10am-4pm)
Location: Hyatt Regency Montréal Hotel (Palais des congrès de Montréal, QC)

Don’t miss your opportunity to see the latest technology, equipment, software, products and services in our industry! We’ve got them all!

In addition, the Canadian Waste Sector Symposium will host top-notch experts in the industry covering everything from Green Energy to Hazardous Waste Management and so much more.

This premier event is for the waste and recycling professionals representing companies in the following sectors:

Collection, Hauling, Disposal, Construction & Demolition, Facility / Site Operation, Federal, Provincial and Municipal Government, Landfill Management & Operations, Recycling, Public Works, Airport & Road Management, ICI, Transportation & Fleet Maintenance, Property Management, Engineering, Waste Management, Wastewater.

To register for Free VIP Pass to CWRE 2011 (Symposium only):
http://www.cwre.ca/MCB3

To get a full line-up, visit www.canwastesectorsymposium.ca

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Natural Health Series
Date: November 10-30, 2011
Location: Source Centre for Health & Wellness (Peter Street, register at 416-923-4325)

Thu, Nov 10 (6:30-7:30pm) -Only Women Bleed
What woman, at one time or another, hasn't considered her period a curse? But what if there were more, far more, to menstruation than has been told to us? What are the secrets of the period and how intensely would our lives improve if we were able to embrace and explore this facet of our femaleness instead of brandishing it a curse? Let's explore...

Thu, Nov 17 (6:30-7:30pm) -Discover Essential Oils
This is a hands-on workshop where we will explore the many uses of some heroic essential oils, invaluable in the home, on the body and for health. We'll also make an essential oils product to take home.
This workshop is $10 to attend and will be presented by Dr. Sue Sutherland

Wed, Nov 23 (6:30-7:30pm) -Menopause, Naturally!
Are you experiencing menopause related symptoms (ex. hot flashes, fatigue, insomnia, irritability, decreased libido)? Naturopathic medicine can help! Join Dr. Andresen for a discussion on the natural treatments available to improve menopausal symptoms.
There is no charge to attend this workshop.

Mon, Nov 28 (6:00-7:00pm) -Stress & Headache Busters
Do you suffer from neck tension, stressful headaches or debilitating migraines? Then this hands-on workshop is for you. Join us as we explore natural methods to soothe and relieve the pain of headaches. Included will be a demonstration on how to perform a self-administered gentle head massage to leave you feeling nurtured, peaceful and at ease.

Wed, Nov 30 (5:30-8:30pm) -Soap Making Today, Gifts Ready Tomorrow!
The ubiquitous bar of soap takes on a whole new meaning when it's handmade by you! Make your very own olive oil castile soap from scratch with Dr. Leo. Healthy for your skin and gentle for the environment, handmade soap makes a great gift for the holiday season. Bring your own essential oils or leave unscented for extra sensitive skin. This is a 3 hour workshop; we will provide light snacks and refreshments. The cost to cover supplies is $25 and will provide 8-10 bars of soap to take home.

http://www.sourcecentre.ca/schedule/special-events/

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Eco Fair at the Barns
November 13, 2011(1-4pm)
Location: Wychwood Barns, (Toronto, ON)

Come to the Eco Fair at Wychwoob Barns for:
- information about energy audits, solar systems, and government rebates- hands-on demonstration of draft-proofing- products to green your home- displays by environmental groups- numerous exhibitors PLUS Energy and eco art activities for kidsMusic and refreshments FREE! Fun for the whole family! Co-sponsored by Green Neighbours 21 and the Wychwood Barns Community Association

See more details and RSVP on Transition Toronto:
http://transitiontoronto.ning.com/events/event/show?id=4627225%3AEvent%3A24112&xgi=0nVYkBo4NMYyuA&xg_source=msg_invite_event

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International Water Conference
Date: November 13-17, 2011
Location: Hilton in Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, FL

www.eswp.com/water

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Body Mouth Connection: Exploring Tooth Replacement Options from a Holistic Perspective
Date: November 16, 2011 (7-9pm)
Location: 1881 Steeles Ave W. Suite 201 (Toronto, ON)

