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GENETIC IDIOCY

Open Letter from World Scientists to All Governments
Summary
We, the undersigned scientists call for the immediate suspension of all environmental releases of GM crops, both commercially and in open field trials, for at least five years; and for patents on organisms, seeds, cell lines and genes to be revoked and banned.
Patents on life-forms are allowing corporations to pirate intellectual and genetic resources from Third World nations and increasing corporate monopoly on food production and distribution. GM crops are not necessary to feed the world. There is already more than enough food for everyone. What we need is an end to food monopoly and a more equitable distribution.

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�The most important argument for convincing the public and decision-makers about the value of genetic engineering of food, (and this applies to all other aspects of the science), has been the claim that it will produce new, valuable crops, medicines, etc that may contribute importantly to the solution of the world hunger/disease, etc.. Does this have scientific support? There is not any one single gene known to be responsible for such productivity enhancing properties as high yield, increased nitrogen fixation, increased hardiness, etc. The same may be said of new medicinal claims. Such valuable properties are commonly the consequence of combinations of many different genes interacting with each other and the environment, or human body, in the case of medicine. Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology http://www.psrast.org/newgwohu.htm The public have been promised miracle GM crops that will fix nitrogen, resist drought and improve yield. Instead, the only crops on offer are engineered to be tolerant to wide-spectrum herbicides manufactured by the same corporations, or are engineered with bt-toxins to kill insect pests. The latest largescale survey of GM crops showed they offered no benefits. On the contrary, they yield significantly less and require the use of more herbicides. The horizontal spread of antibiotic resistance marker genes from GM crops has already been recognised as a serious hazard that will compromise the treatment of life-threatening infectious diseases which have come back worldwide. New findings show that the horizontal spread of marker genes and other transgenic DNA can occur, not only by ingestion but via breathing in pollen and dust. The cauliflower mosaic viral promoter, widely used in GM crops, may enhance horizontal gene transfer and has the potential to generate new viruses that cause diseases. All commercial plantings and open field trials should be halted. They are hazardous as the spread of transgenic pollen cannot be controlled. At the same time, the field-trials will produce no useful results because the protocols are inadequate. No attempts are being made to monitor for horizontal gene transfer or for impacts on public health. There is an urgent need for research into sustainable agricultural methods that do not require GM crops. Many of these systems have already resulted in increased yields and diminished environmental impacts around the world. * * ******************************** We, the undersigned scientists, call for the immediate suspension of all environmental releases of GM crops, both commercially and in open field trials, for at least 5 years; and for patents on organisms, seeds, cell lines and genes to be revoked and banned [1]. 1. Patents on life-forms are allowing corporations to plagiarise indigenous knowledge and plunder genetic resources from Third World communities, and at the same time, increasing corporate monopoly on food which is destroying livelihoods of family farmers all over the world. 2. It is becoming increasingly clear that the current GM crops are neither needed nor beneficial. They are a dangerous diversion from the real task of providing food and health around the world. 3. The promises to genetic engineer crops to fix nitrogen, resist drought, improve yield and to 'feed the world' have been around for at least 30 years. Such promises have built up a multibillion-dollar industry now controlled by a mere handful of corporate giants. 