Tuesday, 09 Jul 2002

Frog Days of Summer

For the first time, scientists have found evidence linking agricultural runoff to the rise in grotesque hind-limb deformities in frogs. In the past, the deformities were associated with a common parasite, the burrowing trematode worm, which seemed to affect the development of tadpoles. Now, writing in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have found that exposure to even minute quantities of the pesticides atrazine and malathion appears to make frogs more vulnerable to the parasite by weakening their immune systems. Both pesticides are controversial but common in the U.S., where they are used to kill weeds, mosquitoes, and other insects. Wild frogs with missing or extra hind limbs have been seen in at least 43 states and five Canadian provinces, giving rise to concerns about the fate of amphibian populations and the possible implications for human health.

Down the Hatch

With the Senate poised to vote as early as today on a proposed nuclear waste disposal site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, two wavering lawmakers have agreed to support the site in exchange for a favor in their own state. Republican Sens. Robert Bennett and Orrin Hatch, both of Utah, met yesterday with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who promised to oppose a private nuclear dump on a Native American reservation in Utah in exchange for the senators' support of the Yucca Mountain repository. "Faced with the choice of having [the waste] come through Utah or to Utah -- and in much greater quantities -- I decided I would rather have it come through," Bennett said. Critics of the Yucca Mountain plan say nuclear waste will be shipped through thousands of communities en route to Nevada, making them vulnerable to accident or attack. Proponents of Yucca Mountain say they now have a majority, which might spell the end of two decades of struggle to find a storage space for thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste from the nation's commercial reactors and nuclear weapons plants.

Lack of Response Ability

The U.S. EPA is "not fully prepared" to handle a large-scale nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attack on the country, according to an internal assessment by the agency. The report was commissioned by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman in response to the attacks of Sept. 11 and strongly suggests that if those attacks had involved nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, the agencies' response teams would have been seriously overwhelmed. Among other findings, the report concluded that the EPA has limited authority to require action to redress environmental vulnerabilities; insufficient resources to respond to a nuclear or biological incident or one involving significant transportation system breakdowns; and an inadequate infrastructure for communicating quickly with small water utilities in the event of contamination.

Plant Nein

A controversial decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to set aside protected areas known as "critical habitat" for eight imperiled plant species has been challenged by a federal judge in California. The ruling by Judge Irma Gonzalez was greeted triumphantly by environmentalists, although it merely orders the USFWS to reconsidered its position within three years, rather than overturning the agency's decision outright. Still, Geoff Hickcox, a lawyer representing the Center for Biological Diversity, one of two organizations to sue the Department of the Interior for protection for the eight species, said the ruling was a good sign: "They know that if they make a 'not prudent' decision again without any additional information, they'll just land back in court. ... We've got them to go back and reconsider the rules, which they would not have done otherwise."

Bread and Butterfly

Like a lot of Americans, millions of monarch butterflies spend their winters in Mexico. Trouble is, the Mexican government has been unable to protect the monarch's forest habitat from illegal logging. Reasoning that illegal logging stems from necessity -- the 200,000-odd largely impoverished people who live in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve clear the lands to grow crops, build their homes, and fuel their stoves -- a Mexican nonprofit organization called Alternare has begun a quiet revolution to teach farmers sustainable living techniques in the name of the butterfly. The group teaches farmers to build from adobe rather than wood, to farm without chemical fertilizers, and to rotate crops for increased land productivity. Once farmers master the techniques, they teach them to others, and so Alternare's vision is slowly spreading through the Mexican forest. With monarch habitat disappearing at alarming rates, critics fear the change is coming too slowly, but advocates say that for the first time, the interests of both the human beings and the butterflies in the area are being served.