“Mining restoration projects are a cover up”

August 12, 2009 at 9:56 pm (children, global warming, saving native fish, working together)
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Environmentalists feel the work done by the mining companies to restore ecosystems is not effective. To date “restoration,” has only ment covering up your sins at a site with cheap crushed rock instead of making sure there is good topsoil for quality absorption and nutrients to reforest the area. When this step is missing it becomes an environmental disaster waiting to happen- the rains will bring overflowing streams and brooks, which create massive amounts of runoff. These mountain rainfilled stream will fill with debris and cause serious ecosystem problems for species that live downstream for a larger area.

Effects of mountaintop removal mining

Effects of mountaintop removal mining

Selenium in stream runoff is one of the biggest problems with stream contamination. Dennis Lemly, a biologist for the U.S. Forest Service, told Yale 360 “Before mountaintop removal, cases of severe selenium contamination were mainly limited to coal-fired power plant discharges. Now they’re appearing across Appalachia near mountaintop mines.” Selenium toxicity can cause gastrointestinal upsets, hair loss, white blotchy nails, and mild nerve damage for humans and other animals as well.

The coal industry needs to step up to the plate and correct as best it can the damage done to streams before it gets any worse, and the consequences dire to people and the environment on as well as down stream. Environmentalists feel the work done by the mining companies to restore ecosystems is not effective.

To date “restoration,” has only ment covering up your sins at a site with cheap crushed rock instead of making sure there is good topsoil for quality absorption and nutrients to reforest the area.

When this step is missing it becomes an environmental disaster waiting to happen- the rains will bring overflowing streams and brooks, which create massive amounts of runoff. These mountain rainfilled stream will fill with debris and cause serious ecosystem problems for all living species of plants and animals that live downstream for a larger area, contribute to global warming and serious air pollution.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of Emagazine.com/view/?4791

Excerpts courtesy of   Sierraclub.org/coal/mtr/cleanwater.aspx

Image courtesy of Climatechange.umaine.edu/Research/mountaintop.jpg

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“Welcome to the GreenPeacer’s Great Boulder Drop ’09”

August 12, 2009 at 1:45 am (good news, saving native fish)
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Protecting the cod fish of Kattegat Sound, has motivated a frustrated Greenpeace alliance to sink 1to 3 ton boulders in the Sound on Monday. This they figure will not only protect the depleted fish and fauna, but allow them to recover without hurting the environment. ThIs also puts a lid on trawling off Sweden’s coastal bays seems that the Swedish government is not keen on this project.

Saving the cod

Saving the cod

The flora and fauna of the seabed like the reeds, sandbanks, seabirds, corals, algae forests and fish need protection from bottom trawling, which rips up the sea bottom and harms the maritime environment.

The area of theGreat Boulder Drop '09

The area of theGreat Boulder Drop '09

The boulders are to be sunk in zones classified as Natura 2000 in the Lilla Middelgrund 179 square kilometers (70 square miles) and Flauden 104 square kilometers (40 square miles) areas into two protected areas in the Kattegat sound that separates the Swedish and Danish mainlands.
Resources

Excerpts courtesy of Seeddaily.com/GreenpeacetosinkboulderstostemtrawlingoffSweden

Map courtesy of EOsnap.com/2009/05/denmark/20090512-denmark1-full.jpg

Image courtesy of Frs-scotland.gov.uk/Uploads/Images/Cod1.jpg

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“Saving one baby has regrown these rainforests “

August 10, 2009 at 11:18 pm (bees/insects, global warming, good news, mammals, working together)
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One humble man + one sick baby orangutan
Willie Smit could not forget the sick baby orangutan he saw during his walk at the market. That night he went back to the market area and heard a noise from the trash area and there was the baby orangutan. He took it home and that was the beginning of how the plight of this baby not only changed his life, but the lives of an entire community. By the way, it saved the rainforest and economy in this area as well. Go Willie!
This model with local modifications may transform the world.

The success -the Samboja Project. Please watch and save something in the area you live. Thanks Willie from Mother Nature and all of us for caring and acting to help.

Inspiring video for the ages! Thanks TED for inviting inspiring presenters and freely sharing their experience with all of us.

