e360 digest
Pollution & Health

17 May 2012: Human-made Pollutants May Be
Expanding Tropical Zone, Study Says

U.S. scientists say emissions in the Northern Hemisphere of black carbon aerosols and ozone, both of which absorb solar radiation, are likely causing the hemisphere’s tropical regions to expand poleward. After comparing observations of tropic expansion — which suggest that the tropics have widened 0.7 degrees per decade since 1970, largely because of global warming — with climate models, researchers at University of California, Riverside, found that the climate models tended to underestimate that shift by about a third. But when they included either black carbon or tropospheric ozone — or both — into the models, the simulations mimicked observations better, suggesting that the emissions are playing a role in tropical expansion because of their radiation-absorbing effect. “If the tropics are moving poleward, then the subtropics will become even drier,” said Robert J. Allen, a professor Earth sciences and lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature. “If a poleward displacement of the mid-latitude storm tracks also occurs, this will shift mid-latitude precipitation poleward, impacting regional agriculture, economy, and society.”
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16 May 2012: State Oversight Helps Reduce
Effects of Fracking, Study Says

A new study conducted by the University of Buffalo has found that state regulation helped reduce environmental problems associated with unconventional forms of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania since 2008. In an analysis of 2,988 violations at nearly 4,000 Pennsylvania hydraulic fracturing drill sites, university researchers found that roughly 38 percent (845 violations) were environmental in nature. Among these violations, 25 were classified as “major” — including site restoration failures, contamination of water supplies, land spills, blowouts, and venting and gas migration. As the number of drilling sites increased, the percentage of environmental violations compared to the number of wells drilled dropped from 58.2 percent in 2008 to 30.5 percent in 2010, largely as a result of increased state oversight, the study said. But the total number of environmental incidents tripled from 2008 to 2011 as the number of wells increased. The report’s three lead authors have energy industry ties, but lead author John Martin said the report was funded entirely by the university.
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07 May 2012: Japanese Tsunami Debris
Is Increasingly Washing Ashore in Alaska

Debris from last year’s tsunami in Japan, including some potentially toxic materials, is increasingly being discovered along the Alaska coastline. Since January, millions of pieces of debris have washed ashore along the Alaska coast, from soccer balls and buoys to motorcycles and large drums containing unknown materials, according to the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation (MCAF), a Juneau-based group monitoring the debris. In some areas, the group has observed mysterious sludge that apparently had leaked from the containers. “So we’re looking at a potential large-scale environmental problem, and what we’re dealing with now is just the start of it,” Merrick Burden, director of the MCAF, told the Juneau Daily News. Much of the debris that has reached Alaska so far was likely pushed by west-to-east winds, and larger materials, driven by ocean currents, will start to reach the coast next year, officials say. To help state officials better understand the future threats, MCAF is urging mariners, fishing boats, and beachcombers to take photos when they spot debris and report it to their project and the federal government.
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04 May 2012: Japan Goes Nuclear-Free
For the First Time in Four Decades

Japan will shut down its last working nuclear power station this weekend, culminating — at least for now — a national shift away from nuclear energy in the aftermath of last year’s Fukushima disaster. The shutdown of the No. 3 Tomari reactor in Hokkaido will leave the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970. Given public concerns about nuclear safety, it may become difficult to switch the plants back on if the country makes it through the summer months without power shortages or blackouts. “Can it be the end of nuclear power [in Japan]? It could be,” Andrew DeWitt, a professor of energy and policy at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, told Reuters. Before the 2011 Fukushima disaster, Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors provided nearly 30 percent of the nation’s electricity. While Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has suggested the country cannot afford to go without nuclear power for the long term, the government has no timetable to switch the plants back on and the country has yet to develop a long-term, nuclear-free energy policy.
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02 May 2012: Fracking Fluid Can Migrate
Into Marcellus Aquifers, New Study Says

A new study estimates that fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region can migrate into underground drinking water supplies far more quickly than experts have previously estimated. The study, based on computer modeling and funded by opponents of fracking, concluded that natural faults and fractures in the Marcellus shale, exacerbated by the effects of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” could allow chemicals to reach shallow drinking water supplies in as little as “just a few years.” Companies involved in fracking for natural gas have maintained that impermeable layers of rock in the Marcellus Shale formation would keep fracking fluids safely locked nearly a mile below water supplies. But independent hydrologist Tom Myers, who published his study in the journal Ground Water, says his modeling shows that is not the case. “Simply put, [the rock layers] are not impermeable,” said Myers. The Marcellus Shale underlies large portions of the northeastern U.S., and thousands of fracking wells have been drilled in recent years. The study was funded by two organizations opposed to gas fracking, and some scientists strongly disagree with its conclusions.
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24 Apr 2012: ‘Glowing’ Fish Provides Insights
Into Effects of Endocrine Disruptors

