Hi - We're going to get passionate about the environment; so, grab a beverage, take your shoes off, sit down and get comfy. If global warming is an interest of yours - add your comments, subscribe to the feed and/or become a follower. Don't forget to check out the ads to the right side of the column. There is some very interesting material to be had there. Read, comment, enjoy!!!
When you can clone yourself, you never have to be alone -- at least that's what marine biologists at Australia's Townsville aquarium are discovering. Recently, an injured Cassiopea jellyfish that had been kept alone in its own tank was found to be suddenly and inexplicably in the company of some 200 youngsters. But as nice as it must be for the lonely jellyfish to have others around, that's not even quite the case; biologists suspect that each one of the tiny new jellyfish is actually a clone of the original.
As with most cases of seemingly immaculate conception, scientists are a bit perplexed with the jellyfish's mysterious birthing. There is a chance, they say, that the sudden mother to hundreds of baby jellyfish had in fact had a brief tryst some time earlier while no one was watching, but that it wasn't likely. The most plausible explanation, it seems, is one that's far more remarkable.
"Jellyfish clone very easily. When some jellyfish are cut in half, you get two jellyfish," aquarist Krystal Huff tells News.com.au. "Since the parent jellyfish was injured, it had damaged tissue cells which could have grown into other jellyfish."
In other words, the bits of material which sloughed off the parent jellyfish actually regenerated hundreds of little copies of the original. But sadly, the big jellyfish ultimately died from its injuries -- leaving the multitude of tiny clones of itself to fend for themselves (or giving the parent another 200 or so chances at life, depending on how you look at it.)
Either way, nature's power to persevere is nothing short of amazing.
Once again, the love of money is threatening an irreplaceable artefact. Unfortunately, for a 2,600 Buddist monastery filled with priceless antiques, it has gotten in the way of the excavation of a copper mine. The world cannot afford to lose this tie to the past.
A decade ago, the Taliban's destruction of two 1,500-year-old Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley drew worldwide attention to Afghanistan's rich archaeological heritage. Now, 10 years later, another ancient Buddhist site is at risk of being lost -- not to war, but to the process of rebuilding the country.
While digging a copper mine in Mes Aynak, south of Kabul, workers with China Metallurgical Group Corp. (M.C.C.) "discovered" a 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery dating back to at least the 4th century, full of ancient statues, frescoes, pottery, gold and silver coins, and domed shrines.
Afghan archaeologists had known about the site since the 1960s but conflict had kept them from excavating it. Since the discovery last year, they have been rushing to salvage what they can before the open-pit mine is completed. An informal agreement between the company and the firm gave them three years to do so, an amount of time experts say is insufficient, especially given the lack of funds and personnel. Archaeologists also told the Los Angeles Times earlier this summer that the deadline to finish the salvage excavation keeps changing.
"That site is so massive that it's easily a 10-year campaign of archaeology," Laura Tedesco, an archaeologist brought in by the U.S. Embassy to work on sites in Afghanistan, told the Daily Mail last year. "Three years may be enough time just to document what's there."
Exploited for its copper since ancient times -- Mes Aynak means "little copper well" -- the mine stands to generate tens of billions of dollars and bring much-needed jobs and economic activity to the war-torn country, though government corruption will likely limit how much of that trickles down to its people. The Association for the Protection of Afghan Archaeology has started a petition (I signed!) to get Mes Aynak included on UNESCO's World Heritage List and List of Endangered Sites to ensure its protection.
Though cultural heritage is most prominently at risk, the mining work raises environmental concerns as well. In a January 2008 report, the European research group Integrity Watch Afghanistan noted that environmental impact and the involvement of local communities had "not yet been approached as a major issue" despite the "potentially disastrous consequences" of failing to appropriately deal with the highly toxic wastes produced by copper mining and the water consumption involved in the project. A copper mine run by M.C.C. in Pakistan is "widely said to have serious environmental problems," the New York Times reported in 2009.
