[...] When you shell out for bottled water, which costs up to 1,900 times more than tap water, you have a right to know what exactly is inside that pricey plastic bottle.
Most bottled water makers don’t agree. They keep secret some or all the answers to these elementary questions:
Where does the water come from?
Is it purified? How?
Have tests found any contaminants?
Among the ten best-selling brands, nine — Pepsi's Aquafina, Coca-Cola's Dasani, Crystal Geyser and six of seven Nestlé brands — don't answer at least one of those questions.
Only one — Nestlé's Pure Life Purified Water — discloses its water source and treatment method on the label and offers an 800-number, website or mailing address where consumers can request a water quality test report.
The industry's refusal to tell consumers everything they deserve to know about their bottled water is surprising.
Since July 2009, when Environmental Working Group released its groundbreaking Bottled Water Scorecard, documenting the industry's failure to disclose contaminants and other crucial facts about their
products, bottled water producers have been taking withering fire from consumer and environmental groups.
A new EWG survey of 173 unique bottled water products finds a few improvements – but still too many secrets and too much advertising hype. Overall, 18 percent of bottled waters fail to list the
source, and 32 percent disclose nothing about the treatment or purity of the water. Much of the marketing nonsense that drew ridicule last year can still be found on a number of labels.
EWG recommends that you drink filtered tap water. You'll save money, drink water that’s purer than tap water and help solve the global glut of plastic bottles.
We support ber federal standards to enforce the consumer's right to know all about bottled water.
Until the federal Food and Drug Administration cracks down on water bottlers, use EWG's [online] Bottled Water Scorecard to find brands that disclose water source, treatment and quality
and that use advanced treatment methods to remove a broad range of pollutants. → Download the PDF
White Nose Syndrome
Little brown bat with fungus on muzzle. Photo by Al Hicks, NY Dept of Environ. Conservation. Image Credit: USGS National Wildlife Center
The condition in bats known as 'white-nose syndrome' (WNS) was first noted among dead and hibernating bats found in caves near Albany, New York, by the New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation beginning in February 2007. Affected bats appeared to have a white substance on their heads and wings. In early 2008, "white-nosed" bats were once
again seen in hibernaculae. Since March 2008, biologists and cavers have documented thousands of dead and dying bats at over 25 caves and mines in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts
and Connecticut.
A Wildlife Disease Specialist from the USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) met with biologists in some affected areas in March 2008 and collected environmental samples
from affected caves and mines in Vermont, New York and Massachusetts. Live, dead and dying bats were documented in and outside of their hibernacula.
Since February 2008, the NWHC has received nearly 100 bat carcasses, both euthanized and recently dead. Species include little brown, big brown, northern long-eared and eastern
pipistrelle bats, and most of these bats have been from New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
The most common findings in the bats have been emaciation and poor body condition. Many of the bats examined had little or no body fat. A subset of the bats examined also
exhibited changes in the lung that have been difficult to characterize. A majority of bats had microscopic fungal hyphae on the external surfaces of their bodies. The white
substance observed on some bats may represent an overgrowth of normal fungal colonizers of bat skin during hibernation and could be an indicator of overall poor health,
rather than a primary pathogen. Investigations into the cause of the morbidity, including underlying environmental factors, potential secondary microbial pathogens and/or
toxicants, are underway. [...]
Map courtesy of Cal Butchkoski, Pennsylvania Game Commission. Click image to enlarge
Shale gas refers to natural gas that is trapped within shale formations. Shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks that can be rich sources of petroleum and natural gas. Over the past decade,
the combination of horizontal drilling [p.43ff.] and hydraulic fracturing [p.56ff.] has allowed
access to large volumes of shale gas that were previously uneconomical to produce. The production of natural gas from shale formations has rejuvenated the natural gas industry in the United States. [...]
Water, sand and additives are pumped at extremely high pressures down the wellbore.
The liquid goes through perforated sections of the wellbore and into the surrounding formation, fracturing the rock and injecting sand or proppants into the cracks to hold them open.
Experts continually monitor and gauge pressures, fluids and proppants, studying how the sand reacts when it hits the bottom of the wellbore, slowly increasing the density of sand to water as
the frack progresses.
This process may be repeated multiple times, in "stages" to reach maximum areas of the wellbore. When this is done, the wellbore is temporarily plugged between each stage to maintain the highest
water pressure possible and get maximum fracturing results in the rock.
The frack plugs are drilled or removed from the wellbore and the well is tested for results.
The water pressure is reduced and fluids are returned up the wellbore for disposal or treatment and re-use, leaving the sand in place to prop open the cracks and allow the gas to flow.
Source:Hydraulic Fracturing
Krista Kjellman Schmidt, ProPublica.org Accessed 11.05.11.
What Is Hydraulic Fracturing?
Hydraulic fracturing is a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas.
Scientists are worried that the chemicals used in fracturing may pose a threat either underground or when waste fluids are handled and sometimes spilled on the surface.
In 2009, filmmaker Josh Fox learned his home in the Delaware River Basin was on top of the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation containing natural gas that stretches across New York, Pennsylvania and huge stretches of the Northeast. He was offered $100,000 to lease his land for a new method of drilling developed by Halliburton and soon discovered this was only a part of a 34-state drilling campaign, the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history. Part mystery, part travelogue, and part banjo showdown, Gasland documents Josh's cross-country odyssey to find out if the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing - or fracking - is actually safe. As he interviews people who live on or around current fracking sites, Josh learns of things gone horribly wrong, from illness to hair loss to flammable water, and his inquiries lead him ever deeper into a web of secrets, lies, conspiracy, and contamination - a web that potentially stretches to threaten the New York Watershed. Unearthing a shocking story about a practice that is understudied and inadequately regulated, Gasland races to find answer about fracking before it's far too late.
