Climate Change and the Integrity of Science: a letter to Science

Climate Change and the Integrity of Science: a letter to Science: "

A letter Climate Change and the Integrity of Science has been published in the journal Science. It's written by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel laureates (here's the complete list plus their university affiliations). I recommend reading the entire letter but here is an excerpt:

There is always some uncertainty associated with scientific conclusions; science never absolutely proves anything. When someone says that society should wait until scientists are absolutely certain before taking any action, it is the same as saying society should never take action. For a problem as potentially catastrophic as climate change, taking no action poses a dangerous risk for our planet...

... The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other scientific assessments of climate change, which involve thousands of scientists producing massive and comprehensive reports, have, quite expectedly and normally, made some mistakes. When errors are pointed out, they are corrected. But there is nothing remotely identified in the recent events that changes the fundamental conclusions about climate change:

1. The planet is warming due to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. A snowy winter in Washington does not alter this fact.
2. Most of the increase in the concentration of these gases over the last century is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
3. Natural causes always play a role in changing Earth's climate, but are now being overwhelmed by human-induced changes.
4. Warming the planet will cause many other climatic patterns to change at speeds unprecedented in modern times, including increasing rates of sea-level rise and alterations in the hydrologic cycle. Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide are making the oceans more acidic.
5. The combination of these complex climate changes threatens coastal communities and cities, our food and water supplies, marine and freshwater ecosystems, forests, high mountain environments, and far more.

Much more can be, and has been, said by the world's scientific societies, national academies, and individuals, but these conclusions should be enough to indicate why scientists are concerned about what future generations will face from business-as-usual practices. We urge our policy-makers and the public to move forward immediately to address the causes of climate change, including the un restrained burning of fossil fuels.

The scientists are the members of the NAS most familiar with climate science, as explained by lead signer Peter Gleick:

It is hard to get 255 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to agree on pretty much anything, making the import of this letter even more substantial. Moreover, only a small fraction of National Academy members were asked to sign (the signatories are all members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences but were not speaking on its behalf). Because of a desire to produce a statement quickly, the coordinators of the letter focused on those sections of the NAS most familiar with climate science and the ongoing debate. But the NAS (and Academies of Sciences and other professional scientific societies from dozens of other nations) has previously published a long set of assessments and reviews of the science of climate change, which support the conclusions laid out in the Science essay.

Lastly, here is a link to the National Academy of Science's Policy advice, based on science, to guide the nation's response to climate change.

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Tainted nuke plant water reaches major NJ aquifer

Jersey is the armpit of America...
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Tainted nuke plant water reaches major NJ aquifer: "Radioactive water that leaked from the nation's oldest nuclear power plant has now reached a major underground aquifer that supplies drinking water to much of southern New Jersey, the state's environmental chief said Friday.



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Cancer Society Criticizes U.S. Panel as Overstating Risk

I'm still wary of chemicals!
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Cancer Society Criticizes U.S. Panel as Overstating Risk: "A dire government report on cancer risks from chemicals and other hazards in the environment has drawn criticism from the American Cancer Society.


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Sorry America, the world's biggest burger may very well be Canadian

Say it isn't so!
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Sorry America, the world's biggest burger may very well be Canadian: "

In the "Is that really necessary?" department, we bring you today's biggest burger news, in the form of, well, what may be the biggest burger in the world. Canadian barbecue chef Ted Reader took six hours to grill this 590-pound behemoth at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto in an attempt to one-up the Guinness Book of World Records' current 185.8-pound record holder.

Writes the Toronto Sun of Canada's culinary--dare we say cultural--coup:

The award-winning chef used a specially designed grill with a built-in forklift mechanism designed to flip the oversized culinary creation.

Reader says it took six hours to cook the behemoth of a burger, starting off with a patty weighing 139 kilos. The grilled patty was then nestled in a 48-kilogram bun, dressed with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, red onions, pickles and barbecue sauce.

A built-in forklift mechanism will likely be needed to extract the burger's future consumers from their chairs after they finish off this meaty beast. Can we get a calorie count, please?

