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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:
carbon emissions ~ oil issues ~ health impacts ~ global warming ~ climate impacts ~ ocean acidification ~ contamination ~ ecosystem interrelationships ~ massive die-off ~ bad policy ~ ocean warming

ApocaDocuments (37) gathered this week:
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 from Wired Science: Controlling Soot Might Quickly Reverse a Century of Global Warming "Soot has such a strong climate effect, but it has a lifetime in the atmosphere of just a few weeks. Carbon dioxide has a lifetime of 30 to 50 years. If you totally stop CO2 emissions today, the Arctic will still be totally melted," said Stanford University climate scientist Mark Jacobson. If soot pollution is immediately curtailed, "the reductions start to occur pretty much right away. Within months, you'll start seeing temperature differences."... Soot comes from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, and also from the burning of wood or dung for fuel. Crop residue and forest-burning are another major source. When aloft, the dark particles absorb sunlight, raising local temperatures and causing rain clouds to form, which in turn deprive other areas of moisture. When soot lands on snow or ice, its effects are magnified, because melts reveal fresh patches of heat-absorbing dark ground. In 2003, a NASA simulation blamed soot for 25 percent of the past century's observed warming. A study last year suggested that soot was responsible for almost half of a 3.4-degree Fahrenheit rise in average Arctic temperatures since 1890 -- a greater rise than anywhere else on Earth. Soot also appears to be a culprit in drastic melts of Himalayan glaciers which provide water to much of South Asia, and in disrupting the monsoon cycles on which the region's farmers rely. The United Nations puts the soot-related death toll at 1.5 million people annually. ... If soot disappeared overnight, average global temperatures would drop within 15 years by about 1 degree Fahrenheit, maybe a little more. "It's low-hanging fruit," said Jacobsen. "It's straightforward to address, and it can be addressed." ...	A soot tweet should be sent tout suite. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 from London Guardian: Insects could be the key to meeting food needs of growing global population Saving the planet one plateful at a time does not mean cutting back on meat, according to new research: the trick may be to switch our diet to insects and other creepy-crawlies. The raising of livestock such as cows, pigs and sheep occupies two-thirds of the world's farmland and generates 20 percent of all the greenhouse gases driving global warming. As a result, the United Nations and senior figures want to reduce the amount of meat we eat and the search is on for alternatives. ...	Now where is my bbq dipping sauce? ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 from Seattle Times: Oysters a sign of trouble from Puget Sound acidity Pacific oysters in the wild on Washington's coast haven't reproduced in six seasons. Scientists suspect ocean-chemistry changes linked to the fossil-fuel emissions that cause global warming are helping kill these juvenile shellfish. The oceans are becoming more acidic, and that corrosive water is finding its way into Puget Sound. No one knows how it will impact the Sound's sea life. But scientists in laboratories around the globe increasingly find corrosive water can alter marine systems in strange, subtle and sometimes worrisome ways. ...	The whole planet's losing its sex drive! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 from Huffington Post: Scientists Find Evidence That Oil And Dispersant Mix Is Making Its Way Into The Foodchain Marine biologists started finding orange blobs under the translucent shells of crab larvae in May, and have continued to find them "in almost all" of the larvae they collect, all the way from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Pensacola, Fla. -- more than 300 miles of coastline -- said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. And now, a team of researchers from Tulane University using infrared spectrometry to determine the chemical makeup of the blobs has detected the signature for Corexit, the dispersant BP used so widely in the Deepwater Horizon "It does appear that there is a Corexit sort of fingerprint in the blob samples that we ran," Erin Gray, a Tulane biologist, told the Huffington Post Thursday. Two independent tests are being run to confirm those findings, "so don't say that we're 100 percent sure yet," Gray said.... "There are so many animals that eat those little larvae," said Robert J. Diaz, a marine scientist at the College of William and Mary.... ...	... oh me oh my oh / son of a gun, there ain't no fun / on the bayou. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Aug 1, 2010 from DaijiWorld (India): Toxic Cancer-Causing Dyes Found in China Garments Toxic dyes that can cause cancer have been detected in some garments in China, creating concern that buyers may also be exposed to health hazards. Beijing's municipal bureau of industry and commerce said in a latest quality test report that 65 clothing brands in the country have failed to meet quality standards, the Global Times reported. Coats produced by a Beijing-based company were found to contain decomposable aromatic amine, a cancer-causing textile dye that was banned by authorities in 2006. The poisonous dye cannot be washed out of the fabric and is easily absorbed by human skin, which can cause cancer over long-term exposure, the China Textile News said.... "Wearing a T-shirt could lead to cancer? It sounds like nonsense. But since the authorities have found something, we'd better not wear such clothes any more," she said. ...	The race to "cheap" can be so expensive. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 from Technology Review: Fossil Fuel Subsidies Dwarf Support for Renewables A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says altogether governments spent between $43 and $46 billion on renewable energy and biofuels last year, not including indirect support, such as subsidies to corn farmers that help ethanol production. Direct subsidies of fossil fuels came to $557 billion, the report says. This disparity raises the question--if the report is right and fossil fuels require so much backing, can they compete with renewables without government support? After all, some renewables--such as sugarcane based biofuels and some wind farms--can already compete with fossil fuels. Without the huge government subsidies for fossil fuels, wouldn't they be eclipsed by renewables? The answer, for now, is no. So far renewables just can't provide enough fuel and power to displace fossil fuels. ...	Quit subsidizing the most profitable industry on earth? But who knows what chaos might ensue? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 from USA Today: July could be hottest month on record Relentlessly scorching temperatures have July flirting with the record books to become the hottest month since weather data were first collected more than a century ago. Cities such as New York, Washington and Las Vegas are on track to set record average temperatures for any month. Philadelphia, Phoenix and Raleigh, N.C., are on pace for their second-warmest month, the National Weather Service says.... Cool weather in the Northwest may keep July from setting a national heat record, says Deke Arndt of the climatic data center. Much of the Midwest and Deep South have been significantly warmer than average in July, but no records should be set in those areas. ...	I'm just relieved that it's weather, and not climate. Whew! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 from IEEE Spectrum: Technically Speaking: Hacking the Planet My goal here, as usual, is to focus on the new language being generated by geoengineers and others in this burgeoning field, and there's plenty of it. The overall goal of solar radiation management (or SRM)--the various schemes to reflect sunlight back into space and thus reduce global warming--is global dimming, which is the gradual reduction in the amount of sunlight reaching Earth's surface. One way to do this is to increase Earth's overall reflectivity, which is also called its albedo, so this form of planet hacking is known as albedo engineering. Examples of proposed projects include cloud brightening, increasing the reflectivity of marine clouds (also called cloud whitening); creating a stratoshield through stratosphere doping.... These two procedures are linked as carbon capture and storage, or CCS. Strategies include adding nutrients to the ocean to increase the number of organisms that can capture carbon, known as ocean nourishment (when the nutrient is iron, this technique is also called iron fertilization); making artificial trees with plastic "leaves" that capture carbon; creating carbon sinks, reservoirs that store carbon; injecting carbon into underground geological structures (geosequestration) or into biological entities (biosequestration), particularly a form of charcoal called biochar; and pumping carbon into the deep ocean, where it dissolves (ocean dissolution). ...	Now that we have a special language for geoengineering, we're ready for groupthink! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 from Wisconsin State Journal: Glacier Park's future uncertain The gorgeous million-acre park in northwestern Montana celebrates its 100th birthday this year. But many of its glaciers have melted, and scientists predict the rest may not last even another decade. The forests are drier and disease-ridden, leading to bigger wildfires. Climate change is forcing animals that feed off plants to adapt.... The change is visible to the naked eye, with vast moraines left behind as the giant glaciers melt away. Climate change is blamed for the increasing size and frequency of wildfires and for lower stream flows as summer progresses. What this all means for the bears, wolves and other big predators in the park is unclear, Fagre said.... Fagre said that based on geologic evidence, the park had about 150 glaciers in 1850, the end of the so-called Little Ice Age. Most would have still been around when the park was established in 1910. Only about 25 named glaciers are left, and they could be gone by 2020, Fagre said. Many experts consider Glacier Park a harbinger of Earth's future, a laboratory where changes in the environment will likely show up first.... ...	