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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:	(4)
Plague/Virus:	(2)
Climate Chaos:	(8)
Resource Depletion:	(2)
Biology Breach:	(10)
Recovery:	(5)

This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
contamination ~ climate impacts ~ global warming ~ ecosystem interrelationships ~ massive die-off ~ toxic water ~ carbon emissions ~ capitalist greed ~ faster than expected ~ economic myopia ~ corporate malfeasance

ApocaDocuments (31) gathered this week:
Sun, Oct 4, 2009 from Oregon State University via ScienceDaily: Loss Of Top Predators Causing Surge In Smaller Predators, Ecosystem Collapse The catastrophic decline around the world of "apex" predators such as wolves, cougars, lions or sharks has led to a huge increase in smaller "mesopredators" that are causing major economic and ecological disruptions, a new study concludes. The findings, published October 1 in the journal Bioscience, found that in North America all of the largest terrestrial predators have been in decline during the past 200 years while the ranges of 60 percent of mesopredators have expanded. The problem is global, growing and severe, scientists say, with few solutions in sight....In case after case around the world, the researchers said, primary predators such as wolves, lions or sharks have been dramatically reduced if not eliminated, usually on purpose and sometimes by forces such as habitat disruption, hunting or fishing. Many times this has been viewed positively by humans, fearful of personal attack, loss of livestock or other concerns. But the new picture that's emerging is a range of problems, including ecosystem and economic disruption that may dwarf any problems presented by the original primary predators. ...	Life... is just one big game of Jenga. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Oct 4, 2009 from Columbia State: Arsenic draining into Wateree River Streams of a poisonous, potentially cancer-causing substance recently were found draining to the Wateree River from SCE&G's coal-fired power plant in lower Richland County. Consultants discovered elevated levels of arsenic seeping from an earthen wall along the power plant's 80-acre coal ash waste pond, just a few miles upstream from Congaree National Park. The wall is supposed to block pollution from moving out of the pond and into the Wateree River, less than 300 feet away. One of the consultants, J.C. Hare, said leaks he saw last month in the earthen wall created two streams of arsenic-tainted runoff that in places measured several feet wide. ...	Just as long as it's "clean" arsenic... ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Oct 4, 2009 from London Guardian: Arctic seas turn to acid, putting vital food chain at risk Carbon-dioxide emissions are turning the waters of the Arctic Ocean into acid at an unprecedented rate, scientists have discovered. Research carried out in the archipelago of Svalbard has shown in many regions around the north pole seawater is likely to reach corrosive levels within 10 years. The water will then start to dissolve the shells of mussels and other shellfish and cause major disruption to the food chain. By the end of the century, the entire Arctic Ocean will be corrosively acidic....About a quarter of the carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by factories, power stations and cars now ends up being absorbed by the oceans. That represents more than six million tonnes of carbon a day. This carbon dioxide dissolves and is turned into carbonic acid, causing the oceans to become more acidic. "We knew the Arctic would be particularly badly affected when we started our studies but I did not anticipate the extent of the problem," said Gattuso. ...	Oy. Speaking of acid, my stomach is killing me! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Oct 3, 2009 from London Independent: The great drought: Disaster looms in East Africa On the plains of Marsabit the heat is so intense the bush seems to shiver. The leafless scrub, bleached white by the sun, looks like a forest of fake Christmas trees. Carcasses of cattle and camels are strewn about the burnt red dirt in every direction. Siridwa Baseli walks out of the haze along a path of the dead and dying. He passes a skeletal cow that has given up and collapsed under a thorn tree. A nomad from the Rendille people, he is driving his herd in search of water... Across East Africa an extraordinary drought is drying up rivers, and grasslands, scorching crops and threatening millions of people with starvation. In Kenya, the biggest and most robust economy in the region, the rivers that feed its great game reserves have run dry and since the country relies on hydropower, electricity is now rationed in the cities. ...	The Apocalypse brings out the poet in us all. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Oct 3, 2009 from The Nation: The Coalfield Uprising ... More than 3.5 million pounds of explosives rip daily across the ridges and historic mountain communities in West Virginia; a similar amount of explosives are employed in eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee. Mountaintop removal operations have destroyed more than 500 mountains and 1.2 million acres of forest in our nation's oldest and most diverse range, and jammed more than 1,200 miles of streams with mining waste... Coalfield residents are not waiting for the Obama administration to come to their rescue. In fact, in the past year a surging activist and citizen lobbyist campaign has emerged as a fierce counterforce to the Big Coal lobby. The leaders of this growing and increasingly powerful movement are not content with a new era of stricter regulations in the coalfields. Their aim is to abolish mountaintop removal once and for all. ...	