A Global Culture We Don't Have: Science, Choices And The Future

A Global Culture We Don't Have: Science, Choices And The Future: "

By Adam Frank

In posts by both Stu and Ursula we have seen arguments about the dangerous lack of balance between human economic activity and the planetary environment. At the root of the issue is how human economic systems - driven by the explosive growth of scientific/technological capability - have yanked on strongly coupled atmospheric, oceanic and biological systems regulating conditions on the planet. In short we failed to notice that we live on finite world.

Marcelo gave took us in a different but related direction when he asked, 'Who controls science?' As he eloquently pointed out, assuming all will be well with the unconsidered advance and application of science 'is to put very powerful guns in the hands of a morally immature species'.

The points made by these posts are deeply connected and strike at the very heart of what this 13.7 Cosmos and Culture blog is all about.

What is the proper context of science within a culture that is dominated by its fruits and poisons?

Isaac Asimov, the great master of science fiction, once looked at the world's problems and drew exactly the wrong conclusion. He wrote,

'The dangers that face the world can, every one of them, be traced back to science. The salvation's that may save the world will, everyone one of them, be traced back to science.'

Asimov got it (at least partially) wrong because Logos, the purely rational and analytic vision, is but one human response to the world. There are other ways we make sense of the cosmos. Mythos, the need for narratives that speak to what we hold sacred and create meaning by setting us into context against the Universe, is the other. One of the great failings of the modern age is the belief that Mythos and Logos can be neatly separated. Science lives on one side of the divide and -- well everything else -- lives on the other.

There are examples of cultures choosing which technologies to embrace and which to reject. After becoming experts at the design and manufacture of guns the 17th century Japanese decided to reject them so completely that when American warships showed up off the coast in 1855 the commander of the USS Vincennes thought the culture was ignorant of firearms. The rejection of guns by the Japanese at this time was made for a variety of reasons. At least some of those reasons were about deeply held core cultural values. And that is the problem the world now faces.

We have yet to develop global core cultural values strong enough to stand up against the relentless economic application of scientific and technological innovation. At some point there should be the ability to say 'No thanks'. No thanks to (you can fill in your favorite here): dangerous forms of genetic manipulation; unsustainable resource exploitation; invasive electronic technologies; purple plastic penguins. Markets alone are not strong enough to realize this because of the downward pressure that has turned a planet of potential citizens into a global marketplace of consumers.

It is remarkable is that we have managed to create a truly global culture through the application of our science and technology. That is new and admirable development for our rather young species. What is not clear however is if there will be time to also develop the imaginative resources -- the powers of mind - that can sustain that global culture against the pressures it forces on the globe.

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What’s in Your Toothpaste?

What’s in Your Toothpaste?: "

A new UCLA study raises health concerns about a nanomaterial found in a broad range of consumer products. Nanoscale titanium dioxide, which is used in toothpaste, sunscreen, paint, cosmetics, vitamins, food coloring, and nutritional supplements, has not been extensively studied for its toxicological properties. A team lead by Robert Schiestl, a professor of pathology, radiation oncology and environmental health sciences at UCLA, examined the effects of the ingestion of TiO₂ nanoparticles by mice. The test subjects began showing genetic damage on the fifth day.

Further study of TiO₂ appears to be on the horizon. The material is one of seven nanomaterials targeted by EPA last year for focused research. EPA is currently developing a report analyzing research needs for two applications of TiO₂, as a water treatment agent and as a sunscreen.

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Children thrive equally with same-sex, heterosexual parents, psychologist testifies at Prop. 8 trial

Children thrive equally with same-sex, heterosexual parents, psychologist testifies at Prop. 8 trial: "

A Cambridge University developmental psychologist testified at a federal trial in San Francisco today that broad research has documented that children of same-sex parents are just as likely as those of heterosexual parents to be well-adjusted.

"Studies have found children do not require both a male and female parent," testified Michael Lamb, who heads Cambridge's Department of Social and Developmental Psychology.

Lamb was called by lawyers for two same-sex couples who are challenging Proposition 8 as a violation of federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. Proposition 8, approved by 52.3% of voters in 2008, amended the California constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

He said childhood adjustment is determined by the relationships parents have with children and their relationships to each other.

