Research Article

Cannabinoid action induces autophagy-mediated cell death through stimulation of ER stress in human glioma cells

María Salazar1,2, Arkaitz Carracedo1, Íñigo J. Salanueva1, Sonia Hernández-Tiedra1, Mar Lorente1,2, Ainara Egia1, Patricia Vázquez3, Cristina Blázquez1,2, Sofía Torres1, Stephane García4, Jonathan Nowak4, Gian María Fimia5, Mauro Piacentini5, Francesco Cecconi6, Pier Paolo Pandolfi7, Luis González-Feria8, Juan L. Iovanna4, Manuel Guzmán1,2, Patricia Boya3 and Guillermo Velasco1,2

1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, School of Biology, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.
2Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Madrid, Spain.
33D Lab (Development, Differentiation, and Degeneration), Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiopathology, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
4INSERM U624, Campus de Luminy, Marseille, France.
5National Institute for Infectious Diseases, IRCCS “L. Spallanzani,” Rome, Italy.
6Laboratory of Molecular Neuroembryology, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia and Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata,” Rome, Italy.
7Cancer Genetics Program, Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center and Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
8Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital, Tenerife, Spain.

Address correspondence to: Guillermo Velasco, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, School of Biology, Complutense University, c/ José Antonio Novais s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Phone: 34-913944668; Fax: 34-913944672; E-mail: gvd [at] bbm1 [dot] ucm [dot] es.

First published April 1, 2009
Received for publication November 3, 2008, and accepted in revised form February 11, 2009.

Autophagy can promote cell survival or cell death, but the molecular basis underlying its dual role in cancer remains obscure. Here we demonstrate that Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component of marijuana, induces human glioma cell death through stimulation of autophagy. Our data indicate that THC induced ceramide accumulation and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) phosphorylation and thereby activated an ER stress response that promoted autophagy via tribbles homolog 3–dependent (TRB3-dependent) inhibition of the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) axis. We also showed that autophagy is upstream of apoptosis in cannabinoid-induced human and mouse cancer cell death and that activation of this pathway was necessary for the antitumor action of cannabinoids in vivo. These findings describe a mechanism by which THC can promote the autophagic death of human and mouse cancer cells and provide evidence that cannabinoid administration may be an effective therapeutic strategy for targeting human cancers.

Bill Moyers: America Can't Deal With Reality -- We Must Be Exposed to the Truth, Even If It Hurts
Many people inhabit a closed belief system on whose door they have hung the "Do Not Disturb" sign. - February 14, 2011

History Makers is an organization of broadcasters and producers from around the world concerned with the challenges and opportunities faced by factual broadcasting. Bill Moyers was the keynote speaker at the 2011 convention on January 27, 2011, in New York City.

Thanks to all of you for your welcome - and for the chance to be here among so many kindred spirits. Your dedication to factual broadcasting, to our craft and calling; your passion for telling stories that matter; for connecting the present to the past, has created a community whose work is essential in this disquieting time when "what is happening today, this hour, this very minute, seems to be our sole criterion for judgment and action." It is a sad world that exists only in the present, unaware of the long procession that brought us here. As Milan Kundera’s insight reminds us, the struggle against power "is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

I talked about this gathering when I was in California this past weekend and spent time with a good friend and supporter of my own work on television, Paul Orfalea. He's the maverick entrepreneur who founded Kinko's in a former hamburger stand with one small rented Xerox copier and turned it into a business service empire with more than two billion dollars a year in revenue. After selling Kinko's, Paul became one of the most popular, if unorthodox, teachers of undergraduates at the University of California/ Santa Barbara. When I told him what I would be doing today he applauded and understood immediately the importance of what you do. He described to me how he teaches history "backwards" to college students who have learned little about the past in high school, don't know that the past is even alive, much less that it lives in them and question its value today. He hands his students a contemporary story from some daily news source, tells them to begin with the "now" of it and to then walk the trail back down the chronology to trace the personalities, circumstances and choices that made it today's news. Their assignment, in effect, is to begin at the entrance to the cave and rewind Ariadne's thread in the opposite direction, back to the deep origins of the story. In an era marked by the lack of continuity and community between the generations, this strikes me as an inspired way to stretch young imaginations across the time zones of human experience.

