Oysters, inhalers, nuclear waste, scary news

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

If you'll be returning to COA next year, I look forward to seeing you again. If you're leaving us, congratulations and good luck. The world needs you.


What I said last week is official: the USDA will stop tracking agricultural pesticide use (Associated Press)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jOv_zmzZkXkBWLHq5KSkc7WaHZNQD90QJCA80

Bangor News
Another public comment period opened for the Plum Creek plan
http://bangornews.com/news/t/city.aspx?articleid=165236&zoneid=176

Maine could acquire a new, permanent site for nuclear waste storage.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=165181&zoneid=5

New York Times
Worsening drought, increasingly water-intensive farming and resort development combine to spell bad news for southern Spain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/world/europe/03dry.html?ref=europe

The Senate debate on a current major 'climate bill' might have been funny if it weren't so depressing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/washington/05climate.html?ref=washington

Deforestation is serious in Papua New Guinea
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/science/earth/03fore.html?ref=science

Washington Post
Asthma-treatment inhalers using CFCs will be phased out in the US by the end of 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/30/AR2008053002208.html

Oysters in the Chesapeake Bay have declined over the past decade for many reasons, despite costly government attempts to restore them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/01/AR2008060102499.html

Guano, plankton, poisons, oil, mountaintop removal and more

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

"We are in a situation that could invoke a mild amount of peril if we don't do things sensibly"--Sean Todd


A California company announced that it had made chemically-authentic "crude oil" from algae, which it hopes to produce commercially within five years. (Los Angeles Times)
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-greencrude29-2008may29,1,4627837.story

A North Carolina state representative introduced a bill to ban burning of coal acquired by mountaintop-removal mining (Grist).
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/5/28/17123/6269

The USDA is apparently no longer tracking pesticide use on US crops or making information about it available (Ethicurean).
http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/05/22/pesticide-info/

Reuters
One outcome of the UN Covention on Biological Diversity: a moratorium on 'ocean fertilization' for attempted carbon sequestration through induced plankton blooms (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2981194420080530

The EU will make sharpish quota cuts to some of its fisheries [To read about some of the results, go to bbc.co.uk and search "fishery quotas."]
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL3089767920080530?sp=true

New York Times
The White House (under court orders) published a report that global warming is "very likely" caused by humans and its impacts are likely to be rawther bad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/washington/30climate.html?ref=science

A dam is being removed sloooowly from a Montana river to prevent release of heavy-metal-contaminated sediment built up behind it, which is also now being cleaned up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/science/27dam.html?ref=science

Seabird guano, in high demand for organic fertilizer, is running out on the Peruvian islands where it's harvested. Some blame overfishing of anchoveta, which the birds eat, for livestock feed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/world/americas/30peru.html?pagewanted=1

Science and politics clashed again over Brazilian deforestation
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/world/americas/25amazon.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=americas

DDT in Antarctic glaciers may be leaking into the sea as they melt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/science/earth/27obddt.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

Bangor News
Update on the Plum Creek saga
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=164947&zoneid=500

Two animal welfare/advocacy groups threatened to sue the Maine DIF&W for setting trap restrictions that haven't prevented incidental snaring of endangered Canada lynx.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=164948&zoneid=500