Endocrine Disruptors Skewing Birth Ratio in US and Japan

From the polar ice cap to the middle of the world, comes study after study linking synthetic chemicals and their lethal properties, to a reported steady decline in the number of boys born each year.

In an article written by Elizabeth Barker for the February 2008 issue of Whole Life Times, a recent report from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences determined a significant decline in the ratio of male-to-female births in the US and Japan, resulting in 250,000 fewer boys being born since 1970.

Last year, a team of Scandinavian researchers in the Arctic reported twice as many girls as boys being born in that region, identified as a "pollution sink" for the rest of the planet. Both studies blamed environmental pollutants as the most likely causal factors in the male birth shortages.

Read the entire article here.

Global Warming spreads tropical disease

Chikungunya, a relative of dengue fever, is not something you would expect to contract it Italy, but a recent outbreak in Castiglione di Cervia is the first indication that a disease that had previously been seen only in the tropics is spreading because of global warming and globalization. According to a NY Times article today, Dr. Roberto Bertollini, director of the World Health Organization’s Health and Environment program, “This is the first case of an epidemic of a tropical disease in a developed, European country...Climate change creates conditions that make it easier for this mosquito to survive and it opens the door to diseases that didn’t exist here previously. This is a real issue. Now, today. It is not something a crazy environmentalist is warning about.”

Better cracking on those transgenic mosquitoes we had blogged about earlier.

‘Twas the countdown to Christmas

Our health -- in fact, our survival -- is inextricably connected to the health of our environment: it's not just an issue, like poverty or world peace, it is the overarching issue. Which is why I decided to do things a bit differently this Holiday season. But instead of simply explaining what, I inflicted some derivative seasonal doggerel on my long-suffering fiends and relations...and now on you, dear reader of this blog:

‘Twas the countdown to Christmas and all through my brain

Danced visions of giving to loved ones again.

With credit cards handy and Christmas cards too,

‘Twas Xmas like always -- what else could I do?

But then, from my Mac there arose such a clatter

I sprang to the keyboard to check out the chatter.

And right there on U-Tube was Al Gore himself

With flipcharts behind him -- a right angry old elf!

He’d gained a few pounds and was long in the tooth

But none of that mattered, ‘cause he’d seen the Truth.

His points were all listed -- a litany of shame,

And he highlighted each as he called them by name:

“On climate, on flooding, on habitat loss!

On the things that we purchase, and play with, and toss!

On warming, and melting, and drowned Polar Bears,

On species extinction! (I covered my ears…)

Al’s finger was wagging, it pointed at me.

I looked left and right and got ready to flee…

But what to my wondering eyes should appear

But a handy “Escape Clause” that said “sign right here.”

“Will you change,” asks the Gorester?

Er, sure thing, you bet…

I won’t give this year and (gulp!) I guess I won’t get.

You'll give," says St. Albert, "and here's what you'll do.

You’ll give to your Mother (that’s Gaia to you).

And so, my dear people, tho’ I love you a lot

This Xmas I’ll put all my bucks in one pot

And send a fat check off to where there’s most need.*

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD DEED!

And with peace and goodwill towards all women and men, Santa “Cause”

(A.K.A. Mary)

*Specifically: Conservation International, Amazon Conservation Team, and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy