environment
amillikan | April 22, 2009
Today is Earth Day, and here on ScienceBlogs our bloggers are observing it by sharing their reasons for caring about our planet and its environment. ScienceBlogs' newest blog, Guilty Planet, launched today in timing with the occasion. Written by Jennifer Jacquet, formerly of Shifting Baselines, the blog will explore human patterns of consumption and what can be done to make them sustainable. "It will seek reason amidst the irrational madness of destroying one's only home," writes Jacquet. Also check out Mike Dunford's Earth Day meme on The Questionable Authority and a meditative audio…
jstemwedel | April 22, 2009Mike Dunford initiates a meme for Earth Day 2009:
I'd like you to take a minute or two to come up with three things that you can do to be more environmentally friendly. The first should be something that's small, and easy to do. The second should be more ambitious - something you'll try to do, but might not manage to pull off. The third should be something you can do to improve something you're already doing.
I love this meme! No matter what habits you've already cultivated (and we've cultivated a few), there's always room to optimize them. So here are my Earth Day 2009 resolutions:…
jjacquet | April 21, 2009"We are all parasites," a friend recently remarked as our train moved past the graffiti covered walls of Berlin. "Anyone who does not understand this--or thinks that somehow the good that they do in this world outweighs the bad--is delusional."
She is a scientist working for the UK Energy Saving Trust, which markets a low carbon lifestyle to the British public. She entertains very few romantic notions of environmentalism.
"I think if we really looked at the life cycle of human beings we would get some very surprising results," she said. "I am pretty sure we need lazy people kept happy by…
sciencewoman | April 21, 2009Like many other public universities around the country, Mystery U has been hit hard by the economic hard times. Most of this year, we heard ominous rumblings that (at some point) there would be a budget reversion, i.e., we'd have to send some portion of our budget back to the state coffers. But all was pretty much business as usual until a few weeks ago when the axe fell. Instantaneously our whole university budget and we were under strict orders to conserve the precious resources we still had...you know, things like copier paper. Because we have no money to buy any more.
I've been biting my…
revere | April 20, 2009When a small body of water, say a slow flowing creek or water in a drainage ditch, "goes septic" it starts to stink, often giving off a rotten egg odor (hydrogen sulfide, H2S). This isn't a sign that the water is polluted in the chemical sense of toxic materials. It means that so much organic matter has entered the water that the bacteria there have gone on a food orgy. The initial gluttons are aerobic bugs that need oxygen as a final electron acceptor to generate energy for their needs. When the feasting aerobes use up all the oxygen they die and are replaced by a new set of diners, the…
grrlscientist | April 19, 2009tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…
edyong | April 19, 2009
A large study weighs up the existing evidence on the impact of GM crops on local insect life, providing some much-needed scientific rigour to the GM debate.
In Europe, the 'GM debate' about the merits and dangers of genetically-modified (GM) crops is a particularly heated one. There is a sense of unease about the power of modern genetic technology, and a gut feeling that scientists are 'playing God'. These discontents are stoked by the anti-GM camp, who describe GM crops with laden and fear-mongering bits of unspeak like 'Frankenstein foods' and 'unnatural'.
In a debate so fuelled by…
grrlscientist | April 18, 2009tags: HR669, pets, exotic animals, invasive species, pet animal trade, PetSmart, politics
As expected, PetSmart has officially spoken out against HR 669. As a large corporation, you KNOW PetSmart has a flock of lawyers who are studying legislation such as this to make sure that laws are not enacted that would damage them or their clients. While PetSmart supports the primary aim of this bill -- to prevent the introduction of potentially invasive nonnative animal species into this country -- they point out that HR 669, as written, will damage the pet industry and harm pet owners ("pet parents…
grrlscientist | April 18, 2009tags: HR669, pets, exotic animals, invasive species, ornamental fish trade, aquaculture, New England Aquarium, politics
This morning, I was contacted by Scott Dowd, a biologist who specializes in studying fishes in the Amazon with the New England Aquarium. Scott sent this letter, written yesterday by Bud Ris, the President and CEO of the New England Aquarium, regarding their official position on HR 669. Scott gave permission for me to share the text of the letter here, which appears below the fold, and I also have permission to share the PDF of the letter with interested others.…
jstemwedel | April 17, 2009This morning, over breakfast, the Free-Ride offspring and I discussed the environment. You can hear the conversation (that crunching is from English muffins). The transcript is below.
