I'm for justice and equity for all peoples everywhere. I am also for exposing lies and corruption, particularly the lies of the corporations that have a tight grip on humanity, all for profit and control. A grip that has been instrumental in the rape and pillage of indigenous peoples planet wide, for centuries.
WASHINGTON – Seasonal spikes of atrazine – a weed killer that can disrupt hormones and harm developing fetuses – contaminate drinking water in corn-growing areas of the Midwest and beyond, according to an analysis of federal records by the Environmental Working Group.
Environmental Protection Agency data show that in some Corn Belt communities, atrazine levels can spike three to seven times above the legal limit in late spring and early summer. But by avoiding water testing during peak periods, some water utilities stay in compliance with drinking water regulations – and don’t have to tell customers they were exposed to a hazardous chemical in their tap water.
I’m always disapointed and or angry when I read about one or other of these now almost daily mega disasters when they report 1, 10, 100 or whatever number of (human) deaths. They never point out that thousands, tens of thousands or millions of other species have been exterminated in these anthropogenic infernos and floods.
In one of the recent fires in California, I heard a commentator say that the region had been sterilised, meaning everything in the fire zone had been killed. Bugs, mice, butterflies, rabbits, baby birds in nests, lizards, insects,you name it, they were incinerated in their millions perhaps billions.
The situation is always much worse than we know or are being told. In pictures: The animals caught in California’s wildfires
The official statistics from 2010 are that between 150 and 200 species go extinct every day. Thats 200 important branches of evolution lost forever, daily. Since…
Author Nick Pineault is the creator of Electrosmog Rx, a research-based, 100% independent 5-week online course to help health practitioners and enthusiasts identify EMF sensitivity, provide solutions to reduce exposure, and add a strong base of EMF knowledge as an essential toolkit in healing recommendations, programs or protocols. More info here.
Despite the increasing reports of people who report feeling symptoms of “electro-sensitivity” from cell phones, wifi routers, Bluetooth devices and other sources of microwave radiation, mainstream medicine continues to bury its head in the sand and ignore the issue.
On the other hand, most of the top functional medicine practitioners in the world — include Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, Dr. Zach Bush, Dr. Dan Pompa, Dr. Ben Lynch and Dr. Tom O’Bryan each claim that “EMF removal is essential for proper healing”.
In a profoundly dishonest society, the shared grief of World War I is one of the few things we all know the truth of. One of the few things we are all honest about. Because it’s important. Because it’s a wound too deep to ignore, a betrayal too lasting to be forgiven. The Great War…
Ed Note @ 10/5/25: a recent and interesting related article has been added at the end.
“Ceri said her grandchildren … take a little while to get used to killing animals, but once they get into it, they love it.”
“Around 60 children weighed in 165 dead animals … An array of goats heads, possums, turkeys, hares, rabbits, pigs and magpies lay dead in the sun … Ceri Hutchinson, who was on the weigh-in desk, was surprised they hadn’t seen a cat come through “like someone did last year”.”
Headlined “New Zealand Kids Get Into Killing Animals and Love Doing It”, PhD Marc Bekoff comments “New Zealand’s war on wildlife uses youngsters to reach their shameful goal”. Two Kiwi parents have written to the blog expressing their concerns at what their children are being taught. We posted recently here also (cited in psychologytoday’s article) about the normalizing of poison use in our environment and how it is being conveyed to our kids via school textbooks. Also downplaying the toxicity of 1080 poison.
“Unfortunately, it is already clear that the policy [New Zealand’s Predator Free 2050 program] has not been well informed by scientific knowledge or conservation best practice. It also misdirects attention from more fundamental and direct threats to biodiversity protection and recovery.” (Wayne Linklater and Jamie Steer 2018)
This morning I received two very different email messages from New Zealand residents concerning their country’s on-going horrific and regrettable war on wildlife using inarguably uncompassionate and sickening poisons such as 1080 and other brutal methods of killing. They motivated me to revisit what is happening in this country’s massive and violent assault on nonhuman animals (animals) and to reflect on how few people, including some New Zealanders, know about what’a currently happening and what’s planned for the future.
All in all, New Zealand’s wide ranging and egregious assault on non-native animals can’t be justified on ecological or ethical grounds. In an essay titled “Predator Free 2050: A flawed conservation policy displaces higher priorities and better, evidence‐based alternatives” by New Zealand conservation and biodiversity researchers Wayne Linklater and Jamie Steer we read, “New Zealand’s policy to exterminate five introduced predators by 2050 is well‐meant but warrants critique and comparison against alternatives. The goal is unachievable with current or near‐future technologies and resources. Its effects on ecosystems and 26 other mammalian predators and herbivores will be complex. Some negative outcomes are likely. Predators are not always and everywhere the largest impact on biodiversity…the policy is flawed and risks diverting effort and resources from higher environmental priorities and better alternatives.” The ethical problems centering on the intentional killing of millions other animals are abundantly clear. For example, Linklater and Steer write, “The improbability of success and the perception by some that current tools are cruel are substantial barriers to ethically robust outcomes. More compassionate approaches to managing predators (Wallach, Bekoff, Batavia, Nelson, & Ramp, 2018) are not being considered.
The first note I received read: “I just read an article saying you have received hate mail for criticising NZ’s policy, especially in some schools, on possums as pests. I am sorry to hear that. I would just like to say I totally agree with you – it is horrific to teach children to kill and even more horrific that anyone would drown animals. I was born here and had a baby possum when I was a child, whose mother was hit by a car and he was the sweetest thing, absolutely adorable. I think people should let nature work things out. After all it was because of humans that we have possums in NZ and they are just living their lives where they were born, the same as us. Best regards for your inspiring work.” While I have received a few very nasty and vulgar notes about my opposition to, and strong criticisms of, New Zealand’s shameful war on wildlife, the vast majority has been very supportive.