4. The miracle crops have not materialised. Instead, two simple characteristics account for all the GM crops in the world [2]. More than 70% are tolerant to broad-spectrum herbicides, with companies engineering plants to be tolerant to their own brand of herbicide, while the rest are engineered with bt-toxins to kill insect pests. A total of 65 million acres were planted in 1998 within the US, Argentina and Canada. The latest surveys on GM crops in the US, the largest grower by far, showed no significant benefit. On the contrary, the most widely grown GM crops -herbicide-tolerant soya beans - yielded on average 6.7% less and required two to five times more herbicides than non-GM varieties [3]. 5. According to the UN food programme, there is enough food to feed the world one and a half times over. World cereal yields have consistently outstripped population growth since 1980, but one billion are hungry [4]. It is on account of corporate monopoly operating under the globalised economy that the poor are getting poorer and hungrier. Family farmers all over the world have been driven to destitution and suicide, and for the same reasons. Between 1993 and 1997 the number of mid-sized farms in the US dropped by 74,440 [5], and farmers are now receiving below the average cost of production for their produce [6]. Four corporations currently control 85% of the world trade in cereals [7]. 6. The new patents on seeds will intensify corporate monopoly by preventing farmers from saving and replanting seeds, which is what most farmers still do in the Third World. Christian Aid, a major charity working with the Third World, concludes that GM crops will cause unemployment, exacerbate Third World debt, threaten sustainable farming systems and damage the environment. It predicts famine for the poorest countries [8]. The picture is just as grim for the developed world. A coalition of family farming groups in the US have declared their opposition to GM crops and corporate ownership of life-forms through patenting. They are demanding a moratorium on all corporate mergers and acquisitions, a moratorium on farm closures, and an end to policies that serve big agribusiness interests at the expense of family farmers, taxpayers and the environment [9]. 7. The hazards of GM crops are now becoming apparent, and some of them are acknowledged by sources within the UK and US Governments. For example, the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) has admitted that the transfer of GM crops and pollen beyond the planted fields is unavoidable [10], and this has already resulted in herbicide-tolerant weeds [11]. Bt-resistant insect pests have evolved in response to the continuous presence of the toxins in transgenic plants throughout the growing season, and the US Environment Protection Agency is recommending farmers to plant up to 40% non-GM crops in order to create refugia for non-resistant insect pests [12]. The broad-spectrum herbicides used with herbicide-tolerant GM crops not only decimate wild species indiscriminately, but are toxic to animals. One of them, glufosinate, causes birth defects in mammals [13], A Swedish study now links the top-selling herbicide, glyphosate, to non-Hodgkin lymphoma [14]. GM crops with bt-toxins kill beneficial insects such as bees [15] and lacewings [16], and pollen from bt-maize is lethal to monarch butterflies [17]. 8. A potential source of health hazards from GM crops is from the secondary horizontal transfer of transgenic DNA to unrelated species; in principle, to all species interacting with the transgenic plants [18]. The spread of antibiotic resistance marker genes to pathogens is the most immediate danger as this will further compromise treatment of life-threatening drug and antibiotic resistance diseases which have come back worldwide. However, the random insertion of foreign DNA into genomes associated with horizontal transfer of transgenic DNA can also result in many harmful effects, including cancer in mammalian cells [19]. The potential for horizontal gene transfer is now also acknowledged by sources within the US and UK Governments. 9. The possibility for naked or free DNA to be taken up by mammalian cells is explicitly mentioned in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) draft guidance to industry on antibiotic resistance marker genes [20]. In commenting on the FDA's document, the UK MAFF pointed out that transgenic DNA may be transferred not just by ingestion, but by contact with plant dust and air-borne pollen during farm work and food processing [21], and cited several significant new findings bearing on the issue. 