Remember when Pat Robertson told us the world would end in 1982?

With the upcoming disaster film “2012″ and the current hype about Mayan calendars and doomsday predictions, it seems like a good time to put such notions in context.

Most prophets of doom come from a religious perspective, though the secular crowd has caused its share of scares as well. One thing the doomsday scenarios tend to share in common: They don’t come to pass.

Remember when Pat Robertson guaranteed the world was coming to an end in 1982?

“In May 1980, televangelist and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson startled and alarmed many when – contrary to Matthew 24:36 (”No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven…”) he informed his “700 Club” TV show audience around the world that he knew when the world would end. “I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world,” Robertson said.”

Here are 10 that didn’t pan out, so far:

‘Gentlemen – charge your engines!’ Teams set off on global 'zero emissions' race

Participants will be measured in points for style, technology and popularity

Two drivers, three wheels, $350 and zero carbon emissions.

That's how Australian father-and-son team Nick and Jason Jones hope to circle the globe in their custom built electric vehicle.

The duo joined teams from Germany and Switzerland on Monday for the start of a round-the-world race aimed at showcasing green technologies.

The aim is to complete the 18,642-mile (30,000-kilometer) trip without pumping carbon into the atmosphere, a goal that Louis Palmer, the race organizer, believes can be done.

Teams from Australia, Germany and Switzerland have set off from Geneva for what they hope will be the first carbon neutral race around the world. Participants are using custom built two-seater electric vehicles that will be charged from regular power outlets along the way.

Preparing for economic doomsday: here’s seven rock-solid careers from the Stone Age that deserve consideration

If we end up bombing ourselves back to the Stone Age the survivors are going to have to make a living somehow.

That brings us to this article:

Factory work and dentistry were among jobs of a prehistoric lifetime

If nuclear war, the Great Recession or some other calamity turns the economy back to the Stone Age, what kind of jobs and industries will pay the bills? Archaeologists, for reasons more to do with academic curiosity than preparing for doomsday, have been hard at work looking for an answer.

As It Stands: Atrazine threatens public health like another Agent Orange

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 08/15/2010 01:32:27 AM PDT

Once upon a time, Agent Orange (AO) and all of its synthetic peers were widely sprayed to kill weeds throughout the land, and overseas where Americans fought in Vietnam. The manufacturers of AO assured the people that all was well. So everyone smiled.

Soon however, dark warnings trickled into the mainstream. Soldiers came back from the bad place with cancers and other terrible diseases. The men and women in the military suffered for years until they finally got recognition and treatment from the Veterans Administration. Many veterans are still struggling today.

When enough doctors and scientists came together and pored over mountains of studies not considered important by the EPA, they discovered that AO was responsible for a wide variety of serious health conditions.

The chemical manufacturers turned to the courts with their own industry-funded studies that showed AO was safe. After years of bitter court battles the manufacturers lost and had to pay for their sins.

  This is not the end of the story. It seems we have not learned from this sad chapter in our history, when greedy chemical companies got away with poisoning people in the name of profit. As baseball great Yogi Berra once said, “It's deju vu all over again.”

This time the culprit has a new name, Atrazine. It's an herbicide like AO, and an estimated 76 million pounds of it are sprayed on corn and other fields in the U.S. every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) records.

The problem; the EPA failed to notify people last fall when Atrazine was discovered in drinking water at 10 times the national safety limits. Those levels should have automatically triggered notification of customers, but that didn't happen.

Four states, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas are being monitored because their farmers rely heavily on Atrazine. The Huffington Post Investigative Fund found the amount of weed-killer was excessive in about 150 watersheds from 2003 through 2008, after obtaining the information under the Freedom of Information Act.

The company that makes Atrazine, Syngenta, says over 6,000 studies have been done and they claim it's safe to use. Oh really? I recall Monsanto and Dow saying the same thing about AO. And, once again no surprise, most of the companies that did the research on the herbicide's safety have financial interests in the outcome.