“Most children came in with an animal carcass slumped over their shoulder”
The other email I received with the subject line reading, “It seems to get worse and worse” alerted me to an essay that is available online called “Forgotten World Highway fun: animal carcasses, sausages and fox terrier races.” This piece is about the biennial Whangamomona Kids’ Critter Hunt, “a competition that asks children from near and far to bring biggest and best kills from the past few days in to be weighed and displayed” (please also see “Animal carcasses, psychopathy and school possum hunts“). It contains a number of very disturbing images of kids proudly displaying the animals who they’ve killed, and I urge caution because they are extremely off-putting. Some of the captions for the images read, “Sam Faull, 6, Noah Cameron, 5, Hunter Cameron, 7, and Gus Hutchinson, 8, with their possums at the great Whangamomona Kids’ Critter Hunt,” “Most children came in with an animal carcass slumped over their shoulder,” and “Rueben Pease, 15, with the 170 pound boar he shot in an entry for critter day.” (Note: In a third email in response to this essay of mine I posted earlier, I also received notice about a video called “THE NZ GOVT IS TEACHING YOUR CHILD THAT CLASS 1A ECOTOXIN 1080, BANNED BY MOST COUNTRIES, IS ‘NOT VERY DANGEROUS TO HUMANS’” which normalizes the use of poisons and in which there is discussion of a book titled Poisoning Our Future: Children and Pesticides.)
In “Forgotten World Highway fun: animal carcasses, sausages and fox terrier races” we read, “In the period of two hours around 60 children weighed in 165 dead animals – attaching their names to the carcasses and laying them alongside each other on the ground.” A grandmother also notes, “her grandchildren, who live in Hāwera, take a little while to get used to killing animals, but once they get into it, they love it.” Daniel ‘Pork’ Hutchinson who is president of the Whangamomona Pig Hunt Club claims, “They have a ball.” Even an adult has found killing animals to be addictive (for more discussion please see “Killing Animals Is ‘Weirdly Addictive’ Says New Zealander“).
Kids and animals: Some New Zealand schools are promoting a horrific model
It’s essential to share what’s happening in New Zealand with a wide audience because while a good deal of press has focused on the on-going slaughter and support for it, there are many people who are strongly against it. Some are especially concerned with the training and of youngsters to harm and to kill so-called pests (please also see “Horror at children drowning baby possums at Drury school event” and “Possums and pig hunting fundraiser for country school“), the link between violence toward animals and violence toward humans, and the country’s extremely high rates of domestic violence. In “Possums and pig hunting fundraiser for country school” there are some incredibly disturbing images of kids abusing animals. I received a good number of emails about this essay, in which we learn, “Hundreds attended the family fun day that included all the usual events—the possum carrying obstacle course, the heaviest magpie or rabbit competition, best dressed possum, heaviest goat head and, of course, the gumboot throw” and “The pig hunting opened on Thursday, giving hunters the opportunity to find the heaviest boar. They had more than 100 entries, with hunters registering from as far as Awakino and Whangamomona.”
A girl and a bunny
Source: Pixabay free download
I wrote some about these topics in a number of essays (“Imprinting Kids for Violence Toward Animals,” “Long-Term Effects of Violence Toward Animals by Youngsters,” “Youngsters Encouraged to Kill Possum Joeys in New Zealand,” “It’s a Ghastly Time to Be a Bunny in New Zealand,” and links therein), and also noted that not all youngsters want to kill the animals who they’re told to kill by teachers, school administrators, and other adults. For example, in essay titled “Violence Toward Animals: “Can You Please Help My Daughter?” I wrote about a mother who sent me the following note: “I have seen your recent essays on what is happening in schools throughout my country and I am appalled. Thank you for spreading the word. Can you please help my daughter tell her teachers that she does not want to participate in these types of events and contests?” She also mentioned that other parents agreed with her and were at wit’s end because people in power were telling the kids it was perfectly okay to harm and to kill the animals and to parade around with corpses of the animals they slaughtered. I wrote back that her daughter should simply refuse to partake and be nice about it. She should just say “no,” not make a ruckus, and serve as a model for others who might also not want to kill the so-called pests.
Claims that these animals are being “killed with kindness” are inane. Nicola Toki, the Threatened Species Ambassador of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DoC), offered this up in her defense of the slaughter. There’s no reason at all to glorify killing and disrespect for other beings. And, there will be massive amounts of harm and suffering among the millions of sentient beings who are to be slaughtered. So-called “killing with kindness” is neither the panacea nor is it an acceptable excuse for killing other animals. Ms. Toki writes, “The key to getting it right is to hold onto empathy for other living things along the way.” So, killing other animals is just fine as long as the killers feel for the animals they’re slaughtering. I can imagine some people saying or thinking something like, “I know I’m causing you pain as I kill you, but please understand I’m doing it with kindness because it has to be done.” Of course, the animals who are killed couldn’t care less about how their one and only life is taken.
I hope that everyone in New Zealand who opposes killing contests that include youngsters and adults will speak out against such unnecessary violence. There’s no reason to glorify killing other beings. Speaking out against violence toward other animals is one way to call attention to what is happening and to locate others who agree with this point of view. Future long term effects of harmful poisons and teaching kids to kill animals must be spoken about openly and the more people who do it, the more likely things will change for the better. As the late Gretchen Wyler once said, “Cruelty can’t stand the spotlight.” As like-minded people discover one another, things can change and other animals and other humans will benefit from the kindness, compassion, and respect that are shared. Therein lies hope for the future. It’s time to close down the killing fields once and for all.
About the Author
Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Bill Cooper, Former now deceased (Murdered) United States Naval Intelligence Briefing Team Member, reveals information hidden from the public. This information was kept in top-secret government files since the 1940’s. In 1988 Bill decided to ”talk” due to events then taking place worldwide. His information came from top-secret documents that he had read while working with the intelligence briefing team from over seventeen years of thorough research.
William Cooper – The Immigration Agenda
Like it or not, everything is changing. The result will be the most wonderful experience in the history of man or the most horrible enslavement that you can imagine. be active or abdicate, the future is in your hands. – William Cooper, October 24, 1989
Odor and wetness shouldn’t come with a price greater than the cost of a deodorant stick, but unfortunately, there is mounting evidence that when you buy conventional deodorant, you not only pay now, but you also pay later in medical expenses. Do you really want to be that guy or girl that cheaps out on deodorant, then has a serious health scare later on in life, by saving a few measly dollars?
If you’re still not sure if conventional deodorant is a real threat to your health then take a few minutes to read these eye-opening facts about conventional deodorant, and then determine if you want to risk disease, especially when there are perfectly legitimate solutions.
