Corn and water By EditorialThe News & Observer, January 2, 2008http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/story/855252.html It's becoming clear that America's quest for cleaner fuels and energy independence won't be short or simple. The latest complication, surfacing from beneath the Gulf of Mexico, holds a message for North Carolina and its environmentally sensitive coastal waters. It also sounds a cautionary [...]
A way to bring life to the dead zone By John SalesRutland Herald, Vermont, December 30, 2007http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071230/OPINION02/712300312There is a large and expanding dead zone on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. For more information, see the excellent overview: "Corn boom threatens to expand 'dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico," published in The Times [...]
Ethanol stirring coastal concerns By Eric BergerHouston Chronicle, Dec 31, 2007http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5412577.html The recent passage of the mammoth energy bill could have unintended consequences for the Gulf of Mexico that have nothing to do with oil and gas platforms. Under the law, production of ethanol is set to increase five-fold to 36 billion gallons a year [...]
An Orphan River By Sara FruehThe National Academies In Focus; Fall 2007 (Vol. 7, No. 3)http://infocusmagazine.org/7.3/env_mississippi.html No river has played a more central role in American literature and history than the Mississippi, the river that carried Huckleberry Finn's raft and serves as the symbolic dividing line between east and west. And the Mississippi's economic and [...]
Gulf Hypoxia Mapping and Research Funding at Risk By Lower Mississippi River Sub-basin Committee on HypoxiaDecember 18, 2007 Baton Rouge - The federal funding of two critical programs for the mapping and study of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico is at risk. Programs at Louisiana State University (LSU) and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) [...]
U.S. corn boom has downside for Gulf By Henry C. JacksonAssociated Press, December 17, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071217/ap_on_re_us/corn_dead_zoneJEFFERSON, Iowa - Because of rising demand for ethanol, American farmers are growing more corn than at any time since World War II. And sea life in the Gulf of Mexico is paying the price.The nation's corn crop is fertilized [...]
EDITORIAL: A more aggressive strategyTimes Picayune; December 10, 2007http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1197268473214040.xml&coll=1 The dead zone is supposed to be shrinking. If all were going as planned, the oxygen-depleted band of water in the Gulf of Mexico would be significantly smaller today than it was a decade ago. It isn't. Despite a 6-year-old agreement to reduce nitrogen in the [...]
Ethanol industry could feed potential for shrimp farming By Tim HoskinsIowa Farmer Today; December 5, 2007http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/articles/2007/12/06/top_stories/04shrimp.txt AMES --- The ethanol industry could spawn another ag industry in the Midwest.That new industry is shrimp farming. “The opportunity is huge,” says Hank Harris, Iowa State University animal science professor.Cheryl Shew, global shrimp sales specialist for Zeigler Brothers [...]
Dead zones still a threat in the GulfThe Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, LA; December 6, 2007Read the whole article, and the chat at:http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071205/OPINION01/712050304We are not winning the battle against dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. A decade ago, a special task force pledged to reduce the zone. While the team of government experts and environmental [...]
Despite promises, dead zone growing By Chris KirkhamTimes-Picayune, December 02, 2007http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-25/119666345479390.xml&coll=1 Little progress made halfway to deadline A decade ago, a team of government experts and environmental researchers banded together to tackle an alarming -- and growing -- disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico. A lifeless, oxygen-depleted band of ocean water stretching [...]
