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Methane escaping from arctic lakes

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Arctic Methane       top
PROGRESSIVE  REFERENCE CONSERVATIVE*
  • Big Green Switch
  • ClimateProgress
  • e360 Yale  Carbon output is rising four times as fast this decade as in the 1990s
  • Earth Equity News
  • FarNorthScience
  • go to Global Warming Skeptics List page 2 doubters, deniers,
  • MotherJones tipping points, thirteenth, twelveth, tenth, ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second, first.  
  • OceanConserve  "Methane release has been known for a number of years now," said geologist Dr Lorenz Schwark at the University of Cologne, Germany.
  • Straight.com Canada ...  Gwynne Dyer: A climate apocalypse could be approaching By Gwynne Dyer Scientists have their own way of putting things. This is how Dr Oerjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University announced the approach of a climate apocalypse in an e-mail sent last week from the Russian research ship Jakob Smirnitskyi in the Arctic Ocean.  file snowball effect snowball affect
  • SourceWatch, Global Warming
  • TreeHugger  tree hugger
  • Union of Concerned Scientists
  • UseLessStuff Use Less Stuff  conserving resources and reducing waste. It took a common-sense approach to waste prevention, relying on facts and figures rather than simply rising and falling with the tides of public opinion
  • Indecision2008, methane release from McCain election campaign, very stinky, foul smelling, but they say methane is an odorless gas, but politics injects the sulfur odor?
  • Celsias The intense concentrations of the greenhouse gas, some up to 100 times background levels, were discovered in the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea, an area some tens of thousands of square miles in the Siberian continental shelf. The Independent published extracts from emails sent from one of the lead researchers aboard the Yacob Smirnisky, Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University: celcias
  • Guardian
  • Geology / GeoScience World
  • Independent.uk global warming time bomb
  • Science Daily Methane bubbling from arctic lakes could have been responsible for up to 87 percent of that methane spike
  • Technocrat  Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane - sometimes at up to 100 times background levels - over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.
  • Tierra  Dolomite chimneys associated with hydrocarbon-rich fluid venting was discovered September 2000, as part of the TASYO project (Marine and Science Technology Spanish Programme) in the Gulf of Cadiz. The unexpected discovery occurred during the cruise Anastasya/2000 aboard of research vessel Cornide de Saavedra dredging a 870m-deep and 120m-tall carbonate mound called as the "Iberico".
  • The 2004 Republican platform document is over 90 pages long.  Only one page is devoted to the environment and that pages basically says that no environmental policy should adversely affect business.
  • ALEC, American Legal Exchange Committee,  actions against CO2 emissions laws.
  • BP British Petroleum, Artic, Bush silly science, doesn't do the math, 
  • Citizens for a Sound Economy, Less government, lower taxes, economic development, global warming caused by natural fluctuations in climate.
  • Climate Science International International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC)
  • Council on Environmental Quality Whitehouse
  • Environment Canada, neocon operation, hide the truth.
  • Marshall Institute released a report claiming that "cyclical variations in the intensity of the sun would offset any climate change associated with elevated greenhouse gases." Though refuted by the IPCC, the report was very influential in influencing the Bush Sr. Administration s climate change policy.
  • Global Climate Coalition   
  • Global Warming
  • High North Alliance Defending Icelandic Whaler, communities
  • Independent Institute saving the environm
  • International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change.
  • International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources stealth pro-biz, anti-regulation
  • Junk Science  Have a Coke and a waistline, Reagan's regulatory reform.
