Category: Science and Stuff,

US drinking water contamination with ‘forever chemicals’ far worse than scientists thought

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The contamination of US drinking water with manmade “forever chemicals” is far worse than previously estimated with some of the highest levels found in Miami, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

…The chemicals were used in products like Teflon and Scotchguard and in firefighting foam. Some are used in a variety of other products and industrial processes, and their replacements also pose risks.

…The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the environment, are known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Some have been linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems.

…Of tap water samples taken by EWG from 44 sites in 31 states and Washington DC, only one location, Meridian, Mississippi, which relies on 700ft (215m) deep wells, had no detectable PFAS. Only Seattle and Tuscaloosa, Alabama had levels below 1 part per trillion (PPT), the limit EWG recommends.

In addition, EWG found that on average six to seven PFAS compounds were found at the tested sites.

US drinking water contamination with ‘forever chemicals’ far worse than scientists thought | Environment | The Guardian

sigh…

Scientists certain that drilling is causing earthquakes

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

On Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey released the first comprehensive maps pinpointing more than a dozen areas in the central and eastern U.S. that have been jolted by quakes that the researchers said were triggered by drilling. The report said man-made quakes tied to industry operations have been on the rise.

Scientists have mainly attributed the spike to the injection of wastewater deep underground, a practice they say can activate dormant faults. Only a few cases of shaking have been blamed on fracking, in which large volumes of water, sand and chemicals are pumped into rock formations to crack them open and free oil or gas.

…Yet another study, this one published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, connected a swarm of small quakes west of Fort Worth, Texas, to nearby natural gas wells and wastewater disposal.

…The ground has been trembling in regions that were once seismically stable, including parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.

The largest jolt linked to wastewater injection — a magnitude-5.6 that hit Prague, Oklahoma, in 2011 — damaged 200 buildings and shook a college football stadium.

The uptick in Oklahoma quakes has prompted state regulators to require a seismic review of all proposed disposal wells.

…[Trump’s toothless sham, the] Environmental Protection Agency said there no plans for new regulations as a result of the USGS study.

Scientists certain that drilling is causing earthquakes

hmmm

DNA tests stand on shaky ground to define Native American identity

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Race,, Science and Stuff,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Walajahi explained to the crowd that DTC ancestry kits fall short on accuracy because they only offer a probability toward a certain ancestry. So, a test that claims an individual has Native American ancestry, could be wrong.

…Ancestry kits can’t determine Native American identity. Community relationships, traditions, and shared experiences are more important aspects of identity.

…“Using a genetic test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation…is inappropriate and wrong,” said Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. in a public statement. “It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens.”

Sovereign tribal nations determine their requirements for membership. A genetic ancestry test is rarely involved. A history of traditions, passing down crafts and skills, and a sense of cultural continuity set the baseline for tribal membership.

…With no regulatory body to oversee their methods, Hull hopes the companies come together to create a set of standards on their own ensuring that they use consistent language to help the public understand how to interpret genetic information. 

DNA tests stand on shaky ground to define Native American identity | NHGRI

hmmm

Rail or trail? Topsham-Augusta trail proposal could derail the potential future return of passenger train service to Augusta, rail advocates warn.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Advocates for restoring passenger train service to Augusta — and potentially beyond to Waterville and Bangor — fear the Merrymeeting Trail proposal could squash any hopes they have of rail service returning to that corridor. 

…Richard Rudolph and Jack Sutton, directors of the Maine Rail Group, said once the rail corridor is converted to a trail, rail service will never return, due to the difficulty of both restoring the rails and reclaiming the space from those who would be using it as a trail. 

…“There are plenty of places to walk or bike, there aren’t that many places to run a train,” he said. “Common sense will tell you if we lose that rail to a bike or walking trail, it’s not going to be returned.” 

Dale McCormick, a former city councilor, said she loves the Rail Trail and loves the Merrymeeting Trail proposal, but not if it prevents the future development of rail service in Augusta. 

