Day of Vestiges, 56th of Spring 526 M.E. (Castor):  A man in Washington D.C. fired a gun at the White House correspondents' dinner in the vicinity of numerous journalists, who got a first-hand taste of the terror schoolchildren and others across America have been experiencing on a daily basis for years. Watching the Sunday morning news shows, you'd think the journalists were only just now realizing that the proliferation of handguns has made America a dangerous place.   

Speaking of danger, the two wildfires in South Georgia have now destroyed more than 120 homes and continue to threaten property and lives.  The fires are a result of a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, and dead trees still littering forests after being toppled by Hurricane Helene in 2024.

The Highway 82 fire has been burning since Monday and has destroyed at least 87 homes. The fire started when a foil balloon hit a power line, creating an electrical arc that ignited combustible material on the ground. The fire now covers more than 14.8 square miles and it is only about 10% contained.

The Pineland Road fire near the Florida state line has burned more than 46.9 square miles and destroyed at least 35 homes. Started by sparks from a welding operation, that wildfire was also about 10% contained as of yesterday.

An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring all across the south-eastern U.S.  Firefighters have been battling more than 150 other wildfires in Georgia and Florida that have sent smoky haze into places far from the flames, triggering air quality warnings for some cities.

Warming temperatures and heat stress, among other issues associated with climate change, can affect human hormones and fertility. Research published in the journal Emerging Contaminants found that the impacts of climate change, coupled with simultaneous exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals commonly found in plastic, likely generates a synergistic effect that increases reproductive harm and may contribute to the global drop in fertility.

Sperm levels among men in western countries has decreased by more than 50% over four decades. Human fertility has been diminishing at a similar rate as the world approaches a low-fertility future, with more than three quarters of countries falling below replacement rates by 2050. 

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and substances, including microplastics, bisphenol, phthalates, and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), cause a range of reproductive issues. Phthalates have been linked to reduced sperm counts in humans and PFAS are thought to impact sperm quality. Both are linked to hormone disruption and are commonly found in consumer goods.

However, ICE is planning a detention facility (i.e., concentration camp) for children and families on the former England Air Force Base in Alexandria, Louisiana. Groundwater testing at former firefighting training areas there have found PFAS at levels as high as 41,000,000 parts per trillion (ppt), vastly higher than the federal drinking-water limits of 4 to 10 ppt.  Military bases are commonly contaminated with PFAS, but England’s groundwater had the highest levels ever recorded, making it among the most PFAS-contaminated sites in the US. Groundwater was also contaminated by the carcinogen trichloroethylene (TCE) and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs).    

Groundwater is not used as a drinking-water source at the base, but exposure to PFAS in the shallow groundwater can still occur at springs and seeps and during flood events. Also, the contaminants can spread to soil, affecting children playing outdoors and anyone inhaling dust. Further, the contaminants, particularly TCE and other VOCs, can vaporize and mix with air, affecting anyone and anything that breathes. 

In happier news, a big-game hunter from California was trampled to death last week by an elephant in central Africa.