Dr. Free-Ride: So I was going to ask you guys this morning to talk a little bit about the environment, and I guess my first question is, what's the environment?
Elder offspring: It's the area around an organism.
Dr. Free-Ride: What do you think, younger offspring?
Younger offspring: I think that the environment is the resources that you can use.
Dr. Free-Ride: OK, so that could be something that's in the area…
amillikan | April 16, 2009A proposed law to protect native species and habitats from invasion by nonnative animals is scheduled to be heard April 23 in the U.S. House of Representatives, and ScienceBloggers are voicing strong--and contending--sentiments about the bill. House Resolution 669, the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Protection Act, would prevent the importation and trade of invasive animal species, but ignores invasive exotic plants that can cause "tremendous economic, environmental, and habitat damage," in the words of GrrlScientist. She raises a number of other objections to the bill, but Mike Dunford of the…
bcohen | April 14, 2009In a post a few weeks ago, I included links to some current and recently passed legislation on food, food safety, and food labeling. One of them, H.R. 875 -- a bill "To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services" -- has a particular devotion to "science" and "science-based" data and "science-based" practices. It's all so very post-Bush era. Debate about it is now starting to ramp up on-line.
But what got me thinking more about food and labeling was the Honest Tea Organic Honey Green Tea with 250 mg of EGCG Super Anti-oxidant I recently…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2009tags: House Resolution 669, HR 669, The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act, legislation, pets, politics
A proposed new law, House Resolution #669 (HR 669), The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act, is working its way through the United States Congress. This resolution was introduced by Delegate Madeleine Bordallo [D, Guam] on 26 January 2009, was referred to Referred to the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife on 4 February 2009 and is scheduled to be heard by the House of Representatives on 23 April 2009. The stated purpose of this resolution is to prevent the…
clock | April 13, 2009Periodic Tables and the Museum of Life and Science Present:
April 14, 2009 | 7:00 P.M.
Waves of Ocean Literacy
Speaker: Cynthia Cudaback, NC State University
If the Earth is a body, the ocean is its blood, circulating over most of the surface, moderating temperature and sustaining life. Cynthia Cudaback provides college and high school students with the tools they need to be informed stewards of the ocean, and its importance to the long-term sustainability of our planet. Her talk will focus on the success of marine education efforts, and opportunities for improvement.
Join us tomorrow night…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2009tags: Lantinen Pukkisaari, nature, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Lantinen Pukkisaari.
Walking on the Water on Lantinen Pukkisaari near Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | April 8, 2009tags: Hietaniemi Hautausmaa, Hietaniemi Cemetery, nature, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
A huge gravestone in Hietaniemi Hautausmaa (Hietaniemi Cemetery).
Image: GrrlScientist, 19 February 2009 [larger view].
pharyngula | April 8, 2009One of the peculiarities of our media right now is that, as everyone knows, the best political reporting is being done by a couple of comedy shows on cable. Another source that has been surprising me is Rolling Stone, which has unshackled a couple of wild men, Tim Dickinson and Matt Taibbi, to go after the corruption and insanity of American politics — one of those things we once upon a time expected our newspaper journalists to do. I guess the powers-that-be think it's safe to let the drug-addled hippies and punks (and college professors) who read Rolling Stone to know about the failures of…
mikethemadbiologist | April 7, 2009It's called 'feed-in tariffs.' From The Washington Monthly:
Why is the renewable energy market in Gainesville booming while it's collapsing elsewhere in the country? The answer boils down to policy. In early February, the city became the first in the nation to adopt a "feed-in tariff"--a clunky and un-descriptive name for a bold incentive to foster renewable energy. Under this system, the local power company is required to buy renewable energy from independent producers, no matter how small, at rates slightly higher than the average cost of production. This means anyone with a cluster of…
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009tags: Greenland, image of the day
Grønland fra luften (Greenland from roughly 38,000 feet up).
Image: GrrlScientist, 10 March 2009 [larger view].
clock | April 6, 2009Tuesday, April 21, 2009
6:30-8:30 pm with discussion beginning at 7:00 followed by Q&A
Location: The Irregardless Café, 901 W. Morgan Street, Raleigh 833-8898
Think Globally - Eat Locally
How much do you know about the food you eat? Were pesticides applied? Do you know where it was grown and how far it traveled to get to you? How much did its transportation contribute to global warming?
What can we do to bring about the revival of locally produced foods and all the benefits they bring - better taste, nutrition, stronger local economies and relationships with local farmers, reduced…