Category: Environment

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More Bans on Cell Phone Use by Drivers

Microwave Tower.
Microwave Tower.

January 30, 2000 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - First an Ohio town banned cell phone use by drivers. Now, the borough of Conshohocken west of Philadelphia has become the second community in Pennsylvania to prohibit motor vehicle drivers from using cell phones while driving. Pennsylvania's governor is even considering a legislative proposal to ban cell phone use by drivers throughout the state. Recently a 2-year-old girl was killed in a collision caused by a driver dialing a cell phone. Another child was recently killed by a distracted cell phone user. Conshohocken Police Chief James Dougherty added, "We've had problems with people driving through town talking on cell phones where they've almost hit people. They're not paying attention."

 

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Possible Link Between 100,000 Lobster Deaths and Pesticide Spraying




January 23, 2000  Guilford, Connecticut - This week fishermen from the Connecticut Commercial Lobstermen's Association met with state and federal officials to discuss why 100,000 lobsters died this past fall in Long Island Sound. Pathologists confirmed an amoeba which invades marine animals when their immune systems are weakened was pervasive throughout the dead lobsters. But what weakened the creatures' immune systems?

 

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Computer Projections About Earth Weather 2000-2100


January 13, 2000  Boulder, Colorado - What happens to global weather systems if the earth warms up several more degrees Fahrenheit in the future? That's a question that the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Virginia wanted to know. So, they went to a climate expert Dr. Tom Wigley at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Wigley received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Adelaide in Australia in 1967 and has become a climate expert. The past six years he has focused on computer models of earth weather systems to project the effects of ever-increasing greenhouse gasses. Recently, Dr. Wigley's computer research was released by the Pew Center. 

 

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Global Warming Alert from NOAA and U.K.

Storm photograph courtesy NOAA.
Storm photograph courtesy NOAA.


FACTS:

- 1998 was the warmest year on record globally.

- 1999 was the second warmest year on record
for both the U.S. and U. K.

- The earth warmed 1 degree Fahrenheit
between 1900 and 2000.

- The earth is projected to get 2 to 6 degrees F.
warmer by 2100.

- Ocean levels rose 4 to 10 inches
between 1900 and 2000.

- Ocean levels will rise 18 to 36 inches
higher by 2100.

"There's no question that greenhouse gasses are there, that they are going to increase and even if we started action now, it takes a long time for them to come out. They have a residence time of about 300 years in the atmosphere, so it's going to take a long time. We really have to do two things. One is we're going to have to learn to live with the world that has a different climate than it has today. And we're going to have to learn how to be more energy efficient."

- James Baker, Ph.D., Administrator, NOAA,
January 7, 2000

January 9, 2000  Washington, D. C. - Three massive storms with high winds swept across England and Europe in December knocking down 300 million trees in France alone. Scientists told the American Geophysical Union that the polar wind pattern has changed and "could be responsible for fiercer winter storms across western Europe and western North America."

 

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Animals Attacked In Manheim, Pennsylvania

January 7, 2000  Manheim, Pennsylvania - Between December 31st, New Year's Eve, and January 1, 2000, a black Italian duck and several rabbits were attacked and killed in Manheim, Pennsylvania about fifteen miles northwest of Lancaster. Since then, more kills have extended to sheep and goats and now the State Dog Warden and Pennsylvania Game Commission are trying to find out what's responsible for the attacks. Their main suspect is a dog.

The first office to receive attack reports was the Penn Township Police, in Manheim. Police Chief Larry Snavely described what has happened so far.

 

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New Trends for 21st Century


January 2, 2000  Rhinebeck, New York - As the year 2000 ends one millennium and January 1, 2001 will begin the next millennium, Gerald Celente, Editor of the Trends Journal in Rhinebeck, New York headlines "The Top 10 Trends of the 21st Century."

He forecasts:

1) Revolutionary breakthroughs for energy production;
2) A New Millennium Religion;
3) Family units no longer based on marriage;

 

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Y2K Nuclear Concern and Global Warming Update

December 19, 1999 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania -

1) Nuclear Power Security

While everyone is waiting for the countdown on New Year's Eve, Y2K glitches have already started to appear. Instead of the year 2000, the number 1900 has been showing up on various documents around the country. And on December 15th in Vancouver, British Columbia, a new computerized smoke alarm installed in the city's SkyTrain went off and stopped the whole system. Thousands of commuters and holiday shoppers were stranded. Ironically, the new computerized alarm was supposed to prevent Y2K shutdown problems.