McCormick said if gas prices increase again, rail travel would be more feasible because of its energy efficiency and more popular with passengers. There should be a way to do both the trail project and protect the future of rail, she said. 

Rail or trail? Topsham-Augusta trail proposal could derail the potential future return of passenger train service to Augusta, rail advocates warn. – Portland Press Herald

hmmm

Venice canals almost dry, two months after severe floods

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Europe,Leave a comment

In November, Venice experienced its highest water levels in more than 50 years in what some said was a direct result of climate change.

More than two thirds of the city was underwater then, with the mayor estimating damage at over a billion euros ($1.1bn; £850m).

Landmarks like St Mark’s Square were flooded, while shops and businesses had to close.

Venice canals almost dry, two months after severe floods – BBC News

hmmm

Revealed: US listed climate activist group as ‘extremists’ alongside mass killers

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Environment,Leave a comment

A group of US environmental activists engaged in non-violent civil disobedience targeting the oil industry have been listed in internal Department of Homeland Security documents as “extremists” and some of its members listed alongside white nationalists and mass killers.

…The document points to an uptick in “sabotage attacks” conducted by anarchist extremists, environmental rights and animal rights extremists against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 at the height of the pipeline protest. Nearly 800 activists have been tried on a variety of North Dakota state charges, in relation to the pipeline protests, according to Water Protector Legal Collective, a legal support organization.

This activity was met with heavy law enforcement presence, FBI and DHS surveillance, and aggressive military style tactics deployed by pipeline security contractors.

In addition to providing an overview of domestic terrorism threats the document includes an appendix summarizing select incidents over the past few years. Two of the Valve Turners are listed alongside violent white supremacists such as Dylann Roof and James Fields, who have both been convicted of murdering innocent civilians.

…“Equating mass murder by white supremacists with what Michael and I did is totally obscene,” Jessup said in an email. “This whole infrastructure of so-called security has done little more than secure the future of the fossil fuel industry by terrorizing people into silence.”

…Carl Williams, executive director of the Water Protector Legal Collective, which has defended a number of DAPL protesters, says the push to criminalize dissent is part of a larger rightwing strategy that has also targeted the BDS movement and Black Lives Matter.

“I think there is a strategy that rightwing forces are using to criminalize dissent,” Williams said. “This bulletin shows that dirty hand.”

Revealed: US listed climate activist group as ‘extremists’ alongside mass killers | Environment | The Guardian

sigh…

Controversy over giant telescope roils astronomy conference in Hawaii

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Hawaii,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Near the end of the conference, a session that was a late addition to the program gave the podium to two kia’i. They shared with astronomers not their reasons for opposing the telescope, but the daily rituals they are following on Maunakea and an invitation to visit their roadside outpost.

That was a deliberate choice. “This is different, perhaps, from what you thought this would be,” said Pua Case, a native Hawaiian who has been organizing against the TMT for a decade. “We’re not presenting our side to get another side, we’re not going to do that. You know why? Because we’re meeting you for the first time, most of you.”

Instead, she explained that they wanted to offer astronomers a glimpse into their world. “The way we create relationship is through ceremony, ritual, tradition, ancestral passing down of knowledge and protocol,” Case said. That’s also how the kia’i have arrived at their opposition of the project and how their daily prayers on the mountain continue their process of determining how to live with Maunakea. “We have no choice but to stand, so we’re letting you know that,” she said.

Controversy over giant telescope roils astronomy conference in Hawaii | Space

hmmm

Puerto Rico emergency director fired after residents discover warehouse full of Hurricane Maria supplies

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced fired the island’s emergency manager, hours after a warehouse filled with supplies was discovered.

…Carlos Acevedo, [the] director of Puerto Rico’s Office of Emergency Management, was dismissed Saturday. The governor appointed Maj. Gen. José J. Reyes, the adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard, to replace him.

