Sun, Mar 23, 2008 from Guardian (UK): The Big Picture of Biology Breach Rivers of dead fish, 100-acre rubbish dumps, smog-filled skies – are these the world's worst environmental black spots? Eight photos of how we're overwhelming the earth. ...
Sun, Mar 23, 2008 from ZDNet: The lightbulb of the future? Silicon Valley's Luxim has developed a lightbulb the size of a Tic Tac that gives off as much light as a streetlight. News.com's Michael Kanellos talks to the company about its technology and its plans to expand into various markets. ...
Great! Now work on solar energy of an equivalent 10:1 ratio of efficiency!
Sat, Mar 22, 2008 from DailyKos Diary: Early look at 2008 Arctic sea ice levels In December a scientist on an icebreaker there described it as "styrofoam in a bath tub."
The big unknown is whether atmospheric conditions (reduced cloudiness and increased air temps) will aid the melting as they did in 2007. If they do, expect a big melt beyond last year's. I hesitate to say that a complete loss is possible, but based on the present conditions we could well see the main pack split in two for the first time. ...
Hoo-ee! How soon before cruise ships are going from Halifax to Alaska? Don't miss NASA's images to accompany the teleconference call.
Sat, Mar 22, 2008 from FishUpdate.com: North Sea protected area network would devastate industry, claims trade body According to the WWF UK report, published today, a network of marine reserves, that cover at least 30 per cent of the North Sea, is needed to help rebuild populations of many fish species, and protect the habitats upon which these, and other species depend.
In the report, 'A Return to Abundance: A Case for Marine Reserves in the North Sea', WWF-UK suggests a network of five experimental marine reserves that it says will improve the sustainability of fisheries, protect biodiversity, and help establish a healthy ecosystem....
Describing the proposals as "flawed", Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen�s Federation said "The sweeping assumption is made that very large fixed marine protected areas would prove beneficial in the North Sea based on evidence gained from elsewhere. Such an assumption cannot safely be made, given the unique nature of the mixed fisheries in the North Sea." ...
What a laughable concept: using evidence from elsewhere to protect a common resource. Besides, the fish are getting more valuable all the time!
Sat, Mar 22, 2008 from Mongabay.com: Markets could save forests: An interview with Dr. Tom Lovejoy "Market mechanisms are increasingly seen as a way to address environmental problems, including tropical deforestation. In particular, compensation for ecosystem services like carbon sequestration -- a concept known by the acronym REDD for "reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation" -- may someday make conservation a profitable enterprise in which carbon traders are effectively saving rainforests simply by their pursuit of profit. Protecting rainforests and their resident biodiversity would be an unintentional, but happy byproduct of money-making endeavors." ...
We haven't been impressed with the market system's results so far, but heck, let's give it a try!
Sat, Mar 22, 2008 from London Independent: Water will be source of war unless world acts now, warns minister "The world faces a future of "water wars", unless action is taken to prevent international water shortages and sanitation issues escalating into conflicts, according to Gareth Thomas, the International Development minister.
The minister's warning came as a coalition of 27 international charities marked World Water Day, by writing to Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies. "If we do not act, the reality is that water supplies may become the subject of international conflict in the years ahead," said Mr Thomas. "We need to invest now to prevent us having to pay that price in the future."
His department warned that two-thirds of the world's population will live in water-stressed countries by 2025. The stark prediction comes after the Prime Minister said in his national security strategy that pressure on water was one of the factors that could help countries "tip into instability, state failure or conflict". ...
Apparently, the International Development minister doesn't travel much, or else he'd know that water is already the source of wars and conflict in numerous places. The Global Policy Forum identifies "50 countries on five continents" as hotspots for trouble
Sat, Mar 22, 2008 from Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: FDA relied on industry studies to judge safety "Ignoring hundreds of government and academic studies showing a chemical commonly found in plastic can be harmful to lab animals at low doses, the Food and Drug Administration determined the chemical was safe based on just two industry-funded studies that didn't find harm. In response to a congressional inquiry, Stephen Mason, the FDA's acting assistant commissioner for legislation, wrote in a letter that his agency's claim relied on two pivotal studies sponsored by the Society of the Plastics Industry, a subsidiary of the American Chemistry Council. ...
