At Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a short drive north of New York City, more than 300 scientists and researchers are delving into the geophysical mysteries of our planet from virtually every angle.

One project is to discover whats happening beneath the worlds largest ice sheet in remote eastern Antarctica

Its late afternoon at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where Robin Bell is at work analyzing various images of glaciers and plotting her next expedition to the frozen southern pole. She takes a break to explain why she loves ice so much.

Ice is cool because it is really hard to look under. So there are all kinds of mysteries that are underneath the ice sheet that you cant see without sending out radar energy. You get to look somewhere nobody has looked before. So you get to find things that nobody had thought about before.

Carl Robinson, BAS

The international expedition Robin Bell (extreme right) helped to lead.

Hidden wonder

Such as an entire mountain range, hidden from view beneath a sheet of ice several kilometers thick

We went to the middle of the Eastern Antarctica ice sheet, which the biggest one on the planet. It covers the entire eastern half of Antarctica. The top of the ice sheet is about 4,200 meters high (above sea level) and underneath that is a mountain range. The Russians discovered the mountain range when they drove across it in 1958, and they found the ice was really thin there. But nobody had been back there, pretty much, in the following 50 years.

There is no visible evidence of these peaks and valleys beneath the unbroken surface of the ice field, and Bell was determined to learn more about them.

Robin Bell

The specially-fitted plane Robin Bell and her scientific colleagues used to plot the buried Antarctic mountain range.

In 2008, she outfitted a small plane with sensitive laser, radar and magnetic-field monitoring equipment, and oversaw a series of systematic aerial surveys over the ice sheet. The resulting images, which look very much like dental X-rays, showed the mountains, and more.

Closer look

There were things that looked more like clouds or mushrooms or something at the bottom of the ice sheet.  But big! Like a kilometer thick.  So, being a scientist, first you think there is something wrong with your instruments, because there shouldnt be things that look like this under the ice sheet.  But when you start seeing it on one line and then five kilometers later you see it on the next line and then the next one you begin to think there might actually be something there.

What Bell was seeing was an entire range of mountains, more like the Alps than the scattered mega-bumps she and her team expected to find.  There were also valleys and, at the base of the mountains, four kilometers underground, rivers of slow-moving water.

When we go to the middle of Antarctica, the average temperature is roughly minus-40 degrees Centigrade (Celsius).  Thats at the surface.  But the ice sheet acts like a blanket and captures the heat of the earth coming up.  So the bottom of the ice sheet is only about minus two degrees Centigrade.  So its not very far from melting.  Its pretty warm down there.

Bell and her team found other surprises in this hidden, ice-blanketed world, such as rivers that flowed uphill.

VOA - A. Phillips

Robin Bell in her office at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

We really hadnt thought about what would happen to water and valleys when you drop a four and a half kilometer thick ice sheet on top of it and that youd actually end up driving the water up the hill. Because the ice is thinner at the end of the valley than down at the bottom. So the water is actually getting squirted uphill.

Revamping impressions

The discovery that liquid water is flowing beneath Antarcticas massive ice sheet has forced scientists to revise their view of the so-called frozen continent. It was long believed that the ice sheet was layered like a birthday cake, with the newest ice near the top, where the most recent snowfalls had frozen.

But Bell says it now seems that some of the most ancient ice is being melted and then pressed uphill by the weight of the ice above it, until it freezes again. That means many ice layers higher up in the ice sheet might actually be more ancient than the layers below them.

Which is a kind of a backwards way of thinking about things.

Bell says her research might seem exotic but its implications are urgent.

If we want to know how the ice sheets are going to change in the future, we need to know how they are going to move. And they move on their bottoms. So what the bottom of the ice sheet is made of really matters.

Bell believes her work at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is doing more than deepening our understanding of the physics of polar ice.

Bell says that knowing why and how that ice melts will also help scientists better predict the effects of global climate change, and the profound environmental impacts it is certain to have.

Ocean Floor Reveals Past Climate Changes

As the earths climate changes, one tool for understanding its environmental impacts is the study of past climate changes, revealed by layers of sediment scientists take from the sea floor.

At the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, frozen samples of those sediments are housed in a facility called the Core Repository.

Time capsule

Lamont research professor Maureen Raymo, the director of the Core Repository, slides open a long, narrow drawer from the cabinet. Like thousands of others here, the drawer contains a long, thin cylinder of layered sediment.

