Awesome Photo: Predatory Coral Eats Jellyfish

Coral seems so peaceful and passive, rippling in the currents of the sea in all its colorful beauty. It’s easy to forget that it’s actually an animal and not a plant. But, perhaps this photo will remind you – captured on a dive in Israel in March, it’s the first documentation of coral feeding on a jellyfish.

From BBC News:

Ocean currents and nutrients had created a seasonal bloom of the jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) and many surrounded the reef in which the team were diving.

It was then they saw the strange behaviour.

“During the survey we were amazed to notice some mushroom corals actively feeding on the moon jellyfish,” says Ada Alamaru, a member of the research team who is doing her PhD in marine biology supervised by Prof Yossi Loya at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw it,” Ms Alamaru says.

Researchers believe that coral’s ability to survive on a variety of food sources may give it an advantage in a changing world – and it’s going to need it. Reefs are increasingly threatened by climate change, particularly increased air and sea surface temperatures, rises in sea level, changes in weather patterns and changes in seawater chemistry.

But acidification of the world’s oceans from human CO2 emissions is an extremely formidable opponent for coral to face, and it’s hard to say right now whether they’ll make it through the fight.

Link [BBC News]

Shocking Photos: Bird Bodies Full of Plastic

Lighters, bottle caps, plastic bags and milk jugs. Fishing net, fishing line, zip ties, remnants of food containers. All of this and more floats in a massive vortex of trash in the Pacific Ocean – and in the stomachs of the birds who search for food amid the debris.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas, and many of the particles of plastic contained within it are so small they can’t be scooped out of the water. But other pieces – colorful pieces that look like they might be food – get swallowed by albatross and other birds.

Photographer Chris Jordan traveled to the Midway Islands, near the center of the garbage patch, to photograph the bodies of albatross chicks that have been inadvertently killed when their confused parents fed them plastic. Jordan didn’t move a single piece of plastic – he photographed the carcasses exactly as he found them.

The photos are a disturbing reminder of just how much of an effect our throwaway society is having upon our fellow inhabitants of this planet. Head over to Planet Green to view the whole set of 30 photographs.

Link [Planet Green]

Ancient, Bizarre New Species of Ghostshark Discovered

The Eastern Pacific Black Ghostshark is a bizarre, highly unusual, newly discovered species… yet it was found off the coast of California. This ‘chimaera’ is part of an ancient and strange group of fish that branched off from sharks, in terms of evolution, nearly 400 million years ago. They’re normally found in deep waters.

From Science Daily:

The new species, the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark (Hydrolagus melanophasma), was described in the September issue of the international journal Zootaxa by a research team including Academy Research Associates David Ebert and Douglas J. Long. Additional co-authors included Kelsey James, a graduate student at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and Dominique Didier from Millersville University in Pennsylvania. This is the first new species of cartilaginous fish to be described from California waters since 1947.

This new species belongs to the genus Hydrolagus, Latin for ‘water rabbit’ because of its grinding tooth plates reminiscent of a rabbit’s incisor teeth. This new species was originally collected as early as the mid 1960s, but went unnamed until this year because its taxonomic relationships were unclear. A large blackish-purple form, Hydrolagus melanophasma (melanophasma is Latin for ‘black ghost’), is found in deep water from the coast of Southern California, along the western coast of Baja California, and into the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California). This species is known from a total of nine preserved museum specimens, and from video footage taken of it alive by a deep-water submersible in the Sea of Cortez.

Deep sea creatures are so fascinating, aren’t they? Finding new species is always fun, but it’s even more interesting when they are so ancient and have remained mostly unchanged for millenia. The sea is packed with so many amazing, mysterious things.

Link [Science Daily]

Crazy Tongue-Eating Parasite Found Off Jersey Coast

It sounds like something out of a bad horror flick: “Bizarre Tongue-Eating Parasite Discovered Off Jersey Coast!” But that’s an actual headline from Treehugger and they’ve got pictures to prove it. This ghastly little critter attacks a fish, burrows into it, eats its tongue and then proceeds to live in its mouth.

From Treehugger:

While the isopod, a kind of louse, has been known to exist for a while now, discoveries of live specimens is rare. The BBC reports that “Fishermen near the Minquiers – islands under the jurisdiction of Jersey – found the isopod, a type of louse, inside a weaver fish.” So no, the tongue-eater wasn’t found in that Jersey. The Jersey Shore is still tongue replacing creature-free, if you stateside Northeasterners were worried about the thing ruining your late summer vacationing.