For the first time, a scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire.
The peer-reviewed study, published today
in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, stands to shape the contentious debate
over whether drilling is safe and begins to fill an information gap that has made it difficult for lawmakers and the public to
understand the risks.
The research was conducted by four scientists at Duke University. They found that levels of flammable methane gas in drinking water wells increased to dangerous levels when those water supplies were close to natural gas wells. They also found that the type of gas detected at high levels in the water was the same type of gas that energy companies were extracting from thousands of feet underground, bly implying that the gas may be seeping underground through natural or manmade faults and fractures, or coming from cracks in the well structure itself.
"Our results show evidence for methane contamination of shallow drinking water systems in at least three areas of the region and suggest important environmental risks accompanying shale gas exploration worldwide," the article states.
The group tested 68 drinking water wells in the Marcellus and Utica shale drilling areas in northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York State. Sixty of those wells were tested for dissolved gas. While most of the wells had some methane, the water samples taken closest to the gas wells had on average 17 times the levels detected in wells further from active drilling. The group defined an active drilling area as within one kilometer, or about six tenths of a mile, from a gas well.
The average concentration of the methane detected in the water wells near drilling sites fell squarely within a range that the U.S. Department of Interior says is dangerous and requires urgent "hazard mitigation" action, according to the study.
The researchers did not find evidence that the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing had contaminated any of the wells they tested, allaying for the time being some of the greatest fears among environmentalists and drilling opponents.
But they were alarmed by what they described as a clear correlation between drilling activity and the seepage of gas contaminants underground, a danger in itself and evidence that pathways do exist for contaminants to migrate deep within the earth.
"We certainly didn’t expect to see such a b relationship between the concentration of methane in water and the nearest gas wells. That was a real surprise," said Robert Jackson, a biology professor at Duke and one of the report’s authors.
Methane contamination of drinking water wells has been a common complaint among people living in gas drilling areas across the country. A 2009 investigation by ProPublica
revealed that methane contamination from drilling was widespread, including in Colorado, Ohio and
Pennsylvania. In several cases, homes
blew up after gas seeped into their basements or water supplies. In Pennsylvania a 2004 accident killed three people, including a baby.
In Dimock, Pa., where part of the Duke study was performed, some residents’ water
wells exploded, or their water could be lit on fire. In at least a dozen cases in Colorado, ProPublica’s investigation found, methane had infiltrated drinking water supplies that residents said were clean until hydraulic
fracturing was performed nearby.
The drilling industry and some state regulators described some of these cases as "anecdotal" and said they were either unconnected to drilling activity or were an isolated problem. But the consistency of the Duke
findings raises questions about how unusual and widespread such cases of methane contamination may be.
"It suggests that at least in the region we looked, this is a more general problem than people expected," Jackson told ProPublica.
For those who live in the midst of this problem, the report serves as long-awaited vindication. "We weren’t just blowing smoke. What we were talking about was the truth," said Ron Carter, a Dimock resident whose water
went bad when drilling began there in 2008 and was later tested as part of the
study. "Now I’m happy that at least something helps prove out our theory."
Methane is not regulated in drinking water, and while research is limited, it is not currently believed to be harmful to drink. But the methane is dangerous because as it collects in enclosed spaces it can asphyxiate
people nearby, or lead to an explosion.
To determine where the methane in the wells they tested came from, the researchers ran it through a molecular fingerprinting process called an isotopic analysis. Water samples furthest from gas drilling showed traces
of biogenic methane—a type of methane that can naturally appear in water from biological decay. But samples taken closer to drilling had high concentrations of thermogenic methane, which comes from the same hydrocarbon
layers where gas drilling is targeted. That—plus the proximity to the gas wells—told the researchers that the contamination was linked to the drilling processes.
In addition to the methane, other types of gases were also detected, providing further evidence that the gas originated with the hydrocarbon deposits miles beneath the earth and that it was unique to the active gas
drilling areas. Ethane, another component of natural gas, and other hydrocarbons were detected in 81 percent of water wells near active gas drilling but in only 9 percent of water wells further away. Propane and butane
were also detected in some drilling area wells.
The report noted that as much as a mile of rock separated the bottom of the shallow drinking water wells from the deep zones fractured for gas and identified several ways in which fluids or the gas contaminants could
move underground: The substances could be displaced by the pressures underground; could travel through new fractures or connections to faults created by the hydraulic fracturing process; or could leak from the well
casing itself somewhere closer to the surface. [...] → Read in full
Shale Gas & Fracking in Canada On CBC's The Current, with host Anna Maria Tremonti
There's a substantial amount of natural gas buried under the earth across Canada. But getting at it is tough and there are consequences. We look at the potential and the perils of fracking.
The Current Podcast (11.05.11)
CBC's 'The Current' host Anna Maria Tremonti
Shale Gas & Fracking
According to Canada's fledgling shale-gas industry, the Country could be sitting on a sprawling, game-changing source of energy ... enough natural gas to
transform our energy supply. The trouble is a growing chorus of critics is alarmed at the method needed to get at it. The gas is locked in shale, a
fine-grained sedimentary rock that has proven to be exceptionally stingy when it comes to releasing natural gas.
The process used to extract it is called, hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." And watching with dread at the experience in the United States - where shale gas
is big business - some in this Country are calling for caution and even moratoriums... warning of serious health and environmental consequences.
Andrew Miall has done a lot of work monitoring the environmental impacts of fossil
fuel development. He's a professor of geology at the University of Toronto. Michael Jensen is on the steering committee of Stop Fracking In
Nova Scotia. He was in Scottsburn in Northeastern Nova Scotia. And Mike Dawson is the President of the Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas. He has been
developing unconventional gas resources for more than 20 years and he was in Calgary.
Table 1. Map of 48 major shale gas basins in 32 countries. US Environmental Information Agency (April 2011).
Although the shale gas resource estimates will likely change over time as additional information becomes available, the report shows that the international shale gas resource base is vast. The initial
estimate of technically recoverable shale gas resources in the 32 countries examined is 5,760 trillion cubic feet, as shown in Table 1. Adding the U.S. estimate of the shale gas technically recoverable
resources of 862 trillion cubic feet results in a total shale resource base estimate of 6,622 trillion cubic feet for the United States and the other 32 countries assessed. To put this shale gas resource estimate
in some perspective, world proven reserves5 of natural gas as of January 1, 2010 are about 6,609 trillion cubic feet,6 and world technically recoverable gas resources are roughly 16,000 trillion cubic feet,7
largely excluding shale gas. Thus, adding the identified shale gas resources to other gas resources increases total world technically recoverable gas resources by over 40 percent to 22,600 trillion cubic
feet. [...]
Image Credit: Ziff Energy Group (8.04.09) Click to enlarge.
New technology such as horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracture stimulation (frac), along with rising natural gas prices through most of this decade allow shales to produce gas economically. The current dip
in natural gas prices has slowed drilling in most areas as capital budgets are slashed, except for the prolific Haynesville Shale. Producers will continue to evaluate emerging shale plays, increasing their technical
understanding and evaluating potential of the plays shown in the figure [...]
In the old and gas industry, what is meant by the term "play"?
When the oil industry uses the term 'play' it refers to a prospect or idea which might result in discovering oil or gas.
The word 'play' captures the sense of excitement and adventure that geophysicists feel when they are pursuing a concept using all their creativity
and ingenuity. It's the sense of having a huge puzzle to solve and winning with the right answer.
The term "play" is used in the oil and gas industry to refer to a geographic area which has been targeted for exploration due to favorable geoseismic survey results, well logs or production results
from a new or "wildcat well" in the area. An area comes into play when it is generally recognized that there is an economic quantity of oil or gas to be found. Oil and gas companies will send out
professional "land men" who research property records at the local courthouses and after having located landowners who own the mineral rights in the play area, will offer them an oil and gas lease deal.
Competition for acreage usually increases based on how hot the play is in terms of production from discovery wells in the area. The more oil and gas there is to be had, the higher the lease payments per acre are. [...]
A Canadian non-profit group based in Victoria, British Columbia, Dogwood Initiative was conceived in autumn 1998 at a meeting of First Nations, environmentalists, community advocates, and labour leaders. Dogwood
Initiative began operating in 1999, helping communities and First Nations gain more control of the land and resources around them so they can be managed in a way that does not rob future generations for short-term
corporate gain.
61 BC First Nations join opposition today of the Enbridge Northern Gateway proposal. Credit: Dogwood Initiative
A group of 61 British Columbia First Nations has united against a proposed
pipeline to deliver oil from Alberta's tar sands to the West Coast port of
Kitimat.
The First Nations say they do not want the $5.5-billion Northern Gateway
Pipeline project proposed by Enbridge on their territories.
The group says the twin pipelines running 1,170 kilometres from an oilsands
hub near Edmonton pose the risk of an oil spill either along the pipeline itself
or from tanker traffic along B.C.’s coast.
"Civil disobedience is not out of the question," said Larry Nooski, from the
Nadleh Whut'en First Nation near Fraser Lake.
Chief Dolly Abraham of the Taka Lake First Nations delivered a signed
declaration to the Enbridge office in downtown Vancouver, after security at the
building refused to allow the group to go up to the company offices.
61 First Nations have united in a historic alliance to protect the Fraser River watershed and declare their opposition to Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline proposal. Dogwood's
Eric Swanson gives an update from the event. (3.12.10)
Enbridge has been under fire in recent months for two high-profile pipeline
leaks in the U.S. Midwest.
In July, a pipeline in southern Michigan spilled millions of litres of crude
into the Kalamazoo river, and less than two months later, another line leaked in
the Chicago area.
One of the proposed Northern Gateway lines would ship oilsands crude to the
Pacific coast for export to energy-hungry Asian markets, while the other would
bring in imported condensates, which are used to dilute heavy oilsands crude so
it can flow more freely in pipelines.
First Nations and environmentalists have been vehemently fighting Enbridge's
proposal.
The group, calling itself the Save the Fraser Gathering of Nations, took out
a full-page ad in Thursday's Globe and Mail to declare that they will not allow
Enbridge to transport tar sands oil across their lands and watersheds.
"An oil spill in our lands and rivers would destroy our fish, poison our
water and devastate our people, our livelihoods and our futures," the ad
said.
"We will protect our rivers from Enbridge oil," it declared.
The company quickly responded to the ad by saying "every project will have
its opponents as well as its supporters," in a statement distributed to
media.
Northern Gateway said the public regulatory review process that will take
place over the next two years will allow everyone to have their concerns
addressed.
"Participating in — rather than protesting — the process is the best way for
people to ensure their voices are heard," the statement said, adding the company
wants to ensure maximum participation of aboriginal communities and meaningful
economic impact.
Northern Gateway said oil pipelines are not new to B.C. and can be operated
safely.
The statement said there are 30 formal protocol agreements signed with
aboriginal groups along the proposed corridor, and that the company will work
with groups that have concerns as the project moves forward in the regulatory
process.
Alberta's oil sands are the second-largest crude oil reserve in the
world.
Oil Sands Development: Toxic Pollutants in the Athabaska River
High levels of toxic pollutants in Alberta's Athabasca River system are linked to oilsands mining, researchers have found.