A produce vendor stopping for lunch. Photo courtesy: Flickr, babasteve
LA Times has a report about how organic produce is sold in China, providing a glimpse into what life might eventually be like, in the USA, if House Republicans fully codify their Libertarian beliefs (which assumes they would put an end to funding USDA Organic registration).
As things stand, US, Canadian and most European citizens have a choice: if they want to eat factory farm produce and dairy they can do that; or, they can spend a little more for USDA-certified organic food. In China, on the other hand, the good stuff is saved "...for officials only. They produce organic vegetables, peppers, onions, beans, cauliflowers, but they don't sell to the public," said Li Xiuqin, 68, a lifelong Shunyi village resident who lives directly across the street from the farm but has never been inside. "Ordinary people can't go in there."
The LAT article-ending cite epitomizes the political context:
The continued existence of the tegong, or special supply, is treated with secrecy because of public resentment over the privileges of the elite. After the Southern Weekly, a hard-hitting Guangzhou-based newspaper, published the story about the customs farm, the Central Propaganda Department banned further reporting on the subject and the article was removed from the newspaper's website.
Probably the "special supply" food is commonly served up with a side of shark fin soup.
For a handful of lucky, yet critically endangered songbirds, life just got a whole lot roomier. The tiny species of Millerbird, native to Hawaii's Nihoa island, has been teetering on the brink of extinction there for decades. But now, in an attempt to hedge the chances of the bird's survival, conservationists have gifted two dozen of them a new place to call their very own own -- a remote, 1,023 acres Hawaiian island that, naturalists hope, will become a Millerbird love nest.
Millerbirds number only around 600 individuals on their native island of Nihoa, but they're under constant threat of being wiped out entirely due to droughts, fires, or the presence of foreign species -- and it wouldn't be the first time. Nearly a century ago, on Hawaii's Laysan island 650 miles away, invasive rabbits had driven a related species of Millerbird to extinction, leaving a void in the delicate ecosystem.
Several years ago, however, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), in partnership with the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), hatched a plan to repopulate Laysan island -- now sans rabbits -- with a starter group of Millerbirds from Nihoa. Conservationists hope that, by establishing a new population of the birds elsewhere, the species would be less vulnerable to changes on their current island home -- all while restoring a sense of balance to Laysan, where Millerbirds once could thrive.
"So instead of putting our eggs literally in one basket on one island, what we are trying to do is create a second population that will essentially reduce the overall risk of extinction," Dr. George Wallace of American Bird Conservancy told Hawaii's KITV.
Officials rounded up 24 Millerbirds in total for the relocation, a dozen males and a dozen females, and transported them to their new island home. A team of researchers will remain on Laysan over the next year to monitor the birds' progress.
"Translocation is an important tool for the conservation of endangered island birds, and the Millerbird translocation stands on the shoulders http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifof previous efforts," Holly Freifeld, biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a release. "This project also breaks a lot of new ground, and has been a model of teamwork and innovation for the past five years. Twenty-two people - the Millerbird team, the crew of the M/V Searcher, and the FWS restoration team on Laysan - worked very hard and with high energy and spirits to make this trip a success."
Now that the endangered Millerbirds have been released, the most intensive efforts of the FWS and ABC to save the species by relocating them have come to an end. Now it's up to the birds to make the most of their new island home.
Hello, hello, to anyone out there - I'm endangered...can I get my own island as well, please?
There are more than 30 kinds of dolphins in the world. They are found in all oceans and in a few rivers.
In the wild, dolphins live in small groups called pods. Pod members work together to protect each other from enemies such as sharks. Sometimes the moms form a safe "playpen" by swimming together with the babies in the middle.
While the sight of a hazy, smog filled cloud looming over the cityscape is certainly enough to break the heart of any would-be outdoorsman, it turns out that breathing in that pollution just might do so -- quite literally. According to a recently published study from the British Medical Journal, the inhalation of vehicle emissions can actually increase the likelihood of a heart attack, even up to six hours after exposure.