Not that you’d have to be too concerned anyways–the isopod isn’t a threat to humans in the slightest, though it’s reportedly vicious, and can deliver quite a little bite. One of the fishermen who found the creature described it thus: “Really quite large, really quite hideous – if you turn it over its got dozens of these really sharp, nasty claws underneath and I thought ‘that’s a bit of a nasty beast’.”

A bit of a nasty beast, indeed. This thing is pretty sick, but it’s also yet another amazing example of the vast variety of creatures that exist on this planet.

Link [Treehugger]
Photo credit: Clever Cherry

Could Salting Clouds Buy Precious Time in Fight Against Global Warming?

Once considered a risky last resort, geoengineering is becoming more accepted as a possible way to slow down global warming – but that doesn’t mean some of the ideas scientists are coming up with don’t sound downright kooky to the layman. One proposal involves lightening clouds with salt to improve their ability to reflect sunlight.

Scientist John Latham suggested that increasing the number of droplets in maritime layer clouds (stratocumulus), which cover a third of the ocean, could significantly increase their reflectance.

From BBC News:

The water droplets in clouds reflect solar radiation back to space. And the numbers of droplets they contain are largely controlled by the number of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), such as specks of dust.

Many of these nuclei are produced over the land. Land-locked clouds therefore contain many hundreds of cloud droplets per cubic centimetre, whilst clouds that form over the sea contain substantially fewer.

Generally, the more droplets that are present in a cloud, the smaller they are. For a given mass of water in a cloud, clouds with smaller droplets tend to be whiter.

So the proposal is to inject a fine spray of sea salt from the ocean surface into the clouds; to artificially increase the number of drops, reduce their size and increase the reflectance of the clouds, making them whiter.

The cooling that could result from this experiment could buy us 25 years in the battle against global warming – certainly, a lot of precious time to make other changes that could improve the outlook. But this method will take quite a bit of testing to get it just right, including experiments to determine the ideal size of the sea-salt nuclei. Research is expected to cost about $10 million.

So how exactly would we go about salting clouds? Edinburgh University scientist Stephen Salter (yes, that’s really his name) suggested a fleet of “cloudseeders”, wind-powered yachts that would inject the clouds with sea salt.

Link [BBC News]
Photo credit: John McNeill via WFS.org

Global Warming Could Cause Tilt in Earth’s Axis

Oceans warmed by the rise in greenhouse gas levels could cause the Earth’s axis to tilt, according to a new study by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Researchers say the tilt would be significant enough to create a large shift in the distribution of the Earth’s mass, especially when combined with the tilt being caused by the melting of Greenland’s ice.

From New Scientist:

The researchers modelled the changes that would occur if moderate projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – a doubling of carbon dioxide levels between 2000 and 2100 – were to become reality.

The team found that as the oceans warm and expand, more water will be pushed up and onto the Earth’s shallower ocean shelves. Over the next century, the subtle effect is expected to cause the northern pole of Earth’s spin axis to shift by roughly 1.5 centimetres per year in the direction of Alaska and Hawaii.

Luckily, the effect is expected to be relatively small, and shouldn’t induce any negative feedback in the planet’s climate. It just needs to be taken into account when interpreting shifts in Earth’s axis.

Still, this should be a strong message to those who still insist that we insignificant little humans can’t affect the planet we live on to a great extent. We may be relatively unimportant in the scheme of things, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t capable of causing some serious changes.

Link [New Scientist]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Marine Scientists Studying Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The gigantic swirling mass of trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean will finally get some much-deserved scientific attention as 30 researchers, technicians and crew members embark on a 3-week journey to study how much debris is collecting in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’.

The California marine scientists left the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, based at the University of California at San Diego, Sunday on a 170-foot ship called ‘New Horizon’.

From the Matter Network:

The focus of the study will be on plankton, other microorganisms, small fish and birds.

“The concern is what kind of impact those plastic bits are having on the small critters on the low end of the ocean food chain,” Bob Knox, deputy director of research at Scripps, said on Monday after the ship had spent its first full day at sea.

The 170-foot vessel New Horizon is equipped with a laboratory for on-board research, but scientists also will bring back samples for further study.

Besides the potential harm to sea life caused by ingesting bits of plastic, the expedition team will look at whether the particles could carry other pollutants, such as pesticides, far out to sea, and whether tiny organisms attached to the debris could be transported to distant regions and thus become invasive species.

The garbage patch is located about 1,000 miles off the coast of California and is estimated to be the size of Texas. Scientists believe it’s largely caused by trash that washes down storm drains and rivers from places like San Francisco and Japan, which is pulled together into one mass by ocean currents.

