ECOLOGY
YOUR DANDRUFF COULD BE CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7217&feedId=online-news_rss20
NEW SCIENTIST - A global study has found that tiny fragments of biological detritus are a major component of the atmosphere, controlling the weather and forming a previously hidden microbial metropolis in the skies. Besides their climatic influence, they may even be spreading diseases across the globe. Scientists have known for some time that aerosols of soot, dust and ash can influence climate by reflecting or absorbing the Sun's rays and by providing the condensation nuclei necessary for clouds to form. Recent research suggests that aerosols are also responsible for "global dimming", which may be shading us from the full force of warming from greenhouse gases. . . Air samples collected by Jaenicke from over Germany, Siberia, the Amazon rainforest, Greenland and remote oceans found that tiny particles of organic detritus, much of it in the form of biological cells, make up about 25% of the atmospheric aerosol.
______________________________________________________________________________ TIRED
TIRED OF RIDING THE YO-YO OF TIME?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26639-2005Apr4.html
MARC FISHER, WASHINGTON POST - In 1974, when DST was extended to 10 months of the year to save money on oil (hmm, have you checked gas prices lately?), a result, according to the Department of Transportation, was a decrease in road fatalities and injuries. Sadly, the farmers forced a return to our half-year cycle of clock turning. Farmers, the original eternally aggrieved interest group, insist that they need standard time so it's not too dark when they rise to milk the cows. But as Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) said in 2001: "I ran a dairy, so I know about dairy, and none of the cows that I had could read a clock. . . . So I don't know why this should be a problem to the dairymen. Just keep the cows on a schedule that they are happy with and they won't know." The battle over time has gone on for centuries. Two new books -- "Spring Forward," by Michael Downing, and "Seize the Daylight," by David Prerau -- trace U.S. time policy back to Ben Franklin's suggestion that this country start fiddling with the clocks. But it took a war to push us into playing with time twice a year. During World War I, Germany and Austria moved clocks forward one hour to save money by reducing the need for electric power. If it's lighter later, we stay outside and turn on fewer lights. Our country followed in 1918; Congress, never modest about its intentions, announced that the new system would "preserve daylight." Presumably by now, somewhere in this land, there's a Fort Knox absolutely stuffed with daylight, and one day, some beneficent administration will award us a solid year of light.
MORE ON DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2005/04/02/man_of_the_hour/
______________________________________________________________________________
TWO THIRDS OF WORLD'S RESOURCES USED UP
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1447863,00.html
TIM RADFORD, GUARDIAN - The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself. . .
The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:
• Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
• An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.
• Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.
• At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.
• Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.
• Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.
BBC - The MA authors say the pressure for resources has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth, with some 10-30% of the mammal, bird and amphibian species currently threatened with extinction. The report says only four ecosystem services have been enhanced in the last 50 years: increases in crop, livestock and aquaculture production, and increased carbon sequestration for global climate regulation (which has come from new forests planted in the Northern Hemisphere). Two services - fisheries and fresh water - are said now to be well beyond levels that can sustain current, much less future, demands.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4391835.stm
______________________________________________________________________________
MYTH AND FACT IN HIGHER DENSITY DEVELOPMENT
http://www.uli.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Policy_Papers1&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=1065
[From a new booklet from the Urban Land Institute]
MYTH - Higher-density development creates more regional traffic congestion and parking problems than low-density development.
FACT - Higher-density development generates less traffic than low-density development per unit; it makes walking and public transit more feasible and creates opportunities for shared parking. Although residents of low-density single-family communities tend to have two or more cars per household, residents of high-density apartments and condominiums tend to have only one car per household. And according to one study using data from the National Personal Transportation Survey, doubling density decreases the vehicle miles traveled by 38 percent.
MYTH - Higher-density developments lower property values in surrounding areas.
FACT - No discernible difference exists in the appreciation rate of properties located near higher-density development and those that are not. Some research even shows that higher-density development can increase property values. The precise value of real estate is determined by many factors, and isolating the impact of one factor can be difficult. Although location and school district are the two most obvious determining factors of value, location within a community and size and condition of the house also affect value.
MYTH - Higher-density development overburdens public schools and other public services and requires more infrastructure support systems.