VOA - A. Phillips

Core Repository Director Maureen Raymo pulls out a sea sediment sample, one of thousands at the archive.

Its a sample extracted from the ocean floor and below. According to Raymo, the cylinders distinctive stripes of varied colors and widths are a unique visual record, a sort of vertical time capsule.

Imagine you are out on a boat, and you could see right through the four kilometers of water that is between you and the bottom. And on the bottom all the little fossils, all the little plankton that die over the years in the water column, their remains settled to the sea floor, just gently settled to the bottom, Raymo says. And they accumulate, layer by layer by layer, over millions of years. So imagine you just came along and just stuck a big piston tube into the sediment, or took a straw and stuck it into the sediment and pushed it 20 meters down and extracted it, you would have a long core that would essentially be a record of sedimentation going back in time. For geologists, its the equivalent of a tape recorder.

Invaluable resource

Lamont-Doherty oceanographic vessels started collecting these samples more than 50 years ago, at a time when no one was sure what they would be used for.

VOA - A. Phillips

Core sample labels identify the exact spot on the sea floor where the sample was taken. Slight variations in location can make a significant difference in the chemical and biological composition of the sediment sample.

The first director, Maurice Ewing, had the sense that these cores had to contain important information and it turns out they do, Raymo says. Theyve been an invaluable resource in studying past climate change, past ocean circulation, past ocean temperatures, the evolution of life in the ocean in the past, and they are an incredible archive of the evolution of life in the ocean in the past.

The core samples provide a reliable record partly because the deep ocean is a very peaceful place, compared to the shoreline

Its very far away from the margins where there is a lot of erosional material coming in, where there are lots of waves breaking on the shores and on the continental shelf. Material that settles through the water column just gently layers on the bottom, layer by layer by layer, and it can just be undisturbed for millions of years.

Vital clues

According to Raymo, the types of species one finds along a length of core reveal vital clues about past environmental changes where the sample was taken.  She asks us to imagine a core sample from the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean:

And you go down your core and you see these kind of sub-polar species, temperate species.  Then all of a sudden, you see species that only live in sea ice or next to sea ice.  And that tells you that at that location, at that time in the past, sea ice covered that part of the North Atlantic.  Because you only see these polar species of plankton.  You could go further south and look at a core and see it varying between tropical species and subtropical species, and thats directly reflective of how the sea surface temperature was changing through time

Looking at climate changes of the past helps scientists understand the changes the earth is undergoing today, and is nearly certain to experience at an accelerated rate in the future.  Raymo says that when she was a doctoral student in the 1980s, climate change was an esoteric subject few considered relevant.

And now its obviously incredibly relevant.  Humans are changing the atmosphere in profound ways by increasing greenhouse gases, and climate is responding to that.  The earth is warming.  And so there are a lot of questions about how high can CO₂ go without causing fairly devastating changes in global climate, either through sea level rise as ice sheets melt, changing precipitation patterns....  And the people in my field, we really look it at as the past is the key to the future here.

Geophysicist Probes Oceans Secrets

There are more than 300 research scientists working in scores of specialties at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades New York, but few have made as varied and lasting a contribution as Walter Pitman.

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

By recording and analyzing the magnetic patterns in the undersea ridge, Walter Pitman helped prove the theory of continental drift, a revolutionary idea at the time.

Today, Pitman is a distinguished professor of geophysics at Columbia University, and the recipient of many of his fields most coveted honors.

Even though he is now in his 80s, Pitmans animated manner makes it easy to picture him as the precocious teenager he once was, visiting his fathers workplace at Bell Labs - the pioneering technology research center - and asking the other scientists there about their work.

I worked there in the summertime sweeping floors but I was in amongst all these people, he recalls. It was wonderful

Pitman earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and physics, and soon took a job with an electronics firm.  The work bored him, but one project - doing research on submarines - sparked a passion for oceanography and a return to university

For his doctoral thesis at Columbia, Pitman headed back to sea on a research vessel.  He hoped to gather evidence that all the continents had once been joined, but for hundreds of millions of years had been drifting apart atop giant plates of the earths crust, which floated on a layer of volcanic magma

Now when they pull apart, volcanic material comes up and fills that void, Pitman says.  That volcanic material contains a lot of iron.  When that volcanic material cools down that iron will become magnetized in the direction of the earths field on that place and at that time.

