{"id":61749,"date":"2022-02-02T07:09:15","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T12:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61749"},"modified":"2022-02-02T07:09:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T12:09:15","slug":"life-on-earth-cant-handle-the-chemical-industrys-onslaught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61749","title":{"rendered":"Life on Earth Can\u2019t Handle the Chemical Industry\u2019s Onslaught"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header grid\">\n<div class=\"mj-header-middle col-lg-7 col-md-12 col-sm-10 col-xs-12 col-xxs-12\">\n<section class=\"page-header-wrapper grid-wrapper-f\">\n<div class=\"page-header page-header--article page-header--article-type-image page-header--article--lead-img-wide\">\n<div class=\"page-header__inner article__meta-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"page-header__content\">\n<div class=\"article__meta\">\n<h3 id=\"article-title\" class=\"article__title node__title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalobserver.com\/2022\/01\/31\/news\/our-chemical-habit-choking-earth\">Our chemical habit is choking the Earth<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article__lead-media article__lead-media--img js-pw\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nationalobserver.com\/sites\/nationalobserver.com\/files\/styles\/article_header_xl\/public\/img\/2022\/01\/28\/pexels-pixabay-209230.jpg?itok=nR-SL9Ij\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1371\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"page-header__inner article__lead-caption\">\n<div class=\"page-header__content\">\n<div class=\"article__lead-caption__inner\">New research warns that we are producing too many chemicals, too fast, threatening the environment and human health. Photo by Pexels\/Pixabay<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"page-content page-content-article grid-wrapper-mx\">\n<div class=\"page-content-main\">\n<div class=\"page-content-main__middle\">\n<div class=\"panel-pane pane-natobs-article-tools js-article-tools article__tools--sticky\">\n<div class=\"article__tools\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-audio-player\">\n<div><button id=\"speechkit-init\" class=\"article-audio-init\"><span class=\"button-text\">Listen to article<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"panel-pane pane-node-content article__body js-pw article-main-content-pane\">\n<article id=\"node-29751\" class=\"node node-article clearfix\" role=\"article\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<div class=\"article-body-section\">\n<p>Chemical companies have produced more chemicals \u2014 including plastics \u2014 than the planet can safely sustain without potentially causing irreversible harm to the environment or human health,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/full\/10.1021\/acs.est.1c04158\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">says a team<\/a>\u00a0of international researchers.<\/p>\n<p>Canada and most other countries do not have the capacity to monitor how chemicals like plastics, pesticides and fertilizers are impacting people and ecosystems faster than they can heal. With industry projecting skyrocketing demand, the scientists warn that governments must immediately curb the production of new chemicals until adequate monitoring and regulatory systems are in place.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a new approach to research the global environmental and health impacts of chemicals, which typically examines a single type of chemical, like neonicotinoid pesticides, at a time. But with hundreds of thousands of chemicals in circulation and new ones going on the market daily, countries can&#8217;t keep up, explained co-author Miriam Diamond, a professor at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no way we can actually figure out a planetary boundary for each (chemical),&#8221; she explained. Instead, the team looked at the pace of chemical production and development and whether governments&#8217; environmental and health regulations and monitoring can keep up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The answer is a resounding no. We are so far behind on our ability to assess and understand these entities, we can&#8217;t keep up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body-section\">\n<p>For instance, plastic output increased by almost 80 per cent between 2000 and 2015 alone and production is expected to triple by 2050. Because about 99 per cent of plastics are made from fossil fuels and their production is tied into a complex web of fossil fuel derivatives like solvents and fertilizers, the output data are useful tools to track the production of a suite of other harmful chemicals&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our chemical habit is choking the Earth New research warns that we are producing too many chemicals, too fast, threatening the environment and human health. Photo by Pexels\/Pixabay Listen to article Chemical companies have produced more chemicals \u2014 including plastics \u2014 than the planet can safely sustain without potentially causing irreversible harm to the environment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[103,32609,128,32608,32610],"class_list":["post-61749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-canada","tag-chemical-industry","tag-chemicals","tag-cnational-observer","tag-marc-fawcett-atkinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61750,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61749\/revisions\/61750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}