The Case Against Biofuels: Probing Ethanols Hidden Costs By C. Ford Runge 11 Mar 2010; YALE environment360: OpinionIn light of the strong evidence that growing corn, soybeans, and other food crops to produce ethanol takes a heavy toll on the environment and is hurting the world’s poor through higher food prices, consider this astonishing fact: [...]
Pay now and pay later By Karen Hosler March 12, 2010; BALTIMORE SUNRemember how this winter's snow, so pretty at first, morphed into gritty, grimy mounds laced with road salt, petroleum products and pet poo? Want that stuff in your drinking water? It's probably there. How about in the Chesapeake Bay? You can [...]
House Backs Effort to Combat Algal Blooms By NICK WILSON Friday, March 12, 2010Last Update: 12:21 PM PT WASHINGTON (CN) - The House voted 251-103 Friday to combat a rise in algal blooms, which form "dead zones" that suffocate and poison birds, dolphins and other aquatic life, draining $82 million a year from the tourism [...]
Films provide food for thought By Beth Dooley, Special to the Star Tribune, Minneapolis-St.Paul, MN March 10, 2010 - 2:30 PM Anonymous, Magnolia Pictures The Orozcos in a scene from the Oscar-nominated "Food, Inc." Hungry for an issues-oriented film? Here's a sampling – one an Oscar nominee. Isn't Minneapolis still smack in the middle of [...]
Dead dolphin washes ashore in Pascagoula By Jeff Lawson 11 March 2010; WLOXPASCAGOULA, MS (WLOX) - A dead dolphin was found by a walker on the Pascagoula beach Monday. Within hours, the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport was there and had biologists beginning the process of analyzing what may have killed the animal. [...]
The N2 Dilemma: Is America Fertilizing Disaster? A Grist Special Series , 'The Soil is Bleeding' By Tom Philpott 23 Feb 2010 9:47 AM, www.grist.orgNew research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health “Fertilizer is good for the father and bad for the sons. —Dutch saying For all of its ecological baggage, synthetic nitrogen [...]
Land conservation signup is set By PERRY BEEMAN , pbeeman@dmreg.com February 28, 2010 , Des Moines registerThe news drew a standing ovation at the National Pheasant Fest luncheon at the Polk County Convention Complex because the added land could mean more habitat, better hunting, cleaner streams, and fuller cash registers around Iowa. The Conservation Reserve [...]
Dead pigs used to investigate 'dead zones' By Victoria Gill Mar 4, 2010, Science reporter, BBC News Crabs and other scavengers put nutrients back into the marine ecosystem By ending up in ocean experiments (rather than on the dinner table), the pigs have provided scientists with some intriguing new data. "The dead pigs were [...]
World's Largest Dead Zone Suffocating Sea By James Owen in StockholmMarch 5, 2010, National Geographic News Algae blooms (seen in a July 2005 satellite image) have created the world's largest dead zone in the Baltic Sea. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, NASA "Eagle!" The shout goes up as a great shadow sweeps over our boat. The [...]
Manure becomes pollutant as its volume grows unmanageable By David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 1, 2010 UNFINISHED BUSINESS: THE ENVIRONMENT 40 YEARS AFTER EARTH DAY: Rising with a bullet among top pollutants: Number Two Full of manure Nearly 40 years after the first Earth Day, this is irony: The United States [...]