Yes WE can! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Oct 2, 2009 from University of Royal Holloway London via ScienceDaily: Ancient Rainforests Resilient To Climate Change Climate change wreaked havoc on the Earth's first rainforests but they quickly bounced back, scientists reveal. The findings of the research team, led by Dr Howard Falcon-Lang from Royal Holloway, University of London, are based on spectacular discoveries of 300-million-year-old rainforests in coal mines in Illinois, USA. Preserved over vast areas, these fossilized rainforests in Illinois are the largest of their kind in the world. The rocks at this site - in which the rainforests occur - contain evidence for climate fluctuations. During cold "ice ages", fossils show that the tropics dried out and rainforests were pushed to the brink of extinction. However, rainforests managed to recover and return to their former glory. ...	Let's try and kill 'em off for good this time! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Oct 2, 2009 from Los Angeles Times: Chevron's shifty shifting of venue When Chevron was in a New York courtroom battling a lawsuit by thousands of indigenous Ecuadoreans, it argued that the case rightly belonged in their country. But now that the company is poised to lose in the Andean nation and could be assessed as much as $27 billion in damages, it says Ecuador isn't the right place either. Last week, the oil giant shopped the case to yet another court, filing a claim at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Chevron has long maintained that it would appeal an adverse decision, which is entirely understandable. But this action is different. By going to The Hague before a verdict is issued in Ecuador, the company shuts out the private citizens who brought the suit and who have no standing there. ...	Me, I read that headline as "Chevron's SHITTY shifting..." ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Oct 2, 2009 from Associated Press: EPA: Dow Chemical Co. study little help in planning dioxin cleanup A scientific analysis of dioxin exposure near a Dow Chemical Co. plant in Midland will be of little use in planning a long-delayed cleanup, government regulators said Thursday. Dow paid for the study done by a University of Michigan team and designed partly to help officials decide how to deal with dioxin pollution in a 50-mile-long watershed including the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. For decades, the company's plant released dioxins and related chemical byproducts believed to cause cancer. The study was well done and produced credible information, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is negotiating details of the cleanup with Dow and state officials. But the absence of crucial data limits its usefulness, an EPA review said. ...	D'oh! Dow D'oh! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Oct 1, 2009 from London Times: Every species on the planet documented in new report Almost 10 per cent of known species are threatened with extinction, according to the first comprehensive study of the world's wildlife. Polar bears, whose habitat is threatened by melting ice, and Tasmanian devils, which have been pushed to the brink of extinction by a cancer, are just two of the tens of thousands of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians that are in danger. The report, The Number of Living Species in Australia and the World , published by the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS), says that 9.2 per cent of known animal species are endangered by habitat loss, climate change and other pressures. More than a fifth of of all known mammals are endangered, as are 29 per cent of amphibians and 12 per cent of birds, according to the study, the result of an international effort to catalogue every known current and extinct species of plant and animal. ...	It'll be nice to have that catalogue handy when we rue the loss of these species... ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Oct 1, 2009 from Science News: Excreted Tamiflu found in rivers The premier flu-fighting drug is contaminating rivers downstream of sewage-treatment facilities, researchers in Japan confirm. The source: urinary excretion by people taking oseltamivir phosphate, best known as Tamiflu. Concerns are now building that birds, which are natural influenza carriers, are being exposed to waterborne residues of Tamiflu's active form and might develop and spread drug-resistant strains of seasonal and avian flu. ...	I am never excreting again! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Oct 1, 2009 from Riverhead News-Review: When dead trees attack The woods along Flanders Road are filled with dead trees, and transportation and environmental officials worry that motorists may not be as fortunate in the future when trees collapse. The Pine Barrens Commission estimates that 14,000 acres of the 100,000-acre Central Pine Barrens region, which covers parts of Southampton, Riverhead and Brookhaven, are covered with dead trees. "There's something wrong with the trees and it's extensive," said Eileen Peters, a spokeswoman for the Sate Department of Transportation.... Cornell believes multiple factors have contributed to the oak die-off.... ...	