Apocadocuments, for the week of

[About the Project]
[About the ApocaDocs]
[About Equal Share]
[TwitterFollow: apocadocs]

Explore:

Play:

It's weekly, funny, and free!

Play:

Click for paper-free fun!

	Ads for potentially microfunding this site:

What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:	(4)
Plague/Virus:	(3)
Climate Chaos:	(6)
Resource Depletion:	(3)
Biology Breach:	(15)
Recovery:	(11)

This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
bad policy ~ airborne pollutants ~ capitalist greed ~ sustainability ~ global warming ~ stupid humans ~ renewable energy ~ radiation ~ antibiotic resistance ~ governmental corruption ~ water issues

ApocaDocuments (42) gathered this week:
Sun, Nov 23, 2008 from Williamson Daily News: Coal CEO calls environmentalists crazy Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, the fourth largest coal company in the country, blasted politics and the press, comparing Charleston Gazette Editor James. A. Haught to Osama Bin Laden Thursday evening when he addressed the Tug Valley Mining Institute in Williamson.... "They can say what they want about climate change," he said. "But the only thing melting in this country that matters is our financial system and our economy."... Many people would give support to groups who work to disprove global warming if it was not so politically incorrect, Blankenship said. ...	Maybe he should try hitting up the Flat Earth Society for some funds to disprove global warming. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 23, 2008 from London Independent: Invasion of the Aliens British waters are being invaded by a wave of species making their way in from the sea, according to a new study. While foreign varieties of barnacles, brown seaweed and kelp may not sound dramatic, they are, in effect, slipping in under the radar, their progress hastened by climate change, according to Dr Nova Mieszkowska from the Marine Biological Association. Their arrival will add to pressure on native species already under siege by a range of marine invaders to Britain's shores such as the American red signal crayfish and the Pacific oyster. Some have arrived as a result of climate change, while others have made their way here on ships' hulls, in ballast water or through the global trade in aquaculture. ...	We have met the enemy and they are us. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 23, 2008 from London Times: Mugabe tries to hide cholera death toll Doctors struggling to save the victims of a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe despite a lack of basic drugs and intravenous drips vented their fury last week outside the Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare, the capital.... The response of President Robert Mugabe's failing government has been to cover up the scale of the problem and to send in riot police.... Last week the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs identified eight outbreaks and nine places where the number of cases was increasing. Its report concluded: "It is very likely with the current water and sanitation problems in the country, low capacity of the government to deal with the outbreak, glaring gaps in response, coupled with the rainy season that has started, cholera outbreaks could get catastrophic and claim many more lives." ...	Hate, fear and lies in the time of cholera. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 23, 2008 from Inter Press Service: CLIMATE CHANGE-LATIN AMERICA: Frightening Numbers A World Bank study presented Friday, the first day of a Nov. 21-23 congress of legislators from the Americas meeting in Mexico City to discuss the challenges of the global financial and climate crises, says natural disasters related to climate change, like storms, drought and flooding, cost 0.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the affected countries, on average, in Latin America and the Caribbean. If the frequency of natural disasters increases from one every four years to one every three years, per capita GDP could shrink by two percent per decade in the region, according to the report presented by Laura Tuck, director of the World Bank's department of Sustainable Development for Latin America and the Caribbean. The economy of the Caribbean region alone could experience six billion dollars in losses by 2050 in tourism, coastal protection, and the pharmaceutical and fishing industries. ...	By 2050, tourism will have transformed into refugeism anyway. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Nov 23, 2008 from Science News: Is Your Fish Oil Polluted? Diets rich in fish oil offer a number of health benefits, from fighting heart disease to boosting immunity. However, many noxious contaminants preferentially accumulate in fat. These include pesticides, brominated flame retardants, dioxins, and some related compounds known as polychlorinated biphenyls. So there's been some concern that if a fish was pulled from polluted waters, its fat might be polluted too. And those pollutants could end up an unwanted bonus in commercial fish-oil supplements. A new survey of some 154 different fish-oil capsules sold by 45 different companies now confirms that some supplements are remarkably dirty and others quite pure. In general, PCBs and a breakdown product of DDT were the major pollutants in fish-oil supplements. ...	Hey. What doesn't kill you ... might make you sick! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 22, 2008 from University of Alberta via ScienceDaily: Research Finds Way To Double Rice Crops In Drought-stricken Areas University of Alberta research has yielded a way to double the output of rice crops in some of the world's poorest, most distressed areas. Jerome Bernier, a PhD student in the U of A Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, has found a group of genes in rice that enables a yield of up to 100 per cent more in severe drought conditions. The discovery marks the first time this group of genes in rice has been identified, and could potentially bring relief to farmers in countries like India and Thailand, where rice crops are regularly faced with drought. Rice is the number one crop consumed by humans annually. ...	Let's call it TwiceRice! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 22, 2008 from New Scientist: Experts plan 'doomsday vault' for frog sperm The freezer could be the future for frogs and other amphibians. Efforts announced today are currently underway around the world to boost amphibian numbers with cryopreservation and assisted reproduction. Breeding frogs and their cousins to increase numbers could help vulnerable species survive looming extinctions. But getting amphibians to mate is not always straightforward, so researchers are developing other techniques to give them a helping hand. One proposal resembles the doomsday seed vault which opened this year in Norway. Only instead of plant seed, the amphibian vault would store sperm, guaranteeing amphibian genetic diversity for times of dwindling populations. ...	Work is also underway to create special magazines for the frogs -- to aid in the process of collecting that sperm! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 22, 2008 from Scientific American: Fact or Fiction?: Cell Phones Can Cause Brain Cancer This summer, Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, sent a memo to staffers warning them to limit their cell phone use and to use hands-free sets in the wake of "growing evidence that we should reduce exposure" to cell phone radiation. Among the possible consequences: an increased risk of brain cancer. Five months later, a top official at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) told a congressional panel that published scientific data indicates cell phones are safe. So what's the deal? Do cell phones cause cancer -- or not? ...	Cell phones are no more dangerous than my bad-tempered carrier pigeons! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 22, 2008 from Living on Earth: Green Hospitals Critics say hospital buildings and food are enough to make you sick. Today there's a growing movement in health care to get hospitals to green their facilities and, as host Bruce Gellerman reports, it's transforming the medical community... "From bedpans and surgical gloves to operating rooms and MRI machines, hospitals are enormously expensive to build, equip and operate. And when it comes to making life saving decisions, administrators aren't about to worry about buying energy-saving devices. Still, medicine is starting to use the power of the purse to go green." ...	From hypocritical to Hippocratic....go green! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Nov 22, 2008 from Los Angeles Times: Are pill-popping turkeys a danger? Turkeys, like any other animal, get sick. And while few would dispute that they should be treated when that happens, many scientists, medical professionals and animal experts are concerned that too much medicine is being given to too many turkeys -- and to too many food animals in general... The potential for danger from antibiotic use in farm animals comes in two forms, experts say: The antibiotics could remain in meat when people eat it. They could also contribute to the development of resistant bacteria. ...	Who's the turkey now? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 from Washington Post: New Rule Would Discount Warming as Risk Factor for Species The Bush administration is finalizing changes to the Endangered Species Act that would ensure that federal agencies would not have to take global warming into account when assessing risks to imperiled plants and animals.... The main purpose of the new regulations, which were first unveiled in August, is to eliminate a long-standing provision of the Endangered Species Act that requires an independent scientific review by either the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of any federal project that could affect a protected species. Under the administration's proposal, individual agencies could decide on their own whether a project would harm an imperiled species. ...	Nor will gun shot wounds in their heads be considered a risk factor either! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 from Indianapolis Star: Indiana lands on group's Top 50 list of mercury emitters Three Indiana power plants have landed on an environmental group's tally of the 50 facilities in the nation that emit the greatest amount of poisonous mercury into the air and water. Together, the 50 plants last year released about 20 tons of mercury, which can cause permanent damage to brains, kidneys and developing fetuses, according to a report from the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit that advocates for stricter enforcement of environmental regulations.... Indiana has no restrictions specifically addressing mercury emissions from power plants.... Environmental activists would like the state to do more to reduce emissions from power plants. ...	Maybe Hoosiers ought to get some of them restrictions! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 from Imperial College, via EurekAlert: Hairspray is linked to common genital birth defect, says study Women who are exposed to hairspray in the workplace during pregnancy have more than double the risk of having a son with the genital birth defect hypospadias, according to a new study published today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The study is the first to show a significant link between hairspray and hypospadias, one of the most common birth defects of the male genitalia, where the urinary opening is displaced to the underside of the penis. The causes of the condition are poorly understood.... The study suggests that hairspray and hypospadias may be linked because of chemicals in hairspray known as phthalates. Previous studies have proposed that phthalates may disrupt the hormonal systems in the body and affect reproductive development. ...	Looks like helmet-head can be dangerous to others! ApocaDoc permalink
