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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:	(8)
Plague/Virus:	(1)
Climate Chaos:	(6)
Resource Depletion:	(4)
Biology Breach:	(5)
Recovery:	(8)

This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
ecosystem interrelationships ~ toxic water ~ global warming ~ low-energy future ~ anthropogenic change ~ plastic problems ~ pesticide runoff ~ technological innovation ~ rights of nature ~ toxic buildup ~ bad policy

ApocaDocuments (32) gathered this week:
Fri, May 22, 2009 from BBC: Yosemite's giant trees disappearing The oldest and largest trees within California's world famous Yosemite National Park are disappearing. Climate change appears to be a major cause of the loss. The revelation comes from an analysis of data collected over 60 years by forest ecologists. They say one worrying aspect of the decline is that it is happening within one of most protected forests within the US, suggesting that even more large trees may be dying off elsewhere.... Including 21 species of tree recorded by both surveys, the density of large diameter trees fell from 45 trees per square hectare to 34 trees, a decline of 24 percent in just over 60 years. White Firs (Abies concolor), Lodgepole Pines (Pinus contorta) and Jeffrey Pines (Pinus jeffreyi) were affected the most. Smaller size trees were unaffected. ...	I don't like hearing ol' Sam's voice saying "the bigger they are..." ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, May 22, 2009 from Center for Biological Diversity: Massive Effort Needed to Save Bat Species From Extinction The Center for Biological Diversity and 60 other national and regional organizations sent a letter today to members of Congress requesting increased funding for research on white-nose syndrome, a disease that has been devastating bat populations in the eastern United States over the past two years. Scientists are predicting that if current trends continue, several species of bat may be extinct in just a few years. The cause of the illness has not been definitively identified, and no cure is known. Bats are crucial insect eaters and pollinators whose loss could leave devastating gaps in ecosystems and profoundly disrupt the food chain. The letter was signed by scientists, farmers, and conservation, wildlife, sustainable farming, and anti-pesticide organizations. Biologists predict that the widespread loss of insect-eating bats will lead to burgeoning bug populations, including those that attack crops. Increased use of pesticides on farms may result from the bat die-off. ...	We're starting to flap on a wing and a prayer. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, May 22, 2009 from Telegraph.co.uk: Reptiles in Europe more at risk of extinction than birds and mammals 23 per cent of amphibians and 21 per cent of reptiles are at risk of dying out. Most of the pressure the species in danger face comes from human destruction of their habitat, climate change, pollution and the presence of invasive species. The studies, released on International Biodiversity Day, also show that more than half of frog, toad, salamander and newt species (59 per cent) in Europe are suffering declines in their populations. And 42 per cent of reptiles are in decline, the IUCN said.... Dr Helen Temple, programme officer for the IUCN Red List unit, said: "Natural habitats across Europe are being squeezed by growing human populations, agricultural sprawl and pollution. "That is not good news for either amphibians or reptiles." ...	"Not good news" for humans much, either. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, May 22, 2009 from BBC: US CO2 goals 'to be compromised' US Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the US will not be able to cut greenhouse emissions as much as it should due to domestic political opposition. Prof Chu told BBC News he feared the world might be heading towards a tipping point on climate change. This meant the US had to cut emissions urgently -- even if compromises were needed to get new laws approved. Environmentalists said Prof Chu, a Nobel physicist, should be guided by science not politics.... "As someone very concerned about climate I want to be as aggressive as possible but I also want to get started. And if we say we want something much more aggressive on the early timescales that would draw considerable opposition and that would delay the process for several years. ...	I just hate it when scientific reality is hamstrung by political reality. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, May 22, 2009 from Mongabay: 85 percent of oyster reefs gone The first global report on the state of shellfish was released today at the International Marine Conservation Congress in Washington, DC. Painting a dire picture for shellfish worldwide, the report found that 85 percent of oyster reefs have vanished.... "We're seeing an unprecedented and alarming decline in the condition of oyster reefs, a critically important habitat in the world's bays and estuaries," said Mike Beck, senior marine scientist at The Nature Conservancy and lead author of the report. Oyster reefs in North America, Europe, and Australia are particularly hard-hit with many of the reef systems considered functionally extinct. Still the majority of wild oysters come from the east coast of North America, where even these productive reefs are in decline. ...	Thank goodness I don't even like oysters. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 21, 2009 from Harvard School of Medicine, via EurekAlert: BPA, chemical used to make plastics, found to leach from polycarbonate drinking bottles into humans A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that participants who drank for a week from polycarbonate bottles, the popular, hard-plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles, showed a two-thirds increase in their urine of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA). Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans. The study is the first to show that drinking from polycarbonate bottles increased the level of urinary BPA, and thus suggests that drinking containers made with BPA release the chemical into the liquid that people drink in sufficient amounts to increase the level of BPA excreted in human urine.... BPA is also found in dentistry composites and sealants and in the lining of aluminum food and beverage cans. (In bottles, polycarbonate can be identified by the recycling number 7.) Numerous studies have shown that it acts as an endocrine-disruptor in animals, including early onset of sexual maturation, altered development and tissue organization of the mammary gland and decreased sperm production in offspring. It may be most harmful in the stages of early development. ...	But BPA is everywhere. Surely it can't be bad for us. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 21, 2009 from Wall Street Journal: Peak Oil: Global Oil Production Has Peaked, Analyst Says Global production of petroleum peaked in the first quarter of last year, says analysts Raymond James, which "represents a paradigm shift of historic proportions. Unfortunately, mankind better get ready to live in a peak oil world because we believe the 'peak' is now behind us."... The contention rests on a simple argument: OPEC oil production actually fell even as oil prices were above $100 a barrel, a sign of the "tyranny of geology" that limits the easy production of ever-more crude. "Those declines had to have come for involuntary reasons such as the inherent geological limits of oil fields ... We believe that the oil market has already crossed over to the downward sloping side of Hubbert's Peak," the analysts write. ...	My interest is... piqued. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 21, 2009 from The Economist: Thaliaceans and the carbon cycle The thaliacean graveyard off C�te d'Ivoire came as a surprise because not much was known at the time about what happens to animals with gelatinous bodies, whether chordates or jellyfish, after they have died. And it set Mr Lebrato and Dr Jones thinking, because if thaliaceans are falling to the bottom of the sea in large numbers, they might be taking a lot of carbon with them. Until then gelatinous animals had largely been ignored by researchers studying the carbon cycle (the way that element moves through land, sea, air and living creatures) because gelatinous bodies were thought to contain a lot of water and thus relatively little carbon. However, as Mr Lebrato and Dr Jones report in Limnology and Oceanography, when they analysed thaliacean tissues they found that the creatures were one-third carbon by weight. That was much more than they expected. Jellyfish, by comparison, are 10 percent carbon, and diatoms (single-celled algae that are common in plankton) 20 percent. It also helps explain why thaliaceans are so dense�and thus sink so quickly after they die.... Even if the carbon is not permanently buried, the lack of mixing between deep and shallow water in the ocean means that it is likely to stay down there for a long time�something that will have to be added to computer models of how the climate works. The carbon cycle has thus acquired another epicycle, and become even more complicated to understand than it was. ...	It's clear that the thaliaceans have not been doing their jobs! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 21, 2009 from Chemistry World: Chemical pollution gets personal In their book Slow death by rubber duck, the pair detail a weekend testing spree incorporating regular blood and urine sampling. Indoors for 12-hour shifts, they used typical amounts of personal care products and a plug-in air freshener, in a room with stain-repellent furnishings and carpets. 'We set only one ironclad rule: our efforts had to mimic real life,' says Smith. Of six different phthalates in the testing regime, rocketing levels of monoethyl phthalate (MEP) -- which the body metabolises from diethyl phthalate (DEP) the most common phthalate in cosmetics and personal care products -- were most stark. Levels in urine went from 64 to 1410ng/ml. According to the European Commission's Scientific Committee for Cosmetic Products (SCCP), traces of up to 100 ppm total or per substance pose no risk to health, although traces of banned phthalates are sometimes present due to other possible uses, such as in packaging. Phthalates are plasticising chemicals, linked to abnormal reproductive development.... Levels of bisphenol A -- an endocrine disruptor linked to breast and prostate cancer -- increased 7.5 times after eating canned foods from a microwavable, polycarbonate plastic container. ...	What if I am what I eat? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 21, 2009 from Globe and Mail (Canada): Save the birds? Save their habitat In fact, migratory songbirds are experiencing one of the most precipitous declines of any animal group on earth. We have already seen startling declines in the populations of some species that depend on the boreal forest. The olive-sided flycatcher and the Canada warbler, once common boreal breeding species, are now listed as threatened by the Committee for the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Trends in long-term breeding-bird surveys have revealed population declines in flycatchers, boreal chickadees and bay-breasted warblers. In fact, more than half the birds profiled in the National Audubon Society's "20 common birds in decline" list depend on Canada's boreal forest as a breeding ground.... Yet despite its global significance, just 12 per cent of Canada's boreal forest is currently protected, while almost 500 million hectares have been handed over to industry. Oil and gas exploration, logging, mining, road building and hydro development threaten to ravage boreal regions inhabited by birds and other wildlife. ...	Saving their habitat seems so... inefficient. Can't we just keep 'em in cages? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, May 21, 2009 from BBC (UK): UN hopeful about climate change The head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change says he has seen "encouraging developments" in recent climate change negotiations.... "We have an almost complete list of industrialised nations' pledges to cut emissions after 2012, so governments can see now, more clearly, where they are in comparison to each other, and can build a higher ambition on that basis," he said. He added that the US had committed to a Copenhagen agreement and a "clean energy future". ...	There's no "I" in "hope." ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, May 20, 2009 from Marine Biological Laboratory, via: Scientists link influenza A (H1N1) susceptibility to common levels of arsenic exposure The ability to mount an immune response to influenza A (H1N1) infection is significantly compromised by a low level of arsenic exposure that commonly occurs through drinking contaminated well water, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Dartmouth Medical School have found.... However, in mice that had ingested 100 ppb (parts per billion) arsenic in their drinking water for five weeks, the immune response to H1N1 infection was initially feeble, and when a response finally did kick in days later, it was "too robust and too late," Hamilton says. "There was a massive infiltration of immune cells to the lungs and a massive inflammatory response, which led to bleeding and damage in the lung." Morbidity over the course of the infection was significantly higher for the arsenic-exposed animals than the normal animals.... "One thing that did strike us, when we heard about the recent H1N1 outbreak, is Mexico has large areas of very high arsenic in their well water, including the areas where the flu first cropped up. We don't know that the Mexicans who got the flu were drinking high levels of arsenic, but it's an intriguing notion that this may have contributed," Hamilton says. ...	Next they'll discover that "old lace" is a catalyst for the black plague. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, May 20, 2009 from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, via EurekAlert: Contaminants in marine mammals' brains The most extensive study of pollutants in marine mammals' brains reveals that these animals are exposed to a hazardous cocktail of pesticides such as DDTs and PCBs, as well as emerging contaminants such as brominated flame retardants.... The chemicals studied include pesticides like DDT, which has been shown to cause cancer and reproductive toxicity, and PCBs, which are neurotoxicants known to disrupt the thyroid hormone system. The study also quantifies concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs (a particular class of flame retardants), which are neurotoxicants that impair the development of motor activity and cognition. This work is the first to quantify concentrations of PBDEs in the brains of marine mammals. The results revealed that concentration of one contaminant was surprisingly high. According to Montie, "The biggest wakeup was that we found parts per million concentrations of hydroxylated PCBs in the cerebrospinal fluid of a gray seal. That is so worrisome for me. You rarely find parts per million levels of anything in the brain." ...	Now, why would marine mammals need flame retardants? ApocaDoc permalink
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Wed, May 20, 2009 from Greenpeace: The suicidal tendencies of the Turkish tuna fishery The Turkish government has set its own catch limit for the endangered Mediterranean bluefin tuna -- in total disregard for internationally agreed quotas and scientific advice. The existing management plan for bluefin tuna is bad enough. By pressuring politicians to ignore the warnings of scientists, the Mediterranean tuna industry has created a suicide pact, not a management plan. Now Turkey, by objecting to even those inadequate restrictions, is telling its legal fleet to fish for everything it can before it's all gone. And to add insult to absurdity, there's still the illegal catch to consider -- and Turkey just got caught red-handed with an illegal landing of between 5 and 10 tons of juvenile bluefin tuna in the Turkish port of Karaburun.... Since 2006, scientists have been sounding the alarm on the dire state of the bluefin tuna stock. They have advised not to fish above a maximum of 15,000 tons, and to protect the species’ spawning grounds during the crucial months of May and June. But the spawning grounds are ravaged by industrial fleets every year and the actual haul has been estimated at a shocking 61,100 tons in 2007, twice the legal catch for that year, and more than four times the scientifically recommended level. ...	