  • OilisMastery, blog
  • Ocean Law reference, Fisheries commissions
  • Popular Tech  "There is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition." - Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Atmospheric Science, MIT"  skeptic list
  • Tehran Times
  • UPI  Sun Myung Moon organization, .. Arctic Methane Poses Risk   ...  Scientists said they believe the sudden release of methane gas has, in the past, been responsible for dramatic climate change and even mass extinction of species
  • Boston.com  BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine—Meteorologists are baffled by rapid tidal changes along the Maine coast, which damaged some boats and piers.   ...   Witnesses say low tide turned and became high within a matter of minutes on Tuesday afternoon. The changes occurred six or seven times. The National Weather Service says reports from several locations indicated that water levels fell and rose from 4 feet to as much as 12 feet during the event.   ...   In a public information statement, the weather service says the cause "remains a mystery and may never be known."   WMR   February 2-4, 2007 -- WMR previously reported that LNG and oil tankers were reporting that their methane sensors were being tripped by methane publication date: Apr 30, 2007    ...   February 2-4, 2007 -- WMR previously reported that LNG and oil tankers were reporting that their methane sensors were being tripped by methane bubbling up from deep on the ocean floor -- a sign that rising ocean temperatures are resulting in methane hydrate being turned from ice into gaseous form, a deadly addition to the greenhouse gases already in the earth's atmosphere. A recent paper written by nine American and Canadian scientists (Paull, C. K., W. Ussler III, S. R. Dallimore, S. M. Blasco, T. D. Lorenson, H. Melling, B. E. Medioli, F. M. Nixon, and F. A. McLaughlin) and published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) provides further confirmation about the escape of methane hydrate from the ocean floor into the atmosphere. Their paper's abstract reveals the following alarming results of their extensive study of methane being released from the Beaufort Sea Shelf in the Canadian Arctic: "The Arctic shelf is currently undergoing dramatic thermal changes caused by the continued warming associated with Holocene sea level rise. During this transgression, comparatively warm waters have flooded over cold permafrost areas of the Arctic Shelf. A thermal pulse of more than 10°C is still propagating down into the submerged sediment and may be decomposing gas hydrate as well as permafrost. A search for gas venting on the Arctic seafloor focused on pingo-like-features (PLFs) on the Beaufort Sea Shelf because they may be a direct consequence of gas hydrate decomposition at depth. Vibracores collected from eight PLFs had systematically elevated methane concentrations. ROV observations revealed streams of methane-rich gas bubbles coming from the crests of PLFs. We offer a scenario of how PLFs may be growing offshore as a result of gas pressure associated with gas hydrate decomposition."   ...   Adding to the in extremis situation regarding the planet's environment comes the report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued at an international meeting in Paris today. Over 2500 scientists representing over 130 countries concluded that human burning of fossil fuels over the last 50 years has directly contributed to a severe increase in atmospheric and ocean temperatures. The result will be more droughts, torrential rains in some areas, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels.  
  • Geology / GeoScience World Migration of methane gas through the hydrate stability zone in a low-flux hydrate province; Andrew R. Gorman*,1, W. Steven Holbrook1, Matthew J. Hornbach1, Kara L. Hackwith1, Dan Lizarralde2 and Ingo Pecher*,3 1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071, USA; 2 School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA; 3 Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78759, USA; New high-resolution seismic data show clear evidence for upward injection of methane gas well into the hydrate stability zone at the stable, low-methane-flux Blake Ridge crest. This movement of gaseous methane, through a thermo-dynamic regime where it should be trapped as hydrate, suggests that dynamic migrations of gas play an important role in the interaction of subseafloor methane with the ocean. In the study area, none of the seismic amplitude anomalies that provide evidence for gas migration reaches the seafloor; instead they terminate at the base of a highly reflective, unfaulted capping layer
  • MotherJones IN 2004, JOHN SCHELLNHUBER, distinguished science adviser at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the United Kingdom, identified 12 global-warming tipping points, any one of which, if triggered, will likely initiate sudden, catastrophic changes across the planet.   ...    A 2005 study by Anthony Leiserowitz, published in Risk Analysis, found that while most Americans are moderately concerned about global warming, the majority—68 percent—believe the greatest threats are to people far away or to nonhuman nature     ....   EISEROWITZ'S STUDY OF risk perception found that Americans fall into "interpretive communities"—cliques, if you will, sharing similar demographics, risk perceptions, and worldviews. On one end of this spectrum are the naysayers: those who perceive climate change as a very low or nonexistent danger. Leiserowitz found naysayers to be "predominantly white, male, Republican, politically conservative, holding pro-individualism, pro-hierarchism, and anti-egalitarian worldviews, anti-environmental attitudes, distrustful of most institutions, highly religious, and to rely on radio as their main source of news." This group presented five rationales for rejecting danger: belief that global warming is natural; belief that it's media/environmentalist hype; distrust of science; flat denial; and conspiracy theories, including the belief that researchers create data to ensure job security.
