This Just In: Climate Change Will F*** Things Up

Global warming could make extreme rains even stronger and more frequent, causing bigger floods, greater crop damage, and wider spread of diseases than previous thought, according to a new study by researchers in the U.K. In fact, extreme rainstorms are expected to rise 10 percent by 2050. These changes are already being seen, as evidenced by recent increases in massive downpours and flooding.

In related news:

• Samoan communities, faced with rising tides, are struggling to survive
  
• Polar bears are trapped on land because the sea ice retreated earlier this year
• Global warming and oil and gas development is threatening the Pacific Walrus, and if the Bush Administration doesn't act to protect them, pretty soon putting two sticks/cheetos/etc in your mouth will just be sad, no longer funny
• More than 4000 species of fish and other sea critters face extinction as coral reefs become ever more threatened

Man, what a bummer. I'll try to find some happier news to post before the workday is out, so I'm not such a Debbie Downer.

I'm pretty sure water isn't supposed to be flammable

This lady in Canada can light her water on fire. Holy crap! Not surprisingly, there is an oil and gas company operating in her neighborhood that is trying to claim that the gas in the water is natural. As much as I hate bottled water, lets hope for her sake that she's been drinking it.

Read all about it in Treehugger.

Gender Bender: Only Girls Being Born In Arctic Village

Really want to have a baby girl? Then I have a great place for you to live. In certain villages in northern Greenland, only baby girls are being born. Not only is this creepy, but its super disturbing as well. Altered sex ratios of population severely hinder the ability of the population to survive. And, this isn't just a problem in the Arctic. The ratio of baby boys to baby girls has been declining in the US and other industrialized countries since the 1970s.

Whats causing this crazy imbalance? I did some digging around, and it turns out that PCBs are one of the main chemicals linked to crazy sex ratios. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are a class of yucky chemicals that were banned in the 1970s for being persistent organic pollutants (POPs). They are found to bioaccumulate in people and animals. A study that just came out 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.

PCBs aren't the only culprit, though: studies have also linked dioxins, methylmercury, air pollution from incinerators, maternal exposure to non-ionizing radiation, paternal exposure to high voltages, paternal occupation, and parental smoking, among other things, to lower birth rates of boys.

Even though we can pat ourselves on the back for having banned PCBs, the fact that altered sex ratios seem to be a growing problem should be a warning that we need to take a hard look at our current system of chemical regulation. There are a ton of chemicals that we are exposed to every day that bioaccumulate in our bodies, and we don't know the effects of them.

Toxin found on Mars...and in your mom

Today, NASA announced that they found a toxin in the soil on Mars, and that hopes for finding life on the red planet were diminished.

Heres the funny thing though (not funny ha ha, funny weird): perchlorate, or rocket fuel, the toxin they found on Mars, is also found on our own planet- and not just in rocket fuel. In fact, its one of the most common pollutants of our waterways- it has been found to contaminate drinking water in at least 28 states. Studies by the Environmental Working Group, academic researchers and the Centers for Disease Control have found perchlorate in food, cow’s milk, human breast milk and the bodies of virtually every American.

I have a crazy idea. What if we stopped spending billions of dollars searching for life on other planets, and instead, invest that money in making our own planet more livable?

Sources: CNN, Environmental Working Group

Bad News To Start the Work Week: Dude Looks Like a Lady

Researchers in Florida have found that in heavily farmed areas, 40% of male toads have abnormalities that make them more like female toads. These reproductive abnormalities are likely to reduce the reproductive success of the toads.

With amphibians on the decline worldwide--there are thousands of species that are threatened or endangered--these ladydude toads are kind of a big deal. Pretty soon, folk singers around the world will be forced to sing "Where have all the cane toads gone?"

Specifically, the researchers found that the number of abnormalities and frequency of male toads with female traits ("intersex" toads) increased with amount of agriculture. Testosterone concentrations were altered and secondary sexual traits were either feminized or demasculinized in the intersex toads.

The authors conclude that: "These reproductive abnormalities could certainly contribute to amphibian population declines occurring in areas exposed to agricultural contaminants."

Anyone who is familiar with the work of Tyrone Hayes of UC Berkeley shouldn't be surprised by this new study. For years, Dr. Hayes has been publishing research showing that the most commonly used herbicide in the US, atrazine, feminizes frogs and turns them into hermaphrodites. Just this past year, Dr. Hayes gave a talk at Michigan that scared the bejesus out of all of us in attendance. Be sure to check out his homepage at: http://www.atrazinelovers.com/

Source: "Agriculture Alters Gonadal Form and Function in the toad Bufo marinus" Environmental Health Perspectives, July 2008 In-Press.

Good news to start the weekend!

The Senate Environment and Public Works committee passed legislation today that addresses toxic substances in drinking water, advances environmental justice issues, limits the release of mercury, tracks hazardous waste, cleans up the Great Lakes, and improves sanitation systems for rural and native villages in Alaska.

Superhero Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the EPW Committee said: "The bills approved by the Environment and Public Works Committee today tackle some of the most dangerous pollution threatening our families and communities."

Great work, EPW! (Congress, don't screw it up)

Insert Recurring Witty Title Here

My friend Elizabeth suggested that I have a regular section on consumer products that are either really good or really bad for the environment. While I'm still working on what to call this section (Product Watch? Green or Mean? If you have any clever ideas, leave them below), I love the idea, and will start with a particularly disturbing product recently featured on Slate.

I'm not going to lie. I have a fondness for face washes, including exfoliating face washes. Now that I know that the truth about them though, I'm going to have to part ways with my current face wash forever.

Why? Apparently the exfoliating beads are made of plastic, and when the soaps and face washes that contain them wash down the drain, the tiny plastic beads don't get removed by wastewater treatment plants, and so they end up in rivers and streams and oceans, where the plastic makes its way into marine life. Because plastic doesn't break down quickly, it pretty much just stays in the bodies of marine critters. Researchers don't know the effects of lots of plastic in the stomachs and tissues of marine organisms, but I'm going to bet its not anything good.

The good news, however, is that lots of alternatives exist. Burt's Bees has an exfoliating facewash made out of jojoba beads. St. Ives face wash uses apricot kernals. Or, you could just rub your face on a salt lick.