Agrichemicals and antibiotics in combination increase the evolution of antibiotic resistance
Bacteria may develop antibiotic resistance up to 100,000 times faster when they’re exposed to certain herbicides in the environment, particularly widely used herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup) and dicamba (Kamba)
It’s believed that other chemicals in the environment may also increase resistance in microbes, much like herbicides; however, regulatory agencies don’t regulate or test them for such effects — even among the 3,000 top-volume chemicals produced annually
Reducing the use of antibiotics may not be enough to stop this looming public health disaster — unless the use of herbicides and other chemicals that affect antibiotic resistance is also curbed
Antibiotic resistance is often pegged as a problem caused by the overuse of antibiotics — and this is a driving factor — but research suggests it may actually be only one piece to the puzzle. Environmental factors may be accelerating the rise of antibiotic resistance as well, particularly widely used herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup) and dicamba (Kamba).
Research from University of Canterbury researchers revealed that agrichemicals and antibiotics in combination increase the evolution of antibiotic resistance. In fact, bacteria may develop antibiotic resistance up to 100,000 times faster when they’re exposed to certain herbicides in the environment.1
“The combination of chemicals to which bacteria are exposed in the modern environment should be addressed alongside antibiotic use if we are to preserve antibiotics in the long term,” study author Jack Heinemann of the University of Canterbury, said in a news release.2
‘Like Trying to Put Out a Fire of Antibiotic Resistance With Gasoline’
The study found cases when exposure to herbicides made the antibiotics more toxic while at the same time increasing the antibiotic resistance. Heinemann explained why this is an alarming finding:
“We are inclined to think that when a drug or other chemical makes antibiotics more potent, that should be a good thing. But it also makes the antibiotic more effective at promoting resistance when the antibiotic is at lower concentrations, as we more often find in the environment … Such combinations can be like trying to put out the raging fire of antibiotic resistance with gasoline.”
The results suggest that herbicides enhance the ability of antibiotics to become antibiotic resistant and that such resistance may be acquired at rates much faster than those predicted in laboratory conditions. Previously, research by Heinemann and colleagues found that commonly used herbicides promote antibiotic resistance by priming pathogens to more readily become resistant to antibiotics.3
This includes Roundup (the actual formulation of Roundup, not just its active ingredient glyphosate in isolation), which was shown to increase the antibiotic-resistant prowess of E. coli and salmonella, along with dicamba and 2,4-D. Rodale News reported:4
“The way Roundup causes this effect is likely by causing the bacteria to turn on a set of genes that are normally off, [study author] Heinemann says. ‘These genes are for ‘pumps’ or ‘porins,’ proteins that pump out toxic compounds or reduce the rate at which they get inside of the bacteria …’
Once these genes are turned on by the herbicide, then the bacteria can also resist antibiotics. If bacteria were to encounter only the antibiotic, they would instead have been killed. In a sense, the herbicide is ‘immunizing’ the bacteria to the antibiotic … This change occurs at levels commonly used on farm field crops, lawns, gardens and parks.”
Please do read our recent related article on mainstream media’s take regarding alleged threats to DoC staff about the use of 1080 poison in NZ. Their information does not match the findings of a recent OIA request … to be specific there were actually only 9 threats in the last 31 months, DoC reports there were 93 last month. A very considerable discrepancy there.
People who want a class 1A ecotoxin kept out of their waterways, as the 1080 manufacturer’s warning data instructs, are not violent terrorists. They simply want to protect their families. Please consider all of the info before jumping to conclusions on this.
See the GrafBoys’ channel, tv-wild.com for further info on 1080. Be sure also to watch their 4x international award winning doco, Poisoning Paradise for an exposé of the real facts around the use of 1080. This doco is one your government appears to not want you to see given it is banned from screening on NZTV. Not the first one that hasn’t made it beyond private viewing, I will be posting more on that one later.
For further articles here on 1080 use the ‘categories’ drop down box at the left of the news page. Check out the 1080 pages at the main menu, particularly the sub tab, ‘suspected 1080 poisoning cases’. Educate yourself on the risks & protect your children. Discuss the risks & caution them never to touch the 1080 baits.
Finally, remember what the retired MD Charlie Baycroft said recently …‘if you die from 1080 poisoning, nobody will know because the Ministry of Health is bullying NZ Doctors into not testing for 1080′.
So NZ seems to be able to just bypass the manufacturer’s instructions. And we the public are supposed to just ignore these guidelines too & trust that all’s good? Where is the scientific data that says it’s now safe? The years long scientific testing of 1080 in water? I haven’t seen any. And what other regulations are they bypassing? I for one do not drink town supply water any more. I desisted long ago to avoid ingesting chlorine, the carcinogen they add to stop us getting sick from their sewage and industrial waste discharges put into the waterways. Those additions are called ‘sustainable development’ folks. They help keep corporate profits up & kick the proverbial pollution can down the road.
Below are the manufacturer’s instructions for 1080:
By Carol Sawyer
NO RESTRICTIONS ON 1080 BAITS BEING DROPPED DIRECTLY INTO RIVERS NOW
No buffer zones are required. A river can be any width… like the mighty Clutha in Otago, as it heads out of Lake Wanaka on its 338 km journey to the sea, or the beautiful, clear Burke River in South Westland, or the magnificent brown trout fishery, the Mataura River, (the latter two seen below) in Northern Southland.
Re the aerial 1080 drop on the Eyre Mountains, Northern Southland – On 25 October, 2018, I reported local farmer, Cara Metherell, as saying :
“I asked the Operations Manager ( David Priest of Vector Control Services) about the 3 metre waterway rule. He said some regional councils had different rules. Some were 3 metres, some were 2 metres, and some had none at all.
Apparently the rules were changed so that it would be the same for every region. They changed it to none ( no restrictions ).
There are no rules about the size of the river they can drop it into now apparently.”
See Ban 1080’s press release on the removal of restrictions:
For further articles on 1080 use the ‘categories’ drop down box at the left of the news page. Check out the 1080 pages at the main menu, particularly the sub tab, ‘suspected 1080 poisoning cases’. Educate yourself on the risks & protect your children.
Finally, remember what the retired MD Charlie Baycroft said recently …‘if you die from 1080 poisoning, nobody will know because the Ministry of Health is bullying NZ Doctors into not testing for 1080′.