What a naming opportunity! Oilco National Park? Coalco Energy Park? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 from Charleston Post and Courier: Jellyfish invasion Hundreds of stings from these translucent blobs have been reported along the Charleston County coastline since last weekend. Some suspect a swarm of jellies rode in with strong onshore winds and roiling surf. Others wonder if a shift in the Gulf Stream or this week's blast of thunderstorms are to blame. Whatever the reason, they are here -- in force.... The beach parks normally see just a couple of reported stings a month, if any at all. Isle of Palms, however, had 162 reported stings last Sunday and an additional 186 jellyfish run-ins on Tuesday. The number of reported stings on Folly Beach jumped from 15 on Wednesday to 150 the following day, Bowie said. Several stings also were reported at Beachwalker Park on Kiawah Island, she said. Among the reports is at least one unconfirmed run-in with a dreaded Portuguese man-of-war, the unofficial king of sting. ...	Hey, Charleston's where the sun and fun is -- wouldn't you be there if you were a jellyfish? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 from AP, via PhysOrg: Cleanup of Mich. river oil spill will take months Officials investigating the cause of a huge oil spill along a major river in southern Michigan say it will take months to clean up the mess, and damage to wetlands and wildlife may last considerably longer.... EPA chief Lisa Jackson said she was "very confident" the oil would not reach Lake Michigan, where the river empties about 80 miles from where the spill has been contained.... Federal and company officials said they were close to reaching the 40-foot section of pipe containing the break, which has been inaccessible because it's in a marshy, oil-covered area. Only when the pipe is reached will it be certain that the leak has stopped, said Ralph Dollhopf, EPA's on-scene coordinator.... The bigger problems for fish may come within a week or so, if the oil spill results in decreased water oxygen levels. Wesley said insects, algae, frogs and turtles along the river have been killed in high numbers - which could hurt the fish food supply. "The effects are probably going to be more long-term," Wesley said. "We probably won't know the full effects for weeks or months or years." ...	I think we call that difficulty a "Collapse-22." ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 30, 2010 from New York Times: Oil Dispersants Shifting Ecosystem Impacts in Gulf, Scientists Warn "This is a management decision, to use dispersants," College of William and Mary marine science professor Robert Diaz said yesterday. "It doesn't make the oil go away, it just puts it from one part of the ecosystem to another." That dispersed oil now hovers, diluted in the water column, posing a challenge for scientists to track and measure the subsea plumes. Mapping the long-term effects of the nearly 2 million gallons of dispersant used by BP PLC may well be equally difficult, given the array of unanswered questions that surround the products' rapid breakdown of oil droplets and their chronic toxicity. In other words, while dispersants may have helped spare the Gulf's birds, the chemicals are likely shifting dangers to other species lower in the food chain. The National Research Council described dispersant use in 2005 as "a conscious decision" to direct hydrocarbons to one part of the marine ecosystem, "decreasing the risk to water surface and shoreline habitats while increasing the potential risk to organisms in the water column and on the seafloor."... ...	BP wouldn't want to just make it seem gone. C'mon, they're a member of the planet too! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 30, 2010 from Huffington Post: China Oil Spill Far Bigger Than Stated, U.S. Expert Says But Rick Steiner, a former University of Alaska marine conservation specialist, estimated 60,000 tons (18.47 million gallons) to 90,000 tons (27.70 million gallons) of oil actually spilled into the Yellow Sea. "It's enormous. That's at least as large as the official estimate of the Exxon Valdez disaster" in Alaska, he told The Associated Press. The size of the offshore area affected by the spill is likely more than 400 square miles (1,000 square kilometers), he added.... The estimates, though rough, could complicate China's efforts to move on from its latest environmental disaster: Dalian's mayor already declared a "decisive victory" in the oil spill cleanup, state media reported this week.... Steiner, who worked on the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, announced the China estimates after touring the oil spill area as a consultant for the environmental group Greenpeace China. "It's habitual for governments to understate oil spills," Steiner told a news conference. "But the severity of the discrepancy is unusual here." An official with Dalian's propaganda department told The Associated Press he was not aware of Steiner's estimates and had no comment. ...	When the propaganda department is speechless, it's serious! 