AP Environmental Science

 On Thursday September 21, 2006 the US government passed new air pollution standards in order to provide “cleaner air to all Americans.”

Health and environmental groups are saying that even the revised standards are too low,  in particular to prevent lung disease and “other pollution-related ailments.”

According to Stephen Johnson, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the premature deaths, heart attacks, and hospital stays for people suffering from heart and lung disease will all be decreased because of the new standards. As well, Johnson said that health benefits will be increased to a value of between $20 billion and $160 billion per year.

Before Thursday, the old standardss required that no more than 65 micrograms of soot particles per cubic meter of air be released. Now the law states that no more than 35 micrograms be released.

Many helath groups and organizations are not pleased with the new standards. The American Medical Association, American Lung Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and American Academy of pediatrics all wanted the standard to be tougher. These groups believe that the EPA’s standards are not protecting Americans well enough because this particle pollution can cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, and premature death due to heart and lung ailments. The fine particles that are causing these helth problems are from the exhausts of power plant, cars, and factories.

On the other side of the argument are the US electric utility companies. They complain that the EPA has not given a fair chance for the old standards to work. In order to meet these new standards, the companies would have to put out and estimated of $20 billion and $60 billion per year.

States must meet these standards by the year 2015.

I think that it is a really good idea that the standards were raised. It is so sad that people are getting sick and/or dying from something that they have no control over. The people that are in charge at these major companies should take a look at how they would feel if they got sick from air pollution. Sure they have a lot of money now, but would that really matter if they weren’t here to enjoy it? Not only is if affecting people now, but it will probably affect people in the future and, as most things are, it is affecting our environment in a negative way.

<a href=”http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=06A50E3F66DB4A334202D3ADFD31C589&ref=sciam&chanID=sa012″>Scientific American: New air pollution rules rankle health groups</a>

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6119298       EPA Unveils Tighter Rules on Particles in Air     By: Elizabeth Shogren

I did not realize how species are moving from continent to continent. It’s amazing how they can survive. Here in the US I don’t think that it is as big of a deal as it is in other countries because we have the money and resources to destroy them. However, in poorer countries, specifically in Africa, these species are ruining some tof their major industries. Something needs to be looked at to determine how to effectively stop this problem.

The US Administration had planned on leasing wetlands near Teshekpuk Lake in Arctic Alaska for oil development. This, however, will not be happening in light of a federal judge’s decision which temporarily halted this plan.

These wetlands are home to migratory waterfowl from 3 continents during their featherless molting period, as well as to a herd of caribou.

If the US Bereau of Land Management (BLM) was able to complete the sale as expected on September 27, 1.4 billion barrels of oil would be up for grabs.

According to US District Court Judge James Singleton, the BLM did not consider what the oil development would do to the areas near the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The sale stipulations did, however, include that the

Both sides are able to dispute this preliminary ruling until September 15.

As of September 8, both sides were considering what they should do next in the very touchy issue.

In my opinion, this is a lot of oil that could be put to good use; however, we should wait until better ways of getting the oil are developed. Another solution is to develop a more fuel efficient car…that way not only would we be disturbing wildlife in the arctic, but we would polluting our air less.

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By: Yereth Rosen (September 8, 2006)

A new species of bird was found in India last May; however, experts just released this information today. The bird, named Bugun Liocichla after the Bugun tribesman who live on the land it was found on, has olive and yellow-golden plumage, a black cap and flame-tipped wings.

So far, only two of these new species have been found and scientists are doing what they can to help protect them. Killing a species is common to research it for scientific study; however, experts were able to obtain feathers, photographs, and record the bird’s song, according to Ramana Athreya, a professional astronomer and keen birdwatcher.

The bird has been declared a new species by experts and the name has been approved by the International Commission on Zoologican Nomenclature.

A new bird species has not been found in the mainland of India since 1948. The Rusty-throated “Mishmi” Wren-babbler Spelaeornis badeigularis was found at that that time.

 The Bugun Liocichla was first spotted in 1995 by Ramana; however, he never succeeded in trapping it with nets until 2006.

What is most remarkable is that this bird has no “geographically close relatives.” The closest looking bird to it is the Emei Shan liocichla found in only a few mountains in central China.

What an amazing miracle!

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