Lamb also said that studies show "no significant increase" in the proportion of children who become gay and lesbian when they are raised by same-sex couples rather than heterosexuals.

Children of same-sex couples are more vulnerable than their counterparts to be teased about their parents, but not more likely to be teased overall, he said. Lamb also said that children of gays and lesbians have fewer sexual stereotypes than children of heterosexuals.

Under questioning by a lawyer for the Proposition 8 campaign, Lamb admitted he was a member of the ACLU, the National Organization of Women, the NAACP, Amnesty International and the Nature Conservancy.

"And you have even given money to PBS, isn't that correct?" asked David H. Thompson, who is defending Proposition 8. Thompson suggested Lamb was "a committed liberal."

Thompson also elicited testimony from Lamb that "children clearly benefit when they have two parents, and both of them are actively involved."

Thompson said that 2000 census data showed that 33% of lesbian households and 22% of gay men household were raising children and that most studies have dealt with lesbian mothers rather than gay fathers.

-- Maura Dolan at the San Francisco federal courthouse

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FDA changes stance on BPA use in plastics

FDA changes stance on BPA use in plastics: "Agency says more study needed on bisphenol-A's effect on children





NEW YORK (AP) -- Federal health agencies said Friday recent research shows cause for concern over the chemical bisphenol-A's potential effect on children, but more study is needed before any regulatory changes are considered.

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Fossil Fuel Use 2034? Not Much Different.

Fossil Fuel Use 2034? Not Much Different.: "A quarter century from now, the United States' reliance on fossil fuels will have declined only marginally, a consulting firm projected."

Caring for Both Your Parents and Kids

Caring for Both Your Parents and Kids: "In a guest blog today, Kelcey Kinter, who writes the (usually) humorous parenting blog Mama Bird Diaries, writes about her mixed feelings about caring for her Mom."

Worth a click

Worth a click: "

The environmental news has been coming fast this week. There’s too much for me to keep up with all of it, but here are some stories worth checking out.

Time for federal bee regulation? The AP reports (in the LA Times) that the Xerces Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife and a UC Davis entomologist have petitioned the USDA to prohibit shipping of domesticated bumblebees and hives outside their native range, and to certify that domesticated bumblebees are disease free. Domesticated bees, the petitioners argue, spread diseases to native wild bees, contributing to steep declines in several native species.

Interior promises Cape Wind decision by April. Shortly after the National Park Service declared Nantucket Sound eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he would make a decision about whether to approve the contentious Cape Wind offshore wind energy project within months. The New York Times, which describes the decision as “a signal test of the Obama administration’s commitment to renewable energy projects on public lands and off the nation’s shorelines,” believes the available signals point toward approval.

A mediocre grade for the administration. The Center for Progressive Reform has issued a report card evaluating the first-year performance of key health and safety agencies (Consumer Product Safety Commission, EPA, FDA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and OSHA), and the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which reviews agency rules before they are issued. The conclusion: “Overall, we found that the Obama Administration has not yet lived up to its own vision of protective and proactive government and would give its efforts to date an overall grade of B-.” (Full disclosure — I am a member scholar of CPR, but had no involvement in this report.)

Melting ice and rising seas. A new study (published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, reported in New Scientist) finds that a major glacier at the edge of the West Antarctic ice sheet is past its tipping point and poised for collapse. According to the study’s authors, that alone could raise global sea levels by 24 centimeters (more than 9 inches). This latest study reinforces the argument of Rob Young and Orrin Pilkey that the world should plan for sea level rise of seven feet by the end of this century.

Cap and dividend proposal in California. The Economic and Allocation Advisory Committee, a panel appointed to provide advice on implementation of AB 32, California’s greenhouse gas emission reduction law, has recommended that three-quarters of the revenues from allowance auctions be returned to consumers through tax cuts or annual dividend checks. Our own Rick Frank is a member of that Committee. I hope he’ll explain this development in more detail.

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Latinos and blacks in California more likely to die of H1N1 than whites

Latinos and blacks in California more likely to die of H1N1 than whites: "

California Latinos have been nearly twice as likely as whites to die of H1N1 flu since the pandemic began last spring, according to statewide figures released this morning by the California Department of Public Health.

