17 Nov 2009:
Increase In GM Crops
Leads to Jump in Herbicide Use
The widespread use of genetically modified crops engineered to tolerate herbicides has led to a sharp increase of the chemicals in the U.S. and is
creating herbicide-resistant “super weeds” and an increase in chemical residues in U.S. food, according to a new report. As more farmers have adopted variations of corn, soy beans, and cotton bred to tolerate weed killer in recent years, the use of herbicides has increased steadily, with herbicide use growing by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008, according to a report released by The Organic Center, the Union for Concerned Scientists, and the Center for Food Safety. Forty-six percent of that increase occurred during 2007 and 2008. The most popular genetically modified crops are known as “Roundup ready” for their ability to survive after being sprayed with the well known herbicide, Roundup. Officials with the Biotechnology
Industry Organization said herbicide-resistant crops make it easier for farmers to manage weed problems. But Bill Freese, science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety, called the increase in herbicide use “bad news for farmers, human health and the environment,” in part because it has led to an epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds. The report said the use of insecticides has actually decreased by 64 million pounds since 1996 because many
genetically modified crops carry traits that make them resistant to insects.
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16 Nov 2009:
Dutch Cabinet Okays Tax
Based on Miles Driven by Motorists
In an effort to reduce automobile usage and greenhouse gas emissions, the Dutch cabinet has approved
a driving tax that would charge motorists seven cents a mile. The plan, which must still be approved by parliament, would use GPS systems installed in each car to keep track of mileage and automatically bill drivers. The mileage charges would be higher at rush hour, for large cars, and for commercial vehicles. Dutch officials said the driving tax, which would replace existing road taxes and duties on new car purchases, is designed to cut traffic by 15 percent and reduce emissions from transport by 10 percent. Other European nations are considering similar driving taxes, and a driving tax experiment was recently tried in Oregon in the United States. The chances of a tax comparable to the Dutch tax being levied in the U.S. are slim, however, as that would more than triple the $260 a year that the average U.S. driver now pays in state and federal gasoline taxes.
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12 Nov 2009:
Colombian Farmers Sue Oil Firm
Over Long-Term Effects of Pipeline
A group of Colombian farmers
has filed a lawsuit against the oil company BP, claiming that construction of a 450-mile pipeline in the mid-1990s has caused landslides, permanently damaging soil and crops and harming livestock. In the suit filed in a London court, 95 farmers claim that BP Exploration Company ignored evidence that the pipeline would damage the land, and never informed the property owners, many of them illiterate, of the risks. The pipeline, which delivers as much as 620,000 barrels of crude oil to an export terminal daily, crosses 192 rural villages. Farmers say that during construction, natural vegetation that protected their soil from the elements was removed, leading to significant erosion. Additionally, they say BP never paid them for the damage, which made their farms unsustainable. “The region has been profoundly and adversely affected causing many farms to close or drastically reduce production and causing some farmers to leave the land,” according to the suit. BP denies negligence, claiming the soil failed because the farmers removed forests for cattle grazing.
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11 Nov 2009:
China's Yangtze Basin
Will See Weather Extremes, Report Says
Extreme weather events caused by a warming climate
pose a growing threat to China’s Yangtze River basin, which encompasses Shanghai and some of the most productive agricultural land in the nation, according to a new study. The basin, which cuts through the center of China, has already seen a spike in floods, heat waves, and drought over the last two decades, according to the study conducted by the conservation group WWF. And over the next 50 years, the report predicts, temperatures will increase an average of 1.5 to 2 degrees C (2.7 to 4 degrees F). Of particular concern is the threat of rising waters as increasing glacier melt from the Himalayas flows into the basin, posing a greater threat of flooding to major cities and damage to corn, winter wheat, and rice crops. Sea level in Shanghai has risen by 4.6 inches in the last three decades, and will rise another 7 inches by 2050, according to the report. “If we take the right steps now, adaptation measures will pay for themselves,” said Xu Ming, lead author of the report.