--Jessica Gelt

Photo: AP Photo / The Canadian Press, Patrick Dell

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Scientists Lash at 'McCarthy-Like Threats'

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Scientists Lash at 'McCarthy-Like Threats': "Scientists lash out after months of unsubstantiated assaults on the integrity of climate research.


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Kissin' cousins meant health problems for Charles Darwin's children, researchers say

Another ironic story about how the inventor of natural selection did not practice it.

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Kissin' cousins meant health problems for Charles Darwin's children, researchers say: "

For a guy who spent so much of his career studying natural selection, it is perhaps surprising that Charles Darwin married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood.

He knew from his own experiments with plants that inbreeding led to less vigorous offspring. What’s more, marriages of cousins were frowned upon in England and elsewhere in Europe due to their “supposed injurious consequences,” Darwin wrote in an 1870 letter to his neighbor. But, he added, “this belief rests on no direct evidence.”

It was a question Darwin was anxious to answer. Three of his 10 children – Anne Elizabeth, Mary Eleanor and Charles Waring – died during childhood. Six of the surviving seven went on to have long-term marriages, but three of those marriages bore no children, suggesting that his children suffered from infertility.

Scholars have documented Darwin’s worries that his own consanguineous marriage contributed to the poor health of his offspring, but he wasn’t able to resolve the question. Nearly 130 years after his death, a group of American and Spanish experts in evolution and genetics have done it for him.

Their conclusion? Darwin’s close genetic ties to his wife probably did play a role in the poor health of his children.

Not only were Darwin and his wife first cousins, but his mother’s parents were third cousins. The researchers calculated that for 6.3% of their genetic sequences, Darwin's children inherited the same DNA from their mother and father. That certainly increased their risk of developing health problems that only occur when the faulty genes are inherited from both parents. It probably explains the high rate of infertility among his adult children, the researchers write.

In addition, scientists discovered last year that inbreeding can make children more susceptible to infectious diseases. Anne Elizabeth died from childhood tuberculosis, and Charles Waring died of scarlet fever. The cause of death of Mary Eleanor, who lived only 23 days, is unknown.

“Charles Darwin’s fears of consanguinity appear to have been justified,” the researchers concluded. But they also noted that three of Darwin’s sons – George, Francis and Horace – became fellows of the Royal Society and were knighted. George went on to advocate against consanguineous marriages.

The report appears in the May issue of the journal BioScience.

-- Karen Kaplan

Photo: Charles Darwin suspected his children paid the price for his marriage to first-cousin Emma. Credit: Henry Chu/Los Angeles Times

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L.A. considering changes in water conservation amid water main breaks

Irony can be crappy..
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L.A. considering changes in water conservation amid water main breaks: "

L.A. city officials have agreed to consider changes in the city's water conservation program after experts said it was responsible for water main breaks last summer and fall.

The city last June limited the use of lawn sprinklers to Mondays and Thursdays, and those restrictions have proved highly successful.

But the policy was too much for the city's aging network of cast-iron pipes, causing fluctuations in water pressure that strained them to the bursting point, a panel of scientists reported last month.

According to the report, on days when watering was allowed, water pressure in the pipes dropped. On days when watering wasn't allowed, pressure increased and "accelerated the metal fatigue failures of aged and corroded cast-iron pipes," the report said.

The result was a series of major water main breaks that flooded streets and damaged property, starting weeks after the water restrictions took effect. From July through September 2009, the city recorded 101 major breaks, compared with 42 in 2008 and 49 in 2007, the report said.

The Water and Power Commission asked its staff to come back with a look at the issue -- and potential changes in the ordinance -- before the summer.

The scientists suggested that the city rework its conservation plan. One alternative would be to require homes with even-numbered addresses to conserve on even-numbered days and homes with odd-numbered addresses to conserve on odd-numbered days, the team said. That, the scientists said, would help even up pressure.

-- Shelby Grad

Photo: A water main break in Studio City. Credit: Los Angeles Times

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Babies as Moral Beings

So morality is a human trait
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Babies as Moral Beings: "A growing body of evidence that suggests that babies do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life."

