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EcocentricOil
EcocentricOil
EcocentricInvasive Species
Invasive Species: Catchin’ Some Asian Carp
As fish go, silver carp—one of several species that fall under the general term Asian carp—have a lot going for them. They are voracious feeders, they can grow to more than 40 lbs. and their bony bodies mean few Americans want to eat them, so they can escape the overfished fate of their more filletable cousins. But they do have …
EcocentricHealth
The Swine Flu Pandemic Is Over
Crossposted from TIME’s Wellness blog, because I find flu fascinating:
So sayeth the World Health Organization (WHO)—and they should know, since they were the ones who declared a full, phase six-level pandemic a little more than a year ago. Now it’s done—this morning WHO head Dr. Margaret Chan announced that the group’s
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EcocentricEcocentric
The Asian Floods—Signs of Climate Catastrophes to Come?
They haven’t gotten anywhere near the attention they deserve, but the floods that have struck much of Asia over the past couple of weeks may be the biggest humanitarian disaster in recent memory—bigger even than the earthquake that hit Haiti in January and the 2004 Asian tsunami. Both of those catastrophes killed far more, but the …
EcocentricEcocentric
Hurricanes: The Danger Hasn’t Passed
Who do you think is going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012? Sarah Palin? Mike Huckabee? Mitt Romney?
It’s kind of a ridiculous question, actually, since almost anything could happen in the 18 months until the primaries begin. One of the candidates could, for example, be caught in an embarrassing scandal—or even a …
EcocentricEcocentric
Conservation: A Disease Could Wipe Out Bats
Scientists have been puzzled about a strange disease that began attacking bats in New York state in 2006. The bats would suddenly awaken from hibernation in midwinter, their faces covered in a white fungus. Already weakened, they struggle to find food and die in large numbers. Called white-nose syndrome (WNS), the disease has spread …
EcocentricEcocentric
Climate Change: How Adapting to Warming Could Make It Worse
Positive feedback cycles—they’re what keeps climatologists up at night. The term describes the way that certain ecological responses to a warming climate can further accelerate warming, creating a feedback cycle that can spiral out of control. Take the billions and billions of tons of methane buried beneath the Arctic permafrost. …
EcocentricOil
Oil Spill: Cementing the End
More good news on the oil spill front: around 9 A.M. today, BP began pouring cement into the well in the final phase of its static kill procedure. BP had earlier pumped 2,300 barrels of heavy drilling mud into the well—enough to equalize pressure in the reservoir and achieve a static situation, preventing any additional oil from …
EcocentricWildlife
Protecting Tigers in a Troubled Land
Burma is best known to the West as the home of one of the most repressive military regimes in the world, a country where more than 2,100 political prisoners remain behind bars. The U.S. has strict economic sanctions against Burma—a policy President Obama just renewed last week—and the country’s most famous citizen, democratic icon …
EcocentricOil
Oil Spill: The Static Kill Is a Success
That’s what BP reported early Wednesday morning, in what the company called a “significant milestone.” BP stopped pumping heavy mud into the blown well around eight hours after beginning on Tuesday afternoon, saying that the procedure had achieved its “desired outcome.” Here’s part of the press release from BP:
The well is now being
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