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, Jul 30, 2010 from Reuters: Dead whale found pinned to Alaska cruise ship A dead whale was discovered pinned to the bow of a Princess Cruises luxury liner near Juneau, the third such incident involving the company's Alaska fleet in a decade, officials said on Thursday. The whale, believed to be an adult female humpback measuring 43 feet in length, was found Wednesday on the ship's so-called "bulbous bow," the section of the vessel's leading tip that goes through the water, said Julie Speegle, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Juneau.... About a dozen biologists and marine-mammal experts were examining the whale carcass on Thursday, NOAA said. Experts will conduct a necropsy on Friday to try to determine the cause of death, NOAA said. Humpback whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. ...	Whattaya expect? It shouldn't have been swimming in our sea lanes! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 30, 2010 from CBC: BPA found in cash register and ATM receipts A senior scientist with Environmental Working Group says the reason for concern is the amount of BPA found on receipts. "The BPA is in much higher concentration in the receipt and much higher concentrations are available to be wiped off the receipts," Dave Andrews told CBC News. The University of Missouri laboratory did the analysis on 36 receipts gathered from automated teller machines, and major retailers such as McDonald's, KFC, Wal-Mart and Safeway. The total amount of BPA on receipts was 250 to 1,000 times the amount typically found in a food can or plastic bottle.... "It's a concern that retail workers who are handling receipts all day long would be exposed to higher amounts," he said.... People working in the retail sector had 30 per cent more BPA on average than other Americans.... It also warns not to use an alcohol based hand sanitizer after handling a receipt as it causes greater absorption of the chemical. ...	Does the fun never stop? ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 30, 2010 from Reuters, via Scientific American: EPA denies challenges to greenhouse gas rule The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday rejected 10 petitions challenging EPA's 2009 finding that climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and the environment. The EPA received petitions questioning the scientific basis for the so-called endangerment finding -- which cleared the way for the EPA to curb carbon dioxide emissions -- from Texas and Virginia and groups like the Ohio Coal Association.... "The endangerment finding is based on years of science from the U.S. and around the world," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement. "These petitions -- based as they are on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy -- provide no evidence to undermine our determination." ...	That's denial I can get behind! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 30, 2010 from LiveScience, via DesdemonaDespair: Oceans May Be Primed for Mass Extinction The Gulf and the rest of the world's waters also face the uncertain and potentially devastating effects of climate change. Warming ocean temperatures reduce the water's oxygen content, and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is altering the basic chemistry of the ocean, making it more acidic. There is no shortage of evidence that both of these effects have begun to wreak havoc on certain important creatures.... "Today the synergistic effects of human impacts are laying the groundwork for a comparably great Anthropocene mass extinction in the oceans, with unknown ecological and evolutionary consequences...". When it comes to the oceans, research shows a parallel to the Permian-Triassic extinction -- also known as the Great Dying -- which eradicated 95 percent of marine species when the oceans lost their oxygen about 250 million years ago. The same phenomenon is taking place in many areas of today's oceans.... "If current trends continue, the extinctions of the coming decades will be clearly visible to future geologists comparable in scale to the great extinction events in Earth's history," he wrote. "I think it will be an enigmatic extinction. Future geologists will try to figure out why we apparently tried to kill off so many species, but they will find it hard to believe that simple reason is stupidity." ...	It's not that we're stupid. It's that we know we're the king of the world. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 30, 2010 from BusinessGreen: Keep the coal fires burning a bit longer, says energy analyst Britain should renegotiate its commitment to close old coal- and oil-fired power stations by 2015, so it can decarbonise generating capacity without racking up high costs for business and consumers, claims a report from energy analysts to be published next week.... The report, Realigning UK Energy Policy, states: "The recession and global energy prices have conspired to ensure that these plants are unlikely to reach their 20,000 hours running time limit by 2015, when they must close, according to current commitments. "At a time when this type of plant will be needed the most, it makes sense from both security of supply and cost perspectives to allow this flexible capacity to remain on the system, while still limiting their operations to 20,000 hours, providing some much-needed breathing space within the energy infrastructure supply chain." ...	