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INVASIVE SPECIES: South Carolina study to determine whether invasive Burmese pythons can survive further north
To test the theory of whether “after several generations, [Burmese pythons] could eventually migrate to and flourish in as much as a third of the continental United States,” the Savannah River Ecology Lab in South Carolina is conducting a study to determine whether Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) can survive further north.
Currently, these massive constrictors have established a breeding population within the Florida Everglades—which is expected to spread northwards—and this invasion has been blamed on the pet trade. Burmese pythons grow very large, so their prey can be large, but younger snakes feed on smaller animals. As a result, the impact on Florida’s ecosystems is systemic.
At the moment, a bill is in the works to control destructive non-native species kept as pets. Recently, “a Florida toddler was strangled on Wednesday by a 12-foot (3.6-meter) albino Burmese python that escaped from a holding tank in the girl’s home.” From the Richmond Times Dispatch:
Water managers dispatched two experts to Washington recently to back a bill targeting an Everglades problem that seems to get bigger every year. The latest, largest evidence emerged in mid-May: a Burmese python stretching 16½ feet.
It is the longest yet of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the exotic constrictors the South Florida Water Management District has pulled off its lands and levees in the past few years. More sobering: The female was pregnant, carrying a clutch of 59 eggs — more proof the giant snakes are breeding in the wild.
“These are not little snakes running around. These are massive, dangerous animals,” said district spokesman Randy Smith.
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But at its first hearing in April, the bill ran into what a co-sponsor quipped was a “hornet’s nest of opposition” from pet owners, breeders, hobbyists and pet stores. They expressed outrage to lawmakers in telephone calls, e-mails and YouTube videos — including one titled “Pets in Peril, Politicians Gone Wild” — arguing that the legislation would bar the ownership of anything more exotic than a Doberman or a Siamese cat.
“One-third of our nation has non-native species as pets, and apart from dogs, cats and goldfish, which are exempt [in the bill], virtually every species in those homes falls under” the legislation, said Marshall Meyers, CEO of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council. The bill “could shut down major segments of the pet industry virtually overnight.”
Proponents, including a coalition of 15 major environmental organizations such as the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation, call the fears unjustified. They say the bill targets only species that pose a threat.
Still, some suggest the language in the bill is vague.
“There were some legitimate concerns, no one doubts that,” said Peter Jenkins, director of international conservation at Defenders of Wildlife. He notes that pet owners were alarmed when some animals — ferrets, gerbils, guinea pigs and others — weren’t named as species that would be exempt from the bill.
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Biologists argue that more than 400 of the 1,300 species on the endangered-species list are at risk primarily because they compete with — or are targets of — invasive species.
As one of the largest snakes in the world, sometimes topping 20 feet, pythons potentially could challenge the natural dominant predators of the Everglades or other wild places — a concern illustrated in 2005 by the now-famous photos of a 13-foot python that exploded after swallowing a 6-foot alligator.
Water district spokesman Smith said the impact is obvious along the L-67 levee.
“You won’t find a rabbit down there anymore,” he said. “That’s the most noticeable effect. It [the snake] doesn’t seem to have any predators, and it preys on native wildlife.”
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The video above shows some alien-like gelatinous blobs living in a sewer pipe. A sewer camera, inspecting pipes below Raleigh’s Cameron Village, took some video of what appears to be some type of blob pulsating into or sucking material from the pipe. However, the blob is nothing more than tubifex worms reacting to the camera’s light. Nonetheless, the video is still gross and fascinating. From News14.com:
Ed Buchan, environmental coordinator at the Raleigh Public Utilities Department, said staff biologists have confirmed that the “creature” is actually a colony of tubifex worms. The colonies attach themselves to roots that gradually work themselves into weak points in the pipes.
“They seem to respond to the light from the camera,” Buchan said. “That light is pretty hot.”The worms naturally occur in sewage and pond sediment and are actually sold both live and dried as fish food in pet stores.
He said other staff members in the department have seen it before, although sightings aren’t particularly common.
“I’ve seen a lot of sewer TV before and I’ve never seen them,” he said. “We were surprised. We didn’t know immediately what it was.”
Buchan said the video appears to be legitimate, apparently taken when the owner of the sewer lines, York Properties, contracted a private company to inspect the pipes.
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Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards—developed by the U.S. Green Building Council—already exist, but an effective more user-friendly set of codes or guidelines that provide a framework for integrating sustainability into new building construction or renovation efforts are the logical next step in bringing energy-efficiency or green building standards to a wider market. From Talk Radio News Service:
The creation of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), a framework to measure sustainable building development, construction and use, was announced today by International Code Council CEO Richard Weiland, during a press conference atop the roof of the National Association of Realtors building.
The ‘Safe, Sustainable and by the Book’ IGC Code, which is expected to be completed by April 2010, will add sustainable initiatives to existing construction codes. The code in the works will also provide a routine set of guidelines that will be easy for local and state governments to implement for the creation and renovation of green buildings.
The IGCC will also aid in the reduction of a buildings carbon emissions, said American Institute of Architects CEO Christine McEntee.
“Buildings are the largest source of energy consumption and green house gas emissions in America. [In the U.S.] buildings consume about 40% of the energy produced and also produce the same percent of carbon emissions,” said McEntee.
“We are encouraged by the desire of our government and many across the United States and around the world to move forward in ways that will acknowledge how design, engineering, construction management and enforcement can create a greener america and a greener globe,” said Weiland.
LISTEN:
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These amazing images below, showing an American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), with what appears to be a freshly killed adult white-tailed deer, might be old news to some folks, but these images are fairly new to me. I imagine the gator—if it didn’t find the deer dead fresh—took the deer swimming or crossing a waterway or via ambush. Due to hunting pressure in addition to habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, the American alligator was once an endangered species, but it fully recovered—a success story of the Endangered Species Act. However, as these great predators continue to recover, conflicts with people and their unnatural landscapes will continue to be an issue. Primarily because of fear and ignorance, humans have throughout history aggressively targeted large predators (the gray wolf is a good example) and have driven many fascinating species of megafauna into extinction. From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
The sight of a 12 to 14 foot-long alligator is something south Georgia folks see occasionally, but few have seen one take an adult deer out to lunch. Actually — for lunch.
The photographs of this deer-eating alligator were taken from the air by Terri Jenkins, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service District Fire Management Officer. She was preparing to ignite a prescribed fire at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, about 40 miles south of Savannah, Georgia, on March 4, 2004. The photo has
“One advantage of fire work is you get to see that 12-14 footers are common from Santee National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina to Coastal South Carolina to Georgia’s coast,” said Jenkins. “It looks like the alligator population is doing extremely well.”
This one was at least 12-13 feet long. Jenkins said that some bull alligators have a 35 inch girth.
The Service uses a helicopter capable of igniting controlled burns by dropping flaming fuel-filled ping pong balls on pre-selected areas. She works throughout parts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Coastal Georgia refuges and fish hatcheries. The Service uses prescribed fire to improve habitat and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
The images above were taken by Terri Jenkins for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A very large bull alligator (see below) was unfortunately shot in Texas back in 2005, because it was living in someone’s back yard. From Brazosport Facts:
“The first time I really got an idea of the size of it was when they got it,” Anita Rogers said.
Spring is mating season for the reclusive animals and the bulls tend to roam, said Joe Goff, who is not only the game warden who shot the animal, but has a house behind the Rogerses.
“In the last two weeks, we’ve had a number of nuisance alligator calls,” Goff said.
But Friday’s took the cake. Normally, game wardens will capture the animals and turn them over to alligator farms. Not this one.
