Uruguay vote moves the country towards legal cannabis
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6 | NewScientist | 10 August 2013 THE row over fracking for natural gas has hit the UK, with protests over plans in the village of Balcombe. Could they have a point? Studies are suggesting fracking could accelerate climate change, rather than slow it. The case for fracking rests on its reputed ability to stem global warming. Burning gas emits half as much planet-warming carbon dioxide as an equivalent amount of coal. That is why, after embracing fracking, CO 2 emissions have fallen in the US. But leading climate scientists are warning that this benefit is illusory. Tom Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, concluded in a recent study that substituting gas for coal increases rather than decreases the rate of warming for many decades (Climatic Change, doi.org/dv4kbp). Frack for warming Firstly, burning coal releases a lot of sulphur dioxide and black carbon. These cool the climate, offsetting up to 40 per cent of the warming effect of burning coal, Wigley told a recent conference of the Breakthrough Institute think tank in Sausalito, California. Fracking technology, which involves pumping water at high pressure into shale beds to release trapped gas, also leaks methane into the atmosphere. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO 2 and Wigley says that switching from coal to gas could only bring benefits this century if leakage rates get below 2 per cent. If rates are at 10 per cent – the top end of current US estimates – the gas would deliver extra warming until the mid-22nd century. A recent review by the UN Environment Programme agreed that emissions from fracking and other unconventional sources of natural gas could boost warming initially, and would only be comparable to coal over a 100-year timescale. See pages 5 and 36 for more on fracking Eye disease beaten IT’S a small but important victory. Colombia has become the first country to eradicate river blindness, a disease affecting some 18 million people across more than 30 countries in Africa and South America. River blindness is caused by a parasitic filarial worm, Onchocerca volvulus. Symptoms include intense itching and eye lesions, making it a leading cause of visual impairment and permanent blindness in the tropics. The worm is spread between people by a species of blackfly. The authorities in Colombia managed to break this cycle by giving communities in affected areas the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin every six months for 12 years. “This is a historic milestone,” says Mark Taylor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK. But he says that eradication may be harder in African countries, where co-infection with another parasite can result in severe side effects following drug treatment. –Fishing revival not imminent– Fukushima still leaking IT JUST won’t let up. Two years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan was devastated by a tsunami, radioactive water is still leaking into the ocean, spelling more trouble for the local fishing industry. Last month the plant’s owner, Tepco, finally admitted what many had suspected – that the plant was leaking. Now Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority is calling it an emergency. It says Tepco’s plans to stop the leak are unlikely to work. The problem is that groundwater is entering the damaged reactor buildings, picking up radioactive elements and seeping out to sea. Tepco has spent months pumping the water to the surface and storing it in tanks, and sinking wells to lower the water table. Now it is building a series of underground walls to act as a dam. But this is probably too late: the rising water will soon swamp them. “We’ve known for some time the reactors are still leaking,” says Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The biggest leaks happened soon after the tsunami. The ongoing leaks are thousands of times smaller, but still detectable. The radioactive elements disperse once in the ocean, so there is no threat to the Pacific at large, says Simon Boxall of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK. But Japan has set a strict limit on levels of caesium in seafood, so the leaks will only extend the ban on locally caught fish and seafood being sold, depriving communities of their livelihoods. “Substituting gas for coal increases the rate of global warming for many decades” “A CUTTING-EDGE experiment”. That’s how Uruguay’s president José Mujica described his government’s vote to allow the production, sale and distribution of cannabis. If passed by the upper house of parliament – which is expected – the new laws will allow registered users to buy up to 40 grams a month from a pharmacist, grow six plants at home, or grow 99 plants as part of a “cannabis club”. Uruguay has seen increases in Uruguay set to legalise cannabis KANSHIRO SONODA/AP/PA crime associated with illegal drugs. According to the US Department of State, the problem continues despite “consistent government efforts to combat these trends”. Mujica says the legislation aims to bring an existing market into the light of day. “They are doing it for the same reason the US stopped alcohol prohibition,” says David Nutt at Imperial College London. “To reduce organised crime and achieve tax revenue for the country.” UPFRONT
Transcript of Uruguay vote moves the country towards legal cannabis
6 | NewScientist | 10 August 2013
THE row over fracking for natural gas has hit the UK, with protests over plans in the village of Balcombe. Could they have a point? Studies are suggesting fracking could accelerate climate change, rather than slow it.
