The environment in the news friday 17 October 2008
Asia Pacific Forum asked to discuss wood-based bioenergy
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Asia Pacific Forum asked to discuss wood-based bioenergyJakarta (ANTARA News) - Forestry Minister MS Kaban expressed hope an Asia Pacific Regional Forum attended by 10 countries which opened here Tuesday would discuss development of wood waste bioenergy as an alternative energy source. "Countries in the world are seeking renewable alternative energy sources. I hope that the forum will yield recommendations or significant formulas for development of wood-based bioenergy," Kaban said after opening the forum here Tuesday. He said, forests have the potential to provide renewable alternative energy sources. In Indonesia, some species could be used as alternative energy. The wood-based bioenergy had some advantages including to reduce operational cost and increase energy efficiency in timber industries. In addition, he said, the use of wood waste as bioenergy could reduce green house gas emmission and support preserved forest management. Kaban expressed optimism that the wood waste bioenergy price could compete with the fossil oil price as the latter`s supply had continued to decline. "The oil price will definitely be higher . Later, the wood-based bioenergy price can compete with the fossil oil price," he added. Meanwhile, the executive director of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), Emmanuel Ze Meka, said development of wood waste as an alternative energy source would create new jobs. The waste produced from wood industries, Meka said, could create a new industry to produce bioenergy which furthermore would absorb the work force. The industries were expected to be developed in rural areas where timber industries were located. Thus, it could move the economy in villages, absorb the work force, and create new energy for the villages. The 10 countries participating in the forum are Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Phillipines, Thailand, Vanuatu, and Nepal. http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/10/14/asia-pacific-forum-asked-to-discuss-wood-based-bioenergy/ Back to Menu ______________________________________________________________________ RONA MEDIA UPDATE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS 16 October 2008 General environment in the news:
Wall Street Journal New York Times Thinking anew about a migratory barrier: Roads By Jim Robbins SALTESE, Mont. — Dr. Chris Servheen spends a lot of time mulling a serious scientific question: why didn’t the grizzly bear cross the road? The future of the bear may depend on the answer. The mountains in and around Glacier National Park teem with bears. A recently concluded five-year census found 765 grizzlies in northwestern Montana, more than three times the number of bears as when it was listed as a threatened species in 1975.
There are some four million miles of roads affecting 20 percent of the country, and in the last 10 years the new field of road ecology has emerged to study the many impacts of roads, and how to mitigate the damage. “Roads are the largest human artifact on the planet,” said Dr. Richard T. T. Forman, a professor of landscape ecology at Harvard, who brought road ecology from Europe to the United States. He is the editor of the definitive text on the field, “Road Ecology: Science and Solutions” (Island Press, 2003). One of the first projects in this country to ameliorate the effect of roads was on Florida’s Alligator Alley on I-75. A series of 24 underpasses restored water flow to the Everglades and allowed wildlife to safely migrate. The changes reduced the mortality of Florida panthers — of which there were only around 50 — from 4 per year to 1.5. Now, the number of ecologically sensitive road designs built or under way in the country is in the hundreds. In Amherst, Mass., salamanders emerge from hibernation in the mud on the first rainy night of April. “They come up and go screaming across the street to their breeding pond and have an orgy,” Dr. Forman said. So many were being killed that locals stopped traffic on the night they emerged to let them cross safely. In 1987 engineers placed a tunnel under the road, with two fences to funnel the amphibians to the crossing. The gold standard for wildlife-friendly roads is in Banff National Park in the mountains of western Canada. The country’s major highway, Trans-Canada 1, passes through the park, and with 25,000 vehicles per day, wildlife vehicle collisions were very frequent. There are 24 crossings (all but two underpasses) and they have reduced collisions with ungulates by 96 percent and all large mammals by 80 percent. In the last few years the concept has become an integral part of roads, helped by a 2005 federal transportation bill that mandated green road design. “You name it, there’s something being done, even with insects,” said Dr. Patricia Cramer, a research biologist at Utah State University who surveyed hundreds of domestic projects. Such mitigation is especially critical for 21 protected species for which highway mortality is a major factor in survival, including the lynx and the desert tortoise. Ending direct mortality, though, is only one aspect of road-caused fragmentation. The jury is still out on how well restored connectivity works to keep a diverse gene pool and maintain long-term viability. A study in California, along the 16-lane Santa Monica Freeway (one of the busiest in the