According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), influenza has been a common communicable disease in birds for centuries (see "Connecting the Dots," cover story, November/December 2004). Most strains are confined only to birds and are generally non-lethal, much like human influenza viruses. Recently though, there have been questions raised over the H5N1 strain of avian influenza that has been crossing over into human beings in Southeast Asia.
Mad cow disease has been making headlines once again (see “It Can Happen Here,” Features, July/August 2001). The brain-degrading disease that is contracted through consumption of contaminated flesh has been found in two isolated cases in American cattle, and the threat of mad cow continues to loom large. It is for this reason that U.S. […]
If you’re like me, your head will be spinning reading Jim Motavalli’s cover story this issue (“The Outlook on Oil,” page 26). How can so many “experts” and “industry analysts” have such varying opinions as to when we will—or when we did—reach the world’s peak of oil production? What with predictions ranging from right now to 30 years hence to 30 years ago, I can only conclude one of two things: (a) only one of them is right; or (b) none of them are right.
The official photo of Dr. Harlan L. Watson, senior climate negotiator for the U.S. delegation to the just-concluded 10-day UN global warming talks in Montréal, shows him touching his finger to his lips, as if in deep thought. But based on his performance during the fruitless negotiations (which came to a virtual standstill as he blocked any international accord), thoughtfulness is not in his repertory.
Conservationists working to save threatened mountain terrain in Borneo from the incursions of a proposed palm oil plantation have a new weapon in their arsenal. Recent photographs snapped by a camera trap set up in the mountains of Kayan Mentara National Park show a mysterious carnivorous mammal which biologists claim has not yet been documented by science. If the creature is indeed a new species to science, it would be the first such discovery of a new carnivore in Borneo in more than a century.
Environmentalists analyzing governmental and independent soil test data from New Orleans are appalled that the government has allowed people to return, albeit briefly, to certain of the hardest hit neighborhoods in recent weeks. Erik Olson of the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) believes that government officials have been "grossly misleading the public" by not warning former inhabitants returning to collect belongings that their property may well still be contaminated by heavy metals and banned pesticides left behind after the hurricane-induced late summer flooding.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 85 percent of the motor oil changed at home by do-it-yourselfers—about 9.5 million gallons a year in that state alone—ends up disposed of improperly in sewers, soil and trash. Multiply that by 50 states and it is easy to see how used motor oil might well be one of the largest sources of pollution affecting groundwater and our nation’s waterways. The implications are startling indeed, as one quart of oil can create a two-acre sized oil slick, and a gallon of oil can contaminate a million gallons of fresh water.
As part of our overall strategy of reducing government to a size where it can be drowned in a bathtub (as our friend Grover Norquist puts it), we should take every opportunity to slash budgets in every agency, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency and the Fish and Wildlife Service. One effective way to do that is to ask Congress for less money than the agencies want….
According to a report released last week by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), a trade association representing gas pipeline companies, the impact of the recent harsh hurricane season on the Gulf coast may mean natural gas shortages in coming months, just as utilities and homeowners buckle down for a colder-than-expected winter.
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney announced last week that the Commonwealth has joined a bloc of seven other U.S. states in attempts to force automakers to produce cars and trucks with less of the emissions that are exacerbating global warming and other pollution-related environmental ills. California moved first by proposing the stricter standards last year, but the automakers have challenged the constitutionality of that statewide initiative in the courts.
