By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Discerning diners would probably not find this much of a topic for dinner discussion, but back in the fields where their broccoli is grown, fungus can stop a good crop cold. Most farmers apply fungicides to deal with the problem, but fungicides, a subset of pesticides, can kill beneficial organisms and cause environmental damage in the course of attacking the problem invader.
Fungicides, like other pesticides, also can wind up growing better fungus as the disease adapts to fend off the poison. The fungus becomes resistant to the pesticide, and creeps back ever-more resilient. Which requires more chemical treatments; which can increase resistance; requiring more treatments…
To try to break this cycle, researchers in Canada have been developing new “green” fungicides that are less environmentally damaging because they go in for a targeted kill. This surgical approach plays off the plant’s own defense strategy by attacking the fungal infection as it ramps up to break through the plants defenses. Effectively, the new eco-fungicides, called “paldoxins,” disrupt the fungus’ response to the plant.
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Health fears about BPA plastic spread with Canada pushing for a ban
By Barbara Kessler
Bisphenol A, the controversial component found in plastic baby bottles, took another image hit last week when the Canadian government announced it would be drafting regulations to ban the sale or importing of bottles containing the chemical.
Canadian Minister of Health Tony Clement called the step a milestone for Canada, which he said would be the first country to take regulatory action against the chemical. BPA is commonly found in polycarbonate or clear, hard plastics and can usually be identified by the number seven stamped within the recycling triangle on the bottom of containers.
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Tags: · bisphenol-A, BPA, Canada, dental sealants, Food and Drug Administration, food can liners, plastic baby bottles
Peat bogs highly sensitive to rising temperatures
By John DeFore
Announced this week is news of another way in which warming climates may exacerbate warming by adding more carbon to the atmosphere: A letter published online by the journal Nature Geoscience offers an abstract of research into carbon release by peat moss.
The work, led by Takeshi Ise of Japan’s Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, was a simulation using data from both shallow and deep peat areas in Manitoba, Canada.
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Tags: · Canada, Carbon Sink, Climate Change, Nature Geoscience, peat bogs
Ontario Moves To Protect Vast Boreal Forest
By John DeFore
In what is said to be the “largest conservation commitment in Canadian history,” Ontario has set aside an area of forest that is almost the size of the United Kingdom.
On Monday, the province’s Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that, as part of its Far North Planning initiative, it would “permanently protect” an area [...]
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Tags: · Boreal Forest, Canada, Carbon Sink, Forest Preservation, Protected Land
Rocky Mountain Wolves Debate Back In The Crosshairs
By Barbara Kessler
The story of the Rocky Mountain gray wolves is an inspiring fairy tale, in reverse, that showcases nature’s ability to sustain its own given a little time, the right habitat and a helping hand from conservation groups.
The tale begins like this. Once there was a wild and foreboding territory called the American West. The land stretched far and the big bad (some would say awesome and beautiful) wolves were plentiful, numbering in the tens of thousands. But the pioneering spirit was turning the wild landscape into ranches and towns, railroads and highways. The buffalo and the elk were in retreat. And then, it was the wolves’ turn. Deprived of their natural prey, they turned to sheep and cattle and confronted a fierce foe, an enemy with guns.
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Tags: · Canada, Rocky Mountains, Wildlife, Wolves
