Suburban Sprawl Cancels Carbon-Footprint Savings of Dense Urban Cores→

Robert Sanders, reporting for UC Berkeley:

“According to a new study by UC Berkeley researchers, population-dense cities contribute less greenhouse-gas emissions per person than other areas of the country, but these cities’ extensive suburbs essentially wipe out the climate benefits.

A key finding of the UC Berkeley study is that suburbs account for half of all household greenhouse gas emissions, even though they account for less than half the U.S. population. The average carbon footprint of households living in the center of large, population-dense urban cities is about 50 percent below average, while households in distant suburbs are up to twice the average.”

Can you have a dense urban core without the suburban sprawl? It hasn't been possible recently.

For Great Lakes' Sake→

Greg Breining, reporting for ENSIA:

“Big as they are, these lakes are not immune to harm. Many have already suffered overfishing, the introduction of exotic species, industrial pollution, and algae blooms and other signs of nutrient inflow from deforestation, agriculture and sewage disposal. And, of course, climate change. All these influences stand to impair the gifts these large lakes provide.

Fortunately, as human pressures increase, our understanding of large lakes is increasing as well. And lessons learned on one continent can help solve problems on another. Researchers studying large lakes around the world share insights pertinent to management, whether it is mitigating the damage of invasive species in U.S. Great Lakes, protecting a rare freshwater seal from industrial contamination of Lake Baikal, or balancing concerns of biodiversity with the needs of African fishermen.”

A great story on the world's big lakes.

Maintaining the Long View→

Amelia Apfel, reporting for ENSIA:

“The Experimental Lakes Area, a network of 58 lakes in northwestern Ontario that has provided a unique outdoor laboratory for long-term ecological research and monitoring since 1968, recently came dangerously close to shutting down.

The ELA has one of the most complete sets of water quality information in the world and a long history of research on topics that are important to the public and policy-makers, including mercury pollution, harmful algal blooms and the impact of aquaculture on native fish populations. The studies are applicable to lakes on every continent.

Even so, the Canadian government announced in 2012 that it would pull the funding that keeps the field station running to save at least $1.5 million a year, part of a massive austerity plan. The ELA shut down briefly in April 2013 and has been open only on a limited basis since May.”

One hopes that the lake research community finds a way to make this work.

Urban Nature: How to Foster Biodiversity in World’s Cities→

Richard Conniff, writing for Yale environment 360:

“As the world becomes more urbanized, researchers and city managers from Baltimore to Britain are recognizing the importance of providing urban habitat that can support biodiversity. It just may be the start of an urban wildlife movement.”

Great use of oaks is advocated, as this taxa is important for many insects and birds.

The United (Watershed) States of America→

John Lavey, writing in Community Builders:

“What if the Western states were formed around watershed as [John Wesley] Powell envisioned? What would that look like and could we speculate on what that might mean for the functioning of modern communities? And since we’re going down that road, let’s ask another what if: What if all of the American states were based around principal watershed, from coast to coast – something even Powell didn’t consider.”

This was an interesting exercise. Your imagination might run looking at the map -- contemplating the consequences of an alternative spatial political structure. 

John Wesley Powell's map:

Is Conservation Extinct? A new look at preserving biodiversity→

Hillary Rosner, reporting for ENSIA:

“WWF’s Hoekstra likes to talk about “the pivot.”

Reactive and defensive almost by definition, conservation has long made its living by explicitly looking backward. It’s an approach that made perfect sense, for a time. “We wanted to restore a species so that it spanned the breadth of its historic range,” says Hoekstra. “We would look to the past and say, ‘We should have this much of this habitat back again, or it should look this way.’” But while this strategy may still work in certain specific cases, as an overarching vision it no longer fits. You can’t “dial back time” in a world of 9 billion people demanding water, food and energy.”

Interesting perspective that ecologists should stop using the 'past' to guide conservation, but rather look to the future or predict that future to direct today's conservation efforts. In a rapidly changing world, this approach makes sense.

Greenhouse Gas Discovered 7,100 Times Stronger Than CO2→

Report from the Environmental News Network:

“Scientists from the University of Toronto have identified a chemical in the atmosphere that appears to be a long-lived greenhouse gas that breaks all other chemical records for its potential to affect the climate.

The chemical – perfluorotributylamine, or PFTBA – is the most radiatively-efficient chemical found to date...

PFTBA is produced by humans, it does not occur naturally.

PFTBA has been in use since the mid-20th century for applications in electrical equipment. It is used in thermally and chemically stable liquids marketed for use in electronic testing and as heat transfer agents.

There are no known processes that would destroy or remove PFTBA in the lower atmosphere, so it has a very long lifetime, possibly hundreds of years. It is destroyed in the upper atmosphere.”

What we don't know often gets us into trouble, especially in systems where the burden of proof is on environmental protection agency for harm rather than for industrial compound manufactures for no harm.

What Chickadees Have That I Want. Badly→

Robert Krulwich, reporting for NPR:

“According to professor Diane Lee at Cal State University, Long Beach, every fall the part of the chickadee’s brain responsible for remembering where things are expands in volume by approximately 30 percent, stays big during the winter, and then shrinks back in the spring.”

When you study nature one finds all kind of interesting things.

NASA says ozone hole stabilizing but won't fully recover until 2070→

Tony Barboza, reporting for LA Times:

“The hole in the ozone layer is stabilizing but will take until about 2070 to fully recover, according to new research by NASA scientists.
The assessment comes more than two decades after the Montreal Protocol, the international treaty that banned chlorofluorocarbons and other compounds that deplete the ozone layer, which shields the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays.”

So the Earth's thin protective layer is predicted to take about 100 years to return to pre-pollution levels. Our ability to screw up our only place to live is without limit. Luckily politicians acted when they did. Can you imagine if the ozone hole was detected this year? Today's politicians would deny that there was a problem and radicalized citizens would argue that it was a government plot to take away their way of life! 

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/Slides_AGUbriefing_FINAL_to_print.pdf

Forget Golf Courses: Subdivisions Draw Residents With Farms→

Luke Runyon, reporting for NPR:

“Farms — complete with livestock, vegetables and fruit trees — are serving as the latest suburban amenity.

It’s called development-supported agriculture, a more intimate version of community-supported agriculture — a farm-share program commonly known as CSA. In planning a new neighborhood, a developer includes some form of food production — a farm, community garden, orchard, livestock operation, edible park — that is meant to draw in new buyers, increase values and stitch neighbors together.

”These projects are becoming more and more mainstream,” says Ed McMahon, a fellow with the Urban Land Institute. He estimates that more than 200 developments with an agricultural twist already exist nationwide.”

This appears to be an interesting trend. Will existing subdivisions be redeveloped with the inclusion of small farms? Given their density, subdivisions are still dependent on cheap energy for transportation -- a clear Achilles' heel.

Cows might fly→

Veronique Greenwood, reporting for Aeon:

“The Swiss government did not want to expose their farmers to the open market, to put them in direct competition, in the case of cow farmers, with ranchers around the world with far more land and the ability to grow animals cheaply. A workaround was devised.

The market supports to local agriculture would end, yes. But the farmers would be paid directly by the government for something else. They would be paid for, among other things, keeping the mountain pastures clear of trees, keeping the forests clear of the cows, and keeping the water clean. They would be paid for keeping land in agriculture, for treating their animals well, and for maintaining the social structure in rural areas. It is a way of thinking about the use of the land that environmental scholars and policymakers call ‘payments for ecosystem services’. In essence, the Swiss government rewards farmers for the maintenance of the landscape — both environmental and cultural.”

Interesting article on the importance of a government system to continue farming in Switzerland and the comparison with North America. Scale matters.

Madison's lakes are 'impaired' by runoff-driven weeds and algae, state says→

Steven Verburg, reporting for the Wisconsin State Journal:

“The state will add Dane County’s chain of lakes to its list of “impaired waters” because of heavy nutrient pollution from surrounding farmland that causes unnatural weed growth and nasty-smelling algae blooms, state officials said Friday.

Dane County officials expressed concern that the listing of the four Yahara lakes — Mendota, Monona, Waubesa and Kegonsa — might upset or undermine extensive cleanup efforts already underway in cooperation with local farmers. It would be the first time the lakes landed on the state list because of nutrient pollution.”

Don't you have to call a spade a spade?

