It’s called "conservation medicine," but perhaps a better name would be "conservation health." The science is complex, but most people would find the theory intuitive: Human health is fragile, and dependent upon the larger world around it. Yes, it is about AIDS, SARS, mad cow, West Nile, malaria and monkeypox, but it is also about the interconnectedness of all life and the fact that human behavior has consequences.
For years the killer stalked Detroit and its suburbs undetected. Now it has unleashed an epidemic that will kill millions. The killer is an insect, the emerald ash borer, and the victims are ash trees. "The emerald ash borer is one of the most challenging and difficult plant pests that any state has ever had to deal with," says Sara Linsmeier-Wurfel of the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
Belize’s government is dead-set on building a dam on the upper Macal River, smack in the heart of the Cayo region, a central tourist draw. The $30 million Chalillo dam will flood 2,800 acres of tropical forest that is home to jaguars, ocelots, tapirs and the country’s only known flock of the rare and colorful scarlet macaw.
In a story that got little play outside the capital city of Hartford last July, Anne Rapkin, a former chief legal counsel for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), quietly settled a discrimination lawsuit against the state. Environmental shenanigans are nothing new in Connecticut.
If you’re pregnant and living in one of our many cities with unacceptable air quality, consider this: A study released last June by the Columbia University Center for Children’s Environmental Health demonstrates that developing fetuses are more susceptible to DNA damage caused by combustion-related pollutants than their mothers are, despite protection by the placenta.
On almost any given day in the southern part of Colombia, spray planes fly in with a mission to destroy the cocaine crops that dot the region’s small farms. It starts with the even beat of a military helicopter, followed by a plane that sprays a chemical stream. The substance used is a mixture of glyphosate, water, and added surfactants, comprising a powerful herbicide manufactured by Monsanto that is chemically similar to Roundup.
Ice coring began in the 1950s, and since then researchers have been removing samples from the Arctic, Antarctic and any other location where ice accumulates unhindered by melting. A trove of information about the atmosphere and environment waits inside, gleaned from the physical properties of the ice itself, and from the antique air bubbles within it.
Two high-level commissions have issued a clear message in the past year: Americans are unintentionally destroying the oceans through pollution, over-development and over-fishing. These reports have generated a tidal wave of marine metaphors, with commentators talking about "a sea change" or efforts to "smooth troubled waters." Now ocean advocates are organizing to turn words into action.
While no one questions that conservation efforts have made the bald eagle’s recovery possible, even the environmental community is split on whether delisting the bird is a good idea…
Computer waste can be a hazardous addition to garbage dumps, spreading lead, mercury, chromium and other compounds into the ground. While it may seem obvious that recycling is necessary to reduce the risk of possible pollutants, it remains relatively difficult for consumers to dispose of their old computers easily and cheaply. Now however, Dell has begun to offer a free pickup recycling service to customers buying a new PC.