Register at michael@schecterdental.com

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Whole Life Expo 2011
Date: November 25-27, 2011
Location: Metro Convention Center (Toronto, ON)

http://www.wholelifeexpo.ca/

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GovGreen Conference & Exposition
Date: November 30-December 1, 2011
Location: Washington Convention Center, Washington DC

www.govgreen.org/gov200

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Food Ingredients Europe & Natural Ingredients 2011
Date: November 29-December 1, 2011
Location: Paris, France

Conference about natural health ingredients. Say show organizers, "Health ingredients Europe & Natural ingredients are the only global nutraceutical, functional & supplement ingredients events dedicated to showcasing the world’s most innovative ingredients."

http://fieurope.ingredientsnetwork.com/

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For more event listing, please visit:
http://transitiontoronto.ning.com/events
http://www.planetfriendly.net/calendar/
http://www.alive.com/calendar.php

China is all about the future of transportation. High-speed trains criss cross the countryside, sending people whizzing from Shanghai to Beijing at speeds over 200 miles per hour. And General Motors has even developed a tiny urban car that's designed just for Chinese urban drivers.

But now a company has designed something called a "straddling bus." Basically, it's a huge bus that operates like a train on wheels, and is so tall that cars can drive right under it. Each bus is about two street lanes wide and 18 feet tall, according to Song Youzhou, the chairman of Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Company, which is building these enormous buses.





With Chinese traffic growing rapidly, designers intend to have as many commuters on the road as is efficiently possible. This straddling bus won't get in the way of any buses or cars currently on the roads, and will only add capacity to the public transportation infrastructure.

In a rough translation of Youzhou's presentation I found, he says, "The highlight innovation of the straddling bus is that it runs above cars and under overpass. Its biggest strength is saving road space, efficient and high in capacity."

Youzhou threw out some figures about the impact the straddling bus will have on Chinese traffic. He says they can reduce up to 25 to 30 percent of traffic jams on main routes. Running at an average of 25 miles per hour, it can take 1,200 people at a time, or 300 passengers per cart.

In terms of help to the environment, he says each bus can save up to 860 tons of fuel per year, reducing 2,640 tons of carbon emissions. It is powered partly by solar panels on each bus, but it's powered mostly by electricity.

Either way, it's a lot better than getting around on fossil fuels.

China Straddling Bus Demonstration (You Tube - 6 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQxP_un15iQ

http://news.discovery.com/tech/ginormous-bus-straddles-road-drives-above-cars.html

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Related Links:

Vestenskov: The World’s First Hydrogen Community
http://sustainablecities.dk/en/city-projects/cases/vestenskov-the-world-s-first-hydrogen-community

German Trains Will Run on 100% Renewable Energy by 2050
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Z0too/inhabitat.com/german-trains-will-run-on-100-renewable-energy-by-2050/

RCDF’s LOFT is a Glimmering Structure Filled with Sustainable Systems
http://inhabitat.com/rcdfs-loft-2011-is-an-expansive-structure-integrating-an-array-of-eco-systems/

Better Living Through Collective Leadership
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2011/10/14/better-living-through-collective-leadership/

Obesity: Government's are now tackling excessive weight gain in their populations and are targeting sugary drinks. France is bringing in measures to ration mayonnaise and tomato ketchup in schools.

New laws come days after announcement that tomato ketchup and mayonnaise will be rationed in schools.

20 million French people are overweight, survey says.

France is to impose a 'fat tax' on sugary soft drinks in a bid to combat soaring child obesity.
The new tax will add just over 1p to a can of fizzy drink like Coca-Cola or Fanta but zero-calorie 'diet' drinks will be exempt from the charges, the government said.

The new measures - a hike of from 3 to 6 Euro cents per litre on sugary drinks - are also expected to raise more than £100 million a year for government coffers.

The revenue would be used to fund lower social security charges for farm workers, the government said.

The move comes days after France also announced it would be rationing tomato ketchup and salt in school canteens.

Under the rules, tomato sauce and mayonnaise will only be on dinner tables once a week when chips are served and would be removed when traditional French dishes such as roast veal are served.

