Free Republic

LONG BEACH - A male fish off the Southern California coast is getting in touch with its feminine side. And that has some scientists worried. Kevin Kelley, a professor of environmental endocrinology at Cal State Long Beach, is part of a team studying a species of male flatfish in Southern California waters that has been found to have high levels of estrogen, which appear to be causing feminization. Kelley and other researchers believe that the treated wastewater draining through underground pipes into waters off Santa Monica, Huntington Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula contains human estrogen hormones expelled in human...

An extensive study of malaria-carrying mosquito or "vector" populations in different ecological zones of Cameroon has documented widespread and varied resistance to insecticides, part of an alarming trend across Africa that might ultimately jeopardize efforts to control malaria with treated bed nets and indoor spraying. The study, which will be presented at a special session on insecticide resistance at the Fourth Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Malaria Conference, is illustrative of a growing body of research in Africa that is finding increasing mosquito resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, which are used for insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs), and DDT, which has...

Shepherdstown, W.Va. The American conservationist may be an endangered species, both in numbers and public influence. That's the bleak news suggested by some attendees at the National Conservation Learning Summit, held this weekend at the sprawling woodland campus of the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia. Some estimates indicate that as many as 60 percent of the most senior federal employees are eligible to retire in 2007. Many of those are in conservation and natural resource fields. Over one-half of the senior executives at the Department of the Interior, USDA Forest Service and Environmental Protection Agency will retire by...

AMES, Iowa, Nov. 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- All those dried up stalks, husks and cobs left in corn fields after every fall's harvest could be a key to enhancing the environment, say Iowa State University researchers. They say partially burning some of the residue left in corn fields produces products that can be used to improve soil fertility, boost in-soil storage of greenhouse gases and reduce the amount of natural gas used to produce anhydrous ammonia fertilizer. Robert C. Brown, Iowa State's Bergles Professor in Thermal Science, will lead a team of researchers studying the idea. The team includes Randy...

President George W. Bush wants to kill the last wildlife sanctuary in the United States. He is more than happy to sink his claws into it, tear it apart and plunder it for his own uses. Environment? What environment? If it’s got oil, it’s ours. Who cares about some stupid animals? According to a Nov. 4 article on CNN.com, the Senate on Thursday approved a measure that would compel the Department of the Interior “to begin selling oil leases for the coastal plain of the Alaska refuge within two years.” Yes, you heard correctly. The refuge. The place where we...

A century and a half ago, California's red-legged frog graced the menus of gourmet restaurants in San Francisco and helped launch a young American writer named Mark Twain, who immortalized the leaping Gold Rush wonder in his first published short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Humans have not repaid the favor since, gobbling up not just the long-legged amphibian but nearly all of its wetland habitat for crops and homes, threatening it with extinction. On Thursday, as part of a continued, far-reaching rollback of protected landscapes for scores of imperiled species around the country, federal officials proposed...

For years, environmentalists have petitioned government officials about preserving open space and designing eco-friendly neighborhoods, but it turns out that cost-conscious developers should be the ones advocating change. New research reveals that building "conservation communities" can be 15 to 54 percent cheaper than traditional suburban developments, according to Wisconsin-based Applied Ecological Services (AES). The difference between traditional and conservational development is in the design principles. Typical subdivisions tend to have wider streets, turf lawns, gutters and storm sewers, but those cause less water to be absorbed into the ground and more runoff, which can erode soil and pollute local water...

A local peace organization denounced fliers carrying its name that contained profane language defaming the troops in Iraq, according to a press release sent out Tuesday. An angry person, frustrated with the war, altered a flier originally written by OMNI member Chris de la Cruz, Dick Bennett, president of the OMNI Center, said in the release. Bill Porton, another member, was responsible for the changes. He kept the original content of the flier, "he simply altered the message," Bennett said. OMNI Center for Peace Justice and Ecology representatives said they disagree with the war, but were respectful to the troops...

Utah last month submitted a wildlife action plan to the Interior Department that charts a future course for species and habitat protection and restoration. Now, so has everybody else. Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced Wednesday that wildlife agencies from all 50 states and six territories have finalized similar plans to establish a national framework for species protection. The goals: to enhance habitats, and in doing so, keep at-risk wildlife off the federally managed Endangered Species List. "We all recognize that the federal government can't do this alone; it can't conserve and protect everything that needs to be protected," Norton said...

LAWSUIT: A state group seeks to have the birds of prey taken off the endangered-species list. By JENNIFER BOWLES and ADAM C. HARTMANN / The Press-Enterprise A California group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the bald eagle from the federal endangered-species list, six years after President Clinton announced a proposal to do just that. The lawsuit comes after the recent deaths of two bald-eagle chicks near Lake Hemet east of Idyllwild, part of a small population of bald eagles that make the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains their...