Want more context? Try reading our book FREE online: Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 from Environmental Expert (Spain): Supercritical CO2 boosts super optimism in sequestering greenhouse gas Scientists appear to have the rock-solid evidence that suggests carbon dioxide can be safely and permanently sequestered in deep, underground basalt rock formations, without risk of it eventually escaping to the atmosphere. The findings have potential implications for sequestering carbon in other reservoir systems as well. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered key factors that show water-saturated liquid CO2, under conditions mimicking deep geologic settings, will plug cracks within the rock that otherwise might allow the hazardous greenhouse gas to escape. ...	Let's get *cracking*! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 from Guardian (UK): Soil erosion threatens land of 100m Chinese, survey finds Almost 100 million people in south-west China will lose the land they live on within 35 years if soil erosion continues at its current rate, a nationwide survey has found. Crops and water supplies are suffering serious damage as earth is washed and blown away across a third of the country, according to the largest-scale study for 60 years. Harvests in the north-east, known as China's breadbasket, will fall 40 percent within half a century on current trends, even as the 1.3 billion population continues to grow. ...	Can't we just glue the topsoil on somehow? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 from Financial Times: Daewoo to cultivate Madagascar land for free Daewoo Logistics of South Korea said it expected to pay nothing to farm maize and palm oil in an area of Madagascar half the size of Belgium, increasing concerns about the largest farmland investment of this kind. The Indian Ocean island will simply gain employment opportunities from Daewoo's 99-year lease of 1.3m hectares, officials at the company said. They emphasised that the aim of the investment was to boost Seoul's food security.... "It is totally undeveloped land which has been left untouched. And we will provide jobs for them by farming it, which is good for Madagascar," said Mr Hong. The 1.3m hectares of leased land is almost half the African country�s current arable land of 2.5m hectares. ...	Now there's a deal. Something tells me that there will be a few surprises ahead for that ecosystem. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 from Reuters: Malaria and dengue the sting in climate change Southeast Asia and South Pacific island nations face a growing threat from malaria and dengue fever as climate change spreads mosquitoes that carry the diseases and climate-change refugees start to migrate. A new report titled "The Sting of Climate Change," said recent data suggested that since the 1970s climate change had contributed to 150,000 more deaths every year from disease, with over half of the deaths in Asia.... According to the World Health Organization, rising temperatures and higher rainfall caused by climate change will see the number of mosquitoes increasing in cooler areas where there is little resistance or knowledge of the diseases they carry. ...	That's a lot more than an itch you can't scratch! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 from Christian Science Monitor: Poll: World wants green action, despite costs A wide majority of the world's citizens are unhappy with the slow pace of their governments' moves toward renewable energy and want their leaders to do more, even if that raises their utility bills, according to a global opinion poll released today. The finding sends a clear signal to officials at next month�s climate change meeting in Poznan, Poland, scheduled to lay the groundwork for a 2009 international treaty to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. ...	The people, united, will never be defeated! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 from London Guardian: President for 60 more days, Bush tearing apart protection for America's wilderness George Bush is working at a breakneck pace to dismantle at least 10 major environmental safeguards protecting America's wildlife, national parks and rivers before he leaves office in January. With barely 60 days to go until Bush hands over to Barack Obama, his White House is working methodically to weaken or reverse an array of regulations that protect America's wilderness from logging or mining operations, and compel factory farms to clean up dangerous waste. In the latest such move this week, Bush opened up some 800,000 hectares (2m acres) of land in Rocky Mountain states for the development of oil shale, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. The law goes into effect on January 17, three days before Obama takes office. The timing is crucial. Most regulations take effect 60 days after publication, and Bush wants the new rules in place before he leaves the White House on January 20. That will make it more difficult for Obama to undo them. ...	