U.S. Supreme Court declines involvement in Boy Scouts, San Diego Balboa Park case

Interesting...
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U.S. Supreme Court declines involvement in Boy Scouts, San Diego Balboa Park case: "

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case involving allegations that the Boy Scouts of America should not be allowed to lease property in San Diego's Balboa Park because of the group's religious overtone and its policy banning gays, agnostics and atheists from being members or leaders.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that an agnostic couple and a lesbian couple, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, could sue to invalidate the Boy Scouts' lease on city property as discriminatory. The Boy Scouts appealed.

The high court's decision not to hear the case sends the issue back to the appellate court for further litigation.

The ACLU in 2000 sued the city on the assertion that its $1-a-year lease with the Boy Scouts was improper. The City Council then renegotiated the lease, requiring annual payment of more than $2,500.

In 2004, a federal court judge in San Diego said the lease was improper because the city had not allowed other groups to bid on the property and that giving preference to a religious organization violated the constitutional separation of church and state. The judge ruled that the Boy Scouts qualify as a religious organization because their oath requires members and leaders to show allegiance to God.

After the 2004 ruling, the San Diego City Council sought to terminate the Boy Scouts' lease. But they have remained in the park pending resolution of the legal issues.

Under the lease, the Boy Scouts agreed to make $1.7 million in improvements to the 18-acre site in Balboa Park and have spent $2.5 million on an aquatic center on city-owned Fiesta Island in Mission Bay. The Boy Scouts have been part of Balboa Park since 1918.

In a statement on the group's website, Scout leadership expressed disappointment in the high court's decision but said that activities at Balboa Park and Fiesta Island will continue while the legal action proceeds in the federal and state court systems.

"Boy Scouts (of America) is confident that it will prevail on
its 1st Amendment rights and other constitutional defenses as the
matter proceeds through the courts," the group said. "Boy Scouts retains the right to petition
the court to hear that issue again if the 9th Circuit decides the
merits of the case unfavorably to Scouts."

David Blair-Loy, legal director for the ACLU chapter in San Diego and Imperial counties, said the court ruling "doesn't win the game (but) it advances the ball, and
we expect to prevail."

"Discrimination is not a value we want to teach our kids," Blair-Loy said.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

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The Pill Started More Than a Sexual Revolution

Wow 50 years!
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The Pill Started More Than a Sexual Revolution: "Fifty years ago, the birth control pill began to transform the way regulators viewed their work.


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Wal-Mart to pay $27.6 million in dumping case

Walmart boo!
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Wal-Mart to pay $27.6 million in dumping case: "Prosecutors say Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had agreed to pay $27.6 million to settle claims of improperly handling and dumping hazardous waste at stores across California.



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Latinos found to have much higher rates of vision disorders

Latinos found to have much higher rates of vision disorders: "

Visual impairment, blindness, diabetic eye disease and cataracts are the highest among Latinos compared with any ethnic group in the country, according to a series of new studies.

The findings were released Saturday as part of the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study, which is supported by the National Eye Institute. The study, which began in 2000, is the nation's largest and most comprehensive study of vision in Latinos. Most of the study participants are of Mexican descent living in La Puente.

The study found 53% of people in Los Angeles' Latino community have eye disease and 63% are undiagnosed. Many of the conditions can be treated to improve vision.

"These results underscore the importance of Latinos, especially those with diabetes, getting regular, dilated eye exams to monitor their eye health," said Dr. Rohit Varma, principal investigator of the study and director of the Ocular Epidemiology Center at the Doheny Eye Institute at USC. "Eye care professionals should closely monitor Latinos who have eye disease in one eye because their quality of life can be dramatically impacted if they develop the condition in both eyes."

The American Academy of Ophthalmology will launch a pilot program targeting Latinos this summer called EyeSmart EyeCheck. The first screening is scheduled for July 25. Details about the screenings will be posted on geteyesmart.org. Those interested can go to the site and click on the EyeSmart EyeCheck logo for more information on screenings in their area.

The studies are published in the May issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

-- Shari Roan

Photo credit: Flickr

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