Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Ahoy, mateys!

In honor of today, September 19th, being International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I've decided to take a break from the usual talk of toxic chemicals, environmental destruction, and the irreversible damage we've caused to the planet to offer some dumb hilarious environmental-themed pirate jokes!

Q: Whats a pirate's favorite owl?
A: A baaaarrrn owl

Q: Where does a pirate buy his/her groceries?
A: At the faaarrrmer's market (If pirates can buy local food, you can too)

Q: How do pirates fight global warming?
A: By reducing their caaaarbon footprint!

Q: Whats a pirate's favorite toxin?
A: Aaaaarsenic!

Q: What kind of milk do pirates drink?
A: aaaRBGH-Free (pirates say no to bovine growth hormone. obvs)

Leave your dumb hilarious eco-themed pirate joke below.

Consumer Rumors: Time to stop buying tissues

From Greenpeace's website, a new reason why we should all be wiping our noses with reusable hankies and wiping our bums with recycled toilet paper:

Shocking new photos released today reveal the existence of a massive stockpile of old-growth logs that are destined to become disposable products like Kleenex tissue and Cottonelle toilet paper for tissue giant Kimberly-Clark Corporation (K-C). The logs originate from the Ogoki Forest, the single most ecologically valuable area left in Ontario’s southern Boreal Forest and the site of growing controversy.

The stockpile is evidence of Kimberly-Clark’s egregious mismanagement of the forests despite company claims that “much of [the] fiber from the Canadian Boreal forest comes to K-C in the form of wood pulp produced from sawdust and chips – or leftovers – of the lumber production process.”

As these new photos and recent government correspondence reveal, Kimberly-Clark is currently purchasing huge quantities of pulp made primarily from whole, old-growth trees from intact areas of Canada’s Boreal Forest.

And, some astonishing facts from a recent report that Greenpeace put out on Kleenex, "Cut and Run":

• Kimberly-Clark uses hundreds of thousands of tonnes of tree fibre from the Kenogami Forest every year to produce disposable tissue products, including Kleenex.
• Kimberly-Clark directly managed and logged the Kenogami Forest for 71 years, from 1937 to 2004.
• Since Kimberly-Clark started logging there, 71 per cent of the Kenogami Forest has been fragmented. Woodland caribou have been driven out of 67 per cent of the forest, and wolverines have completely disappeared from its boundaries.
• Between 2001 and 2006 alone, 220,500 hectares (544,635 acres) of intact forest was fragmented—an area more than twice the size of Dallas.
• Caribou are predicted to die-off in 95 per cent of the forest within the next 20 years, due to the logging that has already been done. Eighty per cent of the monitored species in the forest are predicted to decline substantially within the next 100 years.
• Many of the remaining intact and old-growth forest areas in Kenogami, including critical threatened species habitat, are slated to be cut under the 2005–2010 and draft 2010–2011 plans.

(Eds note: Congrats to Rachel C. for winning the contest for naming this feature!)

Children do not need to be made fire retardant

A new study by the Environmental Working Group found that toddlers and preschoolers typically have 3 times as much toxic flame retardants in their blood as their mothers. In total, they found 11 different flame retardants in the children, and 86 percent of the time the chemicals were present at higher levels in the children than their mother.

Why is it a bad idea to have flame retardants in kids' bloodstreams? Flame retardants, or PBDEs, are widely used in in furniture foams, industrial textiles, and consumer electronics. PBDEs have been found in human breast milk, wildlife, and in food. In 1998, Swedish scientists discovered that PBDEs may pose significant risks to human and environmental health. As a result, the European Union and the states of California, Hawaii, Maine, New York and Washington took action to reduce, or ban, the use of PBDEs.

The good news is that the Michigan Legislature is currently discussing legislation to ban deca-BDE, a type of toxic flame retardant that shouldn't be used anymore. I just took action to get deca-BDE banned in Michigan, and if you live in Michigan, you should take a second to take action as well: http://www.mnceh.org/take.deca.php

Interesting Fact of the Day

Did you know that what we eat accounts for more than twice the amount of greenhouse gas emissions as how much we drive?

It may surprise you to learn that our diets account for up to twice as many greenhouse emissions as driving. One recent study suggested that the average US household's annual carbon food-print is 8.1 tonnes of "equivalent CO₂ emissions" or CO₂eq (a measure that incorporates any other greenhouse gases produced alongside the CO₂). That's almost twice the 4.4 tonnes of CO₂eq emitted by driving a 25-mile-per-US gallon (9 litres per 100 kilometres) vehicle 19,000 km - a typical year's mileage in the US.

Next time you are at the grocery store, make sure you look for local and organic food.

Source: New Scientist

Things That Make You Say Duh, Vol 4

"If you have an old forest on the ground, it's probably better to leave it there than to cut it"

The quote comes from a report showing that old growth forests absorb more carbon dioxide than they release into the atmosphere. There are a hell of a lot of other reasons to keep old growth forests around, but if this one will have an effect on decisions of whether to save old growth forests, then great.

