“NASA airborne to study Haitain fault”

January 29, 2010 at 11:57 pm (good news, working together)
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On Jan. 25, NASA’s UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar) left NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California aboard a modified NASA  Gulfstream III aircraft to study earthquake fault in Haiti and Hispaniola in the Dominican Republic. It will continue its mapping mission into Central America to image the structure of tropical forests; monitor volcanic deformation and volcano processes and examine Mayan archeology sites.
UAVSAR’s ability to provide rapid access to regions of interest, short repeat flight intervals, high resolution and its variable viewing geometry make it a powerful tool for studying ongoing Earth processes. UAVSAR uses a technique called interferometric synthetic aperture radar, or InSAR, that sends pulses of microwave energy from the aircraft to the ground to detect and measure very subtle deformations in Earth’s surface, such as those caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and glacier movements. Flying at a nominal altitude of 12,500 meters (41,000 feet), the radar, located in a pod under the aircraft’s belly, collects data over a selected region.


It then flies over the same region again, minutes to months later, using the aircraft’s advanced navigation system to precisely fly over the same path to an accuracy of within 5 meters (16.5 feet). By comparing these camera-like images (see image at the right), interferograms are formed that have baseline image of the surface deformation, from which scientists can measure the slow surface deformations involved with the buildup and release of strain along earthquake faults. Information and the data collected will be used by rescue and damage assessment officials to better estimate what areas might be most affected from a quake.

In the past the past three years UAVSAR has surveyed Iceland’s bedrock, Mt St. Helens, the Arctic ice and the length of California’s San Andreas fault system, this highly sophisticated radar system was many years in the making.

Thanks to everyone who helped,UAVSAR will become a vital part in our understanding of the earth and our response after a natural disaster.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  http://www.spacemart.com/reports/NASA_Airborne_Radar
Excerpts courtesy of  http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/nasa-radar-to-map-haiti-faults

Excerpts courtesy of  http://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov/mission_flights.html

Image courtesy of   http://div33.jpl.nasa.gov/graphics/proj_photo/Proteus_UAVSAR_color_t.jpg

Image courtesy of  http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/419456main_haiti20100126-full.jpg

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“A deadly cocktail-shrinking ice +oil”

January 28, 2010 at 8:07 pm (Environmental crisis, global warming, mammals, sea life, water/ice, working together)
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The largest natural US biome is under attack from two deadly fronts. Global warming and the oil companies activities off the Alaskan coast and deep in the heartland too. The pristine lands and sea that are home to countless numbers of our largest and smallest  natural treasures is under attack. These biomes that the animals and plants have openly grown, roamed or swum  for thousands of years is being polluted and invaded by short sighted management.

Leaping for food

If we all had the the financial backing that this giant conglomerate oil and gas companies have more inroads would have been made to saving our endangered wildlands and wildlife both in Alaska and around the world. Since we have alternative fuels, the means to more safely process and protect our environment and all life, it makes no sense to let this antiquated giants of industry continue to rule and dictate governmental policy that will effect generations to come long after their rigs have rusted away.

Stop Shell Oil’s attack on the coastal waters of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuse

Stop Shell’s Attack on the Polar Bear’s Birthing Ground before drilling starts this summer!

The Obama Administration has given Shell the green light to begin exploratory drilling off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — during the Refuge’s 50th Anniversary Year!

Even government officials admit that an oil spill is inevitable if full-scale production occurs off the coast of the Arctic Refuge — the main birthing ground of Alaska’s polar bears. Polar bears, whales, seals, eagles and salmon may soon be covered in or ingesting oil.
Here is a list of just the members of the dolphin and whale families that might be effected by such a spill:  Dolphins
  • Dall’s Porpoise
  • Harbor Porpoise              
  • Pacific Whitesided Dolphin

Whales

  • Beaked Whales
  • Beluga Whales
  • Bowhead Whales
  • Fin Whales
  • Humpback Whales
  • Gray Whales
  • Killer Whales (Orcas)
  • Minke Whales
  • North Pacific Right Whales
  • Sperm Whales

Help our world today click here.

