Get off my lawn! (image credit: welcometoterranova.com)

Being an enthusiastic science fiction fan, when I saw there was a new post-apocalyptic/dystopian series on the way I was typically stoked. The involvement of Steven Spielberg and a couple of guys from the Star Trek franchise gave me moderately high hopes. However, Spielberg’s recent alien invasion series, Falling Skies, didn’t.

I was weaned on low-budget sci-fi films and TV from the 80s, which in hindsight usually weren’t very good (see Cherry 2000 or Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone for evidence). Still, these grim, if silly, visions of the future fed my imagination and dominated playtime:

I’d be a rough-and-tumble loner wandering a post-nuclear holocaust Earth with nothing but a bad attitude, a packet of trail mix and a sawn off shotgun. A second-rate Mad Max with a tough name like Wolf, Scully or Quaid.

But in recent years TV has upped the ante. Lost, Battlestar Galactica and Firefly have left some pretty big boots to fill in the sci-fi department. Unfortunately, Fox’s Terra Nova plainly isn’t up to the task.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad. Cliché-ridden, soppy and action-packed – Terra Nova mixes the future with prehistory: A ruined environment under an authoritarian government in the year 2149; a rift in the space-time continuum allowing a limited number of people to travel millions of years into a past populated by dinosaurs; baddies, goodies (but which is which??)… That’s right, more or less equal parts Jurassic Park, Star Trek TNG and Lost.

It’s enough to keep me watching for now.

Add a grizzled patriarch with bulging muscles, a macho Jude Law look-alike, a dishy mom who can’t be more than 10 years older than her son and a bunch of other less than interesting types, including a girl who is a bit too much like Ellen Page.

The future is dark and tubular (image credit: welcometoterranova.com)

What I want to know about Terra Nova: what exactly destroyed the environment of 2149 (climate change? nuclear war? pollution? you knew I had to tie environmentalism in here somewhere), why guns don’t kill dinosaurs and if it’s actually set in the future rather than the distant past. None of the other plot twists from the pilot have sparked my curiosity.

I also hope we see more of the dystopian, post apocalyptic future – with its alluring twinkling lights, perpetual darkness and ruined skyscrapers – as well as the eco-friendly jungle bungalows of the future/past. Maybe they will talk more about interesting stuff rather than simply try to maintain the non-stop action the show seems to favor. I doubt it though – Terra Nova seems a bit too dumb for that.

welcometoterranova.com

photo by e pants (Flickr CC)

Throat cancer has claimed the life of one of Africa’s and indeed the world’s luminaries of environmental and human rights activism.

Wangari Maathai, Kenya’s founder of the Green Belt Movement, has died from throat cancer at the age of 71. The Green Belt Movement combined ecological causes with social justice issues and planted 20-30 million trees on the African continent.

In 2004 Maathai became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism on behalf of the environment, women’s rights and political transparency. She also served as a government minister and Member of Parliament in her home country of Kenya.

From an AP report:

Maathai said during her 2004 acceptance speech that the inspiration for her life’s work came from her childhood experiences in rural Kenya, where she witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed biodiversity and the capacity of forests to conserve water.

For more on the life and death of Wangari Maathai, hero of the environment and social justice, see BBC News and Green Belt Movement homepage.

Rutger Hauer in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982)

Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? describes a darkened, post apocalyptic future where the majority of mankind has left Earth to settle colonies on other planets. Animals are either endangered or extinct, giving way to a burgeoning industry in artificial life. Both android animals and humans have become so life-like that it is next to impossible to differentiate them from the natural life forms they mimic.

For a novel written as early as 1968, Dick seems to have envisioned, with much social commentary and metaphor, many developments that resemble what has already come to pass and what still may arise. The subjects of environmental degradation, psychoactive drugs and the unchallenged power of large corporations are more relevant than ever.

Director Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford, is the film version of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It made Dick’s proto cyberpunk world come to life in a polluted, dark, sleazy Los Angeles of 2019.

All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain.

