How Far Does Your Thanksgiving Turkey Travel?

November 2013

How Far Does Your Thanksgiving Turkey Travel?

Link: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2013/11/26/winter-storm-boreas/#.UpkxB8RDtsJ

     Each year millions of American families come together and feast upon the traditional dinner - a roasted turkey. From an environmental standpoint, it takes 14 units of fossil fuel to produce a serving of turkey compared to the 4:1 ratio for chicken and a 26:1 ratio for eggs (Cornell University).
     "The environmental impact of a turkey or any animal can be calculated two ways: the resources that went into raising it and the resources used to transport it to market." The production of the turkey makes up about 83 percent of the bird’s impact according to Columbia University’s Earth Institute. You can reduce the number of miles the turkey travels to the platter by purchasing from a local vendor, but this only reduces a small portion of emissions associated with the turkey. Therefore, what the individual farmer does in raising the bird has a greater impact than the buyer's decision to purchase locally.

China's Hazy Green Future

November 2013

China's Hazy Green Future

Link: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/collideascape/2013/11/22/chinas-green-future-hazy-skies/#.UpkxMcRDtsI

     China's densely polluted air normally makes the news with an emphasis on the public health aspect of the country, as opposed to the global warming angle. However, China’s reliance on coal is most definitely known.

     According to the article, there are signs that China is attempting to harness its smog problem by reducing its coal dependence. However, Christina Larsen reported several months ago in a Bloomberg story that this may not be so good for the planet. Although none of the newly proposed plants (converting coal to gas) are situated near China's large cities, the entire life cycle of harvesting coal and turning it into gas produces from 36 percent to 82 percent more total greenhouse gas emissions than burning coal directly 

     The article also mentions Slate’s Joshua Keating article about China's smog. He states that China's CO2 emissions are a much bigger problem than its smog. The article reports that China’s smog reduction plan could actually increase its emissions by moving to synthetic natural gas converted from coal, which burns cleaner than coal but produces more CO2 overall. Mr. Keating states that dealing with CO2 is going to be a much more difficult problem, and a much harder one to resolve with the country’s desire to maintain its fast pace of economic development.

United Nations Climate Meeting

November 2013

United Nations Climate Meeting 

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/world/deals-at-climate-meeting-advance-global-effort.html?ref=earth

     The Warsaw Climate Change Conference meetings in Poland ended November 23 with "a pair of last-minute deals" sustaining hope that a global effort can hold off a harmful rise in temperatures. This meeting's actions drove the talks about the possible United Nations 2015 conference in Paris to replace the moribund Kyoto Protocol.

     The 19th annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change started "in the shadow" of the giant Philippine typhoon. More than 10,000 people listened in on the talks, including national delegations, journalists, advocates and, for the first time, business leaders.

     At the meeting, delegates settled on the expansive outlines of "a proposed system for pledging emissions cuts" and extended their support for a novel treaty device to embark upon the "human cost of rising seas, floods, stronger storms and other expected effects of global warming."
     The death and devastation brought by the Philippine storm emphasized the question of “climate justice.” The final agreement was held up by a dispute over a proposal by developing nations for the creation of a “loss and damage mechanism” under the treaty. The United States, the European Union and other developed nations opposed, fearing new financial claims. However, Peace was restored when the parties overcame their differences, agreeing with the United States to hold the new device under an already existing part of the treaty dealing with adapting to climate change, but saying they would evaluate its status in 2016.
    In conclusion, treaty members remain far from any serious, concentrated action to cut emissions. In addition, developing nations complained that promises of financial help have still not been met.
   

