Since I'm on an obvious water/ocean/pollution roll, might as well point out the "Massive Tag Body Spray Slick Spreading From Jersey Shore." Might want to think before you load that stuff on, guys. You know who you are. - Link
A report from the OSPAR Commission indicates that while pollution in the North Atlantic may be down, acidification of the ocean is up. The ocean acidifies as it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This makes it that much harder for creatures to build their shells. - Link
Some Pacific Ocean species are crossing the Arctic now that the ice has dwindled. A gray whale was found in the Mediterranean, and a Pacific algae called Neodenticula seminae has been found as far south as New York. With fisheries declining, the species competition adds another variable to the mix. - Link
David McCandless, blogger at InformationIsBeautiful.net, created this wonderful graphic based on a study of the disappearance of Atlantic Ocean fish over the past 100 years done by the Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, Canada. The article at guardian.co.uk touches on our collective amnesia about the "way things were," and how the environmental baseline continues to shift closer and closer to collapse. - Link
That smoky smell in Chapel Hill and Carrboro? It's from a wildfire in Pender County begun by a lightning strike, and a month-long grassfire in Dare County. Both counties are on the coast; the smoke has traveled between 130 and 200 miles to get here. - Link
Today, NASA and the Space Agency of Argentina launched the Aquarius Spacecraft, a mission to map salinity patterns in the ocean. If all goes well, it will quickly surpass the amount of data gathered from ships over the past century in mere months.
Salinity data will enhance the understanding of ocean circulation and how it responds to freshwater inputs (like massive glacial melting) and global climate changes. Good stuff - Link I'll bet you didn't know that human hair is purchased by chemical companies, which reduce it to an amino acid called L-cystine. L-cystine is then sold as a leavening agent in bagels, donuts, rolls, pita bread, etc. Not kosher. It can also be made from duck feathers. - Link
Grading the last remaining papers for the year is so much fun, especially when students are trickling in with their late work (some handing in assignments that were due in October). As I perform this wonderful task, I'm listening to WUNC's Dick Gordon interview Cary Fowler, who is storing seeds inside a mountain. This massive biodiversity project is located above the Arctic Circle, and is apparently designed to withstand earthquakes, tsunamis, and climate change. Safer than a nuclear reactor? We touch on the topic in APES. Scroll to the bottom at the link to play the audio. - Link
Wastewater treatment plants are good at what they do. In fact, they're most often better and have stricter regulations than bottled water companies. Unfortunately, they don't filter out everything. National Geographic has a piece on prozac in the water as part of their continuing coverage of global water issues. - Link
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Who is Riss?
Alan Rissberger "No one warned me that life would involve science, except my science teacher. But, of course, he's going to say that. He's got a job to protect."
- Stephen Colbert, I Am America (And So Can You) Wish List
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September 2017
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