Earth

Agriculture

Report tallies hidden energy costs

The average retail cost of U.S. coal-fired electricity was 9 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2007 (the most recent year for which data are available). But there are health and environmental costs of that power that consumers don’t pay, at least as part of their electric bill. According to a new report, accounting for those costs would double the true cost of shooting some electrons through the nation's power grid.

Agriculture

Update: U.S. swine infected with swine flu

Well, it's official. Over the weekend, Agriculture Department scientists found evidence that at least one pig exhibited at this year's Minnesota state fair was infected with the pandemic H1N1 strain of swine flu.

Agriculture

Of swine flu, pigs and a state fair

To date, federal monitoring has yet to turn up any U.S. pigs infected with the killer swine flu strain known as H1N1. But Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack announced yesterday that his agency’s veterinary labs would be reexamining whether any of the apparently healthy pigs exhibited last August 16 to Sept. 1 at the Minnesota state fair might have been infected with the virus. Why? “An outbreak of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza occurred in a group of children housed in a dormitory at the fair at the same time samples were collected from the pigs,” USDA notes

Climate

Carbon emissions: Trend improves, but …

Sometimes what’s bad for the economy can be good for the planet. Or so argued Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute, yesterday. This environmental trend spotter pointed to several developments that may have escaped our attention as the global economy alternately sputtered and entered periods of freefall throughout the past 18 months. Trend one: U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, have taken a tumble.

Climate

Giant snakes warming to U.S. climes

Some were pets whose bodies and appetites apparently got too big for their owners to support. Most are probably descendants of released pets. Today, thousands of really big non-native snakes — we’re talking boa constrictors, anacondas and pythons — slither wild in southern Florida. And there’s nothing holding them in the Sunshine State. Which is why a report that was released today contends they pose moderate to high ecological threats to states on three U.S. coasts. Indeed, the homelands of these snakes share climatic features with large portions of the United States — territory currently inhabited by some 120 million Americans. Based on comparisons of the temperatures, rainfall and land cover found in the snakes’ native range, it’s possible that these slithering behemoths could stake claims to territory as far north as coastal Delaware and Oregon.

Ecosystems

Windy with a chance of weevils

Scientists have traced the reappearance of cotton pests in west-central Texas to a tropical storm.

Earth

Darwinopterus points to chunky evolution

A newly discovered pterosaur had the legs of its ancestors and the head of its descendants.

Earth

BPA in the womb shows link to kids’ behavior

Subtle gender-linked effects seen in youngsters mirror impacts witnessed earlier in rodents.

Health & Medicine

Excreted Tamiflu found in rivers

A Japanese study finds that excreted Tamiflu ends up in river water, raising concerns that birds hosting a flu virus will develop drug-resistant strains.

Chemistry

Earth’s ‘boring billion’ years blamed on sulfur-loving microbes

A new study suggests these organisms could have kept oxygen levels low and waters toxic, stalling the evolution of complex life.

Humans

Schools need to test water, report results

Survey of EPA database turn up widespread problems, which may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Earth

Protected whales found in Japan’s supermarkets

Toothless Asian whales find themselves being protected by fairly toothless regulations.