Easy Being Green

Greenspot on Kentucky.com

• Scientists suspect El Nino is to blame in surge of starving sea lion pups
  Marine mammal centers along the Southern California coast have been inundated with starving sea lion pups, the latest calamity to befall marine life and a pattern scientists believe could be tied to El Nino climate conditions. Since January, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach has rescued at least 27 emaciated sea lion pups that washed up stranded on the Orange County coast - a three- to fourfold increase from the norm, said Dr. Richard Evans, the center's medical director. The pups, most under 6 months old, have gone without food for so long they've started digesting their blubber and muscle to keep themselves warm in the chilly Pacific waters, biologists say. Their eyes bulge, and their skin hangs loosely over protruding spines, hipbones and ribs. "They're coming in so severely starved that they look like skeletons," Evans said. Only 11 have survived - well below the center's typical recovery rate of 80 percent.
• Battling a plant trying to take over the world
  Wendy Havens spent the first day of spring dragging large honeysuckle branches away from a creek in the Port Royal neighborhood. "We're getting rid of an exotic invasive that's trying to take over the world," said Havens, who is project coordinator for the Port Royal Neighborhood Association. Now the Roanoke Greenway along Wolf Run Creek, which is near Alexandria Drive, is more open and inviting to people who live in the area. And, as native plants put in the ground Saturday take root and grow, the creek itself will be cleaner. The neighborhood association has been picking up trash in the greenway for several years. Two years ago, when residents started hacking at the honeysuckle an Asian species now widespread in Central Kentucky they found old mattresses and other evidence that homeless people had been living in the thickets.
• Timing of essence in tuna vote, and Japan is beneficiary
  An unlikely ally and impeccable timing helped Japan snatch an unlikely victory from the jaws of defeat in Doha, Qatar, at an international trade meeting. While early projections pointed to the easy passage of a proposal to ban the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna - a result that would have stung Japan as the main importer of the prized fish - some shrewd behind-the-scenes maneuvering set the stage for the proposal's demise. The beginning of the end for the proposal led by Monaco and the European Union was triggered by an outburst from the Libyan delegate at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES. At a committee meeting Thursday in the Qatari capital, the Libyan delegate shouted his objection to the U.S.-backed proposal, saying it was "part of a conspiracy of developed countries." His comment was a direct appeal to anti-West sentiment among developing countries. The Libyan representative then called for the discussion to be wound up and an immediate vote held. The proposal to ban bluefin trade was then rejected.
• Spring is here: Stop vegetating and start cultivating
  Finally. After what seemed like the longest, wettest, grayest, coldest, snowiest winter ever , crocuses have pushed through the soil and are blooming. As if that's not great enough, today is the first day of spring. It's time to get outside, dig in the dirt, dream of home-grown tomatoes and get your lawn ready to show off to the neighbors across the street. Here's some help a few suggestions about what you can do right now and some classes to help you get in the planting mood so you can get started. To-do list for March
• Report calls for more study in California's San Joaquin Delta battle
  Any hope that a panel of scientists would end the brawl over environmental restrictions in the hub of California's water system evaporated as warring factions each found ammunition in a report released Friday. Charged with evaluating the basis of federal fish protections that are limiting the pumping of water supplies from Northern California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the National Academy of Sciences committee concluded the protections were on the whole scientifically justified. "In no case did we say these did not have a scientific underpinning," said committee Chairman Robert Huggett, professor emeritus at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences at the College of William and Mary. But the 64-page report also calls for more study, questions whether there is enough data to support specific levels of the pumping curbs and said that other problems in the delta ecosystem could have a "potentially large" effect on the imperiled delta smelt and declining stocks of migrating salmon. The evaluation by a committee of 15 experts from around the country underscored that there are no easy or quick fixes in the delta, which is used as a conduit for shipping water to the San Joaquin Valley, the state's agricultural heartland; and Southern California, its most populous region.