Denmark also recently announced a new higher tax on foods containing high levels of saturated fat.

French MP Gilles Carrez said of his country's latest soft drinks tax: 'This project will have both health benefits as children turn away from sugary drinks, and revenue benefits for our core agricultural workforce.'

A recent study found a fast-food diet of junk food is turning the traditionally skinny French into a nation of fatties.

More than 20 million French people are now overweight and seven million of those are clinically obese - double the figure for 14 years ago, according to France's National Institute for Health and Medical Research.

Despite still being officially Europe's second thinnest people, the weight of the average French person has soared by half a stone to 11 stone 4lbs since 1997, the report found.

A French health ministry spokesman added: 'We French may be among the least overweight in Europe but we have nothing to be complacent about.

'Obesity is rising as swiftly in France as it is in other EU countries and action must be taken before it gets any more serious.'

Europe's fattest nation is Greece, where 70 per cent of people are overweight, and 30 per cent are obese.

Britons are Europe's fifth fattest, behind Germany, Finland and Ireland, according to a TNS Sofres survey of 500,000 people across the EU.

The NHS defines being overweight as having a body mass index - your weight to height ratio - of between 25 and 30, and obese as over 30.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045980/France-impose-fat-tax-sugary-drinks-Coca-Cola-Fanta.html

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23995175-france-fat-tax-on-fizzy-drinks-to-tackle-obesity.do

http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/14931/1/14931.pdf

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Related Link:

UK Pioneers Drill-less, Painless Dental Treatment
http://www.pharmaceutical-int.com/news/uk-pioneers-drill-less-painless-dental-treatment.html

“If it be misconduct to use methods and techniques that are unknown to, or disapproved of, by the vast majority in the [medical] profession, the profession might never progress.”
— Justice O’Leary, Ontario Court of Justice (Brett et al v. Board of Directors of Physiotherapy, 1991)

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Hell is the place where people are sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed, a situation cleverly disguised by assurances of the best of intentions. Government and industry usher us onto that altar insisting that they are “serving the public interest,” often perhaps believing it themselves, as they too can be misled. To stop the mindless cooperation of our governments with those determined to turn everything (plants, animals, people, the earth itself) into profit is the task of our time. Consider the following examples that have now become urgent:

1) ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE has made many infectious diseases uncontrollable, warned the World Health Organization this year on World Health Day. “Antibiotic resistance is driven by the inappropriate and irrational use of antimicrobial medicines, including in animal husbandry,” the WHO announced, observing that the world may return to “the pre-antibiotic era” because none will work anymore.

2) ONTARIO'S COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS (CPSO), started to produce their Non-Allopathic Draft Policy last year. If adopted, it will regulate complementary medicine physicians right out of existence, and completely control what treatments patients may get – all with the stated noble aim of “protecting the public.” Apparently, informed consent legislation did not give them a moment’s pause, nor did all that case law which protects the new and non-traditional, the most famous of which is the Brett decision cited at the top. The assumptions underlying this policy are appalling and the rules proposed are absurd, formally defined as “being at variance with reason.” Doctors who actually are trained in something other than drug therapy, (i.e. members of the Ontario Medical Association’s Section on Complementary Medicine) were not included in the CPSO’s policy committee, so health professionals who effectively know nothing about complementary medicine came up with this policy.

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3) EARLIER THIS YEAR, a Bill proposed in the U.S. Congress died on the order papers after a two-year battle. The U.S. Food Safety Enhancement Act proposed 10-year jail sentences for “misbranding,” defined as “citing peer-reviewed science about a dietary supplement.” Could the CPSO have taken its cues from the same guys who drafted that U.S. Bill in 2009? Their draft policy is not just science-challenged, but devoid of science. It seems Health Canada also has taken its guidance from that extinct Bill, since their latest acts include restrictions on the sale of certain types of Oil of Oregano (the one plant-derived antibiotic that works against antibiotic resistant bugs), along with probiotics and various enzymes of central importance to alternative cancer therapy.

