|
News Archives
Week of April 4, 2004
Picture of the Day
I have a bunch of water reports on my desk that I hope to write up for you next week, but I'm pretty busy this weekend and don't have time. So, for your entertainment, here's another pretty picture. This is a coyote, of course.
Photo © Corel Corp., used under license.
Posted by Jennifer on Saturday, April 10 2004, 6:43 PM
With all the political posts I've made recently...
... it may seem funny to some of us that a plague of locusts is about to descend upon Washington DC. Well, technically they are cicadas and not locusts. And they're all around the east coast, not just Washington. But it's still kind of funny, or chilling, or something.
Posted by Jennifer on Friday, April 9 2004, 10:16 PM
More on Bush, Science, and the Environment
Here are a few other items I've had stacked up on my desk this month.
Proposed Rules Minimize Risks of Mercury
According to this New York Times article, White House staff members played down the toxic effects on mercury. This was in the context of working with the EPA to write regulations for coal-fired power plants. The reporter examined hundreds of documents including email messages to come to this conclusion. (NYTimes articles vanish into their archives fairly quickly, so read this while you can.)
Forest Service Dropping Various Environmental Reviews
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility reported last month that the Forest Service is eliminating outside reviews of its performance in the areas of endangered species, clean water, and historical preservation laws. The Forest Service memo describing this decision is archived here. PEER says:
Taken together, this new policy takes the Forest Service in a radically different direction from that articulated by the previous Chief, Michael Dombeck, a fisheries biologist. Dombeck placed “the health of our rivers, streams and lakes” as the guiding principle for Forest Service management — an ecosystem approach completely absent from the mechanistic formulation of “the Four Threats.”
“The Four Threats sounds more like a Maoist slogan than a coherent management philosophy,” commented Ruch. “Healthy fish populations, water quality and preserving our cultural heritage are important values springing from our National Forests, not impediments to be overcome.”
Federal judge criticizes the administration for withholding documents in FOIA case
Two environmental organizations, Defenders of Wildlife and the Endangered Species Coalition, have been attempting to investigate why the Bush administration scrapped the comprehensive nationwide forest rules, and had filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see documents pertaining to this major switch in our government's environmental policy. When the government claimed it had no documents whatever relating to this change, the organizations sued. Last month, a federal court called the response "inadequte" and rebuked the Forest Service for withholding three-quarters of the papers requested, which meant the court could not even assess the relevance of the papers to this case.
"The biggest rewrite of our nation’s forest management policies ever undertaken and the man responsible for it has no records whatsoever? Absolutely ridiculous," said (Defenders of Wildlife's President) Schlickeisen. "As with Vice President Cheney’s energy task force, the inescapable conclusion is the Bush administration has something to hide."
Posted by Jennifer on Friday, April 9 2004, 12:03 PM
Greenland Ice Sheet Will Likely Melt
All over the news this morning are reports of a new study in Nature, which finds that Greenland's ice sheet is likely to melt due to rising levels of greenhouse gases. The melting won't happen fast - in fact will take 1000 years or so - but the effects will be catastrophic, covering coastal areas around the globe with water.
The Greenland ice sheet is 1.8 miles thick in places, and a complete meltdown would raise ocean levels by 7 meters (23 ft.), so any land area less than 23 ft. above current sea levels would be flooded. While it's always been known that a rise in earth temperatures of 5 degrees Fahrenheit would be sufficient to melt this ice, this is the first study to confidently predict that average temperatures will definitely rise that much. In fact, some of their models showed rises of more than 3 times that much.
If we managed to keep CO2 levels lower than expected, this warming effect could be diverted, but it would require emissions reductions well below current goals of the Kyoto Protocol.
Posted by Jennifer on Thursday, April 8 2004, 10:04 AM
Picture of the Day
From the "Because I Can" Dept.
I find all the politics and news to be depressing sometimes, so I've decided to start occasionally putting in a pretty picture of an animal or a landscape or some other related thing. To cheer me up, and maybe you. They're all just stock footage, so perhaps nothing special. But that's the fun of having your own web site, of course, you can do whatever you like with it! And I still have tons of bandwidth to spare...
So, without further ado, here is today's picture: a short-eared owl.
Photo © Corel Corp., used under license
Posted by Jennifer on Wednesday, April 7 2004, 4:01 PM
News of the Day
Bigger can be better, especially if you live in the North
Researchers from the Freshwater Institute have found that having a large penis can lead to more success in sex, at least if you judge by the size of baculums, or penis bones, among animals in harsh northern environments. Researchers speculate that the larger penis has a better chance of fertilizing females, and thus gives a competitive advantage in places where individuals of the same species may not have a chance to mate very often. Males in more balmy climates had smaller baculums, presumably because so much more sex was available that the chances of fertilization didn't matter as much.
