Just hopped off a video announcement from Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and definitely a top pick on the short list of D.C. insiders who are really taking their title/mission to heart.

On what is coincidentally (purely surely) the first day of the international COP15 summit, the EPA announces that their thorough (musta been really thorough) analysis of all the available facts leads to one simple conclusion: greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people.”

There’s more:

“These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

Great talking point from Mrs. Jackson and my instinct thinks she’s legit. When asked on the call about the timing of the EPA’s announcement, when House reps have indicated no movement on environmnetal legislation until early Spring (months from now), Lisa Jackson said the EPA did not want to wait to get the ball rolling and hoped that Congress would “follow the ball.”

Translation: watch out, world. Apparently it’s not a pre-requisite of American political power to actually lose total touch with the land and your people!

Keep it up, Mrs. Jackson.

Been feeling sick lately? According to the New York Times, it might not be heat or a flu that’s to blame, but rather, your house. A steady increase in crystal meth use coupled with loose clean up laws means that more and more people are moving into homes contaminated with meth, remnants from former meth labs. This leaves unsuspecting home buyers with two choices: pay astronomical costs for a cleaning, or suffer the consequences of exposing their family and pets to high levels of a potent drug.

Since when is moving into a new home a cause for worry instead of celebration? And how the hell is no one responsible for ensuring old meth labs are cleaned out properly?

Find out more about this this teeth-rottin’ facial disfigurin’ menace at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/us/14meth.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss.

We’ve all heard about the “childhood obesity epidemic,” but the truth is it’s not about kids who are too lazy to exercise or parents who are too lazy to cook healthy food. It’s about the ways that we’ve built our communities and designed our food system over the last fifty years. Why don’t our schools stay open after hours so that families have a safe place to hang out and play? Why don’t local stores offer anything besides liquor, cigarettes, and junk food? The 40 youth leaders who run werefedup.com get that obesity is a lot more complicated than people making bad choices, and they’re doing something about it.

Let’s tip the scales after the jump! Read the full story

For years eating disorders have been considered a “white girl” problem. However, it has become more and more obvious that illnesses such as anorexia and bulimia do not discriminate, affecting males and females of all races.

According to Doctor Noelle Kerr-Price, eating disorder specialist, “One thing to keep in mind that we don’t even really know the full extent of how many people have eating disorders because many cases aren’t reported out of shame or people are misdiagnosed– if they are diagnosed at all. And those are the fortunate ones with access to health care and other recovery resources.” Kerr-Price, along with many other eating disorder specialists, argues that shame from other community members may prevent many minorities to fessing up about their EDs. Not to mention the problem of cost. The high cost of treatment can make it unrealistic for people with low-incomes. Even for those with health insurance, many policies have limits regarding care for mental illnesses. Some treatments can cost up to $10,000 a week, even forcing families to take out second mortgages. EDs may not be only for rich kids but the treatment sure is! If people of low-income backgrounds are ashamed to seek help or simply can’t afford it, they will not be accounted for statistically. Read the full story

Who says we can only farm in rural areas? Despite the obvious challenges of urban farming, community gardens are popping up in parks, vacant lots, and even on rooftops across the nation.

And with good reason. While it may be difficult to find space, fertile soil, and even people interested in the cause, the benefits are endless. Researchers have found that urban farming can foster good health and community involvement, while being easier on the wallet. In fact, every $1 invested in community garden results in $6 of vegetables.

Yet saving money is just the beginning. Urban farming increases the sustainability of our cities, promotes concern for the environment, and fosters community involvement. Considering that most urbanites hardly even know their next-door neighbors, we certainly can’t expect to always know who produces our food. Urban farming, however, can alleviate both problems simultaneously.

Read the full story

Guess how many cows are killed every hour in the US, just so you can have your burger? A whopping 660 000 of them.

Paul McCartney, best known from his part in the Beatles, wants to change this. He believes we can fight global warming simply by not eating meat on Mondays.

McCartney supports the Meat Free Mondays campaign in order to encourage people to give up eating meat or at least to reduce their meat consumption. He states, “Having one designated meat free day a week is actually a meaningful change that everyone can make, that goes to the heart of several important political, environmental and ethical issues all at once.”

