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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

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This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
ecosystem interrelationships ~ climate impacts ~ short-term thinking ~ contamination ~ oil issues ~ economic myopia ~ governmental idiocy ~ deniers ~ carbon emissions ~ corporate malfeasance ~ invasive species

ApocaDocuments (31) gathered this week:
Sun, Jul 11, 2010 from Associated Press: Scientists roll out mats to kill Lake Tahoe clams Scuba-diving scientists are unrolling long rubber mats across the bottom of Lake Tahoe coves in an attempt to quell a clam invasion that could cloud the world-reknown cobalt waters. The half-acre mats are designed to smother dime-sized nonnative Asian clams that can reach populations of 5,000 per square yard. Geoffrey Schladow, director of the Tahoe Environmental Research Center run by the University of California, Davis, said the clams promote so much algae growth that they can turn some coves from blue to green. "They suck in the water and they filter out the algae. Their excretions are highly concentrated packages of nutrients," he said. ...	Unwelcome mats make clams sad. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Jul 11, 2010 from Associated Press: BP claims progress on new cap as oil spews freely Oil was spewing freely into the Gulf of Mexico as BP crews claimed progress Sunday in the first stages of replacing a leaky cap with a new containment system they hope will finally catch all the crude from the busted well. There's no guarantee for such a delicate operation nearly a mile below the water's surface, officials said, and the permanent fix of plugging the well from the bottom remains slated for mid-August. "It's not just going to be, you put the cap on, it's done. It's not like putting a cap on a tube of toothpaste," Coast Guard spokesman Capt. James McPherson said. ...	Hell, I can't even get my kids to do that at home. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Jul 11, 2010 from Los Angeles Times: Scientists expected Obama administration to be friendlier When he ran for president, Barack Obama attacked the George W. Bush administration for putting political concerns ahead of science on such issues as climate change and public health. And during his first weeks in the White House, President Obama ordered his advisors to develop rules to "guarantee scientific integrity throughout the executive branch." Many government scientists hailed the president's pronouncement. But a year and a half later, no such rules have been issued. Now scientists charge that the Obama administration is not doing enough to reverse a culture that they contend allowed officials to interfere with their work and limit their ability to speak out. ...	Perhaps it's the Office of the Presidency that is the problem. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 10, 2010 from Associated Press: New Palin biography aimed at 9- to 12-year-olds You might call it Sarah Palin's introduction to the cubs. A biography of the former Alaska governor and self-described "mama grizzly" is set for release in September by Christian book publisher Zondervan. "Speaking Up: The Sarah Palin Story," is one in a series of biographies aimed at 9- to 12-year-old readers. Others feature 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and U2 frontman Bono. Kathleen Kerr, an acquisitions editor for Zondervan's Zonderkidz division, said the subjects are prominent figures who children hear about in the news and role models for tweens who are "working for the betterment of the world in which we live and who are motivated primarily by their Christian faith." ...	Occasionally I struggle with my decision to love everyone. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 10, 2010 from Martinsburg Journal: Coal advocate condemns administration The Obama administration is as bad as any William B. "Bill" Raney has dealt with in 35 years, the president of the West Virginia Coal Association told members of the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Chamber of Commerce at its Rise and Shine Breakfast Friday. "We're under attack by the Obama administration," he said. "They don't care about West Virginia - they don't care about Appalachia." Raney spoke highly of U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., for being a strong voice for coal, although he disagrees with Rockefeller's stand on so-called cap-and-trade legislation. "We don't need cap and trade," Raney said. "It will raise your power bills. Power companies will charge you all more money." ...	We care so much about Appalachia we are willing to blow it to smithereens w/ mountaintop removal. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 10, 2010 from Reuters: U.S. farmers can't meet booming corn demands Exporters, livestock feeders and ethanol makers are going through the U.S. corn stockpile faster than farmers can grow the crops, the government said on Friday. Despite record crops in two of the past three years and another record within reach this year, the Agriculture Department estimated the corn carryover will shrink to the lowest level since 2006/07. ...	How could the practice of monoculture not be working out? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Jul 10, 2010 from Minneapolis Star Tribume: Great lake warms up C'mon in -- the water's fine (relatively speaking). Long notorious for its bone-chilling frigidity, Lake Superior is far warmer than normal for this time of year, and could be headed for record-setting high temperatures later this summer. Thanks to less ice last winter and an early spring, the top layer of the big lake will be "exceptionally warm by August," according to researchers at the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Temperatures in the top 30 to 50 feet of water usually peak at 59 degrees in mid-August, but they hit that mark this week. The record of 68 degrees, reached in 1998, could well be matched or broken. ...	