“He’s too big,” Goff said. “We couldn’t capture him, he’s too dangerous. He’ll eat the females.”
Goff said the alligator swam to within 3 feet of him. Goff shot him with a .22-caliber rifle.
“He’s blind in his left eye,” Goff said. “It was spooky.”
Goff said the alligator will be given to a nuisance hunter who puts bids in with the state and will pay for the animal. The hunter then will clean the carcass and sell the meat and hide for processing.
While alligators can be a danger to pets, they’re generally not a threat to humans, said Charles Mann, a zookeeper in the reptile and amphibian department at the Houston Zoo.
“Certainly an alligator that gets up to 13 feet long gets that way by being very wary and probably tries to shy away from anything that could hurt it, mainly people,” Mann said.
Mann estimated the animal had to be at least 12 to 15 years old, but could be much older, based on its size.
“They grow about a foot a year until they’re 7 or 8 feet long, then past that they grow slower,” Mann said. “The record for longevity would be 50 or 60 years.”
Anita Rogers said she kept her dogs in the fence when she first heard the stories and heard the bellowing, which she likened to a giant bullfrog.
The Rogerses are glad the reptile is gone, but they don’t have problems with the smaller ones in the water.
“They keep the bayou cleaned out,” Charles Rogers said.
Mann said the animals, which have been around for hundreds of millions of years, were almost wiped out before the federal government stepped in.
“It’s really a success story of the Endangered Species Act,” he said.
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Have you ever questioned why massive gas clouds in space don’t disperse or slowly vanish? Well, of course there’s a scientific explanation, so here’s an articulated and passionate answer from TheBadAstronomer (but please don’t ask a creationist).
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Noctilucent clouds are extremely high-altitude atmospheric formations that glow at night. Furthermore, although these fascinating “clouds ride in the sky above 99.9 percent of the atmosphere and over 40 miles above the highest clouds . . . [and] skirt the lowest fringes of the aurora,”—so they are certainly suggestive of the auroras or northern and southern lights—they are an entirely different phenomenon. According to Wikipedia, noctilucent clouds
are tenuous cloud-like phenomena that are the “ragged-edge” of a much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer called polar mesospheric clouds in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight. They are made of crystals of water ice. The name means roughly night shining in Latin. They are most commonly observed in the summer months at latitudes between 50° and 70° north and south of the equator.
They are the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 kilometers (47 to 53 mi). They are normally too faint to be seen, and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth’s shadow. Noctilucent clouds are not fully understood and are a recently discovered meteorological phenomenon; there is no evidence that they were observed before 1885.
Noctilucent clouds can form only under very restrictive conditions; their occurrence can be used as a sensitive guide to changes in the upper atmosphere. Since their discovery the occurrence of noctilucent clouds has been increasing in frequency, brightness and extent. It is theorized that this increase is connected to climate change.
Noctilucent clouds are increasing and spreading into other latitudes. The observance of these clouds is also linked to solar activity, but it is thought that an increase in greenhouse gases may play a role too. More from New Scientist:
The clouds were first seen above polar regions in 1885, suggesting they may have been caused by the eruption of Krakatoa two years before. But in recent years the clouds have spread to latitudes as low as 40°, while also growing in number and getting brighter. The reason for the clouds’ spread is unclear, but some suspect it could be due to an increase in greenhouse gases. That’s because the gases actually cause Earth’s upper atmosphere to cool, and the clouds need cold temperatures to form.
Although the average number of noctilucent clouds has been increasing in recent decades, their abundance also seems to rise and fall with the sun’s 11-year cycle of activity. The clouds thrive when the sun is quiet and spews less ultraviolet radiation, which can destroy water needed to form the clouds and can keep temperatures too high for ice particles to form.
Because the sun has been abnormally quiet in recent years, noctilucent clouds could be especially bright and numerous this summer in the Northern hemisphere.
A recent study suggests “the Tunguska explosion of 1908 [was] caused by a comet hitting Earth . . . based on the behaviour of water vapour from the space shuttle’s exhaust” forming noctilucent clouds. From Xenophilia:
The research, accepted for publication (June 24, 2009) by the journal Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union, connects the two events by what followed each about a day later: brilliant, night-visible clouds, or noctilucent clouds, that are made up of ice particles and only form at very high altitudes and in extremely cold temperatures.
“It’s almost like putting together a 100-year-old murder mystery,” said Michael Kelley, the James A. Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Cornell who led the research team. “The evidence is pretty strong that the Earth was hit by a comet in 1908.” Previous speculation had ranged from comets to meteors.
The researchers contend that the massive amount of water vapor spewed into the atmosphere by the comet’s icy nucleus was caught up in swirling eddies with tremendous energy by a process called two-dimensional turbulence, which explains why the noctilucent clouds formed a day later many thousands of miles away.
. . .
The space shuttle exhaust plume, the researchers say, resembled the comet’s action.
A single space shuttle flight injects 300 metric tons of water vapor into the Earth’s thermosphere, and the water particles have been found to travel to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, where they form the clouds after settling into the mesosphere.
Kelley and collaborators saw the noctilucent cloud phenomenon days after the space shuttle Endeavour (STS-118) launched on Aug. 8, 2007. Similar cloud formations had been observed following launches in 1997 and 2003.
Following the 1908 explosion, known as the Tunguska Event, the night skies shone brightly for several days across Europe, particularly Great Britain — more than 3,000 miles away.
Noctilucent cloud video:
Video showing noctilucent clouds from space and a lightening storm in the lower atmosphere:
Tunguska explosion of 1908:
Here are some amazing images from Flickr showing noctilucent clouds viewed from the cockpit of an airplane.
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The best from Flickr: Thought provoking street art by Banksy and other artists
Banksy in Birmingham: Of course, the artwork was quickly spray painted over
Photo source for attribution here
Banksy in New Orleans with Rain Girl
Photo source for attribution here
Gray Ghost Revenge!
Photo source for attribution here
Yellow Lines Flower Painter
Photo source for attribution here
Take This Society
Photo source for attribution here
Stop and Search: How far should we go? How far can we go?
Image found here
Balloon Girl
Photo source for attribution here
Bomb Hugger . The fragility of society—with its cities, infrastructure, and markets—is often unobserved or ignored.
Image found here
Video: Banksy Versus Bristol Museum
More here: Clandestine artist leaves his mark on New Orleans’ streets
Other political graffiti (authors unknown)
“There must be some kind of way out of here . . .” Banksy?
Photo source for attribution here
Representing detainee in orange jumpsuit at U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
Photo source for attribution here
Consumerism can’t lead to happiness
Photo source for attribution here. Photo by Dave Knapik.
Reliance on fossil fuels is suicide
Photo source for attribution here
Obama over Banksy
Photo source for attribution here
A take on Norman Rockwell’s The Problem We All Live With, inspired by Banksy’s Balloon Girl
Photo source for attribution here
The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.
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Objectively speaking, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s vanishing act is perplexing, unreasonable, and reveals a lack of prudence. Contrarily, conservative columnist Kathleen Parker interprets Mark Sanford’s shenanigans as “brilliant.” Contrarily, Mark McKinnon argues, “The South Carolina governor isn’t an irresponsible lunatic for wandering off the reservation—he just made himself a better bet for president in 2012.” Not hardly. To borrow a quote from Number Six: “You have an amazing capacity for self-deception. How do you do that?“
Actually, given Republican reaction towards key issues like environmental degradation, climate change, health care reform, or the situation in Iran (or the blind support of former president George W. Bush and his Iraq debacle) in addition to strategically disagreeing with President Obama on just about every issue, Number Six’s quote could be: “[Republicans] have an amazing capacity for self-deception. How do [they] do that?”