Those foxes at the FDA are watching the henhouse while scratching each other's backs.
Sat, Mar 22, 2008 from Toronto Globe and Mail: Wal-Mart move 'a powerful symbol' for organic "Organic food proponents will remember Thursday as the day the ground shifted.
Giant food retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced that its store brand milk in the United States will now come exclusively from cows not treated with artificial growth hormones. The move sends a powerful signal to food manufacturers about the growing mainstream demand for health food products. With Wal-Mart already the largest retailer of organic milk in the U.S., it has been clear that consumers interested in greener food products are no longer the narrow group of back-to-the-earth types and wealthy urban yuppies. "It's reached the tipping point," said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association in the U.S., who has spent years campaigning against the use of hormones designed to boost milk production by up to 15 per cent in dairy cows. ...
Cows and tipping have long gone hand and hand here in the Midwest.
Sat, Mar 22, 2008 from US Fish and Wildlife Service: White-Nose Syndrome in Bats (video)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species biologist Susi von Oettingen talks about white-nose syndrome in bats and investigates a hibernaculum in an abandoned mine and the area around it. ...
Fri, Mar 21, 2008 from Guardian (UK): Glaciers melting at fastest rate in past 5,000 years Experts have been monitoring 30 glaciers around the world for nearly three decades and the most recent figures, for 2006, show the biggest ever 'net loss' of ice. Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told The Observer that melting glaciers were now the 'loudest and clearest' warning signal of global warming.
The problem could lead to failing infrastructure, mass migration and even conflict. 'We're talking about something that happens in your and my lifespan. We're not talking about something hypothetical, we're talking about something dramatic in its consequences,' he said. ...
Fri, Mar 21, 2008 from Globe and Mail/AP (Canada): Dengue epidemic hits Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro: An outburst of dengue has killed at least 47 people -- and perhaps twice that -- in Rio de Janeiro state this year, officials said Thursday, announcing a hot spot in a hemispheric outbreak that sickened nearly 1 million people in 2007.
State officials said 51 cases are being reported every hour as the outbreak strains public hospitals' capacity... Brazil had more than half of the 900,782 cases of dengue in the Americas last year, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Of the hemisphere's 317 deaths, 158 came in Brazil, including 31 in Rio state. ...
Thankfully, it's happening down there, not "up here."We're sure that will remain the case.
Fri, Mar 21, 2008 from Science Daily (US): Dissolved Organic Matter May Influence Coral Health The composition of dissolved organic matter surrounding Florida Keys coral reefs has likely changed in recent decades due to growing coastal populations.
Bacterial communities endemic to healthy corals could change depending on the amount and type of natural and man-made dissolved organic matter in seawater, report researchers... "When coastal ecosystems are physically altered, the natural flow of dissolved organic material to nearby coral ecosystems is disrupted with potentially harmful consequences for the corals," said Shank, assistant professor of marine science. ...
Unlike dogs, it looks like coral systems don't like rolling in shit. Strange. Isn't that a nutrient?
Wed, Mar 19, 2008 from Montgomery Advertiser: Climatologist says global warming not alarming, carbon fuels not to blame "The Earth is getting warmer, but Alabama's state climatologist says carbon fuels aren't to blame. John Christy, who heads the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama- Huntsville, told a group of civic and business leaders Tuesday that the Earth's warming is well within historical ranges. He spoke at the Energy and Environment Lecture sponsored by Auburn Montgomery and Alabama Power Co. Carbon dioxide levels have increased 38 percent in the last 100 years, Christy said, leading to an increase in the average surface temperature of about 1.26 degrees. Even if carbon dioxide doubled, temperatures would increase only about 3.6 degrees, according to Christy." ...
So, a lecture by Dr. Christy, sponsored by the Alabama Power Co....What did you think the guy was going to say?
Wed, Mar 19, 2008 from The Washington Post (US): Perennial Arctic Ice Cover Diminishing, Officials Say "The amount of long-lasting sea ice in the Arctic -- thick enough to survive for as much as a decade -- declined sharply in the past year, even though the region had a cold winter and the thinner one-year ice cover grew substantially, federal officials said yesterday.... The surprising drop in perennial ice makes the fast-changing region more unstable, because the thinner seasonal ice melts readily in summer." ...