From the Great Lakes... to the Hot Lakes! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 9, 2010 from New Scientist: Prawns on Prozac, whatever next? Crabs on cocaine? Second-hand Prozac in waste water could be sending shrimps' swimming patterns haywire, making them easy targets for predators. Alex Ford and Yasmin Guler at the University of Portsmouth in the UK collected local shrimp, Echinogammarus marinus, and observed their behaviour in the lab. The shrimp were exposed to different levels of the antidepressant fluoextine - or Prozac - to test whether the presence of the drug would affect the way the shrimp respond to light. In humans, Prozac acts as a mood enhancer by prolonging the effect of serotonin at nerve terminals. The shrimp, on the other hand, responded to increased serotonin levels by swimming towards the light (Aquatic Toxicology DOI:10.1016/j/aquatox.2010.05.019). The pair found that shrimps exposed to the same Prozac levels present in waste water that flows to rivers and estuaries are five times more likely to swim toward the light instead of away from it. ...	Whatever you do... don't... go... to... the light! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 9, 2010 from Associated Press: Scientists say we'd better get used to sweating out heat waves Folks sweating out the heat wave battering parts of the country may just have to get used to it. As global warming continues such heat waves will be increasingly common in the future, a Stanford University study concludes. 13 0 5Share "In the next 30 years, we could see an increase in heat waves like the one now occurring in the eastern United States or the kind that swept across Europe in 2003 that caused tens of thousands of fatalities," Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford, said in a statement. ...	I'm going to become a climate skeptic so I don't have to feel this heat. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 9, 2010 from CBC: Toxic, invasive weed hits southern Ontario Biologists and health officials in southern Ontario are scrambling to contain an invasive plant that can cause blindness and severe burns. Heracleum mantegazzianum, or giant hogweed, is a poisonous plant most recently found growing in Renfrew County, west of Ottawa. "The concern is it's a very poisonous plant, in the sense that if you get any of the sap from this plant on your skin, it can cause severe blistering and very bad burns," said Jeff Muzzi, manager of forestry services for Renfrew County. "If you should happen to get the sap in your eyes, it can blind you either temporarily or permanently." "You might not even know it's here, [just] walk into it and happen to break a leaf. The next thing you know, you've got these nasty burns." He said it can take up to 48 hours after exposure for symptoms to appear. ...	I bet Polynesian Hogweed Toads love this stuff! Let's bring 'em in! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Jul 9, 2010 from Mongabay, via DesdemonaDespair: Road through the Serengeti will eventually 'kill the migration' Tourists, conservationists, individuals, and tour companies have launched an international outcry against the Tanzanian authorities in response to the announcement of the planned construction of the trans-Serengeti Highway highway. There is even a Facebook group and an online petition with 5,038 signatures. But the government has responded by saying that the plans are still on course. In a recent interview, the Tanzanian Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Shamsa Mwangunga, made it clear that the decision is simply to fulfill a campaign promise made by President Jakaya Kikwete in 2005, that the fourth phase administration would complete construction of the $480 million Arusha-Musoma road. Conservationists argue that this northern part of the Serengeti is untouched and should remain so. A massive road through the area will physically block the migration, introduce invasive species, and lead to greater poaching - ultimately killing the migration altogether. ...	But think of the tolls you could charge those wildebeest! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 8, 2010 from Huffington Post Investigative Fund: Weighing Safety of Weed Killer in Drinking Water, EPA Relies Heavily on Industry-Backed Studies Companies with a financial interest in a weed-killer sometimes found in drinking water paid for thousands of studies federal regulators are using to assess the herbicide's health risks, records of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show. Many of these industry-funded studies, which largely support atrazine's safety, have never been published or subjected to an independent scientific peer review. Meanwhile, some independent studies documenting potentially harmful effects on animals and humans are not included in the body of research the EPA deems relevant to its safety review, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found...at least half of the 6,611 studies the agency is reviewing to help make its decision were conducted by scientists and organizations with a financial stake in atrazine, including Syngenta or its affiliated companies and research contractors. ...	Industry, like father, knows best! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 8, 2010 from London Guardian: China launches armada to head off algae plume Chinese authorities have dispatched a flotilla of more than 60 ships to head off a massive tide of algae that is approaching the coast of Qingdao. The outbreak is thought to be caused by high ocean temperatures and excess nitrogen runoff from agriculture and fish farms. Scientists involved in the operation say the seaweed known as enteromorpha needs to be cleaned up before it decomposes on beaches and releases noxious gases. According to the domestic media, the green tide covers an area of 400 sq km. Newspapers ran pictures of coastguard officials raking up the gunk as soon as it reached the shore. As well as the 66 vessels sent to intercept the approaching algae, a net has been stretched offshore as an extra defence. Ten forklift trucks, seven lorries and 168 people were clearing up the many tonnes of seaweed that still got through. ...	Sounds blooming gross to me! ApocaDoc permalink