Tories insist on ‘gagging orders’ to cover up for their crimes against workers
IT EMERGED this week that the company hired by the Tories to test for flammable cladding on government and other public buildings in the aftermath of the Grenfell…
Desrochers and Szurmak’s book are a reminder of humanity’s “can do” instincts and problem-solving ability.
Is overpopulation a problem? Are we running out of resources? Where did the concern over population growth and resource depletion come from? How accurate were the past predictions of gloom by people who were concerned about the two issues? Will we manage to combine rising numbers of people and higher standards of living with decent stewardship of the planet in the future?
The book comes out exactly 50 years after Paul R. Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, in which the Stanford University biology professor famously claimed that population growth would result in resource depletion and the starvation of hundreds…
The ever ongoing rape & pillage of Africa. Not to forget the ongoing lies from the Rothschild, Rockefeller & Cos about the shortages that allegedly require them to keep pumping up the prices. Like the fomenting of wars it all serves to keep their bank balances ‘sustainable’. It’s called sustainable development.
Barrie Trower is a former Royal Navy microwave weapons expert and former cold-war captured spy debriefer for the UK Intelligence Services. Mr Trower is a conscionable whistle-blower who lectures around the world on the hidden dangers from microwave weapons and every-day microwave technologies such as mobile-phones and WiFi. He covers the escalating child cancers we don’t hear about. A must watch.
(UPI) — A new supercomputer is able to mimic how the human brain functions, and can perform 200 quadrillion actions simultaneously.
The Spiking Neural Network Architecture, or SpiNNaker, went online last week for the first time at the University of Manchester in Britain. The computer can model more neurons in real time than any machine on the planet, developers say.
“SpiNNaker completely re-thinks the way conventional computers work. We’ve essentially created a machine that works more like a brain than a traditional computer, which is extremely exciting,” Steve Furber, a professor of computer engineering, said in a statement.
The computer can send billions of small amounts of information to thousands of different destinations. Eventually, the computer will be able to model 1 billion neurons at once in real time — about 1 percent the scale of the human brain, researchers said.
(Natural News) You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it a hundred times again: The herd theory hoax that claims vaccines don’t work unless everyone gets vaccinated. Sure. And how is that? If the vaccines work, why would all of those people inoculated still be susceptible to getting the disease? It doesn’t make sense, unless you consider the fact that most vaccines are just a “shot in the dark” – an experimental guess at certain viral strains, mixed with neurotoxins, carcinogens, allergens, other animal’s blood and cells, foreign proteins, all combined and injected into muscle tissue with chemical adjuvants in hopes of stimulating a hyper-immune response that’s sadly short-lived, if it even works at all.
In other words, if you’re afraid of unvaccinated children, then that must mean your vaccines don’t work. And that is exactly why herd “vaxxers” are still paranoid about anyone who doesn’t follow the rules of the “sheeple” and get every vaccine, booster jab, and flu shot that anyone tells them to get.
Open borders mean open arms to infectious diseases
Consider another angle that exposes herd theory idiocy. Vaxxers all believe they are safe in the herd of people that get vaccinated, but most of that same “herd” supports open borders, where “herds” of thousands of illegal aliens in caravans flood into their city or town with viruses they’re not vaccinated against. American vaccine-manufacturing scientists, corporate shills, the media, and medical parrots (M.D.s and nurses that repeat the same illogical vaccine mottos) all want us to believe that the human immune system is naturally weak, and that if you catch any infectious disease that your likelihood of dying from it is very high.
That’s why open borders are the antithesis of the herd immunity theory, but people who are vaccinated are so “intoxicated” with heavy metal poisons, formaldehyde, and aluminum that they can’t think clearly enough to make sense of it all. They live in fear.
Plus, the CDC preposterously exaggerates the statistics of influenza deaths. It’s all fear mongering and fear-based propaganda to sell more vaccines by getting all the injected sheeple to regurgitate their lies to their friends, relatives, neighbors and coworkers. The fact is that if you get vaccinated, you are more likely to come down with infectious diseases, including lung infections from virus and bacteria. That’s because injections of known neurotoxins and carcinogens severely compromise the immune system, all while the very viruses you’re afraid of catching are injected into you by Big Scam Pharma.
If vaccines are so “safe and effective,” why has the vaccine court paid out $4 billion in damages over the past couple decades?
Here comes more vaccine logic dismantled: If vaccines are so safe and effective, why can’t parents of vaccine-damaged children sue the drug companies that manufacture the vaccines? Think about that for a minute. Imagine if some car parts manufacturer made brake pads, but if the brake pads were defective and caused horrible wrecks, you couldn’t sue them?
(Nov. 2018) If all of this does not convince you of how powerfully the media shapes the public’s perception of reality I’m afraid nothing will. Here we have an obvious skewing of numbers to convince you that people who want clean drinking water, who do not want their food sources poisoned, are actually a bunch of violent terrorists. Quite frankly I think they’ve over skewed it this time. It isn’t a matter of a slight margin of difference, it is a very glaring fudging of the facts. The following article is compiled from information posted from research on the ‘No to 1080 Use in NZ’ Facebook page, and from Carol Sawyer. It includes a further update by Carol following a news item on NewsHub last night.
OIA reveals false claims from DoC
“Can we expect our Government agencies like the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DoC) to tell us the truth?
It would appear not.
Over the past year, there have been increasing claims in the media from people like Lou Sanson, Director-General of the DoC and Nicola Toki, DoC’s ‘Threatened Species Ambassador’ that ‘anti-1080 activists are dangerously out of control’, ‘have gone feral’ and even ‘ are repeatedly making death threats to DoC staff’.
On 31st August this year, we exposed the truth about these lies. We reported the response to an Official Information Act to the New Zealand Police, which asked ‘exactly HOW MANY threats of violence towards DoC staff had been recorded from so-called ‘anti-1080 activists in the past 2 years?’ and perhaps more importantly, ‘how many of these were being upheld?’”
The answer, back then, was six:
Between March 2016 and March 2018 there were a total of only SIX reports of threats to NZ Police, of which, ZERO were being progressed to prosecution. Nil prosecutions.Surprise, surprise!