Gettin' while the gettin' is good is a good way to gettin' gone. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, May 20, 2009 from Globe and Mail (Canada): Bison turn back the clock on a patch of prairie Three years ago, 72 pure-blooded animals were introduced to the 181-square-kilometre refuge as part of a Parks Canada initiative to bring large herbivores to an area that hasn't felt bison hooves in more than 120 years. Now, that little herd has become prolific beyond expectations. "I've looked at bison populations across North America during my career and I've never seen a population adapt as well to a system as this one has," said Wes Olson, who oversees the herd for the park.... The landscape is changing in other ways and so is the wildlife. Officials hope endangered and threatened species will one day thrive. Grass is being grazed in lengths ranging from barely picked through to golf-course groomed greens. Songbirds are lining their nests with shed bison fur, an ideal material for protecting fledglings from the cold and rain. The chicken-like sharp-tailed grouse has been dusting itself in buffalo wallows and using short green lawns as leks, or mating areas. Ideally, the endangered greater sage-grouse, known for its elaborate courtship rituals, will follow suit. There's also hope the new landscape will be hospitable to struggling birds, including the Sprague's pipit, long-billed curlew and burrowing owl. ...	I'm dancing (with the wolves)! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, May 20, 2009 from BusinessGreen: Energy industry blocking grid connection for wind projects The established energy industry is deliberately blocking reforms to the process that would allow more renewable energy to be connected to the National Grid, according to the chief executive of Ofgem.... "What we have to stop going forward is vested interests within the sector blocking reform," said Buchanan.... Wind developers argue the current system, where enough connection requests must be made in a certain area to justify upgrades to the grid, is weighted in favour of large-scale power plants. ...	We can't let the upstarts innovate willy-nilly, now can we? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, May 20, 2009 from Queen's University, via EurekAlert: Queen's scientists discover eco-friendly wood dissolution Scientists at Queen's University Belfast have discovered a new eco-friendly way of dissolving wood using ionic liquids that may help its transformation into popular products such as bio fuels, textiles, clothes and paper.... At present wood is broken down mainly by the Kraft pulping process, which originates from the 19th century and uses a wasteful technology relying on polluting chemicals.... The Queen's researchers found that chips of both softwood and hardwood dissolved completely in ionic liquid and only mild conditions of temperature and pressure were needed. By controlled addition of water and a water-acetone mixture, the dissolved wood was partially separated into a cellulose-rich material and pure lignin. This process is much more environmentally-friendly than the current method as it uses less heat and pressure and produces very low toxicity while remaining biodegradable. ...	Breaking up was very hard toooo do. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 19, 2009 from MIT, via EurekAlert: MIT: Climate change odds much worse than thought The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood of how much hotter the Earth's climate will get in this century shows that without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago -- and could be even worse than that.... While the outcomes in the "no policy" projections now look much worse than before, there is less change from previous work in the projected outcomes if strong policies are put in place now to drastically curb greenhouse gas emissions. Without action, "there is significantly more risk than we previously estimated," Prinn says. "This increases the urgency for significant policy action." To illustrate the range of probabilities revealed by the 400 simulations, Prinn and the team produced a "roulette wheel" that reflects the latest relative odds of various levels of temperature rise. The wheel provides a very graphic representation of just how serious the potential climate impacts are. "There's no way the world can or should take these risks," Prinn says. And the odds indicated by this modeling may actually understate the problem, because the model does not fully incorporate other positive feedbacks that can occur, for example, if increased temperatures caused a large-scale melting of permafrost in arctic regions and subsequent release of large quantities of methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. Including that feedback "is just going to make it worse," Prinn says. ...	How can "positive feedbacks" be so danged negative? ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 19, 2009 from London Guardian: Peru army moves into Amazon after tribes blockade rivers and roads Peru's army is poised to deploy in the Amazon rainforest to lift blockades across rivers and roads by indigenous people opposed to oil, gas, logging and mining projects. The government has authorised the military to move into remote provinces where a state of emergency has been declared in the wake of a month-long stand-off between indigenous people and police... Indigenous groups, backed by environmentalists and Catholic bishops, have protested that the developments will devastate the area's ecology and their culture. About 65 tribes have mobilised 30,000 people to disrupt roads, waterways and pipelines, leading to skirmishes with police. Up to 41 vessels serving energy companies are stuck along jungle rivers, paralysed by the protests, one private sector source told Reuters. ...	