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Hold the Foam -

Coffee drinkers could be getting a shot of estrogen with their caffeine fixif, that is, their joe comes in a styrofoam cup. A new study found that many types of plastic—including polystyrene—contain resins that mimic hormones and wreak havoc on our bodies. And get this: We're talking about the BPA-free stuff. Yeah...sure puts the “ick” in plastic. Mother Jones

Poisonville, USA -

"When Sherry Skipper first arrived at the [Rocky Mountain Arsenal] as a young biologist in the early 1990s, she would often don booties, respirators, and goggles to check on starlings she was using, like canaries in a coal mine, to monitor pollution. The birds fed on worms and burrowing insects that accumulated dieldrin. Skipper remembers one damp spring in particular when the earthworms emerged—and birds that ate them fell out of trees, convulsing. 'That’s never going to happen again,' she said one day last winter. The place is now a wildlife refuge." —From “Wasteland,” Paul Voosen’s National Geographic story on Superfunds, those toxic sites we don’t talk about all that much anymore (even though 49 million Americans live near one)

Let's Make a Deal! -

Global leaders just kicked off two weeks of negotiations in Lima, Peru, where they hope to draft a new climate treaty—to be signed next year in Paris. Deal or no deal, scientists say it may already be too late to prevent global temperature increases from causing large-scale, devastating changes to ecosystems. Seems the only choice now is whether we'll live in an unpleasant world, or an uninhabitable one. (Door Number 1! Door Number 1!) New York Times

Rock On! -

Despite the urgent warnings of scientists, the world’s carbon pollution output continues to rise. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just bury all that CO2 in a deep hole somewhere and forget about it? Actually, maybe we can. Bracing for Impact

Hot But Not Bothered -

According to a study in Nature Climate Change, both Republicans and Democrats recognize that weather and temperature patterns have been strange recently. But Republicans are far less likely to attribute those anomalies to climate change. In other words, political beliefs trump observable facts—and that makes for one hot mess. Mother Jones 

Sustainable Blueprint -

Can we build our way out of the world's carbon pollution problem? Roughly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the building sector. But change the way we think about our homes, communities, and offices, says Barcelona's Albert Cuchí (use them to capture CO2, grow food, prevent erosion, etc.), and our buildings can actually give back. It’s an old concept made new again. Bracing for Impact