ApocaDocuments (15) for the "Biology Breach" scenario from this week
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Sun, Oct 26, 2008
from St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Wild hogs overrun Missouri
...The feral hog population exploded in the early 1990s when state conservation officials believe some began releasing the pigs for recreational hunting. More than 10,000 are rooting around 20 counties, mostly in the southern part of the state....The swine are ecological wrecking balls, ruining crops, pastures, hayfields and stock ponds. They eat almost anything, including salamanders, young quail, turkey and even small fawns. ...
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All hail ... the Lord of the Flies!
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Sun, Oct 26, 2008
from New Scientist:
New roads could bring pollution to Yellowstone
Some of the US's pristine forests could soon be criss-crossed with roads for logging and mining as the federal government once again relaxes conservation rules -- this time in Idaho.
US national parks are still protected, but at threat are so-called "roadless" areas of national forests. These cover more than 230,000 square kilometres -- an area nearly as large as the UK. Bill Clinton banned virtually all development in these areas just before leaving office in January 2001. The Bush administration scrapped this policy in 2005, working out rules on a state-by-state basis instead. ...
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What's the point of all that forest if you can't use it?
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Sun, Oct 26, 2008
from Science News:
Book Review: Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault On Our Children
The authors capture community efforts to connect clusters of disease to chemicals -- including TCE, phthalates, chromium 5 and Teflon -- and illuminate the underlying policy reasons for gaps in governmental oversight.... More than a hundred interviews with corporate researchers, public health leaders, government insiders and affected families support this cautionary tale of collusion that falls short of being alarmist. The authors ask readers to demand accountability and public health scrutiny for the benefit of future generations. ...
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Like "you can't build a waste dump by a school" but you can build a school by an an existing waste dump. Go figure.
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Sun, Oct 26, 2008
from Myrtle Beach Online:
S.C. DHEC doesn't track AVX pollution
"It just continues to amaze me that all of this flew under the radar for so long and now that there has been a public outcry by the neighbors DHEC is finally taking some action," said Mary Henry, president of the homeowners association at Sterling Village I, which is near AVX.... The possible criminal investigation would focus on decades' worth of trichloroethylene, or TCE, contamination in groundwater at AVX.
TCE is an industrial degreaser that has been linked with liver and other cancers.
The contamination has spread from AVX to a roughly 10-block neighborhood adjacent to the manufacturer. ...
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It's my factory! You can't tell me what to do! You're not the boss of me!
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Sat, Oct 25, 2008
from Infoshop News:
Ivory Coast: Two Underlings Jailed for Toxic Dumping, But Oil Company Bosses Still Free
Yesterday Ugborugbo, the Nigerian owner of an Ivorian waste-disposal firm called Tommy, was handed 20 years in jail for directing an operation to dump chemicals from the tanker throughout the Ivorian port city of Abidjan in 2006. A shipping agent named Desire Kouao was sentenced to five years in jail for "complicity."
Executives and Directors of Trafigura aren't going to jail. The company paid off the Ivory Coast and they didn't even have to face any criminal charges.... As usual the crime bosses get a get out of jail card, while their [underlings] serve time for them. ...
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Same as it ever was.
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Fri, Oct 24, 2008
from Globe and Mail (Canada):
Iraq scarred by war waste
Destroyed factories have become untended hazardous waste sites, leaking poison into the water and the soil. Forests in the north and palm groves in the south have been obliterated to remove the enemy's hiding places... Iraq is planted with 25 million land mines. Chemical weapons and depleted uranium munitions have created 105 contaminated areas, the minister said. Sewers need attention and more than 60 per cent of Iraq's fresh water is polluted. ...
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But at least it's now free of that awful dictator.
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Fri, Oct 24, 2008
from Inter Press Service:
Worst Forms of Pollution Killing Millions
Gold mining and recycling car batteries are two of the world's Top 10 most dangerous pollution problems, and the least known, according a new report.
The health of hundreds of millions of people is affected and millions die because of preventable pollution problems like toxic waste, air pollution, ground and surface water contamination, metal smelting and processing, used car battery recycling and artisanal gold mining, the "Top Ten" report found....In previous years, the Blacksmith Institute has released a Top Ten list of toxic sites. The Institute continues to compile a detailed database with over 600 toxic sites and will release the world's first detailed global inventory in a couple of years.
However, this year, rather than focus on places, it wants to bring specific pollution issues to world attention. And in particular highlight the health impacts -- a 2007 Cornell University study that 40 percent of all deaths worldwide are directly attributable to pollution, he said.
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Great news for the hazmat and respirator industries!
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Fri, Oct 24, 2008
from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Critics slam chemical report
Lawmakers, scientists and advocacy groups intensified their criticism Thursday of a government report declaring bisphenol A to be safe....The Journal Sentinel reported Thursday that the draft was done primarily by representatives of the plastics industry and those with an interest in downplaying concerns about the chemical. Bisphenol A, used in baby bottles and other hard plastic, has been detected in the urine of 93 percent of Americans tested. Hundreds of studies have found it to cause health problems in laboratory animals, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hyperactivity, autism and reproductive failure. ...
