Carl Setzer

The brilliantly irreverent folks at Grist say it better than I could. Enjoy!   http://www.grist.org/news/daily/2007/06/06/5/#comments   That's It, We're Not Washing Our Undies Anymore Groups ask U.S. EPA to ban chemical in detergent that feminizes fish Your detergent gets your clothes clean, sure -- but does it feminize your trout? Five green groups and a labor union are petitioning the U.S. EPA to ban a family of chemicals used in cleaning products that have been linked to gender changes in fish. Each year, the U.S. produces about 400 million pounds of nonylphenol and nonylphenol ethoxylates, much of which ends up in waterways by way of sewers. In lab tests, the endocrine disruptors have been shown to cause male fish to develop female characteristics; finned fatales have also been found in the wild. While the effects on humans aren't known, the groups -- led by the Sierra Club -- say the environmental risks are "unreasonable." Some major companies,...

I felt a compelling need to respond to John Kay ’s piece, “ Green lobby must be treated as a religion ”, from the Financial Times earlier this week. (To be clear, I’m simply responding to the most salient portions.) Environmentalism embraces a myth of the Fall: the loss of harmony between man and nature caused by our materialistic society. Al Gore recounted the words of Chief Seattle, as his tribe relinquished their ancient lands: "Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother?" Perhaps one component of the environmental community does. “Environmentalism” captures a wide group of people. Environmentalists include animal rights types, members of many faith traditions (Christian, Buddhist, etc), as well as a core group of SCIENTISTS, who are the ones who have done most of the heavy lifting until recently. Many within the environmental movement (most by my experience) are actually scientists who would find Kay’s allusion si...