ApocaDocuments (12) for the "Biology Breach" scenario from this week
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Sun, Feb 24, 2008
from Washington Post (US):
Exxon Oil Spill Case May Get Closure
"When a federal jury in Alaska in 1994 ordered Exxon to pay $5 billion to thousands of people who had their lives disrupted by the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, an appeal of the nation's largest punitive damages award was inevitable. But almost no one could have predicted the incredible round of legal ping-pong that only this month lands at the Supreme Court." ...
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At the Supreme Court, the Justices can play bad minton with the case.
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Sun, Feb 24, 2008
from Science Daily (US):
First Documented Case Of Pest Resistance To Biotech Cotton
"Bt-resistant populations of bollworm, Helicoverpa zea, were found in more than a dozen crop fields in Mississippi and Arkansas between 2003 and 2006.... "What we're seeing is evolution in action," said lead researcher Bruce Tabashnik. "This is the first documented case of field-evolved resistance to a Bt crop."" ...
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Evolution? Isn't that just a theory?
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Sat, Feb 23, 2008
from Science Daily (US):
Chemicals In Our Waters Are Affecting Humans And Aquatic Life In Unanticipated Ways
"Substances that we use everyday are turning up in our lakes, rivers and ocean, where they can impact aquatic life and possibly ourselves. Now these contaminants are affecting aquatic environments and may be coming back to haunt us in unanticipated ways.... The researchers looked at mixtures of five common insecticides and found that some combinations were much more toxic to the juvenile salmon than any one of the chemicals acting alone." ...
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What, I have to think about combinations of toxic chemicals? How can they label that?
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Sat, Feb 23, 2008
from National Geographic:
Rat Invasions Causing Seabird Decline Worldwide
"The global analysis found that non-native rats have been observed preying on roughly a quarter of all seabird species, often with disastrous consequences.... Now 102 of 328 recognized seabird species are considered threatened or endangered by the World Conservation Union, with predation by invasive species ranking among the top dangers." ...
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"Traveling with humans as ship stowaways, three rat species native to Europe and Asia have become established on about 90 percent of the world's major islands and island chains, experts say."
Now that's globalization!
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Fri, Feb 22, 2008
from American Chemical Society:
Translation: Earthworms and transmission of toxins
"Earthworms are an important link in transporting environmental contaminants from soil to other organisms in terrestrial food webs. Large molecules (>0.95 nm), such as PBDEs, are thought to not readily cross membranes, and thus do not accumulate in organisms. However, earthworms have been shown to accumulate contaminants of considerable size (8), including significant bioaccumulation from sludge-amended soils with mean biota-soil accumulation factors (BSAFs) of 4-8 for BDE-47, -99, and -100 (7). Similarly, studies of the aquatic worm, Lumbriculus variegatus, in PBDE-spiked sediments gave BSAFs of 3 for BDE-47 and -99 (9)." ...
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Translation: "Worms were thought not to gather toxins from human-sewage sludge. However, that idea was wrong, even though we sell human-sewage sludge to farmers these days."
What that implies: every early bird who gets the worm also gets concentrated toxins. It's as if the "prime soil predator" was concentrating toxins, not unlike bats (for prime air predator) and killer whales (prime ocean predator), concentrating toxins.
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Thu, Feb 21, 2008
from Environmental Science and Technology:
Worms bear sludge load
"Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) end up in the tons of solid sludge left behind by wastewater treatment processes. Those so-called biosolids are often repackaged and sold as fertilizers for both industrial and small-scale agriculture. In a new survey, published in ES&T (DOI: 10.1021/es702304c), researchers show for the first time that those compounds can turn up in earthworms ... Bioaccumulation of PPCPs by worms is not entirely a surprise, according to Stockholm University's Cynthia De Wit, who points to her own work looking at PBDEs and other persistent compounds in earthworms. However, the new research underscores that worms could serve as monitoring organisms, she says. Because the worms seem to concentrate compounds that may be present at undetectable levels in the soils, they can be "a sort of sentinel, or magnifying glass of what's in the soil," she adds." ...
