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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

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Species Collapse:	(3)
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This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
ecosystem interrelationships ~ global warming ~ contamination ~ climate impacts ~ economic myopia ~ governmental idiocy ~ carbon emissions ~ capitalist greed ~ anthropogenic change ~ water issues ~ airborne pollutants

ApocaDocuments (38) gathered this week:
Sun, Feb 7, 2010 from Chicago Tribune: Asian carp discussion moves to Washington A critical week in the battle against Asian carp kicks off Monday when Gov. Pat Quinn plans to meet with governors from Michigan and Wisconsin at the White House to hash out a plan to keep the invasive species out of the Great Lakes. Some think the Obama administration will use the occasion to introduce its own Asian carp attack plan, using the resources of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies. On Tuesday, lawmakers will debate proposed Asian carp legislation at a congressional hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. On Wednesday, attorneys general from Illinois and other Great Lakes states are invited to talk carp strategy with officials from the U.S. Department of Justice. On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will discuss carp control efforts and take recommendations from the public and stakeholders at a meeting in Chicago. ...	Ya gotta think the carp are having their own, high-level meetings, as well. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Feb 7, 2010 from NUVO Newsweekly: The Ohio Valley's toxic kids Robert Owen would rise up from his grave in righteous indignation if he knew what has happened to the kids in his adopted Indiana home of New Harmony. The 19th-century visionary established a utopian settlement there in 1825, to establish “a model community where education and social equality would flourish,” as the University of Southern Indiana’s Historic New Harmony Web page puts it. But the type of education that has blossomed on the banks of the Wabash can’t possibly be what Owen envisioned. At a disturbingly high rate, students categorized as needing special education services are directly downwind of mercury-emitting, major power plants that have gone essentially uncontrolled for decades. ...	Now it's more like a pew-topian settlement. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Feb 7, 2010 from Dallas Morning News: Climate change, pollution are suspects in rusty blackbirds' plummeting numbers From North Texas to Florida, a high-pitched voice is strangely missing from the chatter of wintering birds. The rusty blackbird, a winter visitor to Dallas-Fort Worth, has suffered one of North America's steepest and least understood declines. Since 1970, scientists say, its numbers have plunged 85 percent to 99 percent. Experts have a lineup of suspects, including habitat changes, disease, climate change and mercury pollution. But they have no proof of what has pushed Euphagus carolinus toward an ecological brink here and across the continent. ...	Take these broken, rusty wings and learn to fly... ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Feb 7, 2010 from London Independent: Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers An orchestrated campaign is being waged against climate change science to undermine public acceptance of man-made global warming, environment experts claimed last night. The attack against scientists supportive of the idea of man-made climate change has grown in ferocity since the leak of thousands of documents on the subject from the University of East Anglia (UEA) on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit last December. Free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK have received grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the multinational energy company ExxonMobil. Both organisations have funded international seminars pulling together climate change deniers from across the globe. ...	It requires a lot to money to lie this big. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Feb 7, 2010 from Chicago Daily Herald: Traffic's the biggest contributor to the region's air pollution Downtown Chicago has the highest peak levels of nitrogen dioxide in the country, and is the only site in violation of new stricter guidelines against the irritant, which inflames asthma and other lung conditions. That news raised the question of how bad is the Chicago area's overall air quality, 40 years after the Clean Air Act as we know it was created... Forbes magazine recently rated the Chicago metropolitan area as having the second-worst air quality of any big city in the nation, based on a federal 2007 report on the number of days with unhealthy air... Today, the number one cause of air pollution is traffic. ...	Isn't "car" the root word of "carcinogen"? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Feb 6, 2010 from New Scientist: Chikungunya foiled by copycat 'virus' A VACCINE that masquerades as chikungunya virus might finally defeat the mosquito-borne disease. In 2006 a single mutation in the virus allowed it to burst out of Africa via a new species of mosquito. Chikungunya now infects about 1 million people a year around the Indian Ocean and causes intense joint pain which can persist for years. It could invade temperate regions as the mosquitoes' range expands. Gary Nabel of the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues put genes that code for the virus's protein coat into cultured human cells. The proteins assembled themselves into virus-like particles (VLPs), which mimic the virus but aren't infectious. "We got structures that beautifully replicated the natural virus," Nabel says. ...	Scientists rock. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Feb 6, 2010 from Sydney Morning Herald: Arctic ice melt worst than 'most pessimistic' models: study Climate change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice, scientists said on Friday in giving their early findings from the biggest-ever study of Canada's changing north. The research project involved more than 370 scientists from 27 countries who collectively spent 15 months, starting in June 2007, aboard a research vessel above the Arctic Circle. It marked the first time a ship has stayed mobile in Canada's high Arctic for an entire winter... Models predicted only a few years ago that the Arctic would be ice-free in summer by the year 2100, but the increasing pace of climate change now suggests it could happen between 2013 and 2030... ...	So our pessimistic models were actually optimistic? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Feb 6, 2010 from BBC: Climate scepticism 'on the rise', BBC poll shows The Populus poll of 1,001 adults found 25 percent did not think global warming was happening, a rise of 8 percent since a similar poll was conducted in November. The percentage of respondents who said climate change was a reality had fallen from 83 percent in November to 75 percent this month. And only 26 percent of those asked believed climate change was happening and "now established as largely man-made". ...	My problems always go away when I ignore them. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Feb 6, 2010 from Los Angeles Times: Movement to suspend California's global-warming law gathers steam Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations. Supporters say they have "solid commitments" of nearly $600,000 to pay signature gatherers for a November initiative aimed at delaying curbs on the greenhouse gas emissions of power plants and factories until the state's unemployment rate drops.... "We are on fire," said GOP Assemblyman Dan Logue, a sponsor of the proposed initiative. "People are calling from all over the country. This will be the most intense campaign the state has seen in 50 years." ...	A rather unfortunate metaphor, dude. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Feb 6, 2010 from Canwest News Service: Arctic melting to cost $2.4 trillion U.S. by 2050: Study IQALUIT — The global cost of Arctic melting could reach $2.4 trillion U.S. by 2050 if current warming trends continue, according to a study released Friday. "The cumulative cost of the melting Arctic in the next 40 years is equivalent to the annual gross domestic products of Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom combined," according to the authors of the study prepared for the Pew Environment Group... The study notes that the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet. According to the findings, Arctic melting this year alone will be "equal to 40 per cent of all U.S. industrial emission this year or (similar to) bringing on line more than 500 large coal-burning power plants"... ...	You mean we can spend our way out of this? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Feb 6, 2010 from London Daily Telegraph: China threatens world health by unleashing waves of superbugs China's reckless use of antibiotics in the health system and agricultural production is unleashing an explosion of drug resistant superbugs that endanger global health, according to leading scientists. Chinese doctors routinely hand out multiple doses of antibiotics for simple maladies like the sore throats and the country's farmers excessive dependence on the drugs has tainted the food chain. Studies in China show a "frightening" increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus bacteria, also know as MRSA. There are warnings that new strains of antibiotic-resistant bugs will spread quickly through international air travel and internation[al] food sourcing. ...	China: petri dish for the Apocalypse! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 5, 2010 from New York Times: U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national program intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak....The system was created by the Bush administration in 2004 after the discovery in late 2003 of a cow infected with mad cow disease. Participation of ranchers and farmers in the identification system was voluntary, but the goal was to give every animal, or in the case of pigs and poultry, groups of animals, a unique identification number that would be entered in a database. The movements of animals would be tracked, and if there was a disease outbreak or a sick animal was found, officials could quickly locate other animals that had been exposed. In abandoning the program, called the National Animal Identification System, officials said they would start over in trying to devise a livestock tracing program that could win widespread support from the industry.... ...	Y'all ain't going Big Brother on my pigs! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 5, 2010 from Associated Press: Few remain as 1962 Pa. coal town fire still burns ...After years of delay, state officials are now trying to complete the demolition of Centralia, a borough in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania that all but ceased to exist in the 1980s after the mine fire spread beneath homes and businesses, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes. More than 1,000 people moved out, and 500 structures were razed under a $42 million federal relocation program. But dozens of holdouts ... refused to go - even after their houses were seized through eminent domain in the early 1990s...State officials say the fire continues to burn uncontrolled and could for hundreds of years, until it runs out of fuel. One of their biggest concerns is the danger to tourists who often cluster around steam vents on unstable ground. ...	This town should be turned into a museum, an utterly perfect example of coal's destructiveness. 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, Feb 5, 2010 from Science News: EPA reviews hints of weed killer's fetal risks Last October, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was reopening what the pesticide industry had hoped was a closed chapter on allegations of a popular herbicide’s toxicity. The agency will be convening meetings of its Science Advisory Panel on pesticides throughout 2010 to probe concerns about the safety of atrazine, a weed killer on which most American corn growers rely. The first meeting of these outside experts started Tuesday. And although a large number of studies have indicated that atrazine can perturb hormones in animals and human cells — and might even pose a possible risk of cancer amongst heavily exposed people, these outcomes were not the focus of EPA’s review Tuesday. Risks to babies were. During the SAP’s morning session, Aaron Niman, an EPA scientist, reviewed five recent studies linking atrazine to birth defects and other risks in newborns. ...	It's all about the babies... ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Feb 5, 2010 from SolveClimate: Studies Find Faster Tree Growth as Climate Changes, Potential to Drive Further Warming Forests in the eastern United States appear to be growing faster than they should be, and increases in temperature and carbon dioxide are the likely culprits.... First, local measurements taken over 17 years showed a 12 percent increase in CO2 levels in the area. Temperature measurements from the nearby Baltimore-Washington International Airport over about 100 years indicated a significant increase, as well, and the growing season -- based on first and last frosts of the winter -- has grown by about seven days.... He did say, however, that "if this is a widespread generality that this extra growth is going on, it may well have contributed to slowing the increase in atmospheric CO2." The "metabolism" of the forest seems to have sped up, he said, and it is certainly possible that some negative effects could be associated with such a process.... And even if the increased carbon dioxide could be adding mass to certain forests, there are well-documented negative effects that climate change is having on forests as well. The most striking of these may be the ongoing invasion of pine bark beetles over vast swaths of the Rockies, where millions of trees are being consumed by the beetle infestation. In British Columbia alone, an area bigger than Ireland has already been largely destroyed, and the unprecedented beetle swarms have been linked to warming temperatures.... "It's not just some easy thing that you can say, 'well, temperature will go up so that will be positive for these people, and this will be negative for those people.' It's just very complicated, and the effects will be disruptive. ...	Wait -- you're telling me it's not simple? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 from PhysOrg.com: Oceans reveal further impacts of climate change, says UAB expert "The oceans are a sink for the carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere," says McClintock, who has spent more than two decades researching the marine species off the coast of Antarctica. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by oceans, and through a chemical process hydrogen ions are released to make seawater more acidic. "Existing data points to consistently increasing oceanic acidity, and that is a direct result of increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere; it is incontrovertible," McClintock says. "The ramifications for many of the organisms that call the water home are profound."... "In addition, the increased acidity of the seawater itself can literally begin to eat away at the outer surfaces of shells of existing clams, snails and other calcified organisms, which could cause species to die outright or become vulnerable to new predators." One study McClintock recently conducted with a team of UAB researchers revealed that the shells of post-mortem Antarctic marine invertebrates evidenced erosion and significant loss of mass within only five weeks under simulated acidic conditions. McClintock says acidification also could exert a toll on the world's fisheries, including mollusks and crustaceans. He adds that the potential loss of such marine populations could greatly alter the oceans' long-standing food chains and produce negative ripple effects on human industries or food supplies over time. ...	It may be scientifically incontrovertible -- if you believe in "science." ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 from BBC: Climate change causes wolverine decline across Canada The wolverine, a predator renowned for its strength and tenacious character, may be slowly melting away along with the snowpack upon which it lives. Research shows wolverine numbers are falling across North America. Their decline has been linked to less snow settling as a result of climate change. The study is the first to show a decline in the abundance of any land species due to vanishing snowpack.... In all bar the Yukon, he found that snowpack depth declined significantly between 1968 and 2004.... "It occurred to me that a good first place to look for ecological impacts of that snowpack decline would be with a snow-adapted species like the wolverine," Dr Brodie told the BBC. They found a striking correlation between declining snowpack and falling numbers of the predator. "In provinces where winter snowpack levels are declining fastest, wolverine populations tend to be declining most rapidly," the researchers wrote in the journal article. ...	Call the X-Men -- they'll want to solve that problem! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 from Telegraph.co.uk: Most of Britain's ponds in a 'terrible state' The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology measured animal life and water quality in half a million ponds across the country, from tarns in the Lake District to garden pools. Mostly as a result of pollution from farms, sewers and roads, more than 80 per cent of ponds were judged to be in a "poor" or "very poor state".... "It is shocking that ponds are in such a terrible state. This should be a wake up call for everyone concerned with protecting freshwater wildlife and involved in water management. Practically unnoticed, wildlife-rich, clean and unpolluted ponds have become a rarity in the countryside." ...	Change the name of that 80 percent to "cesspool" -- problem solved! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 from China Daily: Yunnan, Guangxi reel from severe drought The worst drought in 50 years is leaving millions of people and animals without drinking water in Yunnan province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Zhu Zhenghong, 76, from Niubi village in the mountains outside Kunming, capital of Yunnan, sits on a huge rock outside his home at 10 am and 2 pm every day. "I am waiting for the drinking water sent by the government that is the most important thing to me now," he told China Daily yesterday. In Zhu's village, a total of 455 villagers are suffering from the drought, which has killed almost all the corn and bean crops in their fields. "I haven't seen any rain since last September and the stream on the mountain has dried up," Zhu said. ...	And government water... just doesn't taste that good. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 from Environmental Protection: Ecologists Create a More Precise Way to Measure Human Impacts Ecologists from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Baylor University in Texas have developed a new method for measuring the impact of human-caused environmental degradation on biodiversity that is significantly more precise than current methods and has revealed a dramatically lower ecological "tipping point" at which species are threatened.... Baker said the precision of their new method is significantly greater than methods that have been widely used for the past 40 years. For example, a decade-old analysis widely cited by environmental professionals and policymakers suggests that it takes up to 15 percent of impervious surface (meaning roads, roofs, or parking lots) or about 20 to 30 percent developed land in a given area before local water systems no longer sustain normal aquatic life. Baker and King's new method demonstrates that aquatic life actually shows significant loss of biodiversity with only 1 to 3 percent developed land in a watershed. ...	