Nanotechnology. Human gene doping. Cloned meat. Fire Retardants. Emerging technologies and harmful chemicals are appearing in consumer products and in our communities, and they have serious impacts on people and our environment. Corporations often seek profit from scientific developments, with little regard for human health.
Friends of the Earth is a fierce advocate of scientific progress, but people must be put before profits, and we must take precaution to ensure new technologies don’t do more harm than good.
Read the latest news and updates from our Health and Environment campaigns:
For several years, Friends of the Earth and various other environmental groups, air regulators, and public health organizations have worked with the EPA to create an “Emission Control Area” that would dramatically reduce air pollution from large ships – pollution that is responsible for serious health impacts including premature death, lung cancer, heart attacks, and respiratory illness.
The Humane Society of the United States, in conjunction with Friends of the Earth and other organizations, petitioned EPA to regulate global warming pollution and other air pollution from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), or factory farms.
Friends of the Earth teamed up with Consumers Union (CU) and the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) to compile the latest info about nanomaterials in sunscreens and their potential hazards. When you look at the data, it’s clear that sunscreens containing nanomaterials are not worth the risk.
Our Health and Environment Campaigner, Ian Illuminato, travelled to Paris, France in mid July to speak at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conference, entitled Potential Environmental Benefits of Nanotechnology: Fostering Safe Innovation-Led Growth (click here to view the background document for the meeting). We presented our findings on the human and environmental health risks of nanotechnologies with a ‘green’ purpose such as those used for water filtration, toxics clean-up, and energy conservation applications.
The $600M investment by Exxon into Synthetic Genomics, J. Craig Venter's synthetic biology company, is just the latest in a string of controversial and what should be eyebrow-raising investment deals between the oil industry and synthetic biology research ventures. The BP-Berkeley deal was the first major investment by Big Oil into synthetic biology research, in which BP invested $500M over 10 years to fund researching synthetic biology for the development of new biofuels in 2007. Since then, almost all major oil companies have invested, steeply, in synthetic biology research for biofuels. Here is a report from ETC Group outlining all of these investments.
In an era of green living we often overlook one of the simplest ways to fight global warming – critically examining the food we eat. An ideal low-carbon diet consists of plant-based foods that are locally and organically grown. Meat consumption, particularly from animals raised on factory farms, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), is a major contributor to a person’s carbon footprint.
There are millions of hungry people in the world and small farms which seek to provide healthy food for the surrounding areas are being threatened by large-scale industrial agriculture. To make matters worse, genetically modified foods and emerging technologies, like nanotechnology and synthetic biology, continue to threaten the extinction of small farms and the consumer by removing the power of choice.
The Friends of the Earth International Food Sovereignty campaign held a a strategy meeting in Amsterdam recently. Gillian Madill, our Genetic Technologies Campaigner, attended to bring the new technologies perspective, as well as to hear about the work being done in other Friends of the Earth offices around the world.
The California legislature is considering a law that would help keep toxic chemicals out of baby products. Friends of the Earth is a leader in the fight to pass this law.
Last year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned against the use of fire retardant chemicals in baby products and furniture. This is because scientists around the world have linked these chemicals to hormone disruption, neurological and developmental impairments, cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, such as attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, and a host of other health disorders.
Today we saw the World Social Forum IV come to a close under rainy skies. The rain united with many tears from the public and from the assembly groups who said their goodbyes and who once more lifted their hopes for change in the world. Though I did not fully understand most of the final speeches, which were delivered in Portuguese and other native languages -- the deep messages of the need for change and the gratitude expressed for our coming together -- filled the audience and everyone present.
Today we held our final workshop on nantechnology. This workshop was dedicated to the issue of nanotechnology and public engagement. We talked about how important it is for the public to discuss and have decision making power in the development of nanotechnology, which is currently not a priority for many governments worldwide. The very few nanotech public engagement activities we’ve witnessed in the past have mostly been focused on marketing nanotechnology products and new applications. Spaces to discuss the societal and ethical risks of nanotechnology are rare.