Also setting sail for the garbage patch is Project Kaisei, a nonprofit team that will be examining the largest area of the vortex with the intent of collecting and studying plastic and other debris. The Kaisei ship left San Francisco yesterday. Keep tabs on their progress at ProjectKaisei.org.

Link [Matter Network] + [Project Kaisei]
Photo credit: Hope for Gaia

Injured Sea Turtle Gets Prosthetic Flippers

A 20-year-old endangered loggerhead turtle who became ensnared in fishermen’s nets and was attacked by a shark will be with prosthetic flippers to replace the limbs she lost.

The turtle, named Yu-Chan, was due to be released back into the wild after rehabilitation at the Sea Turtle Association of Japan until concerned citizens objected, saying she wouldn’t be able to survive without her two front limbs. So, the association turned to Japan’s largest prosthetic limb manufacturer to see if they could help.

Yu-Chan’s new prosthetic flippers are made from polypropylene plastic and stainless steel supports, and she’ll get to try them out this summer. The prosthetic company, Kawamura Gishi, says they’re still in the development stage and that they are still working on an effective way to attach the prosthetics to the remains of Yu-Chan’s front limbs.

Check out the video at National Geographic.

Link [National Geographic]

Overfishing Not Fishermen’s Fault, Say ‘Deadliest Catch’ Seamen

Overfishing is a huge environmental problem – the world’s oceans are losing their stocks of fish at a dramatic pace. Almost 80% of fish stock is fully- to over-exploited, depleted or in a state of collapse, which means bad news for the entire ocean ecosystem and the humans that depend upon fish for survival. Schools of fish are no match for the fishing industry’s modern technology, and many blame fishermen for unsustainable fishing practices.

Not so fast, say the stars of The Discovery Channel’s reality series ‘Deadliest Catch’. In a Reuters report, several of the show’s boat captains assert that small commercial fishermen shouldn’t take the fall for the problem.

Several fishing boat captains from the Emmy-nominated cable TV show say government bodies and fisheries need to set wiser fishing quotas to ensure healthy fish populations and a balanced food chain. The show’s fifth season finale airs on Tuesday on the Discovery Channel cable television network.

“When things go wrong, the fishermen get blamed, but the truth is we are only fishing what they tell us we can fish,” captain Phil Harris told Reuters, referring to the quotas that Alaskan crab fisherman like him are given at the beginning of each season setting limits to how much they can catch.

“It makes me so angry when people talk about overfishing. We have never overfished, they give us a quota and we catch it,” said captain Andy Hillstrand, who heads his family-owned vessel the “Time Bandit.” “People call fishermen greedy, but it is not their job to regulate it.”

For years, the fishing industry has rewarded large-scale operations for capturing vast quantities of fish – so they worked on methods and technology that would help them catch the largest amounts possible.

When the European Union put strict fishing quotas in place, unscrupulous fishermen responded by catching as many as they could and then dumping the less valuable species and smaller fish – which were dead by this point – back into the ocean to avoid fines.  Fishermen claimed it was the only way they could make a living with such “ridiculously low quotas”.

Scientists, environmentalists and the commercial fishing industry have been unable to agree on a solution that works for everyone.

Link [Reuters]

Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Smaller Than Expected

Good news doesn’t come as often as we’d like nowadays, so it’s nice to be able to report that this year’s Gulf of Mexico dead zone isn’t nearly as large as experts thought it would be. NOAA-sponsored forecast models predicted that it would be bigger than usual at 7,000 – 8,000 square miles, but the actual size is about 3,000 square miles.

However, the change in square miles doesn’t mean it’s any less severe than usual. In fact, it’s worse. This year’s dead zone is “unusually thick”, reaching from the ocean floor almost to the surface of the water. And the smaller size doesn’t mean that the amount of pesticide-laden runoff that causes the dead zone in the first place has decreased.

From PhysOrg, via Treehugger:

“The results of the 2009 cruise at first glance are hopeful, but the smaller than expected area of hypoxia appears to be related to short-term weather patterns before measurements were taken, not a reduction in the underlying cause, excessive nutrient runoff.” said Robert Magnien, PhD., director of NOAA’s Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. “The smaller area measured by this one cruise, therefore, does not represent a trend and in no way diminishes the need for a harder look at efforts to reduce nutrient runoff.”

The average size of the dead zone over the past five years, including this cruise, is now 6,000 square miles. The interagency Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River Watershed Nutrient Task Force has a goal to reduce or make significant progress toward reducing this dead zone average to 2,000 square miles or less by 2015. The Task Force uses a five year average due to relatively high interannual variability.

