I need a reaction peper for an environmental science class of one page - Essay Example

The accessibility of information on matters that affect the environment and our overall health is the beginning of Prof. Tyrone Hayes’ lecture. Thisis a significant argument to point out as it directly affects our knowledge of the findings in science and how this translates into our everyday existence. The simple truth is that science does matter. More than this we have been dependent upon science from the beginning of time, though in a cruder standard, to shape our decision-making in what we do and in what we do not do.

A pressing problem exists when the very agencies and people that are supposed to protect and to inform us intentionally obstruct or alter information. The study of Dr. Hayes on the effects of Atrazine in frogs is a corollary on an accurate prediction of what could happen on humans. He takes on an almost renegade approach as he goes against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and drug companies for the banning of Atrazine. This herbicide which is used for 80 million lbs. a year in the United States, as he has illustrated, was already banned in many other countries.

The primary findings that he proposes are the effects of Atrazine on frogs in different ecological areas including creating controlled groups. He concluded that the frogs exposed have increase in hormonal imbalance and chemically castrating frogs same as how other chemicals cause tumors in rats. Male frogs are actually growing eggs in their testes and they are taking a longer time to metamorphose. This is significant because this can also happen to humans as we drink the very same water exposed to Atrazine.

It is undeniable that these same effects already exist in our system and this has a generational effect. I ardently believe that in the largeer scale of things, “it is better to err on the side of caution.” To the end of his talk, Prof. Hayes insisted that it is still the people who now have the power to stop this and in this case time is of the essence. Bibliography From Silent Spring to Silent Night. Prof. Tyrone Hayes. 2007. Youtube. Web. 20 Apr. 2011.