So since then, from March up to October 2018, how many MORE threats to DoC do you think have been reported to the Police? After all, there was(according to TVNZ in Sept) a “sharp rise in threats to DoC staff”. Numerous media articles have attempted to alarm the public about the ‘dangers’ of ‘anti-1080 activists’. Then there was the commencement of a costly contract with the private security firm, Thompson and Clark (April 2018). Journalists like Tom O’Connor writing opinion pieces with headlines like ‘Anti-1080 protesters’ threats to human life inexcusable’….. so, how many threats were actually reported to the Police?
THREE.
Yes, that’s right, since March 2018 there has been an ‘explosion’ of the numbers of threats to….um,
the same, on average, as the previous two years.
On 7th of November we have a further update on mainstream media’s reporting :
THREATS TO DoC FROM ANTI-1080 PEOPLE
“Well, well, well – tonight we have the government-driven “drama queens” on Newshub coming up with another fantastical story… DoC is apparently trembling in its boots because of threats to shoot down helicopters, string wires across valleys, etc. Their “wheels have been slashed” and their “tyres loosened”… NONE OF THIS IS TRUE! In the Newshub story …
… not a single shred of evidence for its claims was produced.
The story starts off :
“Newshub can reveal the Prime Minister has received multiple threats from anti-1080 extremists including at least one death threat.” However, when Jacinda Ardern is asked ” Have they threatened your life or safety?” she looks uncomfortable and replies “Er, look I..I have been.. had some incidents, er, that I’ve been made aware of, um, but actually… (and then goes on to say she is more concerned about frontline staff).
Meanwhile, back in the real world where we all not only have to defend ourselves against poison but also against the self-interested exaggerations of the poisoners, two OIA requests reveal exactly …
NINE so-called threats in the last 2 years and 7 months! None has progressed to prosecution.
Lou Sanson says there were NINETY-THREE threats last month. The date on the latest OIA response from the NZ Police is 1 November, 2018. How does this work exactly Lou Sanson?
Below are copies of the latest OIA request to Police:
IN CONCLUSION:
Whether any of the 3 alleged threats will progress to a prosecution, remains to be seen. But if previously reported incidents are anything to go by (e.g. a threatening phone call, and a note left on a DoC vehicle) we doubt it very much.
We need to call out DoC about their constant and tiresome Fake News. And we need to make the media accountable for perpetuating their lies. We need to ask for more evidence whenever DoC make a claim; they are simply untrustworthy.
Some examples of recent Fake News articles below.
“Southern police have also revealed they are investigating several threats made last year to sabotage 1080 operations, including one involving the setting of man traps. Department of Conservation (Doc) operations director southern South Island Aaron Fleming said in recent months there had been an increase in threats and harassment to Doc staff and contractors nationwide, including eight in Otago and Southland.” (Otago Daily Times, 6 Oct 2018)
“There are fears for the safety of conservation workers and contractors after recent attacks on their vehicles. In three instances wheel nuts on the vehicles were loosened in acts believed to be connected to protests over the Conservation Department’s use of 1080 poison for pest management. In the most serious case a contractor avoided injury when a wheel came off while he was driving, after its nuts had been loosened. DOC director-general Lou Sanson said toxic bait had been put in a staff letterbox and he had also seen other threatening posts on Facebook recently.” (New Zealand Radio, 29 Sept 2017)
“DOC appalled at latest 1080 threats to staff: The Department of Conservation (DOC) confirms that it has asked New Zealand Police to investigate after receiving a second threatening letter from an anti-1080 protestor in Taranaki. The aggressive letter intensifies threats against DOC staff and claims more sika deer will be released unless DOC stops its use of 1080 to control predators.” (Scoop, 5 December 2017)
“Sharp rise in threats to DOC as anti 1080 protesters hold mass demonstrations” TVNZ, 1 News: Sept 2018 DoC said the intelligence gathering was necessary because of threats made by anti-1080 activists who in some cases had threatened to shoot down helicopters. “They’ve threatened to kill our staff and their families, we’ve had physical confrontation, and we’ve had instances of tampering with vehicles, loosening wheel nuts. “So we needed a specialist security company to help us with that because we just don’t have the resources or expertise,” Mr Maher said. Threats are collated and assessed by Thompson and Clark as to whether they could likely be carried out. If the risk is high they are forwarded onto police. (Radio New Zealand Checkpoint: DOC Using Thompson and Clarke to monitor anti-1080 activists April 23, 2018)
Department of Conservation staff are facing a torrent of online threats and abuse following a recent spike in anti-1080 protest This is having a consequence for frontline DOC staff, Mrs Toki said incidents of threats and abuse in August were significantly higher than usual. “We had eight incidents in just one month alone where staff were physically confronted, abused or harassed and then we had seven abusive phone calls and emails” She said in addition to that there were countless harassment threats and abuse via social media which were followed up with Netsafe and the police. (Radio New Zealand 18 Sept 2018)
(Natural News) If you’ve ever doubted whether organic food is worth the higher price tag, a study that was recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine should put your concerns to rest. In the study, French researchers showed that people who consume organic food have a 25% lower risk of cancer.
The study, which was carried out under the guidance of epidemiologist Julia Baudry, looked at the diets of nearly 70,000 French adults with an average age in their mid-40s. The volunteers were divided into four categories according to how often they ate 16 organic products that included vegetables, fruit, fish, meat, prepared meals, condiments, dietary supplements, vegetable oils and other products.
After an average follow-up time of 4 ½ years, the researchers looked at how many of the participants had developed some type of cancer. After comparing the volunteers’ organic food scores with the cancer cases, they were able to determine that those who ate the most organic food were 25 percent less likely to develop cancer than those who did not eat organic food. When it came to specific types of cancer, the group who ate organic was 73 percent less likely to go on to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 21 percent less likely to go on to develop postmenopausal breast cancer.
It might be tempting to assume that the group who ate organic food would be more health-conscious overall and likely had a healthier diet in general, and that may be responsible for the lower cancer risk. However, the researchers say that simply is not true; even those who ate a low- to medium-quality diet yet opted for organic enjoyed the reduced cancer risk.
Note in yesterday’s post ‘Sustainable Deception’ the wind farms are mentioned.. they kill millions of birds literally. Much more to wind farms than ‘sustainable energy’ it appears. We posted long ago on NZ’s wind farms (see main menu) with a raft of info about the health risks to those who live nearby, and often were unfortunate enough to have them erected near their homes. Industry tends to win out on that one … like the cell towers.
Far too many people on the center left and center right have bought into the idea that nations such as Russia or China are genuine enemies of the global system, and far too many people on the far left and far right have bought into the idea that these nations represent credible alternatives to the global system. While it is certainly true that the Washington-London-Brussels-Berlin-Tel Aviv-Riyadh axis is the real international ruling class, the Asian powers are merely backwater provinces in the global system that are occasionally unruly.
The major Asian nations like Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Japan, etc., whether they are officially “allies” or “adversaries” of “the West” or not, are still just components within global capitalism. They may have large populations, and their nuclear weapons may make them impervious to invasion, but their real function within global capitalism is to provide cheap labor for Western corporations…
An article from Stuff dated 2010, on the gravy train that is 1080. Much has been written on this topic (ie the gravy train aspect) including by the late Bill Benfield in his book The Third Wave. I will be posting his information in the near future. And another up-to-date article to come on the current folk driving the ‘train’.
By TONY WALL, Jun 27 2010 (Stuff)
Controversy over 1080 erupted this month, with five protesters arrested for interfering with a poison drop. In Taupo, a fake bomb was discovered at a firm behind the drops. In the middle of the debate is Taupo mayor Rick Cooper, who believes a 1080 `gravy train’ is making a small group of people rich. Special investigation by Tony Wall.
RICK COOPER looks uncannily like the figure in the oil painting in his Taupo District Council office, right down to the open-neck blue shirt and grey blazer. The subject is not an ancestor or a former mayor, but TV mob boss Tony Soprano. The inspiration? “He shot the bastards, encased them in concrete. He is my mentor – `just get on with it’.”
He is joking, of course, but you suspect His Worship wouldn’t mind meting out some mob justice to those he believes are poisoning the environment with the aerial spread of 1080.
‘You keep finding the same people, the same names, and no one you can independently trust,’ says Cooper about what he terms the ‘1080 gravy train’.
Although Cooper “hates” 1080 – “if I was prime minister I would ban it by lunchtime” – he has no problem with ground control, where the poison is laid by hand in bait stations, targeting possums only.
What enrages him is “indiscriminate aerial bombardment”, which he says is causing “carnage” in our forests, killing everything from insects and plants to birds, pigs, deer and domestic farm animals, as well as threatening waterways.
Cooper’s council has passed a resolution – six for and four against – to advocate for the abolition of aerial 1080 poisoning and to seek alternative possum eradication methods. The Westland District Council has passed a similar resolution and the mayor of Kaikoura has called for a 1080 ban, as a groundswell of opposition to the deadly poison, banned in most countries, builds.
The Department of Conservation, regional councils and the Animal Health Board use 1080 to control possums in order to protect forests and birdlife and to prevent the spread of bovine TB. In 2007, after a lengthy submissions process, the Environmental Risk Management Agency (Erma) found 1080 was safe and decided to allow its continued use, including aerial operations.
But that has not silenced opponents such as Cooper, who fired off emails to all the agencies involved, as well as Prime Minister John Key, in a desperate attempt to halt a 1080 drop over 26,000ha of the Kaingaroa State Forest east of Taupo this month.
The operation was unnecessary, Cooper says, as the terrain was easily accessible – “it’s flat country my grandmother could ride her bike around” – and could have been done by foot. He says the obsession with aerial operations is denying work to possum trappers and undermining the trade in meat and fur.
A 1080 “gravy train” keeps the aerial drops going, Cooper claims. There is too much money being made for them to be abolished, he says, conspiratorially. He talks of closed-door deals, conflicts of interest and a lack of transparency from the agencies involved. “I think it’s a bit like something died in the back paddock and hasn’t been buried.”
Cooper points to multimillion-dollar contracts awarded to a local firm, Epro Ltd, to spread 1080 from the air. Its director and co-owner, Roger Lorigan, used to work at Environment Waikato, which issues resource consents for 1080 work, in its pest management unit. A former colleague, Kevin Christie, also has his own firm, Ecofx based in Otorohanga, which has also won big contracts.
Their boss at Environment Waikato was John Simmons, now the biosecurity and natural heritage group manager at the council, in charge of pest management. In the late 90s, the council sold its possum control business to Lorigan and Christie, and Cooper claims they have been milking it ever since. However, his concerns were not shared by the auditor-general, who in a 2004 report found no evidence of any conflict of interest.
But Cooper remains suspicious. “It doesn’t matter where you go with this stuff, you keep finding the same people, the same names, and no one you can independently trust. My question is, what methodology did they use to sell those companies?”
Cooper has been challenging Environment Waikato chairman Peter Buckley on the issue. Buckley says he initially had concerns about how the companies were set up, but since becoming chairman has been satisfied that everything was above board. Lorigan says they were simply management buy-outs of pest destruction businesses, no different to those conducted by several other councils around the country. He says that 1080 contracts awarded to his firm are won fairly. “We just tender along with everyone else.”
Simmons says allegations of bias and closed-door deals were raised by a rival operator in 2004, and dismissed by the auditor-general. “It is disappointing that this has again surfaced unnecessarily.” He says Epro and Ecofx are experts in their field and, “I am sure the majority of ratepayers… have a high level of assurance in the professional manner in which the work is undertaken.”
A copy of the auditor-general’s report, provided to the Sunday Star-Times, shows that, while there was no evidence that Simmons had ever had any financial interest in Epro or Ecofx and there was nothing to suggest their relationship was inappropriate, there was another conflict, involving an “independent consultant” employed by the council to act as moderator and recorder in the 1080 contract process.
The person had a business relationship with both Epro and Ecofx, and while the council knew this, it had done nothing about it. Figures released to the Star-Times by Environment Waikato show it has paid around $2 million to Epro and Ecofx for aerial 1080 contracts over the past 10 years, but most of the contracts the firms won were with the Animal Health Board, which refuses to reveal payments for reasons of commercial sensitivity.
Epro and Ecofx recently applied for 10 and 20-year consents to continue aerial 1080 operations on a non-notified basis, although they later withdrew the applications and settled for year-long consents. (Their current 10-year consents are due to expire next month.)