Arctic Ice Cap       top
PROGRESSIVE  REFERENCE CONSERVATIVE*
  • ALEC, American Legal Exchange Committee,  actions against CO2
  • Boise Cascade
  • Bush Whitehouse silent on Arctic icecap meltdown.
  • Competitive Enterprise Institute limited government
  • Petroleum News
  • Science Direct  The Yampi Shelf on Australia's North-West Shelf is highly prospective, with two discrete hydrocarbon sources producing dry gas and oil. To reduce exploration uncertainty relating to gas flushing and poor top seal capacity, a study was undertaken to characterise hydrocarbon migration in the area. It used a combination of seismic amplitude and structural data integrated with shipboard water column geochemical sniffer (WaSi) data, satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar or SAR data and aircraft-acquired Airborne Laser Fluorosensor (ALF) data
  •  
  • AFP Permafrost, melting ...  To find out, a team of American researchers led by Chien-Lu Ping of the University of Alaska Fairbanks examined a wide range of landscapes across North America.  ...  They took soil samples from 117 sites, each to a depth of at least one metre, in order to provide a full assessment of the region's so-called "carbon pool."   ...   Previous estimates of the Arctic carbon pool relied heavily on a relative handful of measurements conducted outside of the Arctic, and only to a depth of 40 centimetres (15.5 inches).   ...   The study, published in the British journal Nature Geoscience, found that the stock of organic carbon "is considerably higher than previously thought" -- 60 percent more than the previously estimated.   ...   This is roughly equivalent of one sixth of the entire carbon content in the atmosphere.   ...   And that is just for North America. The size and mix of landscapes in the northern reaches of Europe and Russia are about the same, and probably contain a comparable amount of carbon-dioxide producing matter currently held in check only by the cold, the study said.   ...   And the danger of a thaw is real, note climate scientists.  
  • CommunicationAgents "Using hydrogen instead of petroleum-derived fuels would be a first step, although we must find a way to produce the gas without burning more of the black stuff. Options range from the relatively inefficient direct-current electrolysis, solar hydrogen production at sea, the use of metal catalysts, high frequency electric currents, ultraviolet light and the action of bacteria which naturally produce hydrogen. It seems none of the technologies are quite ready to use, but there is no room for complacency."
  • Notes :Methane Hydrate Gun Hypothesis" or sometimes the "Clathrate Gun Hypothesis". The Hypothesis is that 55 million years ago an increase in temperature started melting deposits of Methane Hydrate which released Methane (a green house gas more than 20 times more potent than CO2) into the atmosphere and started a positive feed back loop of more warming releasing more gas which created more warming and released more gas and on and on. They believe it raised Earth's average global temperature by about 10 degrees in a very short time (maybe a few decades) and killed off almost every living thing in the lower latitudes
Carbon Sequestration       top
PROGRESSIVE  REFERENCE CONSERVATIVE*
  • Sir Richard Branson today offered a $25m (£12.8m) prize for scientists who find a way to help save the planet from the effects of climate change.and Guardian
  • OhmyNews  Methane Hydrate Gun Hypothesis.
  • American Enterprise Institute
  • The Republican platform document is over 90 pages long.  Only one page is devoted to the environment and that pages basically says that no environmental policy should adversely affect business.
End of the World and Global Warming       top
PROGRESSIVE  REFERENCE CONSERVATIVE*
  • Eureka Alert: news service operated by AAAS,  for science, medicine and tech research centers to bring their news to the media.  
  • National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a nonprofit organization working to defend the teaching of evolution against sectarian attack. The group is committed to defending the teaching of evolution.
  • Progressive Theology Science and the Bible.
  • The Religious Left, Rev. James A. Forbes Jr., Manhattan congregation.  see Riverside Church.
  • Riverside Church
  • Secularism.org
  • Theocracy Watch, Rise of Religious Right in the Republican Party    
  • ZNet Benedicts Maledicts  "Christian priests invented religious war and the politics of hatred well before the advent of Islam."
