Oh, man. This end of the world stuff can be really depressing sometimes.
Climate change is bringing tropical diseases (such as West Nile Disease) to non-tropical places (like Rhode Island) where these diseases kill people. So local governments have been laying down mosquito killing poisons to try to save people's lives, but...
"lobstermen believe the methoprene is stunting the growth of young lobsters, much as it does to mosquito larva.
Emotions are rising on both sides. Lobstermen have seen their catches fall by more than half in the last several years, causing nearly every one of them to lose money and some to quit and sell their boats. On the state’s side, no one wants to have to say they didn’t do everything they could to protect Rhode Islanders from disease.
“We figure there won’t be a lobster industry in a short time if this keeps up,” said Dellinger. “All the state wants to do is control us, but you can’t keep polluting the environment and still get fish.”
Local lobster catches topped off in 1999 with about 3,500 tons. Each of the following years got progressively worse. In 2005, the last year with complete figures, the take was less than 1,500 tons.
In response, the lobstermen have greatly reduced the number of traps they set and accepted one new size restriction after another designed to leave lobsters in the water longer so they can successfully reproduce.
Still, the catch remains low. And many lobsters, particularly those caught close to shore, are coming up with a disfiguring, and still unexplained, shell disease.
What they are not seeing is even more disturbing — young lobsters. " LINK
Showing posts with label poison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poison. Show all posts
Silent Spring, here, now.
Heartbreaking story, and another reason to eat local. I just saw the documentary Winged Migration, and my (already huge) appreciation of birds has, to put it cheesily, soared. To think that they are being poisoned so we can have Chilean grapes or whatever is awful. So I'm going to redouble efforts to check where produce comes from.
"The number of migratory songbirds returning to North America has gone into sharp decline due to the unregulated use of highly toxic pesticides and other chemicals across Latin America.
Ornithologists blame the demand for out-of-season fruit and vegetables and other crops in North America and Europe for the destruction of tens of millions of passerine birds. By some counts, half of the songbirds that warbled across America's skies only 40 years ago have gone, wiped out by pesticides or loss of habitat.
Ornithologists say another silent spring is dawning across the US as birds are being poisoned by toxic chemicals or killed as pests in their winter refuges across South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. They say that many species of songbird will never recover, and others may even become endangered or extinct if controls are not put in place or consumer habits changed.
More problems await those birds which make it home. Millions of acres of wilderness the birds use as nesting grounds have been ploughed under in the drive to grow corn for ethanol, for bio-fuel. " LINK
Well, maybe if America would just stop importing everything, things would get a little better?
Ok, beyond angry right now.
Enough tainted imports from China have led to serious articles questioning whether China is conducting assymetrical warfare against the US - "These include toxic gluten in pet food, antifreeze in toothpaste, lead paint on toys, toxic levels of formaldehyde on pajamas, the recall of hundreds of thousands Chinese-manufactured tires in the United States for safety concerns … and the list goes on." LINK
But who would have thought our bees were dying because we imported bees? WTF? Does it never freaking strike Americans to, well, buy or breed American? After all the hideous oh-heck-shouldn't-have-done-that horror stories about the Africanized killer bees, why the hell did we continue to import bee strains that *might just might* affect our own domestic bee populations???????????
Looks like our dying bees might have picked up a little bug from Australian bees. Yeah. By importing Aussie bees, we have may have decimated our bees, and so far, the economic losses are at about 14 billion dollars this year.
" A virus found in healthy Australian honey bees may be playing a role in the collapse of honey bee colonies across the United States, researchers reported Thursday.