Looks like we're not at fault! Just a natural phenomenon. Whew! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Oct 1, 2009 from US News and World Report: Common Weed Killer Impacts Wildlife An analysis of more than 100 scientific studies conducted on atrazine, one of the world's most common and controversial weed killers, reveals the chemical's consistent ill effects on the development, behavior, immune, hormone and reproductive systems of amphibians and freshwater fish, USF researchers have concluded in a new study.... [T]he body of scientific research on the chemical shows that while atrazine typically does not directly kill amphibians and fish, there is consistent scientific evidence that it is negatively impacting their biology. The authors conclude that these non-lethal effects must be weighed against the benefit of using the weed killer.... "The weight-of-evidence, however, suggests that atrazine regularly causes reproductive abnormalities and is an endocrine disruptor." ...	Thank goodness we have so little in common with amphibians and fish! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 30, 2009 from Indianapolis Star: Purdue researchers monitor cow emissions WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue University is leading a new study that seeks to answer the smelly question of how much greenhouse gases are produced by dairy cows. The study won't just look at the issue of cow flatulence -- it will also examine the amount of greenhouse gases that cow manure releases. A Purdue professor is leading colleagues at Purdue and four other schools in the study. They'll monitor carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide at five barn sites and two manure lagoons in Indiana, Wisconsin, California, Washington and New York. ...	'Cause we know just how vital the issue of cow flatulence can be! ApocaDoc permalink
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Wed, Sep 30, 2009 from Memphis Commercial Appeal: Enthusiasts aren't souring on oldest form of agriculture Honey is in deep trouble. You could call it the Apocalypse of the Bees. Late in 2006, beekeepers in North America noticed that worker bees were suddenly disappearing from their hives. Without worker bees to attend to the brood, to maintain the hive and gather nectar to turn into honey, the colony will collapse, hence the term "colony collapse disorder." The beekeeping industry was devastated. Colony loss in North America for 2006-2007 was 32 percent; for 2007-2008, 36 percent; from Sept. 2009 through April 2009 the rate of loss dropped to 29 percent. "Oh, we've been hit by CCD," said Hughes, "and also by the South African hive beetle. I lost half my hives in one year, and now we're down to about 80 from 300." "It's unquestionable that the beekeeping industry is facing very serious problems," said Richard Underhill, president of the Tennessee Beekeepers Association. "And it goes back beyond CCD. Bees have been declining in numbers for about 20 years, due to a variety of predators and viruses and to environmental conditions, like chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. CCD, of course, is the most obvious and sudden and visible of the issues." ...	More sales of high-fructose corn syrup! What a boon to farmers! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 30, 2009 from Royal Gazette (Bermuda): Expert warns against eating sickly fish Dr. Vogelbein said: "It's always the big question, 'are the fish safe to eat?' I think common sense should be used. People who fish know what a healthy fish looks like. "Those are safe to eat. But a fish which has ulcers on it [such as a lack of scales and blood on the skin] should not be." ... But he said the die-off was concerning as it shed light on a variety of environmental factors, as well an infection, that appeared to be causing the die-off. ... He said there seemed to be environmental factors leading to the death of the fish but added: "Some of the fish are showing skin ulcers and some of the fish are also showing signs of infections in their gills. "There appears to be an organism playing a role. We have been able to isolate some bacterial organism." Dr. Vogelbein also said that a weakened immune system due to high water temperatures could be causing fish to react negatively to bacteria regularly found in the ocean. ...	Talk to me, buddy. Are you sick? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 30, 2009 from Telegraph.co.uk: 'Planned recession' could avoid catastrophic climate change The report says the only way to avoid going beyond the dangerous tipping point is to double the target to 70 per cent by 2020. This would mean reducing the size of the economy through a "planned recession". Kevin Anderson, director of the research body, said the building of new airports, petrol cars and dirty coal-fired power stations will have to be halted in the UK until new technology provides an alternative to burning fossil fuels.... "For most of the population it would mean fairly modest changes to how they live, maybe they will drive less, share a car to work or take more holidays in Britain."