Air pollution has previously been linked to a myriad of health complications -- including, but not limited to, a drop in fertility, loss of worker productivity, and even depression. Previous research, and common sense, had indicated that prolonged exposure to air pollution was damaging to the human cardiovascular system, but this may be the first instance in which breathing in airborne particulate matter from cars within a short period of time raised the risk of a potentially deadly heart attack.
To find a correlation between this serious medical emergency and air pollution, researchers from London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analyzed nearly 80 thousand heart attack victims and compared the time and location of the attack with records of ambient air pollution maintained by the U.K. National Air Quality Archive.
The study indicates that a small but measurable increase in heart attacks was found to associated with air pollution caused by vehicle traffic -- and the more fossil fuel burning cars are contributing to it, the increased probability only rises. From Time.com:
After controlling for environmental factors like air temperature, humidity and viral infection rates, along with social factors like holidays and day of the week, the researchers found that exposure to high levels of certain components of air pollution -- pollutant particles and nitrogen dioxide, which are a byproduct of car traffic -- was associated with a greater risk of heart attack. The heavier the traffic pollution, the higher the risk of heart attack.
The researchers looked at heart attack risk for 72 hours after exposure to pollution, but found that the risk remained elevated for only six hours.
According The Guardian, ever year exposure to air pollution contributes to the premature deaths of some 29,000 in the UK alone -- which suggests that the global death toll from vehicle emissions is most likely mind-boggling. And, as more research into the harmfull impact that breathing in particulate matter spewed out by cars is having on our bodies, we're bound to attribute more deaths to a lack of clean air.
Choosing Plants - select plants appropriate to your garden's conditions: for example - plants requiring dry, sandy conditions will not live in a boggy environment - consider hours of sunlight, moisture levels, proximity to buildings and competing plants: these are critical things to consider; and, fortunately there is a wide variety of plants to choose from that are capable of surviving in every condition - when plant shopping, ask about mature heights and spreads to allow adequate space: This must be determined and allotted for at planting time - when they are mature and overcrowded is not the time to take action - match the plant's specific needs with the level of care you're willing to provide
Waterwise Thinking - water less frequently; but, more deeply to encourage roots to grow into soils that are deeper and more moist - collect rain water in barrels or watering cans to use for watering needs rather than tap water - mulch garden beds to help trap moisture in the soil - water in the morning to prevent evaporation: Early morning is best as it gives any water accidentally spilled on the plants a chance to dry before the sun uses it to burn the plant - improve drainage to prevent pooling or excess runoff - reduce lawn areas where unnecessary and replant with perennial or shrub beds
Pest Management - identify pests and diseases before selecting a control: garden centre staff can help you with this; and, provide you with organic and least-toxic options - use organic fertilizers, soil additives or compost to reduce chemical fertilizer applications - add plants that attract beneficial insects
Wildlife Habitats - include native plant species where suitable to the garden environment - add flowering, nectar-producing plants for insects, birds, butterflies; and, other winged pollinators - place a bird bath, pond or other water source for wildlife nearby in a somewhat sheltered area - vary the height and density of plantings to create a diverse habitat
A huge unidentified, luminous disk, many times larger than the full moon, was observed in the skies of Beijing and Shanghai on the night of Aug. 20. Many flight pilots as well as individuals on the ground reported on it. One pilot called the sighting “extremely shocking.”
A China Southern Airline pilot published the following report on a Weibo microblog: “Aug. 20, 9 p.m., flight 6554, Shanghai area, discovered huge luminous object at height of 10,700 meters. It has a regular circular shape, with size changing from small to large. It’s a few hundred times bigger than the moon, and the visual diameter is greater than 50 nautical miles. It remained for 20 minutes, then dimmed and disappeared. It was extremely shocking, and crews from more than 10 flights have made reports to the Shanghai Airport Control Tower.”
The captain of another flight replied that he saw it too. As soon as he climbed above the clouds at about 9,000 meters altitude, he saw a huge, white disk in the clear night sky.