Furthermore, a poll from WYFF4.com of Greenville, S.C., as of this morning, shows that about 91% believe it wasn’t appropriate for S.C. governor Mark Sanford to leave and not tell anyone. Sometimes, truth is unavoidable.
I agree with this assessment:
Whether right or wrong, politics is a game of perception. And if Governor Sanford’s goal is the national stage, this “disappearance” act just looks wrong on so many levels. He is going to be perceived as “flaky” and “irresponsible”, because of this “stunt”. This is not about a guy just getting away for a few days without a cell phone. This is about whether or not Sanford has what it takes to run for President of the United States. And right now it looks like he doesn’t have “it”.
Update 1: Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is a Democrat according to Fox News:
Update 2: What South Carolina residents are saying about the Mark Sanford debacle:
Update 3: The State, South Carolina’s largest newspaper, published emails between Mark Sanford and a woman in Argentina; but should these emails have been published or remained private? I’m guessing he sent these emails from his state government account. At most job sites—especially in the government—employees working in information technology have access to electronic mail or even an employee’s work computer.
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According to the Department of Energy, Tesla Motors will receive $465 million in loan money to advance electric vehicles, Ford Motor Company will receive $5.9 billion in loans to finance engineering advances, and Nissan will receive $1.6 billion in loan money to produce electric cars and battery packs at a manufacturing complex in Smyrna, Tennessee.
This is the type of federal involvement that is needed to jumpstart the modern auto industry (in addition to the renewable energy industry and the modernization of the electrical grid). GM and Chrysler did not qualify for the loans, since these companies “are prevented from receiving aid under terms of the program because they do not qualify as ‘financially viable’ companies.”
No doubt, early adopters such as Toyota have been winners with their fuel-efficient vehicles. However, companies such as GM even until fairly recently chided any attempts to market fuel-efficient vehicles such as hybrids, and apparently the American auto company was instrumental in killing its own electric car program in the 1990s, which seemed very promising at the time. However, it appears that Ford is becoming a clear winner due to GM and Chrysler’s woes, since the automaker “has gained U.S. retail market share in seven of the past eight months and said it is attracting customers from GM and Chrysler.” Furthermore, the downfall of two of the Big Three has no doubt left room for smaller auto startups, such as Tesla, to begin entering the market. From the Department of Energy:
Today, the Obama Administration announced $8 billion in conditional loan commitments for the development of innovative, advanced vehicle technologies that will create thousands of green jobs while helping reduce the nation’s dangerous dependence on foreign oil. The loan commitments announced today by the President include $5.9 billion for Ford Motor Company to transform factories across Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio to produce 13 more fuel efficient models; $1.6 billion to Nissan North America, Inc. to retool their Smyrna, Tennessee factory to build advanced electric automobiles and to build an advanced battery manufacturing facility; and $465 million to Tesla Motors to manufacture electric drive trains and electric vehicles in California.
These are the first conditional loan commitments reached as part of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. The Department plans to make additional loans under this program over the next several months to large and small auto manufacturers and parts suppliers up and down the production chain.
“We have an historic opportunity to help ensure that the next generation of fuel-efficient cars and trucks are made in America,” said President Obama. “These loans – and the additional support we will provide through the Section 136 program – will create good jobs and help the auto industry to meet and even exceed the tough fuel economy standards we’ve set, while helping us to regain our competitive edge in the world market.”
“By supporting key technologies and sound business plans, we can jumpstart the production of fuel efficient vehicles in America,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. “These investments will come back to our country many times over – by creating new jobs, reducing our dependence on oil, and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.”
These commitments will help reduce the 140 billion gallons of gasoline Americans consume each year, lessening the nation’s dependence on the volatile world market for oil, and decreasing the cause of a fifth of the nation’s carbon emissions. The Obama Administration recently announced an agreement to raise passenger car fuel standards from 27.5 miles per gallon to a target of 35 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2016. While 35 mpg is ambitious, the Department of Energy’s auto loan program received more than a hundred applications for loans to help achieve greater fuel efficiency. The competition among advances in conventional engine technologies, next-generation biofuels, and transportation electrification holds the potential to increase US fuel efficiency dramatically over the next several years.
The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program is an open and competitive process focusing on the best companies and best technologies in American manufacturing. First appropriated in the fall of 2008, the program will provide about $25 billion in loans to companies making cars and components in US factories that increase fuel economy at least 25 percent above 2005 fuel economy levels. The intense technical and financial review process is focused not on choosing a single technology over others, but is aimed at promoting multiple approaches for achieving a fuel efficient economy.
Applications for the loan program have included vehicles running on electricity, biofuels, and advanced combustion engines, and were submitted by both car and component makers, US automakers, US manufacturing subsidiaries of non-US-based companies, major US auto parts suppliers, and innovative startups.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Who Killed The Electric Car part 1 of 10
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On June 22, 1969, the Cuyahoga River literally caught fire, and the subsequent public outrage was arguably the catalyst for environmental regulatory protections like the Clean Water Act. Another environmental disaster was a catalyst for environmentalism: “In the spring following the [Santa Barbara's 1969 Oil Spill], Earth Day was born nationwide.” Furthermore, in 1970 the National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA was signed into law.
A book by marine biologist and naturalist Rachel Carson—Silent Spring—was no doubt another important ingredient that fostered the modern environmental movement. However, although the mindset of out of sight, out of mind or the misunderstanding that Nature can absorb our waste without consequences, was historically a huge factor in our Nation’s environmental troubles, history seems to be repeating itself today. However, the difference today are our environmental regulatory protections. From The Plain Dealer:
The fire — a brief Sunday afternoon flare-up of oil-soaked debris likely ignited by either molten steel or a spark from a passing rail car — was doused by local firefighting tugboat crews. The story barely made the newspapers the next day.
But the effect of that two-hour flare-up has lasted four decades.
Today, the river fire stands as an enduring image of progress gone wrong.
But after so many years, it becomes difficult to really understand and feel the rampant water (and air) pollution of the industrial era that led to the Cuyahoga fire.
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The image of a black, gooey hand coming out of the Cuyahoga like a B-movie swamp monster defined the plight of the Cuyahoga. By association, it indicted all industrial American cities — and a culture that for a century had generally viewed natural waterways as a means to an end.
“The Cuyahoga River — the thick pollution on the water and the fire — became a convenient example of what ‘bad’ really is,” said Frank Samsel, whose company aided in early 1970s cleanup efforts.
Video: “[Water pollution] is the shadow of progress”
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Miniature cattle are popular because of their small size, ability to provide high-quality tender meat, and raw milk fans use these miniature cattle for home milk production.
Learn more about miniture cattle breeds at the International Miniature Cattle Breeds Registry, INC. More from Macleans.ca:
Richard Gradwohl, of the International Miniature Cattle Breeds Society and Registry, in Covington, Wash. has seen a 25 per cent increase worldwide in miniature cattle year over year during the past 15 years. Despite its big-sky, red-meat reputation, Alberta is the centre of the movement in Canada, with perhaps half of the country’s Dexter population and the first restaurant to serve exclusively Dexter beef—Apples, in Bashaw, an hour and a half northeast of Red Deer.
Mini-cow breeds weigh between 500 and 700 pounds, about half the size of regular breeds, and are either bred down from Hereford, Holstein, Jersey or Angus lines or, like the dual-purpose Dexter breed—good for both milk and beef—are naturally tiny.