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That's the fox guarding the henhouse with a bib around its neck!
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Fri, Oct 24, 2008
from McClatchy Newspapers:
EPA weakens new lead rule after White House objects
After the White House intervened, the Environmental Protection Agency last week weakened a rule on airborne lead standards at the last minute so that fewer known polluters would have their emissions monitored.
The EPA on Oct. 16 announced that it would dramatically reduce the highest acceptable amount of airborne lead from 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter to 0.15 micrograms. It was the first revision of the standard since EPA set it 30 years ago.
However, a close look at documents publicly available, including e-mails from the EPA to the White House Office of Management and Budget, reveal that the OMB objected to the way the EPA had determined which lead-emitting battery recycling plants and other facilities would have to be monitored.
EPA documents show that until the afternoon of Oct. 15, a court-imposed deadline for issuing the revised standard, the EPA proposed to require a monitor for any facility that emitted half a ton of lead or more a year.
The e-mails indicate that the White House objected, and in the early evening of Oct. 15 the EPA set the level at 1 ton a year instead.
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Even in a lame duck administration, it's business as usual, and more than just ducks are suffering!
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Fri, Oct 24, 2008
from Farmers Weekly:
Parliament climbdown could save key weedkillers and fungicides
In the parliament's first reading of the controversial pesticides approval legislation, MEPs voted for a proposal that would remove any pesticide that triggered any of the three criteria (persistence, bio-accumulation and long-distance environmental transfer) for an active ingredient to be termed a "persistent organic pollutant" (POP). By contrast, the European Commission and EU agricultural minister both say a substance will be called a POP only if it meets all three criteria. ...
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Whew! That was a close one, diflufenican, chlorotoluron, mesosulfuron-methyl, and the rest of the gang -- wasn't it!
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Wed, Oct 22, 2008
from Boston Globe:
The nature of cigarette butts
According to the American Littoral Society, cigarettes are the most common type of litter on earth. A study in the Journal of Tobacco Control reports smokers litter more than 4.5 trillion of them each year. Smoking's environmental impact (we won't go into the health woes here) is already atrocious: It emits 5.5 billion pounds of CO2 and more than 11 billion pounds of methane annually. Discarded butts add insult to injury, leaching hundreds of toxic chemicals (arsenic, lead, and benzene among them) into the water, air, and ground, killing birds, fish, and healthy microorganisms. ...
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Hey, butt out.
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Tue, Oct 21, 2008
from Springer News:
Fertilizers -- a growing threat to sea life
She highlights how population growth, agricultural expansion, and urbanization have released nitrogen from the land and moved it to Chesapeake Bay, where it has accumulated and degraded both the natural wildlife and water quality.
The combination of the increasing use of fertilizers, deforestation and the draining of wetlands and floodplains to provide more land for crops, has led to an imbalance in the nitrogen cycle, in particular reduced opportunities for the natural removal of nitrogen. As a result, there is an excess of nitrogen in the estuary, also known as eutrophication. This in turn has led to the deterioration of the local ecosystem through reduced concentrations of oxygen in the bay, affecting both the water quality and the fish populations.
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Those scientists always talk about "systems" and "interactions" and "correlations" and "causation." Don't they understand that fertilizers fertilize?
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Mon, Oct 20, 2008
from The Sydney Morning Herald:
Dramatic drop in Kiwi sperm quality
The quality of New Zealand men's sperm has halved in two decades - the most dramatic drop of any western country.
New research presented to a gathering of international fertility researchers in Brisbane today was told that the sperm volume carried by the average New Zealand man decreased from about 110 million to 50 million per millilitre between 1987 and 2007. ...
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This is one of those rare cases where quality EQUALS quantity -- and vice versa.
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Want more context?
Try reading our book FREE online:
Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
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Mon, Oct 20, 2008
from University of Deleware:
When under attack, plants can signal microbial friends for help
Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered that when the leaf of a plant is under attack by a pathogen, it can send out an S.O.S. to the roots for help, and the roots will respond by secreting an acid that brings beneficial bacteria to the rescue.... "Plants are a lot smarter than we give them credit for," says Bais from his laboratory at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. ...
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Dit-dit-dit, da-da-da, dit-dit-dit.
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Mon, Oct 20, 2008
from Timmins Daily Press (Canada):
Toxic chemicals found in Ottawa River: Memo
Not only is raw sewage flowing into the Ottawa River, so are toxic chemicals.
In a memo sent to city councillors last week deputy manager for infrastructure services Nancy Schepers stated that recent testing found at least 10 chemicals, some of them toxic, in the river that serves as the city's main source of drinking water.
At least one chemical, perfluorobutane sulfonate, can result in birth or developmental effects, affect the brain and nervous system, cause cancer and affect reproduction and fertility.
Raw river water samples taken in April 2008 showed 10 compounds from a list of 51 compounds the city tested for.... "In the long run we may conclude there are health effects or that there are no significant health effects," said Levy. ...
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That long run is pretty short, I'm afraid.
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