FERN’s Friday Feed: An Everglades scientist on trial Ron DeSantis’s kingdom
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
Why did a powerful Everglades nonprofit sue one of its former scientists?
FERN and The New Republic
“Beloved parks like the Everglades usually offer a chance for feel-good politics; polls show that Americans of all stripes support protections for nature, water especially. In Florida, Democrats and Republicans both clamber to position themselves as the Everglades’ greatest champions. But beneath the veneer of the press releases,” writes Boyce Upholt, “there have always been disagreements over the best approach to conservation—and differences in how willing politicians are to accept inconvenient science. The Everglades Foundation’s case against [Thomas] Van Lent offers a rare glimpse of those tensions, and reveals the extent to which money and power can influence decision-making in the world of conservation.”
Pork, love, and money
Taste
“Angel’s first love was the ocean. He was a born swimmer and a determined fisherman in his beach town, Aguadilla, which is where he got the nickname ‘Piraña,’ for the infamous freshwater omnivore. He learned how to roast pork from his parents, but, just as important, they taught him that selling food could be a lucrative side hustle. When his father wasn’t cutting sugarcane, he’d set up a grill on the beach and barbecue chuletas and freshly caught tuna for locals and tourists. Angel has never worked in a restaurant in any professional capacity, but he is a consummate New York City street entrepreneur, a live-in super in his building up the street from La Piraña who also works as a union HVAC technician five days a week,” writes Abe Beame. “And, during the warm weather months for the last 23 years, on Saturdays and Sundays, he sells roast pork out of a trailer he bought off a friend and modified himself to serve as a makeshift kitchen.”
How 3M execs convinced a scientist ‘forever chemicals’ were safe
ProPublica
“What [Kris] Hansen didn’t know was that 3M had already conducted animal studies — two decades earlier. They had shown PFOS to be toxic,” writes Sharon Lerner, “yet the results remained secret, even to many at the company. In one early experiment, conducted in the late ’70s, a group of 3M scientists fed PFOS to rats on a daily basis. Starting at the second-lowest dose that the scientists tested, about 10 milligrams for every kilogram of body weight, the rats showed signs of possible harm to their livers, and half of them died. At higher doses, every rat died. Soon afterward, 3M scientists found that a relatively low daily dose, 4.5 milligrams for every kilogram of body weight, could kill a monkey within weeks. (Based on this result, the chemical would currently fall into the highest of five toxicity levels recognized by the United Nations.) This daily dose of PFOS was orders of magnitude greater than the amount that the average person would ingest, but it was still relatively low — roughly comparable to the dose of aspirin in a standard tablet.”
The era of the line cook
The New Yorker
“This spring, I went to a dinner in a series called the Line Up, for which line cooks, sous-chefs, and chefs de cuisine from buzzy New York restaurants get to be executive chefs for a night,” writes Hannah Goldfield. “It’s the brainchild of Elena Besser, who is in her thirties and makes a living as a private chef, a caterer, and a culinary contributor to the ‘Today’ show. She has worked the line herself, at Lilia, in Williamsburg. ‘I felt really frustrated that it takes years and years, and many other factors, to get the opportunity to be in the spotlight,’ she told me. ‘Often, individuals leave the industry because they put in all of this time and effort, and are never the ones calling the shots.’”
To foil a deadly pest, scientists aim for a beetle-resistant ash tree
Yale Environment 360
“Emerald ash borer beetles have killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in the U.S. Now, researchers are nurturing ash that can withstand the insects, in the hope of producing resistant seeds that would ensure a future for trees that are a crucial part of Eastern forests … Ash are a crucial component of Eastern forests; in places like north-central Vermont, they make up more than a quarter of the tree canopy,” writes Elizabeth Kolbert. “The trees’ seeds are an important food source for birds and small mammals, and their leaves decompose more quickly than those of trees like oak, so they are key to nutrient recycling. Dozens of insect species depend on ash, and hundreds are associated with ash trees. If these trees are lost, creatures that rely on them could very well be driven to extinction.”