jjacquet | April 22, 2008I always say that the shifting baselines syndrome, the tendency for each new generation to accept a degraded environment as normal/natural, is partially a result of the short human lifespan. If we would only live 1000 years, we would do a much better job at taking care of the planet. With the average lifespan in the U.S. at 78** years, I thought it seemed we were heading in that direction. New research shows otherwise.
An article published today in PLoS Medicine shows that life expectancy is not improving for most Americans. Researchers led by Harvard University professor Majid Ezzati…
jjacquet | April 21, 2008In The Seattle Times yesterday, there is an excellent article that talks a lot about shifting baselines in Puget Sound, including issues with population growth, the loss of a healthy marine ecosystem, and the formation of the Puget Sound Partnership. The article is an excellent complement to Randy Olson's recent flash video on Shifting Baselines in the Sound. William Dietrich, the author of the article, also calls for more science to understand baselines:
One of the most difficult things about Puget Sound is how little we still know. We should be able to answer three questions:
1. What was…
rolson | April 20, 2008It's a dark day for the subject of evolution in the U.S. Two years ago I made a pro-evolution movie, "Flock of Dodos," trying to warn the evolution community they are not good with mass communication, and that the people behind the attacks on evolution are VERY, VERY good. This weekend Ben Stein's anti-evolution movie, "Expelled," had a HUGE opening, estimated to rake in over $3 million dollars. One of the top openings EVER for a documentary.
Ben Stein says evolution is for losers, and nobody seems to be able to answer him.
jjacquet | April 18, 2008Let's just go back to the basics for a second. My minor advisor from Cornell University was Dr. David Pimentel, a stalwart advocate against the production of ethanol . From a recent debate Dr. Pimentel did on the subject of biofuels, I gleaned the following:
Consider that 20 percent of the U.S. corn crop was converted to 5 billion gallons of ethanol last year. This replaced only 1 percent of U.S. petroleum. If the entire U.S. corn crop were used, it would replace a mere 7 percent.
The energy expended to produce a gallon of corn ethanol is 40 percent greater than what is in ethanol itself…
jjacquet | April 16, 2008Today the Shifting Baselines blog is proud to host a guest post from Dr. Jeremy Jackson, marine paleoecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and long-term scientific proponent and communicator of the shifting baselines syndrome. He finds similarity in Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project founder Randy Olson and former Vice President Al Gore:
Having served as America's Vice President, having created a slideshow powerful enough to win an Oscar, and having won a Nobel Prize, one can assume Al Gore is a smart man. Everyone should have been interested, then, when two weeks ago…
jjacquet | April 15, 2008Plastic bags have some desirable traits. They require less energy and water to make than paper bags. Their impermeability means that they won't become a gooey, soggy mess over a little rotten egg. But the very thing that makes plastic bags so attractive must also make them an environmental catastrophe.
The problem with plastic bags is that they are made of plastic, which can take more than 1,000 years to biodegrade, has a number of ill effects on human health, and, as litter, can kill seabirds and other marine life. Plus, there are just too many of them (check out this bibliography on…
josh donlan | April 13, 2008The state of the world can be measured by the state of the wild. The Wildlife Conservation Society takes on that challenge by publishing their annual State of the Wild series with Island Press. The 2008-09 volume is fresh off the presses. This edition considers the integration of wildlife health, ecosystem health, human health, and the health of domestic animals, a "One World-One Health" approach to disease and conservation. The focus is complemented with essays clustered into sections that address other key issues: conservation of species, conservation of wild places, and the art and…
rolson | April 13, 2008bellwether - a person or thing that assumes the leadership or forefront, as of a profession or industry: Paris is a bellwether of the fashion industry.
I can't say enough good things about what the Science Debate 2008 group has managed to achieve so far. And enough bad things about some of the crotchety old farts who naysayed the idea from it's inception (always great to hear the fading echoes of last century's science community, like John Horgan, official fuddydud). Sheril Kirshenbaum has spearheaded a short note in Science about the future of SD 2008. The entire project seems to be saying…
josh donlan | April 10, 2008US environmentalists are up in arms on farms across the nation because of a recent downward trend in the Conservation Resource Program. The program, established about 25 years ago, pay farmers not to grow on some of their fields. The result has been impressive: 400,000 participating farmers and an area totaling over 36.8 million acres. Duck populations rose to about two million as a result. But now wheat and other crop prices are soaring, and farmers want their land back to...what else...farm. Last year farmers took back an area the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
Surprised? You…
jjacquet | April 10, 2008Just in time for the one year anniversary: Check out this sweet new hoodie designed by Sarika Cullis-Suzuki, another graduate student of Daniel Pauly's here at the UBC Fisheries Centre. She insists she made the gyotaku (fishprint) and THEN shrank it--so her hook-and-line caught rockfish was not really that small.
josh donlan | April 8, 2008Here's one for all you beachcombers out there. The organization COASST (Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team) is busy establishing a baseline on a beach near you. And they want your help.