A recent explosion in small hobby farms catering to niche markets helped boost their appeal even prior to the economic downturn, as did growing concern over food safety, sustainability and the environmental footprint of beef. Fans of raw milk are more and more turning to mini-cows to produce their own; the efficiency can be startling: a Holstein-Jersey miniature cross will eat a third of what a larger dairy cow will but produce two-thirds the milk. In the U.S., mini-cows are more and more popular as pets, particularly among women.
Enthusiasts, meanwhile, extol the excellent quality of the meat, which is said to be more tender. “They taste like good beef,” says Hykaway, a retired electrician who has 45 head at Tandria Dexters, just east of Fort Saskatchewan. “Because a lot of us aren’t using grain, they have that nice distinct grass taste.”
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RECOMMENDED IMAGE: Male rhea celebrates Father’s Day with his own brood of chicks at the National Zoo
The National Zoo has some excellent shots on Flickr of some rhea chicks with their father—just in time for Father’s Day!
Rheas are South American ratites, which are a group of flightless birds that “have no keel on their sternum, [so] without this to anchor their wing muscles they could not fly even if they were to develop suitable wings.” Even more unusual, the male rhea incubates the eggs and rears the chicks:
The male incubates from ten to sixty eggs. The male will utilize a decoy system and place some eggs outside the nest and sacrifice these to predators, so that they won’t attempt to get inside the nest. The male may utilize another subordinate male to incubate his eggs, while he finds another harem to start a second nest. The chicks hatch within 36 hours of each other. The females, meanwhile, may move on and mate with other males. While caring for the young, the males will charge at any perceived threat that approach the chicks including female rheas and humans. The young reach full adult size in about six months but do not breed until they reach two years of age.
More on these fascinating images from the National Zoo in Washington, DC:
Like most things, raising children is easier the second time around. Things are no different for the National Zoo’s adult male rhea, who for the second year in a row is celebrating Father’s Day with a brood of his own. Rhea chicks are raised by their fathers, who incubate their eggs and rear the chicks once they are hatched.
These chicks, which hatched on May 8, are reaping the benefits of Dad’s experiences from last year, when he was a first-time father to a flock of four. As before, he still keeps them close; as seen, rhea chicks sleep nestled in their father’s feathers on his back. However, this year he is also more relaxed, making it easier for keepers to care for and examine the chicks. The babies enjoy wandering, but Dad watches out for their safety, guarding them from any potential threat, including humans and even female rheas. When his chicks meander too far away, a rapid clacking of his bill will bring them all running. Despite the babies’ penchant for eating everything in sight—including rocks—this father is raising a healthy brood of lively chicks.
This year’s hatch is the second flock of rhea chicks born at the Zoo in thirty years. Rheas are large, flightless birds native to South America and are part of the ratite family, which also includes the ostrich, emu, kiwi, and cassowary.
Photo Credit: Mehgan Murphy/Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Check out the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s photostream on Flickr!
Hat tip: @overyonder via Twitter.
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The public does not need to become experts on an issue in order to fully participate in decision making. That’s not possible, and it’s not necessary either. Americans don’t need to be economists in order to set priorities for health care reform or hold a doctorate in education to realize what’s needed in their local schools. But the public does need enough information so it can understand the basic elements of the problem and wrestle with the implications of different choices.
A report from Public Agenda examined “the public’s attitudes, values and concerns about the tangle of policy challenges, business choices and personal habits that come under the catch-all heading of ‘energy.’” The report is interesting, and it investigated a multitude of energy-related issues by analyzing the American public’s perception or knowledge of key energy issues (download the report, “Energy Learning Curve” as a PDF). Interestingly, although 4 in 10 Americans cannot name a fossil fuel, a majority of Americans do worry about fuel costs and believe the U.S. economy is too dependent on oil. From the report:
Even though energy prices have fallen since the oil price spike of 2008, public concern over cost remains both strong and intense. An overwhelming 9 in 10 Americans (89 percent) say they worry about the cost of gas and fuel. Even more important is the intensity of that concern, with 57 percent saying they worry “a lot.”
Eight in ten (83 percent) worry that the U.S. economy is too dependent on oil, with 47 percent saying they worry “a lot.” Nearly three quarters of the public (73 percent) disagrees with the statement that “if we get gas prices to drop and stay low, we don’t need to be worried about finding alternative sources of energy.” Fully 53 percent of the public strongly disagrees with that statement, showing this is a firmly held belief.
This may be because the public believes there’s a long-term trend at work here. Seven in ten say that “over the long run, the price of oil will go up” because “supplies are decreasing and demand continues to rise.” Despite the high number, the public still has some contradictory views on this trend. Nearly as many (68 percent) also blame “speculators who drive up the price of oil” for cost increases.
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HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT: Hawk disrupts lunch at East Village restaurant aptly named “Birdies”
More at And I Am Not Lying and Gawker.
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Photo source for attribution here and here. The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.
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In legal shenanigans spanning some 20 years that includes a recent SCOTUS ruling that reduced Exxon’s liability, Exxon, which has enjoyed record profits, is still fighting “to avoid any liability for punitives.” This time, the issue is when should interest start to incur retroactively—during the original district court judgment that was entered on 1996 or when the Supreme Court handed down its decision on 2008. Of course, greedy Exxon argued that the “legal basis for an award was not sound in 1996.” Personally, I believe this was a brazen argument, especially since corporations such as Exxon are perceived as voraciously profit driven.
Fossil fuel companies have a great incentive to obstruct policies that expand the use of alternative energy sources, promote sustainability, or reduce carbon, since extracting and burning fossil fuels results in colossal profits for energy corporations like Exxon. Literally, for energy corporations such as Exxon, asking them not to extract fossil fuels from the Earth is like asking an individual not to withdraw money from their bank account. From the Los Angeles Times (emphasis added):
Exxon Mobil Corp. must pay victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill $480 million more in interest on their delayed punitive damages awards as well as cover $70 million in the company’s own appeals costs, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals more than doubles the oil giant’s costs in settling the lawsuits brought by fishermen, cannery workers, marine services and eco-tourism purveyors whose livelihoods were ruined by the nation’s most devastating oil spill.
. . .
The Supreme Court action reduced the amount due the average plaintiff to about $15,000.
By setting the interest rate clock back to the original 1996 jury award, though, the 9th Circuit decision could double that amount for each plaintiff.
. . .
Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld dissented from the panel’s decision to make the oil company pay for the costs of appealing the jury award.
“Satisfying though it may be to shovel money from a large corporation to those whom it wronged, respect for the Supreme Court decision in this case and precedent in other circuits obligates us to award Exxon most, but not all, of its costs for its mostly successful appeal,” Kleinfeld, appointed to the appeals court by President George H.W. Bush, wrote in a dissent that ran twice as long as the majority’s seven-page opinion.
Hacker referred comment on whether the 9th Circuit decision would be appealed to Exxon’s headquarters in Irving, Texas. Exxon spokesman Tony Cudmore said the oil company “will review the opinion before commenting further.”
From the Ninth Circuit court case, Exxon Valdez v. Exxon Mobil Corp. (2009) (emphasis added):
Although Exxon has succeeded in reducing an original jury verdict of $5 billion by about 90%, it remains liable for a far-from-nominal punitive award of more than $500 million.
The controlling rule is Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 39(a)(4), which provides that where “a judgment is affirmed in part, reversed in part, modified or vacated, costs are taxed only as the court orders.” Plaintiffs point to the last time we issued a mandate on punitives in this case, in 2001, when we ordered each party to bear its own costs. In re Exxon Valdez, 270 F.3d at 1254. The punitive damages award had been remitted at that time as well. Plaintiffs also stress that, in a case of mixed judgment, where each side wins something, this Court usually orders each party to bear its own costs.
