Earth quickly being depleted of resources
In WWF’s eye-opening Living Planet Report 2012, scientists reveal the world’s population currently uses natural resources at a rate of 1.5 times the planet can provide. The report goes on to say that if we don’t change course, by 2030 the resources from two planets will not be enough to sustain our rate of consumption.
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Sea lions getting strangled by ocean debris
Debris that gets tossed overboard, such as packing bands and fishing nets, is finding its way around the necks of sea lions, sometimes deeply cutting or even killing the creatures.
Earth Day facts and goals for the future
Earth Day, an annual event officially designated on April 22nd, was started in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson. This day in history was created in protest to the unbridled corporate and consumer activities that were contributing to excessive environmental pollution. Of special concern to Senator Nelson were the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.
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Seagrass is the world’s oldest known living organism
Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica ranks amongst the slowest-growing and longest-lived plants in existence, according to Carlos Duarte of the University of Western Australia in Perth. Duarte estimates the minimum age to be between 80,000 and 200,000 years, projecting the origin of the clones well into the late Pleistocene, and making it the oldest known living organism on the planet.
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Genetically modified corn losing resistance to major pest
Bt corn, one of the nation’s most widely produced crops, is thought to be losing its natural resistance to the western corn rootworm, a pest that feeds on the roots of corn and could potentially wreak economic havoc if it continues to spread.
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Rate of carbon release 10 times faster than previous period of rapid global warming
Based on core samples from 55.9 million years ago, when the earth last experienced a rapid period of global warming, our current rate of carbon release is nearly 10 times as fast. According to geologists, rate matters and this current rapid change may not allow sufficient time for the biological environment to adjust.
The past warming period, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), experienced a rapid increase in global temperatures over a time span of 20,000 years. Based on models developed at Penn State University, the outcome was a warming of from 9 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit and an acidification event in the oceans.
“Rather than the 20,000 years of the PETM which is long enough for ecological systems to adapt, carbon is now being released into the atmosphere at a rate 10 times faster,” said Lee R. Kump, professor of geosciences at Penn State. “It is possible that this is faster than ecosystems can adapt.”
EarthTalk: Cleaning up the dirtiest coal-fired power plants; and wolf protection in the Northern Rocky Mountains
Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that only a handful of outdated coal-burning power plants generate a sizable amount of the mercury pollution generated in the United States? If so, is anything being done to clean these sites up or shut them down?
– Frank Pearson, Wichita, KS
Our nation’s coal-fired power plants are increasingly being retrofitted with technologies to mitigate the output of various forms of pollution. But a number of bad apples do continue to cause more than their fair share of mercury emissions. This past March the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a leading non-profit, released a report showing that the top 25 emitters of mercury, a potent neurotoxin and a nasty by-product of coal-fired electricity generation, contribute only eight percent of the U.S. electric supply. At the same time, these power plants, which have failed to install readily available pollution controls already widely in use by other plants, account for nearly a third of all mercury emissions by the American electricity sector overall.
The Environmental Defense Fund reports that the top
25 emitters of mercury, a potent neurotoxin and a
nasty by-product of coal-fired electricity generation,
contribute only eight percent of the U.S. electric
supply but account for nearly a third of all mercury
emissions by the U.S. electricity sector overall.
Photo credit: Thinkstock
The report, “Mercury Alert: Cleaning up Coal Plants for Healthier Lives,” factors in emissions of mercury at power plants across the country in 2009. According to EDF, 20 of the top 25 mercury emitters are located within 50-100 miles of some of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation, including Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis and Austin. EDF found that Texas produces the most pollution from coal-fired electricity generation of all the U.S. states. Besides listing the worst mercury polluters, the report also details recent cases of mercury contamination and fish consumption advisories across the country, as well as reported new installations of mercury controls and recently enacted state regulations driving their implementation.
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