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Penicillin and other antibiotic "wonder drugs" have save countless lives over the past 70 years. But widespread use is threatening the future effectiveness of these important medications, and there is nothing yet known that could take their place.
Ramanan LaxminarayanAlthough it is doctors who prescribe antibiotics, efforts to reduce their use are better directed primarily toward patients, says Ramanan Laxminarayan, Director of the Center for Disease, Dynamics, Economics and Politics.
An even bigger challenge, Laxminarayansays, lies in curtailing the widespread use of these drugs on animals in our food supply.
The CDDEP's newly unveiled online ResistanceMap be used to chart and compare both the use of classes of antibiotics on a state by state basis, as well as data on the increasing bacterial resistance to these same drugs. The Center will tailor their educational efforts to reduce unnecessary use of these medications based on the geographical consumption patters shown in the data.
The basic reason why widespread overuse of antibiotics is summaraice in this graphic, used courtesy of the University of California Museum of Paleontology's Understanding Evolution (http://evolution.berkeley.edu).
Sonoma County has set an ambitious goal for greenhouse gas reductions by 2015. A new report shows that encouraging progress toward that target is being made.
Ann HancockThe linkage between using less electricity and gasoline and curtailing CO2 emissions is direct and easy to understand. Cutting down the waste stream that goes into the county landfill is also important, explains Ann Hancock, executive director of the Climate Protection Campaign in Santa Rosa, but in more ways that may be immediately obvious.
The new Sonoma County Greenhouse Gas Report for 2011 can be read and downloaded here. The chart cummarizing the progress detailed in the report can be seen below. Used with permission
Economic benefits multiply when dollars re-circulate in the local business community. Creating a form of local money ensures it won't go elsewhere, and that's what Go Local is quietly doing here in Sonoma County.
To maximize ease of use for cardholders, Go Local's Janeen Murray explains, they have developed a user-friendly online system for tracking both spending and progress toward rewards.
The gradual introduction of Go Local's alternative currency program began almost three years ago, and it has been more visibly gaining adherents over the past few months. But Murray says the greater vision includes more than just retail commerce.
For Army "grunt" Bob Whitworth, the war in Viet Nam was 12 long months of danger, stress, fatigue and hardship. Yet he calls his new memoir of those months, "A Story of Hope."
Former infantryman Bob Whitworth titled his autobiographical account of his year on the ground in Viet Nam, Through My Eyes. But he also made a point of adding, in much smaller type, his key subtitle for the book: "A Story of Hope."
Bob Whitworth will be a featured speaker at the Veterans Day Observation in Sonoma Saturday morning. The series of weekend events, billed as the "Cost of Freedom Tribute" also features the traveling 3/5 scale model of the Viet Nam Memorial Wall from the Capitol Mall in Washington D.C. Seeing that, Whitworth says, is a powerful experience.
Widely used chemical pesticides that boost agricultural production and assist in landscape maintenance, may also have serious harmful impacts on developing children.
Emily Marquez, Ph.D.For obvious reasons, it's not possible to conduct studies on these questions with human subjects. But biologist Emily Marquez says the animal-based studies that have been done have a strong track record as accurate predictors of the effects the chemicals have on both children and adults.
You can download the full report, A Generation in Jeopardy, How pesticides are undermining our children's health and intelligence, here.
