Great for surfers, bad for the rest of us

by mikebaird

West Coast waves getting bigger
[Via All Today's News - Sightline Daily]

West Coast waves are getting bigger, meaning greater threats of flooding or coastal erosion during storms, according to a new study.

[More]

So maximum storm waves have increased from 10 meters to 15 meters. Fifty foot waves are pretty awe-inspiring.

But the effects on the coast will not be nice to see. And the waves get higher as you go further north. Amazing.

[Listening to: Wash Away from the album "Songs We Sing" by Matt Costa]

Luckily we have REEF

Wales in crawfish plea to divers

[Via BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition]

Divers are asked for help recording crawfish numbers in Welsh waters after it is named a conservation target.

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The Sustainable Path Foundation has provided funding to REEF the last couple of years. This helps them train divers in the Pacific NW to observe and record marine life which is then put into a database. Perhaps they should start something similar in Great Britain, thus providing some string data before they have ecological troubles.

Views: The Power of ‘Bio’

Views: The Power of ‘Bio’

[Via All Today's News - Sightline Daily]

For more than two centuries, a pioneering spirit has forged the Pacific Northwest into one of America’s most advanced areas. The same creative ambition that spurred European-American settlement of the West now drives cutting-edge developments in “bio” technologies. The two most notable areas are biomass (using plant sources to produce renewable energy) and biofuels (liquid fuels derived from plants).

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The Pacific NW can be hotbed for this sort of research. it has all the parts needed, including cutting edge researchers. With help from the government, maybe we will succeed.

FDA can’t regulate BPA

[Crossposted at A Man With A PhD]

by tiffanywashko

FDA says it’s unable to regulate BPA – JSOnline
[Via Watchdog Reports]

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say they are powerless to regulate BPA, although they have declared the chemical to be a safety concern for fetuses, babies and young children.

A quirk in the rules allows BPA makers to skirt federal regulation.

[More]

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a potentially nasty chemical. Back in the 50s it was investigated as a possible estrogen mimic. It was not as good as some but it does have similar effects as estrogen. Then someone thought it would be good in making some plastics.

So, in the 60s, it was listed as generally regarded as safe. This puts it in a category that the FDA has no regulatory power over.

Great. So now that we are getting more and more information that it is not safe, the FDA can only ask the companies nicely to find something else.

It is well known that hitting developing embryos and fetuses with female hormones at certain times can cause lifelong changes in gene expression. BPA is found in all sorts of things that babies drink and eat from. It is even found in their umbilical cord blood.

Yet all the FDA can do is ask nicely. Here is the opinion of the chemical companies:

Regulatory agencies around the world, which have recently reviewed the research, have reached conclusions that support the safety of BPA. Extensive scientific studies have shown that BPA is quickly metabolized and excreted and does not accumulate in the body. BPA is one of the most thoroughly tested chemicals in commerce today

I do’t think they will be very willing to give up on this chemical. Especially since they appear to have helped write reports for the FDA in the previous administration. So I guess it will up to us. Pressure our legislators and refuse to use products with BPA in them. Of curse, this might be very hard to do since estrogen-disrupting activity have been found in water BEFORE it is bottled.

Our own pollutants may result in severe harm to us and we are powerless to regulate them. But Canada can.

Why cities should pay for trees

by Rennett Stowe
Street trees increase a home’s value:
[Via All Today's News - Sightline Daily]

A Portland researcher has verified what many people already assumed to be true: trees add value to a home.
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Not only do street trees add lots of value to homes, they reduce the time of home sales on the market. In fact, the cost-benefit ratio for cities indicates that the good aspects of trees outweighs the bad by 2 to 1.

Not too shabby.

Technorati Tags: Sustainability

iPhone Apps every charity should use

A Couple of Do Good iPhone Apps:
[Via Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media]

Last week, I created an iPhone app out of my blog in ten minutes at a cost of $50 using a service call AppMkr. It made wonder when we'll start to see more iPhone apps from and to benefit nonprofits.

Almost a year ago, Britt Bravo compiled an iPhone Apps for Nonprofits list. She looked far and wide, but the list was small. It included one of my favorites, The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Guide to help you make, “sustainable seafood choices.”