I've been stunned to find there is a movement in Cleveland, much like "Creationism" and psycho-conservative mind-control programs of the Koch Tea Partiers, called "Teaching Cleveland", that proposes a group of journalists from the Cleveland Plain Dealer (mostly now out-of-the-profession) and other amateur-historians are qualified to develop education programming for our children.

From "Teaching Cleveland": "The Teaching Cleveland Foundation is a pending 501 (3) (c) organization with a stated mission to develop Cleveland-centered curricula in area schools that deepen an understanding of Greater Cleveland’s rich history, foster an appreciation of its varied resources, and equip participants with the skills and capacities to connect, collaborate, and commit.  The future of Greater Cleveland depends on inspiring enthusiasm and a stronger sense and love of place to grow another generation of civic leaders."

Wrong - the Future of Greater Cleveland depends on providing an authentic, safe, healthy, desirable place for people to live.... not brainwashing people to stay.

Change "Cleveland" to "Fatherland" and you will realize the definition and concept for "Teaching Cleveland" is stolen from your typical fascist handbook... and this type of make-believe "story-telling" is defined as "Historical Revisionism" or "Negationism".

MCCO near complete - next steps

Norm Roulet <norm [dot] roulet [at] gmail [dot] com>     Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 12:40 PM
To: Chris Ronayne <Cronayne [at] universitycircle [dot] org>
Cc: hershel daniels <hersheldanielsjunior [at] gmail [dot] com>

Chris,

I'm pleased to see posted to the MCCO site that they are now committed to shutting down their coal boilers and will add no more. You should feel great satisfaction for this - 1,000,000s of lives will be bettered in very few years - and I appreciated your help accomplishing this.

While I believe we do a good job of keeping spammers from contaminating realNEO, we do not have a way we verify the identity of users and so may be exposed to "sockpuppets". But members of realNEO attack and kill them upon discovery. On the other hand, a poorly managed online world like Cleveland.com is certainly fully occupied by such evil forces. Now you may know, for a fact, those "people" you are interacting with, when you discuss important issues to you, on these poorly managed portals like of your monopoly newspaper in Cleveland... or that silly little Facebook of yours... are aliens from another universe.

Denier-bots live! Why are online comments’ sections over-run by the anti-science, pro-pollution crowd?

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 06:38 AM PST

I’ve been reposting the ThinkProgress exposé on the head-exploding tactics of Chamber of Commerce hacks (henchmen?), like Aaron Barr who heads the private security firm HB Gary Federal (see “Chamber lobbyists solicited firm to investigate opponents’ families, children.”  Daily Kos has a stunning post on HB Gary’s tactics that I reprint in below, since it involves:

creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated “persona management” software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other.

Environmental History Resources - The Role of Wood in World History

By: K.J.W. Oosthoek

The destruction of the world's forests is a major concern in our age. According to the UN about 40 percent of Central America's forests were destroyed between 1950 and 1980 and during the same period Africa lost about 23 percent of its forests. A whole range of environmental problems is associated with deforestation, among them severe flooding, accelerated loss of soil, encroaching deserts and declining soil productivity1. Sometimes we get the impression that these problems are unique to our time, but vast areas of surface of the earth were stripped of their tree cover well before the modern period.

The ancient Middle East

Today it is hard to believe that in antiquity vast forests were growing in the Middle East. However, during the early part of the third millennium BCE, the mountain slopes of this region were covered with massive cedar forests. These forests disappeared in the millennia before Christ's birth about two thousand years ago. The destruction of the cedar forests of the Middle East is told in the oldest know, surviving written story in the world: The epic of Gilgamesh. The epic was written in Mesopotamia sometime during in the 3rd millennium BCE. The second episode of the epic is known as “The forest Journey” and is the story of deforestation in the Middle East2.

Humbaba

 
Dear Fellow Ohio Sierra Club Members,

At the start of this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally began using its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Already, however, powerful forces in Congress--including some Democrats--are working to strip that authority away or delay its long-overdue implementation. We need to make sure Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown stands firm in defense of EPA's authority to cut greenhouse gas pollution right away.

EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases is the only tool we have right now at the national level to start combating climate change. Taking it away--or delaying it after all these years of inaction--is absolutely unacceptable.