Meantime, Health Canada’s insupportable pronouncements on the safety of antibiotics in animal feed, its periodic messing with effective natural health products, the recurring attacks on natural health products in the U.S., the CPSO’s non-allopathic policy review – are all justified as diligently serving the public interest. And we are assured that these initiatives are all supported by exhaustive reviews of the peer-reviewed scientific literature. The problem is, these regulators are about as transparent as a brick wall: they won’t reveal just which literature they did review!

ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE
In August 2011, following over four years of hearings, former Health Canada scientists Shiv Chopra and Margaret Hayden lost their appeal for wrongful 2004 dismissal by then Prime Minister Paul Martin who fired them for “insubordination.” The case is now headed for the Supreme Court. Martin had overruled the legal immunity granted to the subpoenaed scientists when testifying before the Senate on how bovine growth hormone and various antibiotics cause cancer and trigger antibiotic resistance in bacteria, viruses and some parasites. The PM had also ignored the 1978 Supreme Court decision that had established the “obligation” for every public service employee charged with protecting citizens’ health and safety to make public (blow the whistle on) inappropriate pressures to ignore law and science.

Though Chopra was recognized for his “35-year record of exemplary service” at Health Canada, he was fired because he refused to obey the Privy Council order to “allow mass scale use of antibiotics in food-producing animals.” (The use of antibiotics in food-producing animals gobbles up about 70% of all antibiotics produced – the animals are thereby fattened up (antibiotics cause profitable weight gain), and Big Pharma’s profits remain prosperously fat as well.)

Chopra refused, as he describes in his book Corrupt to the Core, because this would “lead to the widespread emergence of ‘superbugs,’ causing untreatable food-borne disease and death in people.” As the WHO informed us recently, this is exactly what happened.

After Chopra and Hayden were fired, the government immediately approved all those deadly antibiotics – the very ones that had been outlawed two decades ago in Europe. As a result, many Canadian hospitals, unlike European ones, are now unsafe because of antibiotic resistant superbugs.

Antibiotic resistance was discovered in 1961. By 1997 the WHO recommended a ban on antibiotic use in food-producing animals, and the FDA wanted major restrictions; the next year Europe adopted these measures and Chopra and Haydon were commanded to testify before the Senate about the government’s pressure to ignore the evidence on antibiotic resistance and carcinogenic hormones. (For the mechanism involved see Nature, October 28, 2008.) We know what antibiotic resistance is and how it works, yet the Canadian government does nothing to stop the irrational use of antibiotics.

David Hutton, of the Federal Accountability Initiatives for Reform, observed in his excellent article on Chopra and Haydon in the Toronto Star, August 13, 2011, that Canada’s unconscionable support of corporate interests despite scientific warnings of harm to human health is now endangering the safety of the planet’s food supply. (Visit http://bit.ly/rsR9Eh to read the full story.)

THE CPRSO'S DRAFT POLICY ON NON-ALLOPATHIC MEDICINE
In 2010, the CPSO commenced a review of the existing CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) policy first formulated in 1997. There is, of course, no such thing as CAM – therapies that work are measurable events and open to scientific investigation. CAM was a term coined by Big Pharma. In 1997, the CPSO came up with this policy as a public relations effort to neutralize the constant public outrage over the (then ongoing) prosecution of Dr. Jozef Krop for diagnosing and treating multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS). One of that first policy’s silliest provisions was that every doctor had to arrive at a “conventional diagnosis first” before venturing forth into the supposedly murky territory of nutritional and environmental therapies. The following year, a bombshell hit when the U.S. FDA released data showing that the fourth leading cause of death was properly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs. Today, further analysis by Johns Hopkins Medical School has shown that drug therapy is the leading cause of death.

The original 1997 CPSO policy was a bastion of bizarre logic since it prevented any new illness from being officially recognized. Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is an immune system crash caused by synthetic chemicals and especially pesticides – chemicals also used in many Big Pharma drugs. Successful treatment requires detoxification from pesticides and many common drugs. Thus, MCS can never become a cash cow for the pharmaceutical and environmental toxin industries whose profits depend on obtaining patents for synthetics.