_{This chart shows the magnetic patterns at set distances from the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge. During the 1960s, Pitman used the symmetry in the patterns to help prove the theory of plate tectonics and continental drift. (Credit: Lamont-Doherty)}

By recording and analyzing the magnetic patterns in the undersea ridge, Pitman helped prove the theory of continental drift, a revolutionary idea at the time

It was electrifying.  I didnt imagine ever being involved in something so astonishing and so very, very important to the geological sciences at such a young stage in my career.  I was very fortunate to be there when it was happening.

Pitman says that in addition to explaining how the continents drift around the oceans, the science of plate tectonics explains how they collide and break apart, creating earthquakes and building mountain chains

Later, Pitman turned his attention to the surface of the ocean, and sea level changes.  He and fellow Columbia University geophysicist William Ryan proposed what is known as the Black Sea Deluge Theory.  In their 1998 book, Noahs Flood: the New Scientific Discoveries About The Event That Changed History, they contend that the Black Sea was once a landlocked freshwater lake.  It probably served as a fertile oasis for Neolithic peoples.  Then about 7500 years ago, melting glaciers raised water levels in the neighboring Mediterranean Sea

Until it got to the point where it could flow in through the Bosporus, which was at that time was probably at a depth of 15 or 20 meters.  Youre talking about a huge mass of water coming in to fill a very small basin.  And that water as it comes through the Bosporus is going to cut the Bosporus deeper.  The deeper it cuts, the faster it flows.  The faster it flows, the faster it cuts, and so on.  There is a feedback mechanism.  You start with a trickle and within a short time, its a raging, roaring torrent of water flowing in at 50 cubic kilometers a day.  Were very sure thats what it (the Biblical flood) was.

For decades, Pitman served as a distinguished professor of oceanography and geophysics at Columbia University.  But he decided to stop teaching when he began to have trouble remembering all of his students names.

Thinking about it, I always liked to become sort of an uncle, Pittman says.  Not a professor, but a bit more like an older uncle with the students.  I think that made them more free to talk and question and contradict, than if I was Herr Professor.  These are bright kids - really bright.  And you know damn well that a lot of them are going to go on to achieve much more than you have achieved.

This octogenarians thirst for knowledge is undiminished by age.  He and several colleagues are currently studying the climate of the Arctic Ocean, and its effects on the worlds water cycles over the past two million years.  Their research can help scientists predict the effects of climate change, which is melting the polar ice caps and causing sea levels to rise.  But Walter Pitman remains fascinated by whatever falls under his gaze

Ive had an incredibly good time at this kind of endeavor.  There are bad spots, of course.  But the science is always fascinating.  You might stop reading for the day and say Wow, that is so great.  I learned something about how the Earth works.  That is really pure pleasure.

US Energy Production Facing Limits of Water Scarcity

Scientists, climatologists and energy experts share a growing concern: the need for water in the production of energy, especially in regions that are experiencing serious drought.  Generating power - whether it be from fossil fuels or renewable energy sources - requires large amounts of water

Nearly all forms of energy production use large amounts of water.  Coal, which generates nearly 50 percent of the electricity in the U.S., needs water for mining and transport, and to cool and lubricate equipment

Water is also used to cool fuel rods at nuclear plants and to generate steam to power turbines.  The biofuel industry needs water for irrigation, fermentation and the production of ethanol and biodiesel fuels

Alexander Ochs, director of climate and energy at the Worldwatch Institute, says that adds up to a lot of water.

Per megawatt hour, coal uses 500 to 1000 gallons of water for the production of just one megawatt hour of electricity, said Ochs.  If we look at all the plants combined in the U.S., all the thermo-electric plants [powered by steam] in the U.S.  in 2008 alone, they drew 60 billion to 170 billion gallons of water, per year.

Without water, most types of energy could not be produced.  Even renewable energy, like geothermal and solar, use water to cool equipment and to clean the collector panels

Those requirements have led California, Massachusetts and several Midwestern states to halt the operations of some power plants

Places like the Midwest where water is a very scarce resource already today, a number of power plants have actually been halted, and this is actually true for across the United States, said Ochs.