Over the same months, blacks in the state have been 50% more likely to die of H1N1 flu than whites, according to the report.

“Not everybody has been impacted equally” by H1N1, said state epidemiologist Dr. Gilberto Chavez during a briefing this morning. Chavez said statistics have shown "very important racial disparities” in H1N1 mortality and hospitalization rates.

Chavez said blacks were three times as likely as whites to be hospitalized with H1N1 flu, and Latinos twice as likely. He said Native Americans, who make up most of the “other” category in state H1N1 data, are also more likely to be hospitalized and die of H1N1 flu than whites.

There are several reasons for the higher mortality and hospitalization rates among those minorities, Chavez said. Blacks and Latinos have high rates of chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and obesity, that studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate put them at greater risk of catching the flu, Chavez said. They also tend to have less access to healthcare and wait longer to seek help, he said, which reduces the chances for successful treatment with antiviral medication.

“For cultural reasons, they may be waiting too long to seek care,” Chavez said. “This gives us an idea of who we need to target for outreach and immunizations.”

More difficult to explain, Chavez said, is why Asians were more likely than whites to be hospitalized with H1N1, yet are less likely to die of the flu strain.

Chavez said state officials are still compiling an ethnic breakdown of those vaccinated against H1N1 flu and trying to determine whether there is a connection between vaccinations and lower mortality or hospitalization rates.

Los Angeles has seen proportionally more Asians seeks vaccination at county-sponsored clinics than other minorities, according to the most recent figures released by the county’s Department of Public Health in November.

Of those vaccinated at the clinics, 29% were Asian, 44% Latino, 3% black and 19% white, county health officials said. Los Angeles County is 47% Latino, 29% white, 13% Asian and 8% black, according to the most recent census figures.

A Times/USC poll in November found blacks in California were far less likely than other groups to say they planned to get the vaccine.

Statewide, 8,400 people have been hospitalized with H1N1 flu and 479 have died, Chavez said. The number of deaths and hospitalizations has decreased markedly since October, Chavez said, but half the state population is still considered susceptible.

“We leave ourselves vulnerable if we do not vaccinate more people,” he said.

Last week, state health officials saw a slowdown in the use of H1N1 vaccines and began encouraging healthcare providers with unused vaccines to return them to the state to create a stockpile in case a third wave of outbreaks occurs this year, Chavez said.

Healthcare providers are not required to return unused vaccines, and it is unclear how many may have them, Chavez said. State and county officials have declined to release a list of providers that ordered and received vaccine, citing privacy concerns.

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske

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Chronic sleep loss is hard to overcome

Chronic sleep loss is hard to overcome: "

Even a good night's sleep doesn't totally compensate for many weeks of sleep loss, according to a new study. And it's the late-night period when the accumulation of sleep loss may be most apparent.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital examined the effect of weeks of insufficient sleep on performance. They scheduled nine healthy volunteers to live for three weeks on a schedule consisting of 43-hour periods in which they were awake for 33 of those hours. That equals about 5.6 hours sleep for every 24 hours. They looked at how the volunteers performed on cognitive reaction tasks from chronic sleep loss and disrupted circadian rhythms.

The study showed that after waking from a 10-hour sleep, the subjects' performance was good, but it deteriorated as each 33-hour waking period went on. Indeed, an individual with chronic sleep loss who worked extended hours into the night can have reaction times about 10 times slower than normal, increasing the risk of accidents and mistakes.

The study also found that when the body's circadian rhythms were at their lowest (late night and early morning) reaction times were slower, especially with chronic sleep loss. During high-performing periods of the circadian rhythm (late afternoon and early evening) reaction times were normal despite chronic sleep debt. The study is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"Many people have a false sense of reassurance that they can quickly recover from a chronic sleep debt with just one or two days of good sleep," the lead author of the study, Daniel Cohen, said in a news release. ". . .However, the lingering effect of chronic sleep loss causes performance to deteriorate dramatically when these individuals stay awake for an extended period of time, for example, when they try to pull an 'all-nighter.' "

The study is further evidence that people who work irregular shifts or night shifts face a real hurdle in trying to perform their jobs safely and productively.