Colony collapse disorder has killed millions of bees -- up to 90 percent of colonies in some U.S. beekeeping operations -- imperiling the crops largely dependent upon bees for pollination, such as oranges, blueberries, apples and almonds.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says honey bees are responsible for pollinating $15 billion worth of crops each year in the United States. More than 90 fruits and vegetables worldwide depend on them for pollination." LINK
Enough tainted imports from China have led to serious articles questioning whether China is conducting assymetrical warfare against the US - "These include toxic gluten in pet food, antifreeze in toothpaste, lead paint on toys, toxic levels of formaldehyde on pajamas, the recall of hundreds of thousands Chinese-manufactured tires in the United States for safety concerns … and the list goes on." LINK
But who would have thought our bees were dying because we imported bees? WTF? Does it never freaking strike Americans to, well, buy or breed American? After all the hideous oh-heck-shouldn't-have-done-that horror stories about the Africanized killer bees, why the hell did we continue to import bee strains that *might just might* affect our own domestic bee populations???????????
Looks like our dying bees might have picked up a little bug from Australian bees. Yeah. By importing Aussie bees, we have may have decimated our bees, and so far, the economic losses are at about 14 billion dollars this year.
" A virus found in healthy Australian honey bees may be playing a role in the collapse of honey bee colonies across the United States, researchers reported Thursday.
Colony collapse disorder has killed millions of bees -- up to 90 percent of colonies in some U.S. beekeeping operations -- imperiling the crops largely dependent upon bees for pollination, such as oranges, blueberries, apples and almonds.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says honey bees are responsible for pollinating $15 billion worth of crops each year in the United States. More than 90 fruits and vegetables worldwide depend on them for pollination." LINK
No hope, duuude. No hope, duuude.
Declines in biodiversity are nothing new, but a new tally of bird species is depressing the hell out of bird watchers, who are calling what is happening a "walmartization of the skies."
"Also, it points to the same conclusion as the breeding census: The nation is losing vast numbers of birds - about 432-million among the 20 common declining species - and from every type of habitat.
Northern pintail ducks breed in "America's duck factory, " Butcher said, the small lakes and ponds in Canada and the northern United States.
These have been drained to make room for wheat and corn fields, he said, and the pintail population has dropped 77 percent in the United States and 96 percent in Florida since 1967.
Another duck species in decline, the greater scaup, summers in tundra degraded by global warming. The black skimmer's population has fallen because the birds nest on increasingly crowded Florida beaches.
Pasture species seem especially vulnerable, Butcher said. Pesticides and herbicides have killed the insects and weeds these birds eat. Frequent mowing leaves them without enough time to raise their brood, Butcher said, and "a lot of eastern meadowlark nests get cut down while they are still full of either eggs or young."
About collared doves, an introduced species that is thriving, Butcher says ""They have sort of a mournful, three note call ... What I think of is: 'No hope, duuude. No hope, duuude.' "
LINK
"Also, it points to the same conclusion as the breeding census: The nation is losing vast numbers of birds - about 432-million among the 20 common declining species - and from every type of habitat.
Northern pintail ducks breed in "America's duck factory, " Butcher said, the small lakes and ponds in Canada and the northern United States.
These have been drained to make room for wheat and corn fields, he said, and the pintail population has dropped 77 percent in the United States and 96 percent in Florida since 1967.
Another duck species in decline, the greater scaup, summers in tundra degraded by global warming. The black skimmer's population has fallen because the birds nest on increasingly crowded Florida beaches.
Pasture species seem especially vulnerable, Butcher said. Pesticides and herbicides have killed the insects and weeds these birds eat. Frequent mowing leaves them without enough time to raise their brood, Butcher said, and "a lot of eastern meadowlark nests get cut down while they are still full of either eggs or young."
About collared doves, an introduced species that is thriving, Butcher says ""They have sort of a mournful, three note call ... What I think of is: 'No hope, duuude. No hope, duuude.' "
LINK
Bees. Without them, we all die. The bees are dying. Yup.
Thanks to B. for sending this link to the Daily Kos's coverage of the awful, unspeakable, horrible things that are happening to the bees, and what that means for us. (Hint: we're all DOOMED.)
