Set a lighter to an icy block of methane hydrate, a naturally frozen combo of methane gas and water, and flames spew forth at random. However unlikely this fluke of nature may appear — burning ice — it could hold the keys to a vast wealth of untapped, clean-burning methane gas thought to exist deep beneath the outer margins of most continental shelves. Its contribution may be peripheral to the immediate needs of Western Europe and North America, currently drowning in cheap natural gas, but it present a potential lifeline to resource-poor nations like Japan, which already imports more ... Read More
Reducing the Use of Animals in Experiments
March 16, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
The U.S. is the only industrialized nation still using chimpanzees on a large scale for invasive experiments — which sticks in animal activists’ craws. More than 900 live in laboratories — most are warehoused, some for 50 years. The bipartisan Great Ape Protection & Cost Savings Act working its way through Congress would prohibit invasive research on chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and bonobos and ban breeding them for research. In September 2010, the European Union passed legislation that 27 member EU nations must find and use alternate research methods to reduce animals’ ... Read More
California Farms Get Testy Over Water Quality
March 15, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
The world’s most pervasive groundwater pollution problem – nitrate in drinking water – is under scrutiny in the richest farming region of the United States. This week, a report for the California Legislature revealed that 250,000 people living in Central California, including four of the top five agricultural counties in the U.S., are currently at risk for nitrate contamination in their drinking water. Many of them are among the poorest Californians. Nitrate, in this instance, is a byproduct of nitrogen fertilizer. In drinking water, high concentrations of it can interfere with the ... Read More
Easter Earthquake Pointed Out Some Faults
March 9, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Last month, Rex Dalton told us about a major earthquake in Baja Mexico that in addition to killing two people had the unfortunate local consequence of sealing off a traditional fishing spot that sustains the Cucapá Indian community. In “Quake Rescues Reserve, Shakes Baja Fishing Town,” he noted that aftereffects of the 7.2-magnitude Easter 2010 earthquake pleased conservationists as much as it annoyed the subsistence fishermen, and for exactly the same reasons. In the pleased column now add seismologists. The U.S. Geological Survey just announced that the El Mayor-Cucapah quake ... Read More
New York’s White Roofs Prove They’re Cool
March 8, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
A satellite photograph of New York City reveals a dark blot fronted to the north, west, and east by a sea of light green forest, and to the south by an actual sea: the pastel blue of the Atlantic Ocean. Into this blot, on hot summer days, soaks enough solar radiation to turn its denizens into sweaty, irritable, iced-latte swilling malcontents prone to cranking the air-conditioning full blast 24/7 while daydreaming about a weekend upstate. Those who live in fear of sweltering July subway rides days may soon have a respite, from an unlikely source. A just published study by researchers at ... Read More