We all need to call Senator Brown today with a single message:

Balloon Over Coal-Fired Chicago: Mayor Daley, is This Your Green Legacy?

Only days before Chicago voters launch their city into a new era with a new mayor, Chicago activists greeted departing Mayor Richard Daley in the City Hall atrium this morning with a giant balloon question mark on his self-proclaim “greenest city in America” legacy.

Featuring a picture of the decrepit and deadly Fisk and Crawford coal-burning power plants in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods, the balloon loomed over the heads of city officials and visitors with the stark reality of Chicago’s ailing neighborhoods. The balloon banner read:

“Mayor Daley, is this your ‘green legacy’?”

MCCO Coal Fired Steam Generation plant - polluting the poor, urban core of Cleveland Ohio since 1932

Regarding the fact that University Hospitals, of Cleveland, Ohio, gets its heat from a coal burning power plant on their urban campus - the Medical Center Company (MCCO), operated by US Senator Sherrod Brown's Brother - located in a largely poor, urban community, which has for over 70 years harmed the health of area and global citizens... and considering the fact no University Hospitals or other area physicians will publicly condemn this and such industrial practices in Northeast Ohio... I posted to realNEO: Doctors at University Hospitals Should Turn In Their Licenses to Practice Medicine, as Hypocrites.

As they do not practice medicine ethically, all Doctors at University Hospitals Must Turn In Their Licenses to Practice Medicine - including my Father - as they do more harm than good as they pollute this community with soot from burning coal that is unnecessary and that causes certain harm and death to area citizens - especially the young, old, poor, black and weak... and these supposed "doctors" know that very well now.

This lack of responsibility by physicians practicing "healthcare" in a geographic area with certain poor health from pollution - including unnecessary pollution from the doctors' own hospital - confirms findings of Alice Hamilton MD, in 1914... "There is here a great neglected field in American medicine and one of growing importance, for each year the number of industrial establishments which employ physicians increases, and the opportunity for expert hygienic control of our dangerous trades increases. But there will have to be a more general understanding of the problems of industrial hygiene before the service rendered by the majority of company physicians becomes of much real value."

The Environmental History Timeline reports "Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC), considered the father of medicine, notes the effect of food, of occupation, and especially of climate in causing disease. One of his books, De aëre, aquis et locis (Air, Waters and Places), is the earliest work on human ecology." This work, reproduced below, offers to all future physicians the guidance "when one comes into a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation". The first observation of any physician coming into Cleveland - Stranger or otherwise - should be this is an unhealthy place due to excessive point source polluting from industry, including the MCCO power plant at University Hospitals.

Pathetic, unsafe public housing built at taxpayer expense in the pollution killing-fields of Mittal Steel Cleveland Works

As you read the following account of lead poisoning in America, you will come to realize physicians in America do not work for citizens, they work for corporations, and those corporations protect the interests of their owners, stockholders, and other corporations, rather than citizens, by using their physicians to hide from citizens the dangers of real environmental threats from industry, like lead poisoning. I brought this issue to the attention of realNEO readers with the publication of Perhaps the best way to eliminate bad climate science is to discredit bad lead poisoning scientists... starting with Dr. Schoen, and intend to provide the public with exhaustive ongoing analysis of this sad reality, harming all humanity.

Alice Hamilton MD was smart enough to understand this... very few American physicians have followed in her footsteps... none in Northeast Ohio, that I know of, ever. But if you've got a lot of money, or good corporate insurance, some doctors here may be able to repair your broken, polluted heart.

Her conclusion, from 1914 - "There is here a great neglected field in American medicine and one of growing importance, for each year the number of industrial establishments which employ physicians increases, and the opportunity for expert hygienic control of our dangerous trades increases. But there will have to be a more general understanding of the problems of industrial hygiene before the service rendered by the majority of company physicians becomes of much real value." That never happened - the "Tea Party" has been alive and well in America our entire post-Native history - humans physically and mentally polluted by Industry... the American Heritage... the unreal NEO way still today:

The field of ESTA-1 variety hemp, showing the relatively weed free ground below the plants.
Ontario's Renfrew County - the farm of John and Rae Ann Briscoe - Harvest 2006

The article included below - Energy Farming In America, by Lynn Osburn, from 1989 - really puts in perspective the evil of America's current energy portfolio and our global climate crisis, as it reports that on June 12, 1989, the first President Bush "recommended auto makers be required to make methanol-powered cars for use in nine urban areas plagued by air pollution - Bush called methanol "home-grown energy for America"."