–Roy Batty in Blade Runner

As is commonly the case with a film adaptation, the story is simplified. Not an action flick, Blade Runner focuses on identity and what it means to be human, while largely ignoring interesting topics concerning the environment, collective virtual reality and the casual use of mood altering drugs in Philip K. Dick novel.

Since Warner Bros is planning to produce a new Blade Runner film – much to the chagrin of many fans of the original – I wonder if these topics will be tackled in the new version or if it will tread the now-familiar ground it broke in 1982 and stick with themes of artificial intelligence.

As a sci-fi buff I look forward to seeing a new Blade Runner and am pleased that it will not be a remake, but rather either a sequel or prequel. I also wonder how much of Dick’s or Ridley Scott’s visions will dictate the world the film inhabits as opposed to the environmental and technological consequences that are unfolding right before our eyes in 2011.

15 years after its release, Blade Runner was the most assigned movie in science fiction study courses on North American college campuses. Now that an additional 15 years have nearly passed a brainy sequel should be welcome rather than a 2-hour video game sequence like the Matrix sequels. But seriously, what are the chances of that?

Additional resources:

CBS News – “Blade Runner” sequel in the works?

'Your flight has an impact' (image source: planestupid.com)

The controversial ad – embedded for easy viewing below – is available online and will start showing in cinemas today (November 20^th). The image of polar bears falling to their gruesome deaths is to discourage flying, but we shouldn’t intellectualize the imagery too much. The depiction will no doubt offend many (it’s honestly a bit September eleventhy) but after getting our attention with the falling bear bodies, the real message is brought home: flying – even short trips – produces a lot of greenhouse gases (400 kg or 880 lbs). And as of yet, there’s just no making light of that.

Polar Bear from Plane Stupid on Vimeo.

Read more about the controversial ad campaign in this article from the Guardian.

By Graham Land

Also regarding Plane Stupid’s polar bear ad from the Guardian:
Plane Stupid’s shock ads linking flights with polar bear deaths could fall flat: High-octane drama of polar bears tumbling to a bloody death may leave viewers feeling manipulated by propaganda

www.rightlivelihood.org

The Right Livelihood Award is a prize to honor, fund and promote those working against environmental damage, human rights violations and underdevelopment throughout the world. It is not a prize you would expect a head of state from a large country, which is currently at war, to win.

The award began 30 years ago after founder, German-Swedish publicist Jacob von Uexkull, attempted to get another category for environmental protection added to the Nobel Prize. After being turned down by the Nobel Committee, von Uexkull founded the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, which gives out three prizes per year of €50,000 each.

Winners of the prize are proportionally more likely to come from developing countries, are more often younger or female when compared to Nobel laureates. There has already been one overlap between the two prizes: Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathei, who won the Right Livelihood Award in 1984 and the Nobel Prize 20 years later.

This is perhaps the most meaningful prize one citizen of the earth can receive from another. It is specifically not the Nobel Prize, which furthers scientific progress and contributes to nature being overtaken and overwhelmed. Instead, it is a prize for thinking about what we can do differently.

–German biologist and conservationist Michael Succow, Right Livelihood Award winner (Deutsche Welle)

The Right Livelihood Award’s 30^th Anniversary Conference is currently taking place in Bonn, Germany, and includes a parallel youth conference. The award ceremony takes place in December, usually in the old Swedish Parliament building in Stockholm. 2009’s winners included David Suzuki of Canada and René Ngongo of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Australia’s Catherine Hamlin.

Read more about the award in the following article from Deutsche Welle:

‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ gains moral traction

The municipality is going to give each household two different garbage cans: one for rubbish, one for recyclables. Each will have a micro-chip inside.

This is all part of a new automated trash collection system. Micro-chips will be placed in both your recycling bin and your waste bin. Each chip generates a report that tells the city how efficient their waste collection services are. But it will also tell them if you’re using your recycling bin.

