Earth ChangesS


Sheeple

Curry Spices Shown to Reduce Methane Emissions in Sheep by 40 Percent

sheep
© USU
Forget low-energy lightbulbs and solar-powered homes - curry spices could hold the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Research carried out at Newcastle University has found that coriander and turmeric - spices traditionally used to flavour curries - can reduce the amount of methane produced by bacteria in a sheep's stomach by up to 40pc.

Working a bit like an antibiotic, the spices were found to kill the methane-producing 'bad' bacteria in the animal's gut while allowing the 'good' bacteria to flourish.

The findings are part of an on-going study by Newcastle University research student Mohammad Mehedi Hasan and Dr Abdul Shakoor Chaudhry - the most recent part of which is published this week in the Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 2010.

Bug

New Bacterial Dengue "Vaccine" to be Sprayed on Mosquito Populations

Mosquitos on petri dish
© Jake NowakowskiDr Scott Ritchie has been conducting trials with a new bacteria to kill dengue-carrying mosquitos.
A bacteria that limits the lifespan of mosquitoes could be released in the Far North as early as this wet season. Could Wolbachia be a killer result for dengue fever?

James Cook University and University of Queensland researchers have been working on the bacterium Wolbachia, which has shown to be an effective control against the spread of dengue fever.

Wolbachia, described as a ''dengue vaccine for dengue mosquitoes'' dramatically shortens Aedes aegypti mosquitoes' 30-day lifespan and destroys their ability to transmit the disease.

The bacteria has proven to be so successful, it may also help control other mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and chikungunya.

Comment: It seems the line between "vaccine" and "pesticide" is no longer black and white.


Magnify

Gulf Oil Spill Situational Map


Evil Rays

Gulf Oil Spill Myths Debunked

Since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig April 20 killed 11 oil rig workers, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to claim the lives of wildlife, like birds and sea turtles, compromise the fishing and tourism industries, and threaten the culture of the Gulf coast. That, and it's spawned an awful lot of misconceptions.

Here's a look at a few Gulf oil spill myths that The Daily Green has been watching:

Obama moratorium oil drilling
© AP
1. Obama Put a Moratorium on Offshore Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico

Myth. President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a moratorium on new oil deepwater drilling permits, and shut down 33 exploratory deepwater wells on May 6. (A similar moratorium on new shallow water drilling lifted three weeks later. "Shallow" in this context means up to 499 feet deep.) Both orders, however, were vague and left 3,600 existing offshore oil wells active in Gulf waters. Since the spill, 17 new offshore oil drilling projects have been permitted. Even the six-month deepwater moratorium was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge June 22, leaving it void if not overturned on appeal or reinstated on different legal grounds. (Nevermind that the judge has invested in Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded, Halliburton, which handled the faulty cementing of the well, and about a dozen other companies involved in offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.) And Obama has always been a supporter of offshore oil, though some of his environmentalist supporters seem to have forgotten that; he made good on a campaign promise shortly before the BP oil spill started and proposed opening additional offshore waters to oil and gas exploration - in the Gulf of Mexico, along the Atlantic coast and off Alaska. (Permits to start drilling in those new waters have been suspended temporarily.)

Cow Skull

The Price of Cheap Meat: A Lake Dies in Ohio

View of Grand Lake, Ohio
© anglerweb.comA warning has been issued for people to "minimize contact" and avoid ingestion of the water at this popular lake used by the public for fishing, boating, swimming, and hunting.
Grand Lake St. Marys -- Ohio's largest inland body of water and a treasured recreational area -- is dying. And if you barbecued some supermarket pork over the holiday weekend, you helped contribute to this disaster, however indirectly.

The lake's 13,000 acres of water surrounded by parkland, cabins and campgrounds, is one of the leading summertime attractions in the area, which brings in some $216 million in tourist spending each year, $160 million directly from the lake, (not to mention 2,600 jobs). Now, many visitors are shunning the place like an oil-stained Alabama beach. Swimming and waterskiing is discouraged, and even boating might be a health risk.