10. Thus, plant DNA is not readily degraded during most commercial food processing [22]. Procedures such as grinding and milling left grain DNA largely intact, as did heat-treatment at 90�C. The DNA of plants placed in silage showed little degradation of DNA, and the special MAFF report advises against using ensilaged transgenic plants in animal feed. 11. The letter from UK MAFF to US FDA also mentions new findings that the human mouth contains bacteria capable of taking up and expressing naked DNA containing antibiotic resistance marker genes and similar transformable bacteria are also present in the respiratory tracts [23]. 12. What both regulatory authorities have failed to consider is that transgenic pollens, which may have increased allergenicity and toxicity besides, will almost certainly spread far afield to the general public. Similarly, the current unregulated practice of feeding farm animals transgenic grain and plant remains, and transgenic wastes, both ensilaged and otherwise, is endangering the health of farm animals and of human beings in spreading antibiotic resistance marker genes and other transgenic DNA. 13. Serious health concerns are also raised by the cauliflower mosaic viral (CaMV) promoter in transgenic DNA. The CaMV promoter, widely used in expression cassettes of transgenes, is known to contain a 'recombination hotspot'. One usual mechanism of recombination involves the double-stranded DNA breaking and joining with other double-stranded DNA. This has been identified as the mechanism generating many different lines of transgenic rice during a routine transformation experiment. Extensive recombination at the hotspot has taken place in the absence of the viral recombinase, indicating that the host plant cell can catalyse such recombinations [24]. Thus, the CaMV promoter has an enhanced capability to transfer horizontally, with potentially dangerous consequences. 14. CaMV is closely related to human hepatitis B virus, and also has a reverse transcriptase gene related to that in retroviruses such as the AIDS-associated HIV [25]. Thus, the CaMV promoter not only enhances horizontal gene transfer, but has the potential to reactivate dormant viruses (which are in all genomes) and to generate new viruses by recombination. 15. The British Medical Association, in their interim report (published May, 1999), called for an indefinite moratorium on the releases of GMOs pending further research on new allergies, the spread of antibiotic resistance genes and the effects of transgenic DNA. This position is fully in accord with the precautionary principle. 16. Contrary to the claims of the UK Government, no useful results can be obtained in the current massive 'farm-scale' trials of transgenic herbicide-tolerant oil-seed rape and maize where the spread of transgenic pollens cannot be controlled, and which make no attempts to monitor for horizontal gene transfer or for impacts on health [26]. 17. Research into sustainable, non-corporate agricultural systems which do not involve GM crops should be widely supported. Many of these systems have already resulted in increased yield and income for family farmers, diminished environmental impacts, and improvements in nutrition and health for all [27]. 1. See World Scientists Statement 2. James, C. (1998). Global Status of Transgenic Crops in 1998, ISAAA Briefs, New York. 3. Benbrook, C. (1999). Evidence of the Magnitude and Consequences of the Roundup Ready Soybean Yield Drag from University-Based Varietal Trials in 1998, Ag BioTech InfoNet Technical Paper No. 1, Idaho. 4. See Watkins, K. (1999). Free trade and farm fallacies. Third World Resurgence 100/101, 33-37. 5. Farm and Land in Farms, Final Estimates 1993-1997, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. 6. See Griffin, D. (1999). Agricultural globalization. A threat to food security? Third World Resurgence 100/101, 38-40. 7. Farm Aid fact sheet: The Farm Crisis Deepens, Cambridge, Mass, 1999. 8. Simms, A. (1999). Selling Suicide, farming, false promises and genetic engineering in developing countries, Christian Aid, London. 9. Farmer's rally on Capitol Hill, September 12, 1999. 10. MAFF Fact Sheet: Genetic modification of crops and food, June, 1999. 11. See Ho, M.W. and Tappeser, B. (1997). Potential contributions of horizontal gene transfer to the transboundary movement of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. Proceedings of Workshop on Transboundary Movement of Living Modified Organisms resulting from Modern biotechnology : Issues and Opportunities for Policy-makers (K.J. Mulongoy, ed.), pp. 171-193, International Academy of the Environment, Geneva. 