Click here to read more about it on the City of Cleveland’s official website.

horse grazing in Dublin, photo by jaqian (Flickr CC)

Stories of dogs and cats being abandoned due to tough economic times – or cruel indifference because they’ve simply become inconvenient – are unfortunate, but familiar scenarios. The abandonment of pets has even transformed the local ecology in parts of the world: an estimated 150,000 Burmese pythons live in the Florida Everglades and several London parks are chock full of exotic parakeets which originate in Africa and India.

Ireland has its fair share of invasive species, but horses are not considered one of them. However, thousands of unwanted horses are some of the latest casualties in the global economic downturn as it manifests in Ireland. Abandoned and neglected horses are a familiar sight in the Irish capital of Dublin; tied to posts with nylon rope that cuts into their skin, and dumped in fields or rubbish tips, according to an investigative report from the equestrian periodical Horse and Hound.

Always a horse country, when Ireland’s economy was booming, so was its horse trade; from expensive thoroughbreds to those considered to be of ‘poor breeding’. There may still be a market for the thoroughbreds, but times are tough for all Irish horses, especially the mongrel and ‘low quality’ horses.

From a piece in the Telegraph:

Back in the Celtic Tiger days, when the economy was booming, there was space for all of these animals. People bought horses as status symbols. Builders, plumbers, postmen would make a fortune, move out of the cities, buy a house in the country, and take on a few horses.

–Barbara Bent, chairman of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA)

The economic downturn has made horse keeping an unaffordable luxury for many, which has spurred many cases of animal cruelty and abandonment. In a situation where a cost of euthanizing a horse is considered too expensive at around €300, many owners choose abandonment. Animal welfare groups are overburdened, leading some groups to reluctantly call for a cull as the only solution to the growing problem.

For more on the story see the following article from the Irish Independent:

Offering a helping hand to the neglected horses

Additional resources:

Telegraph blog – Unwanted Irish horses are victims of the economic downturn

The European Union (EU) established the REACH system (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) an integrated system for Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals and establishing a European agency for these products. This system requires companies that manufacture and import chemicals to assess the risks arising from their use and take the necessary measures to manage any risk to be identified.

The burden of proof with regard to the safety of chemicals manufactured or sold is on the industry. The regulation aims to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment, as well as to strengthen the competitiveness of chemical innovation.

My focus was on flame retardants.

What are flame retardants?

Flame retardants are added to certain components, printed circuit boards (PCB), plastic containers and cables, to reduce their flammability for example, they prevent or reduce the possibility of a fire starting and spreading flame.

There are several types of flame retardants, they are divided between those containing chlorine and bromine compounds (also known as halogenated flame retardants), those containing phosphorus and nitrogen compounds and inorganic flame retardants.

The halogenated flame retardants Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) are found in many household products, such as furniture, computers and other electrical equipment. They are designed to protect homes and offices from the effects of fires by slowing the rate at which objects burn.
Some types of brominated flame retardants are:

Why ban flame retardants?

These compounds accumulate in the food chain (bio-accumulation) and so are eventually consumed by humans. Exposure can also occur via skin contact or inhalation. Some of these compounds are considered harmful to certain organs and DNA, as well as causes of degenerative diseases and cancer.

Some PBDE compounds decompose in the environment forming, thus, more toxic compounds. The PBDEs can be transferred from materials treated with flame retardants and their environmental effects be long lasting. The PBBs can particularly affect the endocrine (hormonal) system in animals. Similarly, some kinds of chlorinated flame retardants, normally used in plastics, are considered toxic.

The substitution of brominated flame retardants (BFRs)

The BFRs are used in a wide range of consumer products: electronics, textiles, foam for upholstery, carpets and building materials – all jobs where the risk of fire requires attention. The increase in the use of plastic and synthetic combustible materials has contributed to growth in the use of flame retardants.

With increasing evidence of the dangers of flame retardants in the late ’80s, particularly PBBs (polybrominated biphenyls) and PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), Germany, Denmark, Holland and Sweden have begun to restrict and prohibit their use. In a mission statement in 1989, the chemical and plastics manufacturers in Germany stated that they would not produce or use PBDEs.

Has the electronics industry found alternatives to BFRs?

The electronics industry has begun to find alternatives, ranging from material substitution (replacement of halogenated flame retardants with non-halogen) to exchange functional (replacing plastic cases with metal).

Apple does not use RFB in the plastic cases of its products.

Sony Europe has begun to find safer substitutes for halogenated flame retardants. Sony has developed halogen-circuit boards used in television sets, VCRs and DVD players in Europe. The printed circuit boards use a resin material that is itself flammable. Sony’s engineers have adopted a structure containing a resin with nitrogen to increase resistance to heat.

Samsung Electronics Co. has developed a “green” semiconductor that does not use halogen compounds or toxic substances like lead, chlorine and bromine. The company was the first to develop a packaging and a form that does not contain lead or halogens. The alternative has improved the quality of the product and has saved 960 million won (684,000 euros). Samsung has publicized its efforts on the replacement to increase its image as an environmentally friendly company.

National / Panasonic (Matsushita) has joined forces with other major manufacturers to develop alternative electric cables and plastic compounds that contain no halogens. In September 1999, they began to market the first wide screen TV without halogen compounds.

NEC, a leading manufacturer of mobile phones, office equipment and personal computers, aims to abandon the use of halogenated flame retardants by 2011.

IKEA prohibits a large number of hazardous materials in its product lines, including azo dyes in textiles and has totally banned the RFB in their products and PVC. IKEA chooses textiles and materials which by their nature are difficult to ignite and can often completely avoid the use of chemical protection from the flames thanks to new materials, such as linings of non-woven materials that are inherently flame retardant.

Matsushita website: http://www.semicon.panasonic.co.jp/lead-free/eindex.html ENDS Report 270, Chemical Firms Move to block shift to bromine-free PCs ENDS Report 308, September 2000. NEC unveils circuit boards free of halogen or phosphorus compounds Personal meeting with Magnus Bjork, IKEA, the Brominated Flame Retardants and Foam Furniture Conference and Roundtable: EPA 9. San Francisco, April 2003

Assess the safety of chemical alternatives to BFR

The German Environment Protection Agency (UBA) has examined the toxicity to humans and the environment of 13 flame retardants, with the objective to assess the feasibility of substitution with less hazardous compounds. They selected red phosphorus, ammonium polyphosphate and aluminum trihydroxide as alternatives less problematic for the environment. Red phosphorus can technically be used in a variety of polymers to meet even the most stringent fire safety standards, although it might not work for all applications.

The LU has emphasized that “it is encouraging that there is a general trend towards abandoning the use of halogenated flame retardants in products, replacing them with less hazardous compounds or through the redesign of systems flame retardants, for example by creating more distances from potential sources of heat. “

The results of these surveys are summarized in Table 1.

I. Ban recommended

• Decabromodiphenyl ether
• Tetrabromobisphenol A (additive)

II. Replacing

• Tetrabromobisfeneolo A (reactive)
• Tri (chloropropyl) phosphate

III. Property issues:

• Hexabromocyclododecane
• Sodium borate decahydrate
• Antimony trioxide

IV. No advice possible because of gaps inknowledge of phosphate:

• Bis (pentabromofenil) ethane
• Resorcinol-bis-diphenyl
• Pirovatex new CP
• Melamine cyanurate

V. Unproblematic use :

• red phosphorus
• Ammonium polyphospha
• aluminum trihydroxide

UBA (2003). Precautionary Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Chemicals. Part 1: New Strategies for the Ecological Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Substances. http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/index-e.htm

My conclusion

The BFRs represent major industrial chemicals which use has increased dramatically over the past few decades. They are produced to prevent fires and thus can have a direct and obvious benefit.

However, concerns are being raised because of their persistence, bioaccumulation, and potential for toxicity, both in animals and in humans. Production and use patterns are different in various parts of the world. There is clearly a need for more systematic environmental and human monitoring to understand how and where these chemicals are being released into the environment, and what is happening to them once they enter the environment.

What fate and transport processes are involved in their entrance into the environment?

Are the commercial products breaking down in the environment or in biota?

Is food the major pathway, as is true for many other POPs, or are there other potential sources?

Once we understand what the exposure levels are in both people and wildlife, what should be our level of concern?

Our toxicology database is inadequate to truly understand the risk. Many of the studies that do exist involve the commercial mixtures, which do not represent human exposure.We need studies that focus on the congeners, and potentially their metabolites and/or breakdown products, present in people and wildlife in order to understand the risk from exposure to BFRs.

Environmental and animal-welfare groups are urging the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to persuade the World Health Organization (WHO) to act against the eating of whale meat.

These groups say that whale meat is highly contaminated with mercury and should not be eaten. But whaling nations say they already have health guidelines in place.

“But still, the Faroe Islands are only about 200 miles off the Scottish coast. It’s a lovely place and they are certainly seeking eco-tourism, presenting themselves to the world as a very green and attractive place to go to. But that seems to clash somehow with the on-going enthusiasm for whaling.”

He said that in order to address the issue, it was important to understand why the local population kept on with the centuries-old tradition of the whale hunt.

“To so many of us in the countries that are sitting next door it just seems totally unacceptable. It is very clear that this form of hunting is incredibly cruel. There is no way it would be accepted in the British Isles, it would be against the law for conservation and welfare aspects.

“Killing the animals that come to those waters to breed, killing the youngsters and the pregnant mothers – and this all happens within sight of each other. These are intelligent animals, they are fully aware of what’s going on around them,” he stressed.

But Ms Sanderson said that killing pilot whales was not worse than slaughtering other animals, and that the local authorities were always trying to monitor the hunt and “improve things”.

“The circumstances are not entirely controlled, obviously, but if you can ethically accept hunting of wild animals at all, than you have to accept that in some circumstances things don’t always go according to plan.”

“Red deer in Scotland – are they all shot? Some are shot and wounded and they run off into the forest and it takes hours for them to die. “

“That never happens at the whale hunt in the Faroes. They may take a couple of minutes to die, but certainly not hours, like hunted animals in other form of hunting can.”

Though the conservationists think it is rather unlikely for IWC to extend the whaling ban to cover small cetaceans, many hope that getting people to think about their health will do the trick.

Lorenzo Fantacuzzi

See more on www.bbc.com

photo by OpenCage (Wikimedia Commons)

A False Killer Whale – a member of the dolphin family – leapt out of its tank during a performance at an aquarium in Okinawa, Japan.

Video, taken by an American visitor at the aquarium, shows the dolphin first attempting to leap over the barrier and then falling back into the tank. It then successfully jumps out onto the concrete surrounding the tank, where trainers rush to roll it onto padding and keep it wet by spraying it with hoses.

Dolphin activist and former trainer Rick O’Barry – who claims in the documentary film The Cove that he witnessed one of his dolphins commit suicide by self suffocation – had this to say about the video (from a report in the Telegraph):

The habitat of that false killer whale is so unnatural it leaped out in desperation. It wanted to end it. Why does a person jump out of a building?

O’Barry believes that dolphins suffer immensely from being held in small confined tanks and being exposed to noises that they would never experience in their natural ocean habitats.

Watch the video footage from ITN/Telegraph below:

Is this a case of animal suicide or rather an act of desperation, as O’Barry believes? Or is it simply an example of over exuberant play as one of the managers of the aquatic park maintains?

Graham Land

photo by Globovisión (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

Flooding and mudslides in the northeast of Brazil have resulted in the deaths of at least 44 people, with as many as 1,000 more missing. Torrents following heavy rains over the past three days have swept away some 40,000 homes in the region, displacing 180,000 people.

From an Al Jazeera English report:

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president, has called a crisis cabinet meeting on Tuesday and said the government would make federal funds available to help the homeless.

The death toll is feared to rise in the Brazil’s northeastern states of Alagoas and Pernambuco, where the flooding is most severe.

From a report by the AFP:

Churches, schools and hospitals were underwater, or simply disappeared in the floods that turned streets into angry rivers in a region already wracked by extreme poverty.

The below video report from Australia’s ABC News contains graphic footage of the violent floods in Northeast Brazil. Residents struggle as floodwaters turn streets into rivers, destroying buildings, roads and railway lines.

Brazil floods displace thousands

by Graham Land

photo by E>mar (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

From an article in the Telegraph:

The drop in the lizard population could cause an explosion in the numbers of insect they normally feed on as well as devastating creatures higher up the food chain which rely on them for food.

The international study is clear that climate change is at fault. The lizards surveyed were not at threat from habitat loss and most sites in the study were protected areas.

Lizards are particularly dependent on certain temperatures for survival and have difficulties adapting to rapid changes in temperature.

From an article in the Independent:

Lizards, which include geckos, iguanas and chameleons, are often referred to as cold-blooded creatures but in fact their body temperature rises and falls with their exterior environment. They have to bask in the sun to raise their body temperature, and seek shade when it gets too warm.

The abstract and full text of the study are available from Science magazine.

by Graham Land

photo by michi_s (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

Now that the Iceland volcano event has died down, lava has cooled and ash has blown far away enough allow Europeans to fly more or less wherever the hell they want, we can only sit back and feel nostalgic for that bygone week when the skies were quiet and sort of tinged with brown.

‘Those were the hazy halcyon days of the spring of 2010,’ we might say one day with a wistful look in our eyes. ‘Sure there was more soot, but there was less pollution‘.

In the meantime we can look back by searching through countless images on Google. Why not start by haveing a look at this impressive slideshow of shots from the Telegraph:

‘Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the aurora borealis or Northern Lights’

Also, be sure to visit this blog, which has a great mixture of spectacular photos of Eyjafjallajökull erupting plus satellite images and some great pictures showing the human side of the volcano drama. It is highly recommended for those interested in all things Eyjafjallajökull.

by Graham Land

Qinghai, China; photo by Cory M. Grenier (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

A series of earthquakes – the largest having a magnitude of 6.9 – struck a Tibetan region of western China today, killing at least 400 people according to an AP report.

A further 10,000 were injured as houses collapsed and many remained trapped under fallen buildings – particularly schools – in Qinghai province.

From a Wall Street Journal report:

The quake hit shortly before 8 a.m. local time Wednesday, jolting Yushu prefecture, part of the Chinese province of Qinghai near the edge of the Tibetan plateau. About 97% of the population in Yushu is ethnically Tibetan. Many earn their living raising yaks, sheep and horses.

Additional resources:

BBC News: Hundreds dead after earthquake hits Qinghai province in China

photo by SaffyH (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

A British government adviser has warned that major changes in land management are necessary to deal with the effects of climate change and a growing population over the next 50 years.

Professor John Beddington, who is chief scientific adviser to the UK government, warned of ‘competing issues’ that without proper management – including an integration of policies – could cause problems such as water shortages and a decrease in biodiversity. Principal issues named in terms of quality of life for Britons were the preservation of urban green spaces and the availability of affordable housing.

Other pressures on land use include commitments to use renewable energy, food production and a wealthier population.

Pressure on land is expected to be particularly acute in the south-east, where population is expected to grow most but where water is scarcest and most of the best farmland is found.

–Guardian

Read the full article, entitled ‘Britain’s green spaces under threat from water shortages and house prices’ in the Guardian. The official British government reports ‘Land Use Futures’ can be downloaded here.

The London Times‘ take on the report is a bit on the sensational side, citing scenarios of mass migration, carbon rationing and Heathrow being ‘converted into a giant reservoir by 2035′.

Now that’s what I call journalism!

by Graham Land

Image Source: Screen capture from Recyclart

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. We all know of the 3-R mantra by now. Some people live by it almost religiously. Most of us, however, will reduce and recycle, but we seem to skip that reuse step quite often. We see items as trash or junk and usually treat them as such. Instead of being reincarnated into some useful second life, things end up occupying landfills instead.

If you want to take a stab at the reuse step—or if you already take that step and simply need inspiration—I suggest you check out Recyclart.org. This site is absolutely awesome! There are tons of photos and links on items made from recyclable products, or items that may seem like junk to the untrained eye.

What exactly can you find on Recyclart? Well, how about a telephone clock or a shoe sculpture built out of computer parts. You can decorate yourself or your home with button rings and magnets, or maybe you’d rather lounge in a bottle cap chair. If you really have a knack for the arts, you can try your skill at egg carton cubic paintings; but if music is more your “thing” then you may be partial to the vintage suitcase upright bass. Old books can always be turned into container pots and you can unleash your inner child with the creation of a Lego house (provided you have enough Legos).

I hope some of these samples will shed some light on new ways you can reuse old items (if not, perhaps these wine bottle lights will). Before you decide to throw anything away, remember to find another use for it first—after all, one man’s trash could really become another man’s treasure.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Flickr

Earthquakes seem to be all the rage in Haiti this month.

Little over a week ago, a 7.0 earthquake killed 200,000, wounded at least 250,000, and left 1.5 million without homes. Now, after more than 40 aftershocks, another quake attacks the small island—and this time it’s a 6.1. The previous earthquake wreaked most of its havoc throughout Port-au-Prince. This latest one, which occurred in the early dawn hours of today, was centered approximately 35 miles (60 km) northwest of the city.

The extent of damage, death or injuries from today’s earthquake is still unknown.

Click here for more information.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Fish are, without a doubt, some of the stranger creatures among us. They can glow. They can shock. They can change their gender. They can change color or mimic other species. Some fish can even climb trees. They are also extremely devoted parents.

Take the female octopus, for example. She will stay with her eggs for six weeks—up to 50,000 eggs, to be exact—and by the time they hatch, she is either dead for starvation or too weak to fight predators, so she ends up being killed anyway; all for the sake of bringing her children to life.

The little zebrafish is another amazing parent who, in their death throes, will give their offspring molecules that make them mature faster, so they may be able to escape whatever it was that killed off the parents. Apparently, this molecule distribution was enough to interest scientists, for 2 species of zebrafish were experimented with (detailed in Biology Letters).

Native to southeastern Himalayan streams and popular amongst aquarium fish, the zebrafish produced some interesting results in the experiments. The Pearl Danio developed their hearts at a faster pace, when exposed to the molecules collected from dead adults. However, the Zebrafish developed its muscles faster, when exposed to the molecules. In either case, both embryo types developed a heartbeat 10% quicker than normal, when exposed to the molecules.

Fish biologist and researcher, Katherine Sloman, explained:

“Being able to speed up development by even an hour could reduce the time they are in this potentially vulnerable state of not being able to swim away from predators while they are confined in the eggs case.” … “We do believe that this response would be a way in which chemicals from adult zebrafish might warn its offspring of potential danger. In terms of evolution, it isn’t believed that this was the original function of alarm substance—research by other groups suggests it probably evolved as a defense against pathogens, acting as a healing agent when the adult’s skin is damaged, but secondarily could take on this role of warning other fish of potential danger.”

The next step in the research will be to find what kind of changes (if any) the fish go through later in life, due to the speeding up process. Can you imagine what people would be like if they went through a similar process?

By Heidi Marshall

Buyers beware: the goods you are purchasing could be illegal.

The illegal selling and trading of animals—or their parts—has been known of for a long time. Sometimes, governments permit temporary sales or trades. In most cases, you will find these things on the black market. However, traders are willing to do whatever it takes to reach a wider customer base and evade authorities. Their chosen method of gaining higher sales may surprise you: the internet.

Grace Ge, IFAW’s Asian regional director, suspects foul play. At a recent animal rights conference held in Singapore, she claimed that traders are able to “circumvent rules, regulations and evade enforcement” through the internet. She goes further to add that “the internet has facilitated the training of wildlife, which is having a devastating effect on animals and ecosystems worldwide”.

IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) conducted a study on illegal online wildlife trading in 2008, over a three-month period. Their findings show over 7,000 online advertisements selling endangered species or products made from them. Seventy percent of these advertisements originated in the US, followed by the UK and China with nearly 8 percent, each. The estimated value of all sales was nearly half a million dollars, but researchers speculate the actual amount would be higher since most of the sites did not show any actual prices.

