SKCEA.ORG » Environmental Economics/Politics

A Turtle Success Story in the Philipines

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:19:31 +0000

In 2011, green sea turtles laid a staggering 1.44 million eggs on just one island in the Philippines thanks to conservation efforts, breaking all previous records. The graceful and enigmatic green turtle faces a variety of threats globally, and as a result is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Yet there is some good news for this marine reptile, as Conservation International (CI) announces that the species has laid a record number of eggs on a small island in the Philippines.

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A Turtle Success Story in the Philipines

Ancient Lake Vostok

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:19:28 +0000

After 20 years of drilling, a team of Russian researchers is close to breaching the prehistoric Lake Vostok, which has been trapped deep beneath thick ice layers (2 miles thick) in Antarctica for the last 14 million years. Lake Vostok is actually the third largest lake in the world, measured by the amount of water it holds. In the early 1990s, the Russians re-created a history of the Earth’s atmosphere throughout the past 400,000 years — a record of our planet’s air during the past four ice ages. The lakes are rich in oxygen (making them oligotrophic), with levels of the element some 50 times higher than what would be found in your typical freshwater lake. The high gas concentration is thought to be because of the enormous weight and pressure of the continental ice cap.

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Ancient Lake Vostok

Are Nuisance Jellyfish Really Taking Over the World’s Oceans?

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:19:27 +0000

In recent years, media reports of jellyfish blooms and some scientific publications have fueled the idea that jellyfish and other gelatinous floating creatures are becoming more common and may dominate the seas in coming decades. The growing impacts of humans on the oceans, including overfishing and climate change, have been suggested as possible causes of this apparently alarming trend.

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Are Nuisance Jellyfish Really Taking Over the World’s Oceans?

Chicago-Based Eco-Friendly Dentist Doubles Down on Green

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:57:30 +0000

Almost exactly five years ago, I took at look at Transcendentist, a Berkeley based green dentistry office that combined environmental responsibility with a very different approach to patient care. Rather than the typical clinical approach, the founders of Transcendentist created a spa-like atmosphere complete with foot massages. Even then, the idea was taking off: nothing like a little calm to take the edge off of that fear of the dentist thing.

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Chicago-Based Eco-Friendly Dentist Doubles Down on Green

Donna Resevoir and Canal

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:57:29 +0000

During the week of February 6-12, 2012, representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) will be in the area of South Alamo, Texas, to speak with residents about the contamination in the Donna Reservoir and Canal. This effort is being made to provide local residents with information about the health risks of consuming fish taken from the Donna Reservoir and Canal. The possession of contaminated fish taken from the reservoir is prohibited by the TDSHS and has been since 1993.

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Donna Resevoir and Canal

Donna Resevoir and Canal

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:57:29 +0000

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Donna Resevoir and Canal

Arrested for Excessive Sweetness

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:46:07 +0000

Put your hands up and step away from the sugar! No, not really. But one day, sugar may be a regulated substance, on par with alcohol and tobacco. The notion seems draconian at first, but once you look at the reasoning behind it, it begins to make a lot of sense. Researchers from the University of California (UC) San Francisco stipulate that excessive consumption of sugar is behind the global obesity pandemic. Sugar contributes to over 35 million deaths per year from diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. Their desire is to see a healthier world with fewer health-related costs through the restriction and regulation of sugar.

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Arrested for Excessive Sweetness

DuPont and Suntech Sign Strategic Agreement

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 10:41:14 +0000

To help increase the supply of photovoltaic materials and technologies for the growing global market for solar energy, the world’s largest producer of solar panels has signed a strategic agreement with DuPont. The agreement focuses on technology advancements, supply chain optimization cost reduction initiatives, and DuPont™ Tedlar® polyvinyl fluoride film supply.

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DuPont and Suntech Sign Strategic Agreement

Alaskan Yellow Cedar

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:06:00 +0000

Yellow-cedar, a culturally and economically valuable tree in southeastern Alaska and adjacent parts of British Columbia, has been dying off across large expanses of these areas for the past 100 years. But no one could say why. “The cause of tree death, called yellow-cedar decline, is now known to be a form of root freezing that occurs during cold weather in late winter and early spring, but only when snow is not present on the ground,” explains Pacific Northwest Research Station scientist Paul Hennon, co-lead of a synthesis paper recently published in the February issue of the journal BioScience. “When present, snow protects the fine, shallow roots from extreme soil temperatures. The shallow rooting of yellow-cedar, early spring growth, and its unique vulnerability to freezing injury also contribute to this problem.”

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Alaskan Yellow Cedar

Electric Vehicle Market Forecast – 10 Year Horizon Looks Strong

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:05:59 +0000

IDTechEx has been tracking developments in the electric vehicle market for the last eleven years by touring the world’s companies, research institutes and conferences to gain insights into key technology changes and business opportunities in the EV market. They have just published their new 2012 forecast with a 10 year horizon, and whether you like EVs or not – their take is that they are here to stay.

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Electric Vehicle Market Forecast – 10 Year Horizon Looks Strong

Nano Improved Transformer Oil

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:55:54 +0000

Rice University scientists have created a nano-infused oil that could greatly enhance the ability of devices as large as electrical transformers and as small as microelectronic components to shed excess heat. Research in the lab of Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan, which appears in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, could raise the efficiency of such transformer oils by as much as 80 percent in a way that is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. The Rice team focused their efforts on transformers for energy systems. Transformers are filled with mineral oils that cool and insulate the windings inside, which must remain separated from each other to keep voltage from leaking or shorting.

