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News Archives
Week of May 9, 2004
Picture of the Day
I'm having an awful cold today, so while I sit here and sneeze, you can look at a picture! Today, in honor of The Whale and the Supercomputer, we have a polar bear.
Photo © Corel Corp, used under license
Posted by Jennifer on Thursday, May 13 2004, 7:44 PM
News of the Day
Seen a bee lately?
Over the past few decades honeybee populations in America have been devastated, primarily by a mite known as varroa, but also by pollution and predators. Now almost no wild bees are left, and farmers of crops dependent on pollination are feeling the loss.
Grist Magazine interviews Jim Jeffords
Moderate Republicans are a vanishing breed these days, but conservation was once a deeply held Republican value. Jim Jeffords, Senator from Vermont, left the Republican Party shortly after Bush was elected to become Independent. In this interview by Grist's Amanda Griscom, Jeffords talks about his Republican roots and how they nurtured his commitment to the environment.
'If the land gets sick and dies, so will the people'
In Toronto this week, a Canadian enviromental group called The Climate Group is meeting to discuss environmental concerns in Canada, primarily the devastation facing Northern Forests due to global warming. The words are from a 70-year-old native woman who has lived in those woods all her life, and believes the land is dying.
And on the eastern coast of North America...
those 17-year cicadas are emerging from their long sleep.
Posted by Jennifer on Wednesday, May 12 2004, 6:28 PM
Global Dimming?
In yet another example of the complexity of climate change, scientists have documented a process they call global dimming. It seems that an increase in clouds and some particulates has lowered the amount of sunlight which reaches the earth. Of course, this could impact whether and how much the planet's atmosphere continues to warm.
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, May 11 2004, 8:34 PM
Summer '04: I hope you like Fire
A friend pointed me to these snowpack and streamflow reports from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's website. They include visual aids showing spring and summer streamflow forecasts, given as a percent of average. From these, we can get a pretty good sense of how dry the western forests will be this year.
As a comparison, here's a map showing the streamflow forecast for summer of 2003. And here is the forecast for the summer of 2004. Looks like we are in for a dry one, and as we know the fire season is already starting early.
Tip of the hat to my friend Zippy.
Comments? Here's our all-purpose global warming thread.
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, May 11 2004, 10:51 AM
NY Times Weighs in on the Salmon Question
Their article on the subject of hatchery salmon is wishy washy on the science angle, in my opinion, but it's worthwhile seeing how the national media approach this subject.
Posted by Jennifer on Monday, May 10 2004, 11:39 PM
News from Ancient Earth
30-million-year-old fossil hummingbirds are much like today's
A set of fossil hummingbirds have been found in Germany. While hummingbirds in present times are only known to live in North America, fossil hummingbirds have been found in the Old World before. But these are the first ones found to resemble modern hummingbirds very closely.
Australia did have large predators, long ago
A team of Australian researchers has identified an Australian superpredator that existed in Australia in the Pleistocene. While smaller predators were known to live in Australia back then, no one realized until recently that Thylacoleo carnifex was a large hunting mammal similar to a lion or bear (though still a marsupial as all native Australian mammals are). New studies based on brain size have revisted scientists' thinking about the body weight of this animal, which died out over 30,000 years ago.
Fossilized arthropod caught shedding
While scientists have long believed that early insects shed their skins, and the fossil records are full of bits of moulted exoskeletons, for the first time the fossil of a sea arthropod has been caught in the act of moulting. This is astonishing, since the moult takes only a few minutes to complete, but is final proof that these creatures, just like crabs and lobsters today, shed their skins as they grew.
Posted by Jennifer on Monday, May 10 2004, 4:15 PM
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