In the past decade, the anti-pesticide and anti-perfume campaigns worked so well that prosecuting a doctor for taking MCS seriously has become less likely because of growing public awareness. In 2008, the Canadian Human Rights Commission recognized this condition and ordered accommodation and availability of treatment. Today, in the CPSO building where only a decade ago Dr. Krop was judged to have “fallen below the standard of practice” for recommending total avoidance of synthetic scented products for his asthmatic MCS patients, posters in the building’s bathrooms show a canary wearing a gas mask – the explanation states that scented products can cause a potentially life-threatening asthma attack, and to please be considerate.

Also, over the past decade, those medical groups that the CPSO tended to dismiss as unscientific (homeopathy, naturopathy, Chinese medicine) got themselves organized with their own colleges under the Regulated Health Professions Act. This evidently alarmed the CPSO, especially as more and more of their member physicians began to study scientific journals and take training in new medical approaches. The elephant in the room is the fact that so-called alternative medicine actually arises from mainstream medical research. There is nothing alternative about alternative medicine. This development is, however, a problem for the profit-generating engine run by Big Pharma, whose fuel is – us.

So the CPSO, which staunchly defends whatever the status quo of the day may be, went in for the kill on three fronts:

1) In 2009 they persuaded the Ontario Liberals to pass a “snitch law” (Bill 171) which requires every doctor to rat on any other doctors if he/she thinks that a colleague is doing something potentially weird. We know what that leads to (from all the secret police activities that were supported by such snitch laws in those totalitarian regimes of recent history). It means that the ignorant are in charge, and the CPSO can shoot first and not ask questions if it doesn’t want to.

2) In July 2011, the CPSO had the Ontario Liberals remove a vitally important legal safeguard which states: “The fact that a member uses or recommends a non-traditional treatment is not, by itself, determinative of deficientclinical ability.” (Section 26 (2) of Regulation 114/94). That gives the CPSO the freedom to go after any doctor who, in their irrefutable opinion, is recommending non-traditional treatments.

3) The third action is this current draft policy. It is an attack on medical science itself, and will, if adopted, ensure that at least in Ontario nothing new can happen. This draft policy requires that any non-allopathic diagnosis and treatment (as arbitrarily defined by the CPSO) must be supported by randomized controlled studies (RCTs). So determined is the CPSO to “protect the public and guide the profession,” they didn’t notice that this key requirement is not the universal medical gold standard they pretend it is. RCTs compare synthetic drug therapies with each other usually for chronic conditions. RCTs are virtually impossible to design for nutritional interventions because no ethics committee would permit a control group to be deprived of such essentials to survival. Worst of all, about 80% of all medical practice has no RCT’s or even regular studies to support it – a fact the CPSO is on record as having recognized in various disciplinary investigations. Most of what happens in everyday medical interventions is based on tradition and adjusted as outcomes show what can be improved. In fact, most drugs are only partly understood and used in a trial-and-error fashion, usually off-label.

University of Toronto’s Dr. Ross Upshur has published his research on these types of studies and observes that RCTs are fundamentally flawed because their methodology is vulnerable to bias, fraud, plain errors of interpretation, and inappropriate assumptions. If done well (i.e. with patient outcome not money as the goal), they are of course very useful. But if current medical practice was compelled to have such RCTs first before doing anything, this is what would happen, according to Upshur: “Evidence of the optimal combination of agents to treat Alzheimer’s disease would require 127 randomized trials, 63,500 patients and 286 years.” As for trials for the treatment of stroke, one would need at least 31 RCTs and require an enrollment of 186,000 patients, all of which would last 155 years. If standard medicine were forced to wait for RCTs to justify action, people would simply have to die first.

THE RAGING GRANNY RESPONDS

The CPSO’s review committee also simply ignored that huge amount of mainstream published research on nutrition, toxicology, and related areas (see Vitality, March 2011) and won’t tell anybody just exactly what research they did rely on. In my response, available on the CPSO website, I observed: “By what authority this working group believes they can just assert having studied some unspecified non-allopathic information and then tell [doctors] how to do their work, is beyond comprehension. The term that springs to mind is bullying.”

