U.S. 'motorization' may be in permanent decline→

Ron Meador, reporting for MinnPost:

“A new report from the University of Michigan finds probably permanent reductions in Americans’ rates of vehicle ownership, fuel consumption and miles driven per year. Americans’ century-long love affair with the automobile is a many-sided and much-studied thing, and the research does not lack for complexity and contradiction. Lately, many of the trend lines have seemed to be going down, but the reasons for those shifts are much debated ...

Against that background, a new report released from the University of Michigan on Tuesday stands out quite sharply. It finds probably permanent reductions in Americans’ rates of vehicle ownership, fuel consumption and miles driven per year, the three components of what author Michael Sivak calls “motorization.” His analysis attributes our declining motorization to several factors, while insisting that economic conditions cannot be the primary force behind them.”

John Snape

Sivak's report

Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Video Summary:

IPCC Fifth Assessment Report - Working Group II - Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability

Michel Jarraud, the head of the World Meteorological Organization, at the press conference summarized the importance of the science behind this report said: “Thirty years ago, the previous generation maybe was damaging our atmosphere, [and] the Earth, out of ignorance. Now, ignorance is no longer a good excuse. We know—therefore, we have the information to make decisions and to act upon this information.”

Report -- Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability

The Fight for Wisconsin’s Soul→

Dan Kaufman, writing for the New York Times:

“WISCONSIN has been an environmental leader since 1910, when the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment promoting forest and water conservation. Decades later, pioneering local environmentalists like Aldo Leopold and Senator Gaylord Nelson, who founded Earth Day in 1970, helped forge the nation’s ecological conscience.

But now, after the recent passage of a bill that would allow for the construction of what could be the world’s largest open-pit iron ore mine, Wisconsin’s admirable history of environmental stewardship is under attack.”

 Credit: Azael Meza

Once you start down the dark path of discounting environmental standards, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.

Water or sulfide mining: Which is more valuable?→

Clint Jurgens and Mary Ann Jurgens, writing for MinnPost:

“When evaluating the impact of the proposed copper-nickel mines like PolyMet and Twin Metals on the natural resources of Minnesota, regulators, political leaders, and the public should consider the value of water as a natural, replenished resource.

The target of copper-nickel mining companies is an ore formation called the Duluth Complex, which lies in the middle of some of most beautiful and enjoyable lakes, streams and forests in the world. The problem with the proposed mining is that these ores are embedded in sulfide rocks. Unfortunately, the process of mining and recovering metals from sulfide ore has a long and sordid history of water pollution.”

Brian Hoffman

From ore to oil, get it now and use it up as quick as you can. Why is it that is seems like our species lives for the moment without regard to future generations?

Fish forced into the ‘foraging arena’ when lakes lose their trees→

Adam Hinterthuer, writing for University of Wisconsin-Madison:

As water levels drop and submerged trees rise above the waterline, some fish are forced into the "foraging arena" to face predators

“In attempts to predict what climate change will mean for life in lakes, scientists have mainly focused on two things: the temperature of the water and the amount of oxygen dissolved in it.

But a new study from University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers is speaking for the trees — specifically, the dead ones that have toppled into a lake’s near shore waters.

For fish in northern Wisconsin lakes, at least, these trees can be the difference between pastures of plenty and the Hunger Games.”

Interesting study from the Center of Limnology.

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.

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

What is the Single Greatest Virtue of Our Species?→

Brian Doyle, essay on 'What does the Earth Ask of Us?' for the Center for Humans & Nature:

“We thought it was a vast farm, from which we could draw fish and deer and corn and petroleum and silver and coal, and the farm had no end, we invented a god to give it to us as a garden of endless delights, but it does have an end, it is not infinite, the soil will disappear in sixty years and the fresh water go foul, cities will drown and toddlers die by the millions from diseases that have been waiting ravenously to return and scythe us down like we sliced down the vast seething lungs of the forests....

