How Will the Gulf's Dead Zone Impact the Oil Spill? By AnimalTourismFriday, April 30, 2010 The Gulf's Dead Zone is about 6,000 to 7,000 square miles, one of the biggest in the world, Microbial Life Educational Resources of Carleton College says. It's caused by fertilizer run-off in the Mississippi overfeeding algae. Phytoplankton gobble up the [...]

COASTAL BAYS Oil is the Gulf's most unwelcome guest By Cristy Layton May 11, 2010, Delmarva Daily TimesTwo days before the 40th anniversary f Earth Day, the BP Deepwater Horizontal exploration oil rig platform, 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana, exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico. The incident cost 11 human lives, [...]

Pigs modified to excrete less phosphorus win limited approval in Canada. By Anne MinardMarch 30, 2010; National Geographic NewsGenetically altered "Enviropigs" can pass on greener genes to their offspring. Photograph by Cecil W. Forsberg    Move over, bacon. Here comes something greener.    A genetically engineered pig recently approved for limited production in Canada makes [...]

First-Ever Animals Found Living Without Oxygen in Marine Dead Zone By Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York 04. 8.10; Science & Technology Photos via the BBC Life Will Find a Way . . .  You're likely familiar with the ever-growing marine dead zones, areas in the ocean where no life was believed possible due to depleting [...]

Environmental groups seek fix for Gulf dead zone By Nikki Buskey , Staff Writer, Houma CourierWednesday, March 31, 2010 at 12:05 p.m. The Environmental Law and Policy Center and the Mississippi River Collaborative released a joint report this week called “Cultivating Clean Water.” The report examines the effectiveness of state regulatory programs that control agricultural pollution [...]

Regulators Ramp Up Plans For Nutrient Limits In Mississippi River StatesMarch 17th; Inside EPA EPA and state officials are ramping up their efforts to craft strict numeric nutrient limits for waters that flow into the Mississippi River, clearing the way for broader adoption of the risk-based water quality criteria along the lines of a controversial [...]

Midwest flooding could affect local area By John DeSantis ; Senior Staff WriterWednesday, March 17, 2010 at 1:15 p.m. Heavy rain and snow caused by this year’s El Nino have left a third of the nation at severe risk of flooding, officials with the National Weather Service and other NOAA agencies said during a teleconference [...]

News from Congressman Ron Kind: REPRESENTING WISCONSINS THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT By Leah Hunter; Leah.hunter@mail.house.gov; 202-225-5506Friday, March 19, 2010 1406 Longworth House Office Building • Washington, D.C. 20515 • (202) 225-5506 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                         Washington, DC –U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) today announced that the Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act, legislation he authored, passed the House of [...]

Ethanol is not the fuel of the future for U.S. By Gerry Calhoun March 22, 2010 , Tennessee Voices The Tennessee Voices article on ethanol by Jaime Dachelet ("Ethanol provides many benefits," March 10) reads like a free advertisement for Eco-Energy, a business that markets ethanol. The writer, their director of public relations, dismisses as [...]

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: [...]