  • AIP  Discovery of Global Warming
  • Conservation Reserve
  • Council on Environmental Quality Whitehouse office, info on NEPA, National Environmental Policy Act
  • Evangelical Environmental Network and Creation Care
  • Planetizen  Brookings Institution
  • World Socialist Web Site "John Hagee of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, who is close to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, preaches that the day is fast coming when “All over the earth, graves will explode as the occupants soar into heaven.”
  • notes: The name Armageddon is found in Revelation 16:16. It is part of a vision of the Apostle John in which kings from the East gather to oppose God. The name in Hebrew means Mount of Megiddo.  "Since Megiddo was a place where various armies were defeated (in history)," Koester said, "the name Armageddon is suitable for the battle at which the forces of evil are defeated at the end of time."
Permafrost   Methane Hydrate    top
PROGRESSIVE  REFERENCE CONSERVATIVE*
  • Inuit Circumpolar Conference,  
  • ArcticRefuge.org, slide presentation dates, action, info.
  • Bush Green Watch tracking environmental misdeeds of Bush Administration
  • Changing the Climate Tag SUV campaign.
  • Earth Crash Earth Spirit  Healing ourselves and a dying planet ...  The Arctic Ocean may be underlain with a 50 million year-old, 2 mile thick layer of high azolla organic content hydrocarbon source rocks providing massive amounts of compressed frozen methane hydrates
  • NewScientist  Over 250 plumes of gas have been discovered bubbling up from the sea floor to the west of the Svalbard archipelago, which lies north of Norway. The bubbles are mostly methane, which is a greenhouse gas much more powerful than carbon dioxide.
  • Planetizen  Brookings Institution
  • Competitive Enterprise Institute limited government
  • High North Alliance Defending Icelandic Whaler, communities
  • Independent Institute saving the environment, friend or foe?
  • Thoreau Institute responsible  environmental policy
  • UNOilGas  The Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently predicted that world consumption of natural gas alone will rise by 91% to 182 trillion cubic feet in less than twenty-five years. ...  Hydrate gas is used to make fertilizer for food production. It is estimated that for every gram of carbohydrates we consume, 10 grams of hydrocarbons have been used to make that 1 gram of food.
  • Utopia Springs "As the Methane Ice accumulates and the earth cools, Ice Caps advance and sea level slowly drops. During the last Ice Age, sea level dropped 300 feet. This lowering of sea level by 300 feet is just enough to change the critical pressure necessary for the Methane Ice. When the pressure drops to below a critical level, the Methane Ice effervesces rapidly out of the ocean and floods the Atmosphere with the very powerful greenhouse gas, Methane. The end of the Ice Age then occurs very rapidly, sea level raises rapidly and the methane can then begin to accumulate again in and on the Continental Slope soft sediments. Apparently it is accumulating again and the earth will begin to cool. The slight rise in recent average temperatures has decreased the Ice Caps further and this will raise sea level slightly but then more Methane Ice will accumulate and increase the cooling rate until the next Ice Age begins."
 Global Warming       top
PROGRESSIVE  REFERENCE CONSERVATIVE*
  • LA Times "One example showed how a report originally said the U.S. National Research Council had concluded that "greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures to rise and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise." Edits by ex-oil lobbyist Philip Cooney, the oil lobbyist who became chief of staff at the Council on Environmental Quality, changed that to read: "Some activities emit greenhouse gases that directly or indirectly may affect the balance of incoming and outgoing radiation, thereby potentially affecting climate on regional and global scales." James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said the edits confused public understanding of the issue. "If we push our climate system hard enough, it can pass tipping points," he said. "That is not a situation we want to leave for our children." Hansen decried political interference in climate change science. "Scientists shouldn't be hired to parrot some line."
  • ABC News  Just this month, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and 24 other top Christian conservatives pressured the National Association of Evangelicals to silence its Washington director, the Rev. Rich Cizik. The reason: Cizik tried to convince evangelicals that global warming is real.
  • Spitzbergen Current  Svalbard Images, glacier receding.