Makes the cliche "skating on thin ice" particularly appropriate.
Wed, Mar 19, 2008 from Contra Costa Times: UN: Indonesia failing in bird flu fight "JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Efforts to contain bird flu are failing in Indonesia, increasing the possibility that the virus may mutate into a deadlier form, the leading U.N. veterinary health body warned. The H5N1 bird flu virus is entrenched in 31 of the country's 33 provinces and will cause more human deaths, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement released late Tuesday. "I am deeply concerned that the high level of virus circulation in birds in the country could create conditions for the virus to mutate and to finally cause a human influenza pandemic," FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said. " ...
Now we know what Chicken Little meant: Those are birds falling out of the sky.
Wed, Mar 19, 2008 from Reuters: Investors warm to water as shortages mount " LONDON (Reuters) - As liquidity is drained from credit and money markets and pours into oil and gold, another asset class that could offer long-term returns to the discerning investor is water. Water shortages are on the rise -- stemming from soaring demand, growing populations, rising living standards and changing diets. A lack of supply is compounded by pollution and climate change. Investors are mobilizing funds to buy the assets that control water and improve supplies, especially in developing countries such as China where urban populations are booming, further tightening supply." ...
Gives the phrase liquid cash a whole new meaning, doesn't it?
Wed, Mar 19, 2008 from Associated Press, via PhysOrg: Global warming rushes timing of spring "WASHINGTON - The capital's famous cherry trees are primed to burst out in a perfect pink peak about the end of this month. Thirty years ago, the trees usually waited to bloom till around April 5. In central California, the first of the field skipper sachem, a drab little butterfly, was fluttering about on March 12. Just 25 years ago, that creature predictably emerged there anywhere from mid-April to mid-May....Pollen is bursting. Critters are stirring. Buds are swelling. Biologists are worrying. "The alarm clock that all the plants and animals are listening to is running too fast," Stanford University biologist Terry Root said. Blame global warming. ...
So in other words.... spring is having a premature ejaculation!
Wed, Mar 19, 2008 from The Adirondack Daily Enterprise: Bat die-off is serious Of the nearly 20 caves and mines that state Department of Environmental Conservation biologist Al Hicks is aware of the DEC surveying this winter, all but three had bats with white-nose syndrome in them, he said. That breaks down to about 400,000 bats affected.
"It's almost everything we have," Hicks said. "It's about as bad as we can get."
The mortality rate of bats with white-nose syndrome is 90 to 97 percent, Hicks said.... "a progression that is much faster than expected..." Darling estimated that, if half a million bats died, "that would add up to two billion insects per night that would not get eaten." ...
Break out the DEET and protect your woolens. That's serious buggage.
Tue, Mar 18, 2008 from Agence France-Press: Japanese baseball joins fight against global warming "TOKYO -- Japanese professional baseball players have vowed to shorten playing time per game as part of the national pastime's contribution to the fight against global warming. They will aim to cut playing time by six percent, or 12 minutes, from the average of three hours and 18 minutes per game, the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) commissioners' office said. "When a professional baseball game is staged, a huge amount of carbon dioxides, a cause of global warming, is discharged because it requires use of energy to move players and spectators, supply electricity for lighting and other purposes and dispose of food and drink waste," NPB said in a statement." ...
Hey, this could work out great in the United States, too! Less steroid use...less innings to play...
Tue, Mar 18, 2008 from USA Today: Drought eases, water wars persist "It's raining again in the Southeast. Much of the drought-parched region has been deluged recently by winter downpours, including weekend storms that battered the downtown business district and a swath of north Georgia. The drought has not ended, but it has eased across most of the region, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor and the National Weather Service.... Now comes a tougher challenge: resolving new and long-standing disputes over water that some experts say could hamper the region's emergence as an economic and population powerhouse. In a part of the nation where water shortages have not traditionally been an issue, it's difficult to tell whether even a historic drought has made a lasting difference, some scholars say. "The Southeast has not yet come to grips with the fact that it has a water problem, that it needs to plan for its water usage, that it can't take for granted that all the water it needs will always be there," says Robin Craig, a law professor and water expert at Florida State University's College of Law. ...
