In the Garden: Amphibians like this toad are especially
vulnerable to environmental toxins. Frogs, Ethanol, Herbicides,
and Why We Should Care Although the authenticity of Chief
Seattle's famous "All Things Are Connected" speech is disputed,
the underlying principle rings true: Whatever man does to the
web of life on Earth, he does to himself. A story I recently
read in ScienceNews reminded me of this. Biologists have been
alarmed at declining amphibian populations for several decades,
with some species showing bizarre deformities such as extra or
missing limbs. Numerous species are near extinction, and
scientists can only speculate on how many undiscovered
amphibians have already been lost. Conservation groups declared
2008 the Year of the Frog to raise awareness about the problem.
Researchers have suspected that farm chemicals, specifically
herbicides, might somehow be involved but it wasn't until
recently that a direct link was made. A Decade-Old Dilemma In
the mid 1990s, scientists noted high rates of lim