Environmental Information

According to the news it is set to be a busy time for engineering consultants thanks to Government proposals to introduce low carbon power stations, transport and manufacturing to Britain. This comes after the G8 summit proposals were branded as unattainable. The general consensus is that low carbon technology needs to be implemented immediately, even if the targets that were set are unlikely to be met by the technologies in place at present.

Engineering consultants are currently working on plans to build clean coal power stations that use a carbon sequestering system to mitigate carbon dioxide released through burning fossil fuels. The clean coal solution has not been popular with environmental activists, and it was openly opposed at a recent film premier where Ed Miliband was present. Read the rest of this entry »

We know that GE crops are contaminating conventional and organic crops. We know GE products are making their way, directly or indirectly, onto our plates. So, until regulations catch up to the reality (and if it’s not too late to save our food supply by then), there are two main things we, as consumers, can do. First, we must speak out to our representatives and make our voices heard so that businesses do not flourish at the expense of human welfare and irreparable damage to our food supply and environment. Second, we must educate ourselves on the health issues related to GE products, so that we can each make our own best decisions about what we purchase and eat, and by extension, which companies we support through our consumerism.

To that end, I spoke recently with molecular biologist, Dr. Kevin Nash, and asked him what, if any concerns he had about the health impact of eating GE products. According to Dr. Nash, “We eat DNA all the time in any plant, animal or fungi material. We cannot incorporate, only digest, genetic material from other sources. The product of that gene manipulation can cause a problem [for example, in the case of] modified plants to restrict bugs and disease. This may be the production of a natural pesticide; and pesticides are not necessarily good for us in large doses.” So, while human DNA is arguably safe from ingesting the GE products themselves, the main concern with GE crops becomes exposure to chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, the ingestion of which does pose a significant health risk and can endanger human DNA according to Dr. Nash. Read the rest of this entry »