Reporting on this, in 1989, the author of Energy Farming In America forecast "Hemp is the only biomass resource capable of making America energy independent. Remember that in 10 years, by the year 2000, America will have exhausted 80% of her petroleum reserves. Will we then go to war with the Arabs for the privilege of driving our cars; will we stripmine our land for coal and poison the air we breathe to drive our autos an additional 100 years; will we raze our forests for our energy needs?"

Yes, yes and yes.

George Bush Sr. failed to act on his 1989 promise to move America off foreign oil, and his son took us to war against the Arabs "for the privilege of driving our cars" shortly after 2000 - under President Obama, we have a Middle East in melt-down, are expanding strip-mining of coal and poisoning of the air we breathe, are clearing our forests for biomass.... and we have punched a hole in the bottom of the ocean, spilled millions of gallons of oil, and discovered FRACKING to make the world even worse... as oil prices are at historic highs and NEVER COMING DOWN AGAIN... all in corrupt addiction to fossil fuels in global self-destruction.

DOE Requests $3.2 Billion for Renewable Energy, Efficiency in FY 2012

President Obama called for more clean energy in his 2011 State of the Union Speech and continued his support in his new budget proposal.
Credit: White House Photo by Pete Souza

President Obama unveiled on February 14 a $29.5 billion budget request for DOE covering fiscal year (FY) 2012, including $3.2 billion for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). The budget request for EERE represents a 44% increase over the current FY 2010 appropriation of about $2.2 billion. The proposed budget aims to strengthen renewable energy sources, boost clean energy research, and cut expenses as the United States pursues the president's vision of generating 80% of its electricity from clean sources by 2035. Overall, the DOE budget would grow 12% over 2010 levels while cutting a number of programs and administrative costs. (FY 2010 numbers are used here for comparisons because Congress never passed an FY 2011 budget, and the federal government is running on a stopgap budget resolution reflecting 2010 levels).

Environmental Justice leader/victim speaking to panel at First White House Forum on Environmental Justice

As I've reported on realNEO: "In what I consider the most important positive environmental development in America in the 21st Century, on December 15, 2010, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley convened the First White House Environmental Justice Forum, where leadership of the recently-reconvened Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ IWG) met with over 100 environmental justice leaders (typically long-suffering EJ victims), in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, at the White House complex, to develop new federal interagency strategies and interactions with citizens to right current EJ wrongs in America, in anticipation of worse to come as results of climate change."

The next step in furthering the EPA's Plan EJ 2014 is a Quarterly Environmental Justice Community Outreach Call, which will take place on February 17, 2011 at 3 p.m. (Eastern Time). The purpose of these calls is to provide information to participants about the Agency's EJ activities and maintain an open dialogue with EJ advocates. As EPA continues to advance Plan EJ 2014, the Agency hopes that these calls will better inform the public about EPA's EJ work and enhance opportunities to take advantage of federal activities. See call-in information below.

Location

Whitehouse.gov screenshot of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson speaking at First White House Environmental Justice Forum

Plan EJ 2014

Plan EJ 2014 is an overarching strategy intended to advance EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s priority to “expand the conversation on environmentalism and work for environmental justice.” Plan EJ 2014, named in recognition of the 20th anniversary of President Clinton’s issuance of Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations PDF (6 pp, 122K, about PDF), is a roadmap to help us integrate environmental justice into all of our programs.

The goals of the plan are to:

• Protect health in communities over-burdened by pollution
• Empower communities to take action to improve their health and environment
• Establish partnerships with local, state, tribal and federal organizations to achieve healthy and sustainable communities.

Over the next four years, we will implement the plan and work to strengthen our efforts to carry out the Administrator’s priority through continuous and meaningful engagement with communities and all stakeholders.

REGISTER FOR CLEAN AIR ACT 101 WEBINAR TRAINING

Location

Life-cycle study: Accounting for total harm from coal would add “close to 17.8¢/kWh of electricity generated”

Posted: 16 Feb 2011 07:30 AM PST

In a groundbreaking article to be released this month in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, details the economic, health and environmental costs associated with each stage in the life cycle of coal – extraction, transportation, processing, and combustion.  These costs, between a third to over half a trillion dollars annually, are directly passed on to the public.

