Not all herbicides and pesticides concentrate in the ecosystem, but some do, and among the prime offenders is DDT, which (contrary to right-wing propaganda) is still a problem in the United States today, decades after the corporation that made it in Southern California stopped manufacturing it.
In a first-rate story from a week ago in the Ventura County Star, Zeke Barlow explains:
Although the company that made DDT stopped dumping it into the
Pacific Ocean off the Palos Verdes peninsula more than 38 years ago,
the chemical is still damaging the ecosystem today and will continue to
do so for decades.
The DDT dumping grounds is more than 70 miles south of Ventura
County, but the long hand of the chemical is still felt in birds
swimming off our shores. DDT exposure causes egg shells to become so
thin that they crack during incubation.
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a series of
remediations off the Palos Verdes peninsula that could help reduce the
amount of DDT in the ecosystem by dumping thousands of tons of sand on
top of the contaminated area. It could reduce the amount of DDT that
creeps into the food chain.
But even if the $36.6 million project is approved and deemed a success, it doesn’t mean DDT will be out of the ecosystem.
“We are hoping to see an acceleration in recovery, but we are still
talking decades,” said Carmen White, project manager with the EPA. “The
idea that it could take a long time is disheartening, but it’s a
reality.”
Need more evidence of DDT's harm? Here's a study compiling evidence gathered by researchers around the world. The bottom line?
Yikes.
Kit Stolz 
This was very interested and informative. However, you neglected to mention Autodesk’s products (Inventor, AutoCAD, Showcase), which seems to be an oversight. Also, at Autodesk University I recently heard of a new 3D holographic technology that could be used in place of 3D printing. Not sure if it has a place in this article but thought I would mention it. Overall a very nice and effective job.
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