Gut check: Major new research is the first to link bisphenol A to obesity in children. (The chemical, which is found in water bottles and canned food liners, has previously been linked to weight gain in animals and adults.) An odd result that the study authors from New York University aren't sure how to explain: white children seem particularly susceptible to BPA, while black and Hispanic children showed little impact. But the study found that white children exposed to high levels of BPA are five times more likely to be obese than children with low levels. Enivronmental Health News
Shelling out: If it weren't so damn tragic, we’d call Shell Oil’s struggles in the Actic Sea a comedy of errors. After just a couple weeks of feckless attempts at drilling the first Arctic offshore wells in decades, the company is packing up and retreating to warmer climes. If we were optimists, we’d say that maybe Big Oil is learning from its mistakes. But ... nah! New York Times, Mother Jones
Patience, Shell: If only it would wait a few years, Shell might have unobstructed access to the Arctic oil spoils. At least one of the world’s preeminent ice experts is predicting the “final collapse” of Arctic sea ice in a mere four or five years. Guardian
WTF PBS? On last night’s episode of News Hour, PBS kept alive the long, ignoble journalistic tradition of “false balance” when it comes to climate change. While the segment cited the statistics -- 97 percent of climate scientists support the reality of anthropogenic climate change -- it then gave equal air time to big-name climate deniers like Anthony Watts, and is even featuring an extended interview with the oft-debunked former TV weatherman on its blog. DeSmogBlog, Climate Progress
Hot rod: Halliburton is offering a reward for a seven-inch radioactive rod that it somehow lost in transit between oil well sites in the Texas desert. Two questions left unanswered by this report: how, exactly, is a radioactive rod used in oil drilling? And how they heck are you supposed to retrieve the rod for the reward if everyone is warned to stay 25 feet away from it? Guardian
Migrant warmers: Don’t think of “climate migration” as just a modern-day phenomenon. Anthropologists believe that humans first shuffled out of northeastern Africa only after the climate had cooled a bit and they were able to cross the Middle Eastern deserts. NPR
Paging Ziggy Stardust: Not only is there water on Mars, but it also snows. NASA has found the fluffy stuff at “blizzard-level depths” on the planet’s southern polar region during the Martian winter. But should interplanetary tourism ever become a reality, don’t try to catch this snow on your tongue -- it’s not made of water, but carbon dioxide, which forms into flakes in the –125ºC temperatures. TIME
RIP: Russell Train, the second administrator of the EPA and longtime champion of the environment, died Monday. Train embodied the conservative ethic of conservation, was appointed by President Nixon, and had his hand in many of our most fundamental environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act, Toxic Substance Control Act, and Endangered Species Act. Associated Press
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