Sat., April 19 - Medicine Collection Day by Sura, March 31

What can you do with old medicine, over-the-counter cough syrup, prescription drugs, inhalers, pet medicine?

Medicine Collection Day
Saturday, April 19
9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
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31 Mar 2008 | 12:34 pm | Water, Health | No comments yet - Add your comments

Great Lakes Water: Dioxins, PCBs, Lead, Mercury and Pesticides by Sura, March 12

While everyone has been buzzing about a recent report about our pharmaceutical-laced water, another report remains underground. Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern, was originally scheduled for release in July 2007. But several days before that, the study was suddenly withdrawn for “further review.”

The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen “areas of concern”—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.

Download the report here.

Great Lakes Danger Zones?
by Sheila Kaplan, The Center for Public Integrity
February 12, 2008

For more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially “alarming information” as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates.

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12 Mar 2008 | 10:24 pm | Water, Health | No comments yet - Add your comments

The End of Water by Sura, March 3

Brave, bold and brutally honest interview with Maude Barlow by Amy Goodman.

The Great Lakes are discussed.

Water is now a $400 billion global industry, the third largest behind electricity and oil. (Water is the new oil)

By the way, the focus of corporations, in response to the water crisis, is to clean up dirty water, instead of preserving water at its source. There’s a lot of money in cleaning up water.

This is why we desperately need a strong Great Lakes Compact. (The Midwest is the new MidEast)

Watch, listen or read about the end of our civilization as we know it, and the privatization of water here
Read the full interview here

AMY GOODMAN: Eight of the nation’s largest water providers from California to New York have announced the formation of a coalition to develop strategies on dealing with climate change. The members of the newly formed Water Utility Climate Alliance together provide water to more than thirty-six million people in the United States. The group has developed a list of goals that include expanding climate change research, developing strategies for adapting to climate change and identifying greenhouse gas emissions from individual operations.

Today, we’re going to spend the rest of the hour looking at the global water crisis. Flow: For Love of Water is a new documentary screened here in New York last night. The film examines how the world’s water supplies are diminishing and how the privatization of water is worsening the crisis.

PETER H. GLEICK: For the longest time, people have taken water for granted. Most people don’t think about where their water comes from. They just turn on the tap, and they expect it to be there. Those days are ending.
MAUDE BARLOW: This notion that we’ll have water forever is wrong. California is running out. It’s got twenty-some years of water. New Mexico has got ten, although they’re building golf courses as fast as they can, so maybe they can whittle that down to five. Arizona, Florida, even the Great Lakes now, there’s huge new demand.
PETER H. GLEICK: The Nile River doesn’t reach its end. The Colorado River, the Yellow River in China, they, for the most part, don’t flow anymore to the sea.
MAUDE BARLOW: So this notion that somehow these problems are far away, get rid of that. You know, take it out of your head. You know, delete that.
PATRICK McCULLY: We’re treating the water resources of the planet with contempt, which is just so stupid, because we depend on them. We need water to live. We will only survive for a day or two if we don’t have water.
WILLIAM E. MARKS: Scientists, through decades of study and millions and millions of pieces of data, now recognize the fact that we’re on the brink of the sixth great mass extinction ever to be experienced on the face of the earth. The fifth mass extinction was the dinosaur age.
MAUDE BARLOW: You know those movies where there’s the comet coming at the earth, and all of a sudden the governments of the world say, “Gee, we’re not—our differences aren’t so big anymore, because we’re about to all die”? That’s really where we are. There is a comet coming at us. It’s called water shortage.
PETER H. GLEICK: Climate change is a real problem. Humans are changing the climate. We already see evidence about it. One of the most significant impacts of climate change will be on our water resources.
PATRICK McCULLY: We’re going to see a lot of people are going die because of the floods and droughts and various social upheavals that are caused by global warming. What’s also tragic is that there’s a lot of awareness of that now, but so much of that awareness is then being used by corporate interests. Oh, we’re running out of water, and we need to invest so much money in water, and it’s so terrible how water is managed. And then, somehow they make the flip to: oh, we must privatize it, so then we’ll use it more efficiently and everybody will be better off—which is total nonsense, total amount of nonsense. It means merely that these people have an interest clearly in making money or to selling water to people.

Read the rest here

3 Mar 2008 | 2:32 pm | Water, Health | No comments yet - Add your comments

Letter to Wisconsin Dept of Transportation by Sura, January 27

I understand that you are accepting comments on the freeway expansion that will cost taxpayers $1.9 billion.

I and most (all?) of my community is strongly opposed to this.

Expanding the freeways is backwards, wasteful, environmentally irresponsible and a full-out slap in the face to forward thinking for our future.

It will cost us far too much money in order to keep a dying system as “king,” when instead we should be looking at greater public/mass transit options. A recent report Public Transportation’s Contribution to Greenhouse Gas Reduction stated, “One of the most significant actions that household members can take to reduce their carbon footprint is to use public transportation where it is available…. Reducing the daily use of one low occupancy vehicle and using public transit can reduce a household’s carbon footprint between 25-30%.”

If we are to build and maintain an infrastructure that will serve not only our future–but present–needs, surely public transportation is the way to go. The City of Milwaukee is #2 in the nation for unemployment, is lagging behind in environmental leadership, and is known nationally for its hyper-segregation. As Wisconsin’s largest city, one would hope that the State DOT is considering the impact of its decision on its largest population.

Please do not expand the freeways. Invest in our future - public transportation.

Sura Faraj

27 Jan 2008 | 7:04 pm | Public Transportation, Health, Streets, Bicycles, Pedestrians | No comments yet - Add your comments

Are animal rights a city issue? by Sura, November 26

Recently, I had a constituent tell me that his issue was something the city doesn’t really deal with: animal rights.

There are many ways the city impacts the well-being of animals though. From the current practice of citing people for cruelty to animals to the potential of promoting the Wisconsin Humane Society’s Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR) program, which slows the spread of disease.

I’m an animal lover and I believe that the humane treatment of our pets — and all animals — is basic to a healthy community psyche.

Feral Cats: No Simple Solution

26 Nov 2007 | 4:57 pm | Health, Questions from Constituents | No comments yet - Add your comments

Health Care in Milwaukee by Sura, November 1

Universal health care is a national issue. right? I’d argue it’s a people issue. But what can local leadership in a city provide?

San Francisco is the first city to offer Universal Health Care. Milwaukee could do the same. Enrollment fees range on a sliding scale from $3 to $201. The focus is on providing care to people in the city — it’s not insurance that travels out of the area.

Financing comes mainly from the city, which is using its high emergency care costs to offset preventative and managed care. Here are two articles on the topic.

San Francisco to Offer Care for Uninsured Adults

San Francisco’s Latest Innovation: Universal Health Care

1 Nov 2007 | 8:09 am | Health | No comments yet - Add your comments

If this is revolution, bring it on! by Sura, November 1

Bike shop promotes ‘revolutionary’ idea

Bike culture shapes our youth, creates employment, promotes good health, saves our environment and creates community.

1 Nov 2007 | 7:49 am | Health, Economic Development, Streets, Bicycles, Pedestrians | No comments yet - Add your comments