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High levels of mercury found in Minnesota's North Shore babies.
One in 10 babies along Minnesota's North Shore are born with unhealthy levels of mercury in their bodies, according to a new report on contamination around Lake Superior, the first to look for the pollutant in the blood of U.S. infants. Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota. 3 February 2012.
How the Sierra Club took millions from the natural gas industry — and why it stopped.
Mainstream environmental groups have struggled to balance local concerns about traditional pollution with planet-sized worries over climate change, and how to work with corporate America without being seen as selling out. Time Magazine. 3 February 2012.
Scientists censure McGill University over ties to asbestos industry.
Dozens of prominent medical researchers and scientists from across Canada and around the world have signed a letter demanding that McGill University sever its ties with the asbestos industry. Montreal Gazette, Quebec. 3 February 2012.
Cheap natural gas jumbles energy markets, stirs fears it could inhibit renewables.
For the past three years, promoters of shale gas and environmentalists opposed to coal-fired power plants have hailed the sudden abundance of U.S. natural gas as a bridge to a renewable-energy future. Washington Post. 3 February 2012.
How the stimulus revived the electric car.
One success the Obama administration can duly claim is the rebirth of the electric-car industry in the United States. The question is: Will it last? ProPublica. 3 February 2012.
Clear and present dangers not so clear, or present.
Let’s face it, human beings are not very good at dealing with distant, relatively uncertain threats. By the time some of the worst consequences of climate change clearly manifest themselves as near-term challenges, it will be too late to stop them. Climate Central. 3 February 2012.
Poor, minority residents face most health risks with climate change.
Poor, urban and minority residents are most at risk for health problems linked to climate change, according to a new California Department of Public Health analysis of Los Angeles and Fresno counties. California Watch. 3 February 2012.
Filmmaker sounds alarm over ocean of plastic.
On Midway atoll in the North Pacific, dozens of young albatross lie dead on the sand, their stomachs filled with plastic objects their parents have mistaken for food. That surreal sight, says film director Craig Leeson, is one of the many symptoms of a plague afflicting the world's oceans, food chains and human communities: the onslaught of discarded plastic. Agence France-Presse. 3 February 2012.
Movement to banish copper from brake pads gains momentum.
While government has been preoccupied with fuel economy, what about smaller environmental causes like mercury in car switches and lead weight wheel balances? Add to these copper brake pads, which produce metal dust that environmental advocates say reaches waterways and harms aquatic life. New York Times. 3 February 2012.
Cadmium pollution exposes lax regulations.
The latest incident in the city of Hechi, an "unprecedented" cadmium contamination, is certainly not an isolated case. Xinhua News Agency, China. 3 February 2012.
Wishing upon an atom in a tiny French village.
The protesters who periodically descend upon the French rural village of Fessenheim say the aging nuclear power station here, in the woods beyond the cornfields, is a calamity in waiting. New York Times. 3 February 2012.
Yakuza labor structure formed base of nuclear industry.
A labor practice involving "disguised subcontracts" is illegal under Japan's Employment Security Law. But the practice has remained widespread for years at nuclear plants around the nation, according to sources. Asahi Shimbun, Japan. 3 February 2012.
Chernobyl experts hopeful on Fukushima.
Ukrainian nuclear experts say Japanese evacuated from around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant should be able to return to their homes – unlike the Chernobyl site, which remains inside a wide no-go zone a quarter-century after the accident there. Associated Press. 3 February 2012.
Bird numbers plummet around stricken Fukushima plant.
Researchers working around Japan's disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life. London Independent, United Kingdom. 3 February 2012.
‘Unusual’ wear on new tubes carrying radioactive water at California nuclear plant raises concern.
The integrity of some equipment installed in 2009 at Southern California’s San Onofre Unit 2 nuclear plant is drawing concern after unusual wear was found on hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water. Associated Press. 3 February 2012.
Rebuilding wetlands by managing the muddy Mississippi.