The findings counter the reports by a joint industry-government panel that the pollutant levels are due to natural sources rather than human development.
Mercury, thallium and other pollutants accumulated in higher concentrations in snowpacks and waterways near and downstream from oilsands development than in more remote areas,
said a study to be published Monday afternoon in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Upstream and undeveloped sites exposed directly to the McMurray Geologic Formation, the natural source of the oilsands, did not show high levels of pollutants.
The study led by Erin Kelly and David Schindler of the University of Alberta also found that levels of the pollutants cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver and zinc exceeded
federal and provincial guidelines for the protection of aquatic life in melted snow or water collected near or downstream from oilsands mining. [...]
[Read More]
Abstract
For over a decade, the contribution of oil sands mining and processing to the pollution of the Athabasca River has been controversial. We
show that the oil sands development is a greater source of contamination than previously realized. In 2008, within 50 km of oil sands
upgrading facilities, the loading to the snowpack of airborne particulates was 11,400 T over 4 months and included 391 kg of polycyclic
aromatic compounds (PAC), equivalent to 600 T of bitumen, while 168 kg of dissolved PAC was also deposited. Dissolved PAC concentrations
in tributaries to the Athabasca increased from 0.009µg/L upstream of oil sands development to 0.023 µg/L in winter and to 0.202 µg/L in
summer downstream. In the Athabasca, dissolved PAC concentrations were mostly <0.025µg/L in winter and 0.030µg/L in summer, except
near oil sands upgrading facilities and tailings ponds in winter (0.031–0.083µg/L) and downstream of new development in summer
(0.063–0.135µg/L). In the Athabasca and its tributaries, development within the past 2 years was related to elevated dissolved PAC
concentrations that were likely toxic to fish embryos. In melted snow, dissolved PAC concentrations were up to 4.8 µg/L, thus, spring
snowmelt and washout during rain events are important unknowns. These results indicate that major changes are needed to the way that
environmental impacts of oil sands development are monitored and managed.
Abstract
Populations of honey bees and other pollinators have declined worldwide in recent years. A variety of stressors have been
implicated as potential causes, including agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used and
highly toxic to honey bees, have been found in previous analyses of honey bee pollen and comb material. However, the
routes of exposure have remained largely undefined. We used LC/MS-MS to analyze samples of honey bees, pollen stored in
the hive and several potential exposure routes associated with plantings of neonicotinoid treated maize. Our results
demonstrate that bees are exposed to these compounds and several other agricultural pesticides in several ways
throughout the foraging period. During spring, extremely high levels of clothianidin and thiamethoxam were found in
planter exhaust material produced during the planting of treated maize seed. We also found neonicotinoids in the soil of
each field we sampled, including unplanted fields. Plants visited by foraging bees (dandelions) growing near these fields
were found to contain neonicotinoids as well. This indicates deposition of neonicotinoids on the flowers, uptake by the root
system, or both. Dead bees collected near hive entrances during the spring sampling period were found to contain
clothianidin as well, although whether exposure was oral (consuming pollen) or by contact (soil/planter dust) is unclear. We
also detected the insecticide clothianidin in pollen collected by bees and stored in the hive. When maize plants in our field
reached anthesis, maize pollen from treated seed was found to contain clothianidin and other pesticides; and honey bees in
our study readily collected maize pollen. These findings clarify some of the mechanisms by which honey bees may be
exposed to agricultural pesticides throughout the growing season. These results have implications for a wide range of large-
scale annual cropping systems that utilize neonicotinoid seed treatments.
From Chemicals to Air Pollution, New UNEP Report Points to Multiple Factors Behind Pollinator Losses
Geneva/Nairobi, 10 March 2011 - More than a dozen factors, ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of memory-damaging insecticides to the world-wide spread of pests and air pollution, may be behind the
emerging decline of bee colonies across many parts of the globe.
Scientists are warning that without profound changes to the way human-beings manage the planet, declines in pollinators needed to feed a growing global population are likely to continue.
New kinds of virulent fungal pathogens - which can be deadly to bees and other key pollinating insects - are now being detected world-wide, migrating from one region to another as a result of shipments linked to globalization
and rapidly growing international trade
Meanwhile an estimated 20,000 flowering plant species, upon which many bee species depend for food, could be lost over the coming decades unless conservation efforts are stepped up
Increasing use of chemicals in agriculture, including 'systemic insecticides' and those used to coat seeds, is being found to be damaging or toxic to bees. Some can, in combination, be
even more potent to pollinators, a phenomenon known as the 'cocktail effect'
Climate change, left unaddressed, may aggravate the situation, in various ways including by changing the flowering times of plants and shifting rainfall patterns. This may in turn affect the quality and
quantity of nectar supplies.
These are among the findings of a new report published today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which has brought together and analyzed the latest science on collapsing bee colonies.
“We are finding fungicides that function by inhibiting the steroid metabolism in the fungal disease they target, but these chemicals also affect similar enzymes in other organisms,” Said James Frazier.
“These fungicides, in combination with pyrethroids and/or neonictotinoids can sometimes have a synergistic effect hundreds of time more toxic than any of the pesticides individually.” The EPA only looks
at acute exposure to individual pesticides, but chronic exposure may cause behavioral changes that are unmonitored. Yet, a North Carolina study found that some neonicotinoids in combination with certain
fungicides, synergized to increase the toxicity of the neonicotinoid to honey bees over 1,000 fold in lab studies. [...]
MEMORANDUM: Clothianidin, Summarizes the Environmental Fate and Effects Division’s (EFED) screening-level Environmental Risk Assessment for clothianidin. [PDF]
US EPA (2 November 2010). Obtained from Pesticide Action Network North America, 28 January 2012.
