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Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations David R. Montgomery See book keywords and concepts

Growing up in California's Santa Clara Valley, I watched the orchards and fields between Palo Alto and San Jose turn into silicon valley. One of the more interesting things I learned from my first job as a foundation inspector was that pteparing a building site means carting the topsoil off to a landfill. Sometimes the fine topsoil was sold as fill for use in other projects. Completely paved, silicon valley won't feed anyone again for the foreseeable future. Enough American farms disappeared beneath concrete to cover Nebraska in the three decades from 1945 to 1975.

Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power Mark Schapiro See book keywords and concepts

I caught up with Michael Kirschener, the consultant we met in chapter 1 during his session on RoHS in silicon valley, at his office in downtown San Francisco, just a month before RoHS took effect on July 1, 2006. He had been traveling the country explaining RoHS to anxious engineers in Chicago, Houston, Boston, and Detroit. His office is located in an alleyway in the center of San Francisco's South of Market district, home to many of the high-tech innovations that have spread around the world over the past decade.

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations David R. Montgomery See book keywords and concepts

Completely paved, silicon valley won't feed anyone again for the foreseeable future. Enough American farms disappeared beneath concrete to cover Nebraska in the three decades from 1945 to 1975. Each year between 1967 and 1977, utbanization converted almost a million acres of U.S. farmland to nonagricultural uses. In the 1970s and 1980s ovet a hundred acres of U.S. cropland was converted to nonagricultural uses every hour. Urban expansion gobbled up several percent of the best European farmland in the 1960s. Already, urbanization has paved over 15 percent of Britain's agricultural land.

Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown David Steinman See book keywords and concepts

Unfortunately for Apple, the silicon valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) has some strong criticisms of its environmental record. Although Apple has implemented a $30 buyback recycling plan, the SVTC said it is ineffective. In this plan, consumers must pay $30 per component, or $60 to send back a system (monitor and tower). Apple is now taking back iPods, according to Barbara Kyle of the SVTC, because these products contain the same kinds of highly toxic materials you'll find in a home computer, but they are small enough that people will actually throw them into trash cans.

The Secret History of the War on Cancer Devra Davis See book keywords and concepts

Can you really imagine that such an organization does not know whether or not its workforce in Indonesia or silicon valley has greater risks of breast cancer and leukemia? Can you believe that Pratt & Whitney—one of the largest and most profitable makers of airplane engines in the world—does not know whether or not its workers have higher rates of brain cancer than the general population? According to the company's website, Pratt & Whitney engines power nearly half of the world's commercial fleet.

Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power Mark Schapiro See book keywords and concepts

Barbara Kyle, coordinator for the Computer TakeBack Campaign in San Jose, in the heart of California's silicon valley, commented: "Industries will work with governments on [electronic] waste in one country in Europe and then turn their back and do something completely different in another. In Europe or Japan they'll concede that recycling helps improve product designs, but in the United States they'll say it has no positive effects on design. It's a real double standard."12 The EU's follow-up effort on e-waste—took on what's actually inside all those electronic devices to begin with.

Linder was one of those monitoring the election in June 2004; it is her industry that was attending those anxious sessions in silicon valley as a result of the European laws she once lobbied against, unsuccessfully, in Brussels. Advocates of the precautionary principle counter that science is always a continuum: one answer leads to another question, which leads to another answer, and so on.

Some of those engineers in silicon valley would finally follow Kirschener's advice and take the toxics out of their products. Americans who purchased them would thus find themselves protected by the EU, filling in the vacuum left by the absence of their own government. In this way, Americans are the beneficiaries of market forces emanating from a continent that most will likely never visit, much less learn any of the languages spoken there. In many other instances, however, the results are far more troubling.

The American dream seemed cozy and affluent in that silicon valley office park. But power was shifting. You could see it in the faces of those engineers: That anvil could drop any minute. June 25, 2004, was an election day that most Americans neither noticed nor heard about. On that day, two hundred million Europeans went to the polls in the EU's twenty-five member countries to elect their representatives to the European Parliament. I watched the returns flickering in that night, on a bank of hastily assembled television screens in the Parliament's elegant, wood-paneled legislative chamber.

For the engineers, not to mention all of silicon valley and America's high-tech industry, losing that market would be a disaster. At least one-third of the high-tech industry's $500 billion in annual sales is to Europe. But the news, judging from the nervous uncertainty in the room, had yet to sink in. Kirschener is down-to-earth and friendly. He's stocky and handsome in an almost boyish way, quick to laugh, exuding curiosity and intelligence. He worked as a reliability engineer for a company producing medical devices before starting his own firm, Design Chain Associates.

Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, And Fair Carlo Petrini See book keywords and concepts

Alice Waters introduced me to dozens of farmers: they were all well-to-do college graduates, former employees of silicon valley, many of them young. Meanwhile, their customers, most of whom seemed to be actresses, went home clutching their peppers, squashes, and apples, showing them off like jewels, status symbols. Two of the producers in particular struck me: a young man with a long beard and a man who was selling oil.