In terms of human health, the report estimates $74.6 billion a year in public health burdens in Appalachian communities, with a majority of the impact resulting from increased healthcare costs, injury and death. Emissions of air pollutants account for $187.5 billion, mercury impacts as high as $29.3 billion, and climate contributions from combustion between $61.7 and $205.8 billion. Heavy metal toxins and carcinogens released during processing pollute water and food sources and are linked to long-term health problems. Mining, transportation, and combustion of coal contribute to poor air quality and respiratory disease, while the risky nature of mining coal results in death and injury for workers.

That’s from a news release for the important new study, “Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal.”  Dr. Epstein is the lead author, and there are 10 coauthors, public health and environment experts.

Charles Dharapak, Associated Press

Location

I'll be out of town, but strongly recommend Charlie Mosbrook - and know there are many people looking for ways to share their love for the Barking Spider - so share some love...

Come join me at the Spider for the early show. This whole month at the Spider is dedicated to the memory and celebration of Martin Juredine's life, legacy, and contribution to this areas music scene. I hope everyone can make it out for this one. Martin was an important role model and mentor to me. His daughter Jenna now runs the place. Please show your support for her and visit often.

Location

Cannabidiol - 2-[(1R,6R)-6-isopropenyl-3-methylcyclohex-2-en-1-yl]-5-pentylbenzene-1,3-diol

I was talking to my drug-dealing father, the other day, about the future of a class of drug he has never been allowed to deal - Marijuana, and its derivatives - cannabinoids patented by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, in 2003.

As a physician, in the psychiatry field, my father has prescribed 1,000,000s of doses - $1,000,000s worth - of scores of pharmaceutical toxins - many which certainly proved ineffective, over the years, and may be addictive and fatal - to humans who were not born to take such drugs... in a society now being torn apart by the consequences. But, he has never had the opportunity to prescribe one dose of natural, safe, non-addictive, organic, God-given, freely-available marijuana or a derivative.

While marijuana has consistently been found to be safe and effective for 100s of medical concerns, for over a century, and is increasingly being made legal at the local level, by enlightened communities, the use and abuse of pharmaceutical drugs has become one of our Drug Czar's greatest and most fatal crises across America... and getting worse daily.

This self-inflicted American healthcare crisis was driven home by the February 13, 2011, New York Times, which reported that well over 300,000 troops have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan with P.T.S.D., depression, traumatic brain injury or some combination of those.... and, when doctors diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder, they prescribe powerful cocktails of psychiatric drugs and narcotics, which are proving largely ineffective and often fatal - whereas safe marijuana is considered a valuable treatment for P.T.S.D..

All Americans should have a great interest in the actions of our Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, as he impacts all our lives and $ billions of tax dollars. Always AT WAR WITH AMERICANS and in denial of healthcare (and our national debt) - disrespectful of the medical profession - killer of innocent Mexicans - his job has become more complex and urgent, in the last few years, as his failed war on drugs has continued taking turns for the worst... turning Mexican pot fields into killing-fields and suburban America into a pharmaceutically-poisoned waster-land - as his entire credibility in battling God-given marijuana is undermined by effective medical legalization efforts America-wide, and by his own Federal government... as far more significant crises have surfaced with pharmaceutical drugs that fail to provide healthcare, but do kill - which marijuana does not.

As America is bankrupt, and going down the toilet - along with all Gil Kerlikowske's pills and poison piss, poisoning our natural resources, wildlife and all humanity - the following thorough interview by The Daily Caller of our Drug Czar is required reading:

TheDC Interview: Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske on Mexico, pill mills, and the medical marijuana stalemate

 

Mike Riggs is a staff writer at The Daily Caller. He has written and reported for Reason magazine and reason.com, GQ, the Awl, Decibel, Culture 11, the Philadelphia Bulletin, and the Washington City Paper, where he served as an arts and entertainment editor.

Does Egypt hold any lessons for climate hawks?

February 12, 2011

And above all, we saw a new generation emerge — a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears, a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations.

… it was the moral force of non-violence….

That’s Obama speaking Friday.  I’ve been asked by a couple of ClimateProgress regulars if there are any lessons for climate hawks in the incredible Egyptian revolution.