The Mississippi delta is in trouble. A complex network of humanmade river channels, levees, and dams, intended to control the river and save coastal communities from flooding, has cut sediment supply to the delta in half. Rising sea levels due to climate change and lowering land surface from groundwater pumping and oil and gas extraction are also taking their toll. Science. 3 February 2012.
Latest effect of Gulf spill: Waves of cash.
At least $100 million, and possibly much more, will be funneled to Texas as part of the cleanup financing from BP after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Although the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion occurred hundreds of miles from Texas shores, Texas has been affected indirectly. Texas Tribune, Texas. 3 February 2012.
Westlands Water District suing feds for $1b.
Westlands Water District is suing the federal government for $1 billion, claiming the Interior Department failed to deliver a court-ordered cleanup of salty irrigation drainage. Bad water trapped below the ground surface still slowly poisons west Valley farmland. Fresno Bee, California. 3 February 2012.
Drought may dry up Texas rice crop.
A day of reckoning looms for the state’s rice growers, who pump millions into Southeast Texas each year and account for 5 percent of America’s rice. Come March 1, if there is not enough water in reservoirs along the Lower Colorado River, managers will take the unprecedented step of withholding water from agriculture. Climate Central. 3 February 2012.
New generation of nuclear reactors could consume radioactive waste as fuel.
A generation of "fast" nuclear reactors could consume Britain's radioactive waste stockpile as fuel, providing enough low-carbon electricity to power the country for more than 500 years, according to figures confirmed by the chief scientific adviser to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The Guardian, United Kingdom. 3 February 2012.
Is your orange juice safe?
Low levels of a banned pesticide found in orange juice imported from Brazil is safe for sale in the domestic supply, says the Food and Drug Administration after conducting new tests. The juice is tainted with the fungicide carbendazim, and will soon reach American grocery stores. ABC News. 3 February 2012.
Man arrested in Chile for stealing a glacier.
A truck carrying nearly 12,000 pounds of illegally removed glacial ice was stopped in the Chilean town of Cochrane this week. Christian Science Monitor. 3 February 2012.
'Bayou Billionaires' brings gas boom to reality TV.
The fracking-led oil and natural gas boom that's received widespread attention in the mainstream press has moved to a new medium: reality TV. CNN Money. 3 February 2012.
Are frac sand miners failing to check for rare butterfly?
In the sand barrens of Wisconsin lives an endangered butterfly whose range overlaps almost perfectly with an area booming from natural gas drilling. Dozens of frac sand companies have descended on the area, but only one has applied for a permit to legally destroy the butterfly's habitat. Madison WisconsinWatch.org. 3 February 2012.
Evidence for jellyfish invasion is lacking.
Over the last decade, reports of proliferating jellyfish have multiplied, as have fears that they are overrunning the world’s oceans. In a new study, however, researchers argue that there simply isn’t enough long-term data to conclude that global jellyfish numbers are on the rise. New York Times. 3 February 2012.
A slow burn for nanotube detection.
As more manufacturers use carbon nanotubes in electronics and other products, experts expect an increase in the likelihood that the materials will reach the environment. Researchers now report a method that can spot the materials in environmental samples in tiny amounts. Chemical & Engineering News. 3 February 2012.
The limits of avian flu studies in ferrets.
How concerned should people be that what happened in ferrets with these mutant viruses will apply to humans? Science. 3 February 2012.
Could an infection cause Tourette's-like symptoms in teenage girls?
Over the weekend Erin Brockovich made the news yet again as she and her nonprofit team descended on the village of Le Roy, N.Y., determined to test for environmental toxins that might be giving the town's teenagers symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. Scientific American. 3 February 2012.
India's panel price crash could spark solar revolution.
In India, electricity from solar is now cheaper than that from diesel generators. The news - which will boost India's "Solar Mission" to install 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022 - could have implications for other developing nations too. New Scientist. 3 February 2012.
Storm over climate change among weather forecasters.
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. But weather forecasters, many of whom see climate change as a natural, cyclical phenomenon, are split over whether they have a responsibility to educate viewers on the link between human activity and the change in the Earth's climates. Reuters. 3 February 2012.
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