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.

Other facts from the WWF’s findings include:

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• Biodiversity – the number of plants and animal species – has dropped by 28 percent globally since 1970, with tropical and freshwater species experiencing the biggest declines; the tropical freshwater index dropped by 70 percent

• The five biggest consumers of natural resources are Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Denmark, and the United States.

• As many as 2.7 billion people already experience a severe scarcity of fresh water at least one month per year

• Deforestation and forest degradation currently account for up to 20 percent of global man-made CO2 emissions

• The past few decades have been warmer than any other comparable period for at least the last 400 years

When asked why environmental groups continue to struggle with their conservation efforts, WWF International’s director general Jim Leape said: “We’ve built an economy over the last century that is built on fossil fuels and on a premise that the Earth’s resources could not be exhausted. You see that conspicuously in the case of the oceans, where we’ve been taking fish as if there were no tomorrow, as if fish would just always be there.

“Secondly, we’re doing it in the context of a marketplace that continues to send the wrong signals. So many of the costs that we’re talking about are not built into the prices you see … Markets can work well if prices are telling the truth but at the moment they don’t, in hugely important ways.”

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As well as outlining the world’s conservation challenges, the report also put forth ideas for solutions to living within the planet’s means:

1. Significantly expand the global protected areas of network: protect 20 percent of key ecological areas that are vital to sustaining biodiversity and implement adequate funding
2. Halt loss of priority habitats: eliminate deforestation and degradation by 2020, preserve freshwater systems, and increase the marine protected areas from 5 to 20 percent
3. Restore damaged ecosystems and ecosystem services: reverse the damage done to those systems that are vital for food, water, and energy security

Consumers can shop for labels that identify products produced with minimal or no negative impact on the environment or society. Organizations which certify products that bear the labels include: Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Marine Stewardship Council, and Forest Stewardship Council.

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.

So says Giora Proskurowski, an oceangrapher from the University of Washington, who recently commented on his findings from a 2010 North Atlantic expedition. During his trip, he and his team collected samples at the surface, plus an additional three or four depths down as far as 100 feet.

And on a more recent expedition in the Pacific Ocean, Proskurowski noticed something new: The water was littered with confetti-size pieces of plastic debris, until the moment the wind picked up and most of the particles disappeared.

The discovery that wind that was pushing the lightweight plastic particles below the surface meant that years of research that estimated the quantity of plastic debris in the world’s oceans was far below the true amount. Proskurowski and co-lead author Tobias Kukulka, University of Delaware, reported in the May 2012 journal of Geophysical Research Letters that data collected from just below the water’s surface commonly underestimates the total amount of plastic in the water by an average factor of 2.5. In high winds the volume of plastic could be underestimated by a factor of 27.

The areas of plastic floating in the ocean is no longer just a garbage patch but instead is made up of widely dispersed, millimeter-size pieces of debris, according to Proskurowski. “On this topic, what science needs to be geared toward is building confidence that scientists have solid numbers and that policy makers aren’t making judgments based on CNN reports,” he said, in reference to media stories about large isolated islands of floating plastic.

Plastic waste in the oceans is a concern because of the impact it might have on the environment. For instance, when fish ingest the plastics, it may degrade their liver functions. In addition, the particles make nice homes for bacteria and algae, which are then transported along with the particles into different regions of the ocean where they may be invasive and cause problems.

Proskurowski and colleagues are currently working with a model they developed that uses historical weather data to more accurately ascertain the relationship between wind speed and depth of plastic particles.

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.

During the ’60s, chemical spills, raw sewage, and air-polluting factories and plants were casually accepted as a normal part of life, but there were also many Americans who were deeply concerned about the high level of toxic waste pervading our environment and felt that raising awareness about the continued degradation was needed to reverse the damaging trends.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across the country demonstrated and held rallies in the streets, campuses, and large public arenas to send a message about the action needed to turn things around. Distinguished by its collaborative support by both political parties, this first Earth Day event led to the formation of the U.S. EPA, and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts. Earth Day is considered the beginning of the modern environmental awareness movement, and the month of April has in essence become “Earth Month.”

