Watching the World
Electric Cars and the Environment
The German Automobile Company carried out a study to discover whether battery-driven cars are better for the environment than vehicles powered by a combustion engine. According to the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the study involved 100 drivers who traveled 800,000 miles [1.3 million km] between 1992 and 1996. Electric cars were found to have several advantages, despite their shorter range: They ran quietly, causing no direct emissions where they were used. However, these advantages may be outweighed by one major problem. Recharging the batteries consumes more primary energy than is consumed by vehicles driven by fossil fuels—from 1.5 to 4 times as much, depending on use—and that energy must be generated somewhere. Depending upon how the energy is generated, it is possible that “damage to the environment is greater than that of conventional automobiles,” comments the newspaper.
Caution: Colobus Crossing
Diani Forest, near the coast of southern Kenya, is one of the few places in East Africa where the colobus monkey still thrives. The problem facing the animals is how to cross the busy beach road safely. According to one estimate, at least 12 monkeys are killed by cars on the road each month, reports Swara, the magazine of the East African Wild Life Society. A group of concerned Diani residents decided to act to reduce the carnage. Apart from urging drivers to be more careful, they recently built a rope bridge high above the road. Encouraged by sightings of monkeys using the bridge, residents are making plans to construct more bridges.
Warning: Telephones Can Be Hazardous
If used while driving, that is. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that drivers using car phones are four times as likely to be involved in accidents as drivers who are concentrating only on the road. This may make driving while using a phone about as dangerous as driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.1 percent. And drivers with speakerphones did not do better than those who used their hands to hold the phone. The researchers are quick to point out that the phones themselves are not responsible for the accidents but that they are merely associated with them, such as when an argument ensues and a person is distracted. Besides, 39 percent of the drivers involved in accidents used their car phones afterward to call for help. It is suggested that those with car phones should avoid all unnecessary calls while driving and keep their conversations brief. Some countries, such as Brazil, Israel, and Switzerland, already have laws that restrict drivers from using cellular phones.
Tobacco’s Strategy
“Ever wonder why the tobacco industry has not used its considerable political clout to get Congress to soften or remove the warning labels required on all cigarette advertisements and packages [in the United States]?” asks The Christian Century. “The answer is simple: that warning about the hazards of smoking protects the tobacco industry from legal action. If you start smoking at age 12 and end up dying of lung cancer at 45, and you decide you want to sue the company that hooked you, the industry has an easy comeback: ‘We warned you that smoking carried health risks.’” One of the latest marketing ploys is to encourage cigar smoking by getting glamorous screen personalities and models to endorse the product. Cigars, however, are more polluting than cigarettes and bring big health risks. “Cigar smoking does nothing for a woman except increase her risk of life-threatening illness, and rob her of the strength and stamina she needs to succeed in life,” says Dr. Neil Schachter, of New York City’s Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Millennium Madness
“The 20th century, which began as the Century of Total War and grew into the Atomic Era, seems to be ending as the Age of Entertainment,” says Newsweek magazine. “Hotels around the globe are already fully booked” for celebrations on New Year’s Eve 1999. However, a controversy has been raging over just where the millennium will dawn. “The trouble started in the nation of Kiribati,” notes U. S. News & World Report. “The international date line used to cut right through the chain of islands: When it was Sunday in eastern Kiribati, it was Monday in western Kiribati.” The nation solved the problem by stating that from January 1, 1995, onward, the date line would go around its easternmost island, Caroline. That would mean Kiribati would be the first landmass to see the start of a new day. However, other nations, such as Tonga and New Zealand, wanted “first” status. According to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the question is moot. “Since the sun shines on the South Pole from the September equinox to the March equinox, the millennium dawns first on the bottom of the Earth,” states the report. However, adds the Observatory, that will not be until January 1, 2001—not the year 2000.
Earthquakes Unpredictable
Recently, an international group of earthquake experts met in London to discuss the scientific predictability of earthquakes. Their assessment? “For over 100 years many Earth scientists have thought that [large earthquakes] obviously must be preceded by observable and identifiable precursors that could be used as the basis for issuing alarms,” writes Dr. Robert Geller, of Tokyo University, in the publication Eos. Instead, a fundamental shift in thinking is required as “it appears likely that the occurrence of individual earthquakes is inherently unpredictable.” Although precise predictions may not be possible, scientists can estimate the likelihood and potential magnitude of earthquakes for areas having extensive seismic records. For example, a new map produced by the U.S. Geological Survey indicates where strong shaking may occur within the continental United States during the next 50 years. Based on this data, government agencies suggest that more than 70 percent of California’s population live in areas that may be at risk.
Plants Eat Explosives
Sugar-beet plants and a type of pondweed have the ability to extract explosives from soil and water in old munition sites and break them down safely, reports New Scientist magazine. Scientists at Rice University, in Houston, Texas, fed TNT to periwinkle and parrot feather, a common pondweed. Within a week no trace of explosive remained in their tissues, and burning the plants did not produce an explosion. At the same time, researchers at the University of Maryland discovered that common sugar-beet cells and extracts can absorb and degrade nitroglycerin. Both groups of scientists sterilized the plants to prove that they received no help from microorganisms. “At present, it is usually too dangerous and expensive to reclaim old munitions sites in order to build on them, but that could change if cheaply grown plants were used to draw the explosives out of soil and water and break them down safely,” says the article. There is an urgent need because “the existing practice of dumping munitions waste at sea is being phased out.”
Dangerous Dancing
Some ballroom dancing has changed from a genteel art “to a fiercely competitive sport at which fortunes are made,” reports The Times of London. High-speed collisions and high kicks that accidentally injure competing dancers are becoming a danger on the dance floor. Worse, some dangerous dancing is being purposely carried out with “cold-blooded deliberation,” according to Harry Smith-Hampshire, a leading dance judge. Dance competitors are introducing “the manners of the football stadium and boxing ring,” according to The Times. With the prospect of ballroom dancing soon gaining Olympic recognition, professional coaches and judges have drawn up an official “code of conduct” to regulate the sport.