Environment
Arctic Ice June 2011
The sun is the main driver of climate and weather. The Arctic solar year could be plotted as a graph of the angle of the sun relative to the horizon, negative in winter and positive in summer. The graph would be a very neat waveform which varied little in amplitude or in frequency on decadal timescales. By way of contrast, any graph of any effect of the sun's relative angle will vary from year to year. Although the sun will warm the air, land, sea, snow and ice, it will never do so in exactly the same way during any two years.
In order…
I have just come in from Third Thursday at Trinity River Audubon Center. The anticipated speaker canceled and there were families there who wanted a program, so I did the "Turtle Talk" and then took them out for turtle watching and a nature hike. I wish I'd thought to take the pond temperature, because I'm getting reports from others now that yes, turtles don't bask when it's too hot. We saw nine tonight, in the water with just their noses poking out. When I took the group to look at the one turtle nest we'd seen, someone discovered a second one not fifteen feet from…
Recycling is good, we are told, though in actuality government recycling has been nothing except an expensive waste, with landfills for recycled materials as big as landfills for regular garbage.
Now it turns out recycled packaging may be risking our health more directly. Harmful mineral oils from the printing inks used on cardboard can migrate into food if recycled cardboard is used for food packaging. It may contaminate food even if the recycled cardboard is used for the corrugated card transport box that holds individual packs.
In tests on experimental packs of fine noodles,…
Hank |
"Physicists seek simplicity in universal laws. Ecologists revel in complex interdependencies. Together, these two approaches may help solve the problems of global warming," wrote John Harte, professor at Berkeley, in Physics Today.
Republicans are more skeptical of global warming than Democrats yet about the same when it comes to acknowledging climate change. And global warming skeptics conserve energy just as much as believers.
That's good news, because it means they aren't anti-science, they just aren't convinced, and they aren't convinced because they smelled an economic and…
Starting from 1982 when I attended 2nd EU biomass conference in Berlin ICC for the first time till this 19th EU in a span of 30 years Biomass has received greater interest from EU and greater acceptance . In the present conference 6th to 10th June at Berlin around 1000 presentations give state of art of biomass and its use for future. What is the alternatives available ? Our solar system is life line for survival on earth and plants are only source of food fiber and timber and fuel also.
However there is need to search novel plants which can grow in saline areas and produce biomass like…
Back in April, a well-known fisheries biologist named Ray Hillborn published an op-ed in the New York Times that was titled (by the editors, not Hillborn) "Let Us Eat Fish." The gist of it was: our fisheries are doing great, so chow down on seafood with a clear conscience!
As you can imagine, this sparked some responses, both in the time-honored forum of Letters to the Editor and in these new-fangled things called blogs. Notably, marine scientist John Bruno posted a rebuttal to Hillborn's article at the blog SeaMonster: "Let us eat (other people's) fish."
But things got really interesting…
Strawberries are going to be smaller and other crops with low yields due to poor rains and high temperature
is it true for most of europe I read this news in a news paper here in europe.
Squid are often considered to be one of the more sustainable seafood choices. Squid grow like weeds, right? They have short life cycles, make tons of babies, and adapt easily to changing environments. It's like eating dandelions.
Only not.
For one thing, the myth that species with shorter lifespans and faster growth are less susceptible to overfishing has recently been shown to be just that: a myth. Brilliant scientist Dr. Malin Pinsky (who happens to be a friend of mine, and just defended his thesis, hence the gratuitous title) just conducted a magnificent meta-analysis of fisheries data…
When it comes to environmental safeguarding, governments and public authorities spend most of their time in developing large programs. However by doing so, they often do not take into consideration minor concrete solutions that, if systematically taken, would reduce pollution emissions.
For example, I have long wondered why the American Federal Agencies or the European Community do not plan nor lay down new compulsory requirements to be fulfilled in the manufacturing of consumption goods, instead of allowing complete freedom in the use of materials, sizes and typologies. As a matter of fact…
The locavore movement, which was born on the US West Coast, may have convinced more people to shop at their local farmers' markets and participate in community-supported agriculture--but it's been a challenge to make similar progress toward eating local fish.
The main commercial catch off our local [Southern California] coast are sardines and squid, but many Americans prefer to stick with the greatest hits (a.k.a. shrimp, salmon, and tuna.) So the primary market for our catch is overseas.
And here’s a crazy fact. According to all the fish experts I talked to, most seafood processors are now…