David Brown directs programs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration across the southern United States.  NOAA collects data on climate patterns.  Brown says the drought in the American Southwest, the worst in a century, is prompting changes in the energy industry

Energy companies are also being forced to be more efficient in the way they use water, whether it is for electricity production in a coal factory or in the mining of natural resources through the fracking [hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas] process, said Brown.  These companies are also realizing that water resources are strained and will continue to be strained as the climate continues to warm,

The NOAA expert says water systems in the American Southwest will be under even greater stress over the next several decades

The agriculture industry is the prime user of water in the United States, closely followed by energy production.

Experts say competition for water resources - from a growing population, and from the agriculture and energy industries - will require difficult decisions, eventually, by local and national governments.

Japan to Release Australian Anti-Whaling Activists

Australia has welcomed Japans decision to release without charge three anti-whaling activists who boarded a Japanese whaling support vessel two days ago.  The Canberra government has warned protest groups that they might not receive such lenient treatment in the future

The three Australian activists were expected to be taken to Japan to face criminal charges.  But authorities in Tokyo have decided, instead, to release the men.

Australia will send a customs vessel to collect the men and take them back to Australia.

The trio, members of the Australian environmental group Forest Rescue, boarded the Shonan Maru 2 as it was sailing off the coast of southwestern Australia Sunday

The activists were helped by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is tailing the Japanese whaling fleet as it heads towards the Southern Ocean.  The Sea Shepherd has harassed Japanese whalers for years as part of a campaign to stop whale hunting in the Antarctic Ocean.

Australias attorney general, Nicola Roxon, is critical of the protesters actions and says the best place to oppose whaling is in the courts.

We will as a government abide by the law.  We call on all Australian citizens to abide by the law, Roxon said.  These men who put themselves in quite extreme risk could have been heading to Japan for charges to be laid there.  Thats something that anyone who might contemplate taking such hazardous action in the future ought contemplate very carefully.

Anti-whaling activist Rowan Davidson says conservationists will continue to try to disrupt the whaling fleet in Antarctic waters.

We dont write the rules of the game.  We just play it hard like they do, and we will use whatever means we can, Davidson said.  Were into non-violent direct action and well do whatever we need to do.  If that means creating diplomatic incidents for the government, so be it.

Japan introduced what it calls scientific whaling to circumvent a 1986 ban on commercial whaling.  It says it has a right to monitor the whales impact on its fishing industry.  The meat from the Japanese kills ends up in the market place.

Last year, Australia filed a complaint against Japan at the International Court of Justice in The Hague to stop Southern Ocean scientific whaling

A decision is expected as early as 2013.

Global Warming Could Delay Next Ice Age

The next ice age could be delayed by tens of thousands of years due to excessive amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which disrupts Earths natural cycle of warming and cooling, according to a study in Nature Geoscience.

Jim Channell analyzed ice core and marine sediment data from one million years of geologic history

Channell, a distinguished professor of geology at the University of Florida, says one period, around 780,000 years ago, is remarkably like our own

It looks very similar because the orbital characteristics of the Earth, which is known from astronomers, is a dead ringer for the orbital states that we have today.  And we can use that as an analog to say, When will our interglacial state, which were in right now, go into the next glacial period

Those orbital features - how the Earth revolves around the sun, the shape of its orbit, the tilt and wobble of the Earth on its axis - undergo long, cyclical changes.  Those changes directly affect the amount of radiation we receive from the sun, which in turn affects the Earths climate

Based on these natural cycles, our current warming period should end within 1,500 years.  Channell says whats different from 780,000 years ago is that CO2 levels in the atmosphere back then were 240 parts per million, compared with 390 parts per million today

And so we can be fairly sure that we have, whether we like it or not, delayed the possibility that we will revert from our present interglacial into a glacial state.

Channell says the findings underscore the dramatic effect of CO2 - released by the burning of fossil fuels in our cars, power plants and buildings - on the Earths natural climatic systems.

The University of Florida geologist adds that the orbital characteristics of Earth - which control the amount of radiation our planet receives from the Sun and which, over millions of years, have controlled the climate on Earth, are no match, he says, for the excessive levels of CO2 in our atmosphere.

Cooling that would naturally occur in response to changes in the Earths solar orbit simply cannot keep up

While a delayed ice age may sound like good news, Channell says, it isnt

The high concentration of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is beginning to destabilize ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica

Once you slough off the continental ice into the ocean, of course the consequence is sea level rise, said Channell.

