Odds and Ends

[Guest guest]

Earth Island Journal

December 22, 1999

Ebb & Flow; environmental and population issues

" Autocumulus " Clouds?

JAPAN -- Haruhiro Tsukamoto, a member of the Meteorological Society of

Japan, has named a new kind of cloud. Kan-nana and Kan-pachi clouds are

pollution-filled cumulus clouds that form above Tokyo's Kan-nana and

Kan-pachi highways. Helicopter pilots report that the clouds smell like

exhaust fumes. Flying through them causes burning eyes and sore throats.

Since 1990, there has been a 30 percent increase in local rains due to these

automobile clouds. The raindrops contain dioxins, are more acidic than

vinegar, and leave permanent stains on clothing. Look for similar

" contrails " over US highways.

Clean Dishes, Polluted Air

US -- The biggest source of indoor air pollution may be the dishwasher. US

tap water is laced with traces of toxic chemicals, including by-products of

water-treatment with chlorine and fluoride. Environmental Science &

Technology reports that the hot spray of a dishwasher liberates 96 to 100

percent of the toluene, ethylbenzene, and cyclohexane in the water within

minutes and releases it into the surrounding air. Washing machines,

showerheads and faucet taps also release toxins in lesser amounts. (The

hotter the water, the more toxins are freed.) Chlorine cleansers compound

the problem University of Texas researchers warn.

Shell to Sell the Sun

SOUTH AFRICA -- Solar power is coming to 50,000 homes in South Africa,

thanks to a joint agreement between Eskom, South Africa's national power

supplier, and Shell International Renewables. But there is a hitch:

According to Renewable Energy World, the solar homes are " activated for a

30-day period by a magnetic-strip card. " When the 30 days are up, however,

customers have to buy a new card from Shell. When it comes to making a deal

to sell sunshine, Shell holds all the cards.

Solar Race Gets Wings

AUSTRALIA -- The World Solar Challenge kicks off in October with dozens of

solar cars from around the world racing from Darwin to Adelaide. For the

first time, some 20 solar-powered gliders will take to the air on the

3,000-km (1,864-mile) trek. The next day, 40 sun-boosted bikes will set off

from Alice Springs on a seven-day sprint toward Adelaide. In 1990, the solar

racers averaged 65 kph (40.4 mph). In 1996, the contestants averaged 94 kph

(58.4 mph). This year's winner could break the 100-kph mark.

Green Bullets

US -- Lead bullets are out of favor because, once fired, they leach deadly

metal into the environment. The US Army plans to order one million " green "

bullets made from tungsten. The International Tungsten Industry Association

estimates that stockpiling 200 million of these " envirofriendly " bullets

would consume " more than 5,500 tons or one-eighth of existing annual

tungsten consumption in the world. " Savings in lead-abatement cleanup costs

could reach $ 20 million a year.

The Soft Path to Kyoto

US -- According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the

US need not break a sweat trying to meet its carbon-dioxide-cutting goals

under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. Simply applying existing

energy-efficient technologies could meet 60 percent of our carbon-cutting

goals. Efficiency measures would also save $ 160 billion annually, which

could mean a $ 1600 tax cut for every US household.

US Men Face Extinction

JAPAN -- As human sperm counts continue to fall in the industrialized world,

Japanese scientists have targeted two new sources for modern man's chemical

castration. The National Institute for Environmental Studies finds that

exposure to auto exhaust can kill up to 50 percent of sperm in lab mice.

Nagasaki University Associate Professor Koshi Arizono reports that bisphenol

A (an epoxy resin used to coat the insides of cans of sports drinks and

vegetable juices) is an endocrine disrupter. American men today are now only

half as fertile as their counterparts in the 1940s. If current trends

continue, European males will be completely sterile by the year 2010; US

males will be sterile by 2020. (This troubling trend may explain the West's

sudden interest in cloning.)

Memo to Mr. Steve Ford

US -- Sport-utility vehicles don't have to be gas-guzzling road hogs. The

Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has redesigned a Ford Explorer to shave

621 pounds, double its fuel economy and cut pollution by 75 percent. UCS

claims that its " Ford Exemplar " could be built today with existing

technologies. The added cost -- $ 715 -- would be quickly recovered through

fuel savings.

Sellafield Killing Fields

UK -- After testing the soils around Britain's Sellafield nuclear processing

plant, scientists from Germany's University of Bremen declared the place to

be as heavily contaminated as the landscape around the ruptured Chernobyl

reactor. " People are prohibited from entering a 30-km zone around

Chernobyl, " notes Greenpeace, but " there are no such restrictions around

Sellafield. " A British survey of 22,000 child cancer deaths by former

Birmingham University epidemiologist Know confirms increased cancer

deaths among children born near the Sellafield and Dounreay nuclear

facilities.

Earth-Busting RHICochet?

US -- A panel of scientists will decide whether to pull the plug on the

Brookhaven National Lab's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a 2.4

mile-long atom-smasher on Long Island, New York. BBC World reports that RHIC

was built to " generate minuscule fireballs of superdense matter with

temperatures of about a trillion degrees -- 10,000 times hotter than the

sun. Such conditions are thought not to have existed ... since the Big Bang

that formed the universe. " One possibility: RHIC might create a " mini black

hole " that could suck Long Island and the rest of the planet into oblivion.

The greater risk: RHIC might cause " perturbations of the universe " by

generating subatomic particles called strangelets. MIT Physics Professor Bob

Jaffe notes that " the probability of something unusual happening is not

zero. " " The big question, " adds Birmingham University Physics Professor

, " is whether the planet will disappear in the twinkling of an eye. "