“We kicked up such a stink they had to back out,” Cooper says. “That’s protecting your business isn’t it? Non-notified consents, 10 years for a poison. You can’t even put a bedroom on your house without a resource consent.”
Lorigan says Cooper’s allegations and inflammatory comments are inciting threats against his firm. Just a day after the Star-Times visited Epro this month, staff discovered a suspicious package – a 20-litre container with a clock and protruding wires – on machinery at its depot. Bomb disposal experts were called in and houses evacuated, but it was a hoax.
The incident came a day after two dogs died, apparently after eating 1080 pellets by the side of the Napier-Taupo highway. A friend of the owner later paraded the body of one of the dogs through the middle of Taupo in a wheelbarrow.
Lorigan says the bomb hoax proves anti-1080 protesters are “terrorists”.
“You just get sick of it, where’s it going to end? We’ve had threats and stuff like that, at the end of the day we’re just a contractor. That’s what drives me nuts, we’re just a business.
“Rick’s taking it very personal and that’s quite a shame. We’re a business that has employed 50 people, I find it very disappointing that a mayor can do that in his own town. Why isn’t he worried about how the town is going and promoting tourism?”
Cooper does not condone the bomb hoax, but says he understands the anger of whoever was behind it.
“There are a lot of disappointed people around this district that know the truth behind this madness. I’m glad I have no part in this diabolical 1080 nonsense because if I did, I fear I would have been tarred and feathered.”
COOPER IS an unlikely crusader against 1080. Your typical protester is a bearded, Swanndri-wearing bushwhacker, but Cooper made his fortune selling cars, owns half of the commercial real estate in Taupo – “I’m the biggest ratepayer in this town… $280,000 a quarter” – and races Mustangs in his spare time. He gives his $81,000 mayoral salary to charity.
But he is also a keen deer hunter and has “hated” 1080 most of his life. Soon after he won the mayoralty for the first time in 2007, Epro bungled a 1080 drop at Turangi.
“They were spraying 1080 all over the place down the bottom of the lake… they threw it across this place where these kids’ ponies were. I go down there… can you imagine the scene? You’ve got four horses thrashing and dying on the ground, one takes four days to die. I was going, `What is going on in this country? How in God’s name did a helicopter pilot biff this shit here, in this horse paddock?’ To this day those kids haven’t even had an apology.”
Epro, which failed to tell the owners to move the horses, was formally warned by Environment Waikato and a year later the regional council finally paid the owners $9100 compensation.
The incident convinced Cooper to campaign for the abolishment of aerial 1080 drops. He has spent so much time on the issue the past three years he has had to employ a “mayoral support officer”, Graham Sperry, who is chairman of the anti-1080 New Zealand Wildlands Biodiversity Management Society, to take up some of the 1080 workload.
Documentary maker Clyde Graf, whose film on 1080, Poisoning Paradise, has been nominated for awards in the UK, is a hunting companion of Cooper. He says for 1080 opponents, having the mayor in their corner has been invaluable.
“He’s a fairly staunch, brave sort of a guy,” Graf says. “He doesn’t get pushed around easily, he just stands up for what he believes in. His position as mayor, he’s not trying to defend [1080], he’s not sucking up to bureaucracies and the big bullies, following government policy – because 1080 is locked into government policy.”
But others are not so impressed.
The Conservation Department says it is “disappointed” the council has not recognised the “key role” aerial 1080 plays in protecting vulnerable wildlife such as kiwi, while the Animal Health Board, which spent $53m on possum control the past financial year, claims inaccurate comments have been made about the aerial use of the poison. Board chief executive William McCook disputes Cooper’s claim the east Taupo drop zone was flat country that could have been covered by foot.
He says the area is extensively forested and poses some “serious health and safety risks” for ground control operators. Aerial control is the most cost-effective method, he says, and provides even coverage. McCook says 80% of the operations in the region are ground based, using traps and poison.
Ailsa Gathergood, a Taupo district councillor and farmer who voted against the resolution to advocate for the abolishment of aerial 1080, says farmers are generally in favour of it to protect their cattle from TB. Birdlife in bush areas she has visited has bounced back after aerial drops, she says. Gathergood says farmers are feeling resentment that they did not get to put their side of the story before the council passed its resolution.
Will it cost Cooper votes? “We’ll see what happens at the next local body elections [in October],” she says.
Cooper claims not to care. “It could go either way, but I am true to my beliefs and I don’t give a shit if it sees me out of here – I’ll just go fishing.”
AT EPRO’S base on Broadlands Rd, there is a framed notice on the wall from Environment Waikato, praising the work the firm has done to prevent the spread of bovine TB.
Lorigan says in the mid 90s, Taupo had 250 cattle herds on movement control because of TB – today there are none. “Isn’t that pretty damn good?”
He confirms 1080 contracts have been worth millions to his firm, but denies it has made him wealthy. “Do you know any millionaire possum hunters?” Costs include helicopters, poison, staff and vehicles, he says.
Lorigan says aerial 1080 drops are more cost effective than ground control – helicopters can cover 20,000ha in two days, but the average man only 20ha a day. He believes 1080 is safe. Cooper claims a hunting estate Lorigan owns near the southern end of Lake Taupo has never had 1080 dropped on it, but Lorigan says that is simply not true. “I’m a mad-keen hunter, and I don’t have a problem with it [1080].”
Lorigan says incidents where pets and domestic farm animals have died after eating 1080 were “human error”, and he’s not talking his own.
“It’s not the poison’s fault. It’s like if a dog runs out on the road and gets run over, is it the car’s fault? It’s the owner, and that’s what the story is with most of the problems with 1080 – people don’t take responsibility for their own dogs or for their domestic animals, keeping them under control.”
That comment shows Lorigan’s lack of compassion, Cooper says, and points out that the horses Epro killed in 2007 were in their own paddock.
Cooper questions the need for 1080 at all. He says possums simply aren’t there any more. He recently went spotlighting and in four hours, saw just two possums. He and other 1080 opponents have tried to prise data from the AHB showing possum numbers before and after aerial operations.
The board refuses to supply the information, McCook telling the Star-Times: “The AHB does not provide data like that requested by Mr Cooper because it forms just one aspect of the decision to undertake a pest control operation.
