Meet David Steinman, an environmental activist, investigative journalist, and author who has worked to expose the dangers of chemical toxins in everyday life. Steinman’s bestselling 1990 book, Diet for a Poisoned Planet, highlighted the hidden chemical dangers in our food. In his latest book, Raising Healthy Kids: Protecting Your Children from Hidden Chemical Toxins, examines how everyday products contribute to this health crisis and offers practical advice for parents to reduce their children’s exposure to these hidden dangers, creating a safer environment for the next generation. Cancer cases in people under 50 increased by 79% between 1990 and 2019, according to several studies and a research report published in Nature found that more than half of the cancers it studied, eight of 14 illness, were related to the digestive system. Highly processed foods and many apparently natural products that are sprayed with pesticides and herbicides not disclosed on labeling, are making us sick.

The rising incidence of childhood illnesses, including developmental and behavioral disorders, which experts increasingly link to environmental factors. For example, exposure to pesticides, particularly organophosphate (OP) pesticides, has been linked to an increase in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reduced cognitive function in children. David’s new book also explores the role of nature in the developing personality and as an antidote for some of the harms chemicals cause in childhood. David explains that parents can be diligent on a budget, so consider adding a water filter on your faucet and filtering the air in your home — inexpensive options available to almost all families — and choose organic produce at the grocery store. Most importantly, you can take action by taking kids outside, writing letters demanding better regulation of chemicals and becoming a citizen enforcer, calling out dangerous toxic products in your community. You can find Raising Healthy Kids: Protecting Your Children from Hidden Chemical Toxins on Amazon and at Powell’s Books.

The answer, according to archaeologists from the University of Colorado Boulder: It’s complicated. In a new study, the team drew on a wide range of evidence — from medical studies of modern equestrians to records of human remains across thousands of years.

The researchers concluded that horseback riding can, in fact, leave a mark on human skeletons, such as by subtly altering the shape of the hip joint. But those sorts of changes on their own can’t definitively reveal whether people have ridden horses during their lives. Many other activities, even sitting for long periods of time, can also transform human bones.

“In archaeology, there are vanishingly few instances in which we can tie a particular activity unequivocally to skeletal changes,” said Lauren Hosek, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at CU Boulder.

She and her colleagues reported their findings Sept. 20 in the journal Science Advances.

The results may have implications for researchers who study the origins of when humans first domesticated horses — and also cast doubt on a long-standing theory in archaeology known as the Kurgan hypothesis.

The first equestrians

The research lies at the center of what is among the old debates in archaeology, said William Taylor, a co-author of the new study and curator of archaeology at the CU Museum of Natural History.

He explained that the earliest, incontrovertible evidence of humans using horses for transport comes from the region around the Ural Mountains of Russia. There, scientists have uncovered horses, bridles and chariots dating back to around 4,000 years ago.

But the Kurgan hypothesis, which emerged in the early 20th century, argues that the close relationship between humans and horses began much earlier. Proponents believe that around the fourth millennium B.C., ancient humans living near the Black Sea called the Yamnaya first began galloping on horseback across Eurasia. In the process, the story goes, they may have spread a primordial version of the languages that would later evolve into English, French and more.

“A lot of our understanding of both the ancient and modern worlds hinges on when people started using horses for transportation,” Taylor said. “For decades, there’s been this idea that the distribution of Indo-European languages is, in some way, related to the domestication of the horse.”

Recently, scientists have pointed to human remains from the Yamnaya culture dating back to about 3500 B.C. as a key piece of evidence supporting the Kurgan hypothesis. These ancient peoples, the group argued, showed evidence of wear and tear in their skeletons that likely came from riding horses.

Hips can lie

But, in the new study, Hosek and Taylor argue that the story isn’t so simple.

Hosek has spent a lot of time poring over human bones to learn lessons about the past. She explained that the skeleton isn’t static but can shift and change shape over an individual’s lifetime. If you pull a muscle, for example, a reaction can emerge at the site where the muscle attaches to the underlying bone. In some cases, the bone can become more porous or raised ridges may form.

Reading those sorts of clues, however, can be murky at best. The hip joint is one example.

Hosek noted that when you flex your legs at the hip for long periods of time, including during long horse rides, the ball and socket of the hip joint may rub together along one edge. Over time, that rubbing can cause the round socket of the hip bone to become more elongated, or oval in shape. But, she said, other activities can cause the same kind of elongation.

Archaeological evidence shows that humans used cattle, donkeys and even wild asses for transport in some areas of western Asia centuries before they first tamed horses. Ancient peoples likely yoked these beasts of burden to pull carts or even smaller, two-wheeled vehicles that looked something like a chariot.