"Tipping points" presume that we're currently balanced. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 from Los Angeles Times: Obama urges greater use of biofuels The Obama administration gave a boost to the corn and coal industries Wednesday, announcing a series of moves to accelerate biofuel use and deploy so-called clean-coal technology on power plants. Unveiling the actions in a meeting with energy-state governors at the White House, President Obama said the steps would create jobs in rural areas, reduce foreign energy dependence and curb the emissions that scientists blame for global warming... Most notably, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made final a regulation that could give corn ethanol a much larger share of the renewable-fuel market mandated by Congress in 2007. ...	So much for leading us into The Promised Land. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 from Climate Wire: 'All Kinds of Yelling' Expected From Obama's Lobbyist Crackdown The Obama administration's call for a lobbying crackdown created confusion on K Street yesterday even as it spawned cheers among environmental and watchdog groups. The issue came to the forefront this week after Norm Eisen, White House special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, blogged about how the administration plans to revolutionize how lobbyists disclose their activities and contribute money to candidates for federal office... Considering that climate change is an issue producing lobbyists from almost every industry in the United States, the plans, if enacted, could generate a flood of data about the discussions and attendees at pivotal meetings during the drafting of global warming legislation. ...	No matter what, a reduction in lies and bullshit is good for the planet. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 3, 2010 from New York Times: California Sets Up Statewide Network to Monitor Global-Warming Gases California is preparing to introduce the first statewide system of monitoring devices to detect global-warming emissions, installing them on towers throughout the state. The monitoring network, which is expected to grow, will initially focus on pinpointing the sources and concentrations of methane, a potent contributor to climate change. The California plan is an early example of the kind of system that may be needed in many places as countries develop plans to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases. ...	Unless we'd rather NOT know. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 3, 2010 from Associated Press: Gas drilling in Appalachia runs into resistance: What do you do with the wastewater? A drilling technique that is beginning to unlock staggering quantities of natural gas underneath Appalachia also yields a troubling byproduct: powerfully briny wastewater that can kill fish and give tap water a foul taste and odor. With fortunes, water quality and cheap energy hanging in the balance, exploration companies, scientists and entrepreneurs are scrambling for an economical way to recycle the wastewater. ...	We could always bottle it. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 3, 2010 from Telegraph.co.uk: Giant squid invade California Giant squid weighing up to 60 pounds (27 kilograms) have swum into waters off Newport Beach and are being caught by sport fishermen by the hundreds. The squid were noticed last week and fishermen started booking twilight fishing trips to catch them the huge creatures.... The Humboldt squid is also called the jumbo squid or jumbo flying squid and squirts ink to protect itself. They can grow up to 100 pounds in weight and six feet long and follow food sources.... But the giant squid is not unknown off the coast of America. In September a record-breaking 19ft-long squid, weighing 103 pounds, was caught off the Gulf of Mexico. ...	If they follow food sources... and this is unprecedented... then what's happening with their normal food sources? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Feb 3, 2010 from Associated Press: UN says nations' greenhouse gas pledges too little The reduction goals announced by the nations responsible for the bulk of the world's greenhouse gas emissions are likely to fall short of what many scientists say is needed to limit the disastrous effects of climate change, a U.N. official said Monday... "It is likely, according to a number of analysts, that if we add up all those figures that were being discussed around Copenhagen, if they're all implemented, it will still be quite difficult to reach the 2 degrees," Pasztor told The Associated Press. "That is the bottom line, but you can look at it negatively and positively. The negative part is that it's not good enough," he said. "The positive side is that for the first time, we have a goal, a clear goal that we're all working toward, and we know what the commitments are. ... Before we would just talk." ...	Now that's what I call p-p-progressssh. 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.
