Wales, wolves, potatoes, preserves, power

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

In Wales, ambitious plans for powering the country on a combined variety of renewable energies. (Detroit Free Press/AP)
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080518/BUSINESS07/805180584/1020

The Kansas governor vetoed plans for two new coal-power plants, which will remain vetoed (Lawrence Journal-World)
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/may/22/coal_battle_moves_court/

Update on international 'progress' in committing to greenhouse-gas-emission reductions (Associated Press).
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/nations-urge-deep-emission-cuts-by-us/n20080525035609990014

Self-explanatory:
http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/2008/twelve-conservation-groups-challenge-federal-wolf-delisting.html

Bangor News
Numerous groups seek to make bio-plastic from Maine potatoes.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=164576&zoneid=500

342,000 acres of Downeast Maine land has been newly 'preserved' along the Canadian border.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/downeast.aspx?articleid=164620&zoneid=177

Roxanne Quimby's eviction of "camp"-leasers on her bought-up land is causing a mighty lot of controversy [including ten zillion comments below this article]
http://bangornews.com/news/t/penobscot.aspx?articleid=164689&zoneid=183

Ants, hurricanes, "saved" land, "sustainable development"

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

Plans for oil drilling in certain Alaskan wetlands appear to be on hold. (ENN/Reuters)
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/36444

BBC News
"Conservation refugees" in Uganda
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7390917.stm

A disputed new plan for "sustainable" development in the Amazon rainforest.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7399109.stm

Bangor News
Public discussions began for the controversial Schoodic eco-resort proposal. [I'd be glad to hear opinions from COAers who attended this meeting]
http://bangornews.com/news/t/hancock.aspx?articleid=164423&zoneid=178

Editorial: Driving tips to reduce gas consumption.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/viewpoints.aspx?articleid=164198&zoneid=34

Associated Press
Recently-arrived tropical ants are wreaking havoc for human Texans, and may also harm wildlife there.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/crazy-ants-swarm-over-houston-area/20080514152109990001?icid=100214839x1202155990x1200077402

A meteorologist predicted that climate change would actually result in fewer (but fiercer) tropical Atlantic storms. Some other scientists disagree with his model.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/scientist-shifts-view-on-global-warming/20080518143309990001?icid=100214839x1202272107x1200087432

As displayed in the results of a sawmill raid, illegal rainforest logging remains a pernicious issue in Brazil.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/brazils-illegal-logging-hard-to-combat/n20080517115209990005

Crows, koalas, bugs, buses, San Francisco

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

Associated Press
Honeybees in commercial US hives continued dying off en masse in the past year.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/a-third-of-honey-bee-hives-lost-in-2007/20080507090109990001

Study: increased CO2 concentrations in the air makes eucalyptus less edible to koalas, which eat nothing else.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/koalas-at-risk-from-climate-change/20080507151509990001?icid=100214839x1201683254x1200063789

New York Times
Higher gas prices are straining increasingly-popular public transportation systems.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/business/10transit.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

The EPA proposed new, stricter standards for lead concentrations in air.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/washington/02epa.html?ref=science

San Francisco's mayor proposed that recycling and composting--already advanced--be made mandatory there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/us/07garbage.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

In Japan, crow populations are rising (possibly because of more human garbage around) to plague levels and prompting big extermination efforts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/world/asia/07crows.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

Bangor News
A newly-approved bill changes the requirements for growing genetically modified crops in Maine, and protects farmers from being sued for accidental GMO contamination of their crops.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=162819&zoneid=5

Introduced beetle larvae are taking a toll on lawns in parts of Maine.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/city.aspx?articleid=164110&zoneid=176

Fungi, fertilizer, land use, bison slaughter

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

Possible restrictions on development and land use in Maine's Unorganized Territory (which comprises over half of the state's land, across multiple counties) are meeting resistance in the far north (Bangor News).
http://bangornews.com/news/t/aroostook.aspx?articleid=163594&zoneid=175

New York Times
Residents of a California town are experimenting with using fungi to clean up dioxins in a former lumber mil site. [After the recent oil spill in San Francisco, some folks there had the idea of growing oyster mushrooms in oil and found the it worked...groovy.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/us/27bragg.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=mushrooms&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Another issue in the food-crisis saga: global shortages of petroleum-based (thus increasingly expensive) fertilizer. [If we could get it to work more efficiently, so zillions of tons weren't washed away and wasted...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/business/worldbusiness/30fertilizer.html?scp=1&sq=fertilizer&st=nyt