"Other types of pesticides allow bees to return home, and then die inside the hive. This type of poisoning is the easiest to diagnose, with a large pile of dead bees in front of a bee hive, usually with their tongues sticking out. "
LINK
"Other types of pesticides allow bees to return home, and then die inside the hive. This type of poisoning is the easiest to diagnose, with a large pile of dead bees in front of a bee hive, usually with their tongues sticking out. "
LINK
Fish even more screwed- 'intersex' fish can't breed.
Oh, the poor freaking fish. They can't even breed anymore.
VIRGINIA "An investigation into the cleanliness of rivers feeding Washington's Potomac River has revealed the presence of sex-changing chemicals. The US Geological Survey (USGS) study followed the discovery of high numbers of intersex fish in the Potomac basin. " LINK
UK "A water-borne chemical is causing oysters to develop into hermaphrodites, which cannot breed, according to British scientists." LINK
UK "A third of male fish in British rivers are in the process of changing sex due to pollution in human sewage, research by the Environment Agency suggests. " LINK
COLORADO "Research conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder that finds intersex fish in Colorado rivers downstream from wastewater treatment plants." LINK
MEDITERRANEAN "Evidence of a high percentage of intersex in the Mediterranean swordfish " LINK
"BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Several years ago scientists discovered bisexual fish with legs instead of fins in the Rhine river south of Frankfurt. Now fish in the Potomac River Basin near Washington, D.C. appear to be suffering the same fate for the same reason -- endocrine disrupter compounds." ETA LINK to article from Xinhua about this.
Did you know that fish 'talk' to each other? "Increasingly scientists are discovering unusual mechanisms by which fish make and hear secret whispers, grunts and thumps to attract mates and ward off the enemy." LINK Apparently, seahorses click at each other, butterfly fish 'whisper' to eachother, and pearlfish sound like bongo drums while communicating. I wonder what the gender changing fish say to each other. Oh hell.
VIRGINIA "An investigation into the cleanliness of rivers feeding Washington's Potomac River has revealed the presence of sex-changing chemicals. The US Geological Survey (USGS) study followed the discovery of high numbers of intersex fish in the Potomac basin. " LINK
UK "A water-borne chemical is causing oysters to develop into hermaphrodites, which cannot breed, according to British scientists." LINK
UK "A third of male fish in British rivers are in the process of changing sex due to pollution in human sewage, research by the Environment Agency suggests. " LINK
COLORADO "Research conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder that finds intersex fish in Colorado rivers downstream from wastewater treatment plants." LINK
MEDITERRANEAN "Evidence of a high percentage of intersex in the Mediterranean swordfish " LINK
"BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Several years ago scientists discovered bisexual fish with legs instead of fins in the Rhine river south of Frankfurt. Now fish in the Potomac River Basin near Washington, D.C. appear to be suffering the same fate for the same reason -- endocrine disrupter compounds." ETA LINK to article from Xinhua about this.
Did you know that fish 'talk' to each other? "Increasingly scientists are discovering unusual mechanisms by which fish make and hear secret whispers, grunts and thumps to attract mates and ward off the enemy." LINK Apparently, seahorses click at each other, butterfly fish 'whisper' to eachother, and pearlfish sound like bongo drums while communicating. I wonder what the gender changing fish say to each other. Oh hell.
Copsa Mica, Romania- the most polluted town in Europe.
"Official statistics show life expectancy in the town is nine years shorter than the national average.
...It found the soil contained so much lead that it was 92 times above the permitted level; the vegetation had a lead content 22 times above the permitted level.
"The town is really a dangerous place to live - everything you touch, everything you eat, the air you breathe is serious for your health." " LINK
...It found the soil contained so much lead that it was 92 times above the permitted level; the vegetation had a lead content 22 times above the permitted level.
"The town is really a dangerous place to live - everything you touch, everything you eat, the air you breathe is serious for your health." " LINK
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