In its next Special Issue, the International Journal of Environment and Pollution has Biomonitoring as its focus. A wide spectrum of techniques, biological monitoring or biomonitoring involves the direct measurement of levels of chemical substances in blood, urine, breast-milk or saliva; and such other tissues as bone, teeth, skin, hair and nails.
Blackwell Publishing has announced that “Scientists in Italy [and the United States] have discovered a new perspective in the study of infectious disease. Normally, such studies are based upon laboratory work looking at an organism and how it works within the human body.
However, in a recent paper published in Environmental Microbiology, Drs. Carla Pruzzo, Luigi Vezzulli and Rita R Colwell [a member of the Encyclopedia of Earth’s International Advisory Board] studied an environmental bacteria and it’s interaction with the environment and found that this provided them with vast amounts of information about how the organism causes disease.
Now that hot, summer weather is fast approaching, a welcome tool would be an easily accessible indicator of our local air quality.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that along with “the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Park Service, tribal, state, and local agencies it has developed an AIRNow Web Site to provide the public with easy access to national air quality information.
From the results of a survey, study of agency documents, and interviews the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has released a report that investigates political interference in science at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. UCS notes that
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the simple yet profound charge ‘to protect human health and the environment.’ EPA scientists apply their expertise to protect the public from air and water pollution, clean up hazardous waste, and study emerging threats. . .
American Rivers explains that their 2008 report “. . .is more than a warning: it offers solutions and identifies those who have the power to save [rivers].
Each year since 1986, American Rivers and dozens of partners in the river movement have released the America’s Most Endangered Rivers™ report
Every day, people—in the United States, at least—hear about, read about or discuss information and issues that relate to global warming and climate change. How do people react to—or what do they do about—this information?
More specifically, how do you handle–and what do you do with–this information?
Many of us see it everyday; but how much thought do we give to understanding what the stuff is? Synthetic turf, that is. Originally created by Ford and Monsanto this stuff that artificial playing surfaces is was sold as Chemgrass.
Reporting on SciDev.Net, Wagdy Sawahel tells of a report (“Climate Change: Implications for Agriculture in the Near East”) arising from the Twenty-ninth Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Conference for the Near East, held in Cairo, 1-5 March 2008. Sawahel notes that the report
Results from a long-term study effort by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Toxic Substances Hydrology Program show that earthworms—studied in agricultural fields—contain myriad organic chemical substances from household products and manure. The research findings, reported in Environmental Science and Technology, suggest that such substances are entering the food chain. Earthworms exist by ingesting soils for nourishment and they can accumulate chemicals added to agricultural soils.
The European Space Agency (ESA) reports that observation data from the SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric ChartographY (SCIAMACHY) instrument aboard ESA’s ENVISAT environmental satellite demonstrate—for the first time—detection of regionally elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (the most important greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming) originating from manmade emissions.
An Encyclopedia of Earth author, Dr. Michael Buchwitz from the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen in Germany
The National Academies has announced that its components (the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine) are joining with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Carnegie Institution, the Council on Competitiveness, among other organizations and universities in proposing to co-sponsor a presidential candidate debate on science, technology, health, and the economy.
Writing in the Winter 2008 edition of Issues in Science and Technology, Peter Ogden, John Podesta and John Deutch, articulate how government can—and should—play a more substantive role in developing innovative and capable energy technologies by increasing funding and reorganizing its programs.
Read their article: Ending the Inertia on Energy Policy. Also, join the discussion about this article.
Two Federal agencies (the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) are partnering to implement newer approaches for toxic chemical safety testing. Their goal, overall, is to lessen the need for the use of animals in such testing—while enhancing human, animal and environmental health protection.. The collaboration brings together the experimental toxicology expertise of the
On Valentine’s Day, the National Science Foundation announced “A nationwide initiative starting this week [that] will enable volunteers to track climate change by observing the timing of flowers and foliage. Project BudBurst, operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and a team of partners, allows students, gardeners and other citizen scientists in every state to enter their observations into
Publishing in last week’s Science (subscription required) [or see the National Science Foundation’s announcement], Arizona State University ecologist Nancy Grimm and colleagues, ask critical questions about the future condition of urban conglomerations, and about the responses humankind may need to take to meet social environmental and resource challenges posed by city-generated impacts. The authors conclude that global change and the ecology of cities are interlaced. They note that, “In fact, much of the current environmental impact originates in cities. With the increasing transition to city life, the urban footprint is likely to continue to grow.”
Presidential candidate forum on climate change
At
A research team at the University of California, Berkeley, has conducted a study [See the EurekAlert Release (The Ecological Footprints of Nations)] that assesses comparatively the ecological costs of human activities.
The study (The Debt of Nations and the Distribution of Ecological Impacts from Human Activities) appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition: January 22, 2008.
In an online feature of The Scientist, Stuart Chapin (University of Alaska) and Scientist staff aim to peel-the-onion that is the variety of anticipated harms to Earth’s biological systems.
Be aware that access requires a brief registration process.
Chapin delivers a very readable opinion essay on interlacing climate science and climate policy for more effective outcomes. His essay is accompanied by:
The journal, Molecular Ecology, has introduced a Special Issue [January 2008 - Vol. 17 Issue 1 Page 1-499] on how ecological changes caused by human activity are outpacing the ability of species to adapt. Thomas Smith and Louis Bernatchez, in their preface to the Special Issue (based on the February 2007 Symposium on “Evolutionary change in human-altered environments”) note that, “. . . we are witnessing a global, but unplanned, evolutionary experiment with the biotic diversity of the planet. Growing empirical evidence
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration notes that, “Fifty years ago the U.S. Weather Bureau, predecessor of NOAA’s National Weather Service, helped sponsor a young scientist from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to begin tracking carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere at two of the planet’s most remote and pristine sites: the South Pole and the summit of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.
This week NOAA, Scripps, the World Meteorological Organization, and other organizations will celebrate the half-century anniversary of the global record of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere—often referred to as the “Keeling Curve” in honor of that young scientist, Charles David Keeling.”
