"Climate-anxious" college students are pushing to have low-risk pesticides banned from their campuses. Meanwhile, states that have legalized recreational marijuana use are concerned that their new policy may cause more car accidents. We examine the science behind both stories on episode 14 of the Science Dispatch podcast.
There is some truth to the urban myth that those high on marijuana tend to drive more slowly and at greater distances from other cars, either out of fear of being pulled over or because of some impairment of their perceptions. With eighteen states (and the District of Columbia) legalizing recreational pot, and no ability to determine the presence of marijuana as an intoxicant, there is rising concern about the drug’s impact on traffic accidents and fatalities.
Suffering from "climate anxiety," some of America's entitled college students are working to get low-risk pesticides banned from their campuses, in a bid to slow global warming. They all need therapy and a basic science lesson.