Posts in category: Sustainable Action Now

Sandy Hook Promise is renewing their plea to implement stricter gun safety measures following a tragic private school shooting in Nashville.

At least three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at The Covenant School Monday morning, according to police.

Co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise Nicole Hockley is the mother of Dylan, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown.

Hockley said every school shooting touches communities across the country and strikes fear among parents and children, “wondering if they might be next.”

The foundation said that gun violence is preventable, and the country is questioning if now is the time to take action.

“For the children and adults killed today, in Nashville and in cities across the country, the time is over and we are too late,” Hockley said.

Sandy Hook Promise urged that gun violence is preventable, “but we must be courageous and take action.”

“My heart has broken so many times in the last 10 years – there is nothing but tattered remains. And every day, there are more people like me. As my heart dies, my anger grows at cowards and profiteers who stand in the way of protecting children from gun violence. We all can, and must, do more,” Hockley said.

Chairwoman of Newtown Action Alliance Po Murray said their hearts are with the Nashville community, and in an effort to combat gun violence, they’re continuing to fight for the assault weapons ban legislation.

“Since 20 children and six educators were killed in Sandy Hook Elementary School, we have worked unapologetically for over a decade to pass the assault weapons ban legislation. After 30 years of inaction, the 117th House of Representatives finally passed the ban last year but the 117th Senate failed to act, and now more children and educators have been killed,” Murray said.

“Enough is enough! The time is now for Congress to vote and pass the ban and deliver it to President Biden’s desk rather than continuing to arm future school shooters with assault weapons,” Murray continued.

For more information about Sandy Hook Promise, click here. To read more about Newtown Action Alliance, you can visit their website.

Oil-soaked birds have been spotted after a pipeline leak spilled 200 barrels of fluid from an oil field into Poole Harbour in Dorset on Sunday. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said sightings suggest birdlife has been affected in the area which is home to nearly 5,500 seabirds.

Less than 48 hours ago a huge spill of reservoir fluid, consisting of 85 percent water and 15 percent oil, spilt from Perenco’s Wytch Farm oilfield in to the water.

Poole Harbour is recognised as an internationally important wetland and is a specially protected area as well as a site of special scientific interest.

The RSPB said it is too early to fully assess the damage to wildlife although it is “very concerned” about the effect on migrating birds.

Peter Robertson, senior site manager at RSPB Arne, which borders the harbour, said: “We have received reports of oiled birds in the area and we are monitoring the situation closely.

“The area is home to numerous bird species such as black-headed gull, Mediterranean gull, redshank and oystercatcher which breed on the coastline, and many other waterbirds which rely on the harbour mudflats for food.

“There are wintering avocet, black-tailed godwit and curlew still present in the harbour. There may also be a risk to the many birds that fish in the harbour, such as sandwich terns and ospreys.”

However, Poole Harbour Commissioners (PHC) said this afternoon in a statement that the spill was “not as bad as initially thought”, according to the BBC.

PHC chief executive Jim Stewart said the clean-up had involved more than 100 people, assisted by a helicopter and drones.

He said aerial footage gathered on Monday morning suggested there had been “a 60-70% reduction in oil sightings on the water”.

He said: “We are pleasantly surprised that it’s not as serious as we initially thought.”

Locals were urged not to enter or swim in the water and anyone who has come into contact with the spill has been asked to wash immediately with soap and water.

However, wildlife groups remain concerned about the impact of the spill on seabirds at a key migrating time for summer and winter species.

Paul Morton, of the charity Birds of Poole Harbour, said: “Right now we’re in that important transition period where our winter birds are leaving and our summer birds are arriving, many of which use the southern shore of the harbour for feeding, nesting and hunting.

“Each month we conduct wetland bird surveys across the harbour to monitor populations of over-wintering birds. The last survey which was conducted on March 5 logged 5,450 birds along the southern shore in the spill area.”

READ MORE: Seven dead after female shooter opens fire with two rifles at Christian school

Poole Harbour is home to the only pair of ospreys in southern Britain, having bred for the first time there after an absence of 200 years, Mr Morton said.

The male returned from West Africa on the same day as the slick while the female is expected in early April.

Mr Morton said: “The elation of the male’s safe return home yesterday morning was soon dashed by late afternoon when news of the oil spill was announced.

“Ospreys exclusively eat fish, and our pair hunt in the harbour about 95% of the time during the spring and summer season, feeding on grey mullet, flounder and bass.

“Right now huge numbers of birds are on the move, having over-wintered further south, and will soon be using Poole Harbour as a service station to feed up before continuing north.