Britt also mentions that The Extraordinaries was just about to launch its iPhone application to help people find 20-minute volunteer opportunities. Put another way, an iPhone application to put thumbs to good use. This application can now be downloaded here.

[More]

The Monterey Bay Aquarium app is very simple and great to have on an IPhone when eating out or going to the store. I’ve had it for some time.

The Extraordinaires iPhone app looks to be really interesting. It permits people to do some ‘microwork’ for a charity, such as tagging photos or locating where defibrillators are. Just a few seconds spread out over thousands of people for tasks that would be very hard to do individually.

One other interesting app looks to be this one:

One of the more exciting iPhone apps to appear in the last month or so is CauseWorld that uses a new form of “embedded” giving that I dubbed “Foot Traffic Philanthropy.” I had a lot of fun playing with the app over the holidays and generation donations to a handful of charities.

Kind of a nice way to choose who gets money. Getting karma, etc. makes it more of a game than simply pushing buttonss. Very creative. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out. These look like really fun and worthwhile apps that I will be downloading today.

Technorati Tags: General, Non-Profit

Bisphenol a is a bad thing

Analysis of new data confirms bisphenol A link to disease in adults:
[Via Eureka! Science News - Popular science news]

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School and the University of Exeter, UK, have found more evidence for a link between Bisphenol A exposure (BPA, a chemical commonly used in plastic food containers) and cardiovascular disease. The team analysed new US population data and their results are published by the online journal, PLoS ONE.

[More]

I have written about Bisphenol A several times before (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). It is a nasty estrogen mimic and should be removed from our environment. Maybe another human study will mow really move us away from using this chemical.

Estrogen-disruptors are being found more and more, now that we look. Bad news, indeed.

Technorati Tags: Health

Good news for coral

by laszlo-photo
Coral can recover from climate change damage:
[Via Eureka! Science News - Popular science news]

A study by the University of Exeter provides the first evidence that coral reefs can recover from the devastating effects of climate change. Published Monday 11 January in the journal PLOS One, the research shows for the first time that coral reefs located in marine reserves can recover from the impacts of global warming.

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So, if we make some changes that can reverse the uptake of carbon dioxide in the oceans and remove it from the atmosphere, some ecosystems will recover. And relatively rapidly.

As Jurassic Park showed us ‘Life finds a way.’ Our current use of fossil fuels may have major consequences for humans but i expect that life will continue right along on Earth.

Technorati Tags: Environment, Science

Why England is so cold

[Crossposted at A Man With A PhD]

Not Good. Not Good.:
[Via Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal]

Fish Out of Water:

Daily Kos: Freak Current Takes Gulf Stream to Greenland: An unprecedented extreme in the northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation has driven a strong direct connecting current between the Gulf Stream and the West Greenland current. The unprecedented negativity of the “Arctic Oscillation” and the strong connection of the Gulf Stream with the Greenland current are exceptional events. More exceptional weather events are predicted with anthropogenic climate change, but this could be a natural variation of weather and currents.

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Bad Astronomy sent me to this picture of a frozen Great Britain.

And Greenland is otter than normal. Perhaps now we know why.

Technorati Tags: Environment, Science

Why even a few feet could be important

Will sea level rise inundate Olympia?:
[Via All Today's News - Sightline Daily]

Downtown Olympia appeared to be floating on top of Budd Inlet as one of the higher tides of the year filled up Puget Sound. City officials and activists used the tide to show how vulnerable downtown Olympia is to flooding if the sea level rises from climate change.

[More]

You can look at some interactive maps and get an idea of how a 2 foot increase in sea levels, something that we might see by mid-century. Olympia, which is more than 20 feet above sea level does not seem like it would be vulnerable.

But, as this article indicates, there are times when tides are very high. A 17-foot tide came within 2 feet of a main street. So, by mid century, large parts of Olympia could be flooded just due to tides. Add a few major storms and you have a town that is dry now but won;t be in the future.

And, if some predictions come to fruition, a 2 foot rise by mid-century might be an underestimate.

Technorati Tags: Environment