Do other species have standing in the courts of the human beings? Can osprey testify about their near-death experience, when they were poisoned en masse, and parents were forced to watch as their babies hatched too soon, inside their translucent useless eggshells, and died sobbing for breath, their bones unknit, unable even to mew, unable to see even a shard of the light hatched in the furnaces of the stars? What about trees? ”

Powerful and thoughtful prose.

Human population density drives extinctions→

Tim De Chant, reporting for Per Square Mile: 

“Sometimes there are scientific studies that seem to confirm the obvious. To wit: The more people that live in an area, the more species that go extinct.

No matter how superfluous it seems, it’s good that scientists undertake these studies, if only to confirm our suspicions, rule out potential confounding variables, or simply make the phenomenon feel more real. All three are the case with the recent paper on population density and animal extinctions. Jeffrey McKee, an anthropologist at the Ohio State University, first published on the relationship back in the early 2000s, and his latest confirms some of his earlier results and predictions.”

To have a meaningful discussion about improving our quality of living we must first talk about stabilizing our population.  Action may follow.

Why Is The Monarch Butterfly Population Shrinking?→

Margaret Roach, reporting for Latina Lista:

““Where are the monarch butterflies this year?” One of many recent emails on the topic asked me. Headlines about monarch decline seem to confirm gardeners’ observations: Populations of the once-familiar orange-and-black creatures are not what they were. What’s going on, and how bad is it? Is there anything we can do?”

Some good links to other information on Monarch Butterflies at end of article. 

Observed Atmospheric CO2 Hits 400 Parts Per Million→

Over at Slashdot:

“Over the past month a number of individual observations of CO2 at the Mauna Loa Observatory have exceeded 400 parts per million. The daily average observation has crept above 399 ppm, and as annually the peak is typically in mid-May it seems likely the daily observation will break the 400 ppm milestone within a few days. This measure of potent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere should spark renewed discussion about the use of fossil fuels. For the past few decades the annual peak becomes the annual average two or three years later, and the annual minimum after two or three years more.”

One should always worry when something changes dramatically.

The Keeling Curve A DAILY RECORD OF ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE FROM SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY AT UC SAN DIEGO

Get ready for more White Bear Lakes: Two new looks at groundwater depletion→

Ron Meador, reporting for MinnPost:

“Two new reports on Minnesota’s groundwater resource deserve more attention than they’ve been getting. One, from the U.S. Geological Survey, updates and elaborates its findings that falling water levels in White Bear Lake are largely attributable to increased groundwater pumping by city water systems to the north and west. Another, from the Freshwater Society, sets that lake’s predicament in the context of a much larger problem — a huge increase in groundwater pumping all across Minnesota during the last quarter-century.”

Minnesota Running Out of Water?→

Paul Austin writes:

“A recent study by the Freshwater Society of Minnesota looked at the groundwater issues Minnesota is currently facing. From their research, they came up with a plan for reducing the strain we currently place on our aquifers. The plan will take some personal responsibility and some political leadership to attain.

The basic thrust of their report was that we cannot maintain our current trajectory when it comes to water usage and not expect to run out of water in certain places. Their analysis indicated that the state’s water usage increased 31 percent between 1988 and 2011. To cut that number, we need to start looking at ways each and every one of us can decrease our personal usage, and work with the various levels of government to ensure that where voluntary reductions are not working, mandatory backstops are in place to help protect this valuable resource.”

Apollo 11 F-1 Engine Recovery (Rocket Science)→

Bezos Expeditions:

“The F-1 rocket engine is still a modern wonder — one and a half million pounds of thrust, 32 million horsepower, and burning 6,000 pounds of rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen every second. On July 16, 1969, the world watched as five particular F-1 engines fired in concert, beginning the historic Apollo 11 mission. Those five F-1s burned for just a few minutes, and then plunged back to Earth into the Atlantic Ocean, just as NASA planned. A few days later, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon.”

A 1950s engine remains a marvel of invention. Sometimes we need to explore the past to help us in the present. Evolution of this rocket science:

How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 “moon rocket” engine back to life

New F-1B rocket engine upgrades Apollo-era design with 1.8M lbs of thrust