Exxon contends that it is essentially the winner of the litigation and that plaintiffs should bear all, or at least 90%, of Exxon’s appellate costs. With some 20/20 hindsight, Exxon now characterizes the course of this case as having been all about the amount of money Exxon would have to pay in punitives. Having reduced that amount by 90%, it declares itself the winner. Yet this ignores the hard-fought, even relentless, battle Exxon waged to avoid any liability for punitives, a battle that resulted in an evenly divided decision by the Supreme Court in 2008 leaving in place our 2001 decision on vicarious liability. Exxon Shipping Co., 128 S.Ct. at 2616.
To bolster its position, Exxon points to the fact that the Supreme Court awarded Exxon its costs. But the default rule before the Supreme Court is that when the lower judgment is vacated, the petitioner gets costs “unless the Court otherwise orders.” Sup.Ct. R. 43.2. Rule 39 contains no such presumption: when a judgment is modified, “costs are taxed only as the court orders.” Fed. R.App. P. 39(a)(4). The dissent does not recognize the difference.
In this case, neither side is the clear winner. The defendant owes the plaintiffs $507.5 million in punitives-according to counsel at oral argument the fourth largest punitive damages award ever granted. Yet that award represents a reduction by 90% of the original $5 billion. In light of this mixed result, and mindful that the equities in this case fall squarely in favor of the plaintiffs-the victims of Exxon’s malfeasance-we exercise our discretion by requiring each party to bear its own costs.
Our decision is in accord with our usual practice when each side wins something and loses something. This court has consistently ordered each party to bear its own costs on appeals where punitive damages are upheld, but reduced.
. . .
Because the evidentiary and legal bases for the original judgment of punitive damages have not been overruled, we award interest on the final judgment of $507.5 million, at the statutorily set rate of 5.9%, to run from the date of the original judgment, September 24, 1996. Because the amount of the original $5 billion judgment has been substantially reduced, we order that each party bear its own costs.
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Photo source for attribution here and here. The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.
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The Republican Party has a choice: (1) stay disgruntled, keep practicing obstructionism, and fade into complete insignificance or (2) stop the self-deception and evolve to become more palatable to a larger audience, because America isn’t progressing towards the type of malcontent spewed by Sherri Goforth—who emailed the racist Obama “spook” photo. Here is a good post from the Nashville Scene regarding Tennessee GOP politics and Tennessee GOP staffer Sherri Goforth. From Pete Kotz of the Nashville Scene:
It is easy, maybe proper, to call for the firing of Sherri Goforth after she sent a racist email from the office of Senator Diane Black. Yes, it’s hard to see your good tax money supporting a half-wit bigot. But please don’t fire her. She’s just a symptom of the terminal disease that is the Tennessee legislature.
Think about the people she works for as a secretary. Since January alone, they’ve accused Barack Obama of being a foreign national. They’ve accused the federal government of turning socialist. They’ve tried to assert their sovereignty from the United States, playing the part of ingrate welfare client. (Last I heard, Tennessee gets $1.23 back for every dollar it kicks to the feds in taxes.)
They profess love for Jesus, but won’t listen to what he has to say. They’ve tried to kill prenatal care, women’s health clinics, and pre-kindergarten funding. They’ve even attempted to reject federal stimulus money for the unemployed. But they have tried to put a gun in every bar, park and playground. Jesus would have liked that.
One is a slumlord. Another smacked around his daughter for dating a black guy. Still another would like to tie Mother Nature to a tree and torture her with an arc welder.
These are the people Goforth works for. Is it any wonder she believes what she does? But to fire her only picks off a middle-aged lady. It does nothing to heal the greater wound, which is composed by the creeps, racists, half-wits and professional victims who make up the Tennessee legislature. They’re the real affront here, the wound that will become terminal if left unchecked.
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CAN YOU SEE ME? | ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE: New species potentially discovered during expedition to Ecuador
The spiny-crested katydid below may be a new species or it “may be a Diacanthodis formidabilis, but the only known specimen of that species was lost after it was documented in 1838 in Brazil.”
This walking-leaf katydid appears to be different from “previously known walking-leaf katydid.”
Via National Geographic and Conservation International. More about the expedition to Nangaritza, Ecuador can be found here.
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- Matt at fivecentnickel.com presents “Save Money (and Water!) With a Rain Barrel.” In his post, Matt highlights several benefits that rain barrels provide, and he explains why this method of storing water can save municipalities money:
Rainwater collection systems don’t just benefit individuals — they benefit local communities, as well. This is especially true in areas where storm sewers and sanitary sewers are still combined; by collecting rainwater, you can reduce the load on your local water treatment facilities.
- Jim Wang at Bargaineering.com highlights rain barrel construction in “Poor Man’s Guide to Rain Barrels.” In addition to video, pictures, and other information Jim notes:
Don’t want to build your own and don’t want to spend $80+ on one? I don’t blame you, the next best thing you can do is simply leave some buckets outside! Simple right? At the moment, we keep a bunch of buckets outside so that when it rains, the buckets are being filled. This is a simple solution because it takes advantage of containers you already have. The downside of this solution is that it doesn’t look very attractive and it’s not very efficient.
- Neighbor Nancy presents a recipe to make jam in “How To Make Jam — A Beginner Tutorial” posted at Recession Depression Therapy. According to Nancy:
Simple jam made without store bought pectin requires only three ingredients: fruit, sugar, lemon juice. Simple and inexpensive, particularly if you are growing your own fruit.
Making your own preserves is one of those projects that you end up saying, ” Wow! I didn’t know it was that simple.” It is.
- Free Organic News shows us how to make damson wine and elderberry wine in “Make Organic Drinks” posted at Free Organic News. According to Free Organic News:
It is always more pleasurable and satisfying to eat and drink something that you’ve grown or made yourself.
Home-made drinks are a delicious way of enjoying a plentiful crop of fruits, or making something special and a little different for yourself or for guests or a present for someone.
It’s best to use seasonal produce to get the best quality and flavors.
- Ooffoo checked out some alternative fuel vehicles at the Revolve Eco-Rally 2009 and declared, “the future of personal travel certainly looks unavoidably to be a mix of hybrid and electric.”
- Wren Caulfield presents “Safety First: Bike Safety for Commuters. The post includes resources and recommended books, and it is posted at True Adventures in Money Hacking.
- KuleKat presents “What To Look For When Buying Low Energy Light Bulbs” posted at KuleKat.com. KuleKat gives a comprehensive look at CFLs and LEDs. Here is a snippet:
In terms of purchase price and availability, CFLs are the cheaper option and having been around longer are more plentiful. Compared to incandescent bulbs, CFL are about 4 times cheaper to run and last longer, but given that they are also presently twice as expensive to buy, many wonder at the true savings to be had with CFLs.
- Travis presents Vegetarianism posted at Personal Web Guide. Travis, who went “from being a meat eater to a vegetarian overnight,” explains why vegetarianism isn’t nonsense. He also notes that as a vegetarian, he “wasn’t cutting back on what [he] was eating; [he] was actually expanding it in a lot of ways.”
- Gregory E. Rouse presents Raised Bed Garden Mounds posted at Raised-Bed-Gardening Blog. Gregory provides some guidelines for growing vegetables indoors:
The size of your pots will also determine your choice of plant, choose containers big enough for the plants full growth. Small root crops such as radishes and onions are great choices, and there are even small root carrots available. Herbs are a popular choice because they are compact and do not need much space. Miniature varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant can also thrive inside when given the proper care.