Sacrificing meat just once a week could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, according to Greenpeace. But can sacrificing a burger or chicken sandwich just ONCE a week really affect change?

The answer is yes! 3 times as many fossil fuels are needed for a diet that includes meat than are needed for a vegetarian one. Depending on where and how it is produced the FAO estimates that the livestock industry is responsible for between 13.5 and 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions…Some of these are from the methane emitted from livestock. Half of all US water-usage is devoted to livestock, with each cow needing enough water to float a destroyer! Read the full story

Being a teen is hard enough. Being a teenage mother is infinitely harder—and according to a study by John Santelli of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, there are more and more teens who are becoming moms. Nearly 4 in 10 American teens will be preggers by age 20, and a whopping 445 000 of them will give birth. At those rates, America is the teenage pregnancy capital of the Western World.

Having a baby is a wonderful, beautiful act—but there is a time and a place for it. When a teenager gives birth, the odds of her or her baby having a fulfilling life are significantly lower than if she had waited until she was in her twenties. Teen moms are more likely to drop out of school, receive welfare, and have more children within a couple of years. In turn, the children of teen moms will statistically have poorer health and inferior results in school than their peers who had parents who gave birth later on. Children from teen pregnancies are also more likely to end up in prison (if they’re sons) or giving birth while still teenagers (if they’re daughters).

Which is why Santelli’s study is so disturbing. It shows that teenagers are having kids at a higher rate, not necessarily because they desire children at that stage in life but because they are not taking simple precautions to prevent it. The use of contraceptives is going down, leaving health educators wondering where the f*%# they went wrong. Because, instead of using a condom, youth are trying the “withdrawal method,” and even the “let’s not use anything” approach—otherwise known as the “I’m playing Russian Roulette with my girlfriend’s future” approach. Hell, the guys should be worried too, because STIs tend to spread a lot faster when there’s no condom to stop them (and by “tend to” I mean DO). Read the full story

Think the lack of jobs and toned down Independence Day Celebrations are bad enough? Think again. Not only are we getting sparklers instead of fireworks this year, but the recession will probably increase our waistlines in the process.

Here’s how it works. The recession means most of us have less money, which means we are buying cheaper food: processed, packaged, and ready-to-eat, rather than healthier but more expensive options such as fresh veggies and fruits. Furthermore, many people are being forced to go out and work two jobs, or to work longer hours, just to make ends meet. So instead of having one parent at home or being able to work part-time and devote time to cooking, we are grabbing a cheap bagel oozing with transfats, carbs, and grease rather than making a healthy meal at home. Less money and more hours spent at work also mean less time and funds to work all those extra calories off at the gym.

Read the full story

Mark June 30, 2009 down in your calendars people. It was a landmark day. The day that the Queen of England ordered an official swan census. The day that it was announced that daily sex improved your sperm count. Oh yeah, and it was the day that Wal-Mart announced that it supported employer-mandated health insurance.

Wait, what? Yup, you heard (or rather, read) right. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, the country’s biggest private employer, and possibly also the most controversial business in America, has announced its support for the overhaul of the health care system. Furthermore, Wal-Mart has announced that it would like this coverage to extend to both full and part time employees, and that policies should be put in place that reduce health care costs.

Reactions to this news have been mixed. Some laud the announcement as a milestone move towards better health care and worker benefits, while others question the motivations behind the decision—seemingly so out of character for a corporation that has been criticized for its’ stance on worker benefits.

Read the full story

Are you one of the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance? Think you’re paying too much for too little if you do? Either way, you’ll probably welcome the news that a plan for health care reform is one step closer, thanks to an announcement Obama made Sunday that placed reform costs at 1 trillion dollars over ten years rather than the 1.8 trillion dollars that had been announced earlier. It’s a reform he labeled a “necessity rather than a luxury.”

Just about everyone agrees that it’s necessary to offer insurance to all Americans and to control healthcare costs from skyrocketing. Despite this, a bipartisan agreement is still far from a done deal. Much of the disagreement stems from a public/private divide and from concerns over the sheer amount of money needed to overhaul the system. Some feel that 1 trillion dollars is still too much money to be spending on health care—which it is. It’s a lot of money period. But in the grand scheme of things, it feels like something worth investing in. Put it into context: in 2009 alone the US will be spending 1 trillion dollars on defense-related issues, including the military and two wars. What’s another trillion dollars spread out over ten years, especially if it is an investment in the future happiness and well-being of Americans?