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11 Nov 2009:
High Levels of BPA
May Hamper Male Sexual Function
Exposure to high levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in thousands of everyday plastics,
appears to cause sexual problems for males, according to a new study. In the study published in the journal
Human Reproduction, researchers followed 634 male workers exposed to BPA at four Chinese factories. Over the course of five years, those men were four times as likely to have erectile dysfunction and seven times more likely to have difficulty with ejaculation, according to De-Kun Li, a scientist at the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute. Li said BPA, the primary component of hard and clear polycarbonate plastics — including water bottles, baby bottles, and the linings of canned foods — appears to adversely alter the hormonal balance in humans. While researchers have made similar conclusions based on studies of mice or rats, this is the first evidence of effects on humans. While men involved in the study were exposed to chemical levels 50 times higher than the average American man, Li said the findings reveal a need to research how lower exposures affect males.
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02 Nov 2009:
New European Satellite
Will Monitor Fresh Water Globally
The European Space Agency (ESA)
has launched a 315 million Euro ($465 Million) satellite that will monitor soil moisture, plant growth, and the salt content of sea water, all of which will be useful in tracking environmental changes as the planet warms. The satellite, called SMOS — Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity — has the capacity to measure the water content of soil across the planet every three days to a depth of seven feet, enabling it not only to gauge surface water sources but also to monitor photosynthesis and plant growth. The data also will be valuable to scientists interested in forecasting drought and flood risk. The SMOS satellite also will measure the salt content of ocean waters, crucial information in not only tracking an increase in freshwater in oceans from melting glaciers and ice sheets, but also valuable in understanding global ocean circulation patterns, which are partially driven by water temperature and salinity. The satellite will collect the data using a variety of technologies, including microwave radiation.
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27 Oct 2009:
Ocean Acidification’s Effects
Documented in New Study of Shellfish
Relatively small increases in ocean acidity
significantly harm clams, bay scallops, and oysters, particularly in their crucial larval stage, according to a new study. Researchers at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, exposed shellfish to levels of acidity expected in Earth’s oceans later this century and next century, and found that modest increases in acidity led to a 50 percent decline in survival of clam and scallop larvae, reduced the size of the larvae, and caused the larvae to develop more
slowly. Oyster larvae also grew more slowly, but their survival was not affected until ocean acidity reached levels expected next century. The world’s oceans absorb about half of the 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide released annually by burning fossil fuels, and the increased carbon dioxide is
rapidly making the oceans more acidic, inhibiting the ability of mollusks such as clams and scallops to make their calcium carbonate shells. The researchers said the detrimental impact of ocean acidity on shellfish larvae growth rates is particularly worrisome, as the larvae are free-swimming and exposed to predation. The group’s work is being published in the journal
Limnology and Oceanography.
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22 Oct 2009:
Bark Beetle Infestation
Spreads in Monarch Butterfly Reserve
The world’s largest reserve for migrating Monarch butterflies, located in the Mexican highlands,
is suffering from an infestation of bark beetles similar to outbreaks that have killed millions of acres of evergreens in the U.S. and Canada. In an effort to stem the spread of the infestation, Mexican officials
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Monarch butterfly
have cut down 9,000 fir trees and buried them or shipped them out of the reserve. So far, the infestation has affected only a small portion of the 33,000-acre core mountaintop wintering grounds, but the outbreaks are occurring in widespread patches, which could indicate a spread of the disease. Mexican officials say the beetles have always existed in the reserve, but that a recent drought has weakened the fir trees and made them more susceptible to the tiny pests, which destroy the bark and kill the firs. Similar bark beetle outbreaks in the U.S. and Canada have primarily been attributed to warmer temperatures, which do not kill off the beetles in winter. The fir trees in the monarch reserve, located 60 miles northwest of Mexico City, provide shelter to the butterflies in cool weather on their southerly migration.
