When Annie Brown’s daughter, Isabel, was a month old, her pediatrician asked Brown and her husband to sit down because he had some bad news to tell them: Isabel carried a gene that put her at risk for cystic fibrosis. While grateful to have the information — Isabel received further testing and she doesn’t have the disease — the Mankato, Minnesota, couple wondered how the doctor knew about Isabel’s genes in the first place. After all, they’d never consented to genetic testing. It’s simple, the pediatrician answered: Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it’s often done without the parents’ consent, according to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn Screening & Genetics Resource Center. In many states, such as Florida, where Isabel was born, babies’ DNA is stored indefinitely, according to the resource center. Many parents don’t realize their baby’s DNA is being stored in a government lab, but sometimes when they find out, as the Browns did, they take action. Parents in Texas, and Minnesota have filed lawsuits, and these parents’ concerns are sparking a new debate about […]
WASHINGTON — Extremely high anti-incumbent feelings toward Congress are shaping potentially brutal midterm elections that typically see losses for the party that controls the White House, a poll found. Those anti-incumbent feelings match the high levels of 2006 and 1994 - both years when control of Congress changed hands. A Pew Research Center poll of registered voters released Friday found just fewer than half of voters would like to see their current member of Congress win another term and a fifth of voters said they would consider their vote as one against President Barack Obama. With the struggling economy, unemployment at 9.7 percent and billions of taxpayer dollars used to bail out Wall Street, populist anger toward Washington is setting up an election year when voters have a strong ‘throw-the-bums-out’ sentiment. In recent midterm elections, the party in control of the White House has seen an average of 28 seats lost in the U.S. House, where every seat is up for grabs. President Bill Clinton suffered a devastating blow in 1994, handing Republicans Congress and setting back his agenda. Privately, Democrats fear history could repeat itself in the midterm elections and are thankful Obama doesn’t face […]
Painting the roofs of buildings white has the potential to significantly cool cities and mitigate some impacts of global warming, a new study indicates. The research, which is the first computer modeling study to simulate the impacts of white roofs on urban areas worldwide, suggests there may be merit to an idea advanced by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other policymakers that white roofs can be an important tool to help society adjust to climate change. But the study team, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), cautions that there are still many hurdles between the concept and actual use of white roofs to counteract rising temperatures. ‘Our research demonstrates that white roofs, at least in theory, can be an effective method for reducing urban heat,’ says NCAR scientist Keith Oleson, the lead author of the study. ‘It remains to be seen if it’s actually feasible for cities to paint their roofs white, but the idea certainly warrants further investigation.’ The study is slated for publication later this winter in Geophysical Research Letters. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, NCAR’s sponsor. Cities are particularly vulnerable to climate change because […]
Yields from some of the most important crops begin to decline sharply when average temperatures exceed about 30 degrees Celsius, or 86 Fahrenheit. Projections are that by the end of this century much of the tropics and subtropics will regularly see growing season temperatures above that level, hotter than the hottest summers now on record. An international panel of scientists writing in the Feb. 12 edition of the journal Science is urging world leaders to dramatically alter their notions about sustainable agriculture to prevent a major starvation catastrophe by the end of this century among the more than 3 billion people who live relatively close to the equator. Specifically they urge world leaders to ‘get beyond popular biases against the use of agricultural biotechnology,’ particularly crops genetically modified to produce greater yields in harsher conditions, and to base the regulations of such crops on the best available science. ‘You’re looking at a 20 percent to 30 percent decline in production yields in the next 50 years for major crops between the latitudes of southern California or southern Europe to South Africa,’ said David Battisti, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor. He is a coauthor of […]
Like a lot of industry groups, the farm lobby says it would prefer that Congress tackle climate change rather than leave the job to Environmental Protection Agency bureaucrats. But now, the prospect of EPA greenhouse gas regulation looms large - mostly because agriculture and so many other interests haven’t liked any of the climate bills proposed so far on Capitol Hill. Not to worry. The same onslaught of lobbyists and lawyers - representing about 1,170 businesses and interests - that helped dim prospects for climate legislation in this Congress is now engaged in an energetic, multifront offensive to delay or block any attempt by the Obama administration to enact an alternative through regulation. Overt and covert support for Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s pending resolution to stop the EPA from regulation and similar legislation introduced in the House is but one prong of this assault. Opponents of federal curbs on fossil fuel emissions are also seeking allies in the states and in other federal agencies, while paving the way for court action to directly challenge the EPA’s initiative. Rick Krause, the American Farm Bureau Federation’s senior director for congressional relations, says the EPA’s Clean Air Act permitting […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