Even if Bush can't read, apparently he can count! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 from The Epoch Times: 'Recyclers' Illegally Exporting Electronic Waste It contains toxic components such as lead, mercury and cadmium, and Canada generates about 140,000 tons of it each year. The United States generates three million tons yearly. It is electronic waste, and disposing of it in an environmentally friendly way is proving complicated and open to abuse. With the astronomical growth of e-waste in the last decade, the number of recyclers of the ever-growing tidal wave of discarded computers, monitors, printers and cell phones has exploded in North America. ...	Not to mention all those analog televisions that we're being forced to discard in February... ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 from Providence Journal: Ecologist: Hope remains for world's oceans, but swift response is needed Outspoken marine ecologist Jeremy Jackson says humans have caused widespread and difficult-to-imagine damage to the world�s oceans and that the response needs to be of immense proportions. He says it boils down to two simple concepts: Become citizens instead of consumers, and elect real leaders, not facilitators of consumption.... "It's become obvious that [humans] are the cause," Jackson said. "How could we be so out of it? The oceans were out of sight and out of mind and nobody was paying attention. As a marine ecologist, it's embarrassing." ...	Maybe the economic crisis will help us move away from consumption. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 from Bloomberg News: October Temperatures Are Second-Warmest Since 1880 Global temperatures last month were the second-warmest since recordkeeping began while Arctic sea ice fell to its third-lowest level, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The combined land and ocean surface temperature for October was 58.23 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.13 degrees above the 20th century average, said NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The warmest October since 1880 occurred in 2003.... Arctic sea ice extended 3.24 million square miles last month, almost 10 percent below the 1979-2000 average. Sea ice has been declining by an average of 5.4 percent a decade over the past 30 years. ...	Why did they have to name it NOAA? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 19, 2008 from London Daily Mail: New superbug version of E.coli found on British dairy farm A new superbug version of E.coli which could trigger life-threatening infections has been found on a dairy farm. The mutant strain of E.coli 026 is believed to have emerged as a result of the heavy use of antibiotics on farm animals. It is the first time it has been discovered in this country and only the third time it has been found anywhere in the world. The bug is similar to the infamous E.coli 0157 which has been implicated in fatal food poisoning outbreaks. ...	Just so the mad cows don't come home to roost! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 19, 2008 from Washington Post: EPA Moves to Ease Air Rules for Parks The Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing new air-quality rules that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas, even though half of the EPA's 10 regional administrators formally dissented from the decision and four others criticized the move in writing. Documents obtained by The Washington Post show that the administration's push to weaken Clean Air Act protections for "Class 1 areas" nationwide has sparked fierce resistance from senior agency officials. All but two of the regional administrators objecting to the proposed rule are political appointees. ...	What a crazy idea: fresh air at a park! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 19, 2008 from Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Bug bombs don't just kill pests: People, pets also sickened by foggers ...Last month, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study the agency says is the first look at pesticide poisoning incidents related to bug bombs. Using the records of eight states where such incidents are tracked most carefully, including Washington, they documented 466 cases of injuries or illness from 2001 to 2006. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency responded this month by launching an effort to re-examine bug bombs' labels and packaging. The agency is also trying to figure out how to make consumers more aware of the need to read directions carefully.... ...	We are all connected. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Nov 19, 2008 from Technology Review: Better Wind Turbines ExRo Technologies, a startup based in Vancouver, BC, has developed a new kind of generator that's well suited to harvesting energy from wind. It could lower the cost of wind turbines while increasing their power output by 50 percent. The new generator runs efficiently over a wider range of conditions than conventional generators do.... ExRo's new design replaces a mechanical transmission with what amounts to an electronic one. That increases the range of wind speeds at which it can operate efficiently and makes it more responsive to sudden gusts and lulls. ...	That's wind beneath my wings! ApocaDoc permalink
You're still reading! Good for you! You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy): Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day! Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore.
