In the German town of Vauban, a suburb of Freiburg, they do not allow anything on four wheels and an engine on the streets.  In the German town of Vauban the cyclist is king.

In this suburb of Freiburg, you have to either ride your bicycle or take a tram to work.  If you do want to have a car, you have to park it in the outskirts of the district and pay 20,000 Euros for space in one of the garages.  But unlike here, 57 per cent of residents actually sold their car to allow them "to enjoy the privilege of living here", said Andreas Delleske, one of the founders and promoters of the Vauban project.

In Vauban, a suburb of the university town of Freiburg, luxuriant beds of brilliant flowers replace what would normally be parking outside its neat, middle- class homes. Instead of the roar of traffic, the residents listen to birdsong, children playing and the occasional jingle of a bicycle bell.

If there is a need for a car for holidays or to move things, there either rent one or they join one of the town's car-sharing cooperatives.

Many of the users of Roundup know of the active ingredient in it that kills the weeds, that being glyphosate.  But the active ingredient is not the only chemical in the trademarked concoction that is sprayed in your yards and in fields across this province.

What you generally don't hear about are the other chemicals that are there as well.  Some of these are there to help the active chemical spray stay on the surface of the plant and not be washed away or run off.  The others, so-called inert chemicals, are said to not have any activity or problems attached to them.

But today, researchers have found that one of Roundup's inert ingredients can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells.

The new findings intensify a debate about so-called “inerts” — the solvents, preservatives, surfactants and other substances that manufacturers add to pesticides. Nearly 4,000 inert ingredients are approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Amnesty International Canada has launched a petition calling for an immediate and unconditional release of Burmese democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. If you have not signed the online petition yet, here is the link.

http://www.amnesty.ca/free_aungsansuukyi/index.php

The European elections in early June revealed the continued decline of social democracy. Across Europe the total vote for the traditional party of the left declined from 28% in 2004 to only 22%.

Where there were social democratic governments, the voters spoke loudest. In Great Britain, the vote for Labour fell to a meagre 16%, below that of the UK Independence Party! In Spain, the vote for the Socialist Party fell five percentage points. In Germany the vote for the SPD was down to 21%, an all time low. In Portugal, the vote for the Socialist Party fell to only 27%.

The turnout was only 43%, exceptionally low for Europe. It was lowest in the Eastern European countries of the former Soviet Union.

Why is this happening? As the Financial Times rightly pointed out, today's social democrats are on the same page as the traditional conservative parties. There are no significant policy differences. The world is in economic and financial turmoil, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the social democratic parties have nothing different to offer.

With the ongoing encroachment of agriculture into the wild lands of Kenya and other parts of Africa, wildlife are being killed by pesticide poisoning.  Carbofuran, a common insect pesticide, is being used on agricultural lands to kill agricultural pests.  It is a neurotoxin and therefore will kill any animal which ingests it.  As it moves up the food chain, it bioaccumulates and begins to hit more non-target species like the lion and other carnivores.

The Latin American Herald Tribune reports the oil companies that are working in the Amazon region of Chile are being asked by Survival International to suspend their operations while Peru comes to terms with the worst political violence since the Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s. 

Energy companies with operations in Peru’s Amazon region include Anglo-French Perenco, Argentina’s PlusPetrol, Canada’s Petrolifera, Repsol YPF of Spain and Brazil’s Petrobras.

The Indians have been protesting for two months against a series of laws which open up their communal rainforests to oil and gas companies. In the last few years more than 70% of the Amazon has been parcelled out to oil and gas companies for exploration, and a series of large-scale finds threaten to transform much of the Indians’ virgin forests. Similar schemes in neighbouring Ecuador have had a devastating effect on the rainforest, and led to chronic pollution and ill-health amongst the Indians who live there.

Today, June 5 (World Environment Day), the Ontario government passes 3rd reading on the Toxic Reduction Act, a plan to help protect people and the environment from toxic substances.

The Act intends to reduce the toxic chemicals being created and placed into what we use, eat, drink and breath.  When the act is in place, regulations would require designated facilities to track and evaluate their current use and creation of toxics, develop plans to reduce the use of toxics, and make summaries of their plans available to the public.