Air Date: Week of January 28, 2011

We hear from our listeners.

Transcript

CURWOOD: It’s time now to open our mail.

GELLERMAN: Lots of listeners applauded our conversation with scientist David Suzuki - calling our interview about his vision of the world and our future - “stunning – powerful – galvanizing – and sobering”. Jim Francis wrote on our Facebook page - “Finally, a voice of sanity to remind us that we are overpopulated and getting more so.”

CURWOOD: David Suzuki’s comparison of human demands on the Earth to the exponential growth of bacteria in a test-tube brought back memories for Steven Underwood of Ormond Beach, Florida.

UNDERWOOD: As I tried to educate my high school biology students for over 32years, it is not that our planet does not have enough resources, we have too many people. Until we decrease this population we will continue to use up our finite resources. We have the choice to control this population before nature does. I don’t think that mankind would like Nature’s methods of controlling the human population

GELLERMAN: Many of our listeners found our investigative report on the endocrine disrupting effects of pesticides on sex organs and sexual orientation "disturbing" and "fascinating".

Connie Dodson wrote, " If atrazine has the effects you reported on frogs, and, frogs, rats and humans have the same sex hormones, this is a real problem: too many male baby frogs is one thing, but too many feminized men is a problem….."

Some listeners asked what about these chemicals' effects on female sexual development?

CURWOOD: Good question - and, well, so far there's not much science in this area. But as gynecologist Debra Ravasia wrote from Spokane Washington, "Women have symptoms of high levels of estrogen exposure, too – in this case she cited that breast cancer has increased 30% in the last 30 years, the age of onset of menses is younger in the USA than in other countries, and she notes that the obesity epidemic has correlated with the rise of the hormone disrupters in our food chain…

GELLERMAN: Well, love us or hate us - we always try to give you food for thought - and we're glad to hear from you. Our address is: comments @ L-O-E dot org. – comments@loe.org - or call our listener line – 1-800-218 –9988 – 1-800 - 218 - 99-88 or click on over to our facebook page – it’s P-R-I’s Living on Earth.