“It was round and big, and occupied one of my side windows and half of my front window. I thought I was delusional, but my First Officer was asking me if I saw it too,” the captain said.
While they were getting ready to report the phenomenon to the Shanghai Control Tower, other airline flight crews already started reporting it, he said.
According to an Aug. 22 wenweipo.com report, the Civil Aviation Administration of Eastern China confirmed the incidence, saying air traffic control logs show that many flight pilots indeed reported it.
The news quickly spread on the Internet, with people saying they saw the same phenomenon in the skies above Beijing and Shanghai at about the same time.
An Aug. 24 report by Yangcheng Evening News quotes Beijing resident Cheng Xu witnessing a strange light disc on the night of Aug. 20. Cheng posted a photo on Weibo, which shows a huge disc above a tower-like object.
Pan Dayoyo, another netizen, confirmed the sighting on Weibo, saying: “Yes, that’s right. I also saw it on Aug. 20.”
“Psychology Soldier” said he saw a light disc that looked like an autumn full moon rising to the northeast of his home.
A Mr. Li of Shanghai’s Putuo District said he was relaxing on the balcony of his 34th floor [home] at around 9 p.m. on Aug. 20, when he suddenly spotted a luminous object larger than the moon hanging up there in a northeasterly direction. Li said the object seemed very far away.
Judging from posted photos, the luminous disc appears to be translucent, with stars visible behind it. Some people have referred to the mysterious display as a UFO, but exactly what may be causing the phenomenon is unclear to experts.
Zhu Jin, the curator of the Beijing Planetarium, told Chinese media, "It must have been caused by human beings, not nature or other things like that."
Another staff member at the planetarium said, “Personally I think it's a kind of meteor or a phenomenon in terrestrial space."
TAINTED: Despite crackdowns on major honey smugglers over the past two years, tainted Chinese honey continues to enter the United States in record amounts via other Asian countries. Photo courtesy: theepochtimes
Anyone who knows me or reads this column knows that I am very high on unpasteurized, raw honey as a natural medicine both for internal and external repair of the body. I found this article on The Epoch Times website; and, if true, is very frightening. Personally, I find this incredibly disturbing; but, I can see no reason for the reporter to have reported anything other than the facts.
On a personal level, because I wanted only raw, unpasteurized local honey, I found a local beekeeper who also believes in the medicinal properties of raw honey; and, don't buy from anyone else.
Millions of pounds of hazardous honey are being smuggled in large quantities from China to the United States, constituting as much as a third or more of the honey on American shelves, a recent investigation found.
The in-depth article published in Food Safety News shows through government shipping tallies, customs documents, and interviews with North America's top honey importers and brokers, that major U.S. packers have been purchasing record amounts of Chinese honey potentially contaminated with antibiotics and heavy metals.
This is despite assurances from the Food and Drug Administration that the honey reaching Americans is safe and authentic, and follows a widespread crackdown on major smugglers over the past two years.
After the Commerce Department imposed high tariffs—as much as $1.20 per pound—on honey from China in 2001, honey peddlers there began shipping their goods through Asian countries such as India and Vietnam, to obfuscate the real origin.
Thus, while the United States seemingly gets 123 million pounds of its imported honey from Asian countries, which includes 45 million pounds from India, much of it in fact comes solely from China.
“This should be a red flag to FDA and the federal investigators,” Richard Adee, ex-president of the American Honey Producers Association, told the trade publication. “India doesn't have anywhere near the capacity—enough bees—to produce 45 million pounds of honey. It has to come from China.” The article presents hard proof of that inference.
For example, 16 shipments containing more than 688,000 pounds of honey went from the Chinese port of Nansha to the Indian honey manufacturer Little Bee Honey during the last month. Six shipments of the same honey went from Little Bee Honey to the port of Los Angeles a week before the report was published, according to Import Genius, which documents U.S. customs records, as cited by Food Safety News.
About 23 percent of the honey from China contains lead, and at least two harmful antibiotics, according to findings from the Indian Export Inspection Council earlier this year.