For instance, the 25-year-old Ian of “What should Ian do with his life?” fame asks

I’m just wondering if you think it would be worth discussing Egypt in the thread this weekend. I could be very wrong but it seems like it might give people hope to change things here in the states. Maybe its possible to focus some of that energy into grassroots efforts on climate change. Huge, sustained, passionate rallies seem like they work now. Is that possible in regards to action on climate change?

Cannabis bakers at Taste My Yummees booth at KushCom2 - yummy brownies

February 11, 2010 - The Colorado Independent reported "Colorado edible marijuana bill not a brownie killer - Bill expected back in March, but probably won't ban most ingestibles".

This is good news for mom and pop Colorado businesses that have invested to develop the cannabis economy in Colorado. Pro-medical marijuana organizations like the Cannabis Therapy Institute had warned “House Bill 11-1250 will outlaw all medicinal cannabis edible products in the state, overturning the licensing scheme for Infused Products Manufacturers that was created by the state legislature last year.” 

This is even more important news for MMJ patients, who seek a variety of products containing MMJ in treatment of their medical conditions.

"Prior to the bill being pulled for revision, Shan Moore, the father of a teenager who uses medical marijuana to control seizures, told The Colorado Independent that his son relies on ingestible medical marijuana to control his condition. Due to other health issue and also due to the fact that his son does not want to get high, smoking is out of the question for him."

BiblioNews: Common purpose for journalists and librarians

THE CHALLENGE

For three centuries, in American towns large and small, two institutions have uniquely marked a commitment to participatory democracy, learning and open inquiry — our libraries and our free press. Today, as their tools change, their common missions of civic engagement and information transparency converge. Economic and technology changes suggest an opportunity for collaboration among these two historic community information centers — one largely public, one largely private. How?

Location

15 Day Extended Weather Forecast for Cleveland, Ohio - February 10-24, 2011

Following the warmest year in the recorded history of mankind on our planet, Earthlings should certainly expect more of the same... meaning after suffering through brutal Winter storms caused by intense climate change in the Arctic, we shall experience unseasonably warm weather for much of the month of February.

What may July have in store... when we must grow the crops that must feed and fuel the world?!?!

Some food for thought, from Climate Progress, for those balmy Cleveland February evenings to come...

UN food agency warns severe drought threatens wheat crop in China, world’s largest producer it is - FAO also warns floods and heavy rains in Southern Afria "threaten food security"

Posted: 09 Feb 2011 09:45 AM PST

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization issued an alert Tuesday that a severe drought was threatening the wheat crop in China, the world’s largest wheat producer, and was even resulting in shortages of drinking water for people and livestock.

The state-run news media in China warned Monday that the country’s major agricultural regions were facing their worst drought in 60 years and said Tuesday that Shandong Province, a cornerstone of Chinese grain production, was bracing for its worst drought in 200 years unless substantial precipitation came by the end of this month.

World wheat prices are already surging and have been widely cited as one reason for protests in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world.

Environmental Justice Community Representative speaking at First White House Environmental Justice Forum

Please find below a fascinating request from the U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) OFFICE OF AIR AND RADIATION (OAR) for public comment on a CONCEPT PAPER FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER. The OAR is taking the lead in developing a learning center or institute for environmental justice community members to increase community awareness and understanding of environmental risks stemming from pollution and related environmental justice concerns. This effort will build communities’ capacity to participate in the protection of their air, water, and land resources. This represents Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism and Working for Environmental Justice that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has made one of EPA’s key priorities under her leadership.

Regarding the challenge being addressed... from Administrator Jackson, in releasing this concept paper for public input:

Many minority, low-income, and indigenous people have been historically underrepresented in environmental decision making, while at times experiencing higher levels of environmental pollution and other social and economic burdens that result in poorer health outcomes. Many members of these communities have not been able to participate effectively in environmental decision making in part because they lack the background and information they need for meaningful participation. As a result, EPA does not always benefit from important community input.

It is my strong belief Administrator Jackson's statement perfectly describes Northeast Ohio - these are the words that should have been said by Cleveland's Mayor Jackson, as citizen and community leader... for decades! These are the words citizens of Northeast Ohio must hear from our leaders for the future.