• Too early to judge effectiveness of fish-saving plans, scientists say
  WASHINGTON Neutral scientists said Friday that it s too soon to judge the effectiveness of ambitious plans to save fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. While calling the controversial water diversions scientifically justified, National Research Council scientists cautioned that they cannot yet be definitively evaluated. The split verdict left farmers and environmentalists alike something to seize upon in a much-anticipated report. There is great uncertainty, acknowledged Samuel Luoma, a research professor at the University of California at Davis s John Muir Institute of the Environment. The fate of the infamous Delta smelt epitomizes the ambiguity. Robert Huggett, an oceanographer who chaired the 15-member National Research Council study panel, noted Friday that there are so few smelt that scientists still don t know if the population is rising or falling. It s going to take a while to see any change in the system, Huggett said.
• Congress seeks more records on Camp Lejeune tainted water
  WASHINGTON Congressional investigators sent more letters this week as they continue their probe into past water contamination at the Marines' Camp Lejeune, N.C. The oversight panel on the House Science and Technology Committee seeks documents going back decades from private contractors, the Environmental Protection Agency and officials at a federal science agency. The letters request information about fuel spills at a centrally located underground tank farm, correspondence about the contamination and a list of documents that the Marines gave scientists who were trying to understand the impact of the toxic water. Also this week, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus responded to an earlier request for documents from Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., the chairman of the oversight subcommittee. Miller said earlier this month that it appeared that the Navy, which includes the Marine Corps, hadn't produced documents that federal scientists needed to conduct accurate health studies about the contamination.
• Sequoias tell tale of drought and fire 3,000 years ago
  Researchers have gone back 3,000 years in time to study the conditions of California's Sierra Nevada area. To do this, they looked at 52 of the world's oldest trees and found that they contained a history of the area that showed droughts and fires from 800 to 1300. University of Arizona scientists dated fire scars on ancient giant sequoia trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park. Individual giant sequoias can live more than 3,000 years. "It's the longest tree-ring fire history in the world, and it's from this amazing place with these amazing trees." said lead author Thomas W. Swetnam of the University of Arizona in Tucson. "This is an epic collection of tree rings."
• Population of migrating monarch butterflies is lowest ever
  Monarch butterflies, hit hard by strong storms at their winter home in Mexico, have dwindled to their lowest population levels in decades as they begin to return to Texas on their springtime flight back to the United States and Canada. The monarch loss is estimated at 50 to 60 percent and means that the breeding population flying northward is expected to be the smallest since the Mexican overwintering colonies were discovered in 1975, said Chip Taylor, a professor of entomology and director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas. "I think it is very clear that the butterflies lost more than half of the population," Taylor said. "I'm hoping it wasn't as high as 70 or 80 percent. We've never seen it this bad before." The butterfly colonies in the Mexican state of Michoacan were hit by torrential rainfall and mudslides in early February that also killed at least 40 people and left thousands homeless. Several towns were devastated by flooding. Researchers put the butterfly population in Mexico at 1.92 hectares, down from the average of 7.44 hectares. The hectare count represents the areas with trees that contain monarchs. There is no consensus on how many monarchs can be in a hectare, but researchers say the number may be as high as 50 million.
• Biden touts green energy to rebuild U.S. economy
  Vice President Joe Biden arrived in the Triangle on Thursday and headed straight for the headquarters of a Durham company that has become a symbol of the Obama administration's economic hopes. In front of excited employees and friendly local politicians, Biden praised LED maker Cree's energy-efficient lights as exactly the kind of products that the country needs to design, manufacture and export. "I don't think I've ever seen a success story quite like this one here at Cree," Biden said. "It ties so muchinto what President Obama and I are trying to do." Visiting Cree allowed the vice president to talk about both the 375 jobs Cree has added since February 2009 and the $39 million in federal tax credits the company has received under a stimulus program for green energy manufacturers. Not directly mentioned were the half-million North Carolinians now out of work. The state's unemployment rate, which hit 11.1 percent in January, is the highest it has been since the state began keeping track in 1976.