12. Mellon, M. and Rissler, J. (1998). Now or Never. Serious New Plans to Save a Natural Pest Control, Union of Conerned Scientists, Cambridge, Mass. 13. Garcia,A.,Benavides,F.,Fletcher,T. and Orts,E. (1998). Paternal exposure to pesticides and congenital malformations. Scand J Work Environ Health 24, 473-80. 14. Hardell, H. & Eriksson, M. (1999). A Case-Control Study of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Exposure to Pesticides. Cancer85, 1353-1360. 15. "Cotton used in medicine poses threat: genetically-altered cotton may not be safe" Bangkok Post, November 17, 1997. 16. Hilbeck, A., Baumgartner, M., Fried, P.M. and Bigler, F. (1998). Effects of transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis-corn-fed prey on mortality and development time of immature Chrysoperla carnea (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae). Environmental Entomology 27, 480-96. 17. Losey, J.E., Rayor, L.D. and Carter, M.E. (1999). Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae. Nature 399, 214. 18. Reviewed in Ho, M.W. (1998,1999). Genetic Engineering Dream or Nightmare? The Brave New World of Bad Science and Big Business, Gateway Books, Bath; Ho, M.W., Traavik, T., Olsvik, R., Tappeser, B., Howard, V., von Weizsacker, C. and McGavin, G. (1998b). Gene Technology and Gene Ecology of Infectious Diseases. Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease 10, 33-59; Traavik, T. (1999a). Too early may be too late, Ecological risks associated with the use of naked DNA as a biological tool for research, production and therapy, Research report for Directorate for Nature Management, Norway. 19. Reviewed by Doerfler, W., Schubbert, R., Heller, H., K�mmer, C., Hilger-Eversheim, D., Knoblauch, M. and Remus, R. (1997). Integration of foreign DNA and its consequences in mammalian systems. Tibtech 15, 297-301; see also note 18. 20. Draft Guidance for Industry: Use of Antibiotic Resistance Marker Genes in Transgenic Plants, US FDA, September 4, 1998. 21. See Letter from N. Tomlinson, Joint Food Safety and Standards Group, MAFF, to US FDA, 4 December, 1998. 22. Forbes, J.M., Blair, D.E., Chiter, A., and Perks, S. (1998). Effect of Feed Processing Conditions on DNA Fragmentation Section 5 - Scientific Report, MAFF. 23. Mercer, D.K., Scott, K.P., Bruce-Johnson, W.A. Glover, L.A. and Flint, H.J. (1999). Fate of free DNA and transformation of the oral bacterium Streptococcus gordonii DL1 by plasmid DNA in human saliva. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 65, 6-10. 24. Kohli, A., Griffiths, S., Palacios, N., Twyman, R.M., Vain, P., Laurie, D.A. and Christou, P. (1999). Molecular characterization of transforming plasmid rearrangements in transgenic rice reveals a recombination hotspot in the CaMV 35S promoter and confirms the predominance of microhomology mediated recombination. The Plant Journal 17, 591-601. 25. Xiong, Y. and Eickbush, T.H. (1990). Origin and evolution of retroelements based upon their reverse transcriptase sequences. EMBO J. 9, 3353-3362. 26. Firbank, L.G. Dewar, A.M., Hill, M.O., May, M.J., Perry, J.N., Rothery, O.P., Squire, G.R. and Woiwod, I.P. (1999). Farm-scale evaluation of GM crops explained. Nature 399, 727-8. 27. See Pretty, J. (1995). Sustainable Agriculture, Earthscan, London; also Pretty, J. (1998). The Living Land - Agriculture, Food and Community Regeneration in Rural Europe, Earthscan, London. [reported in www.ecoglobe.org.nz/news1999/n209news.htm - ] original ref: [Institute of Science in Society http://www.i-sis.org.uk/] ###################################################################

####################################################################################################################################################################### THIS may take the shape of Fluoride impossibilities; nutrition via chemical foods or today's versus previous; or incorporate Rachel Carson radiation, mimetics. Steiner indicated that the uptake of trace elements by crops would decrease as a consequence of conventional practices. There is some evidence that this has occurred. Comparisons of the mineral content of twenty vegetable or fruits grown in the United Kingdom since chemical use has become common (MEDICAL FIGURES needed)?? have shown that In 1991 the iron and copper content of vegetables decreased by 1/4 and 4/5 of what they were in the 1930s. There were reductions of about 1/7, 1/5, and 1/3 for potassium, calcium, and magnesium contents as well. These decreases occurred despite