Who’s Who in Green: Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Anti-Nuclear Nun

Mathematician, nuclear science researcher, nun in the order of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, human rights activist and author Dr. Rosalie Bertell knows a thing or two about uranium, and how it effects the human body. Dr. Bertell has devoted her life to speaking out on behalf of those most vulnerable and affected by radiation – women and children, aboriginals and workers in uranium mines and nuclear facilities.

Bertell is an activist of protecting the health of the planet through peace, writing in her book Planet Earth: The Newest Weapon of War,

“It is my belief that we have been treating the symptoms but not the cause of the disease of the Earth. We have been abusing Earth’s natural systems, the way it regulates temperature and water supply, recycles waste and protects life. For me, some of the most fundamental abuses have occurred because of our continued reliance on the military.”

Dr. Bertell is especially vocal about the consequences of the 1984 Union Carbide explosion in Bhopal, India and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown. Both disasters killed and sickened hundreds of thousands of people and still have an effect today on people who live near the accident sites.

The dual Canadian and U.S. citizen knew from childhood that she would become a nun, but her interest and abilities in the field of science were also clear from an early age. She took a research job at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the world’s first cancer research facility, and it was then that she became interested in radiation and nuclear-related subjects.

Bertell told interviewer Wendy Jewell,

“I was a senior cancer research scientist studying the harm done to a large population by unnecessary uses of diagnostic medical X-ray. I became outraged when I found that nuclear power plants were releasing radioactive materials (like X-rays) at this same level routinely, indiscriminately exposing the unsuspecting public. My first experience was a nuclear plant, which wanted to locate its facility next to the Gerber’s Baby Food Farm in Barker, NY. That plant was never built.”

After suffering a heart attack in 1972, Dr. Bertell spent much of her recovery time in a monastery studying the effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings and emerged as the field’s top expert. She quit her job at the Roswell Institute, which accepted research money from the nuclear industry, after they put pressure on her to keep quiet.

Dr. Bertell is an outspoken critic of the use of depleted uranium in warfare, which has extremely destructive effects on the planet and human health.

Rosalie Bertell has written several books and was among 1,000 women peace activists from around the world nominated as a group for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She has also received numerous awards including the Alternative Nobel Prize, the Right Livelihood Award and the World Federalist Peace Award.

Dr. Rosalie Bertell’s Green Score: 79,995

Mother Nature? Eerie Crying Face Seen in Melting Glacier

It’s like the treehugger equivalent to Christians seeing Jesus or the Virgin Mary in everything from concrete walls to grilled cheese sandwiches: an eerie feminine face in a melting glacier that appears to be crying a river of tears.

The image was captured on the Austfonna ice cap in Norway by marine photographer and environmental lecturer Michael Nolan while on an annual trip to observe the glacier and the wildlife that live in the area.

From The Daily Mail:

A glacier expert has confirmed the ice cap carrying an image of Mother Nature ‘crying’ has been continually shrinking by as much as 160 feet every year for several decades.

Jon Ove Hagen, a member of the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) and professor in geosciences at Oslo University, Norway, has been studying the Austfonna ice-shelf since 1988.

Mr Hagen, 59, said: ‘Austfonna, at over 3,000 square miles, is by far the largest ice cap in Svalbard and one of the largest in the Arctic.

‘Retreat of glacier fronts at Austfonna over a 12-year period average a frontal retreat of about 160 feet-per-year.

‘The geometry of the ice cap is changing. The fronts are retreating, the lower parts are getting thinner, with a thinning rate of about three feet-per-year while the interior of the ice cap is thickening with about 1.6 feet-per-year.

‘The ice cap is losing about 1.6 cubic miles of ice every year.’

It’s rather eerie, no doubt about it, and it probably will end up on global warming protest posters within days. But let’s not turn this into a quasi-religious thing, eh? The general public thinks we’re quacky enough as it is.

Link [The Daily Mail]

The Pope Goes Solar at Home in Germany

Pope Benedict XVI is continuing his considerable green streak by adding solar panels to his home in Germany. In June, the Vatican announced plans to add photovoltaic cells to the roof of the Paul VI auditorium to illuminate, heat and cool the building. Benedict XVI was also declared “The Green Pope” by Newsweek in 2008 for his efforts to urge Catholics to take care of the earth.

From Ecorazzi:

For his home near near Regensburg, Germany, over 580 square feet of photovoltaic solar panels were installed on the rooftop. The only condition for the project was that no church funds be used — so naturally, everything was donated. When tweaked and running, the panels are expected to output about 5,800 kilowatt hours of energy a year, which corresponds to saving 11 barrels of petroleum.

The project was commissioned not only for the environmental benefits, but also to produce income (which may amount to $3,500 a year), by providing the German electricity grid with energy. According to a German newspaper, the money will go to an association that offers skills and job training to disadvantaged youths.

This is awesome, considering the huge amount of influence the Pope has on so many people. For a long time, many Christians have seemed pretty apathetic about protecting the environment for whatever reason (in the event of the rapture, who cares what’s left of the planet?). So, it’s nice to see things like this – and “creation care” – taking hold.

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Flickr user Wayne National Forest

Creationists and Climate Change Deniers: Two Peas in a Pod

Every now and then, a new nugget of ‘information’ comes to our attention that supposedly proves that climate change ‘can’t be man-made’. One such story was that “Captain Cook and Lord Nelson’ s logs indicate 1730’s global warming wasn’t man made”.  DeSmogBlog and The Guardian both already debunked that one, so we won’t go there.  But, it does call attention to the fact that climate change deniers often distort facts to fit their narrow viewpoint.  For many, it has called to mind comparisons between those who deny climate change and those who deny evolution.  It all comes down to a refusal to accept a logical scientific argument.

