Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Pernicious algae, 'Rock Snot', pops up in Wyoming stream

Whitney Royster
Casper Star-Tribune
Sat, 29 Sep 2007 17:12 UTC
A nasty algae that can suffocate habitat and food sources for fish has been found in a creek in one of Wyoming's premier watersheds, according to a river group.

Didymo, an algae commonly called "rock snot," was found in Lake Creek, a tributary of the Snake River, by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Snake River Fund reported Friday.
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Cloud Lightning

Himalayas heavy snowfall strands 100 climbers


AAP
Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:41 UTC
More than 100 mountaineers, including one from Australia, are trapped in the northern Indian hill state of Himachal Pradesh after heavy snowfall and blizzards, news reports say.

©Unknown

The five teams of missing climbers included seven German nationals, eight Russians and an Australian, Uttarakhand official PC Dandriyal was quoted as saying by PTI news agency.
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Better Earth

President of Rwanda Announces Historic Forest Protection Project

Staff Writers
Terra Daily
Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:49 UTC


©Associated Free Press
Rwanda

New York NY - Rwandan President H. E. Paul Kagame unveiled his country's first national conservation park to promote reforestation and conservation, and research to enhance knowledge of the world's rapidly diminishing number of great apes. In collaboration with Ted Townsend, founder of Earthpark and Great Ape Trust of Iowa, President Kagame announced at the Clinton Global Initiative a joint 10-year program called The Rwanda Forest Protection Project.
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Better Earth

Dell Is First Major Computer Company To Go Carbon Neutral

Staff Writers
Energy Daily
Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:35 UTC
Washington DC - Dell has become the first major computer manufacturer to commit to neutralizing the carbon impact of its worldwide operations, a significant extension of its global climate policy and environmental stewardship. "Never before in the history of business have we seen such a critical need to build a worldwide community dedicated to improving the environment," Michael Dell, the company's chairman and CEO, said here today during a policy forum organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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Better Earth

Ocean Iron Fertilization

Staff Writers
Terra Daily
Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:14 UTC


©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Researchers will consider whether iron fertilization can allow the ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide while remaining healthy (left), or if the addition of iron will give no net benefit while promoting other problems in the ocean (right).
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Bulb

The cockroaches' ability to learn varies

David F. Salisbury
Exploration, Vanderbilt's Online Research Magazine
Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:20 UTC
In its ability to learn, the cockroach is a moron in the morning and a genius in the evening.

Dramatic daily variations in the cockroach's learning ability were discovered by a new study performed by Vanderbilt University biologists and published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Magic Wand

Wasp genetics study suggests altruism evolved from maternal behavior


University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:03 UTC
Researchers at the University of Illinois have used an innovative approach to reveal the molecular basis of altruistic behavior in wasps. The research team focused on the expression of behavior-related genes in Polistes metricus paper wasps, a species for which little genetic data was available when the study was begun. Their findings appear today online in Science Express.

Like honey bee workers, wasp workers give up their reproductive capabilities and focus entirely on nurturing their larval siblings, a practice that seems to defy the Darwinian prediction that a successful organism strives, above all else, to reproduce itself. Such behaviors are indicative of a eusocial society, in which some individuals lose, or sacrifice, their reproductive functions and instead work to benefit the larger group.
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Question

Researchers investigate new suspect in West Nile deaths of pelicans

Evelyn Boswell
MSU
Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11:22 UTC
Stable flies are the latest suspect that may be involved in the West Nile virus deaths of hundreds of pelican chicks at the Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Montana. West Nile virus killed 800 to 1,000 pelican chicks in 2003, averaged 400 in each of the next three summers and more than 600 this year.

©Greg Johnson
The Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge contains the fifth largest colony of American white pelicans in North America.

Veterinary entomologist Greg Johnson of Montana State University said earlier this year that he considered the possibility that lice were transmitting West Nile virus to pelicans. He became suspicious after collecting very few mosquitoes in 2006, but seeing pelicans continue to die at a high rate. Johnson discovered previously that the Culex tarsalis mosquito is the primary carrier of West Nile virus in Montana and that the Medicine Lake refuge was one of the hot spots for the virus.
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Recycle

Bush draws fire at climate talks

Deborah Zabarenko and Jeff Mason
Reuters
Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11:09 UTC
Some of the world's biggest greenhouse polluters took aim at President George W. Bush on Friday, calling him "isolated" and questioning his leadership on the problem of global warming.

Bush, who convened the two-day meeting of the 17 biggest emitters of climate-warming gases, stressed new environmental technology and voluntary measures to tackle the issue.
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Clock

Drought Threatens Alabama City's Water

Bob Johnson
Associated Press
Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:28 UTC
Officials coping with a severe drought in eastern Alabama and western Georgia issued sweeping bans Friday on outdoor watering and scrambled to secure a dwindling supply of drinking water to more than 50,000 people.

Divers went into Lake Martin looking for ways to increase the depth around intake pipes that drain water from the massive lake into the water system for Alexander City, 44 miles northeast of Montgomery on the Georgia line. Lake Martin is the only source of water for the Alexander City system.
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