  • The widow of the Australian conservationist and entertainer Steve Irwin said Monday she would fight to stop a wildlife zone dedicated to her husband being mined for bauxite. Terri Irwin said the 135,000-hectare (333,450-acre) Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve on Cape York Peninsula in Australia's far northeast was home to a number of vulnerable species and needed to be protected. The lease to the site, purchased by an Irwin family company with the help of the Australian government in 2006 and renamed in tribute to the "Croc Hunter", is the subject of an application from a mining company to mine 50 million tonnes of bauxite, she said
  • Global Warming Skeptic  Dr. Sanford Aranoff June 30, 2007  "Dishonest scientists have convinced world governments, including our government, that global warming is caused by large amounts of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere, and that we must spend a lot of money to reduce the carbon dioxide in order to prevent excessive warming. This is bad science, as historical records show that when the earth warms, a few centuries later carbon dioxide forms in the atmosphere. Global warming not caused by carbon dioxide, but by the variable solar wind. The sun emits streams of charged particles, called the solar wind. As this stream approaches the earth, the stream's magnetic field (moving charges create a magnetic field) deflects cosmic rays away from the atmosphere. Cosmic rays that strike air molecules ionize them. These ions act like seeds creating clouds. More solar wind means fewer clouds. Less solar wind means more clouds that reflect sunlight and cool the earth. The sun is a very dynamic, changing object. The solar wind waxes and wanes every 15 centuries, causing global warming and cooling. Worldwide studies of historical events and of the earth's ancient past verify the existence of these warming and cooling cycles. The current global warming is due to the increasing solar wind, and will last for another 5 centuries. Talking about reducing carbon dioxide in order to reduce global warming is another example of dishonest scientists hawking their wares."
  • The people who endorse Intelligent Design also endorse the following:
  • Interfaith Stewardship Alliance  Fundamentalist Christian right wing (Bush) view of environmental issues: "....scientific evidence better supports the view that climate change in the past 30 to 150 years, as well as what may be projected with reasonable confidence into the foreseeable future, has been and will be: 
    • well within the bounds of natural variability, in which Earth’s climate has warmed and cooled cyclically throughout its history; 
    • largely natural in origin; 
    • unlikely to be catastrophic to humanity or the rest of the biosphere; 
    • not susceptible of significant reduction by any actions we take; 
    • far from the most serious threat to humanity and the rest of our environment. Further, we believe: 
    • the costs of achieving even tiny mitigation of future temperatures through any policy of greenhouse gas emissions reductions would far outweigh the benefits, and 
    • the benefits of adaptation to whatever temperatures the future brings–warmer or cooler (and geologic history assures us that they will be both)–can outweigh the costs." and printscreen and pdf  (for the record)
  • The environment is a 'lefty' distraction to the evangelical right... it 'distracts' from their brainwashing.   Racism and discrimination are alive and well.  (see more from Sen. Larry Craig and his 'family values' from the bathroom stall at the airport) Before he was discovered tapping his feet in the men's bathroom at the airport, Senator Larry Craig was considered a pillar of the 'conservative' white male Christian community and was highly instrumental shaping the  'conservative' agenda.  Craig and people like him have put this country in the position it is in.  Larry Craig probably supports Uncommon Descent and their idea of a joke ... its pretty funny really ... evolutionism.
  • Beware of these people: Rabbi Gary Perras, Temple Israel, Daytona Beach, Florida Ron D. Petitte, D.P.A., Director, Honors and Political Science Programs, Bryan College, Tennessee Dr. Joey Pipa, President, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, North Carolina Jay W. Richards, Research Fellow, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty Rev. Gregory Lee Robertson, Interim Pastor, Loving Savior of the Hills Lutheran Church (LCMS), Chino Hills, California Dr. Robert Royal, President, Faith and Reason Institute , Dr. Herb Schlossberg, Senior Research Associate, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition ,Rev. Robert Sirico, President, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, Dr. Frank J. Smith, Editor, Presbyterian International News Services, Dr. Roy W. Spencer, Principal Research Scientist, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Dr. Kenneth G. Talbot, President, Whitefield Theological Seminary, Florida, Dr. Timothy Terrell, Associate Professor of Economics, Wofford College, South Carolina, Rev. Dr. Jim Tonkowich, President, Institute on Religion and Democracy , Rev. Ralph Weitz, Stewardship Pastor, Immanuel Bible Church, Springfield, Virginia , Dr. Harry V. Wiant, Jr., Ibberson Chair in Forest Resources, Penn State University, David A. Williams, President, L.D. Advantage, Inc; Former Representative on NAE Social Action Commission , Alan Wisdom, Interim President, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Dennis Oliver Woods, Headmaster, ClassicalFree Virtual Academy
  • Karl Rove didn't 'make' them support Bush.  He knew he had a willing and able audience for his dirty tricks.  The sheep willingly followed him.  Period.