-- Shari Roan

Photo credit: Blasius Erlinger / Getty Images

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Baby Got Back, And A Healthier Heart

Baby Got Back, And A Healthier Heart: "

By Nadja Popovich

Rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot didn't know how right he had it when he voiced his love for, um, robust derrieres back in 1992.

A round rear is healthier than a fat gut.(iStockphoto.com)

It appears that 'increased gluteofemoral fat mass'--science speak for 'big butt and thighs'--may be healthy, concludes a review of the scientific literature just published by the International Journal of Obesity.

The analysis by a team from Oxford University concluded that unlike people prone to belly-fat weight gain, those who tend to pad out around their bottoms are less likely to suffer from cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. They also pointed to recent findings suggesting that fat in the butt and thighs is more efficient at trapping and storing excess fatty-acids over the long haul, thus reducing weight gain elsewhere in the body.

Dr. Konstantinos Manolopolous, the lead author, acknowledged in a statement that analyses of differential fat distribution are nothing new and that the connection between belly fat and cardiovascular risk, for one, has been established. But, he noted that 'it is only very recently that thigh fat and a larger hip circumference have been shown to promote health.'

Still, Manolopoulos was quick to point out that this work shouldn't be read as a free pass to pack on the pounds. 'If you put on weight, thigh circumference will increase but your waist circumference will also increase, which overrides the protective effect,' he said.

But what does this mean for those of us not built like, say, Beyonce, you might ask. In an email to Shots, Manolopoulos elaborated:

Ideally you should store ALL your fat in your thighs while maintaining a very flat stomach. In that way you would receive the maximum benefit. However, few people can choose where to store their fat. Therefore, for the average person the current advice with regards to body fat and health risks remains the same: Do not become overweight, maintain a healthy diet and exercise regularly.

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UC Berkeley ranks high in survey on enrollment of the poor and minorities

UC Berkeley ranks high in survey on enrollment of the poor and minorities: "

UC Berkeley ranked relatively high in a new national survey about the enrollment of low-income and minority college students and financial aid for them.

The report, released today by the nonprofit Education Trust organization, criticized many top public universities for not attracting and supporting enough such students. Too many flagship state universities are spending scholarship money on high-income students to try to boost their academic rankings and attract high-tuition enrollment from other states, said the study, titled, "Opportunity Adrift: Our Flagship Universities Are Straying From Their Public Mission."

UC Berkeley, the only California university included, ranked in the top fourth of the 50 schools surveyed. For example, 33% of UC Berkeley students were poor enough to receive federal Pell grants in 2007, the report said, compared with a 20% average for all the campuses surveyed. Similarly, about 17% of UC Berkeley freshmen that year were black, Latino or Native American, compared with the 13% average for all schools in the report.

State universities in Florida, Maine, Utah and West Virginia were ranked highest in the report, while those in Georgia and Mississippi were among the lowest.

-- Larry Gordon

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Human Male: Still A Work In Progress

Human Male: Still A Work In Progress: "

By Jon Hamilton

Scientists say men are still evolving, despite earlier evidence to the contrary.

In human males, the Y chromosome remains under construction.(iStockphoto.com)

Researchers at MIT reached that conclusion after completing a detailed comparison of the Y chromosomes from chimps and humans. The results were just published online by the journal Nature.

The Y chromosome is what makes most male mammals male--platypuses excepted. It's one of a pair of sex chromosomes that determine gender. Females have two X chromosomes, males have an X and a Y.

And the MIT study showed that genes on the Y chromosomes of both chimps and people are changing at a rapid pace.

'The Y chromosome looks like it has a lot of life left in it,' says David Page, an author of the study and director of the Whitehead Institute at MIT. In fact, he says, the Y chromosome looks to be 'the most evolutionary dynamic part of our genome.'

That's a dramatic reversal from just a few years ago, when scientists were suggesting the human Y chromosome was in trouble and might be headed for extinction. In 2000, for example, a team from the University of Edinburgh presented evidence that that Y chromosome had become 'genetically degenerate.'