- Catherine explains why bees are important in “Local Bees Need Your Help To Make Onions! posted at Eco Friendly House And Garden.” On a similar note, Goo presents “Bee Boxes | sustainablelivingproject.co.uk” posted at sustainablelivingproject.co.uk. From Catherine’s post:
We can stimulate pollination ourselves if necessary, but it takes a lot longer and is nowhere near as effective long term. There is for example a town in China where villagers have to rub feathers across all their pear trees to make sure that they produce fruit – as they killed off all their own bees with pesticides.
- Here’s an interesting idea: Hedgerow pesto. Goo presents Hedgerow Pesto posted at sustainablelivingproject.co.uk. Apparently, it is possible to find “a rich [and yummy] supply of organically grown weeds” as alternatives to basil for making pesto. One such alternative is “garlic mustard or jack-by-the hedge, [and] it’s edible leaves can be used in salads, wilted like spinach or ground into pesto.” Visit Goo to learn how to make the pesto and for other practical advice.
- Goo also provides us with some other links: “Counting Nature and Fedging the Issue,” “Anyone for Comfrey Tea?,” and “World Hunger, Eating the Floor and Happy Stomachs” posted at sustainablelivingproject.co.uk.
- Catherine also presents If You Like Pandas – What Are You Doing To Help Them? posted at Eco Holidays and “If You Like Somewhere – Vote With Your Feet” posted at Green Holidays.
- Do you have questions about recycling tetrapak cartons? Mrs. Green at My Zero Waste puts all your questions to Jenny Walden, National Recycling Officer for Tetra Pak UK and Ireland. Read her answers and submit your own questions here.
- So you think that cotton, bamboo, soy, and tencel yarns are more earth-friendly than synthetic fibers such as polyester, nylon, and acrylic? Mrs. Green was “fortunate enough to interview Ruth Henriquez Lyon from Paloma textiles, who is passionate about eco friendly yarns.”
- Guffly presents “Jewelery that Turns You Green“ posted at Guffly. The post isn’t about “cheapo jewelery that turns your skin green after wearing it, [but] . . . fine jewelery with an eco-conscious and people-friendly purpose.”
- Lastly in green consumerism, Laurel presents “GoodGuide, Green Product Ratings” posted at Green Thinking Blog. Laurel’s post highlights “GoodGuide.com, [a website that] . . . rates green, natural, and healthy products on a 0-10 scale (0 is the worst and 10 is the best).”
- Surbhi Bhatia presents “Our Environment And Us“ posted at The Viewspaper » The Viewspaper.
- Sadie Kneidel discusses the recent declaration by the U.N. to ban plastic bags at Veggie Revolution:
A global bag ban may be a godsend for coast-dwelling humans and animals alike. Pilot fee-per-bag programs in countries as disparate as China and Ireland have already reduced bag consumption by as much 90%. A total ban could accomplish even more. San Francisco is the first city in the US to institute a successful bag ban, although measures are in progress in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
- One solution to the above problem: Reusable vegetable bags. Michele at A House Called Nut provides a tutorial on constructing a drawstring bags from a sturdy burlap sack in order to replace plastic produce bags.
- Kate presents “5 Things that do NOT Contribute to Saving the Earth while Camping” posted at Green Thinking Blog. In sharing “5 things that you should not do while you are camping,” Kate observes that “a two day trip could easily contribute to 50 pounds+ of garbage in a landfill.”
- Tyler discusses “My Journey to Become a Green Investor – Part 4: The Final Decision” posted at Frugally Green.
- Don Bosch in “The Speech is a failure – climate change not mentioned once,” discusses President Barack Obama’s Speech in Cairo and his concerns over the President “never bring[ing] up the greatest crisis of all time” at The Evangelical Ecologist. Here is a snippet:
In this vein he covers women’s rights, education, religious and political freedom, and economic development. He mentions green technology and alternative energy in passing. But he never brings up the greatest crisis of all time. The challenge that, as the UN puts it, defines us as human beings. The thing that the former head of the UN says kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, and threatens to ultimately destroy the planet.
- The Triple Pundit in “Bloomberg vs. Newsom: The Debate Over Green Building,” discusses renovating the Empire State Building versus constructing a new government building in San Francisco—so what’s more sustainable: building new or retrofitting old? A taste:
The question, however, remains. Monolithic buildings with cutting-edge green technology, LEED certifications and huge press coverage no doubt inspire the masses to “go green.” But does all this cacophonous progress bode well with the underlying goal of the sustainability movement, which is to conserve that which already exists and to avoid the creation of new, unnecessary stuff? Do big examples breed small changes? Or do small changes make big examples?
- Kate also presents “Getting Back to Green” from the Green Thinking Blog. At this post, you will find an amazing dragonfly picture in addition to some recommended blogs.
Welcome to Carnival of the Green #184, which is organized by Treehugger.com. To find out more information about this Carnival and how to host and submit, then please go here. Last week’s excellent carnival was at ooffoo, and next week’s host is The Daily (Maybe). This is my second Carnival of the Green—my first (#125), can be found here.
From how to collect and save rainwater to information on various environmental issues, this Carnival yields a lot of useful information. Being a do-it-yourselfer or living a more efficient lifestyle that saves money and resources will allow future generations to thrive in a healthy environment with readily accessible resources. In Carnival of the Green #184, several bloggers share interesting information on various projects that save money and resources. Furthermore, these projects are an excellent educational opportunity for adults, young adults, and children.
Rain Barrels
Homemade Jam
Homemade Organic Wine
The Future of Transportation
Commute by Bike
Energy
Vegetarianism
Gardening and gathering
GreenTravel
Recycling
Green Consumerism
Environment in general
Socially and Environmentally Responsible Investing
Climate Change
Sustainability
Recommended Blogs
Here are the top five Best Green Tweets of the week: #bestgreentweets
Many thanks to all the folks that participated in this Carnival of the Green!
If you find a mistake or a bad link, then shoot me an email, and I will fix the problem ASAP! 
Note: All images are via Flickr and are licensed under the Creative Commons. Click any image for a larger size and to visit the author. The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.
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- Toxic coal and oil ash waste sites contaminate ground water and wells. The potential impacts associated with these sites are so dangerous that the U.S. government believes certain high hazard sites are a security threat. Furthermore, Politico recently reported that Barbara Boxer was “muzzled” by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the location of certain coal ash sites. From Politico:
- Fly ash piling up: The map below shows areas in the United States where fly-ash contamination has resulted in environmental damage.
- The image below shows before and after satellite images of the December 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill. The blog, Earth Impact News, provides an interesting analogy:
- Below is an aerial image taken one day after the coal ash spill. Vast quantities of fly ash material contaminated the environment and private property. From Wikipedia:
- This iconic image below from the Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill illustrates the consequences of reliance on dirty energy. Coal-fired power plants also damage the environment and impact human health far from the actual power plant site. From EcoWorldly:
- The immoral and egregious practice of mountaintop removal certainly shocks my conscious. Long overdue but welcoming still, the Obama Administration is promising to do more about mountaintop mining. From the Louisville Courier-Journal:
- The waste from burning coal is “more radioactive than nuclear waste.” However, a 1997 study by the U.S. Geological Survey determined, “Radioactive elements in coal and fly ash should not be sources of alarm, [since] the vast majority of coal and the majority of fly ash are not significantly enriched in radioactive elements, or in associated radioactivity, compared to common soils or rocks.” Still, the potential risks are unsettling. From Scientific American:
And here’s why:
Coal ash — a byproduct of burning coal — is full of highly toxic chemicals that can cause birth defects, cancer and other health problems. The toxins can also infiltrate water supplies and destroy fish, bird and other animal populations around the dumps. Some studies have found coal ash to be more radioactive than nuclear waste. But the real danger comes from spills: Last December, a coal ash spill sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres in East Tennessee.