CNN
This year's bison slaughter around Yellowstone National Park was suspended after winter ravaged the herd, but it's expected to restart next year.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/half-of-yellowstone-bison-herd-dies/20080429092909990001

Many scientists working for the EPA claimed that their findings had been manipulated or misused by regulators.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/23/epa.scientists.ap/index.html

Pigs, an ecovillage and dangerous trends

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

A Michigan farmer's successful experiment at using pigs to organically beat apple-infesting beetles. (MSNBC/AP)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23479970/

Some folks at UMaine Orono are working on developing an on-campus "Ecovillage" (Bangor News)
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=163393&zoneid=500

New York Times
The continuing food crisis seems to be weakening global resistence toward genetically engineered crops
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/business/21crop.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=science&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Coal power--replacing oil and nuclear--is on the rise in parts of Europe
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/europe/23coal.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=science

Egypt to Australia to Louisiana to Maine...

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

To quote the sagacious Ford Prefect once again: "We don't stand a whelk's chance in a supernova."


Oil and gas companies are being blamed for the tremendous erosion of Louisiana's coastal wetlands , and called on to pay for it. (Best of New Orleans).
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/current/cover_story.php

*On the current and predicted effects of sea-level rise in coastal Egypt (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89660898

A look at five of Maine's toxin-contaminated sites and the ongoing efforts to clean them up (Bangor News)
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=163249&zoneid=500

More arguing over possibilities for diverting water from Northern California to Southern California, and its effects on endangered fish (Los Angeles Times).
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-salmon17apr17,1,1938847.story

After two environmental groups planned to sue the US Forest Service over flaws in this year's fire management plans for the Southwest, the Service apparently dropped the plans altogether (Earthjustice).
http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/2008/forest-service-scraps-fire-planning-in-southwest.html

New York Times
*Prolonged drought in grain-producing nations, probably worsened by climate change, is a factor in the current high-price-induced famines around the world: Australian rice as a case study.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/business/worldbusiness/17warm.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

Contrary to some predictions voiced in articles last week, rising food prices are reducing investments--by buyers and farmers--in organic food.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/business/18organic.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin

Bush's muchly-criticized "new plan" for dealing with climate change was outlined in a recent speech.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/washington/17bush.html?ref=science

CORRECTION: I wrote here last term that the EPA had vetoed the big Yazoo wetland pumping project in Mississippi. I believe that they haven't actually finalized that veto, but it's proposed and expected.

Salmon, methane, farming and food

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

"There's nothing that depresses me more than seeing a planet being destroyed. Except possibly being on it when it happens."--Ford Prefect

For the first time, this year's fishing season for Chinhook salmon off California and Oregon will probably be canceled due to lack of the fish in the Sacramento River. That doesn't address other threats to the fish: dams, river depletion for farming, changing ocean conditions etc. etc. (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/11/MNO6103NBB.DTL

Homeowners in part of southern Colorado have a rocky relationship with nearby methane mines. [We woudn't need to mine methane--a potent greenhouse gas--if we made better use of what our landfills and livestock produce] (Associated Press)
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/homeowners-feel-heat-in-west-coal-boom/n20080412050309990005

Johnsongrass in Mississippi and Arkansas crop fields is the newest weed found to have developed resistance to Roundup as a result of the herbicide's intensive use (Delta Farm Press).
http://deltafarmpress.com/soybeans/johnsongrass-scott-0319/

New York Times
*Rising crop prices are putting pressure on farmers to re-cultivate land which the government has been paying them to leave alone for wildlife and conservation. Environmentalists, hunters, crop-consumer groups and farmers are all players in this intensifying debate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09conserve.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

The delisting of gray wolves as endangered in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, and the resulting wolf kills which have already begun, ignited a firestorm of public opinion and legal action.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/us/13wolves.html?ref=science
*A discussion on whether rising prices for conventional food might do some "good" by encouraging people to buy more organic and local foods.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/dining/02cheap.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

A Grist critique of the above article, with lots of interesting reader comments
http://www.grist.org/comments/food/2008/04/04/?source=most_popular