country, with 150,000 vehicle trips per day), found that bobcats and coyotes used existing underpasses — not designed for wildlife — to get to the other side. The highway, however, crowded home ranges together; the newcomers were fiercely challenged and did not stay long enough to breed. The importance of preventing or undoing fragmentation has led to a swarm of environmental groups taking on connectivity — preserving the ability of wildlife to move — as an issue. Dr. Soulé, for example, is a founder of the Wildlands Project, an effort to protect corridors on large landscapes. One reason the issue has gotten attention is that it involves human safety. One million to two million wildlife-vehicle collisions occur each year, costing insurance companies more than $1 billion. Some 200 people are killed. The increasing impermeability of roads comes as the climate changes and the need to cross roads become more crucial. Vegetation communities here are projected to migrate north, which means grizzlies will need to be able to follow. “Shrub fields where berries are is a good example,” Dr. Servheen said. “If dry weather wipes them out, the bears need to go elsewhere.” The problem is they might not be able to follow. “We’ve boxed them in” with roads, he said. Roads have ecological impacts besides fragmenting habitat. Warm asphalt and rain that washes to the shoulder nourish roadside grass, and along with salt used to de-ice roads, the grass attracts deer and other wildlife. As deer get clobbered, they in turn attract predators and scavengers, like bald eagles, which then get hit by cars. But the downside of mitigating road impact, said Trisha White, the director of the Habitat and Highways Campaign for Defenders of Wildlife, is thinking that it heals all wounds. “The biggest danger is thinking that we can put in new roads with crossings and things will be just fine,” she said. “There are so many more impacts. Nothing could be more incorrect.” Still, crossings do help. Dr. Servheen has set up heat- and motion-sensitive cameras under two highway bridges here where bears could cross under I-90, but they have not yet captured grizzlies using these crossings. But, he is hoping that somehow bears will move south. “Another population will make the species more resilient to change,” he said. “Whether it’s a reduction in genetics or climate change, it will help with survival.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/science/14road.html?ref=science New York Times With little fuel eco-racers arrive in Las Vegas By Steve Freiss Las Vegas — In a city accustomed to the catering to the strange and offbeat, the arrival Monday evening of Jack McCornack and Sharon Westcott in a topless, two-foot-tall green and yellow roadster at the front door of the storied Sahara Hotel-Casino still turned heads.
In making it to Las Vegas in a total of 1,418 minutes without burning an ounce of petroleum, the duo from Cave Junction, Ore., collected a $5,000 prize in the Escape From Berkeley race. “We signed up to do this before we even knew there was money involved,” said Mr. McCornack, owner of Kinetic Vehicles, a maker of alternative cars, his face ruddy and his hands chapped from the constant sun exposure. “It just seemed like great fun.” Fun, perhaps, but also quite a challenge. The five teams that began the race on Saturday dwindled to just two by Monday’s start because of mechanical problems on the other makeshift vehicles that paid $500 to enter. Beyond the requirement to use no petroleum products for fuel was the added twist that the participants would have to scavenge along the way for raw materials. They weren’t allowed to buy any, but Mr. McCornack and Ms. Westcott were delighted by donations of oil from local people who would ask questions about the odd-looking vehicle as they stopped outside of grocery stores. For the favor, the duo gave out bright yellow T-shirts commemorating the race. “I’m actually kind of shocked that anybody made it at all,” said Jim Mason, the event’s organizer and founder of a 20,000-square-foot open-air garage in Berkeley called Shipyard Labs where self-described “geeks and gearheads” work in shipping containers. “It’s a pretty high bar to set to say you can use absolutely no petroleum and you can start with one gallon of whatever your fuel is and you gotta drive 600 miles. It was pretty possible nobody would even make it here and I was fine with that.” Indeed, the original route led drivers through the 9,943-foot-high Tioga Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, but that pass was closed due to a snowstorm. That meant a 200-mile detour. Mr. McCornack’s sole rival by Monday was a green Dodge Dakota that runs on oxygen, hydrogen and methane power converted from burned wood in a large black contraption. The vehicle was driven by Wayne Keith, a 59-year-old cattle rancher from Springville, Ala. Mr. Keith stopped using petroleum for his vehicle five years ago when gas soared to $1.75 a gallon. Though Mr. Keith arrived at the Sahara first on Monday, he finished about three hours behind Mr. McCornack and Ms. Westcott in total travel time over the three-day trip due to trouble Sunday with a flat tire and a some dead wood that didn’t burn properly. He used a variety of biomass along the route for the truck, which he says runs on the equivalent of a penny a mile in fuel costs. “You name it, switchback, kudzu, corn starch, cotton starch, newspaper, corn cobs, phone books,” Mr. Keith said. “Its all carbon neutral. This is more