Earlier on Saturday, numerous pallets of water and other boxes with emergency supplies were found at a warehouse in the earthquake ravaged city of Ponce.

…The emergency aid is believed to be from when Hurricane Maria hit the island two years ago, the governor said.

Puerto Rico emergency director fired after residents discover warehouse full of Hurricane Maria supplies – CNN

wonder how he got the job…

2018: Puerto Rico officials stockpiling radios, water, food as hurricane season nears

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,Leave a comment

MAY 10, 2018

…Federal and local officials said Thursday they are stockpiling food, water, radios and generators in Puerto Rico. …Emergency plans have been changed to warn the island’s 3.3 million people that they need to have enough supplies to survive 10 days.

“After Maria, we learned that three days is not enough,” said Carlos Acevedo, interim commissioner of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency. “Now the minimum is 10 days … 10 days of supplies, 10 days of gasoline, 10 days of everything.”

He said satellite antennas have been installed and 100-watt radios distributed to police stations, emergency management centers, fire stations and hospitals so crews can still communicate in the event of a disaster.

Puerto Rico officials stockpiling radios, water, food as hurricane season nears – CBS News

hmmm

EPA is now allowing asbestos back into manufacturing

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

 Asbestos is now legally allowed back into U.S. manufacturing under a series of loopholes by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

…The EPA’s recently released report detailing its new framework for evaluating the risk of its top prioritized substances states that the agency will “no longer consider the effect or presence of substances in the air, ground, or water in its risk assessments.” 

…The SNUR greenlights companies to use toxic chemicals like asbestos without consideration about how they will endanger people who are indirectly in contact with them. 

EPA is now allowing asbestos back into manufacturing – Archpaper.com

Jeezus Krrreyest….

A Whole Lot of Water Goes Into That Milk

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

“Cows need to consume between 30 and 50 gallons of water per day,” said Donna Amaral-Phillips, extension dairy specialist for the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. “That’s more than 415 pounds of water every day.”

That number may sound extremely high until the consumer realizes it takes up to 4.5 pounds of water to make just 1 pound of milk, and cows produce, on average, 70 pounds, or 8 gallons of milk each day, which is equal to about 128 glasses.

A Whole Lot of Water Goes Into That Milk | Dairy Herd Management

hmmm

Big Island: County Recycling Cutbacks A Sign Of Global Market Changes

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Hawaii,Leave a comment

Hawaii County …[is] no longer accepting plastic or most paper recycling.

……In 2018, about 224,200 tons were landfilled in Hilo and Puuanahulu (Kona) after more than 58,800 tons — about 20.8% — of waste were diverted, including 37,915 tons of green waste and nearly 21,000 tons of recyclables.

…The change will mean that the county will be shipping “possibly 4,000 tons per year of extra material” to the West Hawaii Landfill, the island’s only active facility.

…China’s [new] “National Sword” recycling directive that imports should have only minor contamination such as food particles or incorrectly sorted plastics.

Big Island: County Recycling Cutbacks A Sign Of Global Market Changes

hmm

‘Like sending bees to war’: the deadly truth behind your almond-milk

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

 Commercial beekeepers who send their hives to the almond farms are seeing their bees die in record numbers, and nothing they do seems to stop the decline.

…Beekeepers attributed the high mortality rate to pesticide exposure, diseases from parasites and habitat loss. However, environmentalists and organic beekeepers maintain that the real culprit is something more systemic: America’s reliance on industrial agriculture methods, especially those used by the almond industry, which demands a large-scale mechanization of one of nature’s most delicate natural processes.

…Like all bees, honeybees thrive in a biodiverse landscape. But California’s almond industry places them in a monoculture where growers expect the bees to be predictably productive year after year.

…On top of the threat of pesticides, almond pollination is uniquely demanding for bees because colonies are aroused from winter dormancy about one to two months earlier than is natural. The sheer quantity of hives required far exceeds that of other crops – apples, America’s second-largest pollination crop, use only one-tenth the number of bees.