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20 Oct 2009:
Fossil Fuel Burning in U.S.
Estimated to Cause 20,000 Early Deaths
A National Academy of Sciences report on the hidden costs of burning fossil fuels estimates that
20,000 people die prematurely each year in the U.S. because of pollution associated with burning coal and oil. The report, commissioned by Congress and entitled “Hidden Costs of Energy,” also said that electric cars that run on energy produced by coal-fired power plants are no cleaner than gasoline-burning cars and may cause even more environmental damage when factoring in the cost of producing the batteries in electric vehicles. The report also estimated that the environmental cost of biofuels made from corn is
slightly higher than burning gasoline alone. The study,
which put a $120 billion annual price tag on the health damage caused by fossil fuel burning, did not factor in potential damages from global warming brought about by burning coal, oil, and natural gas. The report bolsters arguments that the costs to society from renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power, are considerably lower than combusting fossil fuels. But the report cautioned that until large amounts of electricity are generated from renewable sources, or utilities develop a way to capture and store CO2,
electric cars offer little advantage over gasoline-powered vehicles.
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19 Oct 2009:
China Relocates 15,000 People
After Lead Poisoning, But Plants Stay Open
Chinese officials
will move more than 15,000 people away from a lead smelting area in Henan province where more than 1,000 children tested positive for lead poisoning, but will allow the factories to continue operating. Several smelters and lead plants in Jiyuan — including China’s largest — were closed temporarily this summer when protests erupted after children living near similar Chinese smelters tested positive for cadmium and lead. The residents of 10 villages located near lead plants, including one owned by Yuguang Gold and Lead, will now be moved at a cost of 1 billion yuan, or about $150 million, according to Jiyuan's mayor. Once they are moved, the plant owner will rent their properties and plant trees to serve as a barrier to other villages. The local government just wants “to protect the plant, which pays a great deal of tax every year,” said Huang Zhengmin, whose 5-year-old grandson’s blood tests showed extremely high lead levels. “They don't care about the life and death of us ordinary people.” Lin Jingxing, of the Chinese Academy of Geological Science, said major studies of soil, water and wind patterns must be conducted before anyone can be sure just how far away from the plants would be safe. The lead industry has boomed across China after pollution concerns caused a collapse elsewhere in the world.
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Oceanographer Sylvia Earle has spent nearly half a century exploring the world’s oceans and breaking numerous barriers in deep-sea exploration, including holding the record walking untethered on the sea floor at a lower depth — 1,250 feet — than anyone ever has. In her new book,
The World is Blue, Earle
Sylvia Earle
describes the two-pronged assault on the seas — humanity’s extraction of vast amounts of marine life, while at the same time pouring into the oceans huge quantities of pollutants and carbon dioxide — and also discusses ways to bring the oceans back from the brink. Chief among these, Earle says in an interview with
Yale Environment 360, are the creation of a global network of marine reserves and developing a more sustainable system of aquaculture. Earle believes that the world’s oceans can still be redeemed, but only through swift and decisive action. “We either get to choose by conscious action or by default... thinking somebody else will look after this,” she says. “But nobody else will take care of these issues.”
Click here to read the full interview.
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30 Sep 2009:
EPA Will Draft New Law
To Regulate Toxic Chemicals in Products
Lisa Jackson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is proposing a major change in the way the federal government
regulates tens of thousands of chemicals in consumer products, one that would place more of a responsibility on industry to prove that the compounds are safe. Jackson is proposing an overhaul of a 1976 toxics law that she called “inordinately cumbersome and time-consuming” and said that her agency will immediately begin analyzing and regulating six widely-used chemicals found in countless consumer products. Among the six are bisphenol A, used in plastic bottles; phthalates, found in vinyl and cosmetics; and perfluorinated compounds used in making non-stick coatings and food packaging. Many scientists say these chemicals can mimic hormones and hurt development of fetuses and children, as well as possibly causing reproductive problems and cancer. “As more and more chemicals are found in our bodies and the environment, the public is understandably anxious and confused,” said Jackson. “Many are turning to government for assurance that chemicals have been assessed using the best available science.”