“This data may be interpreted in isolation from other contributing and often complex technical information, which has the potential to give an incomplete and even misleading perspective of why an operation is to take place.”
This just adds fuel to Cooper’s fire. He suspects the numbers are being “cooked” to justify further drops and keep the gravy train running.
“A lot of focus has been on `these anti-1080 radicals’,” Cooper says. “The funny thing though, is the anti-1080 people have got none of this [money] at stake, and people who like 1080 have got lots of it at stake – the helicopter operator, the farmer, the Animal Health Board guys on a hundred and fifty f—— thousand a year, the guys with their three-piece suits driving around in their BMWs, and the Epros the Ecofxs.
“If we all put the flag up now and said, `we’ve got this under control, possum populations are right down, we don’t need you [aerial operators] any more’, what would happen? The gravy train would stop.”
For all his strong words, Cooper has been powerless to stop the drops – this month Epro completed the east Taupo drop, on behalf of the AHB. Environment Waikato and other regional councils issue resource consents for aerial drops, and each operation has to be approved by the medical officer of health for the district. Local councils can make submissions, but essentially are cut out of the decision-making loop.
Cooper says he will keep up his vocal campaign against the poison until those in power start listening.
“My job is to protect the environment and the inhabitants therein. How do we stop it? It’s a real good question. It’s a bit like starting on P – how do you get off the shit? The only way is people power – that’s all we’ve got.”
1080 – a controversial killer
Sodium monofluoroacetate, or 1080, has been used for about 50 years in New Zealand to control possums. It is a chemical reproduction of a naturally occurring, biodegradable toxin which exotic plants produce. It has accidentally killed dogs, deer, horses, cows, and birds after being dropped from the air.
The SPCA is against the poison because of the cruel way it kills – animals can take days to die. Proponents of its use say it breaks down in the environment – opponents say it is a threat to our waterways, not to mention our “clean, green” image. Possum numbers are estimated to be the same today – about 70 million – as decades ago.
Opponents of 1080 say this is evidence the poison programme hasn’t worked.
Supporters say without it, possum numbers would be even higher. New Zealand uses most of the world’s supplies of 1080, and it is banned in most other countries. It is imported from the US by Animal Control Products Ltd, a state-owned enterprise, which mixes the poison into cereal bait and sells it to contractors such as Epro.
The contractors are hired by the Conservation Department and regional councils, which want possums eradicated to protect birdlife and forests, and by the Animal Health Board, an incorporated society tasked with eradicating bovine tuberculosis, which could cost farmers billions if it gets out of control. For this reason, the powerful lobby group Federated Farmers supports the use of 1080, as does Forest and Bird. In 2007, the Environmental Risk Management Agency reviewed the use of 1080, taking submissions and eventually ruling the poison was safe and could continue to be used. Opponents say the review was a whitewash and relied on dodgy science. Some 1080 protesters have been labelled “terrorists”, after a 1080 contractor’s dog was deliberately fed 1080 on the West Coast in 2008, and just this month a fake bomb was left at Epro’s depot in Taupo.
Taupo man Chris Short epitomises the lengths 1080 opponents are prepared to go to make their point. In 1995, he hijacked a crop-spraying helicopter and forced the pilot to fly him into Tongariro National Park. He spent eight months in jail. Last year a terminally ill Short spent six days on Mt Tongariro protesting 1080. He vowed to die on the mountain but was eventually persuaded to come down.
“On the night of the 30th November [the day of the last 1080 drop] a single kea was heard screaming in the trees behind the township. After that the five kea in Haast township were never seen again. Two years later there are still no kea in Haast Township … twenty years of Compound 1080 in the Haast Valley has killed our kea population … and on the 15th November 2018 the Department of Conservation plan to aerially drop Compound 1080 poison again on Haast……”
The photo above is the saddest thing I have seen in years – taken today – a flax bush in full flower and not a single kea to be seen.
Back in November 2010 the flax bushes in Haast township were filled with the noise and antics of kea fighting over the sweet nectar. One evening I saw seven kea in one bush. The next photo was taken on the 10th November 2010……..
Kea in flax bushes in Haast township
By April 2016 we had five kea permanently living in the town – this photo below was taken on the 12th April 2016………..
Kea sitting on the roof of the Police Station in Haast township 12th April 2016
But on the 30th November 2016 the Department of Conservation as part of their Battle for our Birds campaign aerial spread Compound 1080 near Haast township (True Left Haast drop zone)……..
1080 signs (Cron Creek) State Highway 6, 1st December 2016
1080 sign on farm just south of Haast township (State Highway 6th) 30th November 2016
On the night of the 30th November a single kea was heard screaming in the trees behind the township. After that the five kea in Haast township were never seen again. Two years later there are still no kea in Haast Township ………..
So the flax bush flowers and there is nothing to eat its sweet nectar. Compound 1080 does not increase native bird numbers………… Sixty years of Compound 1080 has not saved New Zealand wildlife…….. twenty years of Compound 1080 in the Haast Valley has killed our kea population………..
And on the 15th November 2018 the Department of Conservation plan to aerially drop Compound 1080 poison again on Haast……
Noriyuki Kowata is seen on a temporary visit to his home in the Fukushima Prefecture town of Futaba, one of two towns that the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant straddles, on Sept, 25, 2018. His yard and vegetable garden were covered in overgrown grass and other vegetation.
October 29, 2018
FUTABA, Fukushima — It was late September, and the heat of summer had finally begun to ease. Norikiyo Kowata, 77, was on a temporary visit to his home here, whose screen doors were tattered, having been exposed to the elements for over seven years. His garden, where he used to grow vegetables like butterbur sprouts and myoga ginger, showed signs of having been trampled on by wild hogs.
Ninety-six percent of Futaba — one of two towns straddled by the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Station — is designated by the central government as “areas to…
Through much of history the abnormal has been the norm. This is a paradox to which we should attend. Aberrations, so plentiful as to form a terrible normality of their own, descend upon us with frightful consistency.
The number of massacres in history, for instance, are almost more than we can record. There was the New World holocaust, consisting of the extermination of indigenous Native American peoples throughout the western hemisphere, extending over four centuries or more, continuing into recent times in the Amazon region.
(Nov. 2018) If all of this does not convince you of how powerfully the 
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