Now, more than one billion people and 192 nations will mark the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day to continue motivating grassroots efforts, raising consumer awareness, and reversing continued dangerous industrial trends.  The Earth Day Network, created by the founders of the first Earth Day, have a new campaign called A Billion Acts of Green. The organization hopes to reach one billion pledges to action by the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012.  They plan to present this accomplishment at Rio +20 and use it as a lever to address the UN’s inaction and inspire leaders to reach a global agreement at the Rio+20 Conference.

In recent years, Earth Day has snowballed in its scope of awareness and continues to gain credible momentum around the globe as climate change became a mainstream concern. The Earth Day Network continues its efforts toward education and support for organizations who wish to participate in the movement.

For the first time, monster solar tornadoes several times the size of the Earth and swirling at speeds of up to 190,000 miles per hour were filmed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The $850 million spacecraft, launched Feb. 11, 2010, constantly gathers high-definition video and data about the sun to help experts better understand the effects solar activity has on the Earth.

The video was filmed between February 7 and 8 and shows cooler plasma material as darker spots on a bright background. The tornadoes, noted as swirling plasma erupting from deep inside the solar corona, are shaped by the sun’s powerful magnetic field.

“Prominences are tangled magnetic fields trapping cold and dense plasma in the solar corona,” says Dr Xing Li, a solar physicist at Wales’ Aberystwyth University.

“These often erupt spectacularly and fly out into space as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and large CMEs will impact our space weather and space technology in a significant way when they are heading toward the Earth.”

As humans becomes more dependent on sensitive technology, it is critical that scientists develop new and more sophisticated ways to predict the Sun’s future eruptions. And solar tornadoes may hold the key to predicting when the next coronal mass ejection will be launched.

The review of hundreds of paleoceanographic studies is the first of its kind to analyze the evidence of ocean acidification over such a vast time period.

The oceans absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which combines with sea water to form carbonic acid and is eventually neutralized by fossil carbonate shells on the seafloor. When the oceans absorb CO2 too quickly, however, it interferes with the marine life’s ability to sustain a balanced ecosystem.

“What we’re doing today really stands out,” said lead author Bärbel Hönisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “We know that life during past ocean acidification events was not wiped out—new species evolved to replace those that died off. But if industrial carbon emissions continue at the current pace, we may lose organisms we care about—coral reefs, oysters, salmon.”

In the last hundred years, atmospheric CO2 has risen about 30 percent, to 393 parts per million, and ocean pH has fallen by 0.1 unit, to 8.1 – an acidification rate at least 10 times faster than 56 million years ago, says Hönisch.

Many areas are already exhibiting alarming signs of deterioration.  In a 2011 study of coral reefs off Papua New Guinea, scientists writing in the journal Nature Climate Change found that when pH dropped to 7.8, reef diversity declined by as much as 40 percent.

“It’s not a problem that can be quickly reversed,” said Christopher Langdon, a biological oceanographer at the University of Miami who co-authored the study on Papua New Guinea reefs. “Once a species goes extinct it’s gone forever. We’re playing a very dangerous game.”

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.

Seagrasses reproduce by cloning and can form extensive meadows considered to be one organism.

Despite its longevity, Posidonia oceanica may well be challenged by the unprecedented rate of environmental change imposed by current global climate change. Seagrasses are the basis of essential coastal ecosystems but are waning worldwide, and P. oceanica meadows are declining at an estimated rate of about 5% per year. The results reported in the February 1st edition of PLoS ONE suggest that clones of that species have adapted to a broad range of environmental conditions, but the unprecedented rate of global climate change, together with the steep decline in seagrasses already observed for the past 20 years, are raising serious concerns about the continued survival of this long-lived species.

Source: Implications of Extreme Life Span in Clonal Organisms: Millenary Clones in Meadows of the Threatened Seagrass Posidonia oceanica

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.

Currently the infestations remain isolated, but concerns have been growing ever since Bt corn infestations have been discovered in four Midwestern states, a sign that the repeated planting of the corn strain – instead of being rotated with other crops – is enabling the insects’ resistance to the crop’s pest-fighting powers. Many farmers are foregoing rotation in order to cash in on the high corn prices.