Tue, Nov 18, 2008 from University of Pittsburgh, via EurekAlert: Pitt researchers use fluorescence to develop method for detecting mercury in fish Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have developed a simple and quick method for detecting mercury in fish and dental samples, two substances at the center of public concern about mercury contamination. The technique involves a fluorescent substance that glows bright green when it comes into contact with oxidized mercury.... The intensity of the glow indicates the amount of mercury present. Developed in the laboratory of Kazunori Koide, a chemistry professor in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences, the new method can be used onsite and can detect mercury in 30 to 60 minutes for dental fillings (or amalgams) or 10 to 30 minutes for fish, Koide explained. "Our method could be used in the fish market or the dentist office," he said. "We have developed a reliable indicator for mercury that a person could easily and safely use at home." ...	The problem, of course, is what to do once you've seen that green glow. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 18, 2008 from New York Times: Bark Beetles Kill Millions of Acres of Trees in West ...From New Mexico to British Columbia, the region's signature pine forests are succumbing to a huge infestation of mountain pine beetles that are turning a blanket of green forest into a blanket of rust red. Montana has lost a million acres of trees to the beetles, and in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming the situation is worse....In Wyoming and Colorado in 2006 there were a million acres of dead trees. Last year it was 1.5 million. This year it is expected to total over two million. In the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, the problem is most severe. It is the largest known insect infestation in the history of North America, officials said. ...	If a tree is bitten by a bark beetle in the forest, can you hear it ... scream? ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 18, 2008 from Ohio State University, via EurekAlert: Missing radioactivity in ice cores bodes ill for part of Asia When Ohio State glaciologists failed to find the expected radioactive signals in the latest core they drilled from a Himalayan ice field, they knew it meant trouble for their research. But those missing markers of radiation, remnants from atomic bomb tests a half-century ago, foretell much greater threat to the half-billion or more people living downstream of that vast mountain range. It may mean that future water supplies could fall far short of what's needed to keep that population alive.... "that... means that no new ice has accumulated on the surface of the glacier since 1944," nearly a decade before the atomic tests. ...	Hard to imagine I'd be wishing we'd found radioactivity. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 18, 2008 from Canwest News: Continents of garbage adrift in oceans Scientists are growing alarmed about massive floating dumps that are believed to be building up in centres of nearly all of the world's oceans. The best-known patch, known by some as the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, consists of an estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic debris that has accumulated inside a circular vortex of currents known as the North Pacific gyre. Environmentalists call it the Pacific Trash Vortex....An estimated 100,000 marine mammals die each year from eating or being entangled in debris -- mostly plastic -- in the North Pacific alone. Hence the vortex's other nickname: the Plastic Killing Fields. ...	Maybe we should spend less time making up nicknames and more time finding solutions! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 18, 2008 from Washington Post: Japan's Trash Technology Helps Deodorize Dumps in Tokyo TOKYO -- It doesn't smell like a dump. If it did, there are a quarter-million neighbors to complain about Tokyo's Toshima Incineration Plant, which devours 300 tons of garbage a day, turning it into electricity, hot water and a kind of recyclable sand. ... Remarkably, this does not create a big stink, literally or politically. ...	Why don't we put all our trash on barges and send it to Japan! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 18, 2008 from Environmental Health News: Future hazy for cleaner school buses ...While pollution-fighting technologies are widely available, fledgling efforts to clean up the nation's aging fleet of half a million school buses may stall as budget revenues plummet... About 24 million American children spend an average of an hour and a half every weekday riding school buses, nearly all of them powered by diesel fuel. Scientists say diesel exhaust contains carcinogens, and that its fine particles can sink deep into lungs, triggering respiratory infections, asthma attacks and heart attacks, and reducing lung capacity. ...	I'm sure these children would be happy to stay home and telecommute! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 18, 2008 from Telegraph.co.uk: Amazon to scrap plastic packaging for recyclable cardboard boxes It has pledged to stop sending toys, computers and other goods out in difficult-to-open plastic boxes. The shopping website has joined leading manufacturers, including toy company Mattel and software giant Microsoft, to come up with a solution it says is both eco and customer-friendly. Called "frustration free packaging", the company aims to replace plastic wrapping with a simple, recyclable cardboard box.... "Every Christmas we produce an extra three million tonnes of waste, and this could impact significantly on that. But we need manufacturers to think about this too -- it really comes back to the product design stage, and that needs to be re-thought." ...	This Christmas, maybe we should recycle by making presents from our waste. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 18, 2008 from New York Times: Congo Violence Reaches Endangered Mountain Gorillas Congo's gorillas happen to live in one of the most contested, blood-soaked pieces of turf in one of the most contested, blood-soaked corners of Africa. Their home, Virunga National Park, is high ground -- with mist-shrouded mountains and pointy volcanoes -- along the porous Congo-Rwanda border, where rebels are suspected of smuggling in weapons from Rwanda. Last year in Virunga, 10 gorillas were killed, some shot in the back of the head, execution style, park officials said. The park used to be a naturalist's paradise, home to more than 2,000 species of plants, 706 types of birds and 218 varieties of mammals, including three great apes: the mountain gorilla, the lowland gorilla and chimpanzees. Now Virunga is a war zone. ...	