TURN YOUR PASSION INTO A BUSINESS - Natural Awakenings

globalbriefsNews and resources to inspire concerned citizens to work togetherin building a healthier, stronger society that benefits all.Cut AbuseGovernment Steps In to Curb GreenwashingThe U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued updatedgreen marketing guidelines intended to stop advertisers frommaking deceptive or unqualified claims about products beingenvironmentally beneficial or eco-friendly, called “greenwashing”.The FTC said that few products deliver the far-reachingenvironmental benefits that consumers associate with suchclaims, and they are nearly impossible to substantiate.The revision is the first since 1998, when phrases like“carbon footprint” and “renewable energy” were relatively new.Using input from consumers and industry groups, new sectionsaddress the use of carbon offsets, “green” certifications and seals, and renewableenergy and renewable materials claims. Marketers are warned not to make broad,unqualified assertions that their products are environmentally benign or eco-friendly.Arthur Weissman, president and CEO of Green Seal Inc., a nonprofit environmentalcertification organization based in Washington, D.C., says, “We hope thatthere will be enforcement to help rid the marketplace of the many less-than-credibleseals and greenwashing that exist.”The new guidelines are not rules or regulations, but general principles thatdescribe the types of environmental claims the FTC may find deceptive. They donot address use of the terms “sustainable”, “natural” and “organic”.Source: The Christian Science MonitorShell GameTurtles Facing Extinction Get HelpThe Turtle Survival Alliance Foundation (TSA) isopening a facility to house some of the world’smost endangered freshwater turtles and tortoisesnear Charleston, South Carolina. The 50-acreTurtle Survival Center will maintain living groups,or assurance colonies, of many species facing anuncertain future in the wild.The center will house 20 species of freshwaterturtles and tortoises ranked “criticallyendangered” by the International Union for theConservation of Nature. Nine are also on the Turtle Conservation Coalition list ofthe world’s most endangered tortoises and freshwater turtles.According to TSA President Rick Hudson, “No group of animals is undergreater threat or faces a higher risk of extinction than freshwater turtles and tortoises.”The center will focus on species that have little chance of being recoveredin nature because of habitat loss and intensive hunting pressures.Some species have undergone such dramatic declines that without intervention,their extinction is imminent. It’s hoped that offspring born at the center willeventually repopulate their ancestral habitats.Contribute to the TSA Turtle Survival Center capital campaign to help atTurtleSurvival.org.Dirty PoolGreat Lakes Under Siegeby Global WarmingDon Scavia, director of the Universityof Michigan Graham SustainabilityInstitute, stated in a regional leaders’conference that climate change isaggravating the effects of devastatingalgae blooms in the Great Lakes byincreasing the intensity of spring rainsthat wash phosphorus into the water.Rampant algae levels degradewater quality because as algaedecompose, oxygen levels can droplow enough to kill fish. After theUnited States and Canada signedthe initial Great Lakes Water QualityAgreement in 1972, many localgovernments banned detergentscontaining phosphorus and the algaeproblem faded, but it has returned inthe past decade.Analysts note that while thepractice of planting crops withoutplowing the ground may help preventerosion, it leaves high concentrationsof fertilizer phosphorus in the upperlayers of soil, where it easily runsoff into waterways. A task force ofacademic and government experts hasrecommended more than 50 helpfulpractices, including providing fundingand technical assistance for phosphorusreduction projects; authorizingstate regulators to require pollutionreduction measures in stressed watersheds;and working with farmers andequipment manufacturers to developfertilizer application methods thatavoid runoff.Source: EarthKnowledge.net12 www.wncmountainsna.com