Resources
Excerpts courtesy of  http://www.nrdc.org
Excerpts courtesy of  http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/nmml/species/species_harporp.php
Image 1. courtesy of   Nature’s Crusaders library
Image 2. courtesy of  http://www.croft31.co.uk/porpoise.jpg

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“Endangered polar bear needs to keeps his parts”

January 27, 2010 at 7:45 pm (global warming, water/ice, working together)
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A thirty six year population projection model of 4 of 13 subpopulations suggest:

27 per cent of Canada’s 15 500 polar bears have a high risk of declining by 30 per cent.

The Canadian government still allows the sale of polar bear parts – pellets, paws, meat, and claws. Canada is home to approximately 15 500 of the estimated 20 000 to 25 000 Polar Bears in global polar regions. Bear populations are decreasing.

polar bear cubs

Declines are partly attributed to climate change for western Hudson Bay (Nunavut and Manitoba) and the southern Beaufort Sea (Northwest Territories), but are mostly due to unsustainable harvesting in Kane Basin and Baffin Bay (Nunavut). Seven subpopulations (43% of the total population) are projected to be stable or increasing. Trends currently cannot be projected for two subpopulations (Davis Strait, Foxe Basin – Nunavut – 29% of the total population

Industrial development and their oil spills and population increase impinges on the lands that the bears call home. Bear hunting unless one needs this meat for survival should be outlawed.

In Canada the hunting of Polar Bears is restricted to Aboriginal people or sport hunters guided by Aboriginal people who harvest by traditional means and in accordance with sound conservation practices based on the best available scientific information.

Please let the Canadian government to stop  sport hunters from shooting this endangered bear and stop the sale of bear parts now. Your voice and action will be counted here.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  http://www.ec.gc.ca

Excerpts courtesy of  http://www.defenders.org

Image courtesy of Nature’s Crusaders library

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“Starry spiral fireworks in outer space”

January 25, 2010 at 6:33 pm (good news, working together)
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Rodger Thompson and his team has taken this beautiful image of a large new spiral shaped galaxy as part of its NASA’s Hubble Heritage program that resembles a multi-armed spiral fireworks. Each spiral arm is filled with bright hot blue glowing regions of ultraviolet wavelengths of light where new stars are being born.

This bluish-white spiral galaxy seems to hang suspended in the frozen vacuum of space. Like snowflakes, no two galaxies are exactly alike. Known as NGC 1376, this snowflake-shaped beauty has features that make it a one of a kind.
The less intense, red areas near the core and between the arms consist mainly of older stars. The reddish dust lanes are colder, denser regions where interstellar clouds may collapse to form new stars. Intermingled between the spiral arms are a sprinkling of reddish background galaxies.
NGC 1376 resides more than 180 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Eridanus. This galaxy belongs to a class of spirals that are seen nearly face on from our line of sight. This orientation aids astronomers in studying details and features of the galaxy from an unobscured vantage point.
Resources

Excerpts courtesy of   http://www.spacedaily.com/Snowflake_Shaped_Galaxy From_Hubble.html
Excerpts courtesy of    http://uanews.org/system/files/images/NGC1376-flat-clean-w.jpg
Image courtesy of   http://uanews.org/system/files/images/NGC1376-flat-clean-w.jpg

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“Female mosquites love the delicious odors given off by humans”

January 25, 2010 at 7:39 am (bees/insects, birds, mammals)
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Back in the days of my high school science project, my most memorable one was on mosquitoes. Culex pipien pipiens was the species. My mission was to find out whether they laid more viable (more to hatch) eggs with or without a human blood meal. As I reported the findings in front of an auditorium full of people in Champagne Urbana, Illinois, an unusual reaction spread through my audience. One row at a time each person began scratching as I described how I feed the mosquitoes a human blood meal-my arm stuck in their cage. At the height of the mosquito population, it numbered about 300 hungry females. Research has advanced significantly since my days with the mosquito abatement service. The Culex p.p. did lay more viable eggs on human blood if you are interested.

Why  did all these mosquitoes prefer a human blood meal to the gerbil or guinea pig meal?