The case for fracking rests on its reputed ability to stem global warming. Burning gas emits half as much planet-warming carbon dioxide as an equivalent amount of coal. That is why, after embracing fracking, CO2 emissions have fallen in the US.
But leading climate scientists are warning that this benefit is illusory. Tom Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, concluded in a recent study that substituting gas for coal increases rather than decreases the rate of warming for many decades (Climatic Change, doi.org/dv4kbp).
Frack for warming Firstly, burning coal releases a lot of sulphur dioxide and black carbon. These cool the climate, offsetting up to 40 per cent of the warming effect of burning coal, Wigley told a recent conference of the Breakthrough Institute think tank in Sausalito, California.
Fracking technology, which involves pumping water at high pressure into shale beds to release trapped gas, also leaks methane into the atmosphere. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 and Wigley says that switching from coal to gas could only bring benefits this century if leakage rates get below 2 per cent. If rates are at 10 per cent – the top end of current US estimates – the gas would deliver extra warming until the mid-22nd century.
A recent review by the UN Environment Programme agreed that emissions from fracking and other unconventional sources of natural gas could boost warming initially, and would only be comparable to coal over a 100-year timescale. See pages 5 and 36 for more on fracking
Eye disease beatenIT’S a small but important victory. Colombia has become the first country to eradicate river blindness, a disease affecting some 18 million people across more than 30 countries in Africa and South America.
River blindness is caused by a parasitic filarial worm, Onchocerca volvulus. Symptoms include intense itching and eye lesions, making it a leading cause of visual impairment and permanent blindness in the tropics.
The worm is spread between people by a species of blackfly. The authorities in Colombia managed to break this cycle by giving communities in affected areas the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin every six months for 12 years.
“This is a historic milestone,” says Mark Taylor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK. But he says that eradication may be harder in African countries, where co-infection with another parasite can result in severe side effects following drug treatment.
–Fishing revival not imminent–
Fukushima still leakingIT JUST won’t let up. Two years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan was devastated by a tsunami, radioactive water is still leaking into the ocean, spelling more trouble for the local fishing industry.
Last month the plant’s owner, Tepco, finally admitted what many had suspected – that the plant was leaking. Now Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority is calling it an emergency. It says Tepco’s plans to stop the leak are unlikely to work.
The problem is that groundwater is entering the damaged reactor buildings, picking up radioactive elements and seeping out to sea. Tepco has spent months pumping the water to the surface and storing it in tanks, and sinking wells to lower the water table. Now it is building a series
of underground walls to act as a dam. But this is probably too late: the rising water will soon swamp them.
“We’ve known for some time the reactors are still leaking,” says Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The biggest leaks happened soon after the tsunami. The ongoing leaks are thousands of times smaller, but still detectable.
The radioactive elements disperse once in the ocean, so there is no threat to the Pacific at large, says Simon Boxall of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK. But Japan has set a strict limit on levels of caesium in seafood, so the leaks will only extend the ban on locally caught fish and seafood being sold, depriving communities of their livelihoods.
“Substituting gas for coal increases the rate of global warming for many decades”
“A CUTTING-EDGE experiment”. That’s how Uruguay’s president José Mujica described his government’s vote to allow the production, sale and distribution of cannabis.
If passed by the upper house of parliament – which is expected – the new laws will allow registered users to buy up to 40 grams a month from a pharmacist, grow six plants at home, or grow 99 plants as part of a “cannabis club”.
Uruguay has seen increases in
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crime associated with illegal drugs. According to the US Department of State, the problem continues despite “consistent government efforts to combat these trends”. Mujica says the legislation aims to bring an existing market into the light of day.
“They are doing it for the same reason the US stopped alcohol prohibition,” says David Nutt at Imperial College London. “To reduce organised crime and achieve tax revenue for the country.”
UPFronT
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