When asked what was missing in this policy I replied: “The science! … Given that the policy clearly insists that [doctors] must abide by allopathic standards … it is frankly amazing that there is no reference … to that master guide of allopathic medicine, namely the current 2008 edition of the Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature – A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice, published by the American and Canadian medical associations and edited by McMaster University’s Gordon Guyatt (who coined the term “evidence-based medicine”) and JAMA’s Drummond Rennie. The editors and … contributors are among the world’s most luminous allopathic medical lights … well-known … for exposing the wave of fraud in current medical research and for their commitment to restoring the ethical and scientific credibility of medicine. Editor Drummond Rennie states that the purpose of this Guide is to “… free the clinician from practicing medicine by rote … to put a stop to clinicians being ambushed by drug company representatives … to end [doctors’] dependence on out-of-date authority.”

That definitely does not seem to be the purpose of this ill-conceived CAM draft policy!

If you wish to get involved, first browse the CPSO website, then come and hear my talk at Whole Life Expo about this topic, and buy my new book – the proceeds of which will hopefully establish a medical defence fund. This battle for good medicine has reached such heights of absurdity and lows of deception, it is becoming outright entertaining. When we laugh at the irrational we begin to transcend the darkness and will become creative warriors.

Catch Helke Ferrie at the Whole Life Expo on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 6:00 pm when she will give a presentation on freedom of choice in health care.

http://vitalitymagazine.com/article/medicine-gone-wrong/

For more than 50 years microbiologists have warned against using antibiotics to fatten up farm animals. The practice, they argue, threatens human health by turning farms into breeding grounds of drug-resistant bacteria. Farmers responded that restricting antibiotics in livestock would devastate the industry and significantly raise costs to consumers. We now have empirical data that should resolve this debate. Since 1995 Denmark has enforced progressively tighter rules on the use of antibiotics in the raising of pigs, poultry and other livestock. In the process, it has shown that it is possible to protect human health without hurting farmers.

Farmers in many countries use antibiotics in two key ways: (1) at full strength to treat animals that are sick and (2) in low doses to fatten meat-producing livestock or to prevent veterinary illnesses. (It is illegal in the U.S. to sell milk for human consumption from dairy cattle treated with antibiotics.) Although even the proper use of antibiotics can inadvertently lead to the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, the habit of using a low or subtherapeutic dose is a formula for disaster: the treatment provides just enough antibiotic to kill some but not all bacteria. The germs that survive are typically those that happen to bear genetic mutations for resisting the antibiotic. They then reproduce and exchange genes with other microbial resisters. Because bacteria are found literally everywhere, resistant strains produced in animals eventually find their way into people as well. You could not design a better system for guaranteeing the spread of antibiotic resistance.

The data from multiple studies over the years support the conclusion that low doses of antibiotics in animals increase the number of drug-resistant microbes in both animals and people. As Joshua M. Sharfstein, a principal deputy commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration, told a U.S. congressional subcommittee last summer, “You actually can trace the specific bacteria around and ... find that the resistant strains in humans match the resistant strains in the animals.” And this science is what led Denmark to stop subtherapeutic dosing of chickens, pigs and other farm animals.

Although the transition unfolded smoothly in the poultry industry, the average weight of pigs fell in the first year. But after Danish farmers started leaving sows and piglets together a few weeks longer to bolster the littermates’ immune systems naturally, the animals’ weights jumped back up, and the number of pigs per litter increased as well. The lesson is that improving animal husbandry—making sure that pens, stalls and cages are properly cleaned and giving animals more room or time to mature—offsets the initial negative impact of limiting antibiotic use. Today Danish industry reports that productivity is higher than before. Meanwhile reports of antibiotic resistance in Danish people are mixed, which shows—as if we needed reminding—that there are no quick fixes.

Lest anyone argue that Denmark is too small to offer a reasonable parallel to the U.S., consider that it is the world’s largest exporter of pork. Like U.S. farmers, Danes raise pigs on an intensive, industrial scale. If they can figure out how to limit antibiotic use while actually increasing agricultural productivity, then so can Americans.

