Pgh environmental news roundup

Unhappy hunting: Game disappearing with its habitat.

Hunters get metaphysical: "The question I get a lot is, if a rabbit is out there but a hunter doesn't have access to it, does it really exist? I think, for a lot of people, the answer is no," DuBrock said.

Drilling for natural gas sucks... water

Erie Fish and Boat commissioner Sam Concilla: "We're never going to be able to bring back the resource once they're done with it. Never."

Drought watch: We need WVa water!

If northern West Virginia doesn't get some steady rain soon, Western Pennsylvania could end up in a drought emergency for the first time since 2002, state and federal officials said Friday.

this is nice.

Releasing a study showing that the city of Pittsburgh's street trees create $2.4 million in value each year, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said today that his administration will plant 100 trees in neighborhood business districts and another 37 Downtown this fall.

More: Pittsburgh to make push to plant more street trees

But, chemistry's not all bad: Green chem conference this weekend

Landmark Green Chemistry conference comes to Pittsburgh

The promise of green chemistry will be the focus of a conference that will draw both national and local experts to Pittsburgh this month.

“Green Chemistry, Solutions for a Healthy Economy” features a slate of outstanding speakers who will share insights on the economics, regulatory and public awareness issues including: Dr. Paul Anastas, the founder of the principles of green chemistry; Dr. Terry Collins of Carnegie Mellon University, head of The Institute for Green Science, a research, education and development center and Dr. Bruce Lanphear, the principle investigator of a study on the relationship of prenatal and early childhood exposures to environmental toxins and their relationship to behavioral problems, learning problems and asthma in children.

“It’s important to put a spotlight on the fact that in Pittsburgh we not only have a concentration of experienced people in green chemistry, but we also have people from universities and companies who are on the cutting edge who can cross fertilize and enrich one another,” explains Patricia DeMarco, executive director of the Rachel Carson Homestead. “We’re bringing this all together to illustrate that Pittsburgh is in a leadership position on this front.”

The conference will be held on Sept. 20th from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Duquesne University. The price is $25 for adults, $10 for college students, high school students free. For more information and to register, click here.

Image courtesy The Rachel Carson Homestead

(Via Pop City)

BPA: From bad to worse

The first major study of health effects in people from a chemical used in plastic baby bottles, food cans and a host of other products links it with possible risks for heart disease and diabetes. (AP)

See also: This is your fetus' brain on plastics

And here, for your enjoyment (coff), an excerpt of my undergrad paper on BPA. This stuff ain't good for you.

During the past thirty years, certain chemicals have been found to disrupt the endocrine systems of wildlife, lab animals, and humans. Bisphenol A (BPA) is an organic compound, first synthesized in 1905, that is made from two moles of phenol and acetone (hence its name). In 1936, Dodds and Lawson fed BPA to ovariectomized rats and found that it could act as a weak estrogen. But its principal use was created in 1953, when researchers found that they could combine BPA and the poison gas phosgene to form a hard, clear polycarbonate plastic. Bisphenol A-based polycarbonate, commonly referred to as just "polycarbonate," has a variety of uses. Most important for the purposes of its biological effects are the uses in which BPA can be ingested. BPA is used the lining of cans, in tooth sealants and in "white filling" composites, and it has been found to leach into saliva (Brotons et al., 1995; Olea et al., 1996). The chemical's old reputation as an estrogen re-emerged seven years ago, when scientists at Stanford University reported that their experiments had been tainted by BPA leaching from plastic flasks they were using. The cells reacted even though the amounts were too small to be detected by the maker's safety testing procedures (Krishnan et al., 1993).

...

The levels of BPA exposure determined safe by the FDA have been shown in many experiments to be unsafe for consumption. More studies will be needed to validate these effects. But most importantly, more basic research is needed on how BPA mimics estrogen and binds to its receptor; how that binding triggers estrogenic effects; and what those effects mean in terms of organ (including brain) development. In the meantime, it seems that women of childbearing age should avoid, as much as possible, exposure to polycarbonate plastics.

das irony

From CNN's report "Obama uses Berlin symbolism to reunite old allies":

Shortly before the address began, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, chided Obama and said he'd rather give a speech in Germany as president than as a presidential candidate.

"So we're going to be campaigning across the heartland of America and talking about the issues that are challenging America today," McCain said outside a German restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. [emphasis added]

I don't want to vote for a guy who campaigns outside German restaurants. Why not a good old TGI Fridays? Applebee's? They don't have those in Columbus?

Yeah FPL!

Florida Power & Light Company Selects SunPower to Build Largest Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant in United States

Image: "Big Sunrise at Big Cypress" by Bill Swindaman

Lately (if you were wondering)

I've been taking pictures of weddings with Ryan Sigesmund, writing scripts for Pittsburgh Genius, working on the Pittsburgh-Aguascalientes Sister City project, getting together with other local science writers, and showing photos at Art Cubed. Oh, and I went to Mexico.

Enough about me... here's something to ponder:

Here lies, extinguished in his prime, / a victim of modernity: / but
yesterday he hadn't time--- / and now he has eternity. -Piet Hein, poet and
scientist (1905-1996)

Eco-rant

I'm sorry, but this is bullshit. "Economists do not judge whether a parking lot is morally superior to a forest. For environmentalists, however, tastes are morally important--some are good, some are evil."

Do economists exist in such a rarefied environment that they're breathing something other than air? Forests provide clear, empirical benefits that parking lots do not.

If we would only put a price on the oxygen they create, not to mention the carbon they absorb, we might get rid of asinine false dichotomies like "the religion of environmentalism" vs "the science of economics."

A blue shell

A blue shell--what color is
sapphire? asked the artist.
The poet walks with his feet.