clean than an electric car.” Mr. McCornack also bragged about the low fuel cost, its environmental cleanliness and its efficiency: “Normally, we can get 60 or 70 m.p.h. on this, but we had so many hills and such headwinds, we spent a lot of time in the 40s.” Both teams that completed the race faced unusual olfactory challenges as well. They ate little while traveling so as to not waste time, but Mr. McCornacks vegetable oil evoked the scent of French fries. Mr. Keith admitted the burning biomass in his flatbed made him crave barbecue. Among the vehicles that didn’t make it were a Mercedes-Benz that runs on vegetable oil, a two-man bicycle augmented by a one-horsepower electric motor that runs on ethanol, and a 15 m.p.h. steam-powered three-wheeler (two of which are wooden). Mr. Mason chose Las Vegas to complete the race largely out of contempt for the tourist destination, he said. “Vegas is a place of excessive spectacle and consumption of other peoples creativity,” he said. “This isn’t a place of production, of citizens making, expressing, creating....Vegas is the biggest contradiction of what we just did.” Next year’s race, he said, will be held over Memorial Day weekend and will conclude in Mexico. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/us/15eco.html?ref=science Christian Science Monitor California eyes going “green” despite slump By Daniel B. Wood California moved ahead this week with plans to slash greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and foster a green economy, even as some business groups questioned the costs in difficult economic times. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released Wednesday final details of its so-called “Scoping Plan,” that spells out ways to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions to meet the requirements of the state’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The plan combines market-based regulatory approaches, voluntary measures, and fees. Key new measures include reducing leakage of harmful air conditioning and refrigeration gases, expanding commercial recycling programs, and establishing greenhouse-reduction targets for local governments. “Our comprehensive approach steers California away from its dependence on fossil fuels and accelerates the state’s necessary transition toward a clean energy future,” said Mary Nichols, chairperson of the CARB, which is tasked with implementing the climate law. But it’s not yet clear how the current economic crisis might affect the plan. Several businesses say that slashing emissions will be costly and harder to achieve during a potential recession. The California Manufacturers and Technology Association – which represents 165 business organizations – says the Scoping Plan will cause electricity rates to increase by 11 percent, natural-gas rates to rise 8 percent, and gasoline prices to go up $11 billion per year under the plan. A recent poll here by Fairbanks, Maslin, Maullin & Associates showed that 3 out of 4 voters support state energy policies even if they result in higher prices. The poll was conducted in June before the current financial crisis intensified. However, Stanley Young, spokesperson for CARB, argues that electricity prices were going to rise anyway. “The price of electricity may rise but the bill that the householder gets could drop which is the benefit of energy efficiency,” he says. It is possible that costs may rise in the short run and then level off or drop, says Dan Kammen, an energy expert with the University of California, Berkeley. “I suspect prices will rise initially then decline as diversity gets built into the system. Also, the reductions in external gas, oil, and imported electricity get replaced with renewables and [low cost] energy efficiency,” he says. Moreover, CARB hopes the plan will create new green jobs – a category estimated to grow by 100,000 or more by 2020. “California’s plan will drive innovation, create thousands of new jobs, and provide a wealth of opportunities for California to export technology and help fight global warming around the world,” said Ms. Nichols. An economic analysis recently released by the board said implementing the climate law would increase economic production by $27 billion, overall gross state product by $4 billion, overall personal income by $14 billion, and per capita income by $200. “This is more than a pollution reduction plan, it’s an economic stimulus plan,” says Audrey Chang, climate program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s more important than ever during these uncertain times to make investments in clean energy solutions that will stimulate innovation, new businesses and job creation.” A draft of the Scoping Plan was released in June, and the final one takes into account additional analysis and public input that the Board has received since then – over 40,000 dispatches, “everything from single postcards to 55-page dense analyses,” says Ms. Nichols. The plan is slated to go before the Board for approval at its December meeting. For some, the Scoping Plan has other flaws. Josh Margolis, joint CEO of CantorCO2e, a financial services company focused on energy and development, is critical of the plan’s cap-and-trade program. Cap-and-trade is a system designed to set limits on emissions and allow companies to trade credits based on the amount they emit. The CARB plans to auction some of these credits and eventually maybe all of them, instead of giving them away, and use the fees generated and use