Green Resources

WVPE is your gateway to green and sustainable resources in Michiana. Sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This is accomplished by finding a balance between businesses, the environment, and our society (people, planet, and profit).State, National and International resources on sustainability include:The Environmental Protection AgencyThe Natural StepSustainability Dictionary45 Sustainability Resources You Need to Know Explore ways to support sustainability in the Michiana area through the Green Links Directory.Sept. 17, 2019 from 2-3:30pm"Global Warming: A Hot Topic"Sept. 17, 19, 24, and 26All sessions are from 2-3:30pmGreencroft Goshen Community Center in the Jennings Auditorium1820 Greencroft Blvd.Goshen, IN 46526The event will look at possible solutions and suffering as well as consequences beyond warmer weather. The event will examine what other civilizations have or haven’t done when faced with environmental problems. Plus there will be an exploration of the biggest unknown in the climate system: What will the humans do? Paul Meyer Reimer teaches physics, math and climate change at Goshen College. The events are presented by the Lifelong Learning Institute. The Institute can be reached at: (574) 536-8244lifelonglearning@live.comhttp://life-learn.org/

Toxic Pesticide Faces New Scrutiny From Biden Administration

By Dan Charles

Published January 20, 2021 at 6:32 PM EST

Pesticide warning sign in an orange grove. This sign, bilingual in English and Spanish, warns that the poisonous pesticide Lorsban has been applied to these orange trees. Photographed in Woodlake, in the San Joaquin Valley, California, USA.

President Biden's initial wave of planned executive actions includes an order to reexamine one controversial, but widely used, pesticide called chlorpyrifos. The Trump administration had stepped in to keep the chemical on the market after Obama-era officials tried to ban it.

It's just one in a long list of science-related Trump administration actions that the incoming Biden team will now revisit. In a statement, Biden promised to take a close look at all policies "that were harmful to public health, damaging to the environment, unsupported by the best available science, or otherwise not in the national interest."

Farmers use chlorpyrifos to control insects on a wide variety of crops, including corn, apples, and vegetables. It is among the most toxic pesticides. Workers exposed to it can experience dizziness, headaches, and nausea. Most indoor uses of the pesticide were halted in 2001.

More recently, however, researchers at Columbia University studied health records from women who'd been exposed to this chemical before that ban, and found evidence that exposure to tiny amounts of chlorpyrifos harmed the brains of their developing fetuses and young children. Those studies, along with lawsuits filed by environmental advocates, convinced the Environmental Protection Agency to move ahead with a ban during the final months of the Obama administration.

When the Trump administration took office in 2017, the new EPA leadership put that decision on hold and later reversed it. This was due in large part to the agency's decision to exclude evidence from the Columbia University studies, because university researchers refused to turn over raw data from those studies. The researchers maintain that this would violate the confidentiality of the women whom they'd studied.

California, meanwhile, moved ahead with its own regulations. It banned sales of chlorpyrifos in the state in early 2020. Starting this year, California's farmers no longer can spray the chemical.

The Biden administration now will take a fresh look at chlorpyrifos, as well as the EPA's rules that justified excluding the Columbia University studies. In addition, the incoming administration will revisit a Trump administration decision to shrink the buffer zones around fields that have to be free of people when pesticides are applied. Farmworker advocates have challenged that decision in court.