“Millions Spent in Albany Fight to Drill for Gas”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/nyregion/hydrofracking-debate-spurs-huge-spending-by-industry.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=government%20talks%20about%20hydrofracking&st=cse

The decision for New York State has been a hot topic for the past few months regarding Andrew Como’s decision regarding whether or not natural gas extraction should take place in New York State. The decision for the Governor should be an easy one considering natural gas extracting from the hydrofracking process has been linked to several hundred water contamination accidents throughout the country where hydrofracking does take place. However, Como’s decision could be tainted considering the $3.2 million that natural gas companies have contributed to in lobbying for natural gas to become acceptable in New York State. Additionally Como has labeled himself as a person who cares deeply with not only job creation which could result from gas companies developing in new York State, but also someone determined to helping the environment. However, the issue taking place in Albany is not exclusive to New York Stare, but gas companies have also spent millions lobbying for the same things in other states such as Texas, Pennsylvania, and Ohio where there is also a considerable amount of shale formation.

This article gives insight to both the environmental awareness groups along with the natural gas companies who believe could make exceedingly high profits if the bill is passed. One of the complications environmental awareness groups see within the hydrofracking debate is the fact that companies are not required to say which chemicals they use when fracking, which makes it nearly impossible for people to link water contamination accidents to the companies.

This article ties in closely with class discussion on two different aspects. The fact that the reason why gas companies don’t need to submit the chemicals they use is because stated in the safe drinking water act there is what many like to describe as the Halliburton loophole. The loophole said that companies are not required to release the chemicals they are using. Additionally it also relates to the precautionary principal which states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public, or the environment that the burden to making sure no on is harmed falls on the people making taking the action. Additionally the action should not be taken if the consequences are uncertain and potentially dangerous.

"How animals predict earthquakes" By Victoria Gill from the BBC, 1 December 2011 Last updated at 01:53

This article is about the observed phenomena surrounding animal behavior and natural disasters. The researchers began to investigate strange behavior in toads in L'Aquila , Italy. The ninety-six toads abandoned their pond breeding colony in a period of three days.

The research team led by Friedemann Freund and Rachel Grant had their findings published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. In the journal article, they suggested stressed rock can release charged particles that can react with water and the air.

The mechanism described suggested the charged particles would ionize air molecules and create hydrogen peroxide in water. the reaction could cause a bigger chain reaction that could turn harmless organic matter into organic matter toxic to aquatic animals. laboratory tests suggested the changes to the water and air could be connected to the stressed rock.

I find this article to be very interesting! This would be another case where natural designs work better than modern man made made tools and understanding! These toads were able to predict an earthquake more accurately and precisely than the six scientists put on trial for failing to predict the same earthquake in Italy.

If more tests were done on the proposed mechanism and all of them led to the same conclusion, this could be a breakthrough in earthquake prediction. A large part of what would be needed to be done would be testing the air for a certain amount of ionization, testing the water for a certain amount of hydrogen peroxide, and looking for and tracking the amount of inhabitants a body of water may or should have.

As this news article states,"Friedemann Freund from Nasa and Rachel Grant from the UK's Open University hope their hypothesis will inspire biologists and geologists to work together". This is very significant for science. Imagine two scientists from very different disciplines. One studies things that are alive and the other one studies things that aren't alive. Both of them will now have something in common to study and a common goal to achieve.

I find this news article to be very interesting and hope there will be more studies on it to either discredit the hypothesis or reinforce the hypothesis even more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15945014