“Over time, this repetitive, intense pressure from that kind of jostling in a flexed position could cause skeletal changes,” Hosek said.

She’s seen similar changes, for example, in the skeletons of Catholic nuns from the 20th century. They never rode horses, but did take long carriage rides across the American West.

Ultimately, Hosek and Taylor say that human remains on their own can’t be used to put a date on when people first started riding horses — at least not with currently available science.

“Human skeletons alone are not going to be enough evidence,” Hosek said. “We need to couple that data with evidence coming out of genetics and archaeology and by looking at horse remains, too.”

Taylor added that the picture doesn’t look good for the Kurgan hypothesis:

“At least for now, none of these lines of evidence suggest that the Yamnaya people had domestic horses.”

Human activities on land and sea, in combination with climate change, are degrading coastal ecosystems, increasing the risk of extinction for multiple species and threatening important ecosystem services that humans depend on. To effectively address these threats, however, it is important to understand where and to what extent human-caused stressors are impacting marine ecosystems.

In a new study, researchers estimated the impact of human activities on more than 21,000 marine animal species worldwide, taking into account their exposure and vulnerability to stressors, including fishing, shipping, and land-based threats. They then mapped the impacts across the global ocean, identifying locations where climate-driven impacts overlap with other human-caused stressors.

The researchers’ analysis showed that even relatively untouched habitats may still be home to species at elevated risk. Additionally, many coastal regions with a high diversity of species may be at greater risk than previously realized, based on earlier studies that focused on habitats, not species. Researchers also found that the impacts from climate change — namely, elevated sea surface temperature and ocean acidification — were greater than other human-caused stressors, regardless of the ecosystem studied.

Corals were the marine group most at risk overall, with molluscs including squid and octopuses, echinoderms like sea stars and sea urchins, and crustaceans such as shrimp, crabs and lobsters also deemed to be at especially high risk.

The results from this work provide a more complete understanding of which species and habitats are at risk, and where conservationists should target their efforts. The researchers hope this data can be combined with socioeconomic information to help prioritize effective, economically efficient and socially equitable conservation actions to benefit both nature and people.

Casey O’Hara adds: “Our species-focused approach helps identify spatially defined practices and activities that most affect at-risk marine species. While blanket protections such as exclusive marine reserves are effective at conserving marine biodiversity, they also can impose economic hardship on locals and provoke political opposition. We believe our work reveals opportunities for politically feasible, cost-effective targeted interventions to reduce biodiversity impacts, such as focused fishing gear restrictions, agricultural improvements to reduce nutrient runoff, and incentives for shipping speed reductions.”

Known as climate-change refugia, these places experience weather conditions that are the most favourable for their survival and could hold the key to reducing species extinctions, ecologists say.

In a new paper authored by scientists from Australia, Canada, the United States and Hungary, the researchers have laid out a framework to identify, protect and restore refugia from climate change.

The paper, published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, calls for an alternative to traditional conservation efforts, which have focused on creating static protected areas.

Conservation biologist and lead author, Associate Professor Gunnar Keppel from the University of South Australia, says the speed and scale at which climate change is progressing demands a new approach.

“Our planet is changing rapidly,” Assoc Prof Keppel says. “Events like the large-scale dieback of trees, mass bleaching of corals on the Great Barrier Reef, unprecedented heatwaves, rapid thawing of glaciers and more frequent fires highlight the potential for major changes in biodiversity and ecosystems.

“The speed and scale of this change is challenging traditional approaches to conservation. For example, traditional protected areas may not shield threatened ecosystems from extreme droughts,” he says.

Instead, vulnerable ecosystems should be assessed along more practical lines to identify the places least impacted by drought stress, for example. It is here that species will have the best chance of resisting climate change, the authors argue.

“However, without support, species in these least impacted places may also struggle to survive as climate change progresses. Support for species could be in various forms, such as providing limited watering to trees in a valley during an extreme drought.

“The degree of management intervention required will depend on how well refugia can resist climate change impacts and on how severely they are affected by other disturbances. Refugia could potentially help to prevent the extinction of numerous species.”

Cotopaxi was built from the ground up to meet high goals, but any company can transform itself; it just takes the first step, beginning the critical self-reflection that thoughtful leaders can apply to their business. A certified B Corporation, Cotopaxi was founded in 2014 in Salt Lake City and is known for its sustainably designed outdoor products, Cotopaxi is a market leader in combining innovative gear with a solid commitment to social and environmental responsibility. And our guest today is Annie Agle, Cotopaxi’s Vice President of Sustainability and Impact. We’ll talk about the company’s strategies for sustainable design, circular economy practices, philanthropic initiatives, and more.