The American Medical Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Public Health Association, a previous FDA commissioner and many others have advised the U.S. to follow suit. Last year the FDA published new guidelines calling for “judicious use” of antibiotics. Yet it ultimately left the decision on exactly when and where to use antibiotics up to individual farmers. That laissez-faire standard is not good enough, particularly when the health of the rest of the population is at stake.

Of course, the way veterinary antibiotics are used is not the only cause of human drug-resistant infections. Careless use of the drugs in people also contributes to the problem. But agricultural use is still a major contributing factor. Every day that passes brings new evidence that we are in danger of losing effective antibiotic protection against many of the most dangerous bacteria that cause human illness [see “The Enemy Within,” by Maryn McKenna=]. The technical issues are solvable. Denmark’s example proves that it is possible to cut antibiotic use on farms without triggering financial disaster. In fact, it might provide a competitive advantage. Stronger measures to deprive drug-resistant bacteria of their agricultural breeding grounds simply make scientific, economic and common sense.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=our-big-pig-problem


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The town of Ignace, Ont., passes by in a blur when you're barrelling along the Trans-Canada Highway. There are a few motels, a crumbling shopping plaza, and Capt. Ron's Fish & Chips, a truck parked next to the highway. Captain Ron is in fact Ron Woolner, a 72-year-old with a deeply creased face, and hands calloused from a life in the mining industry. He sits on a picnic table next to his truck and watches the passing vehicles. A few stop. Most leave Ignace behind, likely without even noticing it.

But the anonymous locale 250 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay may one day become known for something: the burial site for all of the country's high-level radioactive waste, which current estimates peg at 5.5 million used fuel bundles extracted from our fleet of nuclear reactors. Lined end-to-end along the Trans-Canada Highway, these bundles would nearly stretch from Ignace to Vancouver, more than 2,700 kilometres.

Though many of the details have yet to be finalized, the plan is to secure the waste in corrosion-resistant containers and store them half a kilometre below ground in what's called a deep geological repository. Four man-made barriers of clay and various metals will isolate the waste from the environment and groundwater. The surrounding rock will act as a natural -- and final -- barrier. The nuclear waste could rest underground for eternity, emitting radiation at hazardous levels for more than one million years.

Responsibility for the project lies with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, a group created by the federal government in 2002 and funded by the nuclear industry. Last year, the NWMO began its search for what it calls a "willing and informed" community to "host" the facility within its borders. Municipal governments volunteer, and a town will be selected only if it meets a litany of technical requirements. Citizens could eventually vote in a referendum. The facility, which requires a surface area equivalent to 190 football fields, needs to pass an environmental assessment and obtain approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission before operation. A final decision on where to build it -- at an estimated cost of up to $24 billion -- could be a decade away. Construction won't be completed until 2035. Woolner, from his post next to the highway, believes it's worth exploring. "The benefits to this town would be enormous," he says.

The facility could provide hundreds of jobs, and the NWMO proposes to build a "centre of expertise" for nuclear waste management, drawing experts from around the world. Already, some Ignace residents envision top scientific minds visiting, if not living in the blue-collar town. Five other locations have officially entered the NWMO's site-selection process: Ear Falls and Schreiber in Ontario, and English River, Pinehouse and Creighton in Saskatchewan. Two others, Red Rock and Hornepayne, Ont., are in early talks with the NWMO. All are economically depressed and seeking any way to survive.

Ignace was the first to announce its interest under former mayor Lionel Cloutier in 2009. Cloutier operates a bar and the only taxi service in the town of 1,200, something of which he is clearly proud. Even as mayor, he'd answer his mobile with a curt, "Taxi!" His town was founded more than 100 years ago, cut out from dense swaths of pine and cedar trees and built next to a small lake. Cloutier, like Woolner, has felt its decline first-hand as the mining and forestry industries died off. "There's nothing left," he says. He's not sure how much longer he can run his tavern. "There's not enough people working here. We need something."

On that, everyone will agree, but not on whether nuclear waste is the answer. "If this were to happen in my lifetime," says Elizabeth Russell, who moved to Ignace from southern Ontario in 1987 to raise a family, "our house would go up for sale, and we would move. And I would cry when I left, because this is where I wanted to retire."