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9593123.stm

At Meeting on Climate Change, Urgent Issues but Low Expectations

Yesterday John Broder of the New York Times reported on the expectations of the 17th conference of the United Nations convention on Climate Change. Delegates from 194 nations gathered today in Durban, South Africa to address the dangerous climate changes and the increase of natural disasters that have lead to economic devastation. Four key points will be addressed that is sure to cause some debate. First are the obligations of developing nations and who will help poor nations to adapt? This brings up the discussion of the need and demand for clean technology. Last, there is an urgency to protect tropical forests, which contain high levels of bio-diversity which make them hotspots that must be preserved. While discussing solutions and future progress, the conference is hindered by skepticism of those who do not believe in global warming/climate change. Unfortunately these skeptics come from the United States Congress, whose support is greatly needed to make great changes.
Scientists believe that arguing will only delay what needs to be done by all to reduce emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released a detailed assessment of future extreme climate events (drought, floods, cyclones, etc.) if something is not done quickly by the global community. Broder wraps up his article by reflecting on the past conferences that had little impact on the global community. The Kyoto Protocol that was established in 1997 was the first major global effort to reduce emissions. Unfortunately this only made a small dent in making a much needed difference due to the lack of support from the United States Government.
It is very interesting how the global community has spent the past 20 yrs arguing over what must be done when the answers are there all along. Everyday new technology is invented to produce clean energy and help reduce pollution. However, our future is the hands of our politicians and they must see the need to work together instead of themselves in order to make a difference. Hopefully with the multiple natural disasters that we have experienced in the past years world leaders will work harder for a better tomorrow.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/science/earth/nations-meet-to-address-problems-of-climate-change.html?ref=science

Healthy woodlands 'need quality not quantity'

Dan Smith

This article by Mark Kinver, as made obvious by the title, is about how healthy woodlands are all about quality instead of quantity. What this means is that woodlands need to have healthier management rather than focusing on the number of trees being planted in the woodlands. This is more in relation to England than anywhere else because although there are more woodlands in England, they have become overgrown due to poor management. An example of this poor management would be trees being overgrown to the point where no light can reach down to smaller plant life. There is a solution to this problem that a conservation group suggested called coppicing. Coppicing is basically cutting or leveling down a tree or shrub to ground level in order for new growth to occur. This would eliminate the lack of light getting to ground level plant life.
The main problems that are facing woodlands today (I mentioned one previously) are the fact that the woodlands are too dark, too overgrown, and too silent. Coppicing could be used as a solution to the first problem but grazing stock is a solution to the second problem as more diversity would flow to the woodland areas. In terms of the silence, which refers to the lack of wildlife, creating certain management systems would help manage certain food chains leading to increased wildlife. The biggest point to take away from these major problems is that planting a large amount of trees isn't going to be the solution that is ultimately going to be successful. A large percentage of woodlands are these full forests with canopy's being too in the way of the light trying to get to small plants. This can result in the overall color of the forests become darker leading to a negative effect of insects and other wildlife.
I've never really thought about this topic too intensively. I always hear different “green initiatives” and different methods to help the environment but I've never really thought about woodlands being an issue like it's being discussed in this article. In theory it definitely makes sense because if we don't properly manage these woodlands, it can become too much to manage in terms of physical size. Letting woodlands grow into these full forests and not letting smaller plant life get enough light is something that shouldn't be overlooked. Not only that, but reading that the overall darkness (due to the lack of light getting through) can affect the color, or existence, of certain flowers is an issue because that can lead to having an effect on other wildlife. It's not something that you would ordinarily think could happen but it becomes a cycle of there not being enough flowers to satisfy certain insects/other wildlife which in turn leads to impacting larger wildlife. This article is definitely something that shouldn't be overlooked as woodland management is important to us all.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15870782

Gamburtsev Ghost Mountains Mystery Solved

Natalie Acosta

A recent article from BBC News titled, “Gamburtsev Ghost Mountains Mystery Solved” written by Jonathan Amos, discusses how scientists say they can now explain the existence and formation of the Gamburtsev Mountains. The Gamburtsevs are completely buried underneath the Antarctic ice and are about the size of the European Alps. According the article, survey data completed by researchers suggests the mountains are over one billion years old (Amos). The creation of these mountains occurred when continents were moving together to form the giant landmass Rodinia. Collision occurred due to these moving continents, pushing up what are now the Gamburstevs. They also formed what the article refers to as a “dense root” in the crust (Amos). Over the years a cycle of erosion and uplift may have occurred pulling apart and re-establishing the mountains. Uplift also occurred when rivers and glaciers engraved deep valleys into the earth. It was these glaciers that helped entomb the Gamburstevs, by spreading out and joining with the East Antarctic Ice sheet. This is why the Gamburstevs are completely buried underneath the surface of the Antarctic ice.