UK researchers say they have genetically engineered a zebrafish to produce a fluorescent green glow under a special microscope in response to exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, a technique that could provide new insights into how these chemicals penetrate and impact systems within the human body. After inserting genetic markers designed to produce a fluorescent glow within areas affected by the chemicals, the scientists from the University of Exeter exposed young fish to different levels of known endocrine disruptors — including bisphenol A, or BPA, a synthetic chemical found in thousands of everyday products, and ethinyloestradiol, a chemical found in contraceptive pills. According to their findings, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers were able to determine in real-time how different parts of the fish’s anatomy — including the liver, testes, ovaries, and brain — were lit up by the endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
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23 Apr 2012: Warming May Trigger
More Volatility in Corn Prices, Study Says

The effects of climate change across the U.S.’s corn belt could have a far greater effect on the volatility of corn prices over the next three decades than fluctuating oil prices or federal policies on biofuel production, according to a new study. In an analysis of economic, climatic, and agricultural data, researchers from Stanford and Purdue universities calculated that even if global temperature increases are limited to 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C) above pre-industrial levels — a target some climate scientists have suggested is key to averting catastrophic changes — such increases would lead to more damaging heat waves in the nation’s major corn-growing regions. And if farmers do not adjust to changing climate conditions — either by moving crops to the north or increasing the heat-tolerance of crops — these changes could cause sharp increases in corn price volatility from 2020 to 2040, which could affect food prices, farmer incomes, and livestock prices. “Severe heat is the big hammer,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor at Stanford and lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
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18 Apr 2012: Destructive Emerald Ash Borer
Edges Closer to New England Forests

The emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that has destroyed millions of ash trees from the U.S. Midwest to western New York over the last decade, has been found east of the Hudson River for the first time, the closest the pest has comes to the forests of New England. New York environmental officials, who have undertaken an aggressive research and control campaign across 225 square miles since the pest was first found in New York state in 2009, say they found small infestations of the beetle in three “trap” trees east of the Hudson last month. Fortunately, they told the Associated Press, the colony was discovered less than a year after it was established, making it easier to curb the beetles’ spread. Typically, the beetle larvae tunnel under the bark and kill trees before foresters know the trees have been infested. While the main population of the beetle, which originated in China, has been moving toward the northeastern U.S. at a pace of about 2 to 3 miles per year since the beetle was first found near Detroit in 2002, smaller colonies have been leapfrogging ahead, most likely in truckloads of logs or firewood.
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16 Apr 2012: Waterless Fracking Technology
May Be Used at New York Shale Gas Site

A planned shale gas drilling project in New York state would utilize a waterless form of hydraulic fracturing, a new technique designed to reduce the potential pollution associated with the controversial natural gas drilling process. Rather than using typical hydraulic fracturing technologies — in which a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals is pumped into deep shale formations to extract trapped natural gas reserves — developers of a site in Tioga County, N.Y. hope to utilize a technology that pumps a thick gel made from propane into the ground. Unlike water-based technologies, the gel from so-called liquefied propane gas (LPG) fracturing — or gas fracking — reverts to a vapor while underground before it returns to the surface in a recoverable form. According to its developers, Calgary-based GasFrac Energy Services, the gel also does not carry back to the surface the chemicals used in the drilling. While the plans are still being reviewed by state officials, if approved it would avert the state’s moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which was imposed in 2010 after environmentalists expressed concerns that the drilling process poses a threat to regional water supplies.
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13 Apr 2012: Wind Farms Little Threat
To Most Bird Species, New Study Says

A new study has found that wind farms do not have long-term detrimental effects on most bird species, but that populations of some species can decline during site construction. In a long-term analysis of breeding and population trends for 10 bird species at 18 wind farms across the UK, a team of conservationists found that most species were able to co-exist with the wind turbines. They found, however, that population densities for three species living near wind farms — snipe, curlew, and red grouse — were lower during construction than before construction. While red grouse numbers recovered after construction was completed, the population densities for both snipe and curlew remained depressed, according to the study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. “It shows that there can be serious species-level impacts in the construction phase, so construction in the right place is absolutely key,” Martin Harper, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, told the Guardian. “But what it hasn’t shown is that windfarms are ‘bird blenders.’”
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12 Apr 2012: Drilling of Arctic Could Pose
Ecological Risks, Lloyd’s Report Warns