Sounds like an intervention would be helpful. Where is our Dr. Phil for environment issues?
Tue, Mar 18, 2008 from Hartford Courant: Carbon Dioxide Up For Sale "For the first time in the U.S., carbon dioxide goes on sale in September — and the bidding will start at $1.86 a ton. A consortium of 10 states, including Connecticut, said Monday it will hold the first auction of carbon emissions "allowances" on Sept. 10, part of a plan to curb greenhouse gases from the region's power plants and slow global warming. Subsequent auctions will be held quarterly, and power plant operators — who until now have been able to emit without paying — will have until the end of 2011 to acquire enough credits to account for all of their CO{-2} emissions. "It's a new model not just for the region but for the nation," said state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Gina McCarthy. "It's a way we can make greenhouse gas reductions achievable but do it in way that costs are contained, that protects the interests of the consumer." ...
Kinda reminds us of the birth of our nation, when all of New England and states south of it banded together.
Tue, Mar 18, 2008 from Associated Press: Dioxin cleanup near Dow Chemical plant remains on slow track "More than a century after Dow Chemical Co. began dumping dioxins into a river flowing past its mid-Michigan plant, the company and regulators are still debating how to cleanse a swath of waters and wetlands that now reaches 50 miles to Lake Huron. Dow acknowledges tainting the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers, their floodplains, portions of the city of Midland and Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay with dioxins -- chemical byproducts believed to cause cancer and damage reproductive and immune systems. But the company says it must finish measuring how much pollution exists -- and where -- before devising a cleanup plan. Government officials are pushing Dow to move faster, as some local residents forge ahead with a lawsuit against the chemical giant." ...
Mon, Mar 17, 2008 from USA Today: Belize coral reef: gorgeous but threatened A potent mix of coastal development, tourism, overfishing, pollution and climate change has damaged an estimated 40 percent of the Belize reef system, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that attracts more than a third of Belize's 850,000 annual visitors.
A recent string of "bleaching events" — where vibrantly hued coral turn a skeletal white — occurred when a spike in water temperatures that scientists associate with global warming expelled symbiotic algae living inside corals.
Worldwide, experts calculate that nearly 50 percent of coral reefs are under imminent or long-term threat of collapse through human pressures; 20 percent have been destroyed.... But the island's dense mangroves and coastal forests, onetime shelters for jaguars, crocodiles and juvenile fish bound for the coral reef a half-mile offshore, are giving way to condos and resorts that have drawn the likes of John Grisham and the stars of the 2001, Ambergris-based reality show Temptation Island. ...
Belize? Belize? That's supposed to be untouched paradise! What is going on in this world!?
Mon, Mar 17, 2008 from NDTV: State media reports outbreak of bird flu in China Bird flu has broken out in the south of China, killing more than 100 poultry, state media reported on Sunday, citing the agriculture ministry.
The outbreak occurred in a market in Guangzhou, in Guangdong province on Thursday, and was a "highly pathogenic" subtype of the H5N1 influenza virus, which can be deadly to humans, the report said.
A further 500 birds were culled and the disease was under control after emergency measures were taken. ...
To be, or not to be: Whether 'tis nobler to mutate to infect humankind, or to 'strict mine impact to the avian kind. To die, perhaps to sleep; to sleep, perchance to dream.
Mon, Mar 17, 2008 from The Fiji Times Online: Near-empty dam causes supply disruptions The dam was yesterday alarmingly three-quarters empty, with the two streams running dry. Water from the Waimanu River was being pumped into the dam yesterday to make up for the shortfall.
Mr Yanuyanurua said as a result of the dry spell Fiji had been experiencing over the past few days, the water level had dropped dangerously.... Interim Local Government Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi said the water department should explain why this had happened. ...
A few days of dry spell drops the dam "dangerously"? Ouch! Maybe Fiji shouldn't be shipping all those square bottles of Fiji Water for the western elite to guzzle.