Supreme Court to tackle cross-state pollution→

Mark Sherman, reporting for The Associated Press:

“The Supreme Court indicated Tuesday it could breathe new life into a federal rule requiring states to reduce power plant pollution from the South and Midwest that fouls the air in the Eastern U.S.

Several justices suggested during a 90-minute argument that they believe the Environmental Protection Agency did not exceed its authority when it issued its cross-state air pollution rule in 2011. A divided federal appeals-court panel invalidated the rule last year.”

Shouldn't the Executive Branch be allowed to govern without excessive litigation? 

State Draft Plan Addresses Phosphorus Pollution in Lake Champlain→

John Herrik, reporting for VTDIGGER.ORG:

“The state is undertaking a complex Lake Champlain cleanup that will likely alter the state’s farmland, forests and streams over the next decade.

The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets released a draft plan for restoring the Lake Champlain Basin this month. The consortium must comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s request to clean up the lake or face funding holds and strict regulations, according to David Mears, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation....
The plan, which will be vetted during several public meetings this winter, includes tightening the state’s agriculture programs, storm water management practices, ensuring river channel stability, updating forest management practices and watershed protection plans. These are considered “nonpoint sources,” unlike the closely regulated facility discharges around the lake, that dump phosphorous [sic] into the lake.”

Start with a good plan, and find effective levers to change the numerous systems that have been allowed pollution to flow into the lake for so long.

Humans are becoming more carnivorous→

Hannah Hoag, reporting for Nature,

“Globally, the human trophic level increased by 3% from 1961 to 2009, driven largely by more meat consumption in India and China.”

Perhaps the most important statistic estimated for 2013.

What Do We Mean By “Clean?”→

Emily Hilts, writing at 'The Life Aquatic' blog:

“Let’s say we could clean Mendota in an instant. What would it look like? Far clearer water, healthy stands of plants, no floating garbage… we can all agree on this vision, right? But what if we drift closer to shore – what does it look like then? Not everyone has the same idea of what a “clean” shoreline looks like.”

Nice story weaving recent lake science and what make place. 

Are We Thinking About Invasives All Wrong?→

Center for Limnology article:

““Invasive species are often thought of as species that take over wherever they get in,” says Jake Vander Zanden, a UW limnology professor who directed the research. “But, in our experience studying lakes and rivers, in most places they weren’t all that abundant. It was only in a few places where they got out of hand.” If that pattern held true, the researchers realized, then invasives were acting a lot like their native counterparts.”

A species place of origin does not determine whether if it is inherently nefarious in a new area.

Waters of Wisconsin–and Beyond [pdf]→

Robert G. Lange, reporting for Wisconsin People & Ideas:

“Limnology, the study of inland waters, is an academic discipline of great interest to the citizens of Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin–Madison limnologists have been studying the waters of Wisconsin since 1895 with the goal of finding solutions to the vexing and myriad challenges our waters continually face. Examining the causal relationships involved in nutrient pollution and lake food webs, studying the impact of dams (and their removal) on rivers, monitoring the health of the Great Lakes, and evaluating the impact of climate change on our waters are all in a day’s work for the scientists at the university’s Center for Limnology.”

Great story on the history of the Center for Limnology and the outstanding scientists that have contributed so much to the understanding of lake ecosystems.

Rescue of Isle Royale wolves still under discussion, but with lessened urgency→

Ron Meador, reporting for MinnPost:

“About 20 people interested in the fate of Isle Royale’s wolves gathered for an informational update from the National Park Service in St. Paul on Tuesday, and heard that the program consists, for now, of more talking and thinking about the right thing to do — if it becomes necessary to do anything at all.”

The mental model of 'the balance of nature' is insufficient. Nature does not care if there are wolfs on Isle Royale. Second, humans are always tinkering with the rest of nature, as it is in our nature. The questions are: do humans prefer wolves on the island and should we add species that were extirpated due to our actions?

The Case Against Cars in 1 Utterly Entrancing GIF→

Derek Thompson, reporting for The Atlantic:

“We continue to lead advanced economies in per-capita carbon emissions, 28 percent of which come from transportation. But even if the crunchy granola argument isn’t good enough to make you see the benefits of public transit, consider that trains, trams, buses, and the like reduces traffic congestion, which is good for the life satisfaction of everybody behind the wheel, since science shows long commutes make us unhappy.”