Wed, Feb 3, 2010 from USA Today: Do you use more energy than your neighbors? More than 1 million U.S. households now receive reports on how their energy consumption compares with their neighbors as utilities encourage conservation, some with smiley faces for those doing well. The reports — deployed by 25 utilities, including six of the 10 biggest — have resulted in households cutting energy use an average of 2 percent to 3 percent, says Alex Laskey, co-founder of Opower, which provides the reports. While that may sound small, the savings add up. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which started sending the reports to 35,000 households in 2008, says the households saved enough energy in a year to power 800 homes for a year. Utilities use different ways to tell consumers where they stand. The Sacramento utility sent its first reports with frown faces for those consuming more energy than their neighbors. "They didn't like it," says project manager Alexandra Crawford. The utility dropped the frowns. ...	Americans ... need to be treated special-like. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 2, 2010 from WWF: New Pentagon report declares climate change and energy as key issues "shaping the future security environment" The Pentagon released (1 February 2010), its Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) for 2010, stating that crafting a strategic approach to climate and energy are a priority. The QDR states, "Climate change and energy are two key issues that will play a significant role in shaping the future security environment. Although they produce distinct types of challenges, climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked." The close relationship between conflict and environmental security has been acknowledged by scholars for decades but has attracted little attention from the security community. This QDR along with recent reports, Congressional testimony by admirals and generals alike, and the Central Intelligence Agency's launching of The Center on Climate Change and National Security signals recognition and a changing approach. ...	Let's just declare a "war on climaticide" and get cracking. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 2, 2010 from Climate Wire: Insurance Regulators in Ind. Reject Climate Regulation; Some Others Appear 'Lukewarm' Indiana officials will not impose climate regulations on insurance companies, making it the first state to abandon the landmark measure before it goes into effect nationwide this spring.... "If I thought some cataclysmic climate change was gonna happen in the next five or 10 years, I'd be more serious about this," said Scott Richardson, the insurance regulator in South Carolina. "I think this is a long, long haul, is what I'm saying. I just don't think it's imminent." Mirroring a handful of other commissioners, Richardson hasn't decided whether to make BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina -- the only company in the state that would be required to respond to the "climate risk survey" -- answer the questions. He's "lukewarm" to the idea. ...	Things are going to get a lot hotter than "lukewarm." ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 2, 2010 from Environmental Health News: Human placenta cells die after BPA exposure. Exposure to very low concentrations of the plasticizer bisphenol A (BPA) causes cellular damage and death in cultured human placenta cells, researchers report. The doses used for this study are similar to blood levels found in pregnant women. A particularly worrying finding is that effects were most pronounced at the lowest -- rather than the highest -- concentrations of BPA indicating that placental development could be particularly sensitive to BPA exposure. Damage to the placenta can induce a range of adverse pregnancy outcomes including premature birth, preeclampsia or even pregnancy loss. It is not known if exposure to BPA is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes in humans. ...	Guess I won't be eating placentas anymore. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Feb 2, 2010 from BBC: Brazil grants environmental licence for Belo Monte dam Brazil's government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest. Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will cause devastation in a large area of the rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous groups. However, the government says whoever is awarded the project will have to pay $800m to protect the environment... However, critics say diverting the flow of the Xingu river will still lead to devastation in a large area of the rainforest and damage fish stocks. They say the lives of up to 40,000 people could be affected as 500 sq km of land would be flooded. ...	Shouldn't the river itself have something to say about this? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 1, 2010 from Virginia Tech, via EurekAlert: Engineers explore environmental concerns of nanotechnology History has shown that previous industrial revolutions, such as those involving asbestos and chloroflurocarbons, have had some serious environmental impacts. Might nanotechnology also pose a risk? ... Scientists and engineers at the center have outlined plans to conduct research on the possible environmental health impacts of nanomaterials. The plans include new approaches, such as creating a predictive toxicology model based on cell assays and building ecosystems to track nanoparticles.... In their preliminary studies, results indicate that "oxidation does impact solubility, as absorbance after resuspending in water is lower for fullerenes exposed to ozone." The implication is that reactions in the atmosphere can transform nanoparticles and make them more likely to dissolve in water once they deposit back to earth. There, they can travel farther and come in contact with more organisms than if they were stuck to soil. ...	Everyone knows only good things come in small packages. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 1, 2010 from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via ScienceDaily: Emissions of Potent Greenhouse Gas Increase Despite Reduction Efforts Despite a decade of efforts worldwide to curb its release into the atmosphere, NOAA and university scientists have measured increased emissions of a greenhouse gas that is thousands of times more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide and persists in the atmosphere for nearly 300 years. The substance HFC-23, or trifluoromethane, is a byproduct of chlorodifluoromethane, or HCFC-22, a refrigerant in air conditioners and refrigerators and a starting material for producing heat and chemical-resistant products, cables and coatings. ...	Maybe we should stop trying so hard. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 1, 2010 from London Guardian: Global deal on climate change in 2010 'all but impossible' A global deal to tackle climate change is all but impossible in 2010, leaving the scale and pace of action to slow global warming in coming decades uncertain, according to senior figures across the world involved in the negotiations. "The forces trying to tackle climate change are in disarray, wandering in small groups around the battlefield like a beaten army," said a senior British diplomat. An important factor cited is an impasse within the UN organisation charged with delivering a global deal, which today will start assessing the pledges made by individual countries by a deadline that passed last night. ...	What's the hurry? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 1, 2010 from Jacksonville Times-Union: Jacksonville sealcoat raises home health concern A material that's spread on parking lots and driveways in Jacksonville and nationally may be causing buildups of cancer-causing dust inside some homes, government researchers say. The finding by scientists who normally investigate water pollution raises questions about a potential health hazard, especially for children. The material, known as sealcoat, is a shiny, black substance made from coal tar, a byproduct of some industrial coal uses. As much as half of coal tar's weight can come from a family of chemical compounds called PAHs -- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -- that increase cancer risks for people.... The new study concludes that people walking across those lots are accidentally bringing home small amounts of PAHs. "We track in whatever is outdoors," said Barbara Mahler, a hydrologist who was the lead researcher on a study published last month in Environmental Science & Technology, a professional journal. "When we bring in little bits of that sealcoat inside our homes on the bottoms of our shoes, it ends up in our house dust." ...	Another reason to just stay home! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 1, 2010 from Chemical & Engineering News: Fluorochemicals Go Short Nearly all humans, and a large proportion of wildlife, are contaminated with environmentally persistent long-chain perfluoroalkyl compounds. That revelation, around for a decade now, has brought dramatic change to the fluorochemicals industry. Spurred on by academic researchers and concerns from environmental and consumer advocacy groups, chemical companies have worked with the Environmental Protection Agency to phase out perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and are in the process of phasing out perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The companies are replacing PFOS, PFOA, and their associated compounds with shorter perfluoroalkyl chain compounds that impart the same functional properties as the longer chain compounds. Although the alternatives are just as persistent, they aren't as bioaccumulative and appear to have a better toxicity profile -- which is still being confirmed by testing -- and are thus considered sound replacements. ...	If there's no acronym, is this really an improvement? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 1, 2010 from Mongabay: Russian police raid environmental group working to protect Lake Baikal Russian police have raided the Baikal Environmental Wave organization reports the Moscow Times. Police seized several computers, citing the reason for the raid to uncover the use of unlicensed software. A member of the group, however, linked the raid to its public stance against reopening the Baikalsk Paper and Pulp Mills on Lake Baikal, which closed due to pollution concerns two years ago. "All of our programs are licensed. They confiscated the computers without checking the license documents, saying they didn't have experts to look at them," Galina Kulebyakina, a member of Baikal Environmental Wave, told The Moscow Times. The re-opening of the mills was recently announced by Vladimir Putin after he visited the bottom of Lake Baikal in a submarine, claiming he could see no sign of environmental damage. ...	Damage? What damage? It looks exactly the way it looks! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Feb 1, 2010 from WWF: French Guiana set to tackle bycatch A new law requiring French Guianese shrimp fishers to use special devices that reduce unwanted fish catch will help better protect marine turtles and other vulnerable marine species in the region. As of Jan. 1, the country's fishing fleet under the new law now has to use a device called the Trash and Turtle Excluder Device, or TTED, to limit accidental capture of larger marine species. Widespread use of this device, which took three years to develop, will greatly reduce bycatch among shrimp trawlers. In French Guiana, tropical shrimp fisheries represent a major source of undesired bycatch. Without a bycatch reduction device in place, shrimp represents only 10 to 30 percent of the total catch, meaning the rest is made up of other marine species. Nearly half of the world's recorded fish catch is unused, wasted or not accounted for, according to estimates in an April scientific paper co-authored by WWF. ...	TTEDs rule -- and I bet the French acronym is much cooler! ApocaDoc permalink