Perhaps unsurprisingly, we can now add bats to the list of those affected by the ever-changing climate, as they’re creatures that tend to travel to warmer areas when temperatures begin to drop.

When they travel, bats usually do so in a swarm consisting of millions. When Mexican free-tailed bats bats migrate from Mexico to the Bracken Cave in San Antonio, Texas, the size of the swarm is so large it can be tracked using weather radar.

Phillip Stepanian and Charlotte Wainwright, two meteorologists from Rathamsted Research in the United Kingdom, recently studied this bat migration by analyzing years of weather radar data. Their research, now published in the journal Global Change Biology, reveals that these bats have been migrating to Texas much earlier than they did decades prior.

“We found that the bats are migrating to Texas roughly two weeks earlier than they were 22 years ago. They now arrive, on average, in mid March rather than late March,” says Wainwright.

Additionally, as of 2017, roughly 3.5 percent of the bat population is staying through the winter. Speaking with InsideClimateNews, Stepanian posited that climate change is causing spring to begin sooner, in turn prompting insects to move to Texas sooner and giving the bats something to eat without having to migrate.

“To us, that sort of says winter conditions are becoming more tolerable and, rather than just going farther south, the bats are saying: We’re going to just hang out in Texas,” continued Stepanian.

The disrupted cycle is expected to have an impact on the natural pest control service bats offer, via their massive consumption of insects, in other parts of the country. This could cause local crops to fail due to the number of remaining insects in the area, which in term could lead to increased pesticides use and potentially more bee deaths.

Even worse, a change in bat migration patterns could change their ability to reproduce. Female bats typically produce one child at a time, and rely on the the corn-earworm moth to feed them. If climate change alters the moth’s life cycle, bats will have to find another source of food.

The Mexican free-tailed bat also isn’t alone. Bat migration changes have been reported in other species and other places, including Nathusius’ pipistrelle bat in the UK, female Indiana bats across the Eastern United States, and multiple species in Amazonian Brazil.

“Our initial goal was just to show that the [bat] populations could be monitored remotely without disturbing the colony,” said Stepanian. “We weren’t expecting to see anything particularly noteworthy. The results were surprising.”

Source: Futurism

One of the world’s leading makers of single-use plastic drinking straws has told Radio 5 Live that the development of more environmentally friendly alternatives is “stuck”.

John Sidanta, chief executive of Primaplast, said he was aware of rising global concern over levels of plastic pollution in oceans and landfills. But he said affordable alternatives had yet to be developed. At the moment, greener straws cost a hundred times more, he said.

Primaplast manufactures up to 600 million polypropylene plastic straws a month from its base in Tangerang, Indonesia, for markets in Europe and Japan, where they are sold alongside cartons of juice, milkshakes and yoghurt drinks.

Despite a useful life of just minutes, traditional plastic straws cannot degrade once disposed of and Mr Sidanta acknowledges their days are probably numbered.

Some firms are already beginning to curb their use. The pub chain JD Wetherspoon and Pizza Express have announced plans to phase them out completely, while other firms, such as All Bar One, say they plan to substantially reduce the availability of plastic straws in their branches. Cornwall may become the first county to ban them from bars and restaurants after a campaign by the group Final Straw Cornwall.

The market for multi-use designer straws made of bamboo, metal or glass, that can retail for several pounds each is growing. But paper alternatives have had a mixed response as they tend to go soggy easily, making them harder to use – particularly for children. Straws can also be made from potato or corn paste, but Mr Sidanta said it has been expensive to develop products from those materials.

“To be as close as possible to plastic materials, this is not an easy job.”

Mr Sidanta points that carton drinks can last up to 18 months, but straws made from alternative materials that could last that long would cost Primaplast up to a hundred times more to manufacture.

Mr Sidanta adds that polypropylene straws are in fact “definitely recyclable”, and in Japan are often reused in other forms of packaging, plastic tiles and even for types of stationery. In other markets this often isn’t done as the lightweight nature of these straws mean that, like banknotes, a huge volume is needed before recycling becomes cost effective.

He believes governments worldwide must decide on clear legislation for the global use of plastic materials in food and drinks and other consumer goods and warns a boycott won’t work.

“We have to be rational… it’s not reasonable enough to say ‘stop using the products’ without a solution,” he said adding, “this is not just about straws… for mainstream restaurants and food outlets, this is all single-use disposable products.”

“We have been looking for the past fifteen years at replacing… polypropylene. We found the materials but the pricing isn’t good enough. It’s a stuck situation. There is no reasonable substitution by far.”

Source: BBC

There’s a crisis going on. A crisis of sperm.

Specifically, there isn’t enough of it — at least, not enough of the high-quality stuff. Scientists haven’t quite been sure why this is the case, but a new study indicates a possible culprit: a chemical found in plastic.

The chemical is one you’ve probably heard of before: Bisphenol A (BPA). It’s been used for decades as a component of plastic takeout containers, water bottles, and the inside of cans. But more recently, researchers have discovered that BPA disrupts the endocrine system. Its presence in the body can do things like cause miscarriages, affect the age at which puberty begins — and, yes, lower sperm counts.

That’s a problem because it seems very difficult to avoid BPA. 93 percent of Americans carry BPA in their bodies. And as BPA-laden plastic makes its way from our landfills to waterways, from oceans to the fish we eat, the chemical will surely be found in more places worldwide.

A new study, published in the British Medical Journal, shows that BPA might be affecting fertility in people as young as teenagers. In the study, led by researchers at University of Exeter in the U.K., looked at the sperm count of 94 British teens between ages 17 and 19. The participants were told to limit their contact with the substance for a week by using glass or stainless steel food containers, and refraining from eating canned food. Even so, 86 percent of them still had trace amounts of BPA in their systems after the week was up.

Participants noted that it was hard to steer clear of BPA because of inconsistent labeling that warned that products might contain the chemical. While this may have had some effect on the results of the study, it reflects the real-world challenge of avoiding the substance in normal circumstances.

While research like this raises concerns, the plastics industry maintains that there is no immediate risk posed by BPA. The World Health Organization, the Food and Drug Administration, and the European Food Safety Authority have all previously approved its usage. However, most countries no longer recommend its use in baby bottles, and it was recently added to the European Chemical Agency’s candidate list of substances of very high concern.

Source: Futurism