Re-forming fossils
Fossils give us much of our knowledge of species and environments in the past. But fossils go through geological and climate pressures that may deform them in ways which make them hard to read. Science Daily has a report on how scientists may eliminate those deformations, making the fossils easier to read, by using computer technology to view them in their original shape.
Arizona's forests may receive help
Legislation giving tax incentives to businesses which help to clear underbrush and shrubs from Arizona forests is under consideration by the Arizona legislature. Wildfires in Arizona forests have been an enormous problem in the past decade, burning hundreds of thousands of acres. The small brush and trees are not economically valuable, so proponents argue that the tax credits are necessary to create jobs to clear the unnecessary plant material. Opponents argue that the bill doesn't provide protection to larger trees, and may lead to more logging in protected areas.
Comments? Here's our permanent News of the Day thread.
Posted by Jennifer on Wednesday, April 7 2004, 12:23 PM
More on Bush, Science, and the Environment
You might recall an earlier post where I linked to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists. This report was critical of the Bush Administration's use of science, claiming that the administration distorted scientific facts for political purposes.
The Office of Science and Technology Policy has posted a response, written by presidential science advisor John Marburger, disputing the charges. It's worth a look if you want to get a sense of administration thinking on these issues. However blogger Chris Mooney has a detailed rebuttal of the administration response, saying that it only deals with peripheral issues, not the heart of the UCS charges.
Read it all for yourself, and decide.
Edit: Oh, and while you're thinking about who to believe, you might want to ponder this administration email which advises Republican congressmen on how to handle environmental criticisms in the upcoming election. The solution? Deny everything.
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, April 6 2004, 1:00 PM
News of the Day
New fish identified
Three new fish have been identified in South America. Hernan Lopez-Fernadez found the fish while studying museum samples in Venezuela. All three fish are varieties of cichlids, and scientists are still figuring out their ecological roles. (I know this sounds dull, but really it's a very good story.)
Reclamation plan for Saemangeum is controversial
The vast Korean wetlands at Saemangeum provide one of the world's largest shorebird staging sites. The Korean government plans to erect a sea wall 33 miles long, in an attempt to reclaim land for agriculture. In spite of public concern about the project, the government seems likely to move ahead, though they now claim the plan has been changed to address environmental concerns. Opponents would like to see all or some of the wetlands set aside as Ramsar sites.
Surfers at risk from urban runoff
A study from UC Irvine has determined that surfers at urban beaches report twice as many health symptoms as surfers at rural beaches. Symptoms range from fever, nausea, and stomach problems to eye and skin infections. Researchers believe that current monitoring guidelines for water quality around urban beaches may not be adequate.
Posted by Jennifer on Monday, April 5 2004, 9:37 PM
Bush Administration Covers Up Major Environmental Disaster
CBS News and 60 Minutes last night presented a chilling account of a Bush administration whitewash of a major environmental disaster. The situation? 300 million gallons of coal slurry - toxic waste from mining operations - that flooded and polluted land and rivers throughout Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. The spill was 25 times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster.
The story is told by Jack Spandaro, who was the head of the Dept. of Labor/ National Mine Health and Safety Academy's training facility. The spill happened in October, 2000 and the investigation was well underway when George Bush took office. Massey Energy Company, the mining operation who owned the impoundment, is a large campaign contributor to President Bush.
Spandaro says that when the new administration took office, they immediately shut the investigation down. "I had never seen anything so corrupt and lawless in my entire career," says Spandaro, "what I saw regarding interference with a federal investigation of the most serious environmental disaster in the history of the Eastern United States."
The investigation had uncovered an earlier spill that the company has hidden, and was planning to charge Massey with serious violations of health and safety laws, with potentially criminal implications. Instead, three years after the spill, the people whose property was destroyed by the slurry have faced both health and economic consequences which were never addressed. Spadaro himself was locked out of his office and not allowed to return. Labor Department officials and Massey Corporation executives all declined to be interviewed by CBS News.
Edit: Turns out Salon covered this story back in November. It sure hasn't gotten much attention yet.
Comments? Let's use this already existing thread.
Posted by Jennifer on Monday, April 5 2004, 4:44 PM
Ferns aren't as delicate as they seem
Scientists have long viewed ferns as gentle antiques, having lived past their heyday, with all the major ecological niches now filled by angiosperms (flowering plants with both male and female genetics). But new research, published in the April 1st issue of Nature (available online by subscription only), shows a more interesting truth. In the article, Duke University researchers argue that ferns actually adapted aggressively to the development of angiosperms, taking advantage of the more complex ecological structure that arose at that time. NPR had a clever story on this, which you can listen to here.
Posted by Jennifer on Monday, April 5 2004, 10:05 AM
|
World Turning
Back to the home page.
World Turning Forums
A quiet place at the moment. Make yourself at home, but try to be kind. No spamming!
The Learning Center
Meet the Animals!
Environmental information and news sites
|
|
