The latest red tide outbreak on Florida’s Gulf Coast, with its awful stench, is in its 11th straight month. The noxious bloom started in November 2017, and the latest reports from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission before Hurricane Michael, whose effects we won’t know for some time, showed that the end was not near. Conditions change daily, even hourly. For example, the map below shows decreased red tide levels for Septemper 21–28 in Collier County. However, the morning of … [Read more...]
Does the San Francisco Jury Verdict against Monsanto Spell Doom for Roundup?
Now that jurors in a San Francisco court have awarded a man $289 million in damages in his lawsuit against Monsanto (and its parent company Bayer) claiming that his exposure to Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller gave him cancer, some people wonder whether the Cornwall Alliance will reverse its view that Roundup (the brand name for the active ingredient glyphosate) is not a carcinogen. The answer: No. The reason: Because the case provides no convincing evidence that glyphosate causes … [Read more...]
Insect-borne Diseases Spreading in the United States? Blame EPA, Not Exxon
Last fall Politico ran a special feature on global health that featured a graphic presentation of increased incidence of insect-borne diseases in the United States from 2004 to 2013, blaming the increase on global warming. "Warming global temperatures are changing the range and behavior of disease-carrying insects like mosquitos and ticks and extending the seasons in which they are active. As a result, incidence of the diseases they carry---including Lyme, spotted fever, West Nile and … [Read more...]
Answering Objections about Genetically Modified Organisms
Opponents of genetically modified (GM) crops raise a number of questions and objections to growing them and including them in the food supply. Although they cite scientific research to support their claims, a careful review of the literature suggests there is very little evidence to support any of the claims about harmful health effects of GM food. For this reason, combined with the many potential benefits, governments should not restrict the use of genetically modified organisms … [Read more...]
European farmers and eaters 1, Luddites 0
Luddites lost a big one in Europe last week. The European Union voted to re-license the herbicide glyphosate (commonly known as Roundup®), one of the best gifts of science to man (because it makes food more abundant and affordable) and nature (because it minimizes the amount of cropland needed to grow food), despite howls of protest by those who wrongly claim it's a dangerous carcinogen. Mark Lynas hits the nail on the head with the title of his blog piece about it at the Cornell Alliance for … [Read more...]
Does Monsanto’s Roundup (Glyphosate) Cause Disease?
Recently a friend asked me to evaluate an apparently scientifically substantial article that concluded that glyphosate—the active ingredient in Roundup, one of the world’s most widely used artificial pesticides—has caused a dramatic increase in a variety of diseases such as autism, inflammation, immune disorders, gluten intolerance, celiac disease, and cancer. I’ve been shown various “studies” in the past making similar claims but have always seen quickly that they weren’t based on sound … [Read more...]
Big Green at it Again: Deciding Scientific Outcomes Before Doing Research
As if Climategate wasn’t enough, the pseudo-scientific community has now given us BeeGate. Environmentalists blame neonicotinoid pesticides for bee colony collapse, an assumption already disproven by scientific research and field studies. This is not to say that more studies could not or should not be done, but in the case of BeeGate there is an ideology at work that decided the outcome. According to a memo released Tuesday, four European scientists decided they wanted to stop the use of … [Read more...]