FACT - The nature of who lives in higher-density housing - fewer families with children - puts less demand on schools and other public services than low-density housing. Moreover, the compact nature of higher-density development requires less extensive infrastructure to support it.
______________________________________________________________________________
MORE ON NECROPHILIA AMONG BIRDS
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/improbable/story/0,,1437560,00.html
DONALD MACLEOD, GUARDIAN - The sad tale of the Dutch homosexual necrophiliac duck last week inspired enormous interest among readers all over the world and researcher Kees Moeliker was soon fielding calls from the United States, Canada and a radio station in Belfast. . . That most respectable journal, British Birds, reported in 1987 the case of a feral rock dove (more commonly known as the pigeon) run over at a traffic crossing in Settle, north Yorkshire, on June 23 1983. "As soon as the traffic had cleared a second dove alighted by the corpse. Clearly a male, it began to 'parade' by the headless body, puffing out its chest and strutting back and forth.
"Despite receiving no response, it mounted the corpse and engaged in vigorous copulatory movements. It was so stimulated that it did not move when cars approached and a small queue of cars built up as the dove went through its energetic performance. It then flew off."
______________________________________________________________________________
REMINERALIZATION
This site has more info on rock dust:
http://www.remineralize.org/
This page has links to rock dust suppliers all over the world. Rock dust is heavy so buying local is the best way:
http://www.remineralize.org/index.php?page=resources
_____________________________________________________________________________
BISEXUAL FROGS TIED TO PESTICIDES
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-frogs2mar02,1,57805.story?coll=la-news-environment
LA TIMES - Scientists who compared frogs collected over the past 150 years have discovered a dramatic increase in hermaphrodites during the times when contamination from the pesticide DDT and other organochlorine chemicals was widespread. Frogs with both male and female reproductive organs were rare in the 19th century and early 20th century but abundant during the 1950s, when the largest volumes of the popular chemicals were used. . .
The ability of chemicals to mimic or block estrogen and testosterone, critical for normal reproduction, is considered one of the most disturbing discoveries in environmental science of the past decade.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7217&feedId=online-news_rss20
NEW SCIENTIST - A global study has found that tiny fragments of biological detritus are a major component of the atmosphere, controlling the weather and forming a previously hidden microbial metropolis in the skies. Besides their climatic influence, they may even be spreading diseases across the globe. Scientists have known for some time that aerosols of soot, dust and ash can influence climate by reflecting or absorbing the Sun's rays and by providing the condensation nuclei necessary for clouds to form. Recent research suggests that aerosols are also responsible for "global dimming", which may be shading us from the full force of warming from greenhouse gases. . . Air samples collected by Jaenicke from over Germany, Siberia, the Amazon rainforest, Greenland and remote oceans found that tiny particles of organic detritus, much of it in the form of biological cells, make up about 25% of the atmospheric aerosol.
______________________________________________________________________________ TIRED
TIRED OF RIDING THE YO-YO OF TIME?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26639-2005Apr4.html
MARC FISHER, WASHINGTON POST - In 1974, when DST was extended to 10 months of the year to save money on oil (hmm, have you checked gas prices lately?), a result, according to the Department of Transportation, was a decrease in road fatalities and injuries. Sadly, the farmers forced a return to our half-year cycle of clock turning. Farmers, the original eternally aggrieved interest group, insist that they need standard time so it's not too dark when they rise to milk the cows. But as Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) said in 2001: "I ran a dairy, so I know about dairy, and none of the cows that I had could read a clock. . . . So I don't know why this should be a problem to the dairymen. Just keep the cows on a schedule that they are happy with and they won't know." The battle over time has gone on for centuries. Two new books -- "Spring Forward," by Michael Downing, and "Seize the Daylight," by David Prerau -- trace U.S. time policy back to Ben Franklin's suggestion that this country start fiddling with the clocks. But it took a war to push us into playing with time twice a year. During World War I, Germany and Austria moved clocks forward one hour to save money by reducing the need for electric power. If it's lighter later, we stay outside and turn on fewer lights. Our country followed in 1918; Congress, never modest about its intentions, announced that the new system would "preserve daylight." Presumably by now, somewhere in this land, there's a Fort Knox absolutely stuffed with daylight, and one day, some beneficent administration will award us a solid year of light.