Besides, the system can’t get worse than it already is. The US pays more for health care than any other country—approximately $5711 per person each year. And you get significantly less bang for your buck than other countries: lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, and less coverage (15% of Americans don’t even have access to healthcare). It’s kinda like forking over the money for a gourmet meal and ending up with a corn dog.

At this rate, any reform seems better than no reform at all.

Are you smoking a cigarette while reading this? You’d better not be. That’s the message President Obama wanted to convey on Monday when he signed into effect a new law on smoking.

The law, the toughest ever, bans advertising or luring youth through flavored cigarettes and cigars. It also forbids advertising at sporting events, free samples, and the use of “mild” or “light” in describing cigarettes. Finally, tobacco companies will have to fully disclose all ingredients used in cigarettes, as well as use graphic images on their packs to illustrate the effects of smoking on the body.

Gotta say, Obama’s got a point. Smoking is basically like a socially acceptable form of prolonged suicide. It is by far one of the worst things you could ever do to your body. In the time you took to read this paragraph so far, someone, somewhere in the world has died of cigarettes. It happens every 8 seconds. Yet in the last minute, 10 million cigarettes were purchased around the world. Some of them will have been purchased by the 3000 American youth that tried smoking for the first time ever today. And of them, half of the ones who become long-term smokers will die in the future from a tobacco-related illness.

So you’ve heard the same message from your health teacher or parents before. You’re sick of hearing the same old thing. It still doesn’t change the fact that what they say is true. Is this stressful to hear? Are you thinking of going out for a smoke because of it?

Just know that if you do, you’ll shorten your life by 11 minutes, every time you light up.

Last night, I found myself on my couch playing Tony Hawk’s Project 8, a game about extreme skateboarding. It was raining outside, so I figured, the best way to kill some time would be to send a ridiculous looking video game version of myself flying over ramps and sailing into walls, face first. This game has an interesting feature: if you have a particularly huge ‘bail’ (skater talk for falling off your skateboard), the game tells you how much your hospital bill would be… and rewards you if you get a bill over $80,000.

Now, I’m not a skateboarder or extreme sportster in any sense of the word. But I did have a bit of a scare recently: I started developing these incredibly intense headaches during strenuous activity. Almost immediately, I went to my local doctor and was told that I needed to see a neurologist. The problem is, I couldn’t afford it. Like 45 MILLION - about 1 in 8 - other Americans, I didn’t have insurance. My story is that the recession had taken its toll and my dad - who insured me - was out of a job. But the coverage was spotty my entire life: I’ve gone through about 30-40 different insurance plans, as he has changed jobs a lot over the past 20 years. This story isn’t unique: the widespread lack of affordable, reliable health coverage for the under-30 population is one of the most terrifying trends in American society that we must work diligently to reverse.

Most of the time we can’t afford it. But sometimes, like the AIDS denialism that Yolanda mentioned earlier today, we’re prone to the condition that as young people, we’re basically invincible. Read the full story

Each minute around the world, approximately 6 people will die of AIDS. Despite this, a disturbingly large group of people deny the link between HIV and AIDS, meaning that they refuse life-saving antiretroviral drugs in favor of alternative therapies.

The consequences of AIDS denialism can be fatal, as seen last December when a California woman died of AIDS after refusing drugs that would probably have saved her life. Furthermore, her infant daughter had died several years earlier when the woman transmitted the virus to her daughter through breastfeeding, despite warnings not to do so. Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa and another AIDS denialist, indirectly caused an estimated 365,000 premature deaths when he prevented the administration of HIV treatments to citizens who were HIV positive. And more deaths will occur if AIDS denialism continues.

In light of this, how the heck do people refute the connection between AIDS and HIV? Quite easily actually, as there is plenty of “evidence” on the web backing them up…

Find out some of the eerie details, after the jump. Read the full story

As a red-blooded, patriotic American male, I take it as my civil right to eat cheeseburgers and french fries. I’m totally aware that it’s not necessarily good for me, but hey, it tastes good and it’s cheap. I wouldn’t call myself a burger aficionado, but let’s just say that every now and then, a Big Mac totally hits the spot.