We shouldn't be surprised when the fact that many (at least half) of those studies have never been published or subjected to independent peer review. Why aren't the independently funded academic research papers published in major scientific journals considered by the EPA? The excuses given are about as credible as the chemical industry safety claims.

In 2003, the EPA was criticized for ignoring those studies when making safety decisions on the herbicide, and because representatives from Syngenta participated in closed-door negotiations with the agency, according to documents obtained by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist specializing in health issues at NRDC, argues that relying on a company test of its own safety is an “inherent conflict of interest.” Yet the EPA says Atrazine is OK.

 The reasoning behind this claim comes from the EPA's senior analyst, William Jordan, who says they have a limited budget, and it's necessary to rely on research provided by the industry testing companies. He insists they have a strong incentive to follow guidelines.

That's not very encouraging. I'm skeptical of the safety claims when four states have already found their waterways have unsafe levels of Atrazine. We've been down this road before. There will always be a problem when you have industry influence in the federal regulatory process.

I think the EPA is finally feeling the pressure because officials are going to re-examine their stance on how much health risk the weed-killer poses. Sometime in September, the EPA will announce the results of their re-examination of Atrazine. The stakes are high. They could outright ban the use of Atrazine, or put more restriction on it. Or, they can continue to allow the staus quo, in which case the public loses.

As It Stands, my disgust with the EPA is only surpassed by my concern that once again the health of thousands of Americans is endangered because of corruption and greed.

Web sites carrying this column as of 10:03 a.m. PST

Namviet.net

ALL VOICES

Environmental Health News – Front Page – See column under OPINION

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

One hour later…

NewsFeed – see articles under ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION

One hour later…

Vaccination News

OHIO CITIZEN ACTION under Health News (Aug 15)

My Weed Killer 

 Schema-root

 ALL BUSINESS

 

 

 

As It Stand’s Sunday – Atrazine and Agent Orange. Once and Future Killers

Take a look. Just another weed killer right? Wrong.

Four states are finding unacceptable levels of Atrazine, a deadly herbicide in their waterways.

People are drinking about ten times the safe level (EPA standards). 

If you live in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, or Kansas, you already know the EPA should have warned you about this last Fall.

Atrazine is a descendant of Agent Orange. We all know what damage AO has caused, and is still causing. Will Syngenta (the company that produces Atrazine) take us down that same long ugly path?

See ya Sunday.

There’s One in Every Barrel - ‘Bad Apple’ Manager Indicted

Apple manager indicted on kickback charges

CUPERTINO, Calif. — A manager at Apple Inc. has been indicted by a federal grand jury in an alleged kickback scheme involving suppliers of iPhone and iPod accessories.

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Dog Gone! Spencer shredded Terry’s hope for school board position

Labrador mix chews up petition with almost 200 signatures

The Beaufort Gazette reported Friday that Terry Thomas of Lady’s Island had a petition with almost 200 signatures when he went out to check the mail. But when he returned from the mail box, Spencer, his 8-month-old Labrador and bull mastiff mix, had chewed up the petition.

Note - this isn’t Spencer shown here. It’s his body-double “Tank.” Go here to learn more about this inquisitive fellow.

Okay Now…Who Doesn’t Belong in this lineup?

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On the way to Ethics committee:view hypocrites feigning indignation

David Fitzsimmons / Arizona Daily Star, Politicalcartoons.com

Environmental solution - China's New Bus "Straddles" Cars

The finished project is known officially as the "3D fast bus," but the nickname "straddling bus" is no misnomer. 

The bus will literally straddle the road and carry a shocking number of people -- around 1300 passengers -- over cars and under overpasses.

Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd, proposed the bus idea. They say the bus will travel at up to 60 km/h (about 37mph). Construction of the 186 km of rails that will carry the bus will begin at the end of the year.

TAKE ACTION: Don't let public transportation in the United States fall behind in environmental awesomeness.