The EPA has identified 44 “high hazard” sites, but the DHS says that revealing their locations could be a security hazard. The agency wouldn’t detail their security concerns, said Boxer, but forbid her from discussing the sites with anyone other than senators from the affected states. No aides, except for Senate Environment and Public Works Committee staff, can be informed.
Image via The New York Times
Image via The Virginian-Pilot
The BEFORE image was taken just a month before the earthen wall of a containment pond at Tennessee’s Kingston Fossil Plant failed. The AFTER image was shot on the day of the disaster. Sort of reminds me of a virus-ridden cell that bursts open, releasing nasty phages.
Image via NASA’s Earth Observatory and Discovery News: Earth Impacts News
The TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill occurred just before 1 a.m. on Monday December 22, 2008, when an ash dike ruptured at an 84-acre (0.34 km2) solid waste containment area at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, USA. 1.1 billion gallons (4.2 million m3) of coal fly ash slurry was released.
Image via the Tennessee Valley Authority
World wide, 75 percent of human exposure to mercury is from the consumption of marine fish and shell fish. In the U.S., about 40 percent of all human exposure to mercury is from tuna harvested in the Pacific Ocean, according to Elsie Sunderland, a coauthor of the recent US Geologic Survey study.
. . .
The data analysis results of water samples taken at 16 different sites (and at different depths) along the Eastern Pacific Ocean (from Hawaii to Alaska) indicate a significant increase (“bioaccumulation”) of a compound known as methylmercury (CH3Hg) which is far more toxic than mercury (Hg) alone. This increase occurs primarily between 200 and 700 meters below the surface, where, not coincidentally, the availability of dissolved oxygen (O2) drops off. This is because at that depth, naturally occurring bacteria proliferate as they decompose the “ocean rain” of dead, sinking algae, and use up a good deal of the O2 in the process. The Hg absorbed by the dead algae now combines chemically with a plentiful by-product of decomposition: methyl (CH3) molecules. These readily combine with mercury, forming MethylMercury. MethylMercury then works its way up the food chain (small invertebrates eat dead algae, they get eaten, etc) to larger fish, such as the Pacific Blue Fin tuna, which ends up in our sandwiches and sushi.
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, it has been estimated that our air, water and soil have experienced a threefold increase in Mercury levels. Mercury, a soft, liquid-like, silverish metal (once known as “quick silver”) is toxic—especially to nerve cells–and becomes more dangerous when combined with methyl molecules, which are simple but ubiquitous organic compounds involved in a great number of biological/cellular processes (including gene silencing.). These molecules rapidly accumulate in organic tissue and can cause a variety of health problems.
Image by J. Miles Carey/Knoxville News Sentinel, via The New York Times
Individual reviews will replace more general nationwide permits that had often meant less rigorous environmental study of coal mining operations, officials said.
. . .
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ practice of issuing blanket permits to coal mining companies was blocked in parts of West Virginia by a federal judge in March.
. . .
[O]fficials struggled to describe what practical differences in mountaintop mining would result from the policy changes. When asked, for example, whether there would be fewer or smaller strip mines in the mountains, Bob Sussman, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency senior policy adviser, said the EPA under the Obama administration would be more diligent in exercising its responsibilities.
“Our administrator (Lisa Jackson) is committed to having a thorough, rigorous and transparent review of all these permits,” he said.
The Corps and the EPA, which at times have seemed at odds on mining policy since the Obama administration took power in January, pledged to work through a backlog of 110 permits to allow dumping waste rock in streams.
Image found here
Coal, meanwhile, is believed responsible for a host of more quotidian problems, such as mining accidents, acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions. But it isn’t supposed to spawn three-eyed fish like Blinky.
Over the past few decades, however, a series of studies has called these stereotypes into question. Among the surprising conclusions: the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy. * [See Editor's Note at end of page 2]
At issue is coal’s content of uranium and thorium, both radioactive elements. They occur in such trace amounts in natural, or “whole,” coal that they aren’t a problem. But when coal is burned into fly ash, uranium and thorium are concentrated at up to 10 times their original levels.
Fly ash uranium sometimes leaches into the soil and water surrounding a coal plant, affecting cropland and, in turn, food. People living within a “stack shadow”—the area within a half- to one-mile (0.8- to 1.6-kilometer) radius of a coal plant’s smokestacks—might then ingest small amounts of radiation. Fly ash is also disposed of in landfills and abandoned mines and quarries, posing a potential risk to people living around those areas.
In a 1978 paper for Science, J. P. McBride at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and his colleagues looked at the uranium and thorium content of fly ash from coal-fired power plants in Tennessee and Alabama. To answer the question of just how harmful leaching could be, the scientists estimated radiation exposure around the coal plants and compared it with exposure levels around boiling-water reactor and pressurized-water nuclear power plants.
The result: estimated radiation doses ingested by people living near the coal plants were equal to or higher than doses for people living around the nuclear facilities. At one extreme, the scientists estimated fly ash radiation in individuals’ bones at around 18 millirems (thousandths of a rem, a unit for measuring doses of ionizing radiation) a year. Doses for the two nuclear plants, by contrast, ranged from between three and six millirems for the same period. And when all food was grown in the area, radiation doses were 50 to 200 percent higher around the coal plants.
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WEIRD AND FASCINATING CREATURES: 10 extraordinary deep-sea creatures caught on video and camera
As cameras, videos, and other technologies continue to explore the deep oceans, more data is being collected on rarely observed deep-sea creatures. Here are some fascinating videos and images of ten unusual and rarely observed deep-sea creatures—some observed in shallower waters (in no particular order):
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Long-arm squids (Magnapinna spp.): The video below shows a long-arm squid that “was filmed [on November 11, 2007] off Perdido, a drilling site owned by Shell Oil Company, located 200 statute miles (320 km) off Houston, Texas in the Gulf of Mexico.” The squid is from the genus Magnapinna, and not a lot of data exists regarding this type of cephalopod. More about the genus Magnapinna can be found at National Geographic. The image was found here. - Siphonophores, such as the Portuguese man-o-war (Physalia physalis), are colony-forming invertebrates that appear and behave as a single organism. According to Siphonophores.org, “Some siphonophores are the longest animals in the world, and specimens as long as 40 meters have been found, [and] . . . . Siphonophores are exceedingly fragile and break into many pieces under even the slightest forces.” The video below shows a very odd specimen. If anyone has more information regarding the specimen in the video, then please comment about it.
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Vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis or “vampire squid from hell”) are found in deep ocean aphotic zones. Although these deep-sea cephalopods exist where humans rarely visit, anthropogenic pollution has been found in their environment and within the tissues of other deep-sea cephalopods. The image was found here. From Science Daily: -
Frilled sharks (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) are another rarely observed deep-sea creature, since these odd fish “generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water’s surface.” They are squid specialists and “eat not only weak-swimming deep-sea squids but also some surprisingly fast and powerful mesopelagic varieties.” The image was found here. -
Megamouth shark (Megachasma pelagios): The megamouth shark recently made news when one was captured and consumed as a local delicacy. From National Geographic: - Oarfish (Regalecus spp.): The oarfish is pelagic species, and it is the longest known bony fish. Little is known about the oarfish, and although it is thought that oarfish prefer deep-sea environments, most encounters have occurred in shallower waters. Specimens have been taken by trawl and via the coastline on rod and reel. The images were found here and here. More interesting oarfish images can be found here.