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29 Sep 2009:
Prolonged Drought and Salinity
Threaten Water Supplies in Australian City
Portions of Australia’s largest river are running so low and have become so salty because of a crippling drought and increased consumption that
the nation’s fifth-largest city may soon have to deliver bottled water to its residents. Government officials warn that some stretches of the Murray River could be
The Murray River
undrinkable by next week, particularly in 11 rural townships east of the city of Adelaide. Salinity levels in parts of the river already are higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended drinking water standard. Experts point to population growth, increased agriculture use, and
a decade-long drought as contributing factors. Officials with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, which oversees water resources for southeast Australia, say water reserves in the region are at about 25 percent of normal levels. “Another dry year will deplete our reservoirs and the water in the Murray will become too saline to drink,” said South Australian MP David Winderlich. “We are talking about 1.3 million people who are not far off becoming reliant on bottled water.”
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28 Sep 2009:
Impact of Mountaintop Mining
To Be Subject of Major Study by U.S. EPA
The Obama administration is quietly launching a
major scientific review of the environmental impact of mountaintop coal mining on streams and rivers in Appalachia, according to a news report.
The Charleston Gazette says that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forming a scientific panel to study how mountaintop removal has affected headwater streams and impacted downstream water quality. The study, announced without fanfare in the
Federal Register, will also examine whether coal mining companies are meeting their obligations to restore Appalachian streams where millions of tons of mining debris have been dumped. Mountaintop coal removal is an environmentally destructive practice in which companies blast off the tops of mountains to get at coal seams below, then dump the debris in Appalachian valleys.
Hundreds of miles of headwaters streams have been buried in mining debris, and the proposed EPA review marks the first time that the agency will undertake a major review of mountaintop mining. The Obama administration has promised to take “unprecedented steps” to reduce the impacts of mountaintop removal.
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24 Sep 2009:
EPA Puts Pharmaceuticals on List of Possible Drinking Water Contaminants
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
has listed 104 chemicals, including a number of pharmaceuticals, as potential drinking water contaminants to be considered for government regulation. While the agency must evaluate possible chemical contaminants every five years under the Safe Drinking Water Act, this is the longest list ever compiled by the agency and the first time it has included pharmaceuticals. They include estrogens such as equilenin, equilin, estradiol, and mestranol, which are used for hormone replacement therapy and birth control. Also on the list are 12 microbes, including the hepatitis A virus. The EPA evaluated about 7,500 contaminants and biological agents when compiling the list. Researchers will continue to evaluate data on the 104 chemicals and 12 microbes, and by 2013 will determine whether drinking water standards should exist for at least five of them.
Click here to read the full list of the EPA’s “contaminant candidates.”
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10 Sep 2009:
Cell Phone Radiation Levels
Ranked by Environmental Advocacy Group
The controversy over whether radiation from cell phones can cause brain and mouth cancers has intensified now that the Environmental Working Group has posted
an online tool that enables people to see levels of radiation emitted by 1,200 cell phones. Among the top-ten highest emitters are the popular Blackberry and Motorola models. Traffic to the site displaying the radiation rankings was so large that the Environmental Working Group — which works to protect children from toxic chemicals and
products —
had to scramble to keep the site from crashing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says on its Web site that “the weight of scientific evidence has not linked cell phones with any health problems.” But the Environmental Working Group, after commissioning a review of 200 health reports, said that recent studies suggest a 50 percent to 90 percent increased risk of rare brain and mouth tumors among frequent and long-term cell phone users. The group is particularly concerned about long-term use by children and teenagers, who account for a large share of the 270 million cell phone users in the U.S.
