"Monsanto was created in 1901. The company's first product was the artificial sweetener saccharin. In the 1920s Monsanto expanded into basic industrial chemicals. During the Second World War Monsanto contributed to research on uranium for the Manhattan Project, which lead to the atomic bomb. Monsanto continued to operate a nuclear facility for the U.S. government until the late 1980s. During the 1940s Monsanto also become a leading manufacturer of synthetic fibres and plastics, including polystyrene - ranked fifth i..."

"Political pressure is mounting to make businesses pay for the damage they cause to the environment, and the latest UN study assessing the impact of the world's biggest companies is almost certainly the first stage in a concerted campaign to calculate how much damage is caused, what it is worth and ultimately how it can be stopped. Another report due later this year, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, led by the economist and UN special adviser Pavan Sukhdev, will be another significant step towards th..."

"Community groups and NGOs in Europe and the United States today issued a report exposing the danger of unregulated cyanide compound releases from mines around the world. Decoding Cyanide: an Assessment of Gaps in Cyanide Regulation at Mines reveals that current government and industry regulations and procedures fail to test for many of these potentially toxic agents. They also fail to address the issues that are of most concern to the public - protecting communities, human rights, and land and water resour..."

"It's enough to turn a thoughtful reader into an uneasy and puzzled penguin. One week's newspaper headlines warn that the strikingly rapid pace of ice melting in the Arctic may be at a "tipping point," the critical juncture at which the thaw turns into a self-sustaining calamity. Meanwhile, the Southern Ocean that encircles Antarctica seems to be absorbing less carbon (not a good thing), and the ever-warming atmosphere is causing more frequent drought in the Amazon basin leading in part to such seemingly arcane side..."

"Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found a correlation between an ingredient found in shampoos and nervous system damage. The experiments were conducted with the brain cells of rats and they show that contact with this ingredient called methylisothiazoline, or MIT, causes neurological damage. Which products contain this chemical compound MIT? Head and Shoulders, Suave, Clairol and Pantene Hair Conditioner all contain this ingredient. Researchers are concerned that exposure to this chemical by p..."

"Handing out leaflets on the streets was one of the main activities of the small activist group London Greenpeace, who'd been campaigning on a variety of environmental and social justice issues since the early 1970's. (The group predates the more well known Greenpeace International and the two organisations are unconnected). ..."

"Matthew Simmons’ prediction that the price at the pump could have risen to $10 during the winter of 2005/2006 did not come to be for only one reason—warm weather. His prayers back in 2003 for “no hurricanes and to stop the erosion of natural gas supplies” were clearly not answered. What does it tell us when the world’s most prominent energy investment banker and the president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) are both turning to prayer as their plan of action for dealing wit..."