Top Ten Stupid Environmental Stories nce again, it’s time for a look at the top ten stupid environmental stories from recent weeks. As is the custom, we will go from #1 (just plain silly) to #10 (the most seriously stupid) policy.
O
1. Toxic cloud descends upon Europe from Iceland.
(And it had nothing to do with Bjork or her fans.) In April, ash from Mt. Eyjafjallajokull grounded aircraft throughout Europe. It’s a reminder that, in spite of our hubris, Mother Nature can still pack quite a wallop without any help from mankind whatsoever. 2. European Parliamentarians reject tar sands oil.
They can’t stop the ash from Iceland, but if 17 members of the Parliament have their way, they can preclude the import of Canadian oil from tar sands. Using the European Fuel Quality Directive, they say that fuels with different carbon intensities should not be treated like other crude oils. Some oils are dirtier than others. 3. Stop your carping. The State of Michigan is suing the State of Illinois, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District for not closing the locks of the Chicago waterway system to Lake Michigan and, thus, preventing the invasion of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. Please don’t tell Michigan, but the carp have made it from Asia to Chicago already. I don’t think even the Supreme Court is going to stop them now. 4. Climategate researchers exonerated. Climate researchers at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia may have been a little sloppy, disorganized, and ill-prepared for public attention, but an independent review panel said they were not guilty of “scientific malpractice”. Thank heavens. With comments like those, who needs climate skeptics? 5. Climate negotiators downplay expectations. At Copenhagen, they could not agree on anything “FAB” (fair, ambitious, and binding), but climate negotiators are already meeting to downplay expectations for the December UN summit in Cancun, Mexico. Now, they’re trying for an agreement that is “REV” (risky, easy, and voluntary). 6. EPA sets new rules on mountaintop mining. Five hundred Appalachian peaks have been flattened by mountaintop mining. But, fortunately, EPA has recently set new water quality standards for “valley fills” that will make it more difficult for companies to dump material over the side of the mountain into adjacent streams. It’s a little bit like arresting Al Capone for income tax evasion, but we’ll gladly accept it.
4034 9 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / June 1, 2010
7. Governments gone wild. At a time when deficits run amok and national debt weakens currencies, the U.S. government continues to “give away” precious natural resources in the form of lost royalties on oil leases and subsidies for farming, grazing, timber, minerals, and water extraction. Lost revenues on oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico alone could run as high as $53 billion over the next 25 years according to the Government Accountability Office. Whatever happened to “free markets”? 8. Drill, baby, drill. President Obama has agreed to open leases to oil companies over much of the Atlantic coast to increase homegrown energy production and to create jobs. Some say it is all about placating Republicans in the hope of gaining bipartisan support for climate change legislation. Be careful what you wish forsFaustian bargains have consequences. 9. Nuke, baby, nuke. Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository is history, but nuclear power is back to the future. President Obama and Secretary Chu approved $8 billion in loan guarantees to two nuclear reactors in Georgia and $495 million in research funds to develop small, modular nuclear power plants. And they are committed to ensuring long-term storage options and possible reprocessing for commercial nuclear waste. Clean energy for today (with wastes that last for 40,000 years tomorrow). And the topmost seriously stupid story is... 10. Atrazine herbicide turns male frogs into females.
Tyrone Hayes and colleagues at UC Berkeley have published a new study in PNAS (2010, 107 (10), 4612-4617 [DOI 10.1073/pnas.0909519107]) showing that 75% of frogs were chemically castrated and 1-in-10 turned into functional females at low level atrazine exposures (2.5 ppb). Not to worry. Europe has banned it, but it must still be ok to use atrazine in the U.S. because farmers are allowed to apply 80 million pounds annually on corn and sorghum. Male frogs are overrated.
Jerald L. Schnoor Editor
[email protected] 10.1021/es101306d
2010 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 05/13/2010