Their concern came from research showing that during 300 million years of evolution the X chromosome had retained many hundreds of genes. Meanwhile, the Y chromosome appeared to be in 'an evolutionary freefall' with just 70 or 80 genes left, Page says.

But the new study revealed that even a small number of genes can do a lot of evolving. 'It's as if the Y chromosome is a house that's constantly being remodeled,' Page says. And in the six million or so years since chimps and humans descended from a common ancestor, that remodeling has been taking place at a furious pace, he says.

It's still not clear exactly what all this genetic change has accomplished, Page says. But in the chimp, at least, there's evidence that the changes increased sperm production.

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Apple or pear body type? Getting to the bottom of the issue

Apple or pear body type? Getting to the bottom of the issue: "

Having a big butt, wide hips and full thighs is generally thought to come with a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes and other health problems, while having a high proportion of belly fat increases that risk. We know this, right?

Still, the findings keep coming. A study published today in the International Journal of Obesity isn’t objectionable – fat deposited on the butt and thighs is a good thing – but still it makes me cringe.

“[I]n day-to-day metabolism,” the study observed, “[gluteofemoral fat] appears to be more passive than the abdominal depot and it exerts its protective properties by long-term fatty acid storage.”

I don’t mind the explanation about the benefits of the pear shape over the apple shape. And I generally don’t argue with the Department of Health and Human Services, which says that women with waists measuring more than 35 inches are at greater risk of “weight-related health problems.”

I do, however, take issue with the disproportionate focus on women’s bodies in this debate. Too much commentary involves posting a photo of some well-endowed starlet’s rear end.

Such obsessing about female body shapes doesn’t seem necessary -- or necessarily healthy for women. Especially since the really bad belly fat is not the love handles that inevitably mushroom over a pair of jeans, but visceral fat -- fat on the inside of the body, close to the organs, invisible to the naked eye.

-- Amina Khan

Photo credit: Tim Sloan / AFP/Getty Images

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Report Links Vehicle Exhaust to Health Problems

Report Links Vehicle Exhaust to Health Problems: "Researchers noted, however, that proving that air pollution from vehicles caused illness was difficult.

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Study: Legalizing undocumented adult Latinos would be boon to state's economy

Study: Legalizing undocumented adult Latinos would be boon to state's economy: "

California could reap an economic boon worth $16 billion by legalizing its 1.8 million undocumented adult Latino immigrants, according to a USC study released today.

The economic benefits would come as newly legalized immigrants earned higher wages, spent more consumer dollars, paid more taxes and helped create jobs, according to the study by the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.

“People keep using our economic condition as an excuse to not do comprehensive immigration reform,” said Manuel Pastor, one of the study’s authors. “It’s just the opposite: What we need to do to right our economy and move forward is create a path to legalization.”

But Steven Camarota of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies said that legalization would also cost taxpayers. He said the majority of illegal immigrants already pay taxes, but legalization would make them eligible for scores of public services, including welfare, unemployment insurance and non-emergency healthcare.

“Whatever the drain is now, it just gets bigger with legalization,” he said.

The USC study did not examine the added costs in services to the state.

The study was released at a kickoff rally in Los Angeles to renew lobbying efforts for legalization, more worker and family visas and other elements of comprehensive immigration reform. Amid balloons, posters and lively cheers, several labor, religious and immigrant rights leaders spoke in favor of reform.

Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles said activists plan to hold town halls, identify and register pro-reform voters, and visit all 53 congressional representatives and two senators in the next few months.

The California effort is part of a 50-state campaign to amass enough congressional votes for reform legislation by May 1.

--Teresa Watanabe

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Chief budget analyst calls Schwarzenegger's federal aid bid unrealistic

Judge orders L.A. Unified teacher to be fired

Spurred by Metrolink crash, rails move closer to installing automatic brakes

Safety, traffic concerns raised when 3.5-mile-long freight train rolls through L.A. Basin

Lawmakers want to stop Orange County fairgrounds sale

Man fleeing six-car Laguna Beach collision shot by police, officials say

Assembly committee OKs bill to legalize marijuana

High surf, possible flooding expected along Southern California coast

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DWP chief pitches solar farm plans to Owens Valley residents | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

DWP chief pitches solar farm plans to Owens Valley residents | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

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Emergency spine immobilization may do more harm than good, study says

Emergency spine immobilization may do more harm than good, study says: "

When emergency responders reach a gunshot or stabbing victim, they try to immobilize the spine to reduce the danger of paralysis upon movement of the victim. That effort, however, can have a fatal toll.