Well it seems researchers now understands why humans are such a delicacy. It seems we give off more carbon dioxide and nonanal odors than these other animals. This combination is irresistible to female mosquitoes.
How do they detect these odors?
We give them off through  our skin. Nonanal molecules are an end product of fat digestion and when we breathe our skin exudes the combination of these odors. When it is hot, we sweat and give off heat, CO2 and nonanal odors. These odors are sensed by the receptor sense cells on the antennae of the head of the mosquito and it can hone in on that essence from many feet away. They will land and where ever the concentration of the odors is the strongest they will drill through clothes including jeans to suck the blood that carries the desired chemicals to the surface of the skin.
The UC Davis research on the nonanal odor was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health; a cooperative research agreement with Bedoukian Research, a supplier of specialty aroma and flavor ingredients headquartered in Connecticut; and the National Science Foundation.
Resources

Excerpts courtesy of   http://news.yahoo.com/livescience/whyhumanblooddrivesmosquitoeswild
Excerpts courtesy of   http://www.news.ucdavis.edu

Excerpts courtesy of  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_receptor

Excerpts courtesy of   http://www.springerlink.com

Image mosquito mouth parts  courtesy of  http://www.vanderbilt.edu/maxpalp.jpg
Image mosquitobloodmeal  courtesy of   http://www.biolib.cz.jpg

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“Water Water-what are we doing with it around the world?”

January 22, 2010 at 11:55 pm (Environmental crisis, global warming, working together)
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The rain in Spain -well I only know about the rains in the Southwestern USA
As rain pours out of the skies like someone opened the heavenly dam over the Southwestern and Southern California arid lands, the waste of this so precious and scarce natural resource is too obvious. These desert areas  have been in drought for twenty years, but have we built reservoirs to channel this glorious gifts from on high? Of course not even though this is the first serious rain these areas have seen in eight months to a year and the water table is many feet lower than it should be.

El Nino rains

Now the ground is saturated and the cities and the locals have generally not developed any rain water catch systems to trap this liquid gold for future use so much of it runs down the river beds toward Mexico.

“This was a high-impact event,” said Brian Klimowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Flagstaff. “It was a storm that impacted all of Arizona with flooding and very heavy snow, certainly ranking in the top five of all-time snow or rain events for the state.”

On the other side of the world there is another water issue, Ethiopia’s Gilgel Gibe III dam  is due for completion in 2013. It is being built on the main tributary Omo river. This branch of the Omo river supplies Lake Turkana with 80 percent of the water. It is located on the Kenya-Ethiopia border. The dam and it has a 240 meter is the tallest of its type anywhere in the world. It will hold back a reservoir 150 kilometers long (93.21miles).

The death of Lake Turkana

Dams in generally ruin the natural balance of local flora and fauna the life. The Ethiopian dam is no different. The initial assessment survey of necessity was flawed. It wreaks of payoff and not surprisingly came up with the exact results the powers that be structure wanted. No surprises.

During the two years it will take to fill the dam reservoir Lake Turkana will recede, increasing its salinity, damaging the local economy, degrading biodiversity and increasing the risk of cross-border conflicts. The reservoir will flood the areas on both sides of its ban and its wildlife will have to go elsewhere.
Around 300,000 fishermen and herders depend on Lake Turkana, while hundreds of thousands more, mainly farmers, rely on the Omo’s annual flooding for river bank cultivation and grazing of livestock.

So what are we doing to create sustainable  water reservoirs around the world in harmony with nature? Protecting and supporting rather than doing only what works for one country. We  need a world green team must become the popular way.

Yes, government should take a more proactive roll, but this is in our hands to do. Every house should have a simple rain water collection system to take care of any outside or in house plant watering needs. If you need help contact Nature’s Crusaders to help you.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100123/ap_on_re_us/us_stormy_weather

Excerpts courtesy of  http://www.terradaily.com//Ethiopian_dam.html

Excerpts courtesy of  http://richardleakey.wildlifedirect.org/the-gibe-iii-dam-must-be-stopped

Excerpts courtesy of  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgel_Gibe_River

Image courtesy of  http://www.kvoa.com/images/news/stock/environment_wx/RainClouds2.jpg

Image courtesy of  http://na.unep.net/geas/bulletin_images/1-15June09/GibeDam.png

http://na.unep.net/geas/bulletin_images/1-15June09/GibeDam.png

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“Animal 911- paying it forward”

January 20, 2010 at 9:05 pm (working together)
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Paying it forward to rescue animals after a natural disaster may seem like too much work after putting out so much energy to rescue people, but these animals have risked their lives to save people.
Pig to the rescue for heart attack victim
JoAnn Altsman had a heart attack and fell on the floor of her house. Lulu, a pet

