ApocaDocuments (19) gathered this week:
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Sun, Feb 10, 2008
from Times Colonist:
Killer whales loaded with fire retardant
"They wow tourists and remind people of the mysteries and majesty of the ocean, but killer whales swimming around the waters of Vancouver Island are the most contaminated animals on Earth...Blubber studies on the two salmon-eating populations of resident killer whales -- the endangered southern residents with 88 members and the threatened northern residents with 230 members -- have found a significant buildup of toxins in their systems....A growing concern is the rapid buildup of PBDEs, the chemicals found in fire retardants..." ...
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What's more "killer" than a killer whale? You guessed it: human-made chemicals!
ApocaDoc
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Sun, Feb 10, 2008
from Toronto Star:
The alarming redefinition of 'glacial'
"The Athabasca Glacier, remnant of ice sheets that once enveloped the Canadian Rockies and most of Canada, draws hundreds of thousands of tourists each year who catch a glimpse of what much of North America and Europe probably looked like some 10,000 years ago, the twilight of the last Ice Age...the Athabasca is melting at a faster-than-glacial pace. During the last Ice Age, the Athabasca Glacier -- a river of ice six kilometres long, one kilometre wide, and as deep as 300 metres -- was much deeper and stretched down the valley ... one sign predicts the glacier's disappearance in 100 years."
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It's the newest form of entertainment for the Apocalypse-savvy: watching glaciers retreat.
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Sat, Feb 9, 2008
from University of Alberta:
Barnacles Go To Great Lengths To Mate
"Compelled to mate, yet firmly attached to the rock, barnacles have evolved the longest penis of any animal for their size - up to 8 times their body length - so they can find and fertilize distant neighbours. Graduate student Christopher Neufeld and Dr. Richard Palmer from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta have shown that barnacles appear to have acquired the capacity to change the size and shape of their penises to closely match local wave conditions." ...
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If other species can figure out how to increase the size of their penises by 8 times their body length, why... the sky's the limit!
ApocaDoc
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Sat, Feb 9, 2008
from The Telegraph (UK):
Killer jellyfish population explosion warning
"It could easily have been the role model for the terrifying creature in the film 'Alien'. A perfect toxin-loaded killing machine, there is no creature on earth that can dispatch a human being so easily or so quickly. The box jellyfish is so packed with venom that the briefest of touches can bring agonising death within 180 seconds. And if comes under sustained attack it responds by sending its compatriots into a super-breeding frenzy in which millions of replacements are created. The really bad news is that the box jellyfish and another equally poisonous species, Irukandji, are on the move. Scientists are warning that their populations are exploding and will pose a monumental problem unless they are stopped." ...
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And if these jellyfish ever hook up with the dreaded peanutbutterfish, it will truly signal the end of all hope.
ApocaDoc
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Sat, Feb 9, 2008
from National Geographic:
Human Activities Triggering "Global Soil Change"
"Earth's climate and biodiversity aren't the only things being dramatically affected by humans—the world's soils are also shifting beneath our feet, a new report says....This new era will be defined by the pervasiveness of human environmental impacts, including changes to Earth's soils and surface geology...Earth's soils already show a reduced capacity to support biodiversity and agricultural production." ...
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This is especially problematic given that some people -- in Haiti, for example -- are literally eating soil because they can't afford food.
ApocaDoc
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Sat, Feb 9, 2008
from National Geographic:
Warming Creating Extinction Risks for Hibernators
"When researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab in Crested Butte, Colorado, started documenting marmot hibernation patterns in the 1970s, the animals rarely awoke before the third week of May...These abbreviated hibernations are part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that hibernating animals are waking up earlier -- or not going to sleep at all -- due to rising temperatures from global warming. From chipmunks and squirrels in the Rocky Mountains to brown bears in Spain, these altered slumber patterns are putting animals at risk both of starvation and increased predation, researchers say -- which could bring many species to the brink of extinction." ...
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For poor Yogi it may be over when it's over sooner rather than later.