Photograph of Three Mile Island nuclear power plant located in Middletown, Pennsylvania, a few miles south of Harrisburg, the state capital. On March 28, 1979, the worst commercial nuclear disaster in U. S. history occurred when a pump failed in the reactor cooling system. Nearly a million gallons of radioactive water escaped through an open valve onto the reactor building basement floor. Radioactivity was also released into the air. Photograph courtesy U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Photograph of Three Mile Island nuclear power plant located in Middletown, Pennsylvania, a few miles south of Harrisburg, the state capital. On March 28, 1979, the worst commercial nuclear disaster in U. S. history occurred when a pump failed in the reactor cooling system. Nearly a million gallons of radioactive water escaped through an open valve onto the reactor building basement floor. Radioactivity was also released into the air. Photograph courtesy U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

 

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Six More Planets Discovered 60 to 190 Light Years Away

"There are an estimated 10 billion large gaseous planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone and at least one trillion galaxies in this universe. Even if only one out of a trillion of those galaxies had life, you'd still be talking about 10 billion places where life exists."

- Steve Vogt, Ph.D., Astronomer,
Univ. of California at Santa Cruz -

Star HD195019 is located in the constellation Delphinus. The large gaseous planet that orbits the star once every 18.3 days is estimated to have a mass equal to 3.5 Jupiters and is referred to as HD195019b. The planet is about .14 Astronomical Units from the star. One A. U. equals the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun, 93 million miles. Artwork © 1999 by Lynette Cook, used with artist's permission. http://www.spaceart.org/lcook/extraso2.html
Star HD195019 is located in the constellation Delphinus. The large gaseous planet that orbits the star once every 18.3 days is estimated to have a mass equal to 3.5 Jupiters and is referred to as HD195019b. The planet is about .14 Astronomical Units from the star. One A. U. equals the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun, 93 million miles. Artwork © 1999 by Lynette Cook, used with artist's permission. http://www.spaceart.org/lcook/extraso2.html

 

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Short Environmental Updates

A newborn Gray Whale in the San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja, California, the last Gray Whale nursery in North America © 1999 by Frank Balthis, Natural Resources Defense Council.
A newborn Gray Whale in the San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja, California, the last Gray Whale nursery in North America © 1999 by Frank Balthis, Natural Resources Defense Council.

November 18, 1999 ­

Orca Whales Contaminated by Ocean Chemical Pollution

­ Orca "killer whales" throughout the world are now contaminated by a poison that the United States and Canada banned twenty years ago, but other countries such as Russia still use. That poison is PCBs, poly chlorinated biphenyls, once used everywhere for cooling and insulating electrical transformers and coloring newspaper comics. PCBs were even sprayed on country roads to keep dust down. Dr. Rob Macdonald, an oceanographer for the Canadian Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia, says "the PCB paintbrush has covered the globe." Marine scientists are concerned that the oceans are so polluted with the dangerous chemicals.

 

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Update on Deformed Calf Fetus

November 13, 1999  Las Vegas, Nevada ­ This past week I talked with Colm Kelleher, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Deputy Administrator at the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) in Las Vegas, Nevada. NIDS paid for a necropsy on the deformed calf fetus born October 22, 1999 at a ranch owned by Joe Martinez in Los Brazos, New Mexico. (See: Earthfiles November 7, 1999 report.) Dr. Kelleher told me that after my radio and Earthfiles.com reports, he requested that the one eyeball from the deformed fetus that had been stored at minus 85 degrees F. be thawed for further examination. I asked Dr. Kelleher if any specific study of the eyeball had been made before by veterinarian Leroy Martinez or NIDS scientists prior to freezing. He said none had been, so now the eye would be studied further. After thawing and further examination, NIDS provided a photograph of the deformed fetus's comma-shaped cornea and elongated pupil shown below.

Eye from deformed calf fetus has two major abnormalities: First, the cornea has a "comma" shape with an angular lateral protrusion. Second, the pupil is an "elongated aperture with rounded edges." Photograph © 1999 by National Institute for Discovery Science, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Eye from deformed calf fetus has two major abnormalities: First, the cornea has a "comma" shape with an angular lateral protrusion. Second, the pupil is an "elongated aperture with rounded edges." Photograph © 1999 by National Institute for Discovery Science, Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

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