Citizen Cartwright

Here comes the Senate climate bill

The draft Democrats will release Wednesday calls for cutting greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, compared with 17 percent in the House bill.

But it doesn't address other issues, effectively postponing for weeks, The Wall Street Journal says, "many of the toughest questions associated with climate legislation, as senators wade deeper into the debate over health care legislation."

The Wall Street Journal

Chemical safety

In a speech at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club on Tuesday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the Obama administration’s goals for a legislative overhaul of the country’s chemical management law, the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA (pronounced "Tosca" — hey San Franciscans, is the great Tosca bar/cafe still there?).

Since passage of the law, EPA "has issued regulations to control only five existing chemicals," Jackson said. "That's five from a universe of almost 80,000."

The chance of enactment of this overhaul? Glenn Ruskin of the American Chemical Society says: "There's general agreement that we need to reform this law. That's very rare that you find such typically disparate groups agreeing."

USA Today 

Environmental Protection Agency release

Nano safety

The Environmental Protection Agency detailed on Tuesday a new research strategy to better understand the way manufactured nanomaterials may harm human health and the environment.

In August, the environmental group Friends of the Earth, Consumers Union and the International Center for Technology Assessment issued a report concluding that "sunscreens containing nanomaterials are not worth the risk."

The New York Times 

Friends of the Earth

Environmental Protection Agency release

Openness

The first thing President Obama did when he took office was to order more openness in government. But agencies still are using the estimated 240 statutes on the books to deny Freedom of Information Act requests, witnesses are expected to say at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

The Associated Press

And privacy

About two-thirds of Americans are against online tracking by advertisers — a number that rises when they learn the ways marketers are tracking where they go online, according to a survey being released Wednesday.

Lawmakers and the Federal Trade Commission are making some moves to act on what's become a hot political issue.

The New York Times

The government says: Eat your vegetables

But people didn't listen to their mothers, and they're not listening to the government, either.

Just 27 percent of U.S. adults eat the recommended amount of vegetables and 33 percent eat the recommended number of fruits, according to surveys from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, no surprise, among high school students, it's worse: Only 13 percent eat the recommended amount of vegetables and 32 percent eat the recommended amount of fruit.

"A diet high in fruits and vegetables is important for optimal child growth, maintaining a healthy weight, and prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, all of which currently contribute to health care costs in the United States," says Dr. William H. Dietz, director of the CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity.

HealthDay News in U.S. News and World Report

What would Mao think?

On Thursday, the Communist Party celebrates the 60th anniversary of its rule over mainland China, having mostly abandoned its Marxist ideals for "socialism with Chinese characteristics" — what Reuters calls a "messy" mix of capitalism and political monopoly. 

Reuters

Also in the news

Iran's conflicting messages Los Angeles Times

U.S. officials cite successes against al Qaeda The Washington Post

SEC watchdog proposes 58 post-Madoff improvements Bloomberg 

IMF cuts its loss forecast BBC News

Dan Rather's suit against CBS dismissed CNN

Americans want to know about nano

Monday was the 20th anniversary of the day Don Eigler, a scientist at IBM, gave birth to the nanotechnology movement when he jiggled a single atom, Fox News says.

Nanotechnology — the ability to make things at the scale of just a few atoms — has the potential to change everything about our daily lives, according to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, a partnership of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

But while nanotechnology and synthetic biology are developing as two of the most exciting areas of scientific discovery, PEN says, the public is almost completely unaware of the science and its applications. And 90 percent of Americans want to know more, according to a PEN survey being released Tuesday.

More than 1,000 nanotech consumer products already are on the market. Nano is in everything from electronics to auto parts to cosmetics and medical products.

Yet little is known about the potential risks of these new materials, PEN says. A study published last year in Nature Nanotechnology suggested that Inhaling carbon nanotubes could be as harmful as breathing in asbestos, and its use should be regulated.

Fox News 

PEN: survey

PEN: consumer products inventory

PEN: risks

Scientific American: nanotubes and asbestos

And about national politics

Americans are paying closer attention to political news than in any year without a presidential election since regular tracking began in 2001, Gallup says.

Republicans are paying the most attention, followed by independents, Gallup says.

Gallup