Resources

Video courtesy of youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vfuCPFb8wk

Image courtesy of greenpeace.org greenpeace.org/sweden/bilder-och-media/bildspel-palmpolja

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“Bird brain solves math problem”

August 6, 2009 at 10:28 pm (animals, birds)
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You have heard of the expression the “Early Bird gets the worm”
Well these rooks relatives of the Crow have used their problem solving skills to get the worm. They are able to estimate and drop enough pebbles into a tall vial of water to raisse the water level enough to get the worm floating on the water’s surface. Are they smarter than the average first grader?
Check out the video below.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of   Current Biology: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/home
Excerpts courtesy of Aol.com News.aol.com/article/bird-experiment-shows-aesops-fable-may
Videos of the rooks: http://www.youtube.com/cellpressvideo

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“Good news for protection of NW forests we are winning it back”

August 6, 2009 at 7:33 pm (Environmental crisis, global warming)
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A federal appeals court Wednesday blocked road construction on more than 40 million acres of pristine national forests. These lands are part of the lands that were reinstated by President Bill Clinton before he left office. His original ruling protected 58.5 million acres of forest land from commercial ventures.

Victory for the Roadless Forests
On Wednesday, a court battle that began in 2005 ended in victory for Washington, several other Western

Keep forests like this roadless

Keep forests like this roadless

states and environmental groups that sued the Forest Service after it reversed the so-called “roadless rule” in 2005.

As Gov. Chris Gregoire governor of Washington stated,”These special places provide clean water, fish and wildlife habitat and priceless recreational opportunities.

Thanks to everyone who helped save these beautiful forests.

Wednesday’s decision does not affect 9.3 million acres of roadless areas in Idaho, said David Hensley, Gov. Butch Otter’s legal counsel.
Former Gov. Jim Risch, Idaho’s designed a roadless plan for Idaho which stepped up protections in some roadless areas, while allowing temporary road building elsewhere, particularly for thinning trees in fire-prone areas.

Next these environmental groups will challenge the Idaho plan. This state is second only to Alaska in the number of roadless acres within the state.

The new Roadless ruling will set a precedent for the Idaho court battle. Idaho’s roadless plan is flawed because it doesn’t offer enough habitat protection for endangered species. Under the Idaho plan grizzly and caribou recovery areas in the Selkirks and the Cabinet Mountains are not adequately protected.

The Obama administration already had ordered a one-year moratorium on most road building in national forests which affirms their support of conservation of roadless areas in our national forests, and the protection of these natural resources.

However Alaska approved a timber sale last month in a roadless area of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Tongass was exempted from roadless protection in a separate 2003 decision.

Why??–Money is my guess.

Resources
Excerpts courtesy of Spokesman.com/stories/2009/aug/06/court-ruling-shields-roadless-us-forests

Image courtesy of Media.portland.indymedia.org/images/2004/07/292009

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“Orangutan-human -Who was your mama?”

August 5, 2009 at 11:22 pm (animals, mammals)
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Who ‘s genetic tree are you swinging from?

Take a closer look in the mirror?

Comparatively speaking, if we look at the fossil evidence we can find 28 anatomical features that we humans share with the orangutans. traits in common with the organgutans –like including enamel molars, similar hairlines and hair that is hair is typically reddish-brown and shoulder blades, and even the ability to smile with lips closed, Jeffrey H. Schwartz and John Grehan, director of science at the Buffalo Museum, say in the Journal of Biogeography.

Does this orangutan mama look like yours?

Does this orangutan mama look like yours?

Even our skulls and eyebrow bone structure more closely resemble the orangutan’s than the chimp’s or gorilla’s dramatically ridged eyebrows.

Brown or black hair typical of other great apes — compared with two with chimps and 11 with gorillas, Schwartz and Grehan say.

But defenders of the chimp theory produced genome evidence indicating chimps have a more than 98 percent genetic similarity with humans.

This compares with a 97 percent genetic similarity with the gorilla and only 96 similarity with the orangutan genome, they say.

Maybe we need to revisit the DNA testing to find out Who our mama really is.

Resources


Excerpts courtesy of Terradaily.com/Study_Humans_came_from_orangs_not_chimps

Image courtesy of Edn-write.demandstudios.com

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“Hatchling loggerhead sea turtles -need traffic cop”

August 5, 2009 at 7:28 pm (Environmental crisis, turtles, working together)
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You know guys this is not rocket science.

Sea turtles, most of them loggerheads are rare animals, protected by the Endangered Species Act.

If the turtle hatchlings are getting lost and killed due to poachers and city lights leading them astray why don’t we harvest them from the nests and raise them in a sheltered sanctuary and release them safely back to the gulf?

endangered loggerhead babies need help returning to sea

endangered loggerhead babies need help returning to sea

For example, in Sarasota dozens of sea turtle nests are hatching now, but street and residential lights are disorienting hundreds of them away from the water, according Mote Marine Laboratory.

2,000 hatchlings have been found this year crawling toward homes and busy streets, instead of following the moon to the Gulf of Mexico. this more than doubles the number of disoriented fledglings mariners unable find their way to the sea do to our city lights!

Why are we so passive about this process? We can save these sea turtles. Forgetting to turn off your lights is not an option. Money does talk louder than words to many. Maybe stiff fines would help them remember.
If the turtle hatchlings are getting lost and killed due to poachers and city lights leading them astray why don’t we harvest them from the nests and raise them in a sheltered sanctuary and release them safely back to the gulf?

Why does money seem to talk louder than words to many?

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of Heraldtribune.com/article/Local-turtle-hatchlings-having-a-rough-year

Image courtesy of Chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20050608.htm

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“Endangered Critters Mate Finding Service”

August 4, 2009 at 1:23 am (Environmental crisis, working together)
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The border that spans the southwestern United States does not stop people from crossing into the US. Half of illegal human immigrants avoided the border wall altogether by entering the US on a legal visa an option not available to members of other species. The Pew Hispanic Center research report has found that as many as 45 percent of undocumented foreigners in the United States didn’t creep through the desert or float across the Rio Grande in an inner tube or scale the border wall or crawl under it at all.  How did they do it?  They simply just extended their stay after their visas expired.

ocelot

ocelot

So who or what does the stone/cement megalithic monster wall stop?

With its 24 hour a day guard and so much money going into protection that continues to cost the US tax payer dearly, the Southwestern border of the United States is truly safe now from many threatening foreign animal migration big and small. The ocelots, Sonoran bighorn sheep,  pronghorn antelopes, gray wolves, the Mexican jaguar and countless smaller critters.

Sonoran bighorn sheep

Sonoran bighorn sheep

This looming environmental crisis of the extinction of endangered species may need our help. The Endangered Critters Mate Finding Service may be the only way in the future for these species “bordered out” to find proper mates to survive.

In July congress felt the need to protect us further from critters so they passed an amendment to a Homeland Security bill that mandates an additional 369 miles of fence that will prevent these animals further from crossing the border.

The border wall, built illegally after waiving three dozen federal environmental laws, is expected to be successful in reducing populations of these and other species, most of whom do not speak English, avoid people, make money or pay taxes. A recent research study found that Sonoran bighorn sheep populations north of the border rely on contact with those on the other side of the border to maintain genetic diversity.

Desert Pronghorned Antelope

Desert Pronghorned Antelope

A 2007 scientific report found that habitat fragmentation was also reducing populations of ocelots a rare species of wildcat that some feel come sleuthing in the night to possibly steal food and jobs from Americans i the southwest.

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Endangered Mexican jaguar

Endangered Mexican jaguar

Can we afford this continued destruction of wildlife in the southwestern desert?

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  Features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/07/31/border-wall-successfully-halting-illegal-immigration-of-wildlife/

Image oscelot courtesy of  2.bp.blogspot.com/_USFW+public+domain.jpg

Image big horn sheep courtesy of Nationalzoo.si.edu/ZooGoer/2005/1/IMAGES/bighorn.jpg

Image courtesy of http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/kidstuff/AHgame/images/PRONGHNF.JPG

Image grey wolf  Natures Crusaders files

Image Mexican jaguar courtesy of News.nationalgeographic.com/jaguar-mexico-picturebig

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“Ocean mixing -the power of numbers”

August 3, 2009 at 7:32 pm (global warming, water/ice, working together)
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Deep ocean mixing analysis studies the movement of fluid surrounding tiny ocean creatures leading to completely revelatory insights on possible mechanisms of global ocean mixing

Scientists from the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory, Providence College and the University of California traveled to the island of Palau, where they studied the effects animals have on movement of ocean water also called induced drift. Particularly they were looking at jellyfish movement.

jellyfish propulsion

jellyfish propulsion

Florescent “dye in the water in front of the sea creatures, and then watching what happened to that dye or, to be more specific, to the water that took up the dye as the jellyfish swam. And, indeed, rather than being left behind the jellyfish or being dissipated in turbulent eddies the dye traveled with the swimming creatures, following them for long distances.