Warning signs of the housing bubble crash (part two) Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

This is silicon valley in 2000. It's exactly what happened. At that time, I was warning about the looming stock market crash, and it was poorly received. A few people listened and they sold their stocks and were safe, but most people didn't. They said, "You're crazy. This thing is going up forever. We are all rich. We are all rich!" But I knew better. When you sell a share and you have cash in your hand, then you can count it as money. Until then, it's just whatever somebody else paid for it. My point in explaining all of this is that I've told this same story to financial advisors.

It's going to be ugly because we may be left with what happened in the Bay area and silicon valley after the dot-com boom: Million-dollar condos were abandoned. Million-dollar homes were abandoned. The builders were going crazy, thinking they were going to get rich selling these half-million-dollar condos to software entrepreneurs, who thought they were getting rich, because on paper, they were worth $10 million because they owned stock in a company that was fueled by investor cash (but had no customers). It turned out the whole fiasco existed only on paper.

Dr. McDougall's Digestive Tune-Up John A. McDougall See book keywords and concepts

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, he joined a software company in silicon valley. Life has been more difficult since the dot-com fall of 2000, and Larry said he was thankful to still be employed. The Bortons have been married twenty-seven years and make their home in San Jose, California. Their two children are grown and live nearby, giving Larry and Louise ample opportunity to spoil their three grandchildren. When Larry and Louise first came to me for a consultation two years ago, their chief concerns were about my qualifications. "Why should we listen to you?

20 Years of Censored News Carl Jensen See book keywords and concepts

UPDATE: In 1987, Diana Hembree (author of the 1985 Censored story) and Sarah Henry provided a follow-up to the earlier story, reporting that "more than 100 silicon valley employees have sued their companies for workers compensation, blaming their illnesses on exposure to toxic chemicals on the job." They noted the silicon valley problem has implications for more than one million employees, mostly women, who work in electronic production in the U.S. (The San Diego Union-Tribune, 1/5/87).

SOURCES: The Progressive, October 1985, "Dead End in silicon valley," by Diana Hembree; Ms. Magazine, March 1986, "A New American Nightmare?", by Amanda Spake. UPDATE: In 1987, Diana Hembree (author of the 1985 Censored story) and Sarah Henry provided a follow-up to the earlier story, reporting that "more than 100 silicon valley employees have sued their companies for workers compensation, blaming their illnesses on exposure to toxic chemicals on the job.

Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele See book keywords and concepts

This new stage in the evolving world of American health care got under way quietly in late 2000 when Aetna, one of the nation's largest health insurers, embarked on a little-known pilot project in the heart of India's silicon valley. Starting with twenty-three employees, Aetna established a claims-processing operation in the southern Indian city of Bangalore to transfer information from personal health claims filed by Aetna subscribers in the United States into the company's database. Previously, such claims had been processed at an Aetna call center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Vibrational Medicine: The #1 Handbook of Subtle-Energy Therapies Richard Gerber, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

An Esoteric History of Crystalline Technologies: The Roots of silicon valley in the Lost Continent of Atlantis There are few who know the ancient mythologies of the Earth who have not heard of the ancient continent of Atlantis. There are many stories told about the greatness of this now extinct civilization, and there were 6,000 books about Atlantis in existence by the 1970s. In the past, these stories have been viewed with extreme skepticism.

Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System J.D. Kleinke See book keywords and concepts

The people from silicon valley who thought health care was an easy Internet fix waiting to happen should have taken heed of earlier generations of IT companies new to health care. Those who started Healtheon (and WebMD) thought they saw in this enormous volume of claims paperwork an enormous business opportunity. (For an entertaining look at the combination of hubris and naivete about health care that was behind the founding of Healtheon, see Michael Lewis's highly readable book, The New New Thing, published in 2000.

Healing Moves: How To Cure, Relieve, And Prevent Common Ailments With Exercise Carol Krucoff and Mitchell Krucoff, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

It was designed by Robert Gamburd, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist in California's computer-intensive silicon valley and a team physician for the San Francisco 49ers and the Stanford University athletic department. Another program, Cyber-Stretch, is marketed by the international exercise fitness program Jazzercise. Cyber-Stretch works in a screen-saver format, bringing up stretches on the screen whenever the keyboard isn't used; it also lets users call up stretches at will.

Optimal Wellness Ralph Golan, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

In California's silicon valley, solvents used in the manufacturing of computer chips were found to have leaked from buried storage tanks into the water supplies of several communities. Cornell University in upstate New York is studying wells on Long Island that show traces of the pesticide aldecarb, recently associated with watermelon toxicity in California. Preliminary reports indicate that the drinking water in this area may be affected for as long as 140 years. The fumigant ethylene dibro-mide (EDB), which causes cancer in animals, has been found in wells in Florida.