  • Boycott ABC, Boycott NBC, Boycott CBS, Boycott Fox, Boycott CNN.
  • Sen. James Inhofe, global warming:  file   and  Sen. Inhofe also noted that the Congressional Budget Office had recently released a report titled "Trade-Offs in Allocating Allowances for CO2 Emissions" that found a carbon dioxide allocation scheme would disproportionately harm the poor. The Senator referred such a scheme as "Robin Hood" in reverse.  ...  Inhofe cited a quote from Barrett Duke, Vice President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, who cautioned that we should avoid global warming policies that "make the delivery of electricity to [undeveloped countries] more difficult, millions of people will be condemned to more hardship, more disease, shorter lives and more poverty."  and  The Senator then offered his own Biblical perspective regarding global warming, saying that we "should respect creation and be wise stewards, but we must be careful not to fall into the trap of secular environmentalists who believe man is an afterthought on this Earth." For good measure, he quoted Romans 1:25: "They gave up the truth about God for a lie, and they worshiped God's creation instead of God who will be praised forever. Amen." National Center  In other words, environmentalists and the care of the environment are a distraction from the evangelicals ability to 'control the message'  and more IRD BS.
  • CBO report 2005  In addressing climate change, researchers and policymakers face various sources of uncertainty. The potential stakes in making policy choices are high: although emissions restrictions could impose significant costs, many experts believe that, if left unchecked, emissions could ultimately lead to costly damages.    and Uncertainty in Analyzing Climate Change: Policy Implications, 2006 ... This uncertainty flies in the face of overwhelming evidence from scientists who say that global warming caused by human activity is a FACT.  It is the conservative religious influence on the Congress that is pushing the 'uncertainty' argument.   
  • Institute for Religion and Democracy, Global Warming skeptics list  file  and pic  But what is the evidence that mankind is responsible for our present warmth, and is that warmth necessarily a bad thing? Could the warmth have a natural explanation? And would a loving God give us an Earth that is so sensitive that our use of the fuels He has provided us could so easily alter the climate system? ... I hope this paper will help you to better understand, contrary to what you might have heard from various media outlets, that the scientific theory of manmade global warming is based upon faith as much as it is upon the scientific evidence.
  • MediaTransparency, IRD connections graphic
ExxonSecrets:  Climate Change Skeptics List continued:  Accuracy in Academia, Accuracy in Media, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, Africa Fighting Malaria Air Quality Standards Coalition, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Alliance for Climate Strategies, American Coal Foundation American Conservative Union Foundation, American Council for Capital Formation Center for Policy Research American Council on Science and Health, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, American Friends of the Institute for Economic Affairs, American Legislative Exchange Council, American Petroleum Institute, American Policy Center, American Recreation Coalition, American Spectator Foundation Americans for Tax Reform, Arizona State University Office of Cimatology, Aspen Institute, Association of Concerned Taxpayers Atlantic Legal Foundation, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Blue Ribbon Coalition, Capital Legal Foundation Capital Research Center and Greenwatch, Cato Institute, Center for American and International Law, Center for Environmental Education Research, Center for Security Policy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise Center for the New West, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Centre for the New Europe Chemical Education Foundation, Citizens for A Sound Economy and CSE Educational Foundation, Citizens for the Environment and CFE Action Fund, Clean Water Industry Coalition, Climate Research Journal, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, Communications Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Congress of Racial Equality, Consumer Alert, Cooler Heads Coalition, Council for Solid Waste Solutions, DCI Group, Defenders of Property Rights, Earthwatch Institute, ECO or Environmental Conservation Organization European Enterprise Institute, ExxonMobil Corporation, Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, Fraser Institute, Free Enterprise Action Institute, Free Enterprise Education Institute, Frontiers of Freedom Institute and Foundation, George C. Marshall Institute, George Mason University, Law and Economics Center, Global Climate Coalition, Great Plains Legal Foundation, Greening Earth Society, Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, Hudson Institute, Illinois Policy Institute Independent Commission on Environmental Education, Independent