I sense that some of you out there are jonesing for some Mickey D’s right now. Maybe you should reconsider. The meat that comes from fast food places comes from factory farms, which John Salley, former NBA star and contributor to 99Problems.org, has beef with in this promo video for the documentary Food, Inc:

Okay, I get it. Bad for the environment. But it’s cheap. Actually, you’re paying a higher cost than simply environmental health. Let’s hit up the dollar menu, after the jump! Read the full story

Now, it’s not my responsibility to tell you not to smoke.

If you’re a smoker, you should stop. But hey, I’ve done it for a few years too and I’m just managing to quit. Wouldn’t be fair for me to preach to the choir.

But here’s a bit of a WTF moment for you.

According to a study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine, health and life insurance companies have invested “at least 4.4 billion dollars in insurance company funds … in companies whose affiliates produce cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco.” Ironically enough, those same insurance companies often deny coverage for those who smoke.

I’m gonna let y’all make judgements on this one. Is this stuff ethical? Let’s hear you speak up.

Astronauts can see trash in the ocean from space? That’s insane. We have got to get up for our planet, make a stand like this ol’ world deserves. We’re not just gonna talk at you, though; this week we’ll be bringing you info you can use to start tipping the balance from pollution to people power.

This is our world, and we gotta stand up in the greatest tradition of American society; stand up for change when it seems impossible, when all the odds are against us. The world is at stake, and everything that we have is imperiled. There’s never been a more important moment to be on the right side of history!

Inclusion is more than creating access. It means providing access solutions that are suitable for everyone and that disabled people are considered automatically rather than treated as separate or different. Equal, not better than. In this time of economic downturn, aging baby boomers, and an increasingly global community, it is essential that we continue to build stronger and more empowered communities that are fully inclusive. We are our weakest link.

Come out and show your support on Wednesday, April 29th: Community Choice Act Day: Disability and Labor Advocate Unite. www.adapt.org

FREE OUR PEOPLE

-Marcia Lee

Today’s Problem comes with a catch. This footage was taken at a Democratic primary debate among all the candidates. Watch, in turn, as each candidate speaks passionately to the need for universal coverage; surely our new President Barack Obama speaks even more eloquently, more brilliantly than any of his opponents.

But where does it go from there? Our government accepts the health care challenge as one of the biggest obstacles to an equal society. Each of the politicians in this video–Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama–are stars of their party. If anyone of us were in their position, it’s fair to assume, we would easily make social change happen. We would understand the existential threat of unavailable health care; we see it first hand, we live it every day.

The truth is, even the leaders we elect are bound within the framework of the political structure. Social change must always happen by swimming against the stream. We will never know how close we are to victory until victory arrives.

Today’s Action is meant to remind us of just how hard we must fight. The California OneCare plan would provide health care to all Californians for life. It centers around Senate Bill 840, and it is the fruit of massive organization on the part of residents of California, coordinated with congressmen and women who have taken up the struggle. The video featured today, from a health care rally in L.A., is meant to inspire all of us to see the power in activism, if we are unified in our message.

Any movement, no matter how big or small, must always rely upon the people who need it to succeed. We can not fake passion, fake the inspiration born of desperation that is sometimes an activists’ bread and butter. But, if we live our message…and with health care, we all truly live our message…then we will make it.

Today’s Artist: The U.H.C.F.

Today’s Artist isn’t a poet, or a writer. It’s an organization, based out of Connecticut, and their domain name (www.healthcare4every1.org) pretty much says it all.

The people behind the Universal Health Care Foundation understand that legislation doesn’t start with words on a page, but with an emotion in our minds. The first step to social change is to make people pay attention, and our allies in Connecticut went with some classic satire housed in a goofy animation to get you to hear their message while being entertained.

We don’t all have the budget to hire animators, voice actors…but we all have a voice. And we’re all pretty animated, if our friends get us talking, about the things that matter to us. So, pull out your phone (probably takes video, right?), work yourself up, shout out a call for social progress, for security, for healthy government…and send it our way. If it makes it to 99problems.org@gmail.com, we’ll put it online, and we’ll hit you up to hear your side of the story.