The solution is reducing fertilizer use on farms along the Mississippi River. When too much fertilizer is applied, the excess runs off into the river and is carried all the way to the Gulf, depriving the waters of oxygen and making them unlivable for most marine life. Treehugger reports that one proposed solution is crop biodiversity, which would cut down on the need for chemicals on farms.

Link [Phys Org] via [Treehugger]
Photo credit: NOAA

Subway Car Reef Project Fails Spectacularly

In an ECO FAIL of grand proportions, the project that aimed to recycle used subway cars into habitats for marine life has ultimately resulted in more junk floating around in the ocean. New Jersey paid millions to have the old subway cars shipped from other states and sunk into the ocean off the coast of Delaware, but the stainless steel cars quickly disintegrated.

Only two of the 48 cars that were submerged are still upright and intact. The Press of Atlantic City spoke to Darlene Yuhas, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had estimated they would serve as good reef habitat for 25 to 30 years.

“All the evidence suggested they would be long-lasting. In fact, the EPA data was these cars should last 25 years,” Yuhas said.

Other East Coast states that took the subway cars have reported similar problems.

The state DEP has done more surveys since February and has decided to end the program after cars were only deployed at the Atlantic City Reef and the Cape May Reef, which is about 9.1 nautical miles off Cold Spring Inlet. Cars had been earmarked for three other reefs, including the Shark River, Garden State South and Deepwater reefs, before the termination.

“We did in fact notify the New York Transit Authority that we would no longer be accepting their cars,” Yuhas said.

As Shea Gunther points out over at MNN, we tried something like this before and made a big mess instead of helping marine life. The tires that were dumped into the sea off Florida’s coast in the 1970s to act as an artificial reef broke apart and caused damage to actual living reefs nearby. It’s probably just not a great idea to dump our crap into the oceans, no matter what it’s made out of.

Link [MNN] + [Press of Atlantic City]
Photo credit: NJ.com

Sheep Poo Canoe Headed for France… If it Doesn’t Sink First

A pair of intrepid Welsh entrepreneurs will be paddling across the English Channel in a canoe they made from a mixture of recycled paper and sheep poo. Lez Paylor and Lawrence Toms covered a canoe frame in the sheep poo paper and a paste made from flour and water, and waterproofed it using beeswax and soya bean extract resin.

Though the two Welshmen, whose paper company Creative Paper Wales makes the sheep poo paper, tested the canoe recently, Toms isn’t confident that it’ll make it to France.

From BBC News:

“I’m not even confident it will operate in a bath!” he said.

“It was my business partner [Lez Paylor] who built it. I’ve been training in a swimming pool so I can swim 15 miles in cold water!”

The Bala maiden voyage supported some of Mr Toms’ concerns. Despite managing about five miles (8km), a small leak had caused a soggy patch about the size and shape of a sheep, he said.

The pair will attempt to cross anyway in the hopes of raising money for the Wales Air Ambulance.

“Rural Wales really depends on the air ambulance and if we can do something entirely preposterous and raise them a few quid, it would be a nice way to give something back,” he said.

Link [BBC News]
Photo credit: BBC News

7 (More!) Environmental Problems That Are Worse Than We Thought

How have humans managed to royally screw up the world? Let us count the ways. We already covered mammal extinction, the ocean dead zones, collapsing fish stock, destruction of the rainforest, polar sea ice loss, rising CO2 levels and the fact that there’s way too many of us in the first place. But those certainly aren’t the only pressing environmental problems facing the earth – here are seven more. And yes, most of them are our own damn fault.

Chemical Contamination

(image via: China.org.cn)

Heavy metals. Radioactive waste. Pesticides. Hormones. Pharmaceuticals. Industrial chemicals. The list goes on and on.

These substances – many of them toxic and carcinogenic – are present in our water, our food, our air and our bodies. They come from factories, improperly discarded electronics, ships, hospitals, vehicles and even human waste. They’re causing disease and deformities, creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs and causing fish to spontaneously switch genders. They’re killing animals and forever altering the ecology of the earth.

All of these years of progress are catching up to us. When these substances first came into use, few people questioned whether they might have adverse effects on human health or the environment. But decades later, federal health officials acknowledge that environmental carcinogens account for 55 to 60 percent of all U.S. cancer cases annually.

Despite the fact that scientists are now speaking out about the dangers of accumulating these substances in our bodies over a lifetime, the industries responsible for the contamination have largely gotten off scot-free thanks in large part to extremely persistent lobbying of federal agencies like the EPA.

