some environmental news, 3.25.09

How Big Is That Widening Gyre of Floating Plastic? via the Wall Street Journal

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it has been called, has become a symbol of what some say is a looming crisis over trash. But this floating mass of plastic in the Pacific Ocean is hard to measure, and few agree on how big it is or how much plastic it holds. That makes it difficult to determine what to do about it.

What is still true, no matter how big the size, the marine life is eating, and as a result dying from, this plastic.  And what is also true… we are putting it there and it will be our job to get it out.

Rise in malaria rates, drug resistance tied to climate, via the Daily Climate

 

The malaria parasite is highly sensitive to changes in temperature, and even subtle warming can dramatically increase populations of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease, said ecologist Mercedes Pascual.

Some scientists have argued that climate is not involved in the increasing highland epidemics. Instead, they say, adaptations in the parasite that make it resistant to anti-malarial drugs are the key drivers.

But Pascual said that this “either-or” view is misguided and improperly lets global warming off the hook.

 

‘Flawed’ Red List putting species at risk, via The New Scientist

 IS probably the most influential barometer of extinction risk, yet the Red List is unscientific and frequently wrong. So claim a growing number of conservation scientists, including several who help compile it. While no one wants to see an end to the Red List, which covers 45,000 species, many fear that the sometimes shaky methods behind the creation of the listings are downplayed, meaning time, money and effort can be misdirected trying to save “safe” species while others creep towards extinction.

10 Easy Ways to be Labeled a “Terrorist” by the Government, via PlanetSave

8.) Attend VEGAN potlucks!!!:  While Al-Qaeda continues to release video communiques threatening Americans, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces are using anti-terrorism resources to attempt to infiltrate vegan potlucks.

another top ten list

This one comes from PlanetSave. They got together top conservationists and scientists and came up with the top ten animals in most need of protection from extinction. Many of these, I didn’t even know were in trouble.

1.) Pacific Walrus – Alaska
2.) Red Knot bird – Texas
3.) Wolverine – Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington
4.) Gunnison Sage-grouse (bird) – Colorado, Utah
5.) Fluvial Arctic Grayling (fish) – Montana
6.) Island Marble Butterfly – Washington
7.) Southern Rockies Boreal Toad – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho
8.) Mason’s Skypilot (plant) – California and Nevada
9.) Great White Shark – Coastal States
10.) Wood Turtle – Great Lakes and Northeastern States, Virginia and West Virginia

You can find all of their adorable pictures HERE.OK… so the plant picture may not be “adorable”, but you get the point.

change of heart…?

I’m guessing before he leaves, George Bush will do more harm than good, regarding his environmental policy. But he will do some good.

ONE of the George W. Bush’s final acts as US president could be to create the largest marine conservation area in the world. White House officials say that Bush is considering a proposal to turn up to 2.3 million square kilometres of tropical waters, coral reefs and remote island atolls in the Pacific Ocean into US National Monuments (see map).

“As bad as his environmental record has been, he could, as one individual, protect more of the Earth’s surface than anyone else in history,” says Lance Morgan of the US Marine Conservation Biology Institute.

The article goes on to say that Presidents have the authority to designated any part of U.S. land as protected.

For every sand spit and coral reef jutting above the water line, the US retains exclusive rights to the surrounding waters for 370 kilometres in all directions. It is in these areas that Morgan has been working with the White House on a deal to secure permanent “no-take zones” for fishing and mineral extraction. This also includes the Mariana trench, the planet’s deepest ocean canyon.

It will be interesting to see how this transpires. However, maybe we will still lose. Between the changes in the Clean Air Act all the way to the leniencies in water contamination to mining to lead poisoning, will protecting this area be helpful? Or will it be an overall net negative policy?

The article can be found HERE, via NewScientist.

contest

The winners of the 2008 Wildlife Photography of the Year were announced yesterday.

All I can say is… whoa.

Go HERE for all the photos. Some are presented below.

A cat-eyed tree-snake, coiled around a branch, was locked in an embrace with a Morelet’s treefrog – a critically endangered species.

Sulawesi macaques are now at high risk of extinction.

White-tailed eagles are the largest eagles in northern Europe, with a wingspan of more than two metres.

presidential positions

HERE is a link, provided by GRIST, on the two major candidates and their positions on Endangered Species.

Know who your voting for.

we know who doesn’t like this….

Another win for the environment.. a win that Sarah Palin was hoping wouldn’t happen.

The Center for Biological Diversity request to put the Beluga Whale on the endangered species list has been honored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

This listing was disputed by Palin, along with those pesky Polar Bears, as putting them on the list is seen as an impediment to “progress” in forms such as the expansion of the Port of Anchorage and offshore oil drilling.

You can find articles on the subject HERE and HERE.