(Beyond Pesticides, April 18, 2013) With hotter and more frequent extreme weather events, scientists say harmful algal blooms caused by pesticides and fertilizer inputs will strike more often in water bodies like Lake Erie, to the detriment of aquatic life and surrounding wildlife. All trends, show that the conditions that caused Lake Erie’s 2011 algal [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 1, 2011) Ongoing research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Sustainable Agricultural Systems Lab (SASL) finds that organic grain production reduces greenhouse gas emissions relative to chemical-intensive no-till and chisel-plow production systems. In fact, the research concludes that the organic system removes more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it contributes, [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 21, 2011) For the first time, a federal agency has officially recognized that the loss of a species is related to climate change; the species at risk, the whitebark pine, faces a barrage of threats, including invasive diseases and insects which have not previously been able to thrive in the tree’s cold [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 1, 2010) Claims by the biotech industry that genetically modified (GM) crops combat climate change are exaggerated and premature, according to a new report from Friends of the Earth International. The report, “Who Benefits from GM Crops?,” examines industry claims and finds that GM crops actually increase carbon emissions while failing to [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 5, 2010) While there are many great reasons for “green” spaces in urban areas, a new study has found that conventional landscaping practices are actually causing greenhouse gas emissions at a rate up to four times greater than the lawn’s ability to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The study, [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 11, 2009) The United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen are neglecting the pending food crisis, and organic methods that can both curb climate change and boost food production, Jacques Diouf, director-general of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told Reuters news service. FAO believes that certain farming practices, including organic [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 26, 2009) On June 23, 2009, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson reached an agreement to include language in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 that would put the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in charge of climate change programs and farmers [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 26, 2009) University of California at Irvine researchers have discovered that sulfuryl fluoride, an insecticide widely used to fumigate termite-infested homes and buildings, stays in the atmosphere at least 30-40 years and perhaps as long as 100 years and is about 4,000 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat, though [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 6, 2009) According to a new study published December 10, 2008 in the online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, climate change is likely to increase human exposure to agricultural contaminants, including pesticides. Risks of many pathogens, particulate and particle-associated contaminants could increase significantly. The study, “Impacts of Climate Change on Indirect Human [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 18, 2008) A recent New York Times report on current U.S. Department of Agriculture research shows weeds flourishing from increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Lewis Ziska, PhD, and his team of researchers, have found “noxious” weeds to be more adaptable to changing conditions than crops, predicting further growth of [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 8, 2008) New research shows that melting Antarctic glaciers are releasing once frozen stores of persistent organic chemicals, now banned in many parts of the world. Marine biologist, Heidi Geisz, a Ph.D. student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science studying the fate and effect of organic contaminants in the Antarctic, has [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 15, 2008) Health officials have warned that a “widespread appearance” of mosquito-born diseases like dengue fever is a real possibility in the US. The disease is already beginning to make is presence felt with cases popping up in Texas, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Dengue, a flu-like illness that infects 50 million to [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, November 9, 2007) A British group that certifies 80 percent of the country’s organic product recently announced new requirements in order to market produce as organic. The Soil Association will eventually label air-freighted food as organic only if it also meets their fair trade standards. This announcement is part of a growing concern [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 13, 2007) As the debate rages on the impacts of growing plants, including food crops, for biofuel, the environmental impacts of growing practices and energy costs are consistently raised with concern. University of Minnesota scientists, in releasing a report, “Environmental, economic, and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels,” in [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 29, 2007) Entomologists have recently begun studying whether increasing temperatures will attract more insects to the New England region, as scientists have begun reporting the appearance of new and more numerous unwanted insects. The colder winters of the New England region have historically limited insect populations, but in recent years as temperatures [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 23, 2007) New research finds several species of freshwater fish have lower temperature tolerances when exposed to the widely used pesticides endosulfan and chlorpyrifos. The discovery reveals another key pesticides issue in the global warming debate. The study, “The Effects of Three Organic Chemicals on the Upper Thermal Tolerances of Four Freshwater [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 29, 2007) While it seems to allergy-sufferers that symptoms get worse year after year, most figure it’s all in our heads. However, research by Lewis Ziska, Ph.D., a plant physiologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Crop Systems and Global Change Lab and speaker at the upcoming National Pesticide Forum, shows that [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 19, 2007) Stanford University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers are publishing a study saying that some of the world’s farms are yielding markedly fewer crops because of global warming, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Meanwhile, providing further evidence that the pace of global warming is accelerating, scientists announced last [...]