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Thu, Jul 8, 2010 from Word Resources Institute, via Mongabay: Goodbye to the Gulf: oil disaster hits region's 'primary production' According to a new analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the many ecosystem services provided by the Gulf of Mexico will be severely impacted by BP's giant oil spill. 'Ecosystem services' are the name given by scientists and experts to free benefits provided by intact ecosystems, for example pollination or clean water. In the Gulf of Mexico, such environmental benefits maintain marine food production, storm buffers, tourism, and carbon sequestration, but one of the most important of marine ecosystem services is known as 'primary production'. The backbone of the marine food chain, primary production refers to the process whereby some marine organisms turn carbon dioxide into organic compounds--in this case corals, sea grass, algae, and the most important of all phytoplankton.... Although considered 'free' by most economists, ecosystem services are worth far more than most people realize. According to Earth Economics one acre of Mississippi Delta produces approximately $13,000 in ecosystem services annually. But oil pollution will greatly diminish such long depended on and cryptic returns.... The WRI argues that from now on ecosystem services must be taken into account when officials grant offshore drilling licenses. They are currently ignored by public officials handling oil drilling. ...	Jeez, Mom, you want me to help pay for groceries? I'm only 51! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 8, 2010 from IRIN: Look beyond "cost-benefit" analysis in adaptation You can put a price tag on the cost of building a dyke to protect people from sea-level rise brought on by climate change, but not on how they will benefit from it, say the co-authors of a new paper calling on countries not to restrict themselves to cost-benefit analysis.... Quantitative cost-benefit analysis is "information-intensive", making it expensive to use in small-scale projects, so planners at community level usually do not use it. Besides, "Some development NGOs take the view that the local people should usually decide themselves what they want to invest in, using their own criteria," said Berger and Chambwera.... "The problem is that in our society the language with the most weight is that of money, so there will always be pressure to reduce the complexity of decision-making to tallying up the costs and benefits in some oversimplified currency metric." ...	Without money as your metric, what are you left with? Satisfaction? Stability? Happiness? You can't measure those. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Jul 8, 2010 from New Scientist: Sea otters worth $700 million in carbon credits Want to slow global warming? Save a sea otter. So says Chris Wilmers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, whose team has calculated that the animals remove at least 0.18 kilograms of carbon from the atmosphere for every square metre of occupied coastal waters. That means that if sea otters were restored to healthy populations along the coasts of North America they could collectively lock up a mammoth 10¹⁰ kg of carbon - currently worth more than $700 million on the European carbon-trading market.... The figures are part of a growing realisation that predators play a crucial ecological role, promoting the growth of vegetation by controlling herbivore populations. Just as wolves benefit trees and shrubs by killing deer, sea otters allow the luxuriant growth of kelp by consuming sea urchins. In former kelp forests that have lost their otters, Wilmers says, "all you are left with is piles of urchins and very little else". ...	Are you crazy? We're not even paying them minimum wage! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Jul 7, 2010 from Associated Press: AP IMPACT: Gulf awash in 27,000 abandoned wells More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one -- not industry, not government -- is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows. The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing. The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells -- those characterized in federal government records as "temporarily abandoned." ...	We have perforated the earth with our neglect. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Jul 7, 2010 from Environmental Health News: Traffic air pollution near school associated with onset of asthma Children who breathe traffic-related air pollution at school are more likely to develop asthma, even after taking into account levels of air pollution at their homes, report researchers in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. This study adds to the small, but growing, body of research implicating traffic-related air pollution in the development of asthma. In addition, this study suggests that places away from home where children spend time play an important role in their health. Asthma is one of the most common childhood diseases in the United States. Rates among school-aged children continue to rise, leading to increased absences, more health care and lower quality of life. Asthma is a lung disease with symptoms that include wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. ...	Score one for homeschooling. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Jul 7, 2010 from Science News: Ocean acidification may make fish foolhardy Baby fish become confused and reckless in water with high levels of dissolved carbon dioxide, a new study shows. This leads to higher death rates and may mean that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide, which causes ocean acidification, will reduce the number of fish in the ocean. "It shows we should be concerned with even minor changes in aquatic ecology, because it's going to have dramatic effects on the survival of fish," says Grant Brown, a freshwater behavioral ecologist at Concordia University in Montreal who was not involved in the study. "There are very fine-scale, yet extreme critical effects going on." ...	