If this was a movie, the rainforest animals would join forces with the environmentalists. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 19, 2009 from UPI: Study predicts worldwide coral catastrophe An Australian-led World Wild Life study predicts worldwide catastrophic losses of coral by the end of this century due to climate change. The WWF-commissioned study, led by University of Queensland Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, determined coral reefs could disappear entirely from the Coral Triangle region of the Pacific Ocean, thereby threatening the food supply and livelihoods for about 100 million people. Researchers said averting such a catastrophe will depend on quick and effective global action on climate change, as well as implementation of regional solutions to problems of over-fishing and pollution.... ...	Quick and effective global action. That's all. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 19, 2009 from BBC (UK): Dragonflies face uncertain future At least one in ten species of dragonfly and damselfly are threatened with extinction, according to the first world survey of their numbers. The figure may be an underestimate as so little is known about many species. However, the news is not all bad. The survey published in Biological Conservation is the first to assess the vulnerability of any insect group on a global scale. And it suggests the extinction risk faced by insects has been exaggerated.... "Amphibians are more threatened than dragonflies in general," says Clausnitzer. Amphibians are being particularly afflicted by the deadly chytrid fungus. "Another difference is that adult dragonflies are more mobile. If one site is destroyed they still have the chance to fly to another site, which frogs don't have." They also seem less to be less threatened than the mammals, but at a similar level of risk as birds. "We were a bit surprised that the dragonflies are not that bad off," says Clausnitzer. ...	So the threat-o-meter for dragonflies isn't as bad as mammals and amphibians. And birds. Well, whew!. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 19, 2009 from Guardian (UK): China and US held secret talks on climate change deal A high-powered group of senior Republicans and Democrats led two missions to China in the final months of the Bush administration for secret backchannel negotiations aimed at securing a deal on joint US-Chinese action on climate change, the Guardian has learned. The initiative, involving John Holdren, now the White House science adviser, and others who went on to positions in Barack Obama's administration, produced a draft agreement in March, barely two months after the Democrat assumed the presidency.... The secret missions suggest that advisers to Obama came to power firmly focused on getting a US-China understanding in the run-up to the crucial UN meeting in Copenhagen this December, which is aimed at sealing a global deal to slash greenhouse gas emissions. In her first policy address the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said she wanted to recast the broad US-China relationship around the central issue of climate change.... Chandler said he and Holdren drew up a three-point memo which envisaged: * Using existing technologies to produce a 20 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2010. * Co-operating on new technology including carbon capture and storage and fuel efficiency for cars. * The US and China signing up to a global climate change deal in Copenhagen. "We sent it to Xie and he said he agreed," said Chandler. ...	Backchannel, frontchannel, we don't care, just get moving! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, May 19, 2009 from Reuters: U.S. to propose most aggressive auto fuel standards President Barack Obama will propose on Tuesday the most aggressive U.S. auto fuel efficiency standards ever, a policy that also aims to resolve a dispute with the state of California over cutting tailpipe emissions. A senior administration official, speaking to reporters late on Monday on the condition of anonymity, said average fuel standards for all new light vehicles sold in the United States would rise by 10 miles per gallon over today's performance to 35.5 mpg between 2012-16. ...	Gosharoonie: 35.5 mpg, in three years. What a stunning emphasis. Surely that means we will survive the climate chaos. See you on the other side of the crisis. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 18, 2009 from University of Texas, via EurekAlert: Arctic river deltas may hold clues to future global climate Mead Allison, senior research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences and co-author of the study, said Arctic river deltas have been neglected as records of past climate because the far north is a challenging and expensive environment to work in and it only came to be seen as a bellwether for climate change in the last decade or so.... Scientists don't know whether large river deltas are a net source or a net sink of carbon. Do they store more carbon than they produce? That's a critical question because carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas. Large river deltas are the interface between the land and the oceans and they deliver large amounts of carbon carried along in sediments. As