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From canaries in the coal mine to earthworms in the soil, other species bear too much of a load.
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Wed, Feb 20, 2008
from National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (UCSB):
A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems
The goal of the research presented here is to estimate and visualize, for the first time, the global impact humans are having on the ocean's ecosystems. Our analysis, published in Science, February 15, 2008, shows that over 40 percent of the world's oceans are heavily affected by human activities and few if any areas remain untouched. ...
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Check out the map. It's a terrible thing to see the ocean burning.
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Wed, Feb 20, 2008
from Terra Daily:
Fish Devastated By Sex-Changing Chemicals In Municipal Wastewater
"While most people understand the dangers of flushing toxic chemicals into the ecosystem through municipal sewer systems, one potentially devastating threat to wild fish populations comes from an unlikely source: estrogen. After an exhaustive seven-year research effort, Canadian biologists found that miniscule amounts of estrogen present in municipal wastewater discharges can decimate wild fish populations living downstream ... Male fish exposed to estrogen become feminized, producing egg protein normally synthesized by females." ...
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Bad for the fish's health and bad for their self-esteem as the males are considered girly-fish.
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Wed, Feb 20, 2008
from The Asahi Shimbun:
Pesticide dichlorvos detected in sliced frozen mackerel imported from China
"TAKAMATSU--The pesticide dichlorvos, which had contaminated gyoza dumplings imported from China, was detected in sliced frozen mackerel processed in an area of China that handles a large volume of farm produce. The fish was sold in Japan by Kouzai Bussan Co., based in Sanuki city, east of here, company officials said Monday. They said 0.14 parts per million (ppm) of the organophosphorus pesticide was found in the product called Aburi Toro Shimesaba Suraisu, a package of 20 slices weighing about 200 grams." ...
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I suppose you could say that's an unholy mackerel.
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Tue, Feb 19, 2008
from The Guardian:
Consequences of GM crop contamination
"The consequences of contamination between GM crops and non-GM varieties will be much more serious with the next generation of GM crops, an influential group of US scientists has warned. Mixing between GM and non-GM varieties has already caused serious economic losses for producers in lost sales and exports. But the consequences of mixing will be much more serious with new crops that are altered to produce pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals, the scientists argue. The crops could harm human health and be toxic to wild animals." ...
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This story reminds us of recent findings that salmon farms are harming their wild counterparts. A case of the town salmon corrupting the country salmon.
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Tue, Feb 19, 2008
from The Star Press:
Activists fear new list could harm river cleanup efforts
"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A shift in how Indiana compiles a federally mandated list of its polluted waterways has removed about 800 stretches of rivers and streams from that list, leaving environmentalists worried that it could hamper watershed restoration efforts. State officials contend the new methodology has produced a more accurate picture of Indiana’s “impaired” waterways, and will allow them to focus on cleaning up those most tainted with mercury, PCBs and other contaminants. But environmentalists say Indiana’s new approach is problematic because it’s “de-listed” parts of rivers and streams simply because it doesn’t have data on whether they are polluted." ...
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Why are "activists" afraid of this de-listing process; why isn't everybody afraid?
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Tue, Feb 19, 2008
from Los Angeles Times:
Huge beef recall issued
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the largest beef recall in its history Sunday, calling for the destruction of 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef produced by a Chino slaughterhouse that has been accused of inhumane practices. However, the USDA said the vast majority of the meat involved in the recall -- including 37 million pounds that went mostly to schools -- probably has been eaten already. Officials emphasized that danger to consumers was minimal." ...
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This story is so crazy I hardly know where to start -- however, the fact that they are recalling meat that has pretty much already been consumed might be the most surreal aspect. Of course, the saddest part is that this meat went to school children.
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