A new report by Lloyd’s of London, the world’s largest specialist insurance market, warns that rapid development of Arctic oil resources threatens to cause huge ecological damage without strict oversight and appropriate risk management. The report, Arctic Opening: Opportunity and Risk in the High North, projects that as much as $100 billion ((£63 billion) will be invested in the Arctic region over the next decade as the melting of sea ice opens up vast areas to oil and gas exploration and creates new shipping routes. And while this phenomenon will create significant business opportunities, the report says it is “highly likely” that it will also further disturb ecosystems already stressed by climate change and create risks associated with oil spills, particularly in ice-covered areas. “The resilience of the Arctic’s ecosystems in terms of withstanding risk events is weak, and political sensitivity to a disaster is high,” a summary of the report on the Lloyd’s Web site says. “As a result, companies operating in the Arctic face significant reputational risk.”
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12 Apr 2012: Doctors’ Group Urges Caution
On Growing Use of Wireless Technology

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine is calling for increased study and expanded public education of the possible health effects of the growing use of cell phones and wireless technology. In a position paper on the issue, the academy said that effects of electromagnetic fields and radiofrequency fields “have not been adequately studied and are not fully understood regarding human health... In an era when all of society relies on the benefits of electronics, we must find ideas and technologies that do not disturb bodily function.” Among its recommendations, the academy called for “immediate caution” on installation of smart meters because of their potentially harmful radiofrequency exposure; research into the cumulative health effects of the “electrical environmental bombardment” of society; and the use of safer technologies, such as hard wiring or fiber optics where possible. The academy said that “multiple studies correlate RF (radiofrequency) exposure with diseases such as cancer, neurological disease, reproductive disorders, immune dysfunction, and electromagnetic hypersensitivity” — a claim that is contested by the cellphone industry and other medical experts.
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10 Apr 2012: Natural Gas Drilling
Causes Sizeable Methane Leaks, Study Says

A new study says that methane leaks from natural gas drilling, particularly hydraulic fracturing, are likely higher than previously estimated and concludes that converting vehicles from gasoline to compressed natural gas will actually produce more greenhouse gas emissions unless methane leaks are significantly reduced. The study, authored by scientists from the Environmental Defense Fund and several universities, says that replacing coal-fired power plants with natural gas-fired power plants does lead to a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, though not as steep a drop as gas industry advocates contend. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examines the “technology warming potentials” of different fossil fuels and concludes that better research needs to be undertaken to determine exactly how much methane — a far more potent but shorter-lived greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide — leaks during the cycle of natural gas drilling and transport. The U.S. government has estimated the leakage rate at 2.4 percent, but some studies suggest it is higher.
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Interview: Ma Jun on Social Media
And Cleaning Up China’s Dirty Air

One of China’s best-known environmentalists, Ma Jun, recently played an important role in the successful effort to force the government to more strictly monitor air pollution in Beijing. Growing public concern over the Chinese capital’s often-filthy air — amplified by highly popular “microblogging” sites — has led the government to begin releasing data on fine particulate pollution. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Ma Jun, a 2012 Goldman Environmental Prize winner, talks about the daunting challenges of cleaning up pollution in China’s booming economy, explains the crucial role played by social media, and discusses why stricter air pollution monitoring is a significant step in the long struggle to clean up China’s air. “It demonstrates that the public voice was able to help overcome powerful local opposition to increasing environmental transparency,” he says.
Read the interview
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04 Apr 2012: Model Shows Debris Field
In Pacific From Japanese Tsunami

A new animation developed by researchers at the University of Hawaii’s International Pacific Research Center illustrates the likely path of the spreading field of debris caused by retreating waves from last year’s gigantic tsunami in Japan. The model — based on satellite data and a network of scientific buoys showing sea surface height, ocean surface winds, and ocean currents — shows that debris swept into the Pacific by the event now likely stretches across an area covering 5,000 kilometers by 2,000 kilometers. Much of the debris was initially pulled by the strong Kuroshio Current, which travels past eastern Japan before shifting east and then into the North Pacific Current. The Japanese government estimates about 5 million tons of debris was pulled into the ocean; about 70 percent sank to the seafloor, with about 1.5 million tons still floating.
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03 Apr 2012: Weed Killer Can Alter
Shape of Amphibians, Study Says