Institute, Institute for Biospheric Research, Institute for Energy Research, Institute for Regulatory Science, Institute for Senior Studies, Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, Institute of Humane, tudies, George Mason University, Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, International Council for Capital Formation, International Policy Network - North America, International Republican Institute, James Madison Institute, Junkscience.com, Landmark Legal Foundation Lexington Institute, Lindenwood University, Mackinac Center, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Media Institute, Media Research Center, Mercatus Center, George Mason University, Mountain States Legal Foundation, National Association of Neighborhoods, National Black Chamber of Commerce, National Center for Policy Analysis, National Center for Public Policy Research National Council for Environmental Balance, National Environmental Policy Institute, National Legal Center for the Public Interest National Mining Association, National Policy Forum, National Wetlands Coalition, National Wilderness Institute, New England Legal Foundation, Pacific Legal Foundation, Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, Peabody Energy, Property and Environment Research Center, formerly Political Economy Research Center, Public Interest Watch, Reason Foundation, Reason Public Policy Institute, Science and Environmental Policy Project, Seniors Coalition, Shook, Hardy and Bacon LLP, Small Business Survival Committee, Southeastern Legal Foundation, Stanford University GCEP, Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), Tech Central Science Foundation or Tech Central Station, Texas Public Policy Foundation, The Advancement of Sound Science Center, Inc., The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, The Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy, The Justice Foundation (formerly Texas Justice Foundation), The Locke Institute, United for Jobs, University of Oklahoma Foundation, Inc., US Russia Business Council Virginia Institute for Public Policy, Washington Legal Foundation, Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public, Policy. Western Fuels, World Affairs Councils of America, World Climate Report
 
Some plastics are safer to eat and drink from than others. Here's a quick guide to help you make informed choices. If you want to dig deeper, take a look at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Smart Plastics Guide (PDF). It's worth avoiding the following plastics when you can. You can identify a plastic by looking at the recycling code number that appears inside a triangle at the bottom of many containers.   ...  
  • Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) can leach phthalates, known male reproductive toxicants. It can be identified by code 3.

One way to avoid it in the kitchen is by choosing plastic wrap made from polyethylene rather than PVC. If a box is not labeled, find a brand that is or call the manufacturer.   In response to the widespread concerns about BPA, baby bottles and other items made from alternative materials are springing up. Experts say stainless steel is your best bet for reusable water bottles right now. ThinkSport and Klean Kanteen are two widely available brands. The following plastics are considered safest for food storage. Glass and stainless steel are also good options.

  • Polyethylene terephthalate ethylene (PETE), code 1. 
  • High-density polyethylene (HDPE), code 2. 
  • Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), code 4.
  • Polypropylene (PP), code 5.
  • Polystyrene is used in Styrofoam products. It may leach styrene (a neurotoxin) when it comes into contact with hot, acidic, or fatty foods. It's marked with recycling code 6
  • Polycarbonate can leach bisphenol-A (BPA), an endocrine disruptor associated with a long list of health concerns. Baby bottles, "sippy" cups, 5-gallon water jugs, and reusable beverage bottles are typically made out of this plastic. Products may be marked with recycling code 7 (also includes any plastic that doesn't fit into the 1 to 6 recycling code categories) and/or the letters "PC."

Here are some tips for using all plastics safely: Don't microwave food plastic containers. Chemicals are more likely to leach out when plastic is heated. "Microwaveable plastic" doesn't guarantee that chemicals won't leach. Cover foods in the microwave with wax paper or a plate. If you do use plastic wrap, then make sure it doesn't touch the food. Avoid putting hot foods in plastic containers. Let leftovers cool off before storing them in plastic. Take good care of plastics by not washing them with harsh chemicals, and dispose of scratched and worn containers. Research has shown that older, scratched items will leach more, says Kathleen Schuler at the Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy. (Don't put them in the dishwasher if you want to be completely risk-averse, she suggests.) Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green's users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!

 

 

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