Some of the things that have been available for illegal sale online include: rhinoceros horns, leopard pelts, live tiger cubs, and medicine. Yes, medicine. Some medicines, such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), have been known to sell medicinal products made from bears, tigers and other animals. The good news is there are TCM practitioners that are more willing to protect wildlife, rather than sell parts of wildlife.

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) has been working with the TCM industry to make a positive change. In particular, they have been working with TCM practitioners in Singapore, by using a labeling scheme to discourage local TCM shops from selling products made from endangered species. Over 20 percent of all TCM shops in Singapore willingly agreed to the initiative.

If, for some insane or cruel reason, you have a mind to purchase an exotic animal, or product made from one, think again. Not only is it a heartless thing to do, it’s also illegal. I’m sure you wouldn’t want some person hunting you and selling your parts for profit. Why on Earth would you think any other creature would feel differently?

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

As the years roll by, the Earth’s waterways become more and more polluted. Sometimes, it may be due to litter or the illegal dumping of waste. In other cases, oil spills or pipe bursts happen. Over the past year alone, we saw quite a few incidents, including spills in the Timor Sea and San Francisco Bay, plus the more recent pipe burst in China that caused thousands of gallons of oil to be swept away; some clear to the Yellow River.

There is, however, one oil spill incident that still stands out when compared to all the rest: the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Many of you may remember the incident, but for those who don’t (or perhaps were not even born yet), here is a recap:

It all began on the night of March 23, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez departed from Alaska’s Valdez oil terminal and headed south for Long Beach, California. There were many icebergs in the area at the time, so a harbor pilot guided the ship through the Valdez Narrows.  Sometime after 11 pm, the ship was on autopilot and the outbound shipping lane was completely crowded with icebergs. Captain Hazelwood requested and received permission from the Coast Guard to go through the inbound lane. Shortly after midnight, the ship had struck Bligh Reef and 10.9 million gallons of oil quickly made their way into Prince William Sound.

Many animals were instantly killed by the spill, while some suffered and died later on. The death toll is estimated to include between a quarter and half million seabirds, 1,000 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, 22 orcas and 12 river otters. It also included billions of salmon and herring eggs.

Nearly 21 years later, and imprints or traces of the spill are still being found throughout miles of gravel beaches along Prince William Sound. To look at the picture in this article, you wouldn’t think that such a place was ever touched by an oil spill. Despite all clean up efforts, at least 20 thousand gallons of crude still remain in the sound.  Until recently, no one could quite figure out why all this oil remained; but Michel C. Boufadel did. Boufadel is chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Temple University and he conducted his own study of the sound.

Boufadel took a team and dug approximately 70 pits, between 3 and 5 feet deep, across 6 beaches. The focus of his study comes from information collected on Eleanor Island—15 miles from Bligh Reef and the grounding site of the Exxon Valdez.

His study—which can be found in Nature Geoscience—explained that Prince William Sound’s gravel beaches are trapping the oil between larger rocks and finer gravel. He discovered that water moved through the gravel layer up to 1,000 times slower than it did through the larger rocks. Water helps oil to biodegrade, but since the water and oil were trapped in the gravel—an environment that was practically oxygen and nutrient-free—the oil biodegrading process became much slower. He explained:

“The oil could be maybe one foot below the beach surface and in contact with sea water with a lot of oxygen, but the oxygen doesn’t get to it.”

As for the upper, larger rock layer, he notes that the water table falls within it as fast as the tide, due to its permeability. According to the study:

“As global warming is melting the ice cover and exposing the Arctic to oil exploitation and shipping through sea routes such as the Northwest Passage, the risk of oil spills on gravel beaches in high-latitude regions will be increased.”

Unfortunately, animals are still affected by the spill, as well. Sea otters, ducks and other birds in the area have been producing an enzyme, which shows that they’ve been exposed to oil. Right now, it’s uncertain how long it will take for the rest of the oil to biodegrade, but Boufadel predicts it will be a long time.

By Heidi Marshall