Pesticides: Registration Review, Program Highlights, Current as of December 2011 - see Neonicotinoids (NN), including clothianidin. US EPA. Accessed 28.01.12.
This is a partial list. Honeybee pollination is essential for some crops, while for others it raises yield and quality.
Click on a food to see how it is pollinated:
The study, entitled Global Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats to Insect Pollinators, underlines that multiple factors are at work linked with the way humans are rapidly changing the conditions and the ground
rules that support life on Earth. It shows humans' large dependency on ecosystem services even for such vital sectors as food production.
It indicates that bees are early warning indicators of wider impacts on animal and plant life and that measures to boost pollinators could not only improve food security but the fate of many other economically
and environmentally-important plants and animals.
The authors of the report call for farmers and landowners to be offered incentives to restore pollinator-friendly habitats, including key flowering plants including next to crop-producing fields.
More care needs to be taken in the choice, timing and application of insecticides and other chemicals. While managed hives can be moved out of harm's way, "wild populations (of pollinators) are completely
vulnerable", says the report.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective
future in the 21st century. The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world's food, over 70 are pollinated by bees".
"Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature. Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less dependent on
nature's services in a world of close to seven billion people".
Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have
failed to survive the winter.
The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands
of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic
fall in numbers.
The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural
Research Service (ARS).
The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops. It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination, which means that
bees contribute some £26bn to the global economy.
Potential causes range from parasites, such as the bloodsucking varroa mite, to viral and bacterial infections, pesticides and poor nutrition stemming from intensive farming
methods. The disappearance of so many colonies has also been dubbed "Mary Celeste syndrome" due to the absence of dead bees in many of the empty hives.
US scientists have found 121 different pesticides in samples of bees, wax and pollen, lending credence to the notion that pesticides are a key problem. "We believe that
some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies," said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS's bee research laboratory.
A global review of honeybee deaths by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reported last week that there was no one single cause, but pointed the finger at the "irresponsible
use" of pesticides that may damage bee health and make them more susceptible to diseases. Bernard Vallat, the OIE's director-general, warned: "Bees contribute to global food security,
and their extinction would represent a terrible biological disaster."
Dave Hackenberg of Hackenberg Apiaries, the Pennsylvania-based commercial beekeeper who first raised the alarm about CCD, said that last year had been the worst yet for bee losses,
with 62% of his 2,600 hives dying between May 2009 and April 2010. "It's getting worse," he said. "The AIA survey doesn't give you the full picture because it is only measuring
losses through the winter. In the summer the bees are exposed to lots of pesticides. Farmers mix them together and no one has any idea what the effects might be."
Pettis agreed that losses in some commercial operations are running at 50% or greater. "Continued losses of this magnitude are not economically sustainable for commercial beekeepers," he
said, adding that a solution may be years away. "Look at Aids, they have billions in research dollars and a causative agent and still no cure. Research takes time and beehives are
complex organisms." [...]
[...] What are the effects of neonicotinoid dispersion during maize sowing?
This dust has a fallout on vegetation along the field borders. Bees fly on to grass and flowers to gather nectar, pollen and morning dew and become poisoned. These active substances are extremely
deceptive because they are neurotoxic and do not cause mass mortality outside apiaries. Bees basically go mad and become lost; or, if they manage to find their way back home, do not communicate with
the other bees any more.
How do neonicotinoids work?
They are systemic products, in that they are absorbed by the plant and leaves, or by the roots, as in the case of sowing, and remain inside the plant, in the lymph. They are highly soluble in water. In maize plants,
according to our studies, they last up to 85 days since sowing time.
There is a big argument according to which it is mainly the fault of pesticides in general if bees die.
Bee collapse has several causes, and agriculture is one of them, although probably a disease such as varroa takes an even higher toll. Then there are these new viruses, which have arrived from the Far East and are
damaging our honey bees. Bees have, in this sense, become globalized, too. Their immune system might be weakened by diseases, but also by sublethal doses of pesticides. It is very difficult to tell how big the impact
of pesticides is, because it varies according to the area. [...]
[...] Emergencies demand swift, aggressive, multi-pronged remedial action. But in the Gulf, the administration has opted for a centralized, bureaucratic response. State and local
officials know what they need to do to contain the spill and clean it up. Yet time and again their efforts have been stymied.
To build rock jetties and other oil barriers -- even to sop up oil when it reaches a swamp -- state and local jurisdictions must first gain approval from multiple federal agencies.
Louisiana offered proposal after proposal to block the oil slick heading for Grand Isle.
Yet federal officials sat on the plans for weeks, then rejected them -- and offered no alternatives for preventing the fouling of Barataria Bay.
Indeed, the feds often seem more interested in assuring that the locals jump through every possible regulatory hoop -- dotting every "i" and crossing every "t" along the way -- than
in cleaning up the mess.
For example, sand berms off the Chandeleur Islands protect the Mississippi Delta against approaching hurricanes -- yet federal officials halted dredging to replenish the sandbars,
insisting that contaminated sand be removed first. To get things going again, the state had to dispatch two National Guard helicopters to cart the sand away -- probably the most
expensive sand removal on record.
It infuriates the locals. They care about what happens to their land, their water and their livelihoods, even if their "betters" in DC and New York are getting bored with the 14-week-old story.
Continued delay means disaster. Much of the Louisiana coast is marshland and estuaries; water doesn't flow through these areas, it pretty much sits. Once the oil gets there, there's no tidal
action or river flow to flush it out. And these lands anchor the food chain for about one-third of America's fisheries. If they are badly contaminated, those fisheries will be lost for a
generation or more. [...]
On Sunday, 30 May 2010, Riki Ott was interviewed by Helen Mann on CBC's The Sunday Edition. The Ott segment runs from 00:00:28 to 00:28:00. We bly recommend you listen to it.
