Category Archives: Synthetic Biology

Sign the petition to prevent GE trees from contaminating forests

With the Right to Know labeling movement in full swing, GMOs are making headlines in every major website and newspaper in the U.S. However, genetically engineering food isn’t the only way that industry is trying to sneak their modified plants into our lives.

Enter genetically engineered trees.

Companies like ArborGen, jointly owned by International Paper and MeadWestvaco among others, are pressuring congress and the USDA to give them permission to release billions of GE eucalyptus seedlings in vast plantations across the U.S. Teamed up with another false solution to climate change, bioenergy, these GE trees, also called GM trees or GMO trees, could invade our natural forests, altering them forever. Not to mention drying up ground water and causing massive firestorms.  It is time to say no to corporate greenwashing  and no to genetically engineered trees.

GE ecualyptus farms are a growing threat to biodiversity. This is a eucalyptus greenhouse in Brazil.  Photo: Anne Petermann/GJEP

To prevent GE trees from contaminating natural forests, the Campaign to STOP GE Trees is circulating a petition demanding the USDA ban ArborGen and other entities from selling/distributing GE trees and creating “frankentree” planations across the U.S. The USDA is set to make a draft decision any day now. The more signatures the Campaign gets, the greater the chance we have to stop GE trees.

Sign the Petition to Ban Genetically Engineered Trees

To Whom It May Concern, I demand that all petitions by GE tree company ArborGen to plant or sell their genetically engineered eucalyptus trees be rejected. In addition, I demand that all petitions to release dangerous GE trees into the environment be rejected as they are inherently destructive and the full extent of their social and ecological risks has not been assessed. Further, I demand the USDA ban planting GE trees and all such plantings of GE trees be banned outright.

Sign the petition!

Comments Off on Sign the petition to prevent GE trees from contaminating forests

Filed under Biofuelwatch, GE Trees, Genetic Engineering, Synthetic Biology

Earth Minute: Why Doha is not where climate justice will happen

Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with the Sojourner Truth show on KPFK Pacifica Los Angeles for a weekly Earth Minute each Tuesday and a weekly Earth Watch interview each Thursday.

This week’s Earth Minute addresses the UN climate talks in Doha, Qatar, and why many climate justice organizations have decided not to attend this year’s climate conference, and are organizing with social movements and communities instead.

Comments Off on Earth Minute: Why Doha is not where climate justice will happen

Filed under Carbon Trading, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Corporate Globalization, Earth Minute, Earth Radio, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, GE Trees, Genetic Engineering, Geoengineering, Green Economy, Greenwashing, Oil, REDD, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Synthetic Biology, UNFCCC

KPFK Earth Segment: Marty Cobenais of IEN on Obama’s Keystone Pipeline reversal and ETC Group’s Jim Thomas on the threat of synthetic biology

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod and the Sojourner Truth show at KPFK Pacifica in Los Angeles for weekly Earth Segments and weekly Earth Minutes.

This week’s Earth Segment features Marty Cobenais of Indigenous Environmental Network giving IEN’s perspective on Obama’s Keystone pipeline reversal, and Jim Thomas of ETC Group on the threat to communities of synthetic biology, and the upcoming public forum Unmasking the Bay Area Bio-labs and Synthetic Biology: Health, Justice and Communities at Risk.

To listen to the Earth Segment, click on the link below and scroll to minute  42:00:

http://www.archive.org/details/Sojournertruthradio032212

Comments Off on KPFK Earth Segment: Marty Cobenais of IEN on Obama’s Keystone Pipeline reversal and ETC Group’s Jim Thomas on the threat of synthetic biology

Filed under Climate Change, Climate Justice, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Genetic Engineering, Green Economy, Media, Synthetic Biology, Tar Sands

KPFK Earth Segment on Synthetic Biology Lab Scheduled to be Built in Richmond, CA

This week’s Earth Segment featured GJEP Executive Director Anne Petermann discussing the new synthetic biology lab that is scheduled to be built in Richmond, California, and the concerns about this extreme genetic engineering technology.

To listen to the segment, go to the link below and scroll to minute 8:40.

KPFK Earth Segment Jan 26, 2012

For more on the proposed Synthetic Biology lab in Richmond, see our previous blog post: http://climate-connections.org/2012/01/26/genetic-engineering-gets-extreme-now-comes-synthetic-genetic-modification/

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod’s Sojourner Truth show on KPFK–Pacifica Los Angeles radio show for a weekly Earth Minute on Tuesdays and a weekly 12 minute Earth Segment every Thursday.

Comments Off on KPFK Earth Segment on Synthetic Biology Lab Scheduled to be Built in Richmond, CA

Filed under Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Climate Change, Genetic Engineering, Greenwashing, Posts from Anne Petermann, Synthetic Biology