All posts by Nativegrl77

Last week we exposed Maruchan—America’s #1 instant noodle brand—as the ‘worst performing’ laggard in the Snack Food 20 as it had yet to make any commitments regarding its use of the controversial ingredient: Conflict Palm Oil.

With your help we turned the heat up on the company and the instant noodle giant has responded by issuing its first palm oil commitment. Thank you!

We can’t let Maruchan off the hook, however. The commitment it issued falls short of what is required. The company is only requiring its suppliers to meet the entirely insufficient RSPO standard by 2020. To make matters worse, this commitment only applies to operations in the US and not products sold worldwide. Maruchan has a massive worldwide reach; this is simply not enough.

Maruchan can and must do better. We have to keep the pressure on, so today activists are calling Maruchan and demanding it step up and be a leader by adopting and rapidly implementing a truly responsible palm oil policy.

Will you make a quick phone call and tell Maruchan to step up?

It’s simple and only takes a few minutes. Click here for regional phone numbers and a few things to say.

When you make a stand, companies have no choice but to listen. Please make a quick phone call now.

Gemma Tillack
Agribusiness Campaign Director
http://www.ran.org/

Rainforest Action Network
425 Bush Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94108

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The Everest of excrement is actually Mount Everest

07/04/2015 Nativegrl77

Rubbish left at one of Mount Everest’s base camps.
Image: Mary Plage

By Brian Koerber2 days ago

Nepal has a stinky situation on its hands.Human waste left by climbers on Mount Everest has become a major problem, and is even threatening the spread of disease, Ang Tshering, the chief of Nepal’s mountaineering association, said, The Associated Press reports.Everest’s climbing season only lasts a measly two months, but nearly 700 climbers brave the world’s tallest peak and not all of them dispose of their trash, urine and feces properly.

See also: The Deadly Mountains: Why More Inexperienced Climbers Are Dying

None of Mount Everest’s four base camps, which are located at 17,380 feet, have proper facilities. The camps have tents, equipment, supplies and even cooks, but no toilets. The waste is collected in a drum in a toilet tent, where it is then carried to a lower altitude and disposed.

But not all climbers use the camps’ facilities to do their business.

“Climbers usually dig holes in the snow for their toilet use and leave the human waste there,” Tshering told The Associated Press, adding that waste around the base camps has been accumulating for years.

Away from the base camp, as climbers head toward the 29,035 foot summit, human waste is also an issue.

“It is a health hazard and the issue needs to be addressed,” said Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has been at the forefront of Everest cleanup expeditions since 2008. Some climbers carry disposable toilet bags with them to the higher camps that don’t have any facilities, Sherpa said.

The advance base camp for people climbing Mount Everest sits on the mountain’s north slope at about 21,000 feet.

Image: Dave Watson/Associated Press

Last year the Nepalese government imposed new rules, which requires climbers to return to the base camp with 17.6 pounds of waste. The weight is an estimate of the average amount of trash climbers accumulate en route.

The government does not currently have plans to deal with the human waste issue

The government does not currently have plans to deal with the human waste issue, however Puspa Raj Katuwal, the head of the government’s Mountaineering Department, said officials will strictly monitor it, adding that climbing teams must submit a $4,000 deposit that they will lose if regulations are broken.

Human fecal waste and trash isn’t the only thing left on the mountainside. According to an article released in 2012 by Smithsonian Magazine, more than 200 human bodies remain frozen on the mountain. Some of them are even used as landmarks.

More than 4,000 climbers have braved the mountain since its first expedition in 1953.

~ In the Library

In the Library : Our Republican Constitution: Securing the sovereignty of the People

07/04/2015 Nativegrl77

by Randy Barnett

As we celebrate Independence Day, I thought I would post a couple excerpts about the Declaration of Independence from my forthcoming book, Our Republican Constitution: Securing the Sovereignty of the People (which is now available for pre-order on Amazon). This passage of the book appears after the one I posted here.]

Click on the link below for the complete article

http://wpo.st/E-LP0

Randy Barnett is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory, Georgetown University Law Center, and Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. His books include: Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (Princeton, 2d. ed 2014); and The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law (Oxford, 2d. ed. 2014).

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The President Speaks on the Economy ~ watch again

07/03/2015 Nativegrl77

The Employment Situation in June

The economy added 223,000 jobs in June as the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent. Our economy has now added 5.6 million jobs over the past two years, the strongest two-year job growth since 2000.

Under President Obama, America is charting a new course in our relationship with Cuba. Yesterday, he announced the next step on this path: re-opening a U.S. Embassy in Havana.

The longstanding ban on photography in the White House — in place for more than 40 years — has been lifted.