Just as Ignace is thinking about its future, so too is the nuclear industry thinking about its own longevity. Research on radioactive waste has been ongoing for more than 30 years, but all used fuel is temporarily stored at the country's five plants and two research facilities. No country employing nuclear power has a permanent storage facility in use. Anti-nuclear groups point to this fact and argue we should phase out this form of power until we figure out what to do with the waste. But if a town can be found to host a repository, the industry will have an easier time making a case for expansion.

Nuclear will already play a greater role in Ontario, where the government plans to build new reactors to replace coal-fired plants. Other provinces may also consider nuclear as a means of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. But any discussion will now be influenced by recent events in Japan. As of press time, officials were struggling to avoid meltdowns at a number of reactors damaged after a devastating earthquake. These events on the other side of the globe may have implications for Canada's storage efforts, which is heavily dependent on winning public support. Damage to the industry's credibility can kill the public's confidence. It's happened before, justified or not. When the partial meltdown occurred at Three Mile Island in 1979, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) was studying northern Ontario for the potential of a disposal site. Some citizens were already outraged about the idea, but Three Mile Island solidified a rejection of all things nuclear. AECL eventually stopped its work.

Ignace was the site of some of AECL's testing decades ago, and the town has a lot to learn this time around. "I don't know nothing about nuclear," Cloutier admits. Few of us do, really. The subject is highly technical, and the time frame for storage impossibly long: the containers have a design life of 100,000 years, the same length of time our species has existed. "We have to contain this stuff to a degree of perfection that has never been achieved in human history," says Gordon Edwards, a longtime anti-nuclear campaigner in Montreal. Indeed, we rely on engineers and regulators to plan for worst-case scenarios, and although Japan's nuclear crisis has very little in common with waste storage in Canada, the events nevertheless make it clear the experts can seriously and drastically underestimate risk.

For the towns considering the project, the deciding factor is whether permanently storing nuclear waste underground is safe. But those making the decisions will never know the answer.

If there is any doubt about the dangers of nuclear waste, one only need observe the measures taken to guard it. A visit to the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in southern Ontario requires multiple security checks, and more than one pass through bomb and metal detectors. Armed guards patrol the grounds. The plant, a sprawling complex of grey buildings situated on the shore of Lake Ontario, supplies approximately 20% of the province's electricity needs, and that power comes from uranium pellets contained inside bundles of metal rods a half-metre long. These bundles are inserted into Candu reactors where the uranium atoms are split, releasing enormous amounts of energy. They are considered spent after a year, and ejected into one of two pools of water, each more than 30 feet deep.

The bundles are scorching, at roughly 300? Celsius, and are extremely deadly. Just over 30 seconds of exposure is enough to be fatal. The water in the pools is constantly circulated, containing the radiation and cooling the fuel. Only after 10 years do bundles move to the surface. They are placed inside massive concrete casks with 20-inch-thick walls and moved to a separate warehouse on-site with enough room for 500 containers. In the years to come, Darlington will construct two more warehouses for another 1,000 casks. The material itself is so dangerous that even after half a century, four hours of exposure to a single fuel bundle at close range is fatal. Used fuel is still considered a hazard, though considerably less so, after one million years.

Despite the dangers, nuclear power producers in Canada have safely stored used fuel for decades. So why is there a massive effort underway to put it underground? The cynical answer is that burial is a literal way of hiding an intractable problem, whereas the industry argued storing waste above ground places an unfair burden on future generations that will have to serve as caretakers.

Full Article:
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/20366--environment-nuclear-options

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Related Link:

Radiation in Japan: Hot spots and blind spots - The mounting human costs of Japan’s nuclear disaster
http://www.economist.com/node/21531522

Fallout forensics hike radiation toll
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111025/full/478435a.html

Japan: Fukushima disaster released twice as much radiation as initially estimated
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8854592/Japan-Fukushima-disaster-released-twice-as-much-radiation-as-initially-estimated.html

How Germany plans to succeed in a nuclear free, low-carbon economy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/29/nuclearpower-energy

Nuclear power is a bad investment all around
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/nuclear-power-is-a-bad-investment-all-around/blog/37295/