And its not being, I think, over-dramatic to say that considering the proportion of the worlds population that lives close to sea level, the implications of this sort of accelerated sea level rise are enormous.

Channel says those ice sheets are expected to continue to melt until the next phase of cooling begins. And when that will be is now in serious doubt.

Severe Drought, Wildfires Threaten Water Resources

Scientists say severe, prolonged drought and soaring temperatures were major factors in the wildfires that destroyed thousands of hectares of forest and woodlands in the western United States last year. They predict those conditions might continue to threaten both the regions forests and its scarce water resources.

Now a team of scientists in New Mexicos Valles Caldera National Preserve is trying to restore the damaged forest land. Theyre also trying to find ways to conserve water in a region that climate change is making increasingly dry.

This is Valles Caldera. Actually, its the giant mouth of a dormant super volcano that last erupted 40,000 years ago. In the millennia since then, the terrain developed high-elevation forests, of abundant water sources and a rich ecosystem. Today its a national preserve.

But last year, over 32,000 hectares of forest in Valles Caldera, as well as in several other states of the American southwest, were consumed by the worst wild fires in a century

This burned 43,000 acres [17,000 hectares] in 14 hours.  To give you a kind of visual on that, a football field with both end zones and bench areas, burns in 2 seconds, noted Bob Parmenter, chief scientist at Valles Caldera National Preserve.

Parmenter says there are several reasons for that kind of fire: shorter winters with less snow pack along the Rocky Mountains, where many rivers in the American west originate, as well as longer and warmer summers with less rain

David Brown, a regional climate director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), says drought is putting heavy stress on water resources

One of the most severe droughts in the last 100 years is playing out right now in the southwest, said Brown.

As a result, more than a hundred scientists are working in Valles Caldera in a bid to restore ecological balance to the region, through reforestation and water conservation.

The challenges are huge.  A study by the U.S.  Geological Survey revealed a 30 to 60 percent decline in the Rocky Mountain snow pack.  Gregory Pederson, a climate scientist for USGS, participated in the study.

All the water resources we need to support the societies and ecosystems comes primarily from snow.  For this neck of the world, most of the water comes from snow pack, 60 to 80 percent, said Pederson.

Data from the last several decades indicate that rivers like the Jemez River have lost 40 percent of their waters

Trees play an important role in water preservation, says Bob Parmenter of the Valles Caldera National Preserve:

The conservative estimate here is that the shading alone increases snow water storage up to 22 percent.  As we manage this forest, we can hopefully keep water in the streams as the climate continues to change, added Parmenter.

Parmenter and his team say restoring the forest and the ecosystem in these mountains will help ensure that the regions water resources will survive future droughts and climate change

The team has begun thinning this forest so wildfires become less likely.

Bird Counts Show Species Decreasing

Thousands of birdwatchers in the United States, Canada and Latin America were out in force from mid-December to the beginning of January taking part in the 112th Christmas Bird Count, sponsored by the National Audubon Society, a U.S.  bird conservation organization

Data collected from the annual exercise helps scientists understand how environmental changes affect birds

Huntley Meadows Park in Fairfax County, Virginia, is home to a wide variety of birds.  Thats where Ana Arguelles and her husband, Jeff Wneck, who live next to the 588-hectare wetlands, take part in the annual count.

I want to keep seeing birds in the future, and this is the way I feel I can help, says Arguelles

They are joined by other volunteers, carrying binoculars and bird books.  Birding is the second most popular hobby in the United States

Theyre pretty.  Theyre fun to watch, says Ray Smith, who has traveled around the world on birdwatching expeditions.  Theyre interesting to know about

He uses a telescope and binoculars to get close-up views.  Arguelles tallies the number of species the group has identified.

Ruth Goetz spots an egret, which is not usually seen in the park during winter.  Its just amazing the variety of birds you find here.

Goetz and her son, Joel, 12, are attending their first Christmas bird count

I think that its an important part of researching birds and finding out how the bird populations are doing, Joel says, and I think its also fun

The day gets even more exciting when a rarely-seen merlin and another bird chase each other.  Smith takes a photo of the small falcon using his telescope and a camera phone.  The merlin, one of the worlds fastest birds, is a rare sight at Huntley Meadows.