the fact that there was hardly any reduction in the dry matter content of the vegetables. In fruit there was a reduction of iron and copper contents by 1/3, and a reduction in the amounts of potassium and magnesium by 1/5 and 1/10 respectively. The amount of dry matter in the fruit decreased by about 1/10. Alternatives: Six experimental stations were established in 1979 to breed and select varieties of Paulownia appropriate for different climatic zones. Forest cover on the plains has already increased from 2% to 10.7%, over some 3.15 million ha of farmland, or nearly half of the total area designated for the project. A system called "four-sided" planting has been used in China since the 1950s. In this system trees are planted along the contours of roads, villages, ditches, and rivers. These serve as a general source of timber, fodder and fuelwood. In China Paulownia is used most extensively in windbreaks. The beneficial microclimatic effects protect food crops from the drying winds that can destroy a crop. These windbreaks or "forestry nets" reduce wind speed at crop height by 30% and increase humidity by 7-12%. P. elongata is commonly intercropped with wheat, rape, garlic, cotton, corn, bean, peanut, sweet potato, watermelon and vegetables. Most intercropping spacings are 5 x 20-50 m. Spacing of intercropped trees is important. When intercropped with Paulownia, wheat yields were the same as in an open field when the trees were planted 5 m apart with 10 m between rows. When the distance was increased to 20-40 m between rows, wheat yields increased 7-10%. The project has improved the microclimate for crops and pasture, and provided an immediate economic benefit for local farmers in food production. Global Change and Agriculture Global warming Evidence of global warming:  Temperature records-most of the increase has been in night temperature  Retreat of glaciers; decreased snow and ice cover  Measurable rise in sea level  Increased heat content of oceans  Increased plant growth (Myneni et al. 1997) The latter include:  Increased values of NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) detected by remote sensing  Increased biomass deposition in European forests  Increased recent tree-ring growth in Mongolia  Upward migration of plants on European mountain tops The increase in plant growth is likely due to longer growing seasons; high latitude winter temperatures increased up to 4 C in the winter. Nicholls (1997) attributes 30-50% of the increased wheat yield in Australia since 1952 to decreased frequency of frost. Presumed causes of Global Warming:  Greenhouse gases-CO2, CH4, N20 (nitrous oxide), CFCs (chloroflurocarbons)  Land-use changes. Deforestation  Increased fire frequency Robinson et al. (1998, unpublished paper privately distributed) dispute that any global warming has occurred in response to increased CO2. Conclusions of IPCC (Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change) that temperatures are increasing are based on recent long-term studies such as those of Crowley (2000).  Use proxy data (tree rings; coral growth; isotopes in ice cores) to reconstruct climate for last 1000 years.  After correcting for effects of variation in solar radiation and volcanism, there is a pronounced 20th Century increase in temperature consistent with warming by greenhouse gases. General Circulation Models (GCMs) Processes modeled include (1) Atmospheric circulation and (2) Ocean currents. Models describe transfer of energy and moisture between adjacent grid cells. Grid cell sizes are large:  Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS): ca. 550 cells, 7.83o Lat. � 10o Long.  Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL): ca. 1300 cells, 4.4o Lat. � 7.5o Long.  (United Kingdom Meterological Office (UKMO): ca. 1150 cells, 5.0o Lat. � 7.5o Long. Results:  Temperatures increase everywhere; models show general agreement.  