Greenfyre dug into the similarities:

Some small kernel of fact is distorted and mutated until it emerges appearing to say the opposite of what it originally said. Rarely do the Deniers seem to make things up out of thin air. Whether this is so that they can argue that their’s is a plausible interpretation of the facts or a subconscious attempt to retain some small shred of integrity by pretending that what they do is not lying cannot be known.

The second interesting thing is how the strategy and tactics of the Climate Change Deniers is identical to those of the Evolution Deniers.

This excellent little video by potholer54 “Creationist Junk Debunked #1 – Introduction” could just as easily be talking about Climate Deniers. It is well worth watching for understanding both Evolution and Climate Change  Denier methods, and because it is fun.

It’s true – watch this video and see how easy it is to replace ‘creationists’ with ‘climate change deniers’.  It’s easy to understand once you realize they’re the same people.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not talking about climate change skeptics who are seeking facts so they can better understand the issue.  I mean the flat-out deniers who perpetuate and cling to misinformation and lies.

The Ethical Paleontologist explains the connection:

If you believe that all the coal, oil and gas we’re burning was laid down over no more than 6,000 years, rather than 300 million years, then effectively fossil fuels are a renewable source of energy. As we’re only releasing 6,000 years of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere rather than millions of years’ worth, then we can’t be responsible for the increase in carbon dioxide, so we haven’t caused any climate change, right? And if you believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old, then those sea level and oxygen isotope curves going back hundreds of thousands of years mean nothing to you. It’s all an artefact. The last glacial period ended 10,000 years ago – 4,000 years before the Earth was created. So all the usual evidence for MMCC is lost on them.

There’s no arguing with people who close their eyes and stick their fingers in their ears when presented with scientific fact.  That’s what’s scary – that so many Americans are evolution deniers, and that America is responsible for most of the world’s pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (second only to China).  It’s an uphill battle, indeed.

Link [Greenfyre] + [The Ethical Paleontologist]

Right-Wing ‘Hot for Jesus’ Congresswoman Claims Planet Already Saved

Meet Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota. Congratulations, America – though Bachmann may not have been on your radar before (unless you’re a Minnesotan), you’re not likely to forget her now, much to your chagrin, since she’s demonstrated herself to be a total right-wing whackjob.

You see, Bachmann’s got a problem with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s insistence that we need an energy policy to ‘save the planet’. It seems that Bachmann is offended by Pelosi’s efforts to prevent us from completely destroying the planet that, according to Bachmann’s own beliefs, was entrusted to us by a ‘higher power’.

From PoliticalBlogs.StarTribune.com:

“[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she’s just trying to save the planet,” Bachmann said. “We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet — we didn’t need Nancy Pelosi to do that.”

It’s depressing that there are people in the world – let alone in Congress – who think like this. Call me crazy, but uh – if I remember correctly, the Bible says absolutely nothing about Jesus saving the planet. Just the immortal souls of the people on it, or something like that. So, this line shouldn’t even make sense to people who subscribe to the same beliefs as this wonk-eyed slag. It’s likely an effort to inject some fire into a dejected Republican base before the election, though that may be giving her too much credit. She might just really believe what she said.

We shouldn’t be surprised, though. This is the same woman who told a crowd of parishioners at the Living Word Church in Brooklyn,

“What does God say when he looks at you or looks at me? He wants to say, ‘she’s hot, he’s hot,’ because we are hot for him on the inside,” Bachmann said. “When you are hot for Jesus Christ, nothing is like that life.”

Christ. On. A. Cracker.

Link [Star Tribune]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

‘The Green Bible’ Aims to Preach the Green Gospel, Literally

One thing that has always confused me about Christians is that so many of them are global warming deniers or at the very least, think environmentalists are kooks. I guess there is conflicting information in the bible, which seems to indicate that God has left the world in human hands to care for his creations, yet there’s also the attitude seen on those bumper stickers, ‘In the event of the Rapture, this car will be unmanned’. In other words, a lot of Christians seem to have the attitude that the ‘upcoming’ second coming of Christ gives us license to mess up the environment as much as we want with no real consequences.

Publisher HarperOne aims to give Christians a guide that will help them interpret the environmental themes in the bible via ‘The Green Bible’. From Business Week:

This fall, it will publish The Green Bible, complete with cotton/linen cover, partly recycled paper, soy-based ink, and passages about caring for the earth highlighted in green. The $29.95 edition of the Good Book also includes essays and a study guide about the spiritual mandate to protect the environment. (Tauber says study guides helped sell the Archeological Study Bible, published in 2006 by Harper’s Zondervan unit.) Hoping to sell 25,000 to 30,000 copies a year, he plans to market The Green Bible to eco-aware churches and influential thinkers. Essay contributor Calvin B. DeWitt, a University of Wisconsin environmental professor and an evangelical Christian, says the Bible is “a kind of ecological handbook for right living on Earth.” A passage he cites: Genesis 2:15, in which God bids Adam to serve and keep the Garden of Eden.

I guess if you’re going to believe in an invisible sky wizard (it’s no crazier than a flying spaghetti monster), you should at least be reading about it in a green book. RAmen.

Link [Business Week]