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Snippets from the news

• Canada launches its first emissions-trading market. • Hybrid drivers worry about replacing the battery. • Nano-towel can soak up oil spills. • World Bank stepping up efforts to address food crisis. • Is water becoming the new oil?

Grist staff Uncategorized

Implications of the study linking childhood lead exposure and adult criminality

A study just published in the journal PLoS Medicine (and written up in the L.A. Times) suggests a link between childhood lead exposure and adult arrests for violent crimes. Studying 250 adults for whom they had prenatal and childhood blood lead level measurements, University of Cincinnati researchers found that each 5-microgram-per-deciliter increase in blood lead levels at age 6 was associated with a nearly 50 percent increased risk of arrest as a young adult (the risk ratio was 1.48).

The good news is that overall, U.S. children's blood lead levels have dropped dramatically since manufacturers started phasing lead out of paint and gasoline in the mid-1970s. The bad news is that 40 percent of the nation's housing still contains lead-based paint, and hundreds of thousands of children still have blood lead levels associated with neurological problems.

When we as a society consider whether to regulate hazardous substances, we need to remember that allowing their continued use can have severe consequences. The lead saga demonstrates that even when environmental and health advocates succeed in getting hazardous substances out of consumer products, the damage can be extremely costly and long-lasting.

Liz Borkowski Culture

WSJ: ‘Fungus strain menaces global wheat crop’

I hate to sound like a broken record, but remember in the winter, when a fertilizer magnate warned that the world faced the threat of famine if any major crop didn’t do well? The magnate was William Doyle, CEO of a company that has aptly been dubbed the “Saudi Arabia of Fertilizer,” Potash Corp. of […]

Tom Philpott Food

LCV urges prez candidates to be leaders on climate bill

The League of Conservation Voters just issued a statement on John McCain’s plans to skip out on next week’s voting on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Spokespeople for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have said they aren’t sure whether the candidates will make it back to the Hill to vote. Here’s LCV’s official statement: “Surely, […]

Kate Sheppard Politics

More employees encouraged to telecommute, work short weeks

Employers across the country are offering workers the option to telecommute or work a four-day week to help cut down on fuel costs. Compressed work weeks are particularly attractive to employees who work in places without reliable mass transit — especially since a 10-hour day can mean coming in early and leaving late enough to […]

Grist staff Culture

From Libretto to Liquor

Truth or falsetto An Inconvenient Truth gives its encore performance — at the Milan opera house. Climate change ain’t over ’til the fat Albert sings. Photo: Gil Cohen Magen / Reuters Lookin’ fin Feel like a fish out of water? Slip into an itsy bitsy teeny weeny salmon skin bikini. Made from discarded scales and […]

Sarah K. Burkhalter & Sarah van Schagen Culture

New report calls for climate action, but not everyone’s listening

With more coastline than any state in the lower 48 and about a tenth of its economy ($65 billion a year) based on tourism, Florida has more to lose than any other state from the threats of global warming. Rising sea levels creep closer to coastal development. Warmer tropics fuel stronger hurricanes. And higher ocean temperatures kill coral and harm fish populations, threatening the state's $4.5 billion sportfishing industry.

Plenty of reasons that a report released yesterday should serve as a call to action on preparing for inevitable changes from global warming and cutting emissions now to avoid the worst impacts. Preparing for a Sea Change in Florida was produced by a broad coalition of environmental groups.

The report makes several key recommendations:

Miles Grant Climate & Energy

What a ranking of cities can tell us — and what it can’t

There's a big carbon footprint report out yesterday from Brookings. It ranks cities [PDF] according to their per capita carbon emissions. Sort of, anyway.

Before I pick on it a little, I guess I should mention that Pacific Northwest cities do exceptionally well. Out of the 100 cities in the analysis, Portland ranks 3rd, Boise is 5th, and Seattle 6th. There's very little difference between them.

That's wonderful and all, but the analysis only covers about 50 percent of emissions. It excludes, for instance, commercial and industrial energy, maritime and aviation emissions, and some other significant pieces of the pie.

Eric de Place Cities

So says U.K. study

Another study has confirmed that organic milk, from cows that feed on pasture, delivers significantly more nutrition than feedlot milk. The U.K. Independent reports that grass-fed cows offer “60 per cent higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA9), which has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer.” Omega-3 fatty acids (39 percent higher) and […]