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Susan Saradon Hugs a Llama to Ease World Hunger
Actress and humanitarian Susan Sarandon hugs a llama pal for Heifer International (Can anyone resist a marketing campaign that features these photogenic Andean camelids?) This is a charity project I like. Actress Susan Sarandon is promoting an organization that battles world hunger by donating dairy cows and other farm animals to subsistence farmers. It’s a simple idea and one that really can help ease poverty in areas where people struggle to nourish themselves. If you have ever visited the puna in Peru, you have seen for yourself how disadvantaged people in far-flung regions scrape by on the paltriest amounts of food. Here is Saradon’s essay from the CNN “Planet in Peril” blog: Susan Sarandon Actress and…
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Reaction to CNN’s “Planet in Peril: Battle Lines” on Toxic La Oroya Mines
It was with a mixture of anger, grief and hope that I watched CNN’s broadcast of “Planet in Peril: Battle Lines” last Thursday night. Fifteen minutes of the show focused on the toxic contamination of the Doe Run Peru smelting planet in La Oroya, which is one of the 10 most polluted places on earth, along with Chernobyl. Peruvian baby breathing in toxic fumes from Doe Run Peru smelting plant; 98% of children in La Oroya suffer from extreme lead poisoning. Some U.S. critics are quibbling that the show was “stunt journalism” interspersed with flimsy reporting, a charge they base largely on reporter/producer Anderson Cooper’s segment on swimming with great white…