the fees generated to implement new emission-reduction programs. The program “misses the opportunities that we have enjoyed with other successful cap-and-trade programs like the acid rain and lead phase down programs,” says Margolis. “The focus on auction-generated fees, the transfer of resources out of the hands of the sources and into the government’s hands, is troublesome.” Nichols admits that much still needs to be ironed out before December. But she hopes California’s experience can become a model for national policy. California’s climate change law “has already prompted several other states to put mandatory caps on global-warming pollution. Now California’s robust Scoping plan can be a model and a catalyst for national action,” says Derek Walker, director of the California Climate Initiative at Environmental Defense Fund, a co-sponsor of the climate law. http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/10/16/california-eyes-going-%E2%80%98green%E2%80%99-despite-slump/ Los Angeles Times California issues pla to slash greenhouse gas emissions By Margot Roosevelt California forged ahead Wednesday in its bold attempt to turn back the clock of climate change, issuing its final draft of an economywide plan to slash the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. Over the next 12 years, new regulations would shrink the per capita carbon footprint of Californians by an average of four tons per year, cutting the level of electricity residents use with more efficient buildings and appliances, and reducing the amount they drive, by discouraging urban sprawl. The plan would force auto manufacturers to make cleaner cars, require utilities to build more solar and wind plants, and compel industries to hike energy efficiency to unprecedented levels. "Despite a difficult economy, it is important that we move forward," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said, adding that the plan would result in "tens of thousands more jobs and a boost to California's gross domestic production." California's climate blueprint would slash the state's emissions about 15% below today's level at a time when a consensus of scientists say that global warming is shrinking the state's water supplies, intensifying wildfires, and stressing plant and animal populations. Congress last spring balked at passing national legislation to curb planet-heating gases, despite international pressure on the United States to assume global leadership on the issue. Both presidential candidates have said they will push for a nationwide cap on greenhouse gases. California's plan was immediately attacked by a coalition of businesses, led by the California Manufacturers and Technology Assn. and the California Chamber of Commerce, which said the rules would result in "billions of dollars of increased energy costs." The group asserted that the plan would raise electricity rates by 11%, natural gas rates by 8% and gasoline costs by $11 billion a year. Mary Nichols, chairman of the Air Resources Board, which designed the plan and will vote on it in December, said overall Californians would save by using less energy. She said the board's plan has sparked "a robust conversation" across the state since a draft was completed in June. More than 90,000 copies of the document were downloaded in the first five days, she said. Since then, 40,000 comments have poured in "from postcards to 55-page dense analyses . . . . We read them all, logged them in, and they are up on our website." Environmentalists praised the blueprint as "an economic stimulus plan" that could spur a "clean tech" economy similar to Silicon Valley's technological boom. Venture capital investment in alternative energy companies has soared in the last two years. But some environmentalists said the plan did not go far enough in cracking down on sprawl. "We can't afford another 10 years of business-as-usual land-use planning," said Audrey Chang, California climate director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Environmentalists also criticized the design of a plan, which would allow some industries broad flexibility in meeting targets. Under the auspices of a Western trading plan that would include six other states and four Canadian provinces, California would give away as much as 90% of industry pollution permits for these industries, rather than auctioning them. That, said economist Christopher Busch of the Union of Concerned Scientists, "would generate windfall profits for polluters and enrich out-of-state corporate shareholders." The state's trading program also would allow up to 49% of the emission reductions from some industries to be "offset" by purchasing credits from pollution-cutting programs out of state. Angela Johnson Meszaros, co-chair of the board's Environmental Justice Committee, said that provision would export jobs and allow California factories to escape stricter clean-up rules. "This plan does not put the health and welfare of California residents first," she said. Opponents on all sides will have more chances to weigh in. Complex regulations to implement the plan, such as one to reduce the carbon content of fuels, will be debated over the next dozen years. Meanwhile, the state's 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, which gave rise to the plan, has inspired emission limits in five states: Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts and Hawaii. More than a dozen other states have adopted or are considering greenhouse gas reduction goals.