The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications Christian Ratsch See book keywords and concepts

According to several estimates, the highest per capita consumption of cocaine is found in silicon valley and on Wall Street. The first literary treatment of cocaine is found in the Sherlock Holmes novel A Scandal in Bohemia, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published only two years after Roller's discovery (Phillips and Wynne 1980,45). In this book, the astonishing abilities of this brilliant detective are attributed in part to his use of cocaine. By the time of the following novel, The Sign of the Four, Sherlock Holmes is injecting the pure alkaloid intravenously (Voigt 1982, 38).

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know James Trefil, Joseph F. Kett, and E. D. Hirsch See book keywords and concepts

Compare silicon valley.) royalty A payment made for some right or privilege, as when a publisher pays a royalty to an author for the author's granting the publisher the right to sell the author's book. savings and loan association A financial institution that resembles a bank but which historically did not offer such services as personal checking accounts and which invested capital mainly in home mortgages. In the late 1970s Congress passed legislation freeing savings and loan associations (often called S & Ls) from their traditional dependency on home mortgage loans.

Allergic to the Twentieth Century: The Explosion in Environmental Allergies--From Sick Buildings to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Peter Radetsky See book keywords and concepts

Wide asphalt boulevards, relentless traffic, blank-faced buildings and shopping malls, franchise restaurants and electronic superstores — Mountain View lies in the heart of silicon valley. Kiessig and his wife, Lynne, now thirty-nine, had married only nine months earlier. They were just beginning to build a life together. He owned his own consulting business, she was pregnant — with twins, no less — and they had recently purchased their own home. The future looked promising, inviting, safe. All that was about to change.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know James Trefil, Joseph F. Kett, and E. D. Hirsch See book keywords and concepts

Center for the electronics and computer industries. (See silicon valley.) Santa Fe (san-tuh fay) Capital of New Mexico. Santa Fe Trail Trail extending from Independence, Missouri, southwest to Santa Fe, New Mexico. fa Important route used by settlers moving west. Saratoga Springs A resort city in eastern New York. fa Famed for its spa and its horse racing. Seattle (see-at-1) The largest city in the state of Washington. fa Home of Boeing Aircraft Company. Selma City in south-central Alabama.

A Physician's Guide To Natural Health Products That Work James A. Howenstine, MD See book keywords and concepts

Contamination with petrochemical residue Contamination with metals (lead, mercury, aluminum, fluoride) The city of San Jose, California had a mini-epidemic of congenital abnormalities in children that was connected to silicon valley firms discharging used metals into the water, which contaminated the water table of San Jose. Fluoridation Fluoride occurs naturally as calcium fluoride. The bonding of fluoride with calcium is strong. The fluoride added to drinking water, however, is sodium fluoride, sodium silicofluoride, or hydrofluosilic acid.

Staying Healthy with Nutrition: The Complete Guide to Diet and Nutritional Medicine Elson M. Haas, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

California's Santa Clara Valley, also known as silicon valley because it is a major center of the computer industry, is also a troubled area when it comes to water. In 1980, for example, one local company discovered that over a one-year period they had leaked nearly 60,000 gallons of trichloroethane (TCA), a toxic waste that can cause damage to the nervous system or birth defects in animals, into the Santa Clara Valley groundwater. Preliminary research suggests that there is a higher incidence of birth defects in infants of women who drank the contaminated water.

The Doctor's Vitamin and Mineral Encyclopedia Sheldon Saul Hendler See book keywords and concepts

From New Age quartz crystals, which are made up of silicon dioxide, to the semiconductors that created silicon valley, to glass, sandy beaches, Silly Putty and breast implants. It is no wonder, because the mineral silicon, next to oxygen, is the second most abundant element in the earth's crust. But only recently has silicon been found to be an essential trace mineral for animals and, although it has not been proven, it undoubtedly is essential for humans, as well. The highest levels of silicon are found in connective tissue, bone, skin and fingernails.

20 Years of Censored News Carl Jensen See book keywords and concepts

SOURCE: The Nation, 8/25/79, "Asia's silicon valley," by Diana Roose. UPDATE: In 1996, similar conditions in the apparel industry became a national scandal when highly paid entertainers and sports figures, such as Kathy Lee Gifford and Michael Jordan, were forced to explain how they could profit from corporations that exploited Third World children (Time, 6/17/96). While the 1979 Censored story specifically warned that U.S.

It noted in California's silicon valley, the industry failed to recognize the risks it posed to workers and the environment, and as those early mistakes proved costly, the industry began to master its toxic tools. It concluded the "industry's recent safety record is good." CHAPTER 11—1986 U.S. Spies on its Own Citizens While the mainstream media covered some aspects of the Iran arms/contra scandal, it failed to report what happened to outspoken U.S. citizens who disagreed with the Reagan Administration's Central American policies.

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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.