humans alter river systems by adding nutrients from fertilizers, damming water for power and diverting water for drinking and farming, they may be shifting the ability of those systems to fix, burn and store carbon. "It's a glaring gap in our understanding of the global carbon cycle," Allison said. "It's a potential gotcha in the global climate models. Each river system is different, but we have to get a handle on the net effects." Arctic river deltas are critical to explore, the researchers reason, because the largest changes in climate are projected for the Arctic. Large amounts of carbon are stored in Arctic permafrost. As those soils thaw, rivers will transport much of their organic carbon to the oceans. As global warming speeds up the melting of shorefast ice (ice attached to the shore), it will likely accelerate coastal erosion from storms, providing a further supply of organic carbon to the coastal zone. ...	As if there might be feedback systems we didn't already understand. Using the past as prologue? A waste of resources. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 18, 2009 from CBC (Canada): Canadian scientists create powerful new lithium battery material Lithium batteries could deliver more than three times their usual power if they contained a new composite material invented by scientists at the University of Waterloo, a study suggests. The material created by chemistry professor Linda Nazar and her research team contains sulphur, a cheap substance that scientists have been trying to incorporate into rechargeable lithium batteries for a long time, said a news release Monday. The challenge had been to find a way to keep the electrically active sulphur in intimate contact with a conductor such as carbon, Nazar said in a statement.... "This composite material can supply up to nearly 80 per cent of the theoretical capacity of sulphur, which is three times the energy density of lithium [traditional] transition metal oxide cathodes," Nazar said in a statement. In addition, the material remained stable when recharged multiple times. ...	Doesn't it all come down to intimate contact, in the end? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 18, 2009 from Salon: Pesticides indicted in bee deaths Gene Brandi will always rue the summer of 2007. That's when the California beekeeper rented half his honeybees, or 1,000 hives, to a watermelon farmer in the San Joaquin Valley at pollination time. The following winter, 50 percent of Brandi's bees were dead.... Brandi has grown accustomed to seeing up to 40 percent of his bees vanish each year, simply leave the hive in search of food and never come back. But this was different. Instead of losing bees from all his colonies, Brandi watched the ones that skipped watermelon duty continue to thrive. Brandi discovered the watermelon farmer had irrigated his plants with imidacloprid, the world's best-selling insecticide created by Bayer CropScience Inc., one of the world's leading producers of pesticides and genetically modified vegetable seeds, with annual sales of $8.6 billion. Blended with water and applied to the soil, imidacloprid creates a moist mixture the bees likely drank from on a hot day.... Imidacloprid and clothianidin are chloronicotinoids, a synthetic compound that combines nicotine, a powerful toxin, with chlorine to attack an insect's nervous system. The chemical is applied to the seed of a plant, added to soil, or sprayed on a crop and spreads to every corner of the plant's tissue, killing the pests that feed on it. ...	It's so shocking when insecticides kill insects. ApocaDoc permalink
You're still reading! Good for you! You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy): Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day! Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore.
Mon, May 18, 2009 from Osservatorio Balcani: Erin Brockovich in Greece Erin Brockovich arrived in Greece to save the Asopus river, contaminated with high levels of hexavalent chrome, the same heavy metal that the American legal assistant had fought against in California.... Now, the hexavalent chrome and other heavy metals such as nickel have been detected in quantities as 100 times higher than the legal limit in the Asopus river in Boeotia, in central Greece. The river, once suitable for swimming and fishing, springs up on the slopes of Kitheronas Mountains, believed by the ancient Greeks to be the motherland of the Muses. The river provides drinking water to tens of thousands of people in its high stream areas, but its groundwater also reaches millions of residents of Athens.... The pollution of the clear waters of Asopus began back in 1969, when the colonels' dictatorship declared the area an "industrial park" and permitted many companies to discharge unfiltered waste in the river. The results are visible today. In September 2007, the first big alarm came from the agricultural faculty at the University Athens after an analysis of the groundwater that arrives from Boeotia to Attica, an area of Athens. A recent inspection by the parliamentary environmental commission shamefully found the Asopus river to be "completely pure": clearly the factories were given time to do their "spring cleaning". ...	Let's greenlight it: "Erin Brockovich" meets "Z." ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 18, 2009 from New Scientist: Ultrasound weapon wipes out toxic algal blooms Blooms of algae in lakes and seas, sometimes called red tides, can release neurotoxins into the food chain or suffocate the local ecology by sucking up too much oxygen. When one occurs, the safest option is usually just to wait for the bloom to clear of its own accord, but now scientists at the University of Hull, UK, think they have found a way to put a stop to these deadly algal explosions- by exposing them to blasts of ultrasound. The use of ultrasound has been explored before, but with mixed results. That may be because the mechanism was not well understood, say Michiel Postema and his colleagues, who successfully used ultrasound to kill off algae. Postema believes it affects buoyancy cells, known as heterocysts, which keep the algae afloat by enclosing a bubble of nitrogen gas. He reckons the ultrasound pressure wave causes the gas in the cells to resonate. At high intensity it bursts the cell, and the algae sink. "Without sunlight they will then die," he says.... The ultrasound could be targeted to specific species of algae, because the resonant frequency of heterocysts varies from species to species in accordance with their size. What's more, such a measure should not damage ordinary water-filled plant cells, which are relatively impervious to pressure waves. ...	Tiny bubbles... in the green... tiny bubbles... bursting free ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 18, 2009 from New York Times: As Alaska Glaciers Melt, It's Land That's Rising As the glaciers here melt, the land is rising, causing the sea to retreat.... The geology is complex, but it boils down to this: Relieved of billions of tons of glacial weight, the land has risen much as a cushion regains its shape after someone gets up from a couch. The land is ascending so fast that the rising seas -- a ubiquitous byproduct of global warming -- cannot keep pace. As a result, the relative sea level is falling, at a rate "among the highest ever recorded," according to a 2007 report by a panel of experts convened by Mayor Bruce Botelho of Juneau.... As a result, the region faces unusual environmental challenges. As the sea level falls relative to the land, water tables fall, too, and streams and wetlands dry out. Land is emerging from the water to replace the lost wetlands, shifting property boundaries and causing people to argue about who owns the acreage and how it should be used. And meltwater carries the sediment scoured long ago by the glaciers to the coast, where it clouds the water and silts up once-navigable channels. ...	Is this an example of the earth rising up to defend itself? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 18, 2009 from CBC (Canada): Canada's churches look into impact of oilsands projects Officials with Kairos, a multi-denominational social justice group, are heading to Fort McMurray to see the impact of development first-hand. The delegation will spend a week in the region, starting May 21-27. Church leaders say it's a fact-finding mission, on which they'll speak to a variety of groups with an interest in the oilsands, including the aboriginal community, environmentalists, politicians, the oil and gas industry and those working in the oilsands.... She said the churches have often taken an interest in moral and ethical issues. "We've tended to look at these in the global picture. We look at what happens elsewhere in the world, [and] in the last couple of years we've really been pressed to say, 'What about what's happening here in Canada?'" she said. ...	I think it's safe to say that God is on Nature's side. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 18, 2009 from Mongabay: Orangutan population in Borneo park plunges 90 percent in 5 years The population of orangutans in Indonesia's Kutai National Park has plunged by 90 percent in the past five years due to large-scale deforestation promoted by local authorities, reports The Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP), an Indonesian environmental group. According to park officials interviewed by COP, the population of morio orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio) declined from 600 in 2004 to 30-60 this year. COP attributes the drop to state-sponsored colonization of the Kutai, which has led to hunting and forest clearing.... "The root of the problem with the Kutai National Park is a breach of duty committed by officials to get political and financial advantages. They gave away land spaces to people to win their votes in the local administration elections. They also mobilize people to seize the national park area. Their strategy to win people's hearts by giving away the land seemed successful." ...	Orangutans are probably smart enough to vote. Too bad they're such a minority. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, May 18, 2009 from BusinessGreen: Coca-Cola debuts 'PlantBottle' Coca-Cola has become the latest firm to step up its interest in the field of bioplastics, with the unveiling last week of plastic bottles made partially from plants. Dubbed the PlantBottle, the plastic bottle is made from a blend of petroleum-based materials and 30 per cent plant-based materials sourced from sugar cane and molasses. The company said that the bottle had an edge over some other plant-based plastics, as it can be processed through existing recycling facilities without contaminating traditional PET and as a result it can still be recycled easily without having to be separated from conventional plastics. Some environmental groups have raised questions about the long-term sustainability of bioplastics, warning that as with biofuels, increased demand for crops could lead to shortages and contribute to deforestation. ...	Plastics giveth, plastics taketh away. ApocaDoc permalink