…One of the most widely applied pesticides is the herbicide glyphosate (AKA Roundup), which is a staple of large-scale almond growers and has been shown to be lethal to bees as well as cause cancer in humans.

…“We don’t have pests; we have biodiversity,” says Anderson, who primarily sells directly to individual customers through his Anderson Almonds company. Unlike large industrial almond farms that strip the orchard ground bare to more efficiently treat for insects and fungi, Anderson allows a rich understory to grow, which naturally nourishes the soil and strengthens the trees.

Anderson hires a “beekeeper hobbyist” from northern California every spring to install about 20 hives in his orchard. “We have the opposite of colony collapse at my farm,” says Anderson. “My beekeeper brings weak hives down that he wants to recharge on my property.”

Anderson says the tradeoff for not using pesticides is that his annual crop yield is lower – typically about 10,000 pounds – and he keeps his orchard small in order to manage its wildness. “

‘Like sending bees to war’: the deadly truth behind your almond-milk obsession | Environment | The Guardian

hmmmm

The medications that change who we are – BBC Future

On By peanutgallerynhIn Drugs & Drink,, Media and Culture,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

We’re all familiar with the mind-bending properties of psychedelic drugs – but it turns out ordinary medications can be just as potent. From paracetamol (known as acetaminophen in the US) to antihistamines, statins, asthma medications and antidepressants, there’s emerging evidence that they can make us impulsive, angry, or restless, diminish our empathy for strangers, and even manipulate fundamental aspects of our personalities, such as how neurotic we are.

…One reason medications can have such psychological clout is that the body isn’t just a bag of separate organs, awash with chemicals with well-defined roles – instead, it’s a network, in which many different processes are linked.

For example, scientists have known for a while that the medications used to treat asthma are sometimes associated with behavioural changes, such as an increase in hyperactivity and the development of ADHD symptoms.

…The list of potential culprits includes some of the most widely consumed drugs on the planet, meaning that even if the effects are small at an individual level, they could be shaping the personalities of millions of people. 

…Mischkowski’s own research has uncovered a sinister side-effect of paracetamol. For a long time, scientists have known that the drug blunts physical pain by reducing activity in certain brain areas, such as the insular cortex, which plays an important role in our emotions. These areas are involved in our experience of social pain, too.

…The results revealed that paracetamol significantly reduces our ability to feel positive empathy – a result with implications for how the drug is shaping the social relationships of millions of people every day.

…But Golomb’s most unsettling discovery isn’t so much the impact that ordinary drugs can have on who we are – it’s the lack of interest in uncovering it. “There’s much more of an emphasis on things that doctors can easily measure,” she says, explaining that, for a long time, research into the side-effects of statins was all focused on the muscles and liver, because any problems in these organs can be detected using standard blood tests.

The medications that change who we are – BBC Future

Not sure why this would be surprising or counter-intuitive.

Facial-recognition systems misidentified people of color more often than white people, according to a federal study

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Chick Stuff,, Privacy,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Asian and African American people were up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified than white men, depending on the particular algorithm and type of search. Native Americans had the highest false-positive rate of all ethnicities, according to the study, which found that systems varied widely in their accuracy.

…The faces of African American women were falsely identified more often in the kinds of searches used by police investigators.

…Women were more likely to be falsely identified than men, and the elderly and children were more likely to be misidentified than those in other age groups, the study found. Middle-aged white men generally benefited from the highest accuracy rates.

…The study could fundamentally shake one of American law enforcement’s fastest-growing tools for identifying criminal suspects and witnesses, which privacy advocates have argued is ushering in a dangerous new wave of government surveillance tools.

..Searches are critical to functions including cellphone sign-ons and airport boarding schemes, and errors could make it easier for impostors to gain access to those systems.

Facial-recognition systems misidentified people of color more often than white people, according to a federal study – The Washington Post

hmmm