MORE ON DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2005/04/02/man_of_the_hour/
______________________________________________________________________________
TWO THIRDS OF WORLD'S RESOURCES USED UP
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1447863,00.html
TIM RADFORD, GUARDIAN - The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself. . .
The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:
• Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
• An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.
• Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.
• At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.
• Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.
• Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown disease to emerge.
BBC - The MA authors say the pressure for resources has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth, with some 10-30% of the mammal, bird and amphibian species currently threatened with extinction. The report says only four ecosystem services have been enhanced in the last 50 years: increases in crop, livestock and aquaculture production, and increased carbon sequestration for global climate regulation (which has come from new forests planted in the Northern Hemisphere). Two services - fisheries and fresh water - are said now to be well beyond levels that can sustain current, much less future, demands.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4391835.stm
______________________________________________________________________________
MYTH AND FACT IN HIGHER DENSITY DEVELOPMENT
http://www.uli.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Policy_Papers1&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=1065
[From a new booklet from the Urban Land Institute]
MYTH - Higher-density development creates more regional traffic congestion and parking problems than low-density development.
FACT - Higher-density development generates less traffic than low-density development per unit; it makes walking and public transit more feasible and creates opportunities for shared parking. Although residents of low-density single-family communities tend to have two or more cars per household, residents of high-density apartments and condominiums tend to have only one car per household. And according to one study using data from the National Personal Transportation Survey, doubling density decreases the vehicle miles traveled by 38 percent.
MYTH - Higher-density developments lower property values in surrounding areas.
FACT - No discernible difference exists in the appreciation rate of properties located near higher-density development and those that are not. Some research even shows that higher-density development can increase property values. The precise value of real estate is determined by many factors, and isolating the impact of one factor can be difficult. Although location and school district are the two most obvious determining factors of value, location within a community and size and condition of the house also affect value.
MYTH - Higher-density development overburdens public schools and other public services and requires more infrastructure support systems.
FACT - The nature of who lives in higher-density housing - fewer families with children - puts less demand on schools and other public services than low-density housing. Moreover, the compact nature of higher-density development requires less extensive infrastructure to support it.
______________________________________________________________________________
MORE ON NECROPHILIA AMONG BIRDS
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/improbable/story/0,,1437560,00.html
DONALD MACLEOD, GUARDIAN - The sad tale of the Dutch homosexual necrophiliac duck last week inspired enormous interest among readers all over the world and researcher Kees Moeliker was soon fielding calls from the United States, Canada and a radio station in Belfast. . . That most respectable journal, British Birds, reported in 1987 the case of a feral rock dove (more commonly known as the pigeon) run over at a traffic crossing in Settle, north Yorkshire, on June 23 1983. "As soon as the traffic had cleared a second dove alighted by the corpse. Clearly a male, it began to 'parade' by the headless body, puffing out its chest and strutting back and forth.
"Despite receiving no response, it mounted the corpse and engaged in vigorous copulatory movements. It was so stimulated that it did not move when cars approached and a small queue of cars built up as the dove went through its energetic performance. It then flew off."
______________________________________________________________________________
REMINERALIZATION
This site has more info on rock dust:
http://www.remineralize.org/
This page has links to rock dust suppliers all over the world. Rock dust is heavy so buying local is the best way:
http://www.remineralize.org/index.php?page=resources
_____________________________________________________________________________
BISEXUAL FROGS TIED TO PESTICIDES
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-frogs2mar02,1,57805.story?coll=la-news-environment
LA TIMES - Scientists who compared frogs collected over the past 150 years have discovered a dramatic increase in hermaphrodites during the times when contamination from the pesticide DDT and other organochlorine chemicals was widespread. Frogs with both male and female reproductive organs were rare in the 19th century and early 20th century but abundant during the 1950s, when the largest volumes of the popular chemicals were used. . .
The ability of chemicals to mimic or block estrogen and testosterone, critical for normal reproduction, is considered one of the most disturbing discoveries in environmental science of the past decade.
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 9:01 PM
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