This makes me sick to report.
I am cross posting from the gardening thread, in case this has general interest (I should think it should). You can vote for more like this by occasionally responding to my non-political posts...or vote for less by not.
I think I've made clear, a SERIOUS society wouldn't waste energy on "climate change" -- which, if true, is already baked in the cake. But would, instead, first go the relatively low-hanging fruit of ecological devastation and "war on ecology" caused by things such as single-use plastics, and chemical pollution.
Much of this could be addressed in a few years and comparatively minimal cost/disruption -- but doesn't produce the massive "profits" and bureaucratic "benefits" of something like obsessing over "CO2"...with its multi-trillion dollar regulatory "bonanza" and unlikely-to-actually-do-anything-substantial-in-our-lifetimes scope.
Governments LOVE "forever wars". By the time the campaign finally exhausts itself, the bandits have already made off with their loot and are beyond being held accountable. And then a new generation of idiots is open to a new forever war, and more government growth, as Orwell described.
http://science.slashdot.org/story/22/08/23/2121248/study-first-to-link-weed-killer-roundup-to-convulsions-in-animals
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-17537-w
Study First To Link Weed Killer Roundup To Convulsions In Animals (phys.org) 50
Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @11:30PM from the connecting-the-dots dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org:
A recent report by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found more than 80 percent of urine samples from children and adults in the U.S. contained the herbicide glyphosate. A study by Florida Atlantic University and Nova Southeastern University takes this research one step further and is the first to link the use of the herbicide Roundup, a widely used weed killer, to convulsions in animals. Glyphosate, the weed killer component in Roundup, is the world's most commonly used herbicide by volume and by land-area treated. Glyphosate-resistant crops account for almost 80 percent of transgenic crop cultivated land, which has resulted in an estimated 6.1 billion kilos of glyphosate sprayed across the world from 2005 to 2014. Roundup is used at both industrial and consumer levels, and its use is projected to dramatically increase over the coming years. A major question, yet to be fully understood, is the potential impact of glyphosate on the nervous system.
Results, published in Scientific Reports, showed that glyphosate and Roundup increased seizure-like behavior in soil-dwelling roundworms and provides significant evidence that glyphosate targets GABA-A receptors. These communication points are essential for locomotion and are heavily involved in regulating sleep and mood in humans. What truly sets this research apart is that it was done at significantly less levels than recommended by the EPA and those used in past studies. "The concentration listed for best results on the Roundup Super Concentrate label is 0.98 percent glyphosate, which is about 5 tablespoons of Roundup in 1 gallon of water," said [project lead Akshay S. Naraine]. "A significant finding from our study reveals that just 0.002 percent glyphosate, a difference of about 300 times less herbicide than the lowest concentration recommended for consumer use, had concerning effects on the nervous system."
Using C. elegans, a soil-dwelling roundworm, researchers first tested glyphosate alone and then both the U.S. and United Kingdom formulations of Roundup from two distinct time periods -- before and after the U.K.'s 2016 ban on polyethoxylated tallowamine (POEAs). These conditions were selected to pinpoint which effects are specific to the active ingredient glyphosate, Roundup formulations in general, the POEAs surfactants, or any combination of these. The study found that the active ingredient glyphosate exacerbated convulsions in C. elegans and suggest the GABA-A receptor as a neurological target for the observed physiological changes. The data also indicate that there is an important distinction between exposure to glyphosate and Roundup, with Roundup exposure increasing the percentage of C. elegans that did not recover from seizure activity. The non-recovery phenotype and prolonged convulsions in C. elegans from this study have helped to set a foundation for understanding nuanced physiological effects of herbicide that occur at concentrations exponentially below neurotoxic levels.
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