This isn’t an entry about linking the three (although you can) but to highlight 3 news stories worthy of attention:

Ice Mass Snaps Free From Canada’s Arctic
Scientists are pointing at climate change and are alarmed at its unexpected speed.

Making Carbon Trading a Fair Trade
How does carbon trading/offsetting work, and is it really sustainable? It’s a piece discussing monoculture tree plantations (and it sounds like they’re using species which are genetically modified and/or non-native to the area).

More Dangerous than Smoking? Death by Soda
OK, ignore the over-scary title, although the article has some surprising facts (I had had no idea that half of US woman between the ages of 20-39 were overweight or obese). It’s been said before that a can of soda contains sweeteners the equivalent of at least 10 teaspoons of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup. (If you make your own coffee in the mornings, think of putting that in your cup everyday!) Running to artificial sweeteners isn’t the answer either, as those bring another area of health concern.

Food Issues at The Guardian

Some highlights:

A guide for the fish-eater: What’s safe, what’s healthy, and what’s sustainable

Scientists warn parents on pesticides and plastics

UK researchers are saying that the dangers of pesticides for children have been underestimated. “We’re talking about chemicals which could potentially cause cancer in children at parts per billion and parts per trillion levels, rather than parts per million and thousands,” Professor Howard, who is on the government’s advisory committee on pesticides, told the Guardian.

Alternet reports that the FDA has found benzene in soda:

Hard Times for Soft Drinks

After several trials, Cadbury-Schweppes’ chemists determined that the benzene was caused by a chemical reaction between the preservative sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). The effect was found to be especially prevalent in diet sodas, and shot up to even higher levels after products were subjected to extremes of heat and light. According to the documents, Cadbury-Schweppes’ Diet Crush was found to contain benzene at 25 parts per billion (ppb) — five times the acceptable EPA limit.

Another concern, and also somewhat obscure, are the long-term effects of the artificial sweeteners used in both regular and diet sodas. The dangers of Aspartame (the main component in NutraSweet and Equal) was only found after it was released on the market. Sucralose (the main component in Splenda, now widely used in sodas and energy drinks) is the hot new artificial sweetener with a deceptive campaign (”made from sugar”) that is hardly natural and cannot be confirmed to be 100% safe. (The voluntary “long-term” study of Sucralose’ effects conducted by the company and submitted to the FDA lasted a “long” 6 months. Alas, this is the normal minimum requirement for a lot of new products seeking FDA approval. For the topic of the FDA and food safety, I recommend the book Food Politics by Marion Nestle.)

Whole Foods currently refuses to carry any products that contain aspartame, saccharine or sucralose.

More about articifial sweeteners:

Life After Aspartame (Tate & Lyle, the producers of Splenda, now gearing up act like Monsato as far as defending its highly lucrative product.)

The Potential Dangers of Sucralose (This page may be unviewable by people in the UK.)

Directory of Sugar Substitute Studies

There are strong environmental reasons for becoming vegetarian (some of which in my opinion would make sense to the staunchest carnivore), and this month’s This Green Life from the National Resources Defense Council sums out some of them. Whatever one’s reasons for avoiding the consumption of meat,the environmental facts may be the hardest to argue against.

For further reading, I recommend John Robbins’ The Food Revolution. The above linked article also has links to Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms and The Issues: Factory Farming.

Also, check out your state’s pollution scorecard:
Scorecard: The Pollution Information site