To expedite their production process, Chinese beekeepers use Indian-made animal antibiotics, including chloramphenicol, a substance that is banned in food by the FDA for its carcinogenicity and DNA damage to children.
Once the buyers collect their honey, they store it in unlined, small, and lead-soldered drums before handing it off to brokers. The honey, now contaminated with lead, is then processed. Lead affects “almost every organ and system” in the human body and can lead to death in high doses, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
To avoid any attention from consumers and criminal investigators, some unscrupulous Chinese honey pirates pump the stuff through a network of high-temperature, high-pressure ceramic filters to remove or hide all indicators of added sweeteners or contaminants.
This renders it entirely barren of pollens or other trace elements that could be used to ascertain its origin. “But it's not honey anymore. There's no color. There's no flavor. There's nothing,” Elise Gagnon, a major honey supplier, told Food Safety News.
Once blended with real Indian honey on its way to the United States, the final product appears just like its American counterpart on the grocery shelves. It’s cheaper, but half of it is not honey at all.
A saucepan containing cooking garlic chive and soft tofu. Photo courtesy: Le Hoan Nha via theepochtimes
One of my absolutely most favourite vegetables. When cooked properly, they are delicious. Now, unfortunately, I find that garlic chives are being subjected to toxic pesticide spraying in China. So...if you love garlic chives as much as I do, find out where they were grown before eating.
Highly toxic pesticides are used at China’s largest garlic chives production base in northern China.
Changli County in Hebei Province is famous for its garlic chives. Most of the chives are sold to Beijing, Tianjing and Northeastern China. To increase yield and profits, almost all the farmers heavily spray the chives with banned pesticides.
Luo Fei, a farmer from Wangbeizhuang Village, told The Epoch Times that highly toxic and banned pesticides such as 3911 (phorate), 1605 (methyl parathion) and iron mike (aldicarb) are still available in the countryside, most likely produced by underground factories. 3911 is the most toxic pesticides; its residual toxicity can last for two years.
Luo said that pesticide-contaminated chives could cause nausea, dizziness, and diarrhea. If consumed in large quantity, it could be life threatening, causing cancer and blood diseases.
Zhang Zhi, another farmer, told The Epoch Times that their farms are called “Green Vegetable Planting Base,” but they are actually all polluted.
“Can it be called green? No. If it were green, the production would drop. We all count on it to make a good living,” Zhang said.
Zhang explained that in order to kill insects, they spray 3911 every eight or 10 days. All garlic chives farms do it that way, he said.
“I would suggest consumers not eat too many of these chives. Our local farmers don't eat these chives. We plant a little bit separately just for our own use,” Zhang said.
Another farmer said it’s all about money. Chives without pesticides look gray and yellowish, while the ones treated with pesticides are big, green, and strong, and can be sold for twice as much.
Mr. Yang from Zhongzhuozhuang Village said after spraying the pesticides, one is supposed to wait for a while before cutting the chives and putting them on the market. One should wait at least 10 days before consuming the chives, he said. But in order to make money faster, the chives are generally sold right after the insecticides have been applied.
Mr. Huang from Gengzhuang Village said that local farmers don't care about “green” products; they have all become rich by selling garlic chives and are living in big houses.
“They don't eat the contaminated chives themselves,” Huang said. “Don't they know they hurt consumers?” he asked.
I'm fortunate to have several passions in my life. I am absolutely an eco-nut. I am always trying to find new ways to reduce, reuse, recycle. We, as a species, have done more harm to this planet in the short time we have been here, than any other catastrophe or happening ever has. It's up to us to fix it.
I care about the environment whether it is as small as a single cell or as large as the universe.
I adore creativity and think we can all do more with much less. This earth has enough resources for us all to live comfortably if we all learn to share. Wasn't that a lesson we were supposed to learn in kindergarten?
I also love the bizarre, unusual, the weird and the strange. Be prepared for the odd "different" blog.
Photo courtesy: deep_onion / cc
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