Air Pollution

(image via: Flickr user Simone Ramella)

In some places, air pollution makes its presence known, billowing from power plants and vehicles and hovering above cities in giant, hazy brown clouds. In others, it’s an unseen enemy, damaging the ozone layer and building up in our lungs with every breath we take.

Some of the major pollutants in the air that are caused by human activity include sulfur oxides from industrial processes, nitrogen oxides from high temperature combustion, carbon monoxide from car exhaust and burning fuel, particulate matter, organic volatile compounds, toxic metals, chlorofluorocarbons, ammonia and radioactive pollutants. Many of these pollutants contribute to global warming and threaten the health of trees, lakes, crops, and animals.

In cities where air pollution is particularly excessive, such as New Delhi, India, there is a low birth rate and high possibility of children developing asthma, pneumonia and other respiratory infections. According to the World Health Organization, 2.4 million people die annually from causes that can be directly attributed to air pollution. In the Los Angeles Basin and San Joaquin Valley of Southern California alone, 3800 people die prematurely each year from exposure to high air pollution levels.

A recent study found that even minor improvements in air quality can tack up to 5 months onto the average person’s life expectancy.

Habitat Loss

(image via: MongaBay)

As our population has expanded, we’ve spread into the countryside, cutting down forests and driving out wildlife at an alarming pace. We’ve built cities, suburbs, highways, power plants, and farms and in the process, we have destroyed over half of the world’s forests. Even now, they’re being removed at a rate of ten times higher than any possible level of regrowth.

As a result, thousands of species have become extinct or endangered. Habitat loss is a main threat to 85% of all species on the IUCN ‘Red List’.

In 1992, “some 1,700 of the world’s leading scientists, including the majority of the Nobel laureates in the sciences”, put forth this dire warning:

Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about…. WARNING we the undersigned, senior members of the world’s scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it, is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.

Things have only gotten much, much worse since then.

One quarter of all mammals, one third of amphibians and one eighth or birds are considered threatened or endangered. Recent news stories have noted the dire effects of habitat loss on creatures like butterflies, frogs, songbirds, apes and a variety of plants.

As each species dies, the earth suffers a loss to its rich biodiversity, which is needed for continued ecosystem survival. The complex and delicate tapestry of life within a given ecosystem contributes to nutrients and water cycling, soil formation and retention, pollination of plants, resistance against invasive species, regulation of climate and pest and pollution control. When some links in the chain go missing, the entire ecosystem is drastically affected.

Water Crisis

(image via: Wikimedia Commons)

Water: it’s essential for all life forms, and when there’s not enough of it, the suffering is acute. Crops fail. People die, both of thirst and of the violence that breaks out when there’s not enough to go around. Water wars are already happening in places like India, where people have been killed just trying to secure enough water to survive. It’s a worldwide problem, but it’s worse in third world countries and it’s going to escalate further with climate change.

Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water is readily accessible for human consumption. It’s a commodity, and one that is increasingly overconsumed in rich countries while the rest of the world goes without. A large contributing factor is the disproportionate pollution of drinking water supplies in third world countries where cleanup is too expensive to attempt. But even here in America, we’re slowly learning the value of an element that we’ve long taken for granted as populations in the arid Southwest live the reality of severe drought.

Approximately one in eight people in the world lack access to safe water supplies and at any given time, and 4,500 children die as a result every single day. Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease like malaria and dysentery.

The rapidly increasing human population will put an even bigger strain on water supplies, forcing us to stretch a finite resource between 40% – 50% more people.

Desertification

(image via: Walrus Magazine)

As we’ve expanded into areas of the world that can barely support a human population, we’ve stretched the land’s ability to provide for us to the breaking point. We have exhausted the soil through overcultivation and shortsighted agricultural methods. We have removed far too many trees, causing severe soil erosion and landslides. We have raised too many livestock animals and allowed them to overgraze on formerly green land that is now stripped and brown.

All of these things cause desertification, which, like many other environmental problems, is exacerbated by climate change. This destruction of the topsoil that we rely on to feed us causes staggering economic losses of more than $40 billion per year, and the starvation of millions of people.

Once arable land is converted to desert, conditions that intensify wildfires are created.  Dust from these dry lands are blown across the world – from Africa to as far away as the United States – causing health problems and boosting death rates. And once desertification occurs, the change is permanent on a human time scale – as far as we’re concerned, that land will never support the same vegetation that it did in the past.

Ocean Acidification

(image via: Inventor Spot)

All around the world, from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the shallow waters of the Caribbean, something is happening to sea water that’s causing large-scale coral casualties and dramatically altering ocean ecology: acidification.

