The Nation magazine has an ad for a company that sells clean energy. In the ad, the image of a smokestack belching pollution is on one side and on the other the image of a wind turbine. On the clean energy company’s website, the effects of conventional energy production are compared to the effects of wind and solar energy. Continue reading →

Ecological diversity has a complicated relationship to health and illness. On the one hand, those parts of the world that are rich in organisms are also rich in disease-causing organisms. On the other hand, as biodiversity declines, the burden of disease increases because organisms that hold pathogens and disease vectors in check are weakened. This is a serious concern because of both anthropogenic climate change and the effects of industrial agriculture. Continue reading →

It’s been known for some time that children who grow up on farms are less likely to have asthma and allergies. Although it’s been assumed that the animal and plant exposures were instrumental, no direct mechanism had been established. Last week, researchers identified the mechanism as the production of regulatory T cells. Continue reading →

A new edition of the Bioinitiative Report has just been release. When first published five years ago, fourteen leading scientists summarized what was then known about the biological effects and public health implications of non-ionizing radiation from cell phones and other wireless technologies as well as extremely low frequency radiation from sources such as power lines. Continue reading →

Our contact with the natural world has declined over the last century, particularly in the past 50 years. As just one example, over the last 25 years visits to National Parks have declined by 20% and nature-based recreation has declined by 25%. As another example, children now spend half the time outdoors compared to 30 years ago. Continue reading →

Does the use of genetically modified organisms in food pose a threat to our health? We expect scientists to tell us. Science, as we all know, consists of the dispassionate evaluation of evidence and, after careful deliberation, an agreement within the scientific community about what that evidence tells us about the risks of GMO using foods. Continue reading →

As I’m sure you know, we are hurtling toward a fiscal cliff. The imagery is vivid and provocative: when we land at the bottom of the cliff, we’ll be an economic wreck. Continue reading →

In the current issue of The Future of Children, two Canadian researchers argue that our current approach to protecting the health of children and the adults they will become is wrongheaded. Instead of lavishing funds “on medical research to identify risk factors and mitigate symptoms of disability for individual children,” we should instead lavish funds on “environmental influences that put entire populations at risk.” Continue reading →

A lot is known about the biology of adversity. In societies dominated by the capitalist mode of production, too much of this knowledge is of the kind “What does not kill you makes you stronger” and “In your fight against the world, back the world.” Continue reading →

You might think your cell phone is safe when it’s turned off. It turns out it’s not.

You might think that the further you are from someone using a cell phone, the less exposed you are to the cell phone’s radiation. It turns out you’re not. Continue reading →