Heck yeah! We have plenty of time! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 29, 2010 from University of Calgary, via EurekAlert: Gender-bending fish on the rise in southern Alberta Chemicals present in two rivers in southern Alberta are likely the cause of the feminization of fish say researchers at the University of Calgary.... "We found that chemicals - man-made and naturally occurring - that have the potential to harm fish were present along approximately 600 km of river," ... The study focused on two rivers in the South Saskatchewan River Basin: The Red Deer and Oldman rivers, located in southern Alberta, Canada. The water was analyzed for more than two dozen organic contaminants, many with hormone-like activity, commonly found in wastewater or rivers impacted by human and agricultural activity. Compounds detected in the water included synthetic estrogens (birth control pill compounds and hormone therapy drugs); bisphenol A, a chemical used in making plastics; and certain types of natural and synthetic steroids that are byproducts of agricultural run-off and cattle farming.... Our results showed females make up 85 per cent of the population of longnose dace. In the upstream locations, females comprise 55 per cent of the population," says Habibi... ...	And what males remain... are exhausted. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 29, 2010 from BBC: Hundreds of Dead Penguins Washed Up in Brazil Scientists are still investigating what could have caused the death of around 500 animals found on the shores of Sao Paulo state. They say autopsies carried out on some of the carcasses suggest they could have starved to death, as their stomachs were completely empty. They are now trying to establish if strong currents and colder temperatures may be to blame. Thiago do Nascimento of the Peruibe Aquarium says the cooler than usual temperatures off the coast could have driven away the fish and squid the penguins feed on. But he did not rule out that overfishing could have decimated the penguins' food sources. Mr Nascimento said between 100 and 150 penguins showed up on the beaches every year, but that they were normally alive, with only around 10 washed up dead in an average year. "What worries us this year, is the absurdly high number of penguins that have appeared dead in a short period of time," he told the Associated Press news agency. ...	"Absurdly high"? Beckett: What are we doing here? Ionesco: Exit the King. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 29, 2010 from New Scientist: Phytoplankton [and more] in decline: bye bye food chain Ocean life is being wiped out from the bottom up. The global population of microscopic plants that float in ocean water and support most marine life has declined by 1 per cent every year since 1899.... Whatever the cause, it's a remarkably bad piece of news, because although phytoplankton are neither glamorous nor cute, the entire ocean food chain depends on them.... [Corals] are threatened by changing ocean temperatures and ocean acidification, both triggered by humanity's greenhouse gas emissions. [Key saproxylic beetles in] Europe, at least, 24 per cent are under threat, and we would miss them if they went. Similarly, insects such as butterflies and bees that pollinate plants are probably in decline (though the data are far from complete). And fungi have barely been assessed at all, but along with bacteria they are the organisms that do the lion's share of decomposition, which is whiffy but essential. In other words, never mind the pandas: it's plankton, bugs and fungi you should be worrying about. ...	We are the food chain's weakest link. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 29, 2010 from ACS, via EurekAlert: The fungus among us: A new way of decomposing BPA-containing plastic Just as cooking helps people digest food, pretreating polycarbonate plastic -- source of a huge environmental headache because of its bisphenol A (BPA) content -- may be the key to disposing of the waste in an eco-friendly way, scientists have found. Their new study is in ACS' Biomacromolecules, a monthly journal. Mukesh Doble and Trishul Artham note that manufacturers produce about 2.7 million tons of plastic containing BPA each year. Polycarbonate is an extremely recalcitrant plastic, used in everything from screwdriver handles to eyeglass lenses, DVDs, and CDs. Some studies have suggested that the BPA may have a range of adverse health effects, sparking the search for an environmentally safe way of disposing of waste plastic to avoid release of BPA. The scientists pretreated polycarbonate with ultraviolet light and heat and exposed it to three kinds of fungi -- including the fabled white-rot fungus, used commercially for environmental remediation of the toughest pollutants. The scientists found that fungi grew better on pretreated plastic, using its BPA and other ingredients as a source of energy and breaking down the plastic. After 12 months, there was almost no decomposition of the untreated plastic, compared to substantial decomposition of the pretreated plastic, with no release of BPA. ...	That fabled fungus needs an agent, and a brand change. WhiteFix? GreenWhite? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 29, 2010 from Christopher Booker, in the Telegraph: Desperate days for the warmists Ever more risibly desperate become the efforts of the believers in global warming to hold the line for their religion, after the battering it was given last winter by all those scandals surrounding the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. One familiar technique they use is to attribute to global warming almost any unusual weather event anywhere in the world. Last week, for instance, it was reported that Russia has recently been experiencing its hottest temperatures and longest drought for 130 years. The head of the Russian branch of WWF, the environmental pressure group, was inevitably quick to cite this as evidence of climate change, claiming that in future "such climate abnormalities will only become more frequent". He didn't explain what might have caused the similar hot weather 130 years ago. Meanwhile, notably little attention has been paid to the disastrous chill which has been sweeping South America thanks to an inrush of air from the Antarctic, killing hundreds in the continent's coldest winter for years. ...	Warmist? I'm a Chaosist! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 29, 2010 from BBC: Floods wash barrels of chemicals into China river Rescue teams in north-east China are working to retrieve 3,000 barrels of chemicals washed into a major river, state media say. Severe floods washed the barrels, from two chemical storage facilities, into the Songhua river in Jilin city. Around 400 barrels have been recovered so far by workers at eight stations on the river. Water quality was being checked and no chemicals had yet been found in the water, state media said. Several parts of China have been hit by flooding in recent weeks, amid the worst seasonal rains in a decade. Elsewhere in Jilin, 30,000 people in the town of Kouqian were said to be trapped by floodwaters after a reservoir and two rivers burst its banks.... The remaining 3,000 contained flammable chemicals, it said. Water supplies in the city of 4.5 million people were briefly suspended and panic-buying reported as residents stocked up on bottled water. ...	Something tells me that any catastrophic flood would have flooded the river with lots of chemicals. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Jul 28, 2010 from Dalhousie University via ScienceDaily: Marine Phytoplankton Declining: Striking Global Changes at the Base of the Marine Food Web Linked to Rising Ocean Temperatures A new article published in the 29 July issue of the journal Nature reveals for the first time that microscopic marine algae known as "phytoplankton" have been declining globally over the 20th century. Phytoplankton forms the basis of the marine food chain and sustains diverse assemblages of species ranging from tiny zooplankton to large marine mammals, seabirds, and fish. Says lead author Daniel Boyce, "Phytoplankton is the fuel on which marine ecosystems run. A decline of phytoplankton affects everything up the food chain, including humans."... documented phytoplankton declines of about 1 percent of the global average per year. This trend is particularly well documented in the Northern Hemisphere and after 1950, and would translate into a decline of approximately 40 percent since 1950. The scientists found that long-term phytoplankton declines were negatively correlated with rising sea surface temperatures and changing oceanographic conditions. ...	Does this mean I won't be able to get my Phytoplankton Krispies? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Jul 28, 2010 from International Business Times: Common Herbicide Suspected in Frog Sex Changes The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will present findings in September on the safety of atrazine, one of the most commonly used herbicides in the U.S. But some studies seem to show that the chemical affects the sexual development of amphibians, raising concerns about its effect on people. Two studies earlier this year, one from the University of California at Berkeley and the other at Canada's University of Ottawa, say exposure to atrazine at concentrations below the EPA limit can cause abnormalities. Syngenta, atrazine's largest producer, maintains that atrazine has demonstrated its safety.... When the EPA presents its evaluation in September, it will seek peer review, but many groups representing farmers and the chemical industry are worried that the agency could ban it. ...	Apparently, farmers and chemical industry people don't mind a little hermaphroditism. 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, Jul 28, 2010 from San Francisco Chronicle: Scientists say soot a key factor in warming Soot from diesel engines, coal-fired power plants and burning wood is a bigger cause of global warming than previously thought, and is the major cause of the rapid melting of the Arctic's sea ice, Stanford climate experts say. The evidence of mounting pollution by carbon particles in soot has been inadequately counted in international government debates over policies to cope with the warming problem, according to Stanford's Mark Z. Jacobson, leader of the university's Atmosphere and Energy program and a professor of civil and environmental engineering. ...	Soot?? What are we, trapped in a Dickens novel? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Jul 28, 2010 from Bloomberg: China's Environment Accidents Double as Growth Takes Toll China, the world's largest polluter, said the number of environmental accidents rose 98 percent in the first six months of the year, as demand for energy and minerals lead to poisoned rivers and oil spills. "Fast economic development is leading to increasing conflicts with the capacity of the environment to absorb" demands, the environmental protection ministry said in a faxed statement in response to Bloomberg questions. ...	But... but... growth is good isn't it? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Jul 28, 2010 from The Detroit News: Crews rush to contain massive oil spill in Kalamazoo River At least 16 miles of the Kalamazoo River system have been touched by crude oil in what could rank as the Midwest's worst spill. An unexplained rupture of an underground pipe south of Marshall has released more than 800,000 gallons of oil that has made its way to the river via Talmadge Creek. Gov. Jennifer Granholm activated the Michigan's Emergency Operations Center in Lansing to help coordinate state resources. ...	When it rains... it pours... oil. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 from Detroit News: Report: Children's exposure to toxic chemicals costs Michigan billions Michigan could save billions annually by protecting children from exposure to environmental hazards, according to a study released today. The report released by an Ann Arbor-based coalition of health and environmental groups examined direct and indirect costs of four childhood diseases linked to environmental toxicants: lead poisoning, asthma, pediatric cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders. The study found treating those disorders costs Michigan an average of $5.85 billion each year. If all diseases with an environmental link were included, the number would be higher. ...	Well... I guess to save money ... we can help out the little brats. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 from The Daily Climate: Spread of disease linked to warming climate A deadly infectious disease once thought to be exclusively tropical has gained a toehold in the Pacific Northwest, and health experts suspect climate change is partially to blame. Last week the CDC issued a report warning U.S. doctors to be alert for patients showing signs of a cryptoccocal infection. The infection is spread by a fungus, Cryptococcus gattii, that attacks the nasal cavity and spreads to other body sites, causing pneumonia, meningitis and other lung, brain or muscle ailments. The disease also affects animals. Until 1999 most human cases were limited to Australia and other tropical and sub-tropical regions, including Asia and Africa, along with parts of southern California. ...	Cryptococcus sounds cryptically creepy! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 from Reuters: Toxic fish could help Obama hit 2020 climate goal A proposed rule on mercury, a pollutant bad for fish and the people who eat too many of them, could help the Obama administration get near its short-term climate goal -- even if Congress fails this year or next to pass a bill tackling greenhouse gases directly... The EPA has begun to take steps on regulating greenhouse gases from autos, power plants and factories. But it is the agency's looming rules on mainstream pollutants, those that can cause diseases, that may limit carbon dioxide emissions the most. ...	This is sure something to cheer about! Isn't it? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 from Christian Science Monitor: Activists frustrated at Obama's environmental record ...recently, Obama and his administration have been taking flak from the left on the environment. This past week, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the US Forest Service for failing to monitor and protect endangered species and habitat in Arizona and New Mexico national forests....But it is the inability to get comprehensive energy and climate legislation that environmental advocates see as Obama's biggest failure. "Obama is the first president in history to articulate in stark terms both the why and how of the sustainable clean energy vision," writes physicist and author Joseph Romm. "But the question now is whether he really believed what he said." ...	Give it a rest, activists. With all your complaining... you'd think the world was at stake! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 from Environmental Health News: Urban air pollutants may damage IQs before baby's first breath, scientists say In a sweltering summer in New York City back in 1999, Yolanda Baldwin was eight months pregnant with her first child. She lived across the street from a busy intersection and often wondered what the fumes might be doing to her unborn child. Now Baldwin and several hundred other mothers whose sons and daughters have been monitored for a decade have an answer: Before children even take their first breath, common air pollutants breathed by their mothers may reduce their IQs. A pair of studies involving more than 400 pregnant women in two cities has found that 5-year-olds exposed in the womb to above-average levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, score lower on IQ tests. The compounds, created by the burning of fossil fuels, are ubiquitous in urban environments. Columbia University scientists say their findings in Poland, published in April, bolster New York City data because they found the same effect in different conditions, in different parts of the world. This "adds to a growing literature implicating exposures to environmental toxicants with stunting of children's intellectual abilities," said Bruce Lanphear of Simon Fraser University. ...	