“When it comes to an issue like this there are several areas of concern. One is that any birds that come into physical contact with this substance can see their feathers damaged and become less water resistant.

“The substance will also encourage any affected birds to preen constantly, meaning they could ingest the hazardous liquid.

“The other unknown is how much of the oil will settle on the mud and harbour shorelines and what impact that will have on marine invertebrates.”

Brian Bleese, chief executive of Dorset Wildlife Trust, said: “The impact on other marine species is also of great concern.

“Our wardens are closely monitoring the Brownsea lagoon where common and sandwich terns are gathering to nest and the northern shoreline to assess any impacts on wildlife there.

“We are liaising with Poole Harbour Commission on appropriate actions that need to be taken over the coming days and weeks.”

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Making dinner at home doesn’t have to be expensive! The UK Cooperative Extension is helping us cook through the calendar with another great recipe. This month we’re highlighting a vegetarian taco soup.

They say the recipe should cost about $9 in total. That comes out to $0.65 per serving.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 large onion, diced

• 1 can (46 ounces) no salt added tomato juice

• 2 cans (15 ounces) pinto beans, drained and rinsed • 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 can (15 ounces) no salt added corn, drained • 1 can (15 ounces) no salt added diced tomatoes

• 3/4 cup dry brown rice

• 1 packet reduced-sodium taco seasoning mix

• 2 tablespoons garlic powder

• 1/2 tablespoon cumin

• 4 cups water

Optional toppings: cilantro, cheese, diced onion, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, jalapeno, hot sauce, or avocado.

Directions

1. Wash hands with warm water and soap, scrubbing for at least 20 seconds.

2. Heat olive oil in a large pot on the stovetop over medium heat.

3. Add diced onion and stir well.

4. Cook and stir for 4 to 5 minutes or until the onion starts to turn clear.

5. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.

6. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes, or until rice is tender.

7. Just as you would a taco, top each bowl of soup with ingredients like cilantro, cheese, diced onion, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, jalapeno, hot sauce, or avocado.

8. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

Click here for nutritional information and more!

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SINGAPORE – Local biotech start-up Revivo BioSystems has developed a cosmetics testing platform which mimics the flow of blood under the skin, paving the way for more companies to move away from animal testing.

The in-vitro platform, launched on March 2, makes the company one of the front runners in the emerging field of “organ-on-chip” technologies, which seeks to model – on small chips made of plastic, glass or silicon – how human organs work. 

These could make testing for drugs, foods and cosmetics in the lab more accurate and efficient.

In-vitro tests are performed in laboratories outside of human or animal bodies.

Revivo BioSystems’ platform has two devices that work together to evaluate the safety and efficacy of cosmetic products.

The first, known as the Revex chip, is a single-use plastic chip that has small channels that allow liquids to flow through. It has three chambers linked to these micro-channels, where human skin – taken, for example, from biopsies – can be placed and samples of the cosmetic product can be applied.

Synthetic substitutes for skin, created in laboratories, can also be used.

Four of these Revex chips can be put in a Relego collection device. As a liquid simulating human blood is pumped through these channels at body temperature (37 deg C), substances from the cosmetic product which have permeated through the skin sample and other proteins secreted by the skin cells dissolve in the fluid.

The fluid, and the substances it carries, is collected at preset time intervals. Its contents are analysed to show how the cosmetic product’s ingredients have interacted with the skin over time, to determine if the item is safe, or if it stands up to marketing claims.

Dr Massimo Alberti, chief executive and founder of Revivo BioSystems, said its dynamic platform is more accurate than traditional static cosmetic tests, which do not simulate the continuous flow of blood under the skin and can determine only the amount of permeated substances at a single point in time.

These static tests usually involve adding a test chemical to a reconstructed piece of human skin (made from cell cultures) that has the cosmetic product applied over it. As the chemical interacts with the skin, biological reactions occur and the substances formed can be analysed to determine if the skin reacted to the product in any way.

“Compared with other static systems which provide a very simplistic view of what is going on in the skin, our system allows us to look, over time, at what actually happens to the skin as it reacts to the cosmetic product,” said Dr Alberti.

Because the Relego collector is fully automated, the company said its platform reduces the man-hours needed to run in-vitro tests by up to 20 times.

It added that other cosmetic tests, such as those involving human volunteers where each is given a small dose of the product, still need to be performed.

With the enhanced accuracy and efficiency that the kit provides, Revivo BioSystems hopes that it will encourage more cosmetic companies to drop animal testing, which has already been banned in the European Union, South Korea and New Zealand.