Dirty gold win plus pesticides, GM and bees

I've covered gold mining before on this blog (see post Blood Diamond, blood coltan, blood gold) - it is not a good picture - but here is some good news - A landmark ban in Hungary on the use of cyanide in mining looks set to make huge improvements in public health. The change follows a 10 year campaign by the Hungarian Green party along with many other organisations. Now the country's neighbours need to follow her lead...

Along with the nuclear industry, gold mining is one of the world's dirtiest industries that is creating a multi-billion-pound toxic time-bomb. The gold is extracted using cyanide leaching and has already led to vast tracts of the developing world being laid to waste.

See Ecologist article here. See October 2005 Glos Green party news release here with more background info.

The Ecologist also has some other great stories worth a read like:

Was 2009 the year the world turned against GM? See here.

Update on pesticide campaign: UK court refuses to overturn appeal decision despite accusations it was ignoring evidence presented by the long-time pesticide campaigner. Pesticide campaigner Georgina Downs is taking her case against the UK government to the European courts after failing to get a previous victory upheld by the Supreme Court.See here. You can also see more about Georgina's amazing campaign and the extraordinary failures of Government to protect citizens - see here.

Loss of forage biggest long-term threat to bees. Pesticides do not appear to be the main problem in this case although they clearly play a part - see here.

Toothless Tory 'ombudsman' won't solve supermarket problem. It's high time we had a supermarket ombudsman, but it needs to be proactive and powerful, says Caroline Lucas - See here.