EPA officials, who were under a federal court order to set a new health standard for lead by midnight Wednesday, said the new limit would better protect health, particularly that of children, who can inhale lead particles released into the air from smelters, mines and waste incinerators and ingest it after it settles on surfaces. Exposure to lead, even at low levels, can affect learning, IQ and memory in children. Lead also can cause cardiovascular, blood pressure and kidney problems in adults. "Our nation's air is cleaner today than just a generation ago, and last night I built upon this progress by signing the strongest air quality standards for lead in our nation's history," Stephen Johnson, the EPA administrator, said Thursday. "Thanks to this stronger standard, EPA will protect my children from remaining sources of airborne lead." The new limit -- 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter -- is the first update to the lead standard since 1978, when it helped phase out leaded gasoline. It is 10 times lower than the old standard, which was 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter. EPA estimates that 18 counties in a dozen states across the country will violate the new standard, requiring state and local governments to find ways to further reduce lead emissions from smelters, metal mines and other sources. The limit announced Thursday is within the range recommended in May by the agency's independent scientific advisory panel. Environmentalists hailed the move, but said the agency could have done more to monitor emissions. EPA said it would require lead to be measured in 101 cities across the country, and near sources that release at least one ton of lead per year. Advocates said Thursday that EPA's plan would exclude hundreds of sources of lead. "We commend EPA for taking a giant step in the right direction, but they need to greatly expand the lead monitoring network if they hope to enforce this standard," said Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist with the Natural Resource Defense Council. The new standard announced on Thursday would require the 16,000 remaining sources of lead, including smelters, metal mines, and waste incinerators, to reduce their emissions. EPA said the cost of the reductions would be between $150 million to $2.8 billion, but the standard would produce economic benefits of approximately $3.7 billion to $6.9 billion. EPA assumed that children would be smarter and earn more money as a result of less lead in the air when it calculated the benefits. No later than October 2011, EPA will designate areas of the country that fail to meet the new standard. Based on air quality data from collected from 2005-2007, 18 counties in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas would fail to meet the standard.
Going down: What will falling oil prices do to clean energy? By Keith Johnson Oil prices plummeted again Thursday, falling under $70 a barrel for the first time in more than a year. That kicked OPEC into action—the oil cartel moved up its emergency meeting to October 24, where it will study a cut in oil production in a bid to halt crude’s slide. OPEC is trying to prop up oil at between $70 and $90 a barrel, Bloomberg reports, but fears that global demand will fall next year keep pushing crude prices lower. So which is scarier for clean energy? The financial meltdown and the credit crunch, or oil in the $60s? Tesla Motors, the electric-car maker that became the poster child of alternative-fuel vehicles, is cutting staff and postponing new models because venture capital funding is drying up. But oil poses its own threat—how attractive is a $100,000 electric roadster with oil in the $60s and gasoline under $3 a gallon? Cheaper oil could also affect support for renewable energy, even though wind turbines and solar panels don’t compete with oil and gasoline today. Crude at $140 focused minds in Washington on the need to look for alternative energy sources. It also fueled seemingly thousands of interviews by oilman-turned-wind baron T. Boone Pickens pitching his “Pickens Plan” to harness wind power and natural gas to reduce dependence on foreign oil. When oil prices collapsed in the 1990s, renewable energy in the U.S. basically fell off a cliff. Nobody is predicting a return to $10 oil, but with $60 oil considered the “new cheap,” could it happen again? http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/ Washington Post Hurricane Omar moves through northern Caribbean CHRISTIANSTED, U.S. Virgin Islands -- Hurricane Omar fell apart at sea Thursday after delivering a glancing blow to the U.S. Virgin Islands and lashing the most-populated island of St. Croix with rain. The powerful core of the storm passed overnight between St. Martin and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, said Lixion Avila, a hurricane specialist with the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. "It could have been worse," Avila said. "They were very, very lucky." Omar knocked down trees, caused some flooding and minor mudslides in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or major damage , said Mark Walters, director of the disaster management agency for the Caribbean territory. A last-minute shift to the east spared St. Croix, the most populated of the islands. The nearby British Virgin Islands also emerged largely unscathed, said Deputy Gov. Inez Archibald, noting there was little damage beyond some mudslides and scattered debris. "We did reasonably well actually," Inez told The Associated Press. "We did not get what we expected."