TORONTO — Unchecked population growth and a badly flawed planning system are endangering Ontario’s wildlife, forests and water and posing a threat to living standards, the province’s environmental czar said Tuesday. In his annual report, Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller questioned the wisdom of what he considers Ontario’s unbridled expansion. “To what degree can certain regions in Ontario, especially southern Ontario, sustain and assimilate this relatively unchecked growth?” Miller said. The provincial Finance Ministry projects up to six million more people will call Ontario home over the next 25 years, most in the Toronto area. That’s a 50 per cent increase...

Large populations of deer are edging out forest birds in North America, report scientists in this month's issue of the journal Biological Conservation. The study is the first to evaluate the impact deer grazing can have on nest quality and food resources in areas unaffected by human activities such as forestry or hunting. It also offers general rules for predicting the influence these animals could have on bird ecosystems in the future. The decline of forest birds has been blamed mostly on such factors as disease, loss of habitat and an increase in the number of animals that prey on...

To: National Desk, Congressional Correspondent, Real Estate Reporter Contact: Linda M. Johnson of National Association of Realtors(r), 202-383-7536 or lmjohnson@realtors.org SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- U.S. Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), addressing Realtors(r) at a forum here, said the current endangered species law needs reform because it is failing the habitats and the species its supposed to protect. Cardoza also updated Realtors(r) on other federal issues at a legislative and political forum held yesterday during the REALTORS(r) Conference & Expo here, Oct. 28-31. Cardoza has cosponsored legislation with Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) that balances the need to protect endangered...

PORTLAND – Oregon farm and forest representatives urged a USDA panel to fund conservation programs and international trade programs in a 2007 Farm Bill forum here Oct. 25. Also in the listening session that included USDA Undersecretary Eric Bost, participants said it was important that Congress continue to fund price support programs, specialty crop grants and agricultural research in the next farm bill. Barry Bushue, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation, said the Farm Bureau supports a 2007 bill patterned after the 2002 bill, and he urged the USDA to back a bill with fully funded price support programs...

WASHINGTON — As the central character in President Bush's new energy conservation program, the Energy Hog is no gentle, sweet little Smokey Bear. This villainous cartoon pig consumes energy like candy and evokes little sympathy. Yet he is the chief symbol of America's notorious fuel-wasting habits in the Bush administration's multimedia campaign to exhort people to use less energy in all walks of life. To the Energy Department and energy-efficiency experts who support the new conservation program, this campaign, introduced in the wake of higher oil prices, is badly needed to persuade Americans to take sensible steps to save energy....

AXcess News) Washington - Max Keiser is a new kind of terrorist. He uses the Internet and boycotts to manipulate stock prices. In that way he forces corporations to comply with his brand of radical environmentalism and Sustainable Development. He puts his hands around corporate throats and squeezes until they comply with his demands. Max Keiser and his ilk hate business and they hate free enterprise and are using these tactics to redistribute wealth and cause chaos in the market place. Keiser's operation is called "KarmaBanque." That new age-focused name alone should give readers an idea of the wacky worldview...

A new weapon in the battle against HIV may come from an unusual source –- tropical frogs. Investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have discovered that compounds secreted by frog skin are potent blockers of HIV infection. The findings, reported this month in the Journal of Virology, could lead to topical treatments for preventing HIV transmission and reinforce the value of preserving the Earth’s biodiversity. "We need to protect these species long enough for us to understand their medicinal cabinet," says Louise A. Rollins-Smith, associate professor of microbiology & immunology, who has been studying the antimicrobial defenses of frogs for...

In 1973, the American bald eagle population had drastically declined. Populations of American alligators, humpback whales and other landmark species were also diminishing, and America needed to act. In response, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The law was supposed to protect imperiled species on the brink of extinction. However, more than three decades later, the Endangered Species Act has failed to live up to its noble expectations. Today, nearly 1,300 species have been afforded the law's protections, yet, just 10 species have been taken off the list due to recovery. The truth be known, not one single...

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Fish advocates see the plan to demolish Condit Dam on the White Salmon River as good news for salmon everywhere, but the state Ecology Department says the project could hurt fish downstream and might violate the federal Endangered Species Act. Demolition of the 125-foot-high hydroelectric dam, owned by Portland-based PacifiCorp, is proposed for October 2008. The project would open 33 miles of steelhead habitat and 14 miles of salmon habitat in the area of the river blocked by the dam since 1913. The river forms a portion of the boundary between Klickitat and Skamania counties along the...

By Monica Yant Kinney Inquirer Columnist So I'm freezing my tail off on a bridge spanning the Delaware River yesterday, wondering how Petty's Island became the political equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. Strange things happen here, and I'm not just talking about the two bald eagles that flew overhead, as if on cue, while Doug Forrester made yet another pin-striped pitch for the antiestablishment tree-hugger vote. He's a Republican, remember? It's not your fault for forgetting. I, too, have had a hard time distinguishing one self-made multizillionaire candidate from the other. Democrat Jon Corzine is everything you expect in a...