The world’s oceans absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making the water more acidic as the gas dissolves to create carbonic acid. The more CO2 is present in the atmosphere, the more acidic the oceans get. As a result, ocean chemistry is changing 100 times more rapidly than in the 650,000 years that preceded the modern industrial era.

So what exactly does that mean for sea life? Science Daily explains:

This increased acidity can hamper the ability of a wide variety of marine organisms ranging from coral to abalone to form calcium carbonate shells and skeletonal structures. Researchers believe that at crucial stages in the larval and juvenile stages in the lives of many marine invertebrates, ocean acidification inhibits calcification, and also appears to affect reproduction and growth in some organisms.

Scientists are still studying the impacts that acidification is having on ocean ecosystems, but some of the negative effects are already clear. Acidification has made some areas of the ocean unfriendly to many types of fish, but jellyfish still flourish – thus, the huge overpopulation of jellyfish in places like the Sea of Japan. It’s also eroding coral reefs at a disturbingly rapid pace.

“Ocean acidification is happening today and it’s happening on top of global warming, so we are in double trouble,” says Jelle Bijma, chair of the EuroCLIMATE programme Scientific Committee and a biogeochemist at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute Bremerhaven.

In February of 2009, more than 150 leading marine scientists from 26 countries called for immediate legislative action to reduce C02 emissions so that we could prevent this problem from getting even worse. Unfortunately, efforts to come to an international agreement about lowering greenhouse gas emissions – including the recent G8 summit in Rome – have thus far been unsuccessful.

Disposable Culture

(image via: Idiocracy/20th Century Fox)

The concept of a one-use item reportedly started back in 1892 when William Painter, founder of the Baltimore Bottle Seal Company, patented the disposable bottle cap. At the time, people thought the idea was strange: you take it off the bottle and throw it in the trash? Really? Surely there’s another use for it.

How times have changed. Now, entire store aisles are devoted to one-use items and even large goods like furniture, vehicles and electronics aren’t made to last. Just try to get your toaster fixed when it goes on the fritz and you’ll find that repair is more expensive and inconvenient than simply buying a new one. Manufacturers like it that way: it means we keep their assembly lines running and their pockets stuffed with cash. Why should they make products that will last a lifetime and beyond if they can give it a three-year lifespan and get paid for it again and again?

Of course, all of those broken and unwanted items are put to the curb never to be seen again, at least by their former owners. And the amount of stuff that we send to landfills every year is staggering. The average American discards seven and a half pounds of trash every day, for a collective total of over 255 million tons of household waste each and every year. Since 1980, total waste generation in the U.S. has more than doubled.

It’s not like this stuff ever goes away. We’re not dumping it into a black hole. We’re piling it up on land that could be used for a far better purpose, or merely throwing it into the ocean. At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising if we covered the entire planet in trash within a century or two. For some reason, this doesn’t seem to bother most people – they’re content to let other people deal with it, like the poor communities that get saddled with all of our carcinogenic electronic waste, or our great-grandchildren.

And, despite the fact that 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, our actual recycling rate is only about 33%. Not that recycling is the answer to our problems. We’re producing way too much stuff to even be able to use all of it once it was turned into something else, and the process of recycling can be very energy-intensive.

The answer is in changing our mindset. We’ve been duped into selling the health of the planet for a moment’s convenience, convinced that doing things the old fashioned way is archaic and unnecessary. But what’s really unnecessary – and tragic – is our addiction to waste, and the consequences that are yet to come.

Greenpeace Knocks “Traitor Joe’s” for Unsustainable Seafood

“Traitor Joe’s: Your one-stop shop for ocean destruction.” That’s what Greenpeace branded specialty retailer Trader Joe’s after they were rated dead last among 9 supermarket chains on seafood sustainability. Trader Joe’s scored lower than Winn-Dixie and Wal-Mart because it serves red list fish.

Fish on the red list is either imperiled, or comes from fisheries that harm other sea creatures like turtles, dolphins, seals and sea lions. Among those on the list are Atlantic Cod, Orange Roughy, red snapper, Chilean sea bass, grouper and yellowfin tuna.

Greenpeace sent out protesters dressed as Orange Roughy to the Trader Joe’s in San Francisco, urging the company to stop its environmentally unfriendly practices.

Click ‘Go’ below to watch a quick animated video:

From the Traitor Joe website:

Hello friends. Traitor Joe here. I’m up to my eyeballs in red list seafood. There is so much in my stores that I bet there is nothing left in the oceans. That’s the beauty about red list species. They are doing so badly in the oceans that they need extra help and conservation in order to survive. But will I help save them? Heck no! I need to make a profit and if that means I am helping these dwindling fish stocks to go extinct, oh well. I’ll still sleep at night.

