The Daily Thing

NASA released data today showing the extent the arctic sea ice, located over the North Pole, had diminished due to rising global temperatures. The decline in sea ice is the largest since satellites were first used to monitor thec conditions of the worlds ice packs over 20 years ago.

National Snow and Ice Data Center: “On September 12, 2008 sea ice extent dropped to 4.52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles). This appears to have been the lowest point of the year, as sea has now begun its annual cycle of growth in response to autumn cooling.

The 2008 minimum is the second-lowest recorded since 1979, and is 2.24 million square kilometers (0.86 million square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average minimum. “

Tags: Nature and the Environment by admin
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This just kinda pisses me off. A former administrator of the Smithsonian Institution has come forward claiming exhibits on global warming were deliberately altered so as not to anger the Bush administration.

The EnviroLink Network: “The Smithsonian Institution toned down an exhibit on climate change in the Arctic for fear of angering Congress and the Bush administration, says a former administrator at the museum.

Among other things, the script, or official text, of last year’s exhibit was rewritten to minimize and inject more uncertainty into the relationship between global warming and humans, said Robert Sullivan, who was associate director in charge of exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Also, officials omitted scientists’ interpretation of some research and let visitors draw their own conclusions from the data, he said. In addition, graphs were altered “to show that global warming could go either way,” Sullivan said.”

Tags: Everyday Science, Nature and the Environment by admin
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A rash of recent big foot sightings in rural India is prompting authorities to investigate. What makes these sightings different is almost all have been within the last month.

Discovery Channel: “The bizarre sightings have been made in the Garo hills area of Meghalaya state, close to the borders with Bangladesh and Bhutan, with villagers calling the mysterious creatures ‘Mande Burung’ or Jungle Man.

‘A team of wildlife officials and other experts will conduct a study to find out if there is any truth in the locals’ claims about these hairy giants,’ said Samphat Kumar, a district magistrate in the West Garo Hills district.

The creatures have apparently been talked about and occasionally spotted for years, but sightings have increased in the past month, prompting authorities to look into the matter.

One local farmer, 40-year-old Wallen Sangma, said he had seen an entire family of the creatures.

‘The sight was frightening: two adults and two smaller ones, huge and bulky, furry,’ he told a reporter who visited the remote area on Thursday and Friday.

‘Their heads looked as if they were wearing caps, and their colour was blackish-brown,’ he said, adding the four ‘monsters’ were about 100 to 130 feet away from him as he looked for firewood in a forested area.

‘The four of them quietly vanished into the undergrowth,’ he said of the recent sighting.”

Tags: In the News, Nature and the Environment, Science and Technology, Weird Wired World by admin
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Here’s something interesting from the web. Cuban President Fidel Castro has published some articles in Granma, the Cuban daily newspaper, pointing out what should be apparent to every American, trading our dependency on foreign oil for a dependency on biofuels will only hurt us in the end.

Caribbean Net News: “Castro and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez have opposed US President George W. Bush’s efforts to boost ethanol production, arguing that two-thirds of the world population would starve if corn, sugar and edible seeds are used to produce fuel instead of food. Venezuela is the word’s sixth largest exporter of crude oil.

Rather than swap fossil-fuels for biofuels, Castro suggested that governments replace incandescent light bulbs with florescent bulbs in businesses and private homes, as has been done in wide-scale electricity savings programs in Cuba and Venezuela. The shift could save hundred of billions of dollars a year worldwide, Castro wrote. “

If you think about it, biofuels are going to be developed by petroleum companies who have the most to gain and the most to lose. When we’re all dependent on biofuels are we going to be paying $12-15 at the pump because it “costs more to grow the corn”? Just something to think about.

Tags: In the News, Nature and the Environment, Science and Technology by admin
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ABC.net.au: Scientists have taught dolphins to combine both rhythm and vocalisations to produce music, resulting in an extremely high-pitched, short version of the Batman theme song.

The findings, outlined in two studies, are the first time that nonhuman mammals have demonstrated they can recognise rhythms and reproduce them vocally.

Photo courtesy of Stacina.

Tags: nature, news

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Mercury News: “In the latest step toward bringing back North America’s largest bird from near-extinction, three endangered California condors raised in captivity are scheduled to be released Saturday at Pinnacles National Monument, south of Hollister.

