Common Weed Killer Causes Male Frogs to Become Female.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday. The experiment is the first to show such complete effects of atrazine, which had been known to disrupt hormones and which is one of the chief suspects in the decline of amphibians such as frogs around the world.

The European Union banned atrazine in 2004. The finding may add pressure to the United States to more closely regulate the chemical, used widely in agriculture."Approximately 80 million pounds (36,287 tonnes) are applied annually in the United States alone, and atrazine is the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water," the researchers wrote.

Green Man: And we wonder why Autism and other mental illnesses are on the rise? I know some studies have shown that chemicals have no effect on Autism but how can it not have some influence when these chemicals are shown to reverse the sexual traits of other animals??? Atrazine is also implicated as a causal factor in breast cancer. I know people who will say, "Oh it's just a damn frog." Yeah? Well, ever hear of something called, "the food chain?" These frogs are acting as our "canary in the coal mine." For those who don't know, miners use to take canaries into the mines to warn them of toxic gases being released. The birds would always be effected first and more easily so if the canaries were acting weird or died then they knew it was time to get the hell out of the mine. If the frogs are getting messed up then it doesn't take a scientist to tell you that sooner or latter--humans are next. If not already being effected.

Green lawns all over the country are in general bad for the environment in my view. They require ridiculous amounts of water and toxic chemicals to fertilize and kill weeds. We have been in continuous droughts out here in the West and green lawns are partly to blame. They are not native to Colorado, nor many other places around the country. I would love to see a law passed that requires all home-owners to xeriscape their properties, (click here to read more about xeriscaping) with native grasses, plants and flowers. I have seen some really beautiful xeriscaped landscapes around the state and country, so I don't buy the argument that such landscapes aren't as "attractive."

There is this house (unfortunately I don't have a picture) in near by Boulder, Colorado near my former psychologists house that has a xeriscaped yard full of Colorado wildflowers, Aspen trees and a lot of other native species in their landscape. It is a really gorgeous set-up that looks like they have a mountain meadow as a front and back yard. The best part though for me is that they have a front walk way that's just a little wandering dirt path and snakes its way through the wild flowers, wild grasses and Aspen trees all the way up to their front door. It's just like up in the mountains and they hardly use any water at all, and it hides their front door and window a bit for some nice privacy.

~The Green Man has spoken~