Shorts*

Posting remains light in deference to the current needs of the day job, but there were a few things that I wanted to share before I forgot about them.

Bob Whitson is showcasing James Howard Kunstler’ new book, The Long Emergency, a wakeup call for modern society about the hazards awaiting it from peaking oil production. Kunstler recently published an essay in Rolling Stone (reprinted elsewhere if the link goes down) that summarizes the book. He’s not very kind to us, but as the people who have let the Bush Administration design our energy policy, we deserve it:

It has been very hard for Americans - lost in dark raptures of nonstop infotainment, recreational shopping and compulsive motoring - to make sense of the gathering forces that will fundamentally alter the terms of everyday life in our technological society. Even after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, America is still sleepwalking into the future. I call this coming time the Long Emergency.

Most immediately we face the end of the cheap-fossil-fuel era. It is no exaggeration to state that reliable supplies of cheap oil and natural gas underlie everything we identify as the necessities of modern life - not to mention all of its comforts and luxuries: central heating, air conditioning, cars, airplanes, electric lights, inexpensive clothing, recorded music, movies, hip-replacement surgery, national defense - you name it.

The ever-reliable Environmental Health News provides a couple of interesting items. First, this review paper published in the open-source Public Library of Medicine discussing cumulative exposures particularly with regard to developmental neurotoxicity risks to children. Next, a commentary by the National Resources Defense Council and other, to be published in Environmental Health Perspectives, alleging that the EPA gave industry a disproportionate voice in developing quantitative toxicity values for vinyl chloride. The resulting values, which are used in risk assessments, are considered by NRDC to not address the range of adverse effects associated with vinyl chloride exposure. I don’t have an opinion on it yet, prior to doing my own reading on the topic.

I unfortunately will not be able to attend the conference, “Defining the Future of Public Health”, being held at Boston University this weekend, but if you’re within striking distance on the east coast, you should try to get there. I’d be interested in hearing about it if someone is interested in sponsoring something similar in the Midwest.

*With a nod to Mystery Science Theater 3000