Poison ice: As the sea ice melts, a toxic stew of mercury and synthetic chemicals is seeping into the Arctic food web, harming the area’s people. We may be next. [Salon]
Beyond petrol: There are many alternatives to oil for use as a fuel, each with its own unique set of problems. Which will we be using in 30 years’ time? [Guardian]
To Save a Species, Serve It for Dinner: That is the most complicated part of reviving traditional food, said Makalé Faber Cullen, a cultural anthropologist with Slow Food U.S.A. who contributed to the book. Farmers are often more concerned with innovating and crossbreeding than in preserving cultural traditions or encouraging biological diversity. [NYT]
Poisoned carrion sends Asian vultures spiralling into oblivion: Asian vultures are in catastrophic decline and could disappear from the wild within a decade, a study has suggested. One species, the oriental white-backed vulture, which was featured by Disney in its cartoon adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, has lost 99.9 per cent of its population in India since 1992. Also at risk are the long-billed and slender-billed vultures. Their numbers have fallen by almost 97 per cent in the same period. Scientists say that the cause is an anti-inflammatory drug given to livestock, which is poisoning vultures that feed on the carcasses of treated animals. The drug, diclofenac, causes kidney failure in the birds. [Times]
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