ApocaDoc
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Sat, Feb 9, 2008
from Houston Chronicle:
Brown pelican population soars
"Celebrating the phoenix-like recovery of the brown pelican, brought to near-extinction 40 years ago by potent insecticides, U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Friday proposed removing the big-beaked coastal bird from the endangered species list. Kempthorne, speaking in Baton Rouge, La., said more than 620,000 of the pelicans now inhabit the U.S. Gulf and Pacific coasts, the Caribbean and Latin America. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Texas Coastal Program counted 3,800 nesting pairs in Texas." ...
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Since the pelican is also a symbol for charity and redemption (Dante, Aquinas, Augustine), this is also good news for Christians -- except for those aching for the Endtimes.
ApocaDoc
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Sat, Feb 9, 2008
from Associated Press:
Device on knee can produce electricity
"Call it the ultimate power walk. Researchers have developed a device that generates electrical power from the swing of a walking person's knee. With each stride the leg accelerates and then decelerates, using energy both for moving and braking...With the device, a minute of walking can power a cell phone for 10 minutes, [Max] Donelan, of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, said in a telephone interview. Other potential uses include powering a portable GPS locator, a motorized prosthetic joint or implanted drug pumps." ...
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Now, if we can just get people to start walking.
ApocaDoc
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Fri, Feb 8, 2008
from Post-Tribune:
Emission increase expected
BP projects it will release 1.5 million to 2 million tons more carbon dioxide -- a greenhouse gas -- after its Whiting expansion is complete in 2011. Carbon dioxide is not a regulated pollutant, which means there's no limit on it in BP's proposed air permit. But BP was among the first corporations to recognize global warming in 1998, and environmentalists question how the 30-40 percent increase fits with BP's corporate image of reducing greenhouse gases. ...
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This just confirms our theory that BP may stand for Butt Plug. Or is that "Better Pretenses?"
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Fri, Feb 8, 2008
from Nature:
Poor Projections
"The extent to which sea level could rise by 2100 is greatly underestimated in current models, suggests a new study, highlighting the risk faced by coastal areas and island nations. Radley Horton at Columbia University, US, and colleagues estimated that sea level could rise by 54 to 89 centimetres by the end of the century, in contrast to the latest estimate by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of 18 to 59 centimetres." ...
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Seriously, by 2100 will anyone even care?
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Fri, Feb 8, 2008
from The Daily Green:
The Seed of Deadly Tornadoes
"Temperatures as much as 25 degrees higher than normal set the stage for the deadly tornadoes that descended on the American south, leading to death, injuries and destruction in Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee ... Is this another global warming harbinger?" ...
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Not to mention these tornadoes spirited away a couple of voters to Oz.
ApocaDoc
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Fri, Feb 8, 2008
from Salt Lake Tribune, via Scripps:
Carbon dioxide could saturate seas first, kill plant life that supplies oxygen
"Greenhouse emissions' warming effect on the atmosphere is bad enough, but their bigger threat is the ecological chaos they are causing as the world's oceans become more acidic, according to a marine scientist. Oceans are absorbing the glut of atmospheric carbon dioxide -- stemming from two centuries of rampant burning of fossil fuels -- at the rate of 1 million metric tons an hour. Reacting with seawater, the absorbed carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid and throws marine chemistry out of whack. Without a major effort to curb emissions, massive die-off will occur in coral reefs, the shells of crucial mollusk species will dissolve and key marine plant life, which produces half the world's atmospheric oxygen, will disappear..." ...
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This article covered a visiting lecturer Marcia McNutt, a geophysicist who heads California's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. We bet everybody went out drinking after this cheery talk.
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Thu, Feb 7, 2008
from Thaindian News:
Environmental toxins may be linked to early onset of puberty in girls
"A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Pisa in Italy has suggested a link between environmental toxins and early onset of puberty in girls. The paper suggests that certain environmental toxins, such as the mycoestrogen zearalenone (ZEA) produced by the Fusarium fungus species, might disrupt the normal growth and hormonal development of girls." ...