... "If we do everything we can do then we might have a chance," he said. ...	I'm not sure that "recession now instead of collapse later" has the resonance to become a political chant. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 30, 2009 from World Bank, via DesdemonaDespair: World Bank estimates climate change to cost developing nations $100 billion a year Developing countries will need to spend as much as $100 billion annually for the next 40 years to adapt to more extreme and severe weather changes, according to a World Bank study issued on Wednesday. The report said poorer countries would need to invest in large-scale infrastructure projects to cope with floods, drought, heatwaves and more frequent and intense rainfall if the Earth's temperature rose by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. "Faced with the prospect of huge additional infrastructure costs, as well as drought, disease and dramatic reductions in agricultural productivity, developing countries need to be prepared for the potential consequences of unchecked climate change," said Katherine Sierra, World Bank vice president for sustainable development. ...	How do you squeeze blood from a dessicated corpse? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 30, 2009 from TIME: The Desperate Need for New Antibiotics But now global health officials face an approaching crisis: the number of different antibiotics available to treat such infections when they do occur is dwindling because pharmaceutical companies have neglected to invest in the development of new types of drugs. Bacterial and parasitic diseases are the second-leading cause of death worldwide, according to a report on antibiotic research released Sept. 17 by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), with 175,000 deaths attributed to hospital-acquired infections each year in Europe alone. And due to the emergence of drug-resistant "superbugs," such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), traditional antibiotics such as Penicillin and its derivatives are becoming obsolete. New antibiotics are desperately needed, but the amount of money being spent on the research and development of these drugs is woefully inadequate. ...	Maybe it's time to start reasoning with those superbugs! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Sep 30, 2009 from Minneapolis MinnPost: Scientist offers dire scenario at climate-change symposium in Minneapolis Dire projections on global warming effects issued recently by the U.N.'s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) may prove to be as comparatively tranquil as "a Sunday school picnic" when the next scientific reports come out, a renowned earth scientist told an international symposium in Minneapolis. The sober assessment Monday by David Schindler of the University of Alberta follows an IPCC report last week that said that even if world leaders realize their most ambitious plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the earth would still warm by 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by century's end.... Schindler said he's "not looking forward" to what he fears are even more grim reports on climate change by world scientists that will follow in the coming months.... Another speaker at the University of Minnesota's Transatlantic Science Week agreed with Schindler that a cascading synergy of adverse climate-change effects could outrun snail-paced efforts to reduce of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels in power plants and transportation sources mostly in developed and developing nations. ...	A "Sunday school picnic" in a hailstorm, between warring street gangs, in the middle of a busy intersection. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from Independent.co.uk, in DesdemonaDespair: Skulls found on Mafia ship laden with radioactive waste Pressure is growing on the Italian government to act over revelations that 30 or more ships with radioactive cargoes, deliberately sunk by the Mafia, may be polluting the Mediterranean.... Mr Greco added that "the entire Mediterranean, from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian sea and from the Strait of Sicily to the Aegean" could be threatened by sunken waste ships. "Cleaning and removing the load will be particularly complex in terms of cost, given the vast area involved," he said.... The possibility of a murder inquiry also arose last night after it emerged that cameras sent down to investigate the Cunsky appeared to show human remains aboard. ...	Davy Jones got an offer he couldn't refuse. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from New York Times: Climate Bill Splits Exelon and U.S. Chamber Exelon, one of the country's largest utilities, said Monday that it would quit the United States Chamber of Commerce because of that group's stance on climate change. It was the latest in a string of companies to do so, perhaps a harbinger of how intense the fight over global warming legislation could become. "The carbon-based free lunch is over," said John W. Rowe, Exelon's chief executive. "Breakthroughs on climate change and improving our society's energy efficiency are within reach." ...	Just so's we can still have the occasional martini. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from London Times: Third World population controls won't save climate, study claims The population explosion in poor countries will contribute little to climate change and is a dangerous distraction from the main problem of over-consumption in rich nations, a study has found. It challenges claims by leading environmentalists, including Sir David Attenborough and Jonathon Porritt, that strict birth control is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The study concludes that spending billions of pounds of aid on contraception in the developing world will not benefit the climate because poor countries have such low emissions. It says that Britain and other Western countries should instead focus on reducing consumption of goods, services and energy among their own populations. ...	Door #3: Rich nations should have population controls! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from DC Bureau: Fish and Paint Chips Part II: The Politics of Ocean Trash When it comes to reducing garbage in the world's oceans, the political angle is just as important as the scientific, to judge by industry's behavior. On Aug. 18, Seattle voters passed by a 53-47 margin a referendum to overturn a 20-cent fee approved last year by the city council for using plastic bags at supermarkets, pharmacies and convenience stores. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and other public information, the referendum was backed primarily by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the plastics industry trade association, and the 7-11 chain of convenience stores. The ACC made local headlines with its all-out summer media blitz to promote the referendum, ultimately spending $1.4 million before the vote was held. In comparison, the Seattle Green Bag Campaign to support the fee raised less than $100,000. In a press release trumpeting its victory, the ACC argued that whatever its environmental implications, plastic is good for the economy. ...	Sometimes... I just don't think we deserve the earth. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from Brigham Young University, via EurekAlert: Sugar plus weed killer equals potential clean energy source Researchers at Brigham Young University have developed a fuel cell -- basically a battery with a gas tank -- that harvests electricity from glucose and other sugars known as carbohydrates.... The effectiveness of this cheap and abundant herbicide is a boon to carbohydrate-based fuel cells. By contrast, hydrogen-based fuel cells like those developed by General Motors require costly platinum as a catalyst.... "We showed you can get a lot more out of glucose than other people have done before," said Dean Wheeler, lead faculty author of the paper and a chemical engineering professor in BYU's Fulton College of Engineering and Technology. "Now we're trying to get the power density higher so the technology will be more commercially attractive." Since they wrote the paper, the researchers' prototype has achieved a doubling of power performance. ...	Finally we have a use for all that corn syrup we've been producing! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from Florida Today: Cocoa Beach plans sewage injection well The city plans to inject up to 6 million gallons of treated sewage per day about 1,400 feet underground, then pump it back up later to water its golf course and residents' lawns. Officials say the well will enable the city to store more reclaimed water and no longer have to discharge the excess -- an estimated 300 million gallons per year -- into the Banana River.... Officials insist that the so-called "aquifer storage and recovery" wells are the safest, most affordable way to keep the nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich remnants of sewage from the Indian River Lagoon, where it can trigger excess algae and fish kills. But some environmentalists say pumping that kind of water underground threatens surrounding groundwater with viruses, endocrine disruptors and other trace contaminants that can linger after the sewage treatment process. ...	Come on, you "environmentalists." We have to put our shit somewhere. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Sep 29, 2009 from American Chronicle: Weather extremes in India's Jharkand Any change in monsoon trend drastically affects agriculture.... There has been a major shift in the pattern of rainfall during the south-west monsoon season (from June to September) in recent years. This is one of the findings of an analysis by scientists at the India Meteorology Department's National climate Centre at Pune.... Due to global warming there is high influx of water in the Himalayan rivers flowing through Assam, Bihar and West Bengal in eastern India in the form of floods due to melting of Himalayan glaciers associated with heavy rains in the Himalayas. These floods annually destroy millions of tons of crops. This year the world's largest river island Majuli in Assam State of India has been severely hit by flood and erosion.... Few years ago, there were reports coming in of massive forced migration due to persistent droughts in Bundelkhand area in Central India. Large lakes had completely dried, water in wells that people use for their daily needs had run down, rivers and tributaries had dried up, thousands of hand pumps had become useless because the groundwater levels had fallen. People had abandoned their cows and other cattle to a dusty death, as they were unable to provide them fodder and water. ...	