Pot-belly pig to the rescue

pot-bellied pig, rushed out of the house, and laid down in the street to stop traffic. The pig tried over and over to get help but no one stopped. It would rush back into their house to check on JoAnn. Then it would run back to the street in a desperate attempt to get help. Finally, one person stopped and followed the determined pig back to the house, where they found JoAnn in pain on the floor. She was immediately rushed to a hospital.

stray cat saves life

In August 1990,  Augie a stray cat that she took in woke her at 5 a.m from a sound asleep by jumping up on her bed. The cat began touching her nose gently with his paw until she was fully alert. Then realized the reason the cat had awakened her as the smell of gas filled the bedroom. She quickly went to find the source of the leak and discovered that the water heater in the laundry room was leaking on a half-lit burner. U

After turning off the gas, the cat and I sat outside until the gas smell was gone. Thanks Augie!

Elephants save tourists

Agitated elephants felt the tsunami coming, saved about a dozen foreign tourists from the fate of thousands killed by the giant waves. The elephants began crying. Dang Salangam said that he never heard an elephant trumpet like that before.

When the elephants started trumpeting – in that strange way, it was at first light of day, about the time an earthquake measured at a magnitude of 9.0 cracked open the sea bed off Indonesia’s Sumatra island.

Dang, 36, and his wife Kuluda, 24, said that he elephants soon calmed down. They began wailing again about an hour later and this time they could not be comforted, despite their mahouts’ attempts at reassurance. This was before the tsunami hit. The couple managed to turn the elephants to lift the tourists onto their backs before charged up the hill through the jungle where they stopped. The tsunami drove up to 1,000 yards inshore from the gently sloping beach…It stopped short of where the elephants stood.

Elephant ride to safety

Elephants and other animals are known to move to higher ground, so few died. Dang and his wife own an eight-elephant business offering rides to tourists at Khao Lak beach.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of   http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176

Excerpts courtesy of  http://www.telepathictalk.com/elephantstory.html

Image 1. courtesy of  http://i.ehow.com/vg/raise-pot-belly-pig-200X200.jpg

Image 2. courtesy of  http://findarticles.com/mi

Image 3. courtesy of  http://www.eca-watch.org/sumatraelephant.jpg

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“Cruelty begins by abandoning pets”

January 20, 2010 at 4:48 am (animals/medicine, mammals, working together)
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In Tucson, AZ there seems to be favorite places to release animals to their own wiles. In the abandoning zone in the desert the other side of the airport, recently carcasses of dogs, cats  and even a horse has been discovered. If small animals like rats , gerbils or rabbits are released in the desert larger predators will have them for lunch, so their bodies usually are not found.Seems the horse was taken their and shot in the neck.

More people have become aware of the “zone” and are patrolling the area.
Every city has these areas that need to be checked so the domesticated animals that are left can quickly be found.
Other ways animals are abandoned include simply dropping them off on a city street to race after their owners car and maybe be hit or killed. Others are left behind in houses that the owners have been forced to leave.

Abandoned an animal suffers shock and disorientation just like people would , then becomes dehydrated and  hungry. If let outside the animal is unable to find shelter can die from the elements. Very few of these abandoned animals are found by people who will care for them or take them to a shelter.

With the economic challenges the US faces more animals will be let to die. Do the math if 63 percent of U.S. households have at least one pet-plus, hundreds of thousands of pets are in danger of being abandoned or if fortunate be given to animal shelters across the country.

Abandoning a pet is illegal, help a pet out and turn it over to a shelter if you cannot keep it.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  http://www.alternet.org

Image courtesy of  http://blog1.rspcasa.asn.au/abandoned_Buddy.jpg

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“After people -Helping animals left in Haiti”

January 18, 2010 at 10:27 pm (animals/medicine, working together)
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In the past few days, several organizations have joined forces to create the Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti (ARCH), with the goal of raising funds to help animals in the earthquake-stricken country and to provide direct aid to animals once rescue teams can be assembled in Haiti.

We’re grateful that government and relief agencies are mobilizing to assist the hundreds of thousands of people in need of water, medical care, and shelter.

Fermathe, Haiti, is home to a zoo that one past visitor reported housed

Solenodon critically endangered

monkeys, snakes, alligators and exotic birds, such as peacocks. The nearby hospital in Fermathe is still standing, but doctors, nurses and other staff there are said to be exhausted and struggling to care for the many patients.