So it is true that swimming animals can carry bottom water with them as they swim upward, and that movement indeed creates a mixing. of ocean waters like an inversion effect.

So how much impact do these tiny sea critters from the billions of krill in the ocean to the jellyfish and larger sea creatures have on ocean mixing?

After a series of calculations, it was found that these animals in the ocean provide enough energy from their collective movement as much as a trillion watts of energy globally equal to the effects of the winds and tides combined

These figures do not include the combined interactive effects of the organisms which would amplify how far the ocean waters can be pulled upward. Nor does it include the effects of “marine snow ( organic and other fecal debris) falling to the ocean floor which also would pull water with it.

Such models are important for simulations of global climate-change scenarios and carbon sequestration on the ocean floor.

Resources
Excerpts courtesy of Terradaily.com/reports/TinySeaCreaturesLinkedToLargeScaleOceanMixing
Excerpts courtesy of Media.caltech.edu/pressrelease

Image courtesy of  I.livescience.com/images/LS_090729_JellyFish-01.jpg

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“Does it look like a frog and a fish combined?”

August 3, 2009 at 1:46 am (good news, working together)
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Histiophryne psychedelica, is a yellow-brown or peach colored frogfish. Yes, I said frogfish.

Does it look like a frog and a fish combined? You decide.

Psychedelica was discovered off Indonesia’s Ambon island. A psychedelic pink, blue and white striped fish which bounces along the seabed has been hailed as a new species by scientists – and called it “psychedelica”. First discovered off Indonesia’s Ambon island by scuba divers last year.
It belongs to the frogfish family, but its looks are unique even among its relatives.
It is completely covered in swirling concentric stripes – white and blue on a peach pink background – radiating out from its aqua-colored eyes. It has a broad flat face, thick fleshy cheeks and chin, and eyes that look forward like a human eyes. 090226-psychedelic-fish-picture_big-ap

The divers described it moving away from them in a series of short hops, its pelvic fins pushing it off the sea bed with each bounce.

First discovered almost 20 years ago, but the wrongly labeled research report kept the discovery hidden until
the divers were unable to identify the fish from photographs circulated among their colleagues, and sent pictures to a frogfish expert at the University of Washington. (1)

Here is a cool pink relative of Psychedelia

They are generally small fish, less than 10–20 cm (3.9–7.9 in) in length, with large globose heads. They can be distinguished from other anglerfish by the three extended dorsal fin spines on their heads. The first dorsal spine is modified as a fishing lure to attract prey. The lure consists of the illicium (the spine) and the esca (the bait), and may resemble a worm, crustacean, or small fish. Frogfishes do not swim in the conventional way; instead, they “walk” on their pectoral fins or use ‘jet propulsion’ (forcefully expelling water from the small opercular opening generally behind and below the pectoral fins).

pink frogfish of Australia

pink frogfish of Australia

They are mostly bottom-dwelling fish, typically living amongst coral, at up to 100 meters (330 ft) depth, where they lie in wait for prey. They are able to change their colour to match the background with high precision, and their camouflage is further aided by numerous warts and filaments on their skin, giving them an appearance similar to rough coral. (2)

The Sargassum fish, Histrio histrio, is unique among frogfish in that it is endemic to and clings on floating Sargassum weed.


Another beauty is the longlure frogfish

Like the rest of the frogfish, the Longlure frogfish are found in tropical oceans and seas around the world.

yellow frogfish

yellow frogfish

Living on the ocean bottom-these fish are well camouflaged and they also have a built in fish line- first dorsal spine waves around like a fishing lure to attract prey.
Resources

Excerpts courtesy of News.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7914121.st

Excerpts courtesy of En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogfish

Image 1. courtesy of News.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/images/-psychedelic-fish jpg

Image 2. courtesy of En.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frogfish_ocellated.jpg

Image 3. courtesy of Photography.nationalgeographic.com/frogfish-laman-981881-lw.jpg

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