Environment

Every night I have certain rituals that must be executed, or else. Not sure what else really, but I fear that it involves my hospitalization. Let us say that in order to avoid nervous breakdowns, I visit a handful of science sites, particularly looking for the latest satellite images, winding down in controlled forms and then I hit the hay. Science Before Bed As you might realize by looking at the publication time of some of my articles here on Science 2.0, I say goodnight usually more precisely early in the morning. During today's (or rather this morning) ritual I discovered some pretty…

One long-standing myth is that any law claiming to be good for the environment is actually good for the environment.   Anyone living along levees in the South who watched environmental lawsuits block improvements in the 1990s and then heard the Army Corps of Engineers criticized after Hurricane Katrina for not previously making improvements had to wonder why the media didn't cover one obvious source of blame for the entire region not being more resistant to floods. No, instead we got treated to Sean Penn carrying a shotgun, apparently to mow down the zombies the media claimed were…

Unfortunate subsets of some militant environmental groups believe that anyone who uses the land, including quite responsibly, is an enemy.    That isn't the case.  Science advancements like genetically modified organisms and greater understanding of agriculture issues have boosted the efficiency of farming immensely.   While activists have advocated going back to 13th century energy solutions to help the environment, farmers have led the way in 'dematerialization' - growing more food on less land.  Farmers were able to boosted crop yields 57 percent from 1980 to 2005…

Geobacter can clean up uranium but a new study documenting how microbes generate electricity while cleaning up nuclear waste and other toxic metals could mean a big benefit for contaminated sites in the future. Identifying the Geobacters' conductive pili (nanowires - hair-like appendages found on the outside of Geobacters) as doing the bulk of the work is a new revelation. The nanowires also shield Geobacter and allow the bacteria to thrive in a toxic environment.Their effectiveness was proven during a cleanup in a uranium mill tailings site in Rifle, Colo. The researchers injected acetate…

The Lacey Act is one of few government regulations I have praised for its effectiveness.  Few government regulations are actually designed to help anyone, they are either designed to hobble someone in order to artificially level the playing field or they are designed to boost a special interest.  This act levels the playing field, but for the benefit of companies that are ethical. The Lacey Act was introduced in 1900 by Republican Congressman John F. Lacey of Iowa and Republican William McKinley made it into law.  This was a time when Republicans cared about the environment,…

One of the stranger claims of anti-science hippies is that there is not only a difference between 'organic' food (and apparently 'inorganic' food, whatever that could be) in structure - and if you believe that, go read Huffington Post, I won't take it personally - but also in nutrition. The evidence for this is invariably anecdotal - some organic food tastes better, people say, though that has nothing at all to do with structure or nutrition.   I have no complaints with people who don't know any better falling for this stuff - 'organic' food is a multi-billion industry, so lucrative that…

We got a tenth of an inch of rain yesterday -- such a microscopic amount.  The pond levels are down five feet from normal.  It's much less than the water level drop in areas like Lake Travis in Austin, but that's still drastic. I've been monitoring the ponds at Trinity River Audubon Center, and as I walked the margins of Great Blue Heron Pond, it occurred to me that although I was watching the nearby grasslands that I hadn't walked into our tiny remnant patch of woodlands (Longacre Woods) to see what impact the drought was having.  Because I hadn't gone to investigate before,…

The drought continues and our ponds shrink at Trinity River Audubon Center.  I'm torn between fascination about the process and worried for the life and diversity that we've worked so hard to nurture.   The floodplain ponds will come back with the first flood -- and they're the ones with the highest diversity.  But the ponds that were gone had a fairly low diversity... they were young ponds (deliberately formed during the brownfield remediation process, backed with a waterproof cloth, and planted (basically environmentally created swimming pools) and were just starting to…

If one amasses wealth at the expense of innocent people circumventing the law to their advantage because masses do not have resources or knowhow or infrastructure or man power to make money through of web of legal or illegal channels its corruption in economic terms. Wealthier are amassing more and more wealth while poor are getting poorer. People are trying to eradicate economic corruption by making certain laws that will help common people. Such awakening is commendable. However it’s the individuals themselves which have to set their own moral standards including levels of tolerance or…

University of Alberta researcher David Bressler has an idea for the future of recycling. Using throwaway parts of beef carcasses that were sidelined from the value-added production process after Mad-cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) damaged the Canadian beef industry in 2003, Bressler has collaborated with industry, government and other researchers to forge cattle proteins into heavy-duty plastics that could soon be used in everything from car parts to CD cases. By finding a way to convert these animal byproducts into plastics for industrial use, Bressler and his team hope…