Echolocation - Bats and Whales

October 2013

Echolocation of Bats and Whales

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029101617.htm

     Although bats and whales may seem very different, they both have developed the ability to use echolocation, or a biological sonar, for hunting. Danish researchers today show that the biosonar of toothed whales and bats are extremely similar, even though their environments differ and the two vary extremely in size. This is because through evolution, both bats and toothed whales have developed the same functional characteristics.
    Researchers from Aarhus University and University of Southern Denmark (Danish universities) are studying the "acoustic properties of the technique behind echolocation in bats and whales in the wild". These studies are providing a much more realistic picture of how the animals use echolocation in the wild.
     Professors of the universities say that the similarities of the two are because all mammalian ears are developed in quite similar ways, and "the contradicting physical conditions in air and water along with the differences in size of the animals even out the differences, that you would expect in the sound frequency".

     The researchers conclude that bats and toothed whales produce signals for echolocation in the same frequency range, from 10 to 200 kHz".

Earthworm Invasion

October 2013

Earth Worm Invasion

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029133126.htm

     Earthworms are being called the most recent keystone species to be added to the list for the forests of New England. Keystone species are groups that control an ecosystem and have a disproportionate impact on other species. Although none of the worms are native to the area, the migration of a few different species of earthworms is being tracked in attempt to understand how their soil-eating ways are affecting forests and global stocks of carbon. These earthworms are also being categorized as invasive species: non-native animals and plants, carried by people into new locations, that take hold, disrupting and reshaping local ecosystems.

     Scientists at the University of Vermont are reporting sixteen earthworm species reported in the state that are all exotic: fourteen are European and two are Asian. Many of these worms are invaders, spreading quietly underground. Although there is a good amount of carbon stored in trees aboveground, a roughly equal amount of carbon is stored belowground where these earthworms are. This is because the earthworms participate in decomposition underground, and release carbon dioxide as they eat. This adds to the forest's carbon emissions, which leads to the greenhouse effect and global warming. However, earthworms do a good job spreading soil aggregates that physically protect the organic carbon inside them, forming a barrier to the microorganisms that could otherwise break it down.

Coral Reefs and Climate Change

October 2013

Coral Reefs and Climate Change

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029133755.htm

     As a result of a study funded by the NOAA, coral reefs are improving their chances of surviving through the end of the century because they may be able to adapt to moderate climate warning if there are large reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. The study was conducted by the NOAA's scientists and its academic partners. A convincing result of the study shows that coral reefs have already adapted to part of the warming that has occurred. 

   As published in the Global Change Biology, the study explores a variety of possible coral adaptive responses to thermal stress previously identified by other scientists. It suggests that coral reefs may be more resilient than otherwise thought in studies that did not consider effects of possible adaptation. Through genetic adaptation, "the reefs could reduce their projected rate of temperature-induced bleaching by 20 to 80 percent of levels expected by the year 2100, if there are large reductions in carbon dioxide emissions".

Gold Mining Destroys Peru

October 2013

Gold Mining Destroys Peru

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131028162800.htm

      In the biologically diverse region of Madre De Dios in the Peruvian Amazon, researchers have just now been able to map the true extent of gold mining. Led by Carnegie's Greg Asner and the officials from the Peruvian Ministry of Environment, the team used the Carnegie Landsat Analysis System-lite (CLASlite) to detect and map large and small mining operations. The team used field surveys and airborne mapping with high-resolution satellite monitoring to display that "the geographic extent of mining has increased 400% from 1999 to 2012 and that the average annual rate of forest loss has tripled since the Great Recession of 2008". The results of the tests performed showed a greater amount of rain-forest damage than that that was previously reported by the government, NGOs, and other researchers. "In all, we found that the rate of forest loss from gold mining accelerated from 5,350 acres (2,166 hectares) per year before 2008 to15,180 acres (6,145 hectares) each year after the 2008 global financial crisis that rocketed gold prices."
     Not only has the gold mining been destroying rain-forests, it releases sediment into rivers causing severe problems with the aquatic life. Peru's gold mining has also added to the widespread mercury pollution affecting the entire food chain, including the food ingested by people all over the region. "Miners also hunt wild game, depleting the rain-forest fauna around mining areas, and disrupting the ecological balance for centuries to come".

In the past, thousands of small, clandestine mines that have been successful since the economic crisis have operated unmonitored.