These baby fish just need better mommy fish! ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Jul 7, 2010 from Science Daily: Thousands of Undiscovered Plant Species Worldwide Face Extinction, Study Reveals Dr Joppa explained: "By using a model that incorporates taxonomic effort over time, we calculated that the current number of species should grow by ten to 20 percent, meaning that there are between ten and 20 percent more undiscovered flowering plant species than previously thought -- a finding that has enormous conservation implications, as any as-yet-unknown species are likely to be overwhelmingly rare and threatened." Dr Roberts said: "If we take the number of species that are currently known to be threatened, and add to that those that are yet to be discovered, we can estimate that between 27 percent and 33 percent of all flowering plants will be threatened with extinction." Dr Joppa added: "That percentage reflects the global impact of factors such as habitat loss. It may increase if you factor in other threats such as climate change." ...	I think you're mixing "known unknowns" with "unknown unknowns." ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Jul 6, 2010 from NASA: Yellow Rust Damages Crops in the Middle East After two years of crippling drought, things were starting to look up in the Middle East. The winter of 2009-2010 brought ample rain and warm temperatures to wheat-growing regions in northern Syria and Iraq and southern Turkey. A bumper crop seemed to be on the horizon. But the conditions that were good for plants were also good for plant diseases, and a severe infection of yellow rust developed.... Yellow rust does more than advance the timing of plant growth. As much as 50 percent of an infected wheat crop can be lost, and in severe cases, the entire crop may be lost, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. In 2010, Syria anticipated a harvest 35 percent smaller than what it would have been without yellow rust. ...	Sadly, there are no Brillo pads for wheat. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Jul 6, 2010 from CNN, via DailyKos: 'Whale' oil barge sucks up whopping 32 gallons per minute CHERNOFF (voice-over): That so-called product, crude oil floating in the sea, hasn't been concentrated enough according to BP for "A Whale" to skim effectively, even though it appears the ship has been surrounded by pools of oil just a few miles from the gusher. WILCOX: We've got oil coming up from over a mile below the surface. And it doesn't always come up in one spot. CHERNOFF: "A Whale" may still prove itself, but the vessel will have to do so before BP officially hires it to join the cleanup fleet. And if that's to happen, the sea will need to cooperate. HANK GARCIA (BP): When you've got seas, six foot, eight-foot seas, it's not going to lend itself to a good capture of the oil. CHERNOFF: As crude continues gushing into the gulf, skimming has been scant. Only 1,100 barrels of oil were skimmed in a 24-hour period, from Sunday to Monday, less than the amount pouring out of the blown-out well in an hour using the most conservative estimate. ...	The conditions weren't ideal. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Jul 6, 2010 from Science News: Methane releases in arctic seas could wreak devastation Massive releases of methane from arctic seafloors could create oxygen-poor dead zones, acidify the seas and disrupt ecosystems in broad parts of the northern oceans, new preliminary analyses suggest. Such a cascade of geochemical and ecological ills could result if global warming triggers a widespread release of methane from deep below the Arctic seas, scientists propose in the June 28 Geophysical Research Letters. Worldwide, particularly in deeply buried permafrost and in high-latitude ocean sediments where pressures are high and temperatures are below freezing, icy deposits called hydrates hold immense amounts of methane... ...	I am not high on these hydrates melting. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Jul 6, 2010 from Agence France-Press: More bad news for BP as arsenic levels rise around Gulf of Mexico British scientists warned that the oil spill is increasing the level of arsenic in the ocean, and could further add to the devastating impact on the already sensitive environment. BP's Deepwater Horizon rig has been spilling between 3,681,500 litres and 911,454,000 litres of oil into the sea per day since it exploded on April 22. The spill is already being labeled as America's worst environmental disaster and has turned into a economic and PR nightmare for the British company. Seventy-five days into the spill, the oil has fouled some 715km of shoreline in four southeastern US states, killed wildlife and put a massive dent in the region's multi-billion-dollar fishing industry. ...	Poor BP... How dare we blame the victim so! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Jul 6, 2010 from The Reno Gazette-Journal: DRI researchers find air-pollution link to drought An increasing amount of scientific evidence suggests air pollution may be playing a role in drought, experts from the Desert Research Institute said. DRI scientists working at a remote lab in the Rocky Mountains said polluted air can cut a storm's snowfall in half. And the same researchers said the remaining snow also is affected because pollution could be squeezing another 25 percent of its water content. The DRI findings are bad news for Western states like California and Nevada that rely on snowpacks for drinking and agricultural water. An estimated 90 percent of Nevada's water is provided by melting snowpacks. ...	From snowpacks... to no-packs. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Jul 6, 2010 from New Scientist: IPCC report is 'reliable but flawed': Netherlands A tendency to highlight worst-case scenarios undermined parts of the last assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to a new study by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL). The inquiry was ordered by embarrassed Dutch ministers after it emerged that a mistake in the 2007 IPCC report originated with its own scientists. The report stated that 55 per cent of the Netherlands is below sea level, when in fact the true figure is half that. Overall, the Dutch investigators said, the IPCC report's conclusions were "well-founded". But it found several judgements that were "misleading" and appeared to have no firm research basis. For instance, the IPCC concluded that by 2050, "freshwater availability in central, south, east and south-east Asia, particularly in large river basins, is projected to decrease". This matters because some 3 billion people live in this part of the world and most rely on river flows to irrigate their crops. However, the Dutch investigators found confusion over data. Some studies cited measured absolute river flows, while others assessed per-capita flows. This made it "hard to establish the line of reasoning" and meant the conclusion could not be relied on, they said. In another case, the IPCC stated that "on balance health risks are very likely to increase" as a result of climate change. The PBL researchers said the report lacked a "quantitative underpinning for the statement". ...	Imagine! Scientists can be imperfect in predicting world-scale complexity! ApocaDoc permalink
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Mon, Jul 5, 2010 from Wired: Study claims hydroelectric dams hurt climate more than oil Hydroelectric power is normally listed in the same breath as solar, wind and wave as a world-saving renewable energy source. But a study from Brazil's National Institute for Research in the Amazon claims that it could be considerably more damaging to the atmosphere than generating the same amount of energy from oil. The study, which is due to be published in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, asserts that Hydroelectric's "green" image is false and that traditional dam-based hydroelectric power generation systems could be releasing significant amounts of methane into the environment, thanks to the rotting vegetation submerged when the reservoir floods. ...	Dam! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jul 5, 2010 from Chemical and Engineering News: Power From Entropy During lectures, Bert Hamelers displays two photos side by side: One is of the Hoover Dam, a thundering cascade of water. The other is of the River Rhine flowing gently into the North Sea. It might not seem intuitive, but each system has comparable power-generating capacity, says Hamelers, an assistant professor at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands. The Hoover Dam already generates enormous amounts of hydroelectricity every day. Scientists could extract just as much power by harnessing the entropy created when the Rhine's fresh waters mix with salty waters, he says. In Environmental Science and Technology (DOI: 10.1021/es100852a), Hamelers and colleagues introduce a new technology to convert into electricity the entropy created when two solutions of different salt concentrations come together. ...	I always rely on entropy for my energy needs. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jul 5, 2010 from Greenwich Time: Local lobstermen say no to moratorium Once a thriving industry that provided seafaring men a comfortable existence, Long Island Sound's lobstermen have been virtually wiped out over the past 10 years. A new recommendation by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to prohibit lobstering in the Sound for the next five years will ensure their demise, they say. The commission is calling for a five-year moratorium on lobstering from Cape Cod, Mass., to Cape May, N.J., under a plan it hopes would allow the lobster population to recover. ...	As go lobsters... so go the lobstermen. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jul 5, 2010 from Environmental Health News: Invasive "polluting plant" contributes to ozone levels Kudzu - an invasive plant common in the southeastern United States - contributes to the production of ozone, and at its worst, may add as much as a week to the number of days when ozone levels exceed pollution limits in the region. Kudzu releases two key ingredients - nitric oxide and isoprene - that are important to making ozone, which is an air pollutant with known health effects. When researchers looked, kudzu-invaded areas had higher levels of nitric oxide compared to uninvaded areas... In areas of the country most vulnerable to changes in nitric oxide levels - Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee - the kudzu-related increase in ozone could add as many as seven additional high ozone episodes during the summer when ozone levels are highest. ...	Before long... we'll all be living in the kudzone! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Jul 5, 2010 from Science, via McClatchy: World ocean: 'overwhelming evidence' that it's 'a lot worse than the public thinks.' A sobering new report warns that the oceans face a "fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation" not seen in millions of years as greenhouse gases and climate change already have affected temperature, acidity, sea and oxygen levels, the food chain and possibly major currents that could alter global weather.... "We are becoming increasingly certain that the world's marine ecosystems are reaching tipping points," Bruno said, adding, "We really have no power or model to foresee" the impact. "It's a lot worse than the public thinks," said Nate Mantua, an associate research professor at the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group. Mantua, who's read the report, said it was clear what was causing the oceans' problems: greenhouse gases. "It is not a mystery," he said. ...	Alright! If it's not a mystery, then we can do something about it! Right? Right? ApocaDoc permalink