Bt corn was introduced to farmers in 2003 and allowed growers to bring in bountiful harvests using fewer chemicals because the corn naturally produces a toxin that poisons the common pest.

Because of the corn farmers’ current – and most likely ongoing – practices, some scientists fear it could already be too late to prevent the rise of resistance. In addition, they’re also concerned about the problem becoming more widespread due to the rootworm larvae growing into adult beetles that can fly and migrate into new areas.

If rootworms do become resistant to Bt corn, it “could become the most economically damaging example of insect resistance to a genetically modified crop in the U.S.,” said Bruce Tabashnik, an entomologist at the University of Arizona. “It’s a pest of great economic significance — a billion-dollar pest.”

The dead zone area in the Gulf of Mexico is forecasted to grow to the size of New Hampshire, approximately 8,500 to 9,421 square miles, due to major flooding on the Mississippi river this spring. If this happens, it will be the largest recorded dead (hypoxic) zone in the Gulf of Mexico since it was first measured in 1985, according to NOAA scientists.

Hypoxic areas in seas and oceans is caused by excessive nutrient pollution, usually from agriculture run-off. This results in too little oxygen to support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom water. These dead zone areas, such as the Gulf one growing just off the coast of Louisiana and Texas,  are a threat to commercial and recreational Gulf fisheries.

“This ecological forecast is a good example of NOAA applied science,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “While there is some uncertainty regarding the size, position and timing of this year’s hypoxic zone in the Gulf, the forecast models are in overall agreement that hypoxia will be larger than we have typically seen in recent years.”

Researchers should know more about its size following a NOAA-supported monitoring survey led by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium between July 25 and August 6.

NOAA has been funding investigations and forecast development for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico since 1990 and currently oversees the two national hypoxia programs authorized by the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act.

Dear EarthTalk: I thought “farm raised” was the way to go when buying fish, to avoid mercury contamination. But are there other concerns about farm raised that make some fish a poor choice for good health? What are the safest fish to buy and which should be avoided? And what about those frozen blocks of fish I get at Trader Joe’s? Are they safe to eat?
– Tim Jeffries, Springfield, MA

Mercury is a neurotoxin that settles into the ocean in large concentrations after we spew it out of industrial smokestacks when burning fossil fuels like coal and oil. It is then taken up by smaller sea life such as plankton and then spread up through the food chain as larger fish eat smaller ones. We humans then eat the mercury-laced seafood—wild salmon, tuna, swordfish and other fish—and breathe it in our air. Repeated exposure to mercury pollution can cause brain, kidney and developmental problems for people.

Farm-raised fish can still absorb mercury, since most
fish farms are located in the ocean, close to or
abutting the shoreline. They can also absorb PCBs and
dioxins, as the near-shore waters they occupy are the
first stop for run-off from land-based sources of
pollution. Pictured: A fish farm in Shanghai.
Photo credit: Ivan Walsh, courtesy Flickr.

Farm-raised fish may have somewhat less exposure to mercury than their wild free-foraging cousins because they are usually fed a controlled diet, often consisting of more grains and soy, a cheaper and more abundant source of calories, than fishmeal. But they can still absorb mercury, since most fish farms are themselves located in the ocean, just close to or abutting the shoreline.

Farmed fish can also absorb PCBs and dioxins, as the near-shore waters they occupy are the first stop for run-off from land-based sources of pollution. And the fact that their primary feed source comes from conventionally grown terrestrial crops means that their diets can include trace amounts of pesticides and herbicides as well. Also, most farmed fish are exposed to dose after dose of antibiotics to keep diseases and pests at bay in their crowded underwater pens, much in the way “factory farmed” land animals are drugged to help them cope with cramped, unsanitary conditions. In fact, studies have shown that farm-raised fish have more toxins overall than their wild-caught cousins, though exceptions of course do exist.

The best way to know which fish are safe and which are not is to download a region-specific seafood buying guide from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. These guides aid the decision-making process when shopping for seafood in a store or ordering it at a restaurant by dividing the fish available in that part of the country into three categories: Best Choices, Good Alternatives and Avoid.

