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Where are the Salmon? More than 200,000 salmon should haveshown up in the Columbia river to spawn by now, but only afew hundred have been seen. The absence of the wild Chinooksalmon is a disturbing environmental mystery. The best casescenario is that they’re being kept away by low water andhigh sediment levels due to the drought in the PacificNorthwest. The worst is that there has been a shortage ofthe krill that is essential to their diet, and they havestarved while wintering out at sea. This means we’re going to see only farmed salmon in our grocery stores thisyear, although it may be designated as “wild” (Keep readingand we’ll tell you all about that).
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Newswise – Bad news about pollution: Rates of Alzheimer’s today arethree times what they were in men 20 years ago and haverisen 90% in women, and some scientists think this is due toan increase in pesticide use, industrial waste and carexhaust. Air pollution from car exhaust has been found tothicken the blood, causing heart attacks and strokes. Also,this kind of pollution hits infants especially hard. A newstudy shows that fossil fuel combustion from cars and powerplants is causing nitrogen pollution in U.S. waters,especially when there are highways nearby.
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Litter is becoming an international problem. A Brazilianphotographer looks for trash that has washed up on the beachnear his home. When he identifies what country it came from,he returns it to that country?s embassy in Brazil.

Fabio Barreto, who runs Global Garbage, has collected trashfrom 69 different countries on Bahia’ Costa dos Coqueirosbeach. He catalogues each piece before sending it to theembassies.

Trash is also becoming an intergalactic problem, as theInternational Space Station has starting dumping trash inspace, now that the shuttle is no longer available to takethe garbage back to Earth on a regular basis. In space, eventrash that would be biodegradable on Earth will probablystay around for eons?or maybe forever.
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Scientists have been worried that cell phonetowers?especially the new high-powered towers that supporthigh tech phones?emit radio waves that can lead to cancer.Now Korean scientists have found that people living inregions near AM radio broadcasting towers are 70% morelikely to get leukemia. And children who live near gasstations are more likely to get leukemia than other kidsliving in the same area.

Stephen Leahy writes in wired.com that deaths from cancerare 29% higher near the transmitters. This backs up anItalian study of two years ago that found that death ratesfrom leukemia increased dramatically for people livingwithin two miles of Vatican Radio’s transmitters in Rome.
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