Over the next several weeks, four other condors also will be released at Pinnacles, an expanse of rocky outcroppings 80 miles south of San Jose that is popular with climbers and hikers. When all seven of the huge black birds are out flying freely, they will join six other condors already living in the park from releases in 2003 and 2004.”

Tags: California, environment, nature

Tags: In the News, Nature and the Environment by admin
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Live Science: An important seismic event imperceptible to humans has begun in the Pacific Northwest as predicted, according to the government agency Geological Survey of Canada.

The chance of a major earthquake is 30 times higher now for a roughly two-week period, but the odds are still remote, scientists say.

The event is called episodic tremor and slip (ETS). It involves a slow movement of the Juan de Fuca and North America tectonic plates along the Cascadia margin of southern British Columbia. Faults associated with the plates have been the sites of major earthquakes — akin to the colossal tsumani-causing quake last December in Indonesia — every 500 years or so, the geologic record shows. The last such temblor in the area struck on Jan. 26 in the year 1700.

Tags: geology, nature, news, science

Tags: Nature and the Environment, Science and Technology by admin
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Some of the worlds largest and oldest trees have been saved the saw after a federal judge issued an injunction and questioned the lumber companies reasons for not cutting the trees when originally given permission.

Mercury News: “A federal judge halted the Bush administration’s bid to keep logging 2,000 acres in Giant Sequoia National Monument, saying he “called into question” the scientific analysis used to justify cutting in a preserve that houses two-thirds of the world’s largest trees.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, ruling in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists, also questioned whether fire control was the government’s real motive for allowing commercial logging in the monument. The so-called “Saddle Project” was approved years ago, but cutting only commenced this summer, when timber prices were high.

The government, Breyer wrote late Friday in issuing a preliminary injunction barring further logging, “waited five years to execute this contract because of unfavorable timber prices.”"

Tags: California, environment

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Union Democrat: A falling boulder killed a 42-year-old Modesto woman and injured her young son Saturday as they were enjoying a family fishing trip at Pinecrest Lake.

The family was fishing with friends on a granite slope below a popular hiking trail that rims the lake when a boulder the size of a small SUV broke loose above them sometime after 11 a.m. and struck Kimberley Barnes, authorities said.

Barnes was knocked into the lake.

Her 5-year-old son, whose name was not released, was also injured in the accident, said Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Lt. George Ruckman. Barnes’ husband, who sheriff’s officials would not identify, was not injured.

An unknown boater pulled Barnes — who suffered massive injuries — from the water, Ruckman said.

“Two feet either way, the rock would have missed her,” he said.

U.S. Forest Service emergency crews arrived at 11:32 a.m., 10 minutes after the first 911 call, said Jerry Snyder, spokesman for the Stanislaus National Forest.

Barnes was flown by helicopter to Sonora Regional Medical Center, where she died from her injuries.

Her son suffered back pain and was taken to the same hospital by ambulance, Ruckman said.

The rocks appear to have dislodged naturally, Snyder said. Water from melting snow sometimes removes soils that hold rocks in place, he said.

Tags: California, news, Stanislaus

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Oye. Look at what’s been found in my own backyard.

Union Democrat: The U.S. Forest Service has re-leased a plan for fixing an abandoned uranium mine near Kennedy Meadows that is leaking radioactive material into a nearby creek.

The plans, released Friday, call for putting radioactive dirt and rock back into the pit from which it was hauled, the former Juniper Uranium Mine.

While the mine was active, it produced about 500 tons of uranium ore, which was shipped to Utah for processing. E.H. Valk, of Wisconsin, ran the mine starting in 1956 and Garn L. Moody, of Utah, took it over in 1963.

In 1986, the U.S. Forest Service took over the mine and it was deemed a potential hazard. Access to the mine site was blocked in June 2003 after tests showed the site was releasing harmful amounts of radiation.

The mine’s hottest spot releases about 11 millirems per hour. A millirem is the measurement used for calculating levels of radiation. An average chest X-ray emits 10 millirems per hour.

My favorite part is this little part where they try to play down the fact that the radioactive material is leaching into a local river that is now the main water source for 1/2 million homes:

Also, about a quarter-mile of Red Rock Creek, which feeds into the south fork of the Stanislaus River, has been contaminated by the uranium. The contaminated sediment will be removed and put in the mine before the mine is filled in.

Tags: backpacking, California, camping, climbing, flyfishing, hiking, Modesto, news, outdoor, Sierra Nevada, travel, wilderness

Tags: Nature and the Environment by admin
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