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This is my little contribution of thoughts on environmental issues, and some updates that I find are newsworthy and interesting. Some are quite topical and others are non-sensical! But I like to have a nice array. Many of the topics listed below have links to another site where You can obtain more information if any of these interest you.
Aspirin eases plant aches too researchers say
U.S. states ask Court to force nuclear waste removal
Scientists say smoking could reduce erect penis size
Melting Antarctic glacier could raise sea level
Aspirin helps ease the aches and pains suffered by plants much in the way it helps people and animals, researchers say. They said their findings shed more light on the "pain" mechanism that plants have, which is similar to that of animals. Researchers in the past have found that plants do register injury, and can release chemical signals to alert their neighbors. An example is the acacia tree, which responds to browsing by animals by sending chemical signals into the air. Neighboring trees respond by producing a chemical in their leaves that tastes nasty.
A group of 36 states Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to force the Department of Energy to remove tons of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants owned by electric utilities. The states charged the DOE with not fulfilling its obligations under a 1982 law to ship the waste to a permanent storage facility, and said billions of dollars collected from utilities by the agency for that purpose have been squandered. "Federal courts have already ruled that DOE is absolutely obligated, physically able, and legally authorized to start removing nuclear waste from our states," said Kris Sanda, Minnesota Public Service Commissioner and member of Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition.
Smoking could reduce the size of a man's erect penis, researchers
said Sunday. The shrinking manhood warning came from the Boston
University School of Medicine when they revealed preliminary findings from a study of 200 men in the London Observer newspaper Sunday. Dr. Pedram Salimpour said the findings "statistically significant" and promised to reveal them next month to the International Society of Impotence Research in Amsterdam. Smoking affects the penis in the same way that it does the heart, the researchers said. It damages the blood vessels and inhibits blood flow. This in turn affects elastin, the substance believed to govern a man's ability to have an erection.
A melting Antarctic glacier could lead to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, causing global sea levels to rise to 20 feet, researchers said Thursday. Radar images from satellite observations between 1992 and 1996 of Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica showed the glacier is shrinking. Eric Rignot, a radar scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said, "We are seeing a glacier melt in the heart of Antarctica." Ice almost completely covers Antarctica, the fifth-largest continent. Antarctica has about 90% of the world's glacial ice. Scientists say this data could be the first real evidence that some massive glaciers might be retreating.