After all, you’d never know my seafood was caught in ways that endanger ocean habitats and other marine creatures. Why? I conveniently leave the labels off my seafood. Ha, ha ha. Pretty good trick, right? My customers never know what they are really buying. That way I can pass the guilt on to you, so you can help me turn the oceans into a giant, empty bathtub without ever knowing. How’s that for giving my customers what they want?

As Greenpeace notes, Trader Joe’s could escape the harsh spotlight easily by removing all red list seafood from its stores. After all, their core customer base cares deeply about the environment – and is it really smart to alienate them?

The other retailers that have made no visible effort whatsoever to increase the sustainability of their seafood operations include Aldi, Costco, Giant Eagle, H. E. B., Meijer, Price Chopper, Publix and Winn-Dixie.

Wegmans, Ahold, Whole Foods, and Target were praised for their efforts to improve.

Link [Traitor Joe] via [Marc Gunther]

Who’s Who in Green: Christopher Swain

Some of Christopher Swain’s earliest memories are of the Atlantic Ocean. He has long loved to swim, wade, snorkel, bodyboard and run in the waves. But as an adult, he’s swimming for a cause as often as he swims for pleasure. Swain swims the entire length of dirty waterways like the Hudson, the Charles and the Columbia Rivers to raise awareness about water issues on our planet.

And these are not pleasant, leisurely swims. He’s dodged injury and death many times in the process, surviving collisions with boats, 12-foot waves, lightning storms, class IV+ rapids, giant storage dams, industrial chemicals, nuclear waste, oil slicks, raw sewage, toxic blue-green algae, and repeated Sea Lamprey Eel attacks.

In 2003, Swain became the first person to swim the entire 1,243 mile length of the Columbia River. The purpose of the swim was to raise awareness about dislocated peoples and disrupted ecosystems of the Columbia River basin. His swim is the subject of the critically-acclaimed documentary SOURCE TO SEA: the Columbia River Swim, which received the Environmental Activism and Social Justice Award at the EarthVision Film Festival, and the Most Inspiring Adventure Film Award at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival.

In April 2009, Swain began a 1000+ mile swim down the Atlantic Coast from Marblehead, Massachusetts to Washington, DC, helping students in over 2,000 classrooms launch projects designed to improve the health of our ocean planet. Swain is taking the swim one segment at a time, and you can follow his progress at Changents.com/ChristopherSwain.

Swain told The Sierra Club,

“If you’re in the business of conservation, you’ve got a responsibility to get outside. You’re not doing your job if you don’t. It’s not about e-mail blasts. It’s about what you can go out there and experience and come back and testify to. If you look at the people who’ve really done anything–John Muir, David Brower, Rachel Carson–you can feel it in their writing. Your credibility is going to come from your experience.”

Want to help Christopher on his journey? Adopt a mile of his swim.

Christopher Swain’s Green Score: 40,254

This Year’s Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Might be Bigger than Ever

Every summer, a vast, oxygen-deprived ‘dead zone’ appears in the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of runoff from Midwestern farms that travels down the Mississippi River. But this year, scientists say, that dead zone could be bigger than ever.

Farmland runoff containing fertilizers and livestock waste flood the Gulf with nitrogen and phosphorous, which fuel explosive algae growth. When that algae dies and sinks to the sea floor, bacteria consume vast amounts of oxygen while eating the decomposing organic matter. That creates a ‘hypoxic’ zone where very few sea creatures can survive.

From Science Daily:

University of Michigan aquatic ecologist Donald Scavia and his colleagues say this year’s Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” could be one of the largest on record, continuing a decades-long trend that threatens the health of a half-billion-dollar fishery.

The scientists’ latest forecast, released June 18, calls for a Gulf dead zone of between 7,450 and 8,456 square miles—an area about the size of New Jersey.

“The growth of these dead zones is an ecological time bomb,” said Scavia, a professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment and director of the U-M Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute.

“Without determined local, regional and national efforts to control them, we are putting major fisheries at risk,” said Scavia, who also produces annual dead-zone forecasts for the Chesapeake Bay.

It’s possible that this year’s dead zone will be roughly the same size as last year’s, but that will still mean that the five largest dead zones on record have occurred since 2001, a clear sign that the problem is getting much worse. The dead zone’s official size will be announced following an NOAA-supported monitoring survey on July 18th – 26th.

