Jul 11 2013

Smooth Dogfish need protection too!

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It may have happened to you. You're out for a sail and you spot a fin in the water. Someone begins his best impression of the familiar pulsating cello line as another person jokes, "We gotta get a bigger boat," and talk turns to the film whose release one weekend 38 years ago forever changed our nation's relationship to sharks. Now, after studying sharks and their conservation for more than two decades, I assert that these fascinating predators suffer from an identity crisis: Sharks are greatly maligned for their fierce reputation yet, in reality, are among the most vulnerable animals on the planet. Nearly four decades after the release of Jaws, it remains difficult to convince the average beach-goer and even some of my friends and relatives that sharks in fact have much more to fear from us than we do from them. Yet it is true. Overfishing of sharks and their close relatives skates and rays across the globe has in recent decades led to sharp declines in shark numbers. Some species have been reduced by more than 80 percent. Much of that reduction is tied to the international trade in shark fins. The fins of as many as 70 million sharks end up in the coveted Asian delicacy shark fin soup each year. At the same time, some of the most heavily fished sharks and closely related skates and rays are prized primarily for their meat.
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Jul 11 2013

How can glaciers calving make so much noise?

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Icebergs in situ make little noise, right? What about when the calve? There is growing concern about how much noise humans generate in marine environments through shipping, oil exploration and other developments, but a new study has found that naturally occurring phenomena could potentially affect some ocean dwellers. Nowhere is this concern greater than in the polar regions, where the effects of global warming often first manifest themselves. The breakup of ice sheets and the calving and grounding of icebergs can create enormous sound energy, scientists say. Now a new study has found that the mere drifting of an iceberg from near Antarctica to warmer ocean waters produces startling levels of noise. Results of the study are being published this month in Oceanography. A team led by Oregon State University researchers used an array of hydrophones to track the sound produced by an iceberg through its life cycle, from its origin in the Weddell Sea to its eventual demise in the open ocean. The goal of the project was to measure baseline levels of this kind of naturally occurring sound in the ocean, so it can be compared to anthropogenic noises.
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Jul 10 2013

Los Angeles Goes All In on Rooftop Solar Panels

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The largest urban rooftop solar program in the nation is underway in Los Angeles, with a five-year goal to power more than 34,000 homes while creating some 4,500 construction, installation, design engineering, maintenance and administrative jobs.
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Jul 10 2013

Rising temperatures are triggering rainforest trees to produce more flowers

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Slight rises in temperatures are triggering rainforest trees to produce more flowers, reports a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The research is based on observations collected in two tropical forests: a seasonally dry forest on Panama's Barro Colorado Island and a "rainforest" with year-around precipitation in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. The authors, led by Stephanie Pau, currently at Florida State University but formerly from UC Santa Barbara, analyzed the impact of changes in temperature, clouds and rainfall on flower production. They found an annual 3 percent increase in flower production at the seasonally dry site, which they attributed to warmer temperatures.
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Jul 09 2013

Chinese lose 2.5 billion years of life expectancy due to coal burning

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Chinese who live north of the Huai River will lose an aggregate 2.5 billion years of life expectancy due to the extensive use of coal burning in the region, concludes a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, which involved researchers from MIT, China, and Israel, estimated the impacts of particulate matter from coal-powered heating on life expectancy. In the process, the authors developed a rule-of-thumb for the effects of air pollution: "every additional 100 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter in the atmosphere lowers life expectancy at birth by three years," according to a statement from MIT.
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Jul 09 2013

Global Warming Down Under

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Green spaces, trees and bodies of water are must-have design features for future development in Sydney's suburbs after researchers found that by 2050 global warming combined with Sydney's urban heat island effect could increase temperatures by up to 3.7°C. The researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science found new urban developments, such as the multitude of new estates on Sydney edges expected to house more than 100,000 residents, were prone to the greatest temperature increases.
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Jul 08 2013

Mercury in the Environment: Legacy levels can persist for decades

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Most of us are aware of the high levels of mercury found in fish. But where does this mercury come from? Humans have been using mercury since before the Industrial Revolution, but it is currently being emitted by coal-fired power plants and artisanal gold mining. And according to researchers at Harvard University, significant reductions in mercury emissions will be necessary because of the element’s persistence in surface reservoirs from past pollution.
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Jul 08 2013

Conifers threatened globally

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A third of the world's conifers, the biggest and longest-lived organisms on the planet, are at risk of extinction, with logging and disease the main threats, scientists said. The study of more than 600 types of conifers – trees and shrubs including cedars, cypresses and firs – updates a "Red List" on which almost 21,000 of 70,000 species of animals and plants assessed in recent years are under threat.
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Jul 08 2013

Illegal palm oil from an Indonesian national park used by Asian Agri, Wilmar, WWF report says

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Illegal palm oil expansion inside Indonesia's Tesso Nilo National Park is threatening protected forests and the reputation of two companies who claim to be sources of sustainably-produced palm oil, says a new WWF-Indonesia report. In its June 26 report, "Palming Off a National Park," WWF-Indonesia found that over 52,000 hectares of natural forests in the area have already been illegally converted into palm oil plantations. And fruits from the illegal plantations have made their way into the supply chains of at least two global companies – Asian Agri and Wilmar.
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Jul 08 2013

EU proposes to curb oversupply of Carbon credits

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Carbon credits are created by emissions controls and by other manufacturing practices and they can be sold to other facilities to offset emissions that cannot be economically reduced. These are attractive when a facility cannot meet a new regulation, and is near the end of its useful life, making it uneconomic to install expensive new emissions controls. Carbon credits can also be held or eliminated to reduce available credits. This results in a loss of potential value to those who created them, but is good for the environment since this reduces total Carbon emissions. The EU is proposing to temporarily curb an oversupply in Carbon credits. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the move by the European Parliament to support the proposal to backload permits from the European Union's carbon market. "The vote sends a clear signal that the European Union remains committed to carbon pricing," the Secretary-General's spokesperson said in a statement.
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