tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post7840319783552157842..comments2024-03-22T05:20:44.167-07:00Comments on The Disaffected Lib: Steve, Mike - It's Time to Do the Right Thing for CanadaThe Mound of Soundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-60315989556413917102010-08-08T08:25:59.621-07:002010-08-08T08:25:59.621-07:00Unfortunately Dex there's a growing consensus ...Unfortunately Dex there's a growing consensus that we have only until about 2015 to arrest all growth in global carbon emissions and then begin drastically cutting back. The only way that could conceivably happen is if we broke the hold that the fossil fuel industry has on our political classes. That, among other things, would mean the closure of coal-fired plants and the end to expansion of the Tar Sands.<br /><br />James Hansen is even more blunt. He warns that we have to end our use of coal entirely by 2020.<br /><br />Unfortunately Dexter I disagree when you write, "With a highly commercialized society, change may not even be possible." Change is possible. It's inevitable and it's already happening in our environment around the world. It will force us to change - eventually - the only questions being how much, when and whether it will be in time to do any good?<br /><br />The best options for effective action to fight global warming slipped through our fingers in the 60's when we really didn't know any better. With each passing decade, a succession of "next best" options has been foreclosed to us. Each remaining option is worse, harder than the previous one we failed to take. Slashing greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonizing our economies and societies seems more than drastic but, compared to what lies in store if we don't, it's not.<br /><br />If we reach one or more of the "tipping points" we're warned of (and we are closing in on them), we won't have the option to slash carbon emissions. That's when we cross the line into "runaway" global warming, when the earth's own carbon-release mechanisms kick in. If we pull the pin on nature, it will release vastly more carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour than mankind could ever dream of emitting. When we lose the ability to prevent that, our remaining choices are adaptive only and very, very nasty.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-89522475596019995432010-08-07T16:54:04.735-07:002010-08-07T16:54:04.735-07:00Change is such an easy thing to say but it's q...Change is such an easy thing to say but it's quite very hard to accomplish specially when not everyone is willing to change. With a highly commercialized society, change may not even be possible. :(Dexter Thompsonhttp://www.add4green.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-41329431451706475332010-07-30T07:22:10.765-07:002010-07-30T07:22:10.765-07:00Another way we inadvertently contaminate our fresh...Another way we inadvertently contaminate our freshwater reserves. In my coastal retirement town we get accounts in our local paper of the levels of trace chemicals that get through our water treatment plants to be discharged into the ocean. Arthritis and heart medicines are the biggies.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-22565700845118535372010-07-30T05:15:32.221-07:002010-07-30T05:15:32.221-07:00I thought you might like to read this. This is som...I thought you might like to read this. This is something I have thought about for a long time regarding birth control pills....<br /><br />Researchers concerned by gender-bending fish <br />Thu Jul 29, 9:55 PM<br /> <br /><br /><br />By Shannon Montgomery, The Canadian Press<br /><br /><br />CALGARY - Alberta researchers say gender-bending fish swimming in the province's southern rivers raise serious questions about whether the water is safe for people to drink.<br /><br />Two University of Calgary professors have been studying how a small species of minnow reacts to a wide variety of hormone-altering chemicals detected in several rivers.<br /><br />They found sexual changes both in the wild populations of the fish and under controlled lab experiments with the same chemicals, said co-author Hamid Habibi.<br /><br />He said while it's not known whether the levels are high enough to hurt humans, there is a possible risk the chemicals could increase cancer rates or developmental abnormalities.<br /><br />"We think there's a health concern," he said Thursday. "We'd like to be able to predict these things and reduce that kind of risk."<br /><br />In some locations, female fish accounted for as much as 90 per cent of the minnow population, far higher than the normal 55 to 60 per cent.<br /><br />At many of the sites studied, male fish showed elevated levels of a protein normally high only in the blood of females. Other areas have produced male fish with female eggs in their testes.<br /><br />Habibi and co-author Lee Jackson found a large variety of chemicals that affect hormones in the water. They include synthetic estrogens, such as the birth control pill and bisphenol A — a chemical used in making plastics — as well as agricultural byproducts.<br /><br />The disturbances in fish populations were greater downstream from cities than upstream and were most notable around several major cattle feedlots.<br /><br />One area of high concentration was interrupted by a normal region where the river is joined by several tributaries from Waterton National Park.<br /><br />The researchers managed to replicate many of the changes in a lab environment by combining the chemicals in the same ratio as found in the river.<br /><br />They also discovered that while a single chemical might affect a fish one way, the combined effect with another chemical might be much greater than expected.<br /><br />In one case, two chemicals might each have a one-fold effect on a fish, while in combination the effect might be nine times bigger.<br /><br />"The potency of these chemicals improves significantly if they are present in a mixture. That is new information," said Habibi.<br /><br />"Which means some of the data used by Health Canada and EPA (the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States) may need to be revised, because they're based on individual studies for those chemicals."<br /><br />Jackson said most wastewater treatment plants don't get rid of many of the chemicals.<br /><br />The researchers have partnered with the City of Calgary to begin work at a new treatment plant investigating how engineering can keep the chemicals from flowing back into the water.<br /><br />He said it's too early to tell whether the current levels in water might have anything to do with a rising trend of cancers that are under hormonal control, but he added that a possible link should be studied.<br /><br />"I think we need to look at this a little more carefully and ask, what is the message the fish are telling us," he said.<br /><br />"If the fish are showing bent genders and people are drinking the same water ... we need to try to evaluate that risk."<br /><br />Part of the research is to be published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.Anyonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15765384812104835792noreply@blogger.com