Ports in Puerto Rico reopened, but remained closed in St. Croix. In St. Maarten, roads were flooded and littered with tree branches and other debris, but authorities lifted a curfew Thursday afternoon and planned to reopen the main airport on Friday.
One death was reported on Puerto Rico's tiny island of Culebra. Authorities say a 55-year-old man collapsed from cardiac arrest while trying to install storm shutters on his house. The island's Hovensa oil refinery, one of the 10 largest in the world, shut down operations for the storm. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101600801_pf.html Boston Globe Mall-sprawl site yields a treasure from eons past By Colin Nickerson When it comes to jaw-dropping fossil discoveries, distant places where T. Rex and other prehistoric beasts once roamed come more quickly to mind than southeastern Massachusetts. But yesterday, Tufts University announced the discovery of what may well be the world's oldest fossil imprint of a whole flying insect - found by researchers behind a strip mall in North Attleborough. Tufts geology senior Richard J. Knecht, working with paleontologist Jacob Benner, uncovered an exquisitely etched impression made some 310 million years earlier by a primitive insect - probably an early form of the common mayfly. The insect lighted on a damp outcropping in what was then a steamy Carboniferous Period flood plain - and in that fleeting moment left a 3-inch-long outline that was captured for eternity in mud that hardened into rock. That was the same rock discovered by the Tufts team. Discovery of the fossils, dated by comparing the sandstone strata that contained them to rock layers above and below, could lead scientists to greater understanding of how primitive insects functioned and evolved. Almost everything about the find is offbeat, from the path that led to the prosaic site to the fact that Knecht, a 30-year-old native of Chatham, is a student in the university's adult education program, not a seasoned field paleontologist. Although the discovery was just announced, it's been generating a quiet buzz in paleontological circles since the researchers presented their "trace fossil" at a scientific conference in Poland last month. The find is called a trace fossil because it represents the behavior of the animal, not an actual body or bone. "This is a record of body movement, of action, a snapshot of this insect going about its life," Knecht said. "The detail is fantastic. You can see where it wiggled its legs, you can tell exactly how it positioned its body." Said Michael S. Engel, a prominent paleoentomologist at the University of Kansas: "This is like a short home movie of an insect's ordinary flutter - only this moment happened more than 300 million years ago. It's exciting, it's valuable, and it's really very beautiful." The genesis of the discovery is as improbable as the actual find. While poring over dusty papers as part of his studies into sedimentary rocks, Knecht chanced upon a 1929 master's thesis (written by a Brown University student) that mentioned tiny footprints - believed amphibious - of some sort observed in a rock outcropping near the Rhode Island border. The researchers set out to find the spot. The 1929 paper described where the fossil-rich outcroppings could be found, but some of the formations had vanished under earth-moving equipment and housing tracts. It also gave as reference points old restaurants and saloons, which were long gone. The researchers then used geological maps, old and new, to find any rock formation similar to the ones noted in the thesis. That led them to a spot on private land near a North Attleborough shopping strip. There, they picked through the shale and sandstone with chisels and hammers. Their efforts yielded a bonanza of fossilized tracks left by amphibians and precursor reptile species, as well as insects, that inhabited the region tens of millions of years before the emergence of dinosaurs. Roughly 1,000 specimens were found at the site; the exact location is being kept secret for fear of fossil thieves. Although the fossilized imprint is believed to be the oldest winged insect trace fossil ever identified, there is, ironically, no clear imprint of wings. Yet all of the evidence suggests that it landed at the site and then left by air. "There are no walking prints leading to the body impression," Knecht said. "This creature came from above." "What's been captured is a moment in time, an instant when a flying insect landed with just the perfect amount of pressure, in mud possessing just the perfect amount of moisture, to capture the imprint - and leave this story behind," Benner said. Engel believes the insect that left its ancient mark in North Attleborough was probably an early ancestor of today's mayfly. "It landed in a very squat position, legs sprawled and belly pressed