COASST is a partnership between volunteer members of the general public and academic scientists. Carefully trained volunteers walk the same stretch of beach each month, collecting data on beach-cast seabird carcasses, as well as debris, humans, dogs, vehicles, and oil. The data are sent to a University of Washington lab where they are vetted for accuracy and added to a central database. COASST makes…
jjacquet | April 8, 2008Retirees in Florida are rockin' to the beat of a different drum...and they're not too thrilled about it.
Black drum mating calls travel at a low enough frequency and long enough wavelength to carry through sea walls, into the ground and through the construction of waterfront homes like the throbbing beat in a passing car.
In fact, lots of fishes, including the toadfish (see his handsome mug below) make sounds and today's New York Times has a wonderful article (with lots of extras) all about ocean noise. Also, check out Fishbase for sound recordings of fishes (click on "sounds" link under "…
jjacquet | April 8, 2008Last fall I was contacted by the folks at the newly created Puget Sound Partnership regarding the "shifting baselines" predicament they face with Puget Sound. Their phone polling showed that over 90% of the people of Seattle are in favor of protecting Puget Sound, but over 70% think the Sound, as it is today, is pretty much pristine. That is a case for shifting baselines.
So over the past four months we produced this new 5 minute Flash video to help convey the fact that even though, when you stand on the ferry and look out at Puget Sound it all appears flawless, the real situation is…
jjacquet | April 7, 2008Holy Macaroni (and I don't mean tuna noodle casserole)--this blog is one year old today! On April 8th last year, Randy Olson moved the Shifting Baselines blog to Scienceblogs and, for its launch, we staged a debate on whether or not to eat seafood. One year later, our seafood debate is still raging and relevant so I thought I would re-post our thoughts (but don't miss out on the original comments here).
SHOULD WE CONTINUE TO EAT SEAFOOD?
YES, SAYS RANDY OLSON: Until There Is Effective Leadership, There Is Little Point in Making Sacrifices
I say we should not be expected to stop eating…
josh donlan | April 7, 2008A new study published this month in the journal Ecology elucidates an ecological dance between wolves, coyotes, and pronghorn. Wildlife Conservation Society ecologist Kim Berger and colleagues analyzed wolf distribution data from the Yellowstone Ecosystem to evaluate the whether the observed increase in coyotes, resulting from the extirpation of wolves, accounted for high rates of coyote predation on pronghorn fawns. Take home message: wolves beat up on coyotes, and when wolves are not around - it's open season on baby pronghorn for coyotes. In areas where wolves are abundant, pronghorn fawn…
jjacquet | April 7, 2008This is the title of a new song out from Chris Brown. Just kidding. But it is the topic of an article in Science this week. Harmful algae blooms, as the name suggests, are harmful. They can kill fish and produce toxins, which can cause serious and occasionally fatal human diseases. Nutrient overenrichment of waters by urban, agricultural, and industrial development are most often seen as the culprits behind these blooms but rising temperatures also seem to facilitate the rise of slime.
Rising temperatures favor cyanobacteria [harmful algae] in several ways. Cyanobacteria generally grow…
jjacquet | April 7, 2008The Economist published an article last week on jellyfish, which featured a fellow graduate student at the Fisheries Centre, Lucas Brotz. Can jellyfish really be the future of seafood? Jellyfish only provide about 4 calories per 100 g but, beyond that, there is a real danger of encouraging demand for a product that was spawned from unhealthy and poorly managed oceans...
Jellyfish push out incredibly valuable, and diverse, marine ecosystems. Scientists may somehow turn jellyfish into food, tyres or flip-flops, but it is hard to imagine an industry based on a product that is at least 95%…
josh donlan | April 6, 2008Paper or plastic? You know the drill. Well if you live in Seattle, you might want to throw those cloth bags in your trunk so you won't forget them. Otherwise...it will cost you. Seattle mayor Greg Nickels put forth a proposal that would charge Seattle shoppers a 20-cent "green fee" for every new paper or plastic bag. A similar program in Ireland reduced disposable bags by 90 percent. Clearly, the mayor understands what incentives many Americans respond to. And of course, the green fee will make a handy revenue stream for the city. Even better, revenues will be used to distribute free usable…
josh donlan | April 5, 2008In some Asian countries (e.g., India, China, South Korea), it is well documented that male births often far exceed female births. In India the ratio is 1.39:1 and in China it is 2.25:1. Many point to China's one-child policy, high-dowry payments in India, or reliance on children for support as important drivers of the observed sex ratios (the biological norm is 1.05:1). New research to be published in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences challenges those factors. U.S.-born children of Chinese, Korean, and Asian parents also show a male-biased sex ratio. In 2000, if a couple…