This BBC News article is highly applicable to what we have learned thus far in class. It is especially relevant to what he have learned about landscapes and landscape processes, including erosion and uplift. The article also touches upon the hypothesis of continental drift and the theory of plate tectonics. I believe this article and topic are very important because the article alludes to the fact that the discovery of how this mountain was formed could help researchers get details about past environment details. This includes information about past temperatures and any gases that might have been in the atmosphere. I see this as very fascinating and important to use as a comparison to current environmental details. It allows researchers to see how the environment has changed over the years and may be helpful in determining changes in the future. The article states that they are conducting further research in the Gamburtsev mountain formation as well as testing rock samples for further information. I look forward to keeping up with this topic and any future findings.

Amos, John. “Gamburtsev Ghost Mountain Mystery” BBC News 17 Nov. 2011
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15749757>.

“Human-induced fires sow the seeds of the future”

Michael Chelkowski

The article, “Human-induced fires sow the seeds of the future” by Mark Kinver creates an awareness that human-made fires are “influencing the evolutionary process of some plant species.” To further this idea, a survey was conducted in Chile where natural fires were very rare to analyze the impact of human activity. Because evidence supported that human-induced fires have been common due to Spanish colonization, researchers were allowed to have a closer look at the effect it has on Helenium Aromaticum, a native annual herb. It was hypothesized that fires have exerted a “selective pressure on seed traits” so that plants located in habitats with high fire frequency would have “smaller, more rounded and “pubescent seed with thicker coverings” compared with plants with low fire frequency. The results indicated that that human-induced fires do shape seed traits more than environmental factors. Overall, the experiment showed that seed pubescence, seed shape and outer layers thickness have an “adaptive value.”
This can be related to our discussion in earth science with furthering the idea of the evolution of plants. Earth Science is about the way things adapt to the environment. When referring back to the article, the plants had to adapt to the change in conditions. Also one could argue that the human-induced fires are affecting the availability of nutrients in the soil which is needed by the plants through the evolutionary process. You would lose that finer-textured soil that is more fertile and is able to retain more moisture and nutrients. Lastly, when dealing with human-induced fires, the importance of water scarcity comes into factor. The pollution from the fires might in affect create water scarcity which is something that is a major issue across the world. Over the years it has become a major problem in areas, such as the Middle East and Africa, where the number of people is greater than the availability of water. Right now, Latin America is not considered a problem area for water scarcity, yet between deforestation with the Amazon rain forest and human induced fires, it could become a greater problem. The world is growing increasingly dependent on each other so what happens in one part of the world has a quicker effect on other parts of the world.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15674495

Raw Sewage Levels Warning.

Thomas Sinkora

In the UK there are 22,000 recorded discharge pipes. However it is now understood that that it is more like 31,000 discharge pipes. The reason they have had such an off number is because they had not realized that there are pipes that pull double duty. The 9000 miss counted pipes is due to pipes that are combined overflow and emergency pipes, such as pumping stations or waterworks due both jobs. For the last 20 years the environment agency has put £8 billion into trying to upgrade the system, also to begin re-mapping out the pipes for a closer estimate.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is okay with regulated discharge as long as it is taken care of properly however research shows that a good sum of the 31,000 are discharging more than the 10 times allowed. Off the west coast it was estimated to have more than 1000 hours of waste discharge during beach season. However almost all beaches reach sanitation requirements so this is not a lasting matter. £4 billion will be spent for improvements on the water care.

This is similar to non-point sources. The United Kingdom was unaware of nearly 9000 drainage pipes. The watch for something like this is much harder than seems because of the fact that pipes can due two jobs and in heavy rain pipes that are not meant to be discharged pipes become them due to over flow or water. The UK has been doing there best to regulate the pipe discharge and when companies are told to stop they do. The UK has put almost £11 billion into their water cleanup and regulation. They have almost 98% of their water is clean. They plan on having complete regulation and control over their water and pipes by 2015.

The United Kingdom has a very solid grip on their water control. While American has things like the clean water act the United Kingdom seems to have an easier time work thing sort of thin out. This could be partly because they are smaller or because they have less to control. But they still seem to get the job done and done quite well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15725207

http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/laws/cwa.html