Biofools By The EconomistApril 8, 2009 http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13437705Farming biofuels produces nitrous oxide. This is bad for climate change MANY people consider the wider use of biofuels a promising way of reducing the amount of surplus carbon dioxide (CO2) being pumped into the air by the world’s mechanised transport. The theory is that plants such as sugar [...]
Friday Cocktail: THE OVERDOSE: Three Parts Dead Zone, One Part Mercury, Sprig of Carbon Capture By Julia WhittyMother Jones; April 17, 2009 http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/04/friday-cocktail-overdose-three-parts-dead-zone-one-part-mercury-sprig-carbon-cap Round 1: First a report from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute that low-oxygen dead zones in the ocean could expand significantly over the next century. We already know the number of [...]
Ky., In. key contributors to 'dead zone' By JAMES BRUGGERS JBRUGGERS@COURIER-JOURNAL.COMApril 11, 2009 Kentucky, Indiana runoff plays role in Gulf woes, study says Louisville and the state's Bluegrass region are among the likely sources of pollution runoff that have marked Kentucky as one of the top contributors to the Gulf of Mexico's oxygen-depleted "dead zone," [...]
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone & Private Forests By Lester GrahamApril 7, 2009; Michigan Environmental Issues MICHIGAN ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES Great Lakes’ Environment and Conservation News & Article The city of Chicago is getting blamed for the Dead Zone; almost the size of NJ. About 40% of the continental U.S. drains into the Mississippi River system [...]
Water monitor eyes farm runoff in Gulf of Mexico By Garry MitchellApril 9, 2009; Associated Press http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iCWTjf7I21LhbOWWFEYHMK9yyUFQD97FFHT03 MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — A clean water expert at Auburn University hopes a new project that enlists middle and high school students will help reduce farm runoff that is a growing pollution threat to the Gulf of Mexico. [...]
How Chicago Toilets Lead to Gulf 'Dead Zone' By Gabriel SpitzerApril 2, 2009; Chicago Public Radio http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=33247 New research finds that Chicago-area pollution is the biggest contributor to a massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The culprit may be what you flush. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey find that Chicago’s watershed pours [...]
One Third of Iowa Watersheds Make U-S-G-S Top 150 Polluting List By David Law/Dick LaymanApril 6, 2009; Public News Service, Iowahttp://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/8511-1 Des Moines, IA – The U.S. Geological Survey has released a new list identifying 42 Iowa watersheds among the top 150 that are polluting the Mississippi River Basin and contributing to an 8,000 square [...]
ISU projects to help reduce runoff pollution By Marco Santana, Associated Press WriterApril 2, 2009, Chicago Tribunehttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-runoffpollutiongr,0,5607682.story WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $600,000 to help reduce runoff pollution in Iowa. The agency said that Iowa State University researchers will receive three separate grants of $200,000 each as part of [...]
Marsh Madness: Quiz about Louisiana outdoors By Bob MarshallMarch 22, 2009; The Times-Picayune So, you've finally found your way to the real March sports news. That's right, forget about that impostor dominating sports pages and ESPN 24/7. Forget teams with names such as Huskies, Devils and Tigers. The real spring battle is among the gaspergou [...]
Nitrogen Fertilizer: Agricultural Breakthrough--And Environmental Bane By Sarah SimpsonMarch 20, 2009; Scientific Americanhttp://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=nitrogen-fertilizer-anniversary A new report citing drawbacks of the corn ethanol craze casts a pall over the centennial of a Nobel Prize-winning discovery that transformed global food production 100 years of green: Has the discovery of nitrogen fertilizer been fruitful in the long [...]