down," Engel said. "The imprint strongly suggests mayfly." Engel hypothesized the insect might have landed for a sip of water or to lap up nutrients. "It seems to have landed of its own accord. This doesn't look like the crash landing of a stricken animal," he said. Asked about the incongruity of a significant paleontological find being made in the well-explored semi-urban sprawl of southeastern Massachusetts, Engel said: "This just goes to show that great science can happen anywhere." http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/10/16/mall_sprawl_site_yields_a_treasure_from_eons_past/ Daily Green In wilderness is the preservation of the world By Ned Sullivan “We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.” - Wallace Stegner A couple of months ago I wrote how the slumping real estate market has proven a boon to land-preservation organizations, allowing us to protect magnificent properties that once seemed well beyond our monetary reach. While the dollar value of an acre of forest or farmland may have dropped across the country, the intangible value of that acre has never been higher — and it’s rising every day. The landscapes we safeguard remain a constant presence despite life’s uncertainties. And in these extremely turbulent times, we desperately need places where we can retreat, however briefly, from fears about paying college tuition, shrinking retirement accounts and job security. Whether hiking through a 10,000-acre Montana wilderness or sitting in Manhattan’s Central Park, open spaces give us the chance to feel kinship with the wider world. Amid nature’s grandeur, we experience great calm, solace — and, yes, even hope. As Rachel Carson wrote, “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” As I’ve also written previously, protected lands slow the impacts of global climate change. Working farms continue providing fresh local produce, which means the food miles of the meals we serve our families are substantially reduced. Conserved forests sequester carbon released from our automobiles and factories, while preserved marshlands act as buffers from predicted tidal surges. Safeguarding these properties takes on added urgency now because Congress likely will be focused on the economy for the foreseeable future, possibly delaying the enactment of laws compelling industries to substantially reduce greenhouse emissions. In the absence of national legislation, it’s imperative we step up efforts to curb climate change at the regional and local levels. One of the best ways to do this is by protecting more land. While the value of stock portfolios may have taken a nosedive, for the sake of our sanity and the health of our planet we cannot let this deter us from making further investments in conserving open space. In 1851, as America’s industrial revolution was revving up, Henry David Thoreau wrote that “In wilderness is the preservation of the world.” His words have only gathered power and momentum in the years that have passed since he wrote them. http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/easy-tips/economy-land-conservation-55101603 Daily Green When beekeepers lobby Congress By Kim Flottum I suspect that the concept of partisan politics in the beekeeping industry isn’t something that has kept you up nights. But there are different sides to many of the questions that arise in the world of the honey bee and those that keep them. All politics tends to be local, and it can occasionally be bitter, wrongheaded and stubborn. But just as often it can be wonderfully cooperative, friendly and helpful. Over the years the political skirmishes between the major beekeeping groups have been some of both - bad, and good. In the long run the differences tend to be financially based but sometimes they get personal. Such is life when more than three people are involved in most any activity.
The rancor that was too common decades ago has mostly dissolved over the past few years, primarily because it is far more productive to work together than to bang heads, and most of the differences have been resolved, fixed or grown stale and forgotten. Moreover, there are fewer and fewer beekeepers around to accomplish things, so no matter what any personal feelings are, working as a team is generally more profitable than yelling at each other. That doesn’t mean that goals can’t be reached by taking different routes though, and this is not an uncommon activity ... When monsters need to be slain, how the slayers get the job done, though important, is less so than making sure the monster is dead. Such is a recent case in point. First, let me introduce the players. Directory: cpi -> briefs briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news briefs -> The environment in the news Download 232.53 Kb. Share with your friends:
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