A new study has found that exposure to the popular weed killer Roundup can alter the morphology of some amphibian species, triggering unexpected changes in body shape of young tadpoles. In a series of tests conducted in large outdoor tanks that mimicked wetland ecosystems, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh found that tadpoles exposed to caged predators developed larger tails — an expected adaptation to help the amphibians better escape the predators. But to their surprise, they found that exposure to Roundup, an herbicide produced by biotech giant Monsanto, induced the same change in two species of amphibians, and that exposure to a combination of the pesticide and predators caused the tadpoles’ tails to grow twice as large as normal. Since tadpoles alter their body shapes to match their environment, the scientists say an exaggerated adaptation that does not fit the environment could put a species at a disadvantage. The study was published in the journal Ecological Applications.
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29 Mar 2012: Shell’s Spill Response Plan
For the Beaufort Sea Is Approved by U.S.

The U.S. Department of the Interior has approved Shell Oil’s plan to respond to an oil spill in the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea, clearing the way for exploratory drilling this summer. The decision follows similar U.S. government approval for a spill response plan in the Chukchi Sea, and Shell said that separate exploratory drilling ships will begin working in the two seas off Alaska when ice melts this summer. Shell’s response plan calls for the exploratory vessels to be accompanied by more than a dozen ships that will carry oil-soaking skimmers and booms, as well as a capping stack that could be lowered into the ocean to control a blowout. The Interior Department estimates that 26.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion feet of natural gas lie under the continental shelf off Alaska. But environmental groups criticized the Interior Department for approving Shell’s spill response plans, saying there is no viable way to clean up an oil spill in the extreme, icy conditions of the Arctic Ocean.
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28 Mar 2012: Fracking of Shale May Impair
Carbon Storage Projects, Study Says

The fracturing of shale rock formations associated with the drilling process known as fracking might undermine future attempts to store carbon dioxide underground, according to a new study. While many have called carbon storage a promising solution to reducing atmospheric levels of greenhouse gas emissions — by essentially pumping captured CO2 into deep, permeable geological formations — Princeton University researcher Michael Celia says that process would only work if there is a layer of impermeable caprock to prevent the CO2 from escaping. But according to his study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, about 80 percent of the U.S. areas suited for carbon storage overlap with regions of potential shale-gas production. The hydraulic fracturing of those shale-gas areas involves blasting a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals deep underground to shatter the shale formations and free the natural gas trapped within. While it is unclear how much of the potential storage volume would be lost, shale gas drilling could “significantly affect” the sequestration capacity for carbon storage operations, the study said.
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27 Mar 2012: Common Herbicide a Threat
To Great Barrier Reef, Report Says

A popular herbicide used widely in coastal regions of Australia has been found at dangerous levels in the Great Barrier Reef, posing a toxic threat to the world’s largest coral reef system. The chemical Diuron, which is used largely by sugar cane farmers along the Queensland coast, was found at levels 55 times higher than safety standards in creeks that drain into the reef, and at levels 100 times the safe standards in the reef itself, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund. After a decade-long review, the Australian government on Tuesday announced it would continue a suspension of the chemical except in the country's tropical regions. A decision on a permanent ban will be made by November, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority said. In a recent report, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority called a decline in the quality of water in catchment areas one of the greatest threats facing the reef. Nick Heath, the WWF freshwater and reef coordinator, said the widespread use of the chemical and the length of time it persists in the environment pose a significant threat.
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27 Mar 2012: New EPA Rules Will Limit
CO2 Emissions from Power Plants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to impose a limit on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants, a strict new regulation that could prevent conventional coal-fired power plants from being built. In new rules to be announced as soon as Tuesday, the EPA will require that new power plants generate no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. While the typical natural gas plant — which emits 800 to 859 pounds of CO2 per megawatt — would meet the new requirement, coal plants, with an average of 1,768 pounds of CO2 per megawatt, would fail to meet the standard, according to the Washington Post. The rules would exempt coal plants that are already permitted and scheduled to begin construction within a year. About 20 additional projects are seeking permits, two of which would meet the new standard because they would employ pollution control technologies. Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, hailed the rule, saying the it marked the “end of an era” during which coal has provided about 40 percent of U.S. electricity.
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26 Mar 2012: Auction of Ivory in China
Spurring Illegal Market, Report Says