The main problem is phosporous and other nutrients, mostly from farms, including the 15 or so animal factory farms in the lake's watershed, and nutrients from the megatons of fertilizer applied on taxpayer-subsidized corn and soybean fields. Those products then become cheap feed that keeps the factory farms humming, Big Box prices low, and summertime barbequers happy.

Footprints

Gulf Dead Zone Grows as No-Fishing Area Expands

gulf dead zone
© NOAFishery Closure Boundary as of June 28, 2010
As oil from the Deepwater Horizon explosion spreads across the Gulf of Mexico, the government has expanded the no-fishing area near Florida's panhandle.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it had decided to expand the fishing closure from its current northern boundary as a precautionary measure to make sure consumers don't eat seafood contaminated by the gulf oil spill. All told, a little more than 80,000 square miles, or 33 percent of Gulf of Mexico's federal waters, are now considered a closed area.

Because this remains an evolving situation, NOAA said that it will retest the area and reopen fisheries when they are deemed safe.

Igloo

Antarctic sea ice peaks at third highest in the satellite record

While everyone seems to be watching the Arctic extent with intense interest, it's bipolar twin continues to make enough ice to keep the global sea ice balance near normal. These images from Cryosphere today provide the details. You won't see any mention of this in the media. Google News returns no stories about Antarctic Sea Ice Extent.
Antarctic Sea Ice
© Cryosphere

Life Preserver

Gulf storm sputters off Louisiana

Image
© unknownSatellite pictures of the storm at 8:15 p.m. ET on Monday.
A closely watched weather system in the northern Gulf of Mexico swept ashore without becoming a tropical storm Monday evening but was expected to dump heavy rain onto southern Louisiana, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"Now that the system is over land and will move farther inland tonight, tropical cyclone development is no longer expected,

Hurricane Center forecasters reported Monday night.

The system's chances rebounded from a "near 0 percent" prospect of becoming a tropical storm earlier Monday, but forecasters said the storm's proximity to shore made it unlikely to develop further. The main threat it will pose to the region will be heavy rain, they said.

Fish

Tar balls hit Lake Pontchartrain shores

boat, tar
© N/ATar balls are picked up from Rigolets Pass, which connects Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain with Mississippi Sound.

Tar balls believed to be from the undersea gusher in the Gulf of Mexico have reached the shores of Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain, a foundation that monitors the watershed reported Monday.

The affected area covers a stretch of up to five miles near the city of Slidell, northeast of New Orleans, said Anne Rheams, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. She estimated the amount of oil that has reached the lake at less than 100 barrels, with no hydrocarbon smell.

"They are about the size of a silver dollar, maybe a little bigger, kind of dispersed in long intervals. It's not as dense as it could be, so we're thankful for that," Rheams said.

Ambulance

BP oil disaster at 75 days

For 75 days now, crude oil has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the wreck of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. While BP and the US government have done everything possible to downplay and obscure the amount of oil that has spilled out, estimates range as high as 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 gallons. The consequences will be incalculable.

The BP spill is one of the worst ecological catastrophes in history, and yet now it barely makes the front pages of the newspapers in the US or rates prominent coverage on television news programs. There is a natural nervousness in the media and the political establishment, as the ongoing horror story indicts a huge conglomerate and the political interests in Washington that protect it.

It seems clear that the announcement June 16 that BP would create a $20 billion fund, followed the next day by Chief Executive Tony Hayward's appearance before Congress, was meant to signal the end of the officially-sponsored chastisement of the company, and the US media has responded accordingly. As Reuters commented July 1: "The British energy giant drew harsh criticism earlier in the crisis, but some of the political heat has cooled since President Barack Obama pressured the company to set up a $20 billion fund for damages and lawmakers hammered BP executives at congressional hearings."