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Nano Improved Transformer Oil

Fascinating ancient Sahara site celebrated for World Wetlands Day

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:02:02 +0000

Tunis, Tunisia: A remote seasonal salt lake on the edge of the Sahara leads a list of 15 new Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance being declared in the country on World Wetlands Day, February 2. Chott Elguetar, a 7,400 ha site with an intermittent lake, is vital to the survival of the threatened Scimitar Oryx, Addax and Dama Gazelle. It also contains traces of human religious and industrial activity that have been dated back 40,000 years.

Atlantic Sturgeon Declared an Endangered Species

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:35:20 +0000

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association today designated the Atlantic sturgeon an endangered species, providing it greater legal protections, following a petition the Natural Resources Defense Council submitted in September 2009. NOAA’s Fisheries Service today announced four subpopulations or distinct population segments of Atlantic sturgeon, which are treated as individual species under the law, will be listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act: the New York Bight, the Chesapeake Bay, the Carolina, and the South Atlantic. The northernmost distinct population segment, the Gulf of Maine, will be listed as threatened.

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Atlantic Sturgeon Declared an Endangered Species

Early Ice Ages

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:35:18 +0000

New research led by scientists from Oxford University and Exeter University has shown that the invasion of the land by plants in the Ordovician Period (488-443 million years ago) cooled the climate and may have triggered a series of ice ages. During this period sea levels are very high and at the end of the period there was a mass extinction event. At the beginning of the period, around 480 million years ago, the climate was very hot due to high levels of CO2, which gave a strong greenhouse effect. The marine waters are assumed to have been around 45°C, which restricted the diversification of complex multi-cellular organisms. But over time, the climate become cooler, and around 460 million years ago, the ocean temperatures became comparable to those of present day equatorial waters. The dramatic cooling of the planet between 300 and 200 million years ago was also the result of the evolution of large plants with large rooting systems that caused huge changes in both of these processes. In the current results it was shown that the appearance of the first land plants had a similar effect and much earlier in time.

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Early Ice Ages

Volcanoes Indicted for Europe’s Long, Big Chill

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:45:05 +0000

For years scientists have debated what could have plunged Europe into the half-millennium-long cold spell that ended only a century ago. Was it the temporarily spotless and therefore faint sun, or did a burst of volcanic eruptions loft debris that shaded out a normal sun? Or were the sun and volcanoes in cahoots? Researchers analyzing plants killed in the Little Ice Age’s opening years are now pinning the blame on volcanoes alone.

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Volcanoes Indicted for Europe’s Long, Big Chill

Strong Work Ethics Stem from Early Childhood Development

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:30:28 +0000

A new study recently published suggests that attentiveness in kindergarten can accurately predict the child’s work-oriented behavior throughout the rest of their school years and throughout their entire lives. This conclusion came after years of analysis and observation from elementary school homeroom teachers. For a young child, the classroom is the work place, so skills obtained there are translated directly to their adult workplaces. This study places even more focus on the importance of early education in shaping a more productive, work-oriented society.

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Strong Work Ethics Stem from Early Childhood Development

Obama’s Forest Service Weakens National Forest Wildlife Protections

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:30:28 +0000

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Forest Service today released a new proposal for the nation’s 193-million-acre national forest system that will weaken rules protecting fish and wildlife from logging, livestock grazing, mining and off-road vehicles. The new proposal, which was released as part of the final environmental impact statement for the rule, is the Forest Service’s fourth attempt since 2000 to revise nationwide regulations governing national forests. All three previous attempts were challenged in court by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, and all three prior attempts were found unlawful. Like the 2000, 2005 and 2008 rules, the Obama administration’s planning rule would decrease longstanding protections for wildlife on national forests.

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Obama’s Forest Service Weakens National Forest Wildlife Protections

AT&T Orders 1,200 CNG-Powered Chevrolet Express Vans from General Motors

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:30:26 +0000

AT&T plans to take delivery of 1,200 Chevrolet Express compressed natural gas (CNG) dedicated cargo vans to be deployed to AT&T service centers nationwide. It is the largest-ever order of CNG vehicles from General Motors. AT&T, which has announced its intention to invest up to $565 million to deploy approximately 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles over a 10-year period through 2018, will use the vans to provide and maintain communications, high-speed Internet and television services for AT&T customers.

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AT&T Orders 1,200 CNG-Powered Chevrolet Express Vans from General Motors

Dam About to Bust on Clean Hydrokinetic Energy

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:07:11 +0000

A company called Verdant Power has won the first ever commercial license for a hydrokinetic tidal power facility in the U.S., and that could be just the first drop in a torrent of more than 100 new hydrokinetic projects that are still in the initial stages of permitting around the country. Verdant’s project, called RITE for Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy, will tap the powerful currents of New York City’s East River to generate clean electricity.

Why Biodiversity Loss Deserves as Much Attention as Climate Change

admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:41:21 +0000

Biodiversity loss is probably a challenge that is often ignored as climate change looms. Currently the world is losing species at a rate that is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, further, it is currently seeing the sixth mass extinction. The previous mass extinction occured 65 million years ago, and was caused by ecosystem changes, changes in atmospheric chemistry, impacts of asteroids and volcanoes. For the first time in history, the current extinction is caused by the competition for resources between a single species Homo sapiens and all others. A recent conference arranged by the Danish Ministry of Environment in the University of Copenhagen, provided an opportunity to influence the process of organizing a UN Biodiversity Panel. More than 100 scientists and decision makers from the EU countries gathered and came to the conclusion that drastic measures should be taken to decelerate current loss of biodiversity.

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Why Biodiversity Loss Deserves as Much Attention as Climate Change