Higher temperature increases expected at higher latitudes  Growing season lengths increase at higher latitudes  Percipitation increases globally but not everywhere. Models disagree, especially regionally and seasonally, on expected precipitation changes Uncertainties in models:  Cloud cover in upper atmosphere  Feedbacks-positive or negative. Negative feedback is possible through enhanced plant growth [the "CO2 fertilization effect"]. A potential positive feedback involves decreased albedo at high latitude which could increase warming; subsequent increased decomposition of SOM would accelerate CO2 increase further increasing warmer. More recently, Energy Balance Models (EBMs) have developed which better simulate the exchange of heat between the oceans and the atmosphere, and better account for heat storage in the oceans. Effects of [CO2] on Plant Growth Gross photosynthesis increases and photorespiration decreases. Stomatal resistance increases (stomates close partially in response to increased [CO2]), transpiration therefore decreases, and water-use efficiency increases (since stomatal closure affects transpiration rates more than CO2 uptake rates). C3 vs C4 plants: Growth of C3 plants would be enhanced more than that of C4 plants [why?]. Hu et al. (1999) suggest that elevated [CO2] may increase root exudation, in turn increasing mycorrhizal colonization, root nodulation, and BNF. Tree-ring studies sometimes fail to demonstrate increased tree growth after the industrial revolution in response to an increase of atmospheric CO2 from 280 to 360 ppm (DeLucia et al., 1999), suggesting that plants may acclimate to higher atmospheric [CO2]. Interactions need to be considered:  [CO2] and other resources. For example, if N is limiting, increased [CO2] may not increase crop growth.  [CO2] and environmental influences (especially temperature). Feedbacks between aboveground vegetation and belowground microbes could be positive or negative, and may depend on the temporal scale:  Initial feedbacks could be positive if C exudates stimulate mineralization and BNF  Later nutrients could become immobilized in less-available pools creating a negative feedback Scaling Issues Scaling refers to the extrapolation of observations or processes from (usually) smaller temporal or spatial scales to larger temporal or spatial scales. For example, extrapolating from instantaneous photosynthetic rates to seasonal crop yields. The problem with scaling is that different processes may be working at different scales. For Example: Processes controlling temperature at different temporal scales:  hourly-- rotation of earth on its axis  monthly-- rotation of earth around sun  millennial--eccentricities in earth's orbit, solar cycles, greenhouse gases Ecological questions often involve asking how measurements of pattern or process change as the units of time, space (or mass) change (Schneider, 1994). Example: upscaling (zooming) photosynthesis (A) to yield (Y)  Units of Y are Mg ha-1 y-1  Units of A are mmol CO2 dm-2 s-1  Assume Y = kA, that is that we can scale directly from A to Y. What are the units of k? Is k in fact a constant?  The units of k must be: (Mg crop/mmol CO2) (dm2 leaf/ha-1) (s crop-1) (crops y-1). [Work this out for yourself if you don't see how I arrived at this.] Looking at the units of k, we can see that k is not a constant:  (Mg crop/mmol CO2) would be a crop-specific constant, depending on the chemical composition of the crop biomass.  (dm2 leaf/ha-1) is LAI, integrated over the growing season.  (s crop-1) is the length of the growing season. If increased temperature accelerates crop phenology, the growing season would be shorter. On the other hand,  (crops y-1) is the number of crops per year, which, in tropical latitudes, could increase with shorter crop growing seasons. Therefore we cannot scale directly from A to Y without taking into account how crop biomass (for example, higher or lower protein content), LAI, and growing season might change. Other ecosystem scale processes may also be altered: weed growth and competition, insect herbivory, nutrient cycling, soil erosion, etc., that further complicate scaling from physiological processes to ecosystem responses. Affects of Global Change on Agriculture The overwhelming evidence from (short term) experiments with increased [CO2] (either greenhouse or FACE-free atmosphere carbon dioxide enrichment-studies) is that biomass and/or seed production increases with increasing [CO2]. These studies are almost always done with (1) no temperature increase, and (2) optimum levels of other resources, especially N and water. [One interesting conclusion we might draw is that much of the crop yields experienced in the past 50 years must be due to increased [CO2] and not just breeding and improved management, as usually assumed.] Predicting the general affects of both changing climates and changing [CO2] is usually done by modeling; the approach involves:  Combine GCMs and Crop Growth Models  Run Crop Growth Models with Predicted climate based on effective [CO2] doubling, both (1) Without CO2 fertilization effects and (2) With CO2 fertilization effects Selected Results:  Shift in geographic zones (e.g. corn belt could shift northward). Southern hemisphere agriculture is likely to benefit less [Why?].  