This Week on ENN: Childrens toy contains date rape drug, Fuel Spills in San Francisco Bay, Oil Races to Record High Above $98 a barrel, Scientists Enhance Mother Nature's Carbon Handling Mechanism, Australian Scientists Decode Whale Sounds, all this and much more on the ENN week in review
Childrens Toy contains date rape drug, millions recalled
November 8, 2007 12:36 PM - By Karey Wutkowski, ReutersWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Toy maker Spin Master Ltd of Toronto recalled its Aqua Dots toys from North American retailers after a similar line of toys called Bindeez was recalled in Australia. At least three children were hospitalized in Australia after swallowing beads from the toy that contain a chemical that converts into the sedating drug GHB when swallowed.
GHB is also known as the "date rape" drug. Spin Master, which distributes Aqua Dots in North America, said in a statement it stopped shipping the item and was trying to identify any shipments that could be included in a recall by U.S. and Canadian officials.
--Fuel Spill Closes San Francisco Beaches November 8, 2007 08:43 AM - ReutersSAN FRANCISCO - A container ship bound for China struck a fog-shrouded tower of San Francisco's Bay Bridge on Wednesday morning, causing a fuel spill and forcing the closure of several San Francisco beaches, officials said. People near the spill reported suffering headaches and nausea as they breathed air containing vaporized oil, but public health officials said the fumes were not likely to have long-term health effects.
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Dead Clams Tell Tales, Give Time-lapse View of Ecosystems November 7, 2007 08:46 PM -Chicago - Inventories of living and dead organisms could serve as a relatively fast, simple and inexpensive preliminary means of assessing human impact on ecosystems. The University of Chicago’s Susan Kidwell explains how measuring the degree of live-dead mismatch could be used as an ecological tool in the Oct. 26 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“We affect ecosystems in many different ways, but the effects of our actions are hard to pin down because we rarely have scientific data from before the onset of those impacts,” said Kidwell, the William Rainey Harper Professor in Geophysical Sciences at Chicago.
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Bill Clinton, Green Building Council Launch Effort To Green US SchoolsNovember 7, 2007 04:44 PM - Paul Schaefer, ENNChicago - Today at the world’s largest green building exposition in Chicago, Greenbuild 2007, former President Bill Clinton announced a joint commitment to green all of America’s schools within a generation.
Earth Day Network (EDN) – a Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) partner – and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) joined former President Clinton in making this announcement to the American public and media.
Today’s event formally kicked-off Earth Day Network’s national Green Schools campaign, which includes three major initiatives: greening all new and existing school structures within a generation; developing and building healthier play areas and recreational facilities for all students; and working to greatly improve the food children eat in K-12 schools. Along with USGBC and the Clinton Foundation, Earth Day Network will expand the green schools movement through legislation, education, and corporate and community volunteer greening efforts.
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Oil Races to Record High Above $98 a barrelNovember 7, 2007 08:37 AM - ReutersOil sped above $98 a barrel for the first time on Wednesday, closing in on the landmark $100 level, driven by a slumping U.S. dollar and worries over a winter fuel supply crunch.
Analysts said it was only a matter of time before oil hit triple digits, with evidence of tightening stocks aiding a nearly 8 percent rise over the past two weeks alone."We're going to get $100 before too long," said Kevin Norrish of Barclays Capital.
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Australian Scientists Decode Whale Sounds November 8, 2007 08:48 AM - ReutersSYDNEY - Australian scientists studying humpback whales sounds say they have begun to decode the whale's mysterious communication system, identifying male pick-up lines and motherly warnings. Wops, thwops, grumbles and squeaks are part of the extensive whale repertoire recorded by scientists from the University of Queensland working on the Humpback Whale Acoustic Research Collaboration (HARC) project.Wops, thwops, grumbles and squeaks are part of the extensive whale repertoire recorded by scientists from the University of Queensland working on the Humpback Whale Acoustic Research Collaboration (HARC) project.
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U.S. Exchanges Explore Carbon TradingNovember 6, 2007 06:26 PM - By Anupreeta DasNEW YORK (Reuters) - Some of the biggest U.S. exchanges are eyeing a piece of the global carbon trading market, which is expected to double in size by 2012 from current levels as governments and industry step up efforts to reduce pollution.
The market for trading carbon emissions reached 22 billion euros ($32 billion) in 2006 and will cross 40 billion euros ($58 billion) by 2012, according to a report by Boston-based research firm Celent.
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The Amur Tiger Offers An Encouraging Word: SuccessNovember 7, 2007 02:20 PM -In a world where many animals are under siege, the Amur tiger -- popularly known in the West as the Siberian tiger -- offers an encouraging message: the population of the huge cat is showing signs of recovery.
During the past 100 years, the Amur tiger population of the Russian Far East was decimated by forest destruction, trophy hunting and poaching for tiger body parts for use in traditional Chinese medicine. By the 1940s the number surviving had dwindled to an estimated 50.
Thanks in part to $611,131 in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants that, combined with partner donations and in-kind contributions, push the total to more than $1 million, the big, distinctive cats appear to be rebounding in Russia.
-- Without enough sleep, children gain weight: study
November 5, 2007 01:07 PM - ReutersCHICAGO (Reuters) - Insufficient sleep can negatively affect preteens' metabolism as well as their exercise and eating habits, causing them to get fat, researchers reported on Monday.
Children aged 9 to 12 who slept less than nine hours a night were more likely to gain weight than their more rested peers, according to researchers at the University of Michigan's Center for Human Growth and Development."Many children aren't getting enough sleep, and that lack of sleep may not only be making them moody or preventing them from being alert and ready to learn at school, it may also be leading to a higher risk of being overweight," said Dr. Julie Lumeng, primary author of the report.
-- Scientists Enhance Mother Nature's Carbon Handling Mechanism
November 7, 2007 10:54 AM - Penn StateTaking a page from Nature herself, a team of researchers developed a method to enhance removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and place it in the Earth's oceans for storage.
Unlike other proposed ocean sequestration processes, the new technology does not make the oceans more acid and may be beneficial to coral reefs. The process is a manipulation of the natural weathering of volcanic silicate rocks. Reporting in today's (Nov. 7) issue of Environmental Science and Technology, the Harvard and Penn State team explained their method.--