This might be news -- if it was happening here. 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, Sep 29, 2009 from Climate Wire: Is 350 the New 450 When It Comes to Capping Carbon Emissions? ...Nearly 200 countries have signed a U.N. treaty pledging to avoid "dangerous" climate change. But lately, it seems, "dangerous" is lost in translation. Fifteen years since that agreement took effect, scientists and governments are still grappling with what carrying out its promise means. For the European Union, it means limiting Earth's warming to just 2 degrees Celsius hotter by the end of this century than it was before the Industrial Revolution. That's a goal many experts believe is roughly equivalent to capping atmospheric carbon dioxide at 450 parts per million. But a growing number of countries -- mostly vulnerable ones and small island nations like the Maldives -- say that won't prevent rising sea levels from swamping their coasts. They're calling for an even stricter standard: 350 parts per million, a number endorsed by NASA climatologist James Hansen. ...	Death is the new life. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Sep 28, 2009 from The Sydney Morning Herald: Google Earth climate change 3D map unveiled Google is using its Google Earth mapping tool to simulate on a 3D map of the world the predicted effects of climate change until the year 2100. Using data provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the search giant created new layers for Google Earth showing the range of expected temperature and precipitation changes under different global emissions scenarios that could occur throughout the century. The new tools were introduced in partnership with the Danish Government ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Convention in December....The company is hoping that allowing people to visualise the impacts of climate change on a 3D map of the world will compel more people to speak up about the issue. ...	Not only will the Apocalypse be televised, it'll be in 3D! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Sep 28, 2009 from London Guardian: Met Office warns of catastrophic global warming in our lifetimes Unchecked global warming could bring a severe temperature rise of 4C within many people's lifetimes, according to a new report for the British government that significantly raises the stakes over climate change. The study, prepared for the Department of Energy and Climate Change by scientists at the Met Office, challenges the assumption that severe warming will be a threat only for future generations, and warns that a catastrophic 4C rise in temperature could happen by 2060 without strong action on emissions.... The Met Office scientists used new versions of the computer models used to set the IPCC predictions, updated to include so-called carbon feedbacks or tipping points, which occur when warmer temperatures release more carbon, such as from soils. When they ran the models for the most extreme IPCC scenario, they found that a 4C rise could come by 2060 or 2070, depending on the feedbacks. Betts said: "It's important to stress it's not a doomsday scenario, we do have time to stop it happening if we cut greenhouse gas emissions soon." ...	There's no need to panic... IF WE ACT RIGHT NOW!!!! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Sep 28, 2009 from Associated Press: What's ugly, smells, kills dogs? Blue-green algae Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly and potentially deadly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that's killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people. Aquatic biologists say it's a problem that falls somewhere between a human health concern and a nuisance, but will eventually lead to more human poisoning. State officials are telling people who live on algae-covered lakes to close their windows, stop taking walks along the picturesque shorelines and keep their dogs from drinking the rank water. Peggy McAloon, 62, lives on Wisconsin's Tainter Lake and calls the algae blooms the "cockroach on the water." ...	Doesn't have quite the same poetic ring as "canary in a coal mine" but it will do. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Sep 28, 2009 from Environmental Health News: Eating venison, other game raises lead exposure An avid hunter, Cornatzer was listening to a presentation on the lead poisoning of California condors when an x-ray of a mule deer flashed on an overhead screen. The deer had been shot in the chest with a high-powered rifle. Cornatzer was shocked that the deer's entire carcass was riddled with dozens of tiny lead-shot fragments. "My first thought had nothing to do with California condors; it had to do with what I had been doing as a hunter myself, and what I had been feeding our kids," said Cornatzer, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences. "I knew good and well after seeing that image that I had been eating a lot of lead fragments over the years," he said. That realization led Cornatzer and a radiologist last year to X-ray 100 packages of venison that had been donated by a sportsmen group to a food bank. About 60 percent of the packages contained lead-shot fragments, even though it's common practice among hunters to remove meat around the wound. ...	The food chain is made of lead. ApocaDoc permalink