Yield declines are expected in the absence of CO2 fertilization effects; realization of the effects is thus critical to future food production.  C3 crops usually expected to have yield increases; C4 crops may have yield decreases Rosenzweig and Parry (1994) provide one of the best analyses: Methodology:  Used outputs from 3 GCMs-GISS, GFDL, and UKMO  Used crop models for wheat, maize, rice, and soybean  Applied one or more models to crops in 18 countries (just 1 site in Africa!)  Looked at 2 levels of Grower Adaptations: Level 1- Shift planting date � 1 month, increased irrigation where crops already irrigated; switch crop varieties. Level 2-Larger shifts in planting date; increased fertilizer application, expand irrigation; develop new crop varieties. Results were linked to a World Food Trade Model Results:  Large yield decreases without CO2 effects for all crops  With CO2 fertilization effects soybean and wheat increase for all GCM scenarios but rice and maize decrease for all three-largest decreases for maize  All crops decrease under UKMO scenario. What actually will happen is critical!  Changes less severe with Adaptation levels. Under UKMO scenario Adaptation Level 2 does not eliminate yield decreases.  Food production projected to increase in the developed world; decrease in developing world. || ALRS Graduate Program || || OALS Home || College of Agriculture || University of Arizona || || McLaughlin Home || Plant Sciences 508 || URL: http://ag.arizona.edu/~spmcl/lecturenotes/globalchange.htm 24 February 2001 &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Reference Croke, M.S., Cess, R.D. and Hameed, S. 1999. Regional cloud cover change associated with global climate change: Case studies for three regions of the United States. Journal of Climate 12: 2128-2134. What was done Land-based observations of cloud cover for three regions of the United States (coastal southwest, coastal northeast, and southern plains) were examined in relation to observations of global temperature and the strengths of three permanent atmospheric pressure systems (North Pacific high, Icelandic low, and Azores high) over the period 1900-1987. What was learned For the three regions studied, cloud cover was found to have a high correlation with global temperature, with mean cloud cover rising from an initial value of 35% to a final value of 47% while mean global temperature rose by 0.5�C from 1900 to 1987. What it means CONCLUSION: The relationship between cloud cover and temperature demonstrated in this study suggests that Earth's hydrologic cycle tends to moderate the thermal effects of any impetus for warming, as increased cloud cover has been shown to decrease the diurnal temperature range. With smaller daily swings in air temperature, plants and animals are thus exposed to a less variable environment to which they can more readily adapt. [http://www.co2science.org/journal/1999/v2n19c2.htm] [interesting: http://www.rexresearch.com/articles/elcultur.htm] @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Natural estrogens operate at extremely low concentrations - as in parts per trillion in the blood. However, synthetic estrogen mimics can occur in parts per billion or million, because they are not recognized and removed by the natural regulatory processes. Synthetic mimics cannot be dealt with properly because, in the words of Claude Hughes, a specialist in reproductive endocrinology at Wake Forest University, humans lack evolutionary history with them (cited in Colborn et al., 1996). As a result, while natural estrogens are regularly broken down and excreted to maintain very low and physiologically appropriate concentrations, synthetic estrogens can accumulate, leading to chronic, low-level exposures. Chronic human exposure to blood estrogen levels thousands or millions of times higher than normal is without precedent in human evolution. The tragic implications of such exposure may be manifested intergenerationally, as discussed by Colborn et al. (1996), Garry et al., (1996), Repetto and Baliga (1996), and the USEPA (1997). Thus, the premise that engineering synthetic pesticides into plants is "natural", because chemical deterrents to herbivory evolved naturally, is overly-simplistic. [http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/research/homepages/eclark/nz2020.htm]