Thursday, January 24, 2008

Changing light bulbs, China comes to the economic forefront, safe seafood choices and much more....

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Thursday, January 24, 2008
News of Note

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Climate campaigner Al Gore urged world policymakers on Thursday to change laws "not just light bulbs" in tackling global warming, and a UN official said world market turmoil must not be allowed to delay action.

Top Stories

The shells of diatoms are so heavy that when they die in the oceans they typically sink to watery graves on the seafloor, taking carbon out of the surface waters and locking it into sediments below.

Scientists have reported the discovery of whole subsets of genes and proteins that govern how one species of diatom builds its shell. For oceanographers, the work might one day help them understand how thousands of different kinds of diatoms -- and their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere -- might be affected by something like global climate change. Material scientists involved in the work are interested in the possibilities of manipulating the genes responsible for silica production as a way of fabricating more efficient computer chips.

Tuna with unsafe levels of mercury is on dinner menus at some of New York’s most well known and expensive eateries, according to a report in today’s New York Times. At some restaurants, mercury levels in tuna sushi even exceeded limits set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Environmental Defense described the report as a wake up call that FDA was not protecting consumers from dangerous seafood.

Unofficially the United States is now in an economic recession. Investment bankers Merrill Lynch say so.

Officially, the US may not be in recession for months. That kind of announcement usually comes from the White House, but since this a presidential election year, and the party of the sitting president usually is ousted when there’s bad economic performance, the Oval Office will be slow to admit a downturn.

ENN Spotlight

A new study of worldwide technological competitiveness suggests China may soon rival the United States as the principal driver of the world’s economy — a position the U.S. has held since the end of World War II. If that happens, it will mark the first time in nearly a century that two nations have competed for leadership as equals.

More Top Stories

Biofuels made from plants and waste will prove an increasingly efficient and cheap substitute for oil in many areas over the coming five years, industry analysts said.

As long as crude sells at prices towards $100 per barrel, there will be strong demand for cheaper biofuels and manufacturing technology will improve, Vinod Khosla, founder of venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, told Reuters.

New studies show that the Antarctic ice sheet is melting faster than previously anticipated. If this jump is indicative of a trend due to global warming the entire antarctic ecology could be threatened much sooner than expected.
In a first-of-its-kind study, an international team led by Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California, Irvine, estimated changes in Antarctica's ice mass between 1996 and 2006 and mapped patterns of ice loss on a glacier-by-glacier basis.

The practice of hunting groups posting grisly pictures of shot birds on their websites has provoked a backlash in the Philippines, WWF said.

Hundreds of doves, mallards, whistling ducks and snipes have been exhibited on club websites, many protected by Philippine and international laws.

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Member Press Releases
By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a scientific petition Wednesday with the California Fish and Game Commission to protect the Pacific fisher as a threatened or endangered species under the California Endangered Species Act. Protection could alter forest management on millions of acres of private forest land across the state. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced January 17 that it will not prepare a recovery plan for the endangered jaguar and will not attempt to recover the species in the United States or throughout its range in North and South America. The decision was signed by Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall on January 7, 2008. By: International Fund for Animal Welfare
Environmental and animal welfare organizations applauded yesterday's decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to delay the Bush Administration's attempt to nullify protections for marine mammals from potentially lethal underwater sound blasts until a federal district court can review the decision. By: the International Fund for Animal Welfare
Today the International Fund for Animal Welfare released On Thin Ice: The Precarious State of Arctic Marine Mammals in the United States Due to Global Warming, a comprehensive report commissioned to gauge the effects of unprecedented climate change on polar bears and other ice-dependent marine mammals within the United States. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed six imperiled birds from around the world as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act Wednesday. Fourteen years after first determining these species warranted protection, the Service finally responded to a series of lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity and listed the black stilt (New Zealand), caerulean paradise-flycatcher (Indonesia), giant ibis (Laos, Cambodia), Gurney's pitta (Burma, Thailand), long-legged thicketbird (Fiji), and Socorro mockingbird (Mexico) as endangered species. By: National Wildlife Federation
As Congress considers legislation that seeks to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by mid-century, colleges and universities may hold the key. Campuses nationwide have launched climate-driven projects that are taking a significant bite out of emissions along with saving money, according to a new publication from the National Wildlife Federation, Higher Education in a Warming World: The Business Case for Climate Leadership on Campus. The report demonstrates how schools are stepping up efforts in response to the potential threats of global warming and how these institutions are reaping multiple rewards. By: Stockholm International Water Institute
Companies that have contributed to pollution elimination or reduced freshwater consumption through innovative programs, policies, processes or products now have the opportunity to be nominated for the prestigious 2008 Stockholm Industry Water Award. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
In a January 7, 2008, memo, Mike Lockhart, who retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in frustration after 32 years - including the past eight years as the leader of the black-footed ferret recovery program - strongly criticized the agency's leadership for making back-room deals with the state of South Dakota and U.S. Forest Service that undermined the black-footed ferret recovery program by allowing poisoning of prairie dogs. Black-footed ferrets depend on prairie dog colonies for survival; prairie dogs are their primary prey, and prairie dog burrows are used as shelter and dens.

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