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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from
View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:(4)
Plague/Virus:(2)
Climate Chaos:(12)
Resource Depletion: (4)
Biology Breach:(4)
Recovery:(2)
This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
climate impacts  ~ global warming  ~ ecosystem interrelationships  ~ carbon emissions  ~ alternative energy  ~ water issues  ~ stupid humans  ~ renewable energy  ~ bad policy  ~ rising sea level  ~ faster than expected  



ApocaDocuments (4) for the "Biology Breach" scenario from this week
[see full week] ~ [see full Biology Breach scenario and stories]
Sun, Jul 12, 2009
from via ScienceDaily:
Potato famine disease striking home gardens in U.S.
Late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s, is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms, U.S. plant scientists said on Friday. "Late blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the United States," said Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University's extension center in Riverhead, New York. She said the fungal disease, spread by spores carried in the air, has made its way into the garden centers of large retail chains in the Northeastern United States. "Wal-mart, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart and Lowe's..." ...


Just so they don't charge extra for the spores.

ApocaDoc
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Wed, Jul 8, 2009
from Washington Bureau:
The Pentagon's War on America: The Office of the Secretary of Defense
...the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has spent years debating whether to set an enforceable regulatory standard for perchlorate... When asked why he challenged EPA's health research on perchlorate during his tenure -- initiating a lengthy review process that continues to this day -- Ray DuBois, the Bush-era Pentagon's top environmental official for more than three years, said he depended on the advice of his chemical policy expert, Shannon Cunniff. In his telling, her analysis of "conflicting science" led him to reject a draft EPA assessment showing that health and environmental limits for perchlorate might need to be tightened. During an extensive interview with DCBureau.org, he often highlighted her role in the process, emphasizing that no one else on his staff had a chemical policy background. The problem with this account is that Cunniff says none of it is true. Indeed, as the timeline shows, DuBois only hired her after the decision to challenge the studies was already made. ...


Sounds like Cunniff was his invisible fwend!

ApocaDoc
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Tue, Jul 7, 2009
from University of Michigan, via EurekAlert:
Phthalates may play a role in pre-term births
A new study of expectant mothers suggests that a group of common environmental contaminants called phthalates, which are present in many industrial and consumer products including everyday personal care items, may contribute to the country's alarming rise in premature births. Researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health found that women who deliver prematurely have, on average, up to three times the phthalate level in their urine compared to women who carry to term.... Phthalates are commonly used compounds in plastics, personal care products, home furnishings (vinyl flooring, carpeting, paints, etc.) and many other consumer and industrial products. The toxicity varies by specific phthalates or their breakdown products, but past studies show that several phthalates cause reproductive and developmental toxicity in animals. ...


I just learned how to spell phthalates, and now you're saying it's bad?

ApocaDoc
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Mon, Jul 6, 2009
from Lifespan, via EurekAlert:
Possible link between environmental nitrates and Alzheimer's, diabetes
A new study by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital have found a substantial link between increased levels of nitrates in our environment and food with increased deaths from diseases, including Alzheimer's, diabetes mellitus and Parkinson's.... "We have become a 'nitrosamine generation.' In essence, we have moved to a diet that is rich in amines and nitrates, which lead to increased nitrosamine production. We receive increased exposure through the abundant use of nitrate-containing fertilizers for agriculture." She continues, "Not only do we consume them in processed foods, but they get into our food supply by leeching from the soil and contaminating water supplies used for crop irrigation, food processing and drinking."... The findings indicate that while nitrogen-containing fertilizer consumption increased by 230 percent between 1955 and 2005, its usage doubled between 1960 and 1980, which just precedes the insulin-resistant epidemics the researchers found. They also found that sales from the fast food chain and the meat processing company increased more than 8-fold from 1970 to 2005, and grain consumption increased 5-fold. ...


Or, plastic wrapping. Or, heavy metals. Or, organochlorides. Or... um... what was I saying?

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