Fishermen sick from clean-up work in gulf Gary Burris, a fisherman in coastal Louisiana, has become severely ill from inhaling
fumes during response work following the Deepwater Horizon disaster and claims many more have become sick but hesitate to come forward
for fear of losing their only remaining source of revenue. Includes comments by Rikki Ott PhD. WDSU News, New Orleans (19.05.10)
[...] State health officials are warning people who are sensitive to reduced air quality to stay indoors, but anyone who experiences the classic symptoms of crude oil overexposure — nausea,
vomiting, headaches, or cold or flu-like symptoms — should seek medical help. [...]
After the 2002 Prestige oil spillA off Galicia, Spain, and the 2007 Hebei Spirit oil spillB in South Korea, medical doctors found fishermen and cleanup workers suffered from respiratory problems,
central nervous system problems (headaches, nausea, dizziness, etc.), and even genetic damage (South Korea). [...]
During the Exxon Valdez spillC, health problems among cleanup workers became so widespread, so fast, that medical doctors, among others, sounded warnings. Dr. Robert Rigg, former Alaska
medical director for Standard Alaska (BP), warned, "It is a known fact that neurologic changes (brain damage), skin disorders (including cancer), liver and kidney damage, cancer of
other organ systems, and medical complications — secondary to exposure to working unprotected in (or inadequately protected) — can and will occur to workers exposed to crude oil and other
petrochemical by-products. While short-term complaints, i.e., skin irritation, nausea, dizziness, pulmonary symptoms, etc., may be the initial signs of exposure and toxicity, the more
serious long-term effects must be prevented."1
Unfortunately, Exxon called the short-term symptoms, "the Valdez Crud," and dismissed 6,722
cases of respiratory claims from cleanup workers as "colds or flu" using an exemption under OSHA’s hazardous waste cleanup reporting requirements.2 [...]
Exxon/Valdez Alaska Oil Spill
Gorman RW, Berardinelli SP, Bender TR. Health Hazard Evaluation report, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), May 1991.
City of Cordova Fact Sheet, 1989 1[29]: Robert Rigg MD, Letter to Cordova District Fishermen United, 13 May 1989.
What's really happening to the people of the Gulf?
19 June 2010. Gulf Emergency Summit. Kindra Arnesan, of Venice, Louisianna, describes the horrors
of the BP Gulf Oil Spill Catastrophe. She has been granted security clearance to witness the front-line and behind-the-scenes activity of the clean-up response.
Referred to in clip: The Poison Tide, Transcript, 60 Minutes, Australia (11.06.10)
[T]he Louisiana Environmental Action Network
released its analysis of air monitoring test results by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's air testing data comes from Venice, a coastal
community 75 miles south of New Orleans in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish.
The findings show that levels of airborne chemicals have far exceeded state standards and what's considered safe for human exposure.
For instance, hydrogen sulfide has been detected at concentrations more than 100 times greater than the level known to cause physical reactions in people. Among
the health effects of hydrogen sulfide exposure are eye and
respiratory irritation as well as nausea, dizziness, confusion and headache.
The concentration threshold for people to experience physical symptoms from hydrogen sulfide is about 5 to 10 parts per billion. But as recently as last Thursday, the EPA measured levels
at 1,000 ppb. The highest levels of airborne hydrogen sulfide measured so far were on May 3, at 1,192 ppb.
Image Credit: Der Spiegel (13.05.10) Click image to enlarge.
Testing data also shows levels of volatile organic chemicals that far exceed Louisiana's own ambient air standards. VOCs cause acute physical health symptoms including eye, skin and respiratory
irritation as well as headaches, dizziness, weakness, nausea and confusion.
Louisiana's ambient air standard for the VOC benzene, for example, is 3.76 ppb, while its standard for methylene chloride is 61.25 ppb. Long-term exposure to airborne benzene has been
linked to cancer, while the EPA considers
methylene chloride a probable carcinogen. [...] [Read More]
Plastic Pollution in Oceans and Converting Plastic To Oil
Oceanographer Charles Moore is founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and captain of the foundation's research vessel, the Alguita.
A yachting competition across the Pacific led veteran seafarer Charles Moore to discover what some have since deemed the world's largest "landfill" -- actually a huge water-bound swath of floating plastic garbage
the size of two Texases. Trapped in an enormous slow whirlpool called the Pacific Gyre, a mostly stagnant, plankton-rich seascape spun of massive competing air currents, this Great Pacific Garbage Patch in some
places outweighs even the surface waters' biomass six-to-one.
Moore said after his return voyage, "There were shampoo caps and soap bottles and plastic bags and fishing floats as far as I could see. Here I was in the middle of the ocean, and there was nowhere I could go to
avoid the plastic."
Since his discovery, Moore has been analyzing the giant litter patch and its disastrous effects on ocean life. Through the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, he hopes to raise awareness about the problem and find
ways to restrict its growth. He's now leading several expeditions to sample plastic fragments across thousands of miles of the Pacific. — http://www.ted.com/speakers/charles_moore.html
Plastic marine pollution is a significant environmental concern, yet a quantitative description of the scope of this
problem in the open ocean is lacking. Here, we present a time series of plastic content at the surface of the western
North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea from 1986–2008. More than 60% of 6136 surface plankton net tows
collected buoyant plastic pieces typically millimeters in size. The highest concentration of plastic debris was
observed in subtropical latitudes and associated with the observed large-scale convergence in surface currents
predicted by Ekman dynamics. Despite a rapid increase in plastic production and disposal during this time period,
no trend in plastic concentration was observed in the region of highest accumulation.