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Hmm... I wonder what the other toxins that we put into the environment...
naaaa.
ApocaDoc
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Want more context?
Try reading our book FREE online:
Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
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Thu, Feb 7, 2008
from Associated Press:
Study: Ethanol may add to global warming
"The widespread use of ethanol from corn could result in nearly twice the greenhouse gas emissions as the gasoline it would replace because of expected land-use changes, researchers concluded Thursday. The study challenges the rush to biofuels as a response to global warming. The researchers said that past studies showing the benefits of ethanol in combating climate change have not taken into account almost certain changes in land use worldwide if ethanol from corn -- and in the future from other feedstocks such as switchgrass -- become a prized commodity." ...
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Could it be the solution is to simply stop driving cars?
ApocaDoc
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Thu, Feb 7, 2008
from India News:
Two billion face water famine as Himalayan glaciers melt
"New Delhi: Two billion people face acute water shortage this century as Himalayan glaciers melt due to global warming. [Sayed I. Hasnain of the Centre for Policy Research] said the little work that had been done predicted that there would be a 20-30 percent increase in the water flow of the Ganges in the next four decades as the glaciers feeding the river melted, followed by a severe water shortage." ...
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In four decades we can surely think of some solution: how about the Bottled Water Brigade comes to the rescue!
ApocaDoc
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Wed, Feb 6, 2008
from Charleston City Paper:
Should we be taxed for eating animals?
"The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization found in 2006 that livestock production generates 18 percent of greenhouse gases worldwide -- more than the entire transportation sector of cars, trucks, planes, and ships combined. Cows constantly belch methane from their four stomachs, and lagoons of pig effluent release the gas into the air. Much of the world's beef comes from deforested areas (70 percent of former Amazon rainforest is now used for cattle grazing), a one-two punch from the loss of carbon dioxide-absorbing trees and the addition of more animals. Meat and dairy production is predicted by the U.N. to double in the next 40 years, a growth PETA feels could be abated by a 10-cent tax on each pound of meat." ...
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Surely this 10 percent increase would do wonders for the animals' self-esteem.
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Wed, Feb 6, 2008
from The Washington Post:
Dust Storms Overseas Carry Contaminants to U.S.
"...with NASA satellites and sampling by researchers around the world, scientists know that great billowing clouds of dust waft over the oceans in the upper atmosphere, arriving in North America from deserts in Africa and Asia. Scientists are beginning to look at these dust clouds as possible suspects in transcontinental movement of diseases such as influenza and SARS in humans, or foot-and-mouth disease in livestock. Until recently, epidemiologists had looked at people, animals and products as carriers of the diseases." ...
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NEWS FLASH, dude -- we are all connected.
ApocaDoc
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Tue, Feb 5, 2008
from AP (via Yahoo):
Navy must comply with no-sonar rule
"Scientists have said loud sonar can damage the brains and ears of marine mammals, and may mask the echoes from natural sonar that some whales and dolphins use to locate food.
The president signed a waiver Jan. 15 exempting the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from the injunction, arguing they are vital to the nation's national security." ...
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Sonar has been around since the end of WW I, awhile before we realized it was like blasting a siren into both human ear canals and expecting the victim to echolocate its lunch. Glad one judge recognizes that we share the earth, rather than own it.
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Tue, Feb 5, 2008
from PNAS, via Yahoo News:
Tipping points on many horizons
"Tipping elements in the tropics, the boreal zone, and west Antarctica are surrounded by large uncertainty," they wrote, pointing to more potential abrupt shifts than seen in a 2007 report by the U.N. Climate Panel.
A projected drying of the Amazon basin, linked both to logging and to global warming, could set off a dieback of the rainforest.
"Many of these tipping points could be closer than we thought," lead author Timothy Lenton, of the University of East Anglia in England, told Reuters of the study. ...
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Tipping ever faster.
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Other
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