A new report says that the illegal trade in ivory has risen sharply in China in recent years, with nearly 90 percent of the ivory purchased at “legal” auctions obtained from illegal sources. According to the report, published by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a decision by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to allow legal auctions of ivory stockpiles in Asia has not only failed to stem the poaching of elephants but stimulated an illegal ivory market. While the international trade in ivory was banned in 1989, closely regulated auctions were approved on the premise that they would undercut the illegal market. According to the EIA, these approved auctions have instead encouraged the illegal market and the continuing slaughter of elephants, particularly in central and western Africa. The report says the Chinese government has not only failed to eradicate the black market, but has profited from it. Since January 2011, more than 30 tons of ivory have been seized, representing more than 3,000 dead elephants.
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19 Mar 2012: U.S. Monarch Butterfly Decline
May Be Linked to GM Crop Use, Study Says

A new study suggests that the increased use of genetically modified (GM) crops across the Midwestern U.S. may be causing a decline in monarch butterfly populations. From 1999 to 2010, a period when GM crops became more common on U.S. farms, the number of monarch eggs in the Midwest declined by 81 percent, according to researchers from the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University. The reason, according to the study, is the near-disappearance of milkweed, an important host plant for monarch eggs and caterpillars. The researchers attribute sharp declines in milkweed to widespread use of genetically modified corn and soybeans that are resistant to the herbicide, Roundup, which is then sprayed on fields, killing milkweed. Other experts say it is too early to link GM crops to population declines, suggesting that other causes, including damage to the butterflies’ wintering grounds in Mexico, may be a factor. In a separate study, U.S. researchers say early snowmelt in the Colorado Rocky Mountains may be causing a decline in populations of the Mormon Fritillary butterfly because the advanced melting is triggering a decline in the insect’s preferred flower species.
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16 Mar 2012: Africa Could Produce
More E-Waste Than Europe by 2017

Africa, typically a dumping ground for electronic waste from other nations, could produce more e-waste than the European Union by 2017, experts say. Across Africa, a combination of population growth and increased access to mobile phones and other technology will produce a surge in e-waste over the next five years, Miranda Amachree of Nigeria’s National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency told reporters at the Pan-African Forum on E-Waste. While the continent has long received thousands of tons of waste for disposal from developing nations, a recent report by the UN Basel Convention found as much as 85 percent of Africa’s e-waste is now local. That report found that in five West African nations ten times as many people have personal computers as a decade ago, and 100 times as many people have cellphones. In those countries alone, as much as 1 million tons of domestic e-waste is now generated per year. Katharina Kummer Peiry, of the Basel Convention, said African nations must “move towards more formal recycling in order to ensure precious metals are properly extracted from, say, mobile phones.”
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15 Mar 2012: Unusual Pine Beetle Breeding
Could Explain Tree Epidemic, Study Says

A new study has found that some populations of mountain pine beetles are producing two generations of tree-killing offspring each year, a phenomenon that may help explain the scale of damage being done to vast tracts of lodgepole and ponderosa pines across western North America. After observing beetle behavior during the summer months, scientists from the University of Colorado, Boulder, were surprised to see that some beetles that had been hatched just two months earlier were already attacking trees. Typically the mountain pine beetles spend a winter as larvae within the trees before emerging as adults the following summer. According to the researchers, this extra generation could produce 60 times as many beetles devouring trees in a given year. Since the late-1990s, oubreaks of the mountain pine beetles — linked to warmer winters — have devastated more than 70,000 square miles of forest in western Canada and the U.S., the largest known outbreak in history. “This thing is immense,” said Jeffry Mitton, a CU-Boulder professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and lead author of the study published in The American Naturalist.
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13 Mar 2012: Nitrates Pose Threat to
California Farming Region, Study Says

Nearly 10 percent of the people living in California’s most productive agricultural areas may be drinking water contaminated with nitrates, according to a new study. In an analysis of water quality in the Tulare Lake Basin and the Salinas Valley, a rural region of about 2.6 million people, researchers at the University of California, Davis found that one in ten people rely on drinking water containing levels of nitrates that exceed the 45 milligrams-per-liter state health standard. According to the study, the number of people affected could exceed 80 percent of the region’s population by 2050 without proper actions, which would include improving fertilizer management and water treatment. According to researchers, more than 95 percent of the nitrate contamination is related to agricultural activities, including organic and synthetic fertilizers. A separate report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that farming-caused water pollution costs taxpayers worldwide billions of dollars annually.
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Interview: Finding Strategies
To Save World’s Coral Reefs