Cotopaxi supports education, housing, healthcare, climate solutions, and employment in impoverished communities, reportedly having helped more than 4.2 million people. The company’s holistic approach to sustainability includes rigorous assessments of environmental, social, and governance risks across its global value chain, and it aims for net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. That includes migrating all its product designs to use recycled, repurposed or responsibly sourced materials by 2025. You can learn more at https://www.cotopaxi.com/

Then, take some time to learn more about the sustainable fashion and outdoor gear movement:

Editor’s Note: This episode originally aired on June 24, 2024.

A diverse, international group of marine researchers and practitioners met to discuss marine identity — based on testimony and photos from multiple countries.

The group included Diz Glithero of the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition, Dr Emma McKinley of Cardiff University who helped deliver the workshop, and others from across Europe, Africa, Indonesia, North America, and Australasia.

They found many common themes, including traditions and customs; and dependency on the ocean for recreation, livelihoods, health and sustenance.

They also found differences, such as negative ways the ocean can form part of identity — particularly for those whose communities and livelihoods are at risk from extreme weather.

The group agreed upon a broad definition of marine identity: “An identity rooted in how the ocean as a place supports the sense of self.” This is the first time that an international, cross-cultural definition of marine identity has been agreed upon.

Dr Pamela Buchan, a marine social science researcher, said: “Challenge 10 of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) calls for the restoration of society’s relationship with the ocean.

“We know identity drives people more than values — and people react to threats to their sense of self.

“As a result, marine identity could have a powerful impact on protecting and restoring the ocean.

“While many people feel deeply connected to the ocean, they may not think of this in terms of ‘marine identity’.”

By helping to define and raise awareness of the term, the researchers hope to promote “marine citizenship” — people exercising their right to be involved in marine decision-making and taking responsibility for the ocean.

Dr Buchan added: “We can foster this by encouraging easy access to the ocean for everyone, from a young age.

“In the UK, for example, as an island nation, many people have a strong marine identity — but often the sea is seen as something remote, to visit then retreat from.

“We see conservation and management of marine resources as a matter for government policy, and we do not have policies that directly enable local stewardship.

“We hope our research will help strengthen the concept of marine identity, empower people to protect the ocean, and encourage decision-makers to actively consider the relationships that people have with the sea.”

The researchers focused on spike-in normalization, a widely-used molecular biology technique that helps ensure accurate and reliable results. Spike-in normalization involves adding a known quantity of chromatin (DNA and the associated proteins) to a sample before it is studied, which helps researchers account for variations between multiple samples being compared to one another. Spike-in normalization is particularly useful for comparing two conditions — such as to evaluate the impact of a drug (comparing treated vs untreated) or a mutation or a deletion in a key gene (comparing normal vs mutant).

By exploring publicly-available datasets that utilize spike-in normalization, the researchers were able to identify common scenarios where spike-in normalization is easily misused and in which building in additional quality control measures and other “guardrails” into the technique could improve results or avoid misinterpretation. By reanalyzing these data and conducting additional experiments of their own, the team was able to develop a list of nine key recommendations for researchers using spike-in normalization that could greatly increase the accuracy of their results. These measures include ensuring consistent quality control steps are taken, following best practices for computational analysis, and validating the results with other analysis techniques.

“Many studies utilize spike-in normalization, and our results call the biological conclusions drawn from this approach into question,” said senior author Alon Goren, Ph.D. “Our recommendations can help account for some of the pitfalls of spike-in normalization so we can still reap the benefits of this valuable technique.”

The study published on September 13, 2024 in Nature Biotechnology and was conducted by Lauren Patel and Yuwei Cao at UC San Diego and Eric Mendenhall, Ph.D. at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. The study was co-led by Alon Goren, Ph.D., and Christopher Benner, Ph.D., both associate professors in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

The results confirm previous studies that the poorest people worldwide bear the greatest economic risks from climate change. Surprisingly, the risk for the wealthy is growing the fastest. Economies in transition like Brazil or China are also highly vulnerable to severe impacts and negative trade effects. Across countries, these countriesface the highest risks due to severe impacts of volatile weather and adverse trade effects.

As the planet continues to warm, these risks are expected to worsen across most countries, with ripple effects along global supply chains, impacting goods and services worldwide.

“In the next 20 years, climate change will increase economic risks from erratic weather,” states PIK scientist Anders Levermann. “The highest risks remain with the poorest around the world. But the increase of economic risk is strongest for the wealthy, in countries like the US and the EU. Consumers all around the world, regardless of their income, will thus face increasing challenges due to global warming — without a transition towards carbon neutrality we will eventually not be able to meet these challenges.”