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Barreleye: The Pacific barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) has been known since 1939, but trawled up specimens were in poor condition and did not reveal the fish’s weirdest characteristic—a transparent head. So, why does the Pacific barreleye fish have a translucent head? According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), “A new paper by Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler shows that these unusual eyes can rotate within a transparent shield that covers the fish’s head. This allows the barreleye to peer up at potential prey or focus forward to see what it is eating.”The Research Institute also described other weird adaptations of these fish, such as their flat fins, small mouths, and “their digestive systems are very large, which suggests that they can eat a variety of small drifting animals as well as jellies.” Images: © 2004 MBARI - Giant squids (including Architeuthis spp. and the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni): These rarely observed massive invertebrates are fascinating creatures. The colossal squid is the largest. The videos and images show or portray the giant squid.
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Hadal snailfish (Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis) are true deep-sea specialists. This species was captured on camera almost five miles below the ocean’s surface. Furthermore, until the video, the hadal snailfish had never been observed living, since it was only known from a handful of specimens trawled up over 50 years before. To survive in their deep-sea extreme environment, these fish must sustain immense pressure and conserve energy. From National Geographic News: - Coelacanths (Latimeria chalumnae and L. menadoensis): The coelacanths “were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period, until the first Latimeria specimen was found off the east coast of South Africa, off the Chalumna River in 1938.” Today, two species are known, and the second species, L. menadoensis, was described from “Sulawesi, Indonesia in 1999.” The coelacanth, sometimes referred to as a living fossil, is an oddity with its lobe-like fins that “are supported by the same basic bones as your arms and legs, [and] coelacanths even move their paired fins much like land animals move their limbs: the right pectoral fin moves in conjunction with the left pelvic fin . . . And their movement is extremely dexterous.” Furthermore coelacanths are “ovoviviparous, meaning that eggs are fertilized internally and are retained in the mother’s oviduct so that the young are born alive [and the pups] develop from huge eggs that are among the largest vertebrate eggs known.” One video below illustrates the coelacanth in its natural habitat, while the second video shows a specimen that was caught by local fishers in North Sulawesi Indonesia.
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Photo source for attribution here
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“It was surprising to find measurable and sometimes high amounts of toxic pollutants in such a deep and remote environment,” Vecchione said. Among the chemicals detected were tributyltin (TBT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), and dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT). They are known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) because they don’t degrade and persist in the environment for a very long time.
Cephalopods are important to the diet of cetaceans, a class of marine mammals which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Cephalopods are the primary food for 28 species of odontocetes, the sub-order of cetaceans that have teeth and include beaked, sperm, killer and beluga whales and narwhals as well as dolphins and porpoises.
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The researchers collected nine species of cephalopods from depths between 1,000 and 2,000 meters (about 3,300 to 6,600 feet) in 2003 in the western North Atlantic Ocean using a large mid-water trawl. Species were selected for chemical analysis based on their importance as prey and included the commercially important short-finned squid Illex illecebrosus, as well as cockatoo squid, “vampire squid”, and the large jelly-like octopus Haliphron atlanticus.
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In just a short time, one of the rarest sharks in the world went from swimming in Philippine waters to simmering in coconut milk.
The 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) megamouth shark (pictured), caught on March 30 by mackerel fishers off the city of Donsol, was only the 41st megamouth shark ever found, according to WWF-Philippines.
Fishers brought the odd creature—which died during its capture—to local project manager Elson Aca of WWF, an international conservation nonprofit.
Aca immediately identified it as a megamouth shark and encouraged the fishers not to eat it.
But the draw of the delicacy was too great: The 1,102-pound (500-kilogram) shark was butchered for a shark-meat dish called kinuout.
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As an indicator of the size of this oarfish, take note of the swimmer in this picture.
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Dietary evidence: Besides the “sucker-shaped scars [observed] along the backs” of some sperm whales, giant squid parts, especially the hard chitinous beaks, have been found in the stomach contents of sperm whales. These stomach contents not only reveal a wealth of data about sperm whales, but their prey also.
Photo source for attribution here
Frozen in time: This seven meter giant squid is preserved in ice at the Melbourne Aquarium.
Photo source for attribution here
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The fish belong to a species previously known only from five pickled specimens trawled up by Russian scientists in the 1950s, said Monty Priede, director of Oceanlab at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, which co-sponsored the expedition.
“Not only have we shown these fish alive for the first time, but we have multiplied by five the total number known to science,” Priede said.
The fish are able to withstand pressures equivalent to “1,600 elephants on the roof of a Mini,” according to a press release. The largest of the 17 snailfish observed measure more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) long.
Image credit: Natural Environment Research Council and University of Aberdeen
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This image is from the Musée de la Pêche in Concarneau, which is located in northwestern France.
Photo source for attribution here
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The Conservation Report will be hosting the next Carnival of the Green (#184 on June 15th). I hosted last year’s Carnival of the Green (#125), which had some very interesting contributions, so I look forward to this year’s submissions. Please send me your submissions before Sunday at 8pm, since I have to travel out of town on Monday.
Recently, conservative SCOTUS justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas in addition to Chief Justice John Roberts dissented in the SCOTUS decision—Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., Inc.—that determined a West Virginia judge should have recused himself, since “the Due Process Clause incorporated the common-law rule requiring recusal when a judge has ‘a direct, personal, substantial, pecuniary interest.’”
In this case, Chief Justice John Roberts “argued [in his dissent] that the ruling would damage public confidence in the judiciary,” since the “Court’s new ‘rule’ provides no guidance to judges and litigants about when recusal will be constitutionally required.” However, the Court in this case asserted, “[T]he Court has identified additional instances which, as an objective matter, require recusal. These are circumstances ‘in which experience teaches that the probability of actual bias on the part of the judge or decisionmaker is too high to be constitutionally tolerable.’” The Court also provided this guidance: “The inquiry is an objective one. The Court asks not whether the judge is actually, subjectively biased, but whether the average judge in his position is ‘likely’ to be neutral, or whether there is an unconstitutional ‘potential for bias.’”
Chief Justice John Roberts also argued, “This will inevitably lead to an increase in allegations that judges are biased, however groundless those charges may be. The end result will do far more to erode public confidence in judicial impartiality than an isolated failure to recuse in a particular case.” Certainly, the courts can manage groundless charges, and I believe the dissenting conservatives justices in this case—including the Chief Justice—have done more to “erode public confidence in judicial impartiality,” especially since this case was about judicial impartiality. From Facing South:
After the Massey Energy coal mining company lost a $50 million verdict to a competitor, CEO Don Blankenship spent $3 million electing a friendly judge to West Virginia’s Supreme Court of Appeals who went on to cast the deciding vote in a case that overturned the verdict.
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“At its core, the Caperton case was about the inherent conflict of interest when our elected officials depend on or are aided by large campaign contributions and excessive spending in the electoral process,” said Nick Nyhart, president of Public Campaign, a nonprofit that promotes public financing of elections. “Americans know that campaign contributions from wealthy special interests impact the policy decisions made by Congress on matters that affect the life and well being of all of us.”
Massey’s stock was down 6% in yesterday afternoon’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while other coal company stocks were down between 2 and 4%, Reuters reports.
The high court’s ruling is the latest in a series of recent setbacks for Richmond, Va.-based Massey. Last month Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee resigned from Massey’s board under pressure from activists who argued that his promotion of sustainable energy was incompatible with Massey’s reliance on mountaintop removal mining.
And earlier this year, Santa Clara University in California divested its holdings in Massey because of the company’s record of environmental destructiveness. The company has also been the target of nonviolent protests over its environmentally destructive business practices.
White House photo by Paul Morse found here.
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