This map is an oversimplification of ocean currents and features in the Pacific Ocean. There are numerous factors that affect
the location, size, and strength of all of these features throughout the year, including seasonality and El Nino/La Nina. Depicting that on a static map is very difficult.
Plastic Pollution in the Ocean. Captain Charles Moore describes the marine debris research he has conducted on behalf of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation over the past 12 years.
Current concerns include the ubiquitous presence of endocrine disrupting synthetics in the marine environment, with pollutant loads being transferred up the food chain to haunt fish, cetaceans and humans.
Blest founder and CEO Akinori Ito is passionate about using his
machine to change the way people around the world think about their plastic trash. There are over sixty machines already installed in farms, fisheries, and small factories in Japan.
"If we burn plastic, we generate toxins and a large amount of carbon dioxide. If we convert it into oil, we save CO2 and at the same time increase people’s awareness about the value of plastic garbage," says Ito.
"This plastic is every where in the world, and everyone throws it away." His dream is to make a machine that anyone can use, making "[t]he home is the oil field of the future." [See the OurWorld2.0 United Nations University article below.]
Source:Plastic to oil fantastic
Carol Smith, OurWorld 2.0, United Nations University (27 August 2010); 14.04.09 article reprint.
[...] Though Japan has much improved its "effective utilization" rate over the years to 72% in 2006, that leaves 28% of plastic to be buried in landfills or burned. According to Plastic Waste Management Institute data,
"effective utilization" includes not just the 20% that is actually recycled, but also 52% that is being incinerated for "energy recovery" purposes, i.e., generating heat or electric power.
"If we burn the plastic, we generate toxins and a large amount of CO2. If we convert it into oil, we save CO2 and at the same time increase people’s awareness about the value of plastic garbage," says Akinori Ito, CEO of Blest.
Blest’s conversion technology is very safe because it uses a temperature controlling electric heater rather than flame. The machines are able to process polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene (numbers 2-4) but not
PET bottles (number 1). The result is a crude gas that can fuel things like generators or stoves and, when refined, can even be pumped into a car, a boat or motorbike. One kilogram of plastic produces almost one liter
of oil. To convert that amount takes about 1 kilowatt of electricity, which is approximately ¥20 or 20 cents’ worth.
The company makes the machines in various sizes and has 60 in place at farms, fisheries and small factories in Japan and several abroad.
"To make a machine that anyone can use is my dream," Ito says. "The home is the oil field of the future." [...]
'Yellow biotechnology' refers to biotechnology with insects -- analogous to the green (plants) and red (animals) biotechnology. Active ingredients or genes in insects are characterized and used for research or application in agriculture and medicine. Scientists in Germany are now using a procedure which brings forward ecological research on insects: They study gene functions in moth larvae by manipulating genes using the RNA interference technology (RNAi). RNAi is induced by feeding larvae with plants that have been treated with viral vectors. This method -- called "plant virus based dsRNA producing system" (VDPS) -- increases sample throughput compared to the use of genetically transformed plants.Â
Around the world coral reefs are facing threats brought by climate change and dramatic shifts in sea temperatures. While warming has been the primary focus for scientists and ocean policy managers, cold can also cause significant damage. Scientists have shown that cool temperatures can inflict more damage in the short term, but heat is more destructive in the long run.
Evidence is lacking that populations of jellyfish and similar gelatinous plankton are surging in numbers globally and will likely dominate the seas in coming decades. Rather, increasing scientific and media interest as well as the lack of good baseline data seem to explain the widespread perception of an increase.
Precipitous declines in formerly common mammals in Everglades National Park in Florida have been linked to the presence of invasive Burmese pythons, according to new research. The study, the first to document the ecological impacts of this invasive species, strongly supports that animal communities in the 1.5-million-acre park have been markedly altered by the introduction of pythons within 11 years of their establishment as an invasive species. Mid-sized mammals are the most dramatically affected, but some Everglades pythons are as large as 16 feet long, and their prey have included animals as large as deer and alligators.
Wildlife health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society have published evidence which supports the conclusion that Mongolian gazelles -- one of the most populous large land mammals on the planet -- are not a reservoir of foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious viral disease that threatens both wildlife and livestock in Asia.
Killer whales are the top marine predator. The increase in hunting territories available to killer whales in the Arctic due to climate change and melting sea ice could seriously affect the marine ecosystem balance. New research has combined scientific observations with Canadian Inuit traditional knowledge to determine killer whale behavior and diet in the Arctic.
Hundreds of rare, endemic species in the Central Andes remain unprotected and are increasingly under threat from development and climate change, according to a new study.
Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover's Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan -- a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula -- found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974. But Cousteau was right. During the following three-plus decades, Dustan, an ocean ecologist and biology professor at the University of Charleston in South Carolina, has witnessed widespread coral reef degradation and bleaching from up close.
The Andes-Amazon basin of Peru and Bolivia is one of the most biologically rich and rapidly changing areas of the world. A new study has used information collected over the last 100 years by explorers and from satellite images which reveals detailed patterns of species and ecosystems that occur only in this region. Worryingly, the study also finds that many of these unique species and ecosystems are lacking vital national level protection. Endemic species are restricted to a specific area and occur nowhere else. These species are especially vulnerable to climate and environmental changes because they require unique climates and soil conditions.
Fish biologists conducted one of the first studies of deep-sea fish sounds in more than 50 years, 2,237 feet under the Atlantic. With recording technology more affordable, fish sounds can be studied to test the idea that fish communicate with sound, especially those in the dark of the deep ocean.
Half of all wetlands in the US, Europe and China were destroyed during the 20th century, but a thriving restoration effort aims to recreate marshes and other ecosystems lost. A new study cautions, however, that restored wetlands do not recover to the condition of a natural, undamaged wetland for hundreds of years, if ever. This calls into question mitigation banks that allow developers to destroy one wetland if they create another.