A study published in the Journal of Trauma has found that, among these types of trauma victims, those whose spines are held still are twice as likely to die as those whose spines aren’t immobilized.

Time is the crucial factor, said the study’s lead author, Elliott R. Haut, an assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "For someone who was shot in the liver or has a collapsed lung," Haut said, "those extra five minutes might mean life or death for them."

The study cuts to the heart of a debate among trauma surgeons about the roles of paramedics and other first responders, says Dr. Larry J. Baraff, associate director of the UCLA Emergency Medicine Center. Many feel that time spent treating the patient in the field is often better spent on the operating table.

Immobilization is "a tradition that started decades ago," says Dr. Demetrios Demetriades, who directs the Division of Acute Care Surgery at USC. "There was never any scientific evidence that it works."
It can even worsen the situation, he says.

First responders typically fasten a cervical collar tightly around a victim’s neck and then strap him or her to a plastic board to secure the spine. This takes time, and it can hide or exacerbate internal injuries.

The likelihood that the spine would be injured by a penetrating wound is pretty low, Baraff added. "Unless the bullet hits the spinal column in exactly the right way, it’s extremely unlikely there’s going to be an unstable spinal column," Baraff said.

In the new report, out of the more than 45,000 patients studied (about 2,000 of whom underwent spine immobilization), only 30 had some partial damage to the spine that may have benefited from the procedure. First responders would have to immobilize the spines of 1,032 patients before potentially benefiting one person, the study’s authors wrote. But it only took 66 patients to potentially contribute to one death.

The best thing to do is get a patient to the hospital as fast as possible, doctors said -- the cervical collar usually serves no purpose other than to get in a surgeon’s way.

"We remove it immediately," Demetriades said.

"We say to the paramedics, 'Thank you very much for taking care of them, you did a great job,' and immediately take [the collars] off and throw them away."

-- Amina Khan

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New York City Puts Salt On The Chopping Block

New York City Puts Salt On The Chopping Block: "

By Nadja Popovich

The Big Apple isn't messing around when it comes to healthful eating. First, public health officials required chain restaurants to publish calorie counts on menus. Then, in 2008, the city banned artificial trans-fats from restaurants. Now, there's a new target.

The salt shaker isn't your real enemy. ( Mario Tama/Getty Images )

As of today, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is asking the food industry to voluntarily reduce the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant foods.

The department cites research that the high sodium content of American diets comes largely from these food sources, and not our salt shakers.

The National Salt Reduction Initiative, a partnership of cities, states and national health organizations lead by New York City, wants to see a 25 percent reduction of sodium content in packaged and restaurant foods compared to current levels.

New York's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene began targeting salt two years ago. 'In many ways, high blood pressure is a forgotten killer,' Dr. Thomas Frieden, then the city's health commissioner, told the New York Sun in 2008.

With its announcement today, the department echoed that concern: 'Americans consume roughly twice the recommended limit of salt each day -- causing widespread high blood pressure and placing millions at risk of heart attack and stroke -- in ways that they cannot control on their own.'

Though the salt proposal, unlike the trans-fat ban, is voluntary, it already has one trade association up in arms. Morton Satin, director of technical and regulatory affairs at the Salt Institute, reminds us that salt is a 'natural, necessary nutrient' and compared the reduction proposal to a large-scale nutritional experiment.

'Before we subject a generation of consumers to one of the largest clinical trials ever carried out, without their knowledge and without their consent, I ask health officials to use their talent, training and common sense to place this whole matter into perspective,' he said in a statement released today.

But city officials are confident that their initiative could yield positive results. Dr. Thomas Farley, the city's current health commissioner told AP that the food industry fully recognizes that 'sodium is a major health problem that they need to address.'