And bring your Seafood Watch guide to Trader Joe’s as well—at least for now. In 2010, after months of lobbying by Greenpeace and a growing number of concerned shoppers, Trader Joe’s agreed to offer only “sustainable” seafood in its stores by the end of 2012. To its credit, they already removed endangered Chilean Sea Bass from shelves in 2005, followed by Orange Roughy in 2009 and Red Snapper in 2010.

In the spirit of its recent pledge, however, Trader Joe’s is now working with third-party, science-based organizations to establish definitions and parameters for addressing customer concerns about overfishing, destructive catch or production methods, and the importance of marine reserves. Until 2013 at Trader Joe’s—and indefinitely at other stores that haven’t made specific commitments regarding the sustainability of their seafood—make sure to check that labels disclose the type of fish for sale and its source in regard to wild or farm-raised, and then check that info against the Seafood Watch list.

CONTACTS: Seafood Watch, www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx; Trader Joe’s “Note to Our Customers about Trader Joe’s Seafood,” www.traderjoes.com/about/customer-updates.asp.

Dear EarthTalk: I heard that some reusable bags contain lead. Is this a major health concern? Can’t these bags be made to avoid such contamination?
– Donald Young, Cincinnati, OH

Plastic reusable shopping bags are
petroleum-derived and may contain
other contaminants, including lead,
especially if they feature ornate
designs or patterns. The safe bet is
to use cloth bags, like the one
pictured here from Eco Bags,
because they are free of lead, they
last for years, and they are easy
to wash. Photo credit: Eco Bags

It’s true that some reusable shopping bags for sale in U.S. stores have been shown to contain lead, a neurotoxin linked to developmental, brain and kidney problems. The non-profit Center for Environmental Health (CEH) found that about 10 percent of the reusable bags it tested last year contained at least minute levels of lead, with Disney’s “Toy Story” and “Cars” plastic reusable shopping bags topping the charts with excessive levels to the tune of 15 times the federal limit for lead in children’s products.

Tests by other groups confirm CEH’s findings. A November 2010 report by the Tampa Tribune newspaper found elevated levels of lead in reusable bags purchased at Winn-Dixie, Publix, Walmart and Target stores—and prompted an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) into whether or not reusable shopping bags could be leaching lead into food items that people later eat. And earlier this year, the Center for Consumer Freedom, a trade group that opposes bans on plastic bags, reported that some 21 different polypropylene reusable bags sold at Safeway, Walgreen’s, Bloom and other stores had lead content above 100 parts per million—the highest level that many states allow in consumer packaging.

While the stores in question have pulled any such questionable bags from their shelves and in some cases stopped patronizing offending suppliers, consumers should take matters into their own hands with regard to selecting safer reusable shopping bags. While plastic reusable shopping bags are a step in the right direction compared to disposable plastic or paper bags, they are still derived from petroleum, even if partly recycled, and may contain other contaminants, especially if they feature ornate designs or patterns. The safest bet, according to CEH, would be cloth bags: Not only are they usually free of lead or any other potentially hazardous substances, but they also last for years and are easy to wash. One quality, reliable source for cloth bags is the Ossining, New York-based Eco Bags, from which you can order conveniently online and pay no shipping costs on any order of $100 or more.

Regarding washing to reduce or eliminate contaminants, public health experts worry that reusable shopping bags could become a breeding ground for impurities that lead to food poisoning, and recommend washing them every few uses at least to ward off contamination. A 2008 Environmental and Plastics Industry Council of Canada study found mold and bacterial levels in reusable bags 300 percent greater than Canadian health standards allow. And a 2010 joint University of Arizona and Limo Loma University study found that 97 percent of users did not wash their reusable shopping bags—which can harbor bacteria from repeated exposure to meats and vegetables. Half of the 84 bags studied contained coliform, a bacterium found in fecal matter, while 12 percent tested positive for E. coli.

The moral of the story is to make sure your reusable shopping bags can go through the clothes washer—and then wash them a few times a month. This way you will steer clear of contaminating the food you and your family eat with trace amounts of lead, and as such you will sleep easier each and every night.

CONTACTS: CEH, www.ceh.org; Arizona/Limo Loma Study, www.uanews.org/pdfs/GerbaWilliamsSinclair_BagContamination.pdf; Eco Bags, www.ecobags.com.

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