DDT deposit off Southern California will be capped

Clean sand and silt will be used to cover a vast deposit of the pesticide DDT and toxic compound PCB on the ocean floor off Southern California, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.

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EPA plan targets vast DDT deposit off Calif. coast

A plan to cap a vast, long-neglected deposit of the pesticide DDT on the ocean floor off Southern California got its first public airing Tuesday — nearly four decades after the poison was banned from use.

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"How healthy (or not) certain foods are—for us, for the environment—is a hotly debated topic among experts and consumers alike, and there are no easy answers.

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Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents -- from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe -- and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources, says a new report by the National Research Council.

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Scientists who returned to the Bay Area this week after an expedition to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" brought piles of plastic debris they pulled out of the ocean — soda bottles, cracked patio chairs, Styrofoam chunks, old toys, discarded fishing floats and tangled nets.

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It is a description of work led by Anandasankar Ray, an entomologist at the University of California, Riverside, on fruit flies and their sensitivity to carbon dioxide. The researchers report that they have identified a compound that blocks the ability of the insects to detect it.

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The peregrine falcon, which had been completely wiped out east of the Mississippi River by the early 1960s because of the pesticide DDT, is making a strong recovery in urban areas, and has been spotted this spring perched on three bridges that span the Hackensack River in Bergen  …

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Biotechnology companies are keeping university scientists from fully researching the effectiveness and environmental impact of the industry's genetically modified crops, according to an unusual complaint issued by a group of those scientists.

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Good News Wednesday: Endangered Eastern Brown Pelicans On Their Way Back

Way back in the day, the Eastern Brown Pelican used to be found in large numbers along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts but because of human interference, they were placed on the endangered species list. In the forty years since, this amazing bird is no longer a rare sight.

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Further evidence of the ripple-effect our chemical short-sightedness has on the most hard to reach areas of our planet

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"It was surprising to find measurable and sometimes high amounts of toxic pollutants in such a deep and remote environment," Vecchione said.

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Decades after most countries stopped spraying DDT, frozen stores of the insecticide are now trickling out of melting Antarctic glaciers. The change means Adélie penguins have recently been exposed to the chemical, according to a new study.

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glaciers could release an alphabet soup of chemical pollutants into the ocean, including PCBs and PBDEs – industrial chemicals that have been linked to health problems in humans.

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Plastic waste in the oceans poses a potentially devastating long-term toxic threat to the food chain, according to marine scientists. Studies suggest billions of microscopic plastic fragments drifting underwater are concentrating pollutants like DDT.

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"BILLINGS, Mont. - Pesticides, heavy metals and other airborne contaminants are raining down on national parks across the West and Alaska, turning up at sometimes dangerously high levels in lakes, plants and fish."

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With the increase in travel and the demise of pesticides such as DDT, bedbugs have made a comeback in homes and hotels. But how extensive is their resurgence? And what if you actually have them? Yes. Tiny, Evil -- And in My Bed

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Monsanto - A Corporate Plague

In 1998, the World Bank's structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto, and Syngenta.

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DDT, the miracle insecticide turned environmental bogeyman, is once again playing an important role in public health. In the malaria-plagued regions of Africa, where mosquitoes are becoming resistant to other chemicals, DDT is now being used as an indoor repellent.

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In light of the recent discussion by ranting Kennedys that those who support a reasoned approach to the environment, it might be a good idea to look back at how the environmental movement started and the failures and costs, not to mention the deaths this movement has caused.

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Well, let me summon whatever strands of gumption I have left to say that what we have here is a newly reinvigorated debate, with a whole lot of new reinvigorated dis-information with regards to the legacy of DDT....A legacy which lives in us all, in the many half-lives of DDT tha …

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Environmentalism: A History of Unintended Consequences

Environmentalism has quite a few followers and those followers have quite a bit of power. With that power, they are able to suggest and enact programs and legislation they feel is best for the world.

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"Although Uganda's National Environmental Management Authority has approved DDT for malaria control, Western environmentalists continue to undermine our efforts and discourage G-8 governments from supporting us.

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Rachel Carson's warning on pesticides in "Silent Spring" ignored the good that they did.

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For Rachel Carson admirers, it has not been a silent spring. They've been celebrating the centennial of her birthday with paeans to her saintliness. A new generation is reading her book in school — and mostly learning the wrong lesson from it.

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This issue I'm speaking of is the epidemic of malaria in third-world countries. As you know (or should know), malaria kills more than one million people a year and infects hundreds of millions every year.

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WASHINGTON - A plan to honor environmental pioneer and "Silent Spring" author Rachel Carson on her centennial Sunday was blocked by a U.S. senator who believes Carson created a climate of "hysteria and misinformation."

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A Democrat senator's resolution to honor the centennial of famed environmentalist and "Silent Spring" author Rachel Carson unexpectedly was blocked by Republican Sen.

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