The Environmental Protection Agency

Just who is the EPA supposed to “protect”? The environment, and therefore the health and best interests of the American people, or the profits of corporate industries?

According to the EPA website, their mission is to “protect human health and the environment...working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.” Sounds good doesn’t it? But, a look at their record under the Bush Administration and one might surmise they are here to ensure that corporations make profits regardless of the consequences to people or the planet.

In 2003, the EPA ruled that carbon dioxide was not a pollutant and therefore couldn’t be regulated under the Clean Air Act; chalk one up for corporate industry.

In 2008, after agreeing to seek a 50% reduction of Green House Gases by 2050 at the G-8 summit, Bush changed his mind, and surprise, surprise, the EPA reports no findings that green house gases and global warming pose a threat to our health.

The impetus for this blog is an article I read in Organic Gardening about honeybees (Unfortunately, this article is not available on their website). You may have heard about the collapse of honeybee colonies due to bees abandoning their hives and then dying. It seems there may be a connection between the phenomenon—called Colony Collapse Disorder—and a class of pesticides that have been banned in other countries. (If you are a pesticide user these pesticides are sold under the names Titan and Poncho). These pesticides known as neonicotinoids are “non-toxic to humans but act as a deadly nerve poison for insects, causing symptoms such as loss of memory and/or appetite, disorientation, paralysis and eventually death.”

In 2003, the EPA approved the pesticide but stipulated that Bayer Crop Science, the makers of neonicotinoid pesticides, must submit studies on the impact to honeybees… there’s been no release of results to date and the EPA is being sued by the National Resources Defense Council for withholding information. Of course, the EPA says it needs more time. One more for the corporate industries.

Here’s an interesting read from 60 minutes on the CCD phenomenon.

Check out this articile about Bayer: Bayer: A History of Profit from Suffering.