In her four decades as a marine biologist, Nancy Knowlton has played an important role in helping document the biodiversity of the planet’s coral reefs — and the threats they increasingly face. Knowlton, a scientist at the Smithsonian Institution, has been elated by the rapid pace of discoveries but also  alarmed by the perils facing coral reefs, including overfishing, disease, and climate change. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Knowlton assesses the state of the world’s corals and discusses conservation projects that offer hope of saving these irreplaceable marine ecosystems — success stories that she has highlighted in a series of events called “Beyond the Obituaries: Success Stories in Ocean Conservation.” “I felt it was really important to give people a reason to think that there is something you can do,” Knowlton says. “We all need more than doom and gloom.”
Read the interview
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09 Mar 2012: Some Shale Formations
Impervious To Fracking, CEO Says

Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson says that a drilling method that has made vast natural gas resources accessible across the U.S. has been unable to crack some shale rock formations in Europe and China. Speaking to energy analysts, Tillerson said two attempts to tap gas-rich shale fields in Poland through hydraulic fracturing techniques have been unsuccessful despite the use of high-pressure torrents of water and sand. The drilling technique, known as fracking, involves blasting a mix of water, sand, and chemicals deep underground to shatter shale formations and free natural gas trapped within. “Some of the shales don’t respond as well to hydraulic fracturing,” Tillerson told reporters, according to Bloomberg News. “It’s going to take research and time in the lab to understand that.” Tillerson said some shale formations in the U.S. have also been impervious to fracking, and that the company is studying whether the use of different fluids or pumping techniques will make a difference. The rapid spread of the drilling technique has caused increasing concern among environmentalists and some local residents, who contend it may pollute water supplies.
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08 Mar 2012: Herbicides May Be Lethal For
Endangered Butterfly Species, Study Says

Common herbicides used to maintain the habitat of the endangered Lange’s metalmark butterfly may actually pose a lethal threat to the species, according to a new study. In tests requested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — which uses the herbicides to combat invasive plants inside a northern California wildlife refuge — scientists at Washington State University found that adult populations of the closely related Behr’s metalmark butterfly dropped by as much as one-third when their larvae were exposed to regular doses of three commonly used herbicides. For small populations, “any kind of reduction like that is going to be a problem,” said John Stark an ecotoxicologist and lead author of the study, published in the journal Environmental Pollution. The scientists could not use the Lange’s metalmarks for testing because of their endangered status. While more than 25,000 of the butterflies were believed to live in the dunes of Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge a century ago, the numbers dropped to 5,000 in the early 1970s and to as low as 45 in 2006. A critical threat facing the butterfly is the loss of the naked stem buckwheat plant, which has been increasingly overgrown by non-native plants, such as the ripgut brome, vetch and yellow starthistle.
Read the interview
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08 Mar 2012: New York Roof Study Shows
Drastic Cooling with White Surfaces

A New York City roof covered in a white synthetic membrane was on average 43 degrees F cooler than surrounding black tar and asphalt roofs during times of peak heat last summer, according to a study by scientists from Columbia University and NASA. On the hottest day of the summer — July 22, 2011, when the city set a record for electricity usage during a heat wave — the dark surfaces of some city roofs reached 170 degrees F, while temperatures on the white test roof peaked at less than 130 degrees F. The city’s CoolRoofs initiative is working to install “living roofs” with plants and to convert many tar and asphalt roofs to a white color using membranes or white paint. The goal, the city says, is to help reduce the urban “heat island” effect, which can boost temperatures by 5 to 7 degrees F, especially at night. Lowering the heat island effect would reduce demand for air conditioning and cut illnesses and deaths during heat waves. Converting roofs to white is cheaper than planting “living roofs,” the researchers noted. “Bright is the new black,” said Stuart Gaffin, a Columbia scientist and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
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06 Mar 2012: Campbell’s To Stop Using
the Chemical BPA in Lining of Soup Cans

Bowing to pressure from consumer and health advocacy groups, Campbell’s Soup Co. says it will stop using the synthetic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in the lining of its cans. The compound, which is found in thousands of everyday products, has been shown to interfere with hormone production, disrupt development, and cause other health problems. Campbell’s decision comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers whether to ban the use of BPA in food and beverage packaging. Many companies have already moved away from BPA, which is the primary component of hard and clear polycarbonate plastics often used in water bottles and can linings. A spokesman for Campbell’s said the company has been looking for alternatives to BPA for five years, and will make a transition as soon as “feasible alternatives are available.” In 2010, FDA officials said they had concerns about the effects of BPA on the development of infants and young children, although no new regulations were introduced. Canada and the European Union have already banned the use of BPA in baby bottles.
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