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Jennifer B Powell

Sunday, July 28, 2002

Among this season's fires With so many fires this summer, and so many articles about them, the whole subject sometimes blows into an ashy blur, at least in my mind. Maybe I'm still confused by the soot that filled the air here in Colorado for a while. Craig Childs' article in High Country News is a splash of clarity, a behind-the-scenes look at fire fighting and "fire behavior analysis" at Colorado's Hayman fire. In a thoughtful and observant voice, he gives us history, science, modelling, and the politics of fires. Something to chew on while we wait for the heat to subside. 7:24:41 PM    speak up [] U.S. Senate bill to preserve forests An apparently prescient (dated 7/29) Reuters article posted at Planetark says that a bipartisan group of Senators have introduced a bill to preserve 60 million acres of forest in the United States. The bill requires that the Clinton-era plan be used, which would restrict roads and development on most of the forest land. The Bush administration opposed some aspects of the original plan, but public support for the measure is very strong. 6:54:47 PM    speak up [] Kilauea Volcano Erupting Again From the "some things never change" dept. To the delight (and occasional death) of tourists in Hawaii, volcanic activity has once again broken out at Kilauea. Personally, I prefer to view lava in some nice photographs, rather than up close and personal. 6:06:00 PM    speak up [] Dead Fish in Rome Local experts estimate that 60-70% of all fish in the Tiber River around Rome have died off this year, after large rainfalls and subsequent floods deluged the river with sewage runoff. The high level of nutrients led to a suffocating bloom of algae and the consequent die-off. Apparently the lack of oxygen is so bad that eels have been seen leaping from the river onto the banks, trying to escape. 5:53:31 PM    speak up [] Bacteria continue to evolve Doctors in the United States have encountered the first vancomycin-resistant strain of bacteria, a form of Staphylococcus aureus found in someone's foot ulcer in Michigan. Vancomycin has been the last line of resort against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, though new antibiotics are constantly in development. 5:08:23 PM    speak up [] Tossing more species into the mix As long as we're talking about invasive species, we can't ignore Melaleuca — a genus of fast-growing, pushy Australian trees — and the efforts over the past few years to try and contain them. These can't survive cold temperatures, but in the warmer climates of Florida and California, they have taken over thousands of acres formerly occupied by native species. Federal land managers have responded by trying to introduce natural enemies of the Melaleuca, starting with the melaleuca snout beetle. So far these bugs seem to be helping kill off some of the invaders. Now a second predator — a small aphid-like creature called psyllid — has been introduced into some stands in the Everglades. Deliberately introducing competing species into your local ecosystem can be dangerous. But as I said earlier, I think we're in the "toss everything around and let nature sort it out" phase of human history. 4:11:23 PM    speak up [] Drought widespread This is old news by now, but still worth noting that this summer's drought is affecting lives far beyond the US. 1:19:38 PM    speak up [] Invasion of the walking fish Everyone's talking about the northern snakehead fish, which is interesting from an evolutionary standpoint, but dangerous as an ecological invader. This fish is a predator normally found in parts of Asia, and it can move on land as well as in the water, making it unusually mobile for a fish. Officials worry that it may have already moved from the pond where it was originally found into a nearby river, which would provide it with an easy road into other waterways around the east coast. They're currently trying poison to stop this particular bunch, but given that they've already found 100 babies in the pond, I suspect this particular species is here to stay. Of course, dangerous exotic species are pretty routine at this point in global history. Whatever lies ahead of us, ecologically speaking, has to take into account this mingling of species which have never met before. 11:58:53 AM    speak up [] About this blog As the Earth Turns is the place to come for pointers to more or less recent environmental news. I may or may not give background or helpful links, depending on my time and attention, and I will inevitably tend to post more about things that interest me. But for the past decade I've been gathering environmental news from various sources, and this seems like a good chance to share some of that research with you. If you have any comments or pointers, I accept email. Eventually, I'll be shifting the page to match a web design I already had in progress, but for now, we'll stick to Salon's template. It's easier this way, and I just wanna get started. If I've done this right, there should be a link to the left that will take you to my online resume, where you can find out more about my history. 11:28:34 AM    speak up []

© Copyright 2002 Jennifer B Powell. Last update: 8/1/02; 9:53:59 AM.