AIR POLLUTION RISKS EXERCISE-INDUCED HEART DAMAGE
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/07 020730075756.htm
Breathing polluted air, especially smoky exhaust that billows from factory smokestacks and the tailpipes of some diesel-powered buses and trucks, is bad for people with heart disease, according to the first study of its kind reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
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Conference Reports-science for non-scientists
(1)Robert Ayres Begs to Differ and Makes More Sense -
ex: his paper 'Eco-Unfriendly Analogies' at the International Ecological Conference - 12-16 August 2002.
Robert Ayres is an interesting guy - yeay! -
RA has an interest in what he calls Ecological Economics. And he DISAGREES with the guys/gals purveying the 'waste line' of our biosphere being a place where everything is consumed by something else viz --'there are no wastes, everything is recycled'
As he says: one, it aint so; and two, it's impossible
Here's why, but first Robert Ayres. He's Director at the Centre for Management of Environmental Resources at INSEAD, France.
And he writes:- "the discipline of ecological economics was founded 20 yrs ago on the strength of lifecycle analysis". This important development puts the focus on the lifecycle of manufactured products, rather than the products themselves.
For example: a computer chip weighs 1 gram, but in the process (lifecycle) of its manufacture thousands of grammes of unrecyclable waste are thrown away. Which, incidentally, rubbishes claims of miniaturisation being 'environment-friendly
Another bad analogy is metabolism: the processing between ingestion and excretion. Metabolism as 'perfectly efficient', like 'zero emissions' projects. But the world is chocka with biological waste. "From coal and oil, to chalk, limestone, and even iron ore, there are waste products that cannot be metabolised no further."
SO - The aim of projects - often funded by national and international collaboration - is to work toward industry producing no waste at all. [And so say all of us!]

(2) Report: Rising TEMPERATURES - action NOW or mebbe NEVER
The Carbon Cycle enables forests to exchange carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere and so help solve the green-house gases(GHG) causing rising global temperatures.
Enter John Grace, Head of the Institute of Ecology and Resource Management at Edinburgh University. JG's team is part of an international network monitoring Amazonian rainforests, thro Tennessee's oak and hickory to Siberia's pinewoods. With well-positioned automatic infrared gas analysers atmospheric compositions are examined day and night. Rainforest sequesters about 6 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare, Tennesse about 4.5 tons ph and Siberia 1 ton ph.
But - and not to be overlooked - decomposing organic and peaty soils on forest floors for example are OUTPUTTERS of carbon dioxide. As global temperatures rise so then will microbial populations rise and decomposition with gas output along with this.
WITHOUT DRAMATIC REVERSAL of the temperature trend - like NOW - John Grace predicts the loss of forest carbon sink potential within 30-40 years. Felling, forest fires AND microbiological action are the DO something about. The sooner the better.
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GREAT READ ON THE SPACE VOYAGERS
http://tm0.com/IHT/sbct.cgi?s=287715289&i=624355&m=1&d=2993251

Doubtful Tom has been to town
And now he's spreading doubt Around
FEDS FIRST QUERY in Biotech Companies
Biotechnology companies have failed to take proper precautions to prevent genetically modified corn from contaminating other crops growing nearby, federal regulators alleged for the first time. Full story - http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08152002/ap_48150.asp

AND IN New Zealand maize seed bought from Australia but thought to have originated in North America had been planted to express desirable hybrid attributes. At planting this maize seed was deemed GM-free. But the hybid seed was found to be GM after tests. Authorities have ordered its total destruction (30 tonnes) and undertaken further lab tests in New Zealand and South Dakota, USA. Where or how the hybrid contamination occurred is also under investigation.
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