If the forests get cut down, I guess we can always get the hippies to come and cry over the dead trees. Do you think that crying hippies are carbon sinks or carbon sources?

Source: AP

In Defense Of Community Organizing: Make Sarah Palin Apologize

In her acceptance speech last night at the Republican National Convention, Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a `community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

Nominally, her words were an assault on Barack Obama's early career as a community organizer on Chicago's south side. But the impact reaches farther than that and is a direct affront to the thousands who have dedicated their lives to making America great.

Community organizing is the heart and soul of American democracy. We are privileged to live in a country where people with the energy and passion to dream of a better world can put in the sweat and shoe leather to build social movements from the ground up. Indeed, if it weren't for the sacrifice of organizers, we wouldn't have many of the opportunities we take for granted today -- from the 40-hour work week and the minimum wage to protections for a woman's right to choose and the right of African Americans to vote.

In fact, Sarah Palin would never have been able to take the stage as the nominee at a national political convention if it weren't for community organizers of the past who dreamed of, fought for, and won the right of women's suffrage.

Americans dedicate themselves to public service in many ways, and everyone who gives of themselves for the betterment of our nation -- from small-town mayors to community organizers -- should be recognized and honored for their valuable contribution.

Tell Governor Palin to apologize for her remarks regarding community organizers. Sign the petition.

Maybe the world needs more hippies crying over dead trees

Hippies Wail for Dead Trees - Watch more free videos

Toxic Chemicals Do the Darndest Things

In honor of recent news headlines, my undying love of lists, and the successful completion of the first week of my new environmental health graduate program, The Birds and The PCBs is happy to present:

The top 6 weirdest health effects that toxic chemicals can cause:

6. Obesity: Apparently, pollution can make you fat, according to a groundbreaking new Spanish study. The results indicate that exposure to chemicals before birth makes children more likely to grow up and become obese. This is just the latest in a series of studies showing that fetal exposure to chemicals can interfere with hormone processes and affect weight later in life. (Thanks to Brian from Arsenic and Old Face for sending this to me!)

5. Baby Girls: As I reported back in August, PCBS and other chemicals can interfere sex ratios and cause an abundance of baby girls. In fact, one village in the Arctic only has baby girls being born. And, a study from earlier in the summer found that women in San Francisco with high levels of PCBs in their bodies who became pregnant were a third less likely to give birth to a baby boy

4. Violent Crime: Studies show that even low levels of lead can cause brain damage and, surprisingly, make those exposed to lead more likely to commit violent crimes. In fact, studies have linked lead exposure with higher numbers of juvenile deliquency acts. One of my environmental justice professors wants to study lead levels of prisoners, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have higher levels of lead in their bodies. For more info on lead exposure, see Sustaino's excellent post "Lead (Pb) Belly."

3. Hermaphrodism: As I reported back in August, researchers in Florida have found that in heavily farmed areas, 40% of male toads have abnormalities that make them more like female toads, likely due to agricultural pollution. This study is strengthened by studies coming out of UC Berkeley showing that the most commonly used herbicide in the US, atrazine, feminizes frogs and turns them into hermaphrodites- even at low levels allowable by EPA in waterways. Scary stuff!

2. Impaired Art Skills: Pesticides are known to affect learning and behavior in small children. A chilling example of this comes from a study of children in the Yaqui Valley, Mexico. Dr. Elizabeth Guillette studied two villages- one where pesticides were heavily used in agriculture, and one where pesticides were not used. Although the children exposed to pesticides did not have any overt symptoms, they children demonstrated decreases in stamina, eye-hand coordination, memory and in the ability to draw a person. While the unexposed children drew pictures of people normal for their age and developmental stage, the pesticide-exposed children's drawing were so different, it was shocking. See for yourself:


1. Teen pregnancies: And finally, one of the weirdest effects of toxic chemical exposure. Lead exposure in young mothers has been found to be associated with repeat teen pregnancies, as well as tobacco use. The study, "Environmental Injustice: Childhood Lead Poisoning, Teen Pregnancy, and Tobacco," was just recently published. The authors explain that lead poisoning can delay cognitive development in young women. "Because lead poisoning potentially impacts both cognitive ability and executive functioning, these two factors may operate synergistically in reducing the teen’s ability to avoid pregnancy."

Watch as our planet melts

One of my professors today showed us this handy tool for tracking the most up-to-date satellite images of Arctic ice and comparing it to any day in the last 30 years. The results are truly horrifying. See for yourself: http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh

Not the fireflies also!

As someone who grew up on the east coast spending hours as a kid chasing around fireflies, its always been weird when I find someone who has never seen them before. It seems like that might become more and more common, however, as experts are reporting that firefly populations are dropping significantly. In fact, populations are down as much as 70%.

Possible causes include urban sprawl, industrial pollution, and artificial lights. It doesn't say it in the article, but I'm going to guess that global climate change isn't helping these little guys.

Fireflies seem to be just the most recent in a long list of species that are in declines, from honeybees to bats to amphibian populations, it seems like more and more species are in serious trouble.