Of course, this proposal has nationwide implications. It would put pressure on large, national brands who distribute in the New York area to voluntarily shift to lower-sodium content -- or face some unhealthful PR. Chances are that a large company is either going to change its formula nationally, or not at all. And as unlikely as it may sound, some big brands, like Sara Lee and Campbell's, have already introduced salt-reduction initiatives of their own accord.

Whether or not the entire food industry voluntarily complies with NYC's demand, the salt issue isn't likely to fade. Sodium is tied up with America's obesity epidemic, and even extends to the health care debate.

Dr. David Kessler, former head of the FDA, told NPR last July that obesity is 'a profound issue,' costing the country a lot in health care dollars.

'Three quarters of us are going to die from either cancer, cardiovascular disease, or stroke. How did we get here? We've taken fat, sugar and salt, we've put it on every corner,' he said.

Sweets... be wary.

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California set to adopt green building standards, so why are environmentalists not so happy?

California set to adopt green building standards, so why are environmentalists not so happy?: "

California is expected to adopt the nation's first statewide green building code this week, reports Times staff writer Margot Roosevelt:

The proposed code, likely to be adopted Tuesday, would slash water use, mandate the recycling of construction waste, cut back on polluting materials and step up enforcement of energy efficiency in new homes, schools, hospitals and commercial buildings statewide.

The problem? Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council say the regulations fall short of standards already set by dozens of jurisdictions, including the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Check out this morning's story.

-- Craig Nakano

Photo: A unit in Rock Row, a townhouse development in Eagle Rock that was certified under the LEED for Homes program. To see our archived photo gallery of the project, click here. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

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The lasting legacy of DDT

The lasting legacy of DDT: "

Picking up on Dan’s theme that “it ain’t over till it’s over,” sometimes that’s a good thing, as with the prospects for U.S. climate change legislation, but sometimes it’s a bad thing. An example comes from the journal Nature, which recently carried a news story about DDT (subscription required). DDT, once widely used as an agricultural and disease-control insecticide that was banned in the U.S. in 1972, and in many other developed countries shortly thereafter. DDT is one of the best-known environmental success stories in the U.S. It had caused eggshell thinning in a number of birds, including the bald eagle, peregrine falcon, and brown pelican. With DDTs gradual disappearance from the environment and some habitat protection measures, all three of those species have been removed (at least in most locations) from the endangered and threatened list.

But it turns out that the story is not quite so happy in the oceans, where DDT continues to cycle. It is disappearing from the environment, through deposition in deep ocean sediments and destruction in the atmosphere. Both processes are slow. So large quantities of DDT remain available in the marine environment nearly forty years after the US ban, continuously cycling between evaporation from the ocean to the atmosphere and redissolving in the ocean.

According to a new computer modeling study, ocean cycling is now the major source of DDT in the environment:

[T]he re-emission of DDT from the ocean has become greater than from the three known modern releases of new DDT: its continued use in some countries for malaria control; degrading storage canisters; and other pesticides that contain DDT as a contaminant.

According to the model (which does not yet seem to have been verified by direct sampling) DDT concentrations are increasing in the northern hemisphere, despite the fact that there is little new use of DDT in the north, because the evaporation / deposition cycle drives DDT toward the colder waters of the north.

The DDT study is one more reminder of the need to address environmental problems at a global scale, as early as possible. And its a powerful reminder of the need for patience while protective and restorative measures gradually take effect. The comment of Robbie MacDonald, an oceanographer interviewed for the Nature story, could apply to many other environmental problems:

“You would think this compound would have gone away by now,” he says, “but it’s still cascading through these reservoirs. People frequently ignore that. When you control emissions, [people] expect instant gratification, but you don’t get instant gratification.”

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Should Down Syndrome Be Cured?

Should Down Syndrome Be Cured?: "If there were a cure for your child that would fundamentally change who they are, would you welcome it?"

Hybrid Cars Won't Save Much Oil

Hybrid Cars Won't Save Much Oil: "A new report shows that growing hybrid sales will have a limited impact on reducing the nation's oil consumption over the next two decades."

Warming Imperils Crops in India and China

Warming Imperils Crops in India and China: "China and India face a future of sharply lower crop yields as a consequence of a warming planet, leading scientists in both nations warned recently."