Link [Science Daily]
Photo credit: NASA

End of the Line: We’ll be Out of Fish by 2050

Imagine a world without fish. Such a scenario wouldn’t just affect what ends up on your dinner plate – it would have global consequences, from dramatic changes in ocean ecosystems to worldwide famine.

The End of the Line, a documentary revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans, examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.

From the End of the Line website:

Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048.

The End of the Line chronicles how demand for cod off the coast of Newfoundland in the early 1990s led to the decimation of the most abundant cod population in the world, how hi-tech fishing vessels leave no escape routes for fish populations and how farmed fish as a solution is a myth.

The film lays the responsibility squarely on consumers who innocently buy endangered fish, politicians who ignore the advice and pleas of scientists, fishermen who break quotas and fish illegally, and the global fishing industry that is slow to react to an impending disaster.

The End of the Line points to solutions that are simple and doable, but political will and activism are crucial to solve this international problem.

In six exclusive episodes at Babelgum.com, director Rupert Murray takes us behind the scenes and deeper into the issues raised by the film. You can also check out video extras, get info about screenings in your area and learn more about what you can do to help.

Link [End of the Line]

Ditch Antibacterial Soap and Help Save Dolphins!

Hey, we meant well when we began our national obsession with antibacterial soaps and hand gels. We thought it was smart to kill germs in the hopes of preventing the spread of viruses, but unfortunately, antibacterial agents like Triclosan may do more harm than good, causing the evolution of super-germs and contaminating wildlife like bottlenose dolphins.

A recent study found Triclosan in the blood of bottlenose dolphins tested in South Carolina and Florida waters. It’s unknown just how this contamination might affect the creatures, but it’s probably not a good thing.

From The Daily Green:

How could this be? The waters tested have sewage plants, and the water flowing out of our pipes is laced with triclosan. It’s found in a variety of products: antibacterial soaps, most notably, but also in personal care products, socks, cutting boards, garbage bags and other products — any product that a manufacturer sees benefits by killing bacteria to reduce odor or increase shelf life.

When it comes to soap, experts agree that vigorously washing with regular soap and warm water for enough time to sing the “ABCs” is more effective than using a chemical to kill bacteria, and has none of the unintended side effects. Those unintended side effects, in addition to contaminating dolphins, including contaminating other marine life and helping bacteria to evolve resistance to antibiotics. Studies have found that it accumulates in the human body, too, and is found in most Americans at about the same level it was found in dolphins. It may be an endocrine disrupting chemical, meaning it mimics human hormones and may contribute to a variety of diseases and health issues.

Some researchers say that antibacterial agents like Triclosan interfere with the nervous system, and they’re being investigated as a potential cause of autism.

There are plenty of alternatives to antibacterial soap that work just as well. Or, you could just chill out and live in harmony with germs. Remember, not all bacteria is bad. Exposure to household germs can help you develop a stronger immune system. Being clean is enough, being germ-free is overkill.

Link [The Daily Green]
Photo credit: National Geographic

Planet Green Going Blue This August

Planet Green, the television channel devoted to all things sustainable, is going blue this August with programming dedicated to the beauty and mystery of the aquatic. Water and ocean-themed television shows and documentaries will play all August long, including the network premiere of the ‘Blue Planet’ series, new episodes of ‘Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff’ and the world premiere of NRDC’s documentary about ocean acidification.

Here’s a sneak peek at the details:

Hosts Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau draw on the half-century legacy of their legendary family of explorers. These dynamic siblings have dedicated their life’s work to advocacy on behalf of the oceans, conservation and clean water, undoubtedly one of the most daunting and important challenges of our time. Philippe and Alexandra bring their engaging personalities, individual expertise and experience to Blue August through short-form content and entertaining hosted segments throughout the month

Poignant and vivid programming including the network premiere of the award-winning series Blue Planet, a special oceans-themed episode of Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff and the world premiere of Acid Test: The Challenge of Ocean Acidification, an original, groundbreaking documentary by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) featuring Sigourney Weaver. View the trailer for Acid Test at (http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/blue-august.html) and find out more about the film and ocean acidification at www.nrdc.org

All month long on planetgreen.com, readers can engage with a broad range of original content from viewing slideshows of jaw-dropping waves to voting for your favorite sea creature to Beach Tips 101. Get involved with volunteer activities, get informed with buying guides and get started using everyday actions with big impact

TreeHugger.com goes deep with a comprehensive look at the state of our oceans and clean water, with the latest politics, opinion, and news. Interviews and special features with thought leaders and experts explore the present challenges and future solutions for a healthy blue planet

Get more info over at PlanetGreen.com!

Link [Planet Green]

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