When it comes to conserving the world's orchids, not all forests are equal. Ecologists revealed that an orchid's fate hinges on two factors: A forest's age and its fungi.
Might a penguin's next meal be affected by the exhaust from your tailpipe? The answer may be yes, when you add your exhaust fumes to the total amount of carbon dioxide lofted into the atmosphere by humans since the industrial revolution. One-third of that carbon dioxide is absorbed by the world's oceans, making them more acidic and affecting marine life.
Land and marine iguanas and giant tortoises living close to human settlements or tourist sites in the Galapagos islands were more likely to harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria than those living in more remote or protected sites on the islands, researchers report. Many of the reptiles harbor E. coli bacteria that are resistant to ampicillin, doxycycline, tetracycline, and trimethoprin/sulfamethoxazole.
Lessons from tens of millions of years ago are pointing to new ways to save and protect today's coral reefs and their myriad of beautiful and many-hued fishes at a time of huge change in the Earth's systems. Today's complex relationship between fishes and corals developed relatively recently in geological terms -- and is a major factor in shielding reef species from extinction, say experts.
Recent carbon dioxide emissions have pushed the level of seawater acidity far above the range of the natural variability that existed for thousands of years, affecting the calcification rates of shell-forming organism.
For the first time scientists have shown that corals hosting a single type of zooxanthellae can have different levels of thermal tolerance -– a feature that was only known previously for corals with a mix of zooxanthellae. This finding is important because many species of coral are dominated by a single type of zooxanthellae.
Biodiversity is declining rapidly throughout the world. The challenges of conserving the world's species are perhaps even larger than mitigating the negative effects of global climate change, experts say.
Around 250 million years ago, most life on Earth was wiped out in an extinction known as the "Great Dying." Geologists have learned that the end came slowly from thousands of centuries of volcanic activity.
Around the world coral reefs are facing threats brought by climate change and dramatic shifts in sea temperatures. While warming has been the primary focus for scientists and ocean policy managers, cold can also cause significant damage. Scientists have shown that cool temperatures can inflict more damage in the short term, but heat is more destructive in the long run.
Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations -- clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants -- and recent media reports have created a perception that the world's oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish. Now, a new study questions claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide and suggests claims are not supported with any hard evidence or scientific analyses to date.
A global study has questioned claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide. Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations -- clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants -- and recent media reports have created a perception that the world's oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish. Now, a new global and collaborative study questions claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide and suggests claims are not supported with any hard evidence or scientific analyses to date.
Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages by 2100, according to researchers in a new paper. That figure represents an increased vulnerability from population and especially economic growth, as well as the effects of climate change. Greater vulnerability to cyclones is expected to increase global tropical damage to $56 billion by 2100 -- double the current damage -- from the current rate of $26 billion per year if the present climate remains stable.
Even if the current weather situation may seem to go against it, the probability of cold winters with a lot of snow in Central Europe rises when the Arctic is covered by less sea ice in summer.
New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. The research reveals the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the Ordovician Period, which ended 444 million years ago. During this period the climate gradually cooled, leading to a series of 'ice ages.' This global cooling was caused by a dramatic reduction in atmospheric carbon, which this research now suggests was triggered by the arrival of plants.
A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity -- not changes in solar activity -- are the primary force driving global warming. The study offers an updated calculation of Earth's energy imbalance, the difference between the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth's surface and the amount returned to space as heat. The researchers' calculations show that, despite unusually low solar activity between 2005 and 2010, the planet continued to absorb more energy than it returned to space.
Two decades after the United Nations established the Framework Convention on Climate Change in order to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system", the Arctic shows the first signs of a dangerous climate change.
Oceanographers have identified a series of ocean hotspots around the world generated by strengthening wind systems that have driven oceanic currents, including the East Australian Current, polewards beyond their known boundaries.
Killer whales are the top marine predator. The increase in hunting territories available to killer whales in the Arctic due to climate change and melting sea ice could seriously affect the marine ecosystem balance. New research has combined scientific observations with Canadian Inuit traditional knowledge to determine killer whale behavior and diet in the Arctic.
The large changes in the carbon isotopic composition of carbonates which occurred prior to the major climatic event more than 500 million years ago, known as "Snowball Earth," are unrelated to worldwide glacial events, a new study suggests.
A team of resource economist researchers has revised the cost burden sharply upward for childhood asthma and for the first time include the number of cases attributable to air pollution, in a new study.
New research demonstrates that one suggested method of geoengineering the atmosphere to deal with climate change, injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere, probably would have limited success.
The mating habits of marine turtles may help to protect them against the effects of climate change. The study shows how the mating patterns of a population of endangered green turtles may be helping them deal with the fact that global warming is leading to a disproportionate number of females being born.
Carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing over the past decades, causing Earth to get hotter and hotter. There are concerns that a continuation of these trends could have catastrophic effects. This has led some to explore drastic ideas for combating global warming, including the idea of counteracting it by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth. However, it has been suggested that reflecting sunlight away from Earth might itself threaten the food supply. New research examines the potential effects that geoengineering the climate could have on global food production and concludes that sunshade geoengineering would be more likely to improve rather than threaten food security.
Biodiversity is declining rapidly throughout the world. The challenges of conserving the world's species are perhaps even larger than mitigating the negative effects of global climate change, experts say.
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About.
This map is an oversimplification of ocean currents and features in the Pacific Ocean. There are numerous factors that affect
the location, size, and strength of all of these features throughout the year, including seasonality and El Nino/La Nina. Depicting that on a static map is very difficult.