Haiti is home to several endangered animals, according to the organization Animal Info. These include the critically endangered Puerto Rican Hutia (Isolobodon portoricensis), the endangered Haitian Solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus) and the “vulnerable” manatee “sea cow” (Trichechus manatus) and Hispaniolan Hutia (Plagiodontia aedium).

Hutia

And as with any disaster of this magnitude, animals are also suffering and in dire need of care.

To try to help these animals, here’s what HSI is doing right now:

  • We’re working with Sociedad Dominicana para la Prevención de Crueldad a los Animales, which is based in the Dominican Republic and has offered to get a team of animal responders and veterinarians into Haiti;
  • We’re sending a veterinarian trained in disaster response associated with our partner organization, the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, to the Dominican Republic to spearhead our assessment;
  • We have joined the Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti, and will be working with the World Society for the Protection of Animals, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and other partner groups on a coordinated response to this crisis;
  • We’ve communicated with humanitarian relief agencies and are poised to address the security, transportation, housing, and supply challenges that accompany deployment.

Disaster Relief for animals of Haiti

Broad-billed Tody

ASPCA is the latest to join.

In addition to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,  ARCH now includes The International Fund for Animal Welfare, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, American Humane, Best Friends, The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International.

ASPCA team is staging in the Dominican Republic waiting to get into Haiti to begin work. IFAW and WSPA have also begun to stock a mobile clinic with vaccines, antibiotics, bandages, food, and other supplies in anticipation of bringing direct aid to animals

Support the International Disaster Fund

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  http://news.discovery.com/animal http://tiny.cc/tUgKc

Image courtesy of http://www.edgeofexistence.org/ and Eladio Fernandez.jpg

Image courtesy of  http://www.wikidominicana.edu.do/images/9/93/Jutia.jpg

Image courtesy of   http://ibc.lynxeds.com/Broad-billedTody.jpg

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“US does 70.5% Illegal internet Wildlife ads”

January 18, 2010 at 7:13 am (animals, animals/medicine, mammals, sea life, working together)
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The United States is a major player in advertising illegal wild game for sale on the internet.  The US is responsible for 70.5 percent of the illegal wild game ads on the internet, followed by Britain and China with 7.7 percent and 7.6 percent. The internet has made the trading of wildlife way  too easy. The result is animal populations and their ecosystems are been dessimated.

Endangered animals sold illegally

Estimates of the value of final sales on these websites totaled more than $457,000 dollars, however that figure is much higher because most sites did not advertise their prices, according to the study. The total value of this illegal trade worldwide from all its may venues is about $6 billion-dollars annually.

Below are a few of the ways humans are continuing to devastate these endangered animal populations.

If we stop feeding the international appetite for exotic goods including ivory, pelts, traditional medicines, and wild meats we can help these animal populations recover.

18 to 21.6 million seahorses caught yearly for traditional Asian medicine

  • United States in 2002 imported over 38,000 mammals, 365,000 birds, 2 million reptiles, 49 million amphibians, and 216 million fis
  • 1,000 elephant ivory items were advertised on Ebay from February to May 2004
  • Decline from 1979 to 1989 in numbers of African elephants that were killed largely for the then illegal ivory trade: between 600,000 and 1.3 million
  • 99,939 primates legally were imported into the United States as pets or research animals between 1995 and 2002
  • Percentage of tropical birds and reptiles that die during transport for the exotic pet trade: up to 80
  • At least 10 tons tropical bone imports East Asian countries from other parts of Asia between 1970 and 1993
  • 10 tons of tiger bone represents: between 500 and 1,000 animals 500 and 1,000 animals
  • Estimated number of tigers left in the wild: under 5,000
  • Estimated number of captive tigers living in the United States: 5,000 to 7,000.

Since the US seems to be such a big player in this trade, it is time for the rest of us to refuse to purchase anything or support  this trade in any way. If someone learns of of someone hunting, trading or transporting wildlife please report them to your nearest US Game and Fish Department or contact Nature’s Crusaders and we will help you get the information to the proper authorities.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of  http://bit.ly/64xqeO
Excerpts courtesy of  http://bit.ly/5BsKA7

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