"Street smarts" takes on a new, melancholic meaning. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 from Discover Magazine: The Best Flavor of Geoengineering Stills Leaves a Bad Taste In theory, geoengineering seems like the ideal remedy for our climate ills. Some white reflective roofs here, a little ocean fertilization there, a few simulated volcanic eruptions, and voila! you have a potential fix for one of the world's most intractable problems. But there's good reason to believe that many of these proposed schemes would prove much costlier to the planet over both the short- and long-term than more mainstream approaches to addressing climate change--and leave a number of critical problems, like ocean acidification, in the lurch.... The rapidly changing nature of climate models, from which most of these findings are drawn, also makes it inherently difficult to predict with any uncertainty what this scheme's exact outcome will be. What is certain, however, is that it would have a fair number of unintended consequences--almost all of which would be bad. According to a new paper in Nature Geoscience, stratospheric geoengineering, or "solar-radiation management," as the authors refer to it, would affect different parts of the world differentially (go figure), helping to cool down some countries while cooking others. ...	It doesn't just taste bad. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 from IRIN: Mali: Water has become a "luxury" Local and national authorities - backed by international agencies - have sent truckloads of water and thousands of tons of rice and fodder to Kidal, where animals are dying daily and water for drinking and bathing is increasingly rare. While residents say the assistance has been significant, they say it is insufficient and long-term solutions are indispensable. "Catastrophe" is in store if water shortages are not resolved, according to a report the Kidal regional assembly recently submitted to President Amadou Toumani Tour� following an evaluation in the region. A continuation of today's conditions "will set in motion a vicious cycle: chaotic displacement of people, tension and conflict and urban overpopulation." "The region's very stability is threatened."... Housseini Ma�ga, president of a government and civil society water organisation in Mali, said a town north of Gao, Mali, "saw not a drop of rain in all of 2009 - nothing". ...	And waiter, bring me a bottle of your finest H20, spare no expense. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 from Scientific American: Ancient Ocean Acidification Intimates Long Recovery from Climate Change Of course the present era is hardly the first time the planet has seen higher levels of CO2. In fact, roughly 121 million years ago--during an age known as the early Aptian--global CO2 levels were likely higher than 800 ppm (and possibly as high as 2,000 ppm) thanks to cataclysmic volcanic eruptions. Now new research published in Science July 23 shows how ancestors of today's nannoplankton fared in those acidic oceans of long ago. It was a time of "severe global warming," paleobiologist Elisabetta Erba of the University of Milan and her colleagues wrote, after studying the carbon isotopes embedded in deep seabed cores drilled in the Pacific Ocean and locations in the ancient Tethys Ocean, which existed during the Mesozoic era. The records reveal that acidification proved a big problem for nannoplankton. "During the Aptian episode, marine calcifiers experienced a major crisis due to increasing CO2-induced acidification," Erba says. But that crisis was not a major extinction event. The nannoplankton responded by doing less shell-forming--the heaviest shell-formers, known as nannoconids, largely disappeared from the fossil record (although they did not go extinct, the same species reappear after acidification dwindles)--and by diversifying into new, smaller species. In some cases species even increased in abundance but shrank in size--by as much as 60 percent. "Malformation is also ascertained for some [widespread] species," Erba notes. It took at least 25,000 years for the new acidity levels reached in the surface waters to transfer to deeper waters, according to the research -- and the ocean took 75,000 years to reach its peak acidity for that episode, as well as at least 160,000 years to recover.... Regardless, the shells of at least one modern foraminifera in the Southern Ocean are already smaller than those of their ancestors from a mere century ago. And the modern buildup of atmospheric CO2 is happening far faster than these ancient episodes. "The current rate of ocean acidification is about a hundred times faster than the most rapid events" in the geologic past..." ...	We're even worse than volcanoes? ApocaDoc permalink