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09 Sep 2009:
EPA Seeks Revocation
Of Largest Mountaintop Coal Mine Permit
The Obama administration, which promised to take “unprecedented steps” to rein in the environmentally destructive practice of mountaintop coal mining, is attempting to
revoke the permit for the largest mountaintop removal project in West Virginia. Citing the potential of the Spruce Mine “to degrade downstream water quality” and do other environmental damage, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw a previously issued permit. The EPA said the mine project would violate the Clean Water Act by blasting off the top of a mountain and then burying eight miles of streams in debris from the 2,300-acre mine. The EPA cited “new information” and data showing that the mine owners could never replace the environmental functions performed by the affected streams and that other so-called “
valley fills” in Appalachia had seriously harmed stream ecology. The Spruce Mine project has been delayed by litigation, and the corps has asked a federal judge for time to study the EPA’s objections.
Mountaintop coal mining has buried roughly 800 miles of Appalachian streams and destroyed hundreds of square miles of woodlands.
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02 Sep 2009:
Plastic Debris in Pacific
More Extensive Than Original Estimates
The most extensive study of the so-called ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’
has discovered a far higher density of debris, spread out over a larger area, than was originally believed. A three-week expedition, conducted by scientists on two vessels, found that every one of several hundred water samples taken between the waters near San Francisco and the so-called garbage patch — 1,000 miles to the west — contained tiny bits of broken-down plastic refuse. As the boats neared the garbage patch — an area twice the size of Texas where the confetti-like pieces of plastic have accumulated because of ocean currents — researchers discovered extremely dense concentrations of the debris. The sieves “would be completely clogged with tiny pieces of plastic,” said a researcher with the California Environmental Protection Agency. The small plastic bits are eaten by jellyfish and fish, and toxic substances in the plastics are believed to work their way up the food chain to fish, such as salmon, that are eaten by humans. The expedition collected thousands of pieces of plastic of all sizes, as well as 300 fish, to test how chemicals such as PCBs migrate up the marine food chain.
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26 Aug 2009:
Lead-contaminated Paint
Still Used Widely Around the World
Paint with high levels of lead has been banned for several decades in the U.S. and other developed countries. But a new study shows that
lead-tainted paint is still being produced and sold worldwide, posing a serious health risk to children. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati tested 373 samples of enamel paint from 12 countries and found that most nations allowed the sale of paints whose lead content often far exceeded the U.S. safety standard, which until recently was 600 parts per million and this month was reduced to 90 ppm. A third of the paint samples from China and Singapore exceeded the 600 ppm standard, while nearly all of the paint sampled in Thailand and Nigeria was above that level. Paint sampled from Ecuador contained an average of 32,000 ppm of lead. Children exposed to lead-tainted paint can suffer severe brain damage and other health effects. Paint manufacturers originally added lead to prevent paint from cracking. But the researchers — reporting their findings in the journal
Environmental Research — said many low-lead alternatives are now available.
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24 Aug 2009:
China Closes Smelters
As Protests Rise Over Lead Poisoning
Chinese officials
have temporarily closed at least five heavy metal smelters as concerns rise over high levels of lead found in children in nearby villages and towns. The closings have occurred after parents recently protested at a lead and zinc smelter in Shaanxi Province and a manganese smelter in Hunan Province, following the disclosure that hundreds of children near the two smelters have high levels of lead in their blood. Those two smelters, as well as lead smelters in at least three other locations, have been temporarily closed while officials conduct environmental assessments. Lead pollution can cause severe cognitive impairment and other ailments in children exposed to high levels of the metal.
Reuters reports that lead poisoning is endemic in villages near Chinese smelters, and the problem is particularly acute in the ore-rich Qinling range, located in a poor and remote region of north-central China. As China’s environmental laws have been strengthened in recent years, lead smelters have moved from more populous and affluent metropolitan areas to poorer regions of rural China, where residents badly need jobs. But protests are rising as the health effects of lead poisoning are becoming more evident.
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