Updates

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​12/05/25 UPDATE              

Re: Chapter 8.3. DOES EVERYTHING CAUSE CANCER?

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Initial printings of EARTH WISE have a typo on p.134 in the middle of the first paragraph. Instead of “Six percent of cancer patients are 65 or older,” the number should be sixty percent.

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However, there is good news on cancer. In the U.S., the cancer death rate has fallen by a third since 1991. Most of this improvement is due to the decline in tobacco use and the associated drop in lung cancers (Figure 57). Around 42% of U.S. adults smoked in 1965, but only12% did so in 2022.

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Globally, one in five adults smoked in 2022 compared to one in three in 2000. Still there remain 1.25 billion adult smokers in the world, and the tobacco industry pushes hard against tobacco control measures. 

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Introduction of the HPV vaccine has also improved cancer rates. The vaccine protects against human papillomavirus which is linked to a number of diseases, including 90% of cervical cancers in women. The vaccine has reduced cervical cancer deaths in the U.S. by 62% in the last decade (among US women younger than 25 years who likely benefited from HPV vaccination).

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New cancer treatments and screening programs have improved cancer survival rates significantly. In the U.K. 10-year survival rates from breast cancer rose from 42% to more than 76% between 1971 and 2018. Survival rates have also improved greatly for melanoma and colon cancer, but not much for cancers of the pancreas, esophagus, and lung. 

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11/11/25 UPDATE              

Re: Chapter 3.5.C. DECENTRALIZATION: SUN AND WIND ARE EVERYWHERE

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Plug-in solar panels, common in Europe, are coming to the U.S. Inexpensive solar panels that plug into an ordinary wall receptacle are popular in Europe, helping to reduce high electrical bills. They are hung on apartment balconies or backyard decks. In the U.S. they face regulatory hurdles. Utah is the first state to pass legislation, in 2025, exempting plug-in panels from costly interconnection requirements that go through the electric utility. Several other states are expected to follow suit.

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9/27/25 UPDATE              

Re: Chapter 9.10. AND KELP FOREST?

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The culprit responsible for the starfish wasting disease that led to the loss of kelp forests has been identified. Researchers have found a bacterium, a strain of Vibrio pectenicida, which infects starfish and causes the disease. The loss of starfish has allowed their sea-urchin prey to multiply and eat up the kelp. The spread of the bacterium is likely aided by warming waters. The discovery will help guide starfish management and recovery efforts. These findings were published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

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6/1/25 UPDATE              

Re: Chapter 9.2. WOLVES AND BIODIVERSITY IN YELLOWSTONE PARK​

 

Biologists find the Yellowstone ecosystems changes following wolf introduction were more complex that a simple wolf-caused cascade of beneficial changes. The elk population did decline, but partly from elk-hunting outside the park. Also beavers were introduced, helping to restore the wetlands. Meanwhile overgrazing by an expanding population of bison off-set some of the gains from fewer elk. Still there is little doubt that re-introduction of wolves contributed to ecosystem recovery.

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5/25/25 UPDATE           

Re: Chapter 8.7. TIRES vs COHO SALMON

 

Scientists have found that the tire additive that kills salmon when tire dust washes off roadways into their habitat, can be effectively filtered out of the water with inexpensive soil mixtures. These mixtures could be spread along the edges of streams to filter out the chemical (6PPD-quinone) before it reaches the salmon.

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4/10/25 UPDATE

Re: Chapter 6.5. PLASTICS BREAK UP: MICRO- AND NANO-PLASTICS

 

Scientists find that polysaccharides that are abundant in fenugreek and okra plants are effective in removing microplastics from water as reported in the American Chemical Society journal Omega