‘Environment’ Archives
The Final Installment: Air Quality and Cumulative Impacts
Part III of a III Part Series By H. LYNN ADELSMAN and ROB HENDRICKSON It’s hard to know exactly which toxins are in our air and how much we inhale. What we do know is some of our neighbors have trouble breathing at certain times of day. We know too many children with asthma and heart problems; elders with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and other lung issues. We know the smells of certain buildings; the heavy air in our parks; the sounds and feelings of our streets.As we look at this article’s map, we can see it isn’t just one thing giving rise to these experiences when you live in the Phillips community. A map highlighting pollution sources in Phillips. This includes an experimental traffic exposure layer based on 2022 Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) from MnDOT with values displayed as percentages of the highest value found in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Dispersion was modeled using vehicle counts from all roadways and convolution with a [...]
Free Cooking Class with the Indigenous Food Lab
By MICHELLE SHAW Vern Defoe and Riva Garcia will teach Minneapolis Edible Boulevards next cooking class August 12. Please join us August 12 for our next Minneapolis Edible Boulevards cooking class at the new Indigenous Food Lab Market, located just inside Midtown Global Market. We’re super excited to partner with North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems’ Culinary Program Manager Ismael Popoca Aguilar and his fabulous cooks, Riva Garcia and Vern Defoe. Riva and Vern will teach us how to make Wild Rice Salad with Beans, Roasted Pepita and Sumac. Registration can be found on our Facebook event, or reach out via email. If you can’t attend in person, we’d love to see you on Zoom.We typically hold classes in community gardens to highlight where neighbors can find fresh produce and a space to garden in their neighborhood. In August, we’re co-hosting with the new Indigenous Food Lab Market. They have incredible offerings at the food counter that are made from all [...]
Dr. Fardin Oliaei, ‘Whistle Blower’ Has Same Warning, 20 Years Later
By MAXIME GROEN, Women’s Environmental Institute With recent headlines that read “I was exposed to these chemicals and… I will die with this cancer,”, ”How can I avoid eating food with ‘forever chemicals?”, and “There must be something in the water,” there’s a warning, and they all have to do with something called PFAS.Over the past 20 years, PFAS is a term that has been increasingly discussed in corporate offices, the media, Congress, and even hospital rooms.What exactly are PFAS? Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short, are a class of chemical compounds that were created by humans in the 1940s. PFAS has been used in the manufacturing of cookware, cosmetics, carpeting, fast food wrappers, sunscreen, fire extinguishing foam, and many more everyday products. These chemicals do not break down over time and, instead, accumulate in peoples’ bodies and the environment, giving them the nickname “forever chemicals.” However, despite evidence [...]