Natural borders clash with national borders... ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Nov 18, 2008 from NASA, via EurekAlert: Water vapor confirmed as major player in climate change Andrew Dessler and colleagues from Texas A&M University in College Station confirmed that the heat-amplifying effect of water vapor is potent enough to double the climate warming caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. With new observations, the scientists confirmed experimentally what existing climate models had anticipated theoretically.... "This new data set shows that as surface temperature increases, so does atmospheric humidity," Dessler said. "Dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere makes the atmosphere more humid. And since water vapor is itself a greenhouse gas, the increase in humidity amplifies the warming from carbon dioxide." ...	Feedback is only fun when it's Jimi. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 17, 2008 from Mongabay: Discovery may lead to organic acrylic glass made from sugar A new discovery make it possible in the future to manufacture acrylic glass from organic materials including sugars, alcohols or fatty acids.... The researchers say that the biotechnological process is "far more environmentally friendly" than the conventional chemical production process for PMMA. ...	That is *sweet!* ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 17, 2008 from Telegraph.co.uk: Japan's whaling mother ship sets sail A fleet of catcher ships was expected to join the Nisshin Maru as part of its foray into the waters of the Antarctic where it is this year due to hunt up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales as part of its controversial scientific research programme.... Reports of the departure of the fleet coincided with the Australian government unveiling a major scientific whaling study to prove to Japan that it was not necessary to kill whales for science. ...	Japan: what you are doing is unforgivable. Australia: good on yer! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 17, 2008 from MIT, via EurekAlert: MIT: A quicker, easier way to make coal cleaner Instead of capturing all of its CO2 emissions, plants could capture a significant fraction of those emissions with less costly changes in plant design and operation, the MIT analysis shows. "Our approach -- 'partial capture' -- can get CO2 emissions from coal-burning plants down to emissions levels of natural gas power plants," said Ashleigh Hildebrand, a graduate student in chemical engineering and the Technology and Policy Program. "Policies such as California's Emissions Performance Standards could be met by coal plants using partial capture rather than having to rely solely on natural gas, which is increasingly imported and subject to high and volatile prices." ...	I don't know if I'm partial to this approach... ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 17, 2008 from USGS, via EurekAlert: Acid soils in Slovakia tell somber tale Increasing levels of nitrogen deposition associated with industry and agriculture can drive soils toward a toxic level of acidification, reducing plant growth and polluting surface waters, according to a new study published online in Nature Geoscience.... On the basis of these results, the authors warn that the high levels of nitrogen deposited in Europe and North America over the past half century already may have left many soils susceptible to this new stage of acidification. The results of this further acidification, wrote the authors, are highly reduced soil fertility and leaching of acids and toxic metals into surface waters. ...	lalalala I can't hear our past gaining on us lalala... ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 17, 2008 from Los Angeles Times: Cellphones in Yellowstone? Reporting from Yellowstone National Park -- Natural forces over millennia created the geysers, peaks and canyons that fascinate visitors here. But a newer feature is emerging on this stunning landscape -- cellphone towers... After years of complaints from environmental groups about the proliferation of cellphone towers in national parks, officials here and across the country are asking: How wired do we want our wilderness? ...	Why don't we just call it wirederness? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 17, 2008 from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Going green - all the way to the grave ...Each year, along with their dearly departed, Americans bury 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid and 30-plus million board feet of timber, according to the Green Burial Council, an advocacy and certification organization in New Mexico. Its founder, Joe Sehee, says we bury enough steel to rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge, and enough concrete vaults - to keep the ground over graves from sinking, which makes maintenance easier - to pave a highway halfway across the United States... Now people are being buried in coffins made of wicker or bamboo. In Ecopods of recycled paper. Even in simple shrouds. A San Francisco company offers them in linen, silk and ethnic textiles. ...	Oh bury me .... on the lone prairie... ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Nov 17, 2008 from Fresno Bee: Study bolsters link between Parkinson's, pesticide For years, researchers have suspected commercial pesticides put people at risk for Parkinson's disease. Now evidence in the San Joaquin Valley suggests it's true. Researchers have found a strong connection between the debilitating neurological disease and long-term exposure to pesticides, particularly to a fungicide that is sprayed on thousands of acres of almonds, tree fruit and grapes in the Valley. The fungicide ziram -- the 20th most-used agricultural toxin in California in 2006 -- emerged as a common factor in a UCLA study of 400 people with Parkinson's in the Valley. ...	Who's the pest now? ApocaDoc permalink