Its powerful, says Arguelles.  You know, the bird has character.  It really gets you going.

Bird count data show the population of merlins and other birds is decreasing

Audubon Chief Scientist Gary Langham says thats primarily because of habitat destruction.  Just in the last 40 years, almost all species of birds populations have decreased between 40 and 80 percent.

The data also show North American birds are shifting their winter ranges farther north.  Langham believes thats because of rising temperatures due to climate change.

Theres going to be significant range shifts over the coming years in response to a warming planet, he says.

The information collected over more than a century of counts helps scientists identify bird species at risk and suggests ways to protect their habitats and breeding grounds

Arguelles says thats important because people and wildlife rely on the same ecosystems.  If we protect the wildlife in natural environments, we are protecting ourselves.

She appreciates that Huntley Meadows Park is a refuge for birds, and for people who want to enjoy their beauty.

Bikeshare Program Makes Cycling Lifestyle Easy

Many Western countries are encouraging their citizens to ride bicycles to work in an effort to reduce traffic congestion as well as to help save the environment. In Washington and some of its near-by suburbs, local governments are making the bicycle lifestyle easy.

This is one of the many Bikeshare locations in southeast Washington.  Renting a bike is as easy as 1.2.3.  All you have to do is put in your credit card.  Once the card is accepted, select the type of membership.  The system will print your receipt and a code to unlock the bicycle.  Enter that code in this digital lock, the light turns green and you are ready to roll.

Annual members get a plastic key, which goes into this electronic lock.  Returning the bicycle is also easy.  You can go to any Bikeshare location and push the bike back into the rack.

Washingtons local government started this program in September 2010.  Today there are 134 stations with 1,100 bicycles in the nations capital and the neighboring city of Arlington, Virginia.

Chris Holben is the project director of Washingtons Capital Bikeshare program.  The program offers a wide variety of membership options - for a single day, 3 days, one month, or a full year.  Holben says the number of annual memberships is increasing.

We have about 20,000 annual members who can walk up take a bike out, said Holben.  We also had about 90,000 visitors use our bikes.  Those were tourists or people here for the day.

During the last year these bicycles have been used for one million rides

Holben says a membership survey shows that 5 percent of those who use Bikeshare would have used cars if bikes were not available.  He says this works out to 50,000 fewer automobile trips.

In the developing world, many people regard bicycles as the ride of the poor and see a car as a symbol of status.  Holben says what he calls national heroes can help counter that image.

I think one of the main things is you need some champions at either the high political level or a higher social level, who can promote cycling whether for health reasons or get people out of the car, added Holben.  You would also need somewhere safer for them to bike so whether thats the government or the municipalities providing trails or spaces just for cyclists.

Two other Washington suburbs, Montgomery County, Maryland, and the city of Alexandria, Virginia, have now approved plans to join the network, which is slated to grow to 288 stations and 2,800 bikes by the end of 2012.

China Begins Sending Captive Pandas Into the Wild

China has begun sending giant pandas bred in captivity into a protected area in southwestern Sichuan province, as part of a push to rebuild a depleted panda population in a natural habitat.

Officials and panda researchers were joined Wednesday by basketball icon Yao Ming to inaugurate a wildlife area northeast of Chengdu.  They stood by as the first of six pandas were released for wildlife training into a 20-square kilometer habitat.  Television footage showed their first tentative steps in a semi-wild environment, with the iconic bears later frolicking and eating bamboo.

Officials say the six were selected for their health, behavior and genetic traits from a pool of 108 bears at a breeding center in the provincial capital.  Other releases are to follow.  An official at the Chengdu research base said pandas in the controlled habitat will still be cared for by staff, because of their reliance on humans for food and water.  But he said they would slowly be eased into living independently in the area.

Viewed as a national treasure, giant pandas have come back from the brink of extinction in recent decades.  Scientists say some 1,600 pandas currently live in the wild in the region, with more than 300 others cared for in captivity.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.

Unique Species of Shrimp, Anemones Thrive Near Caribbean Seafloor Vents

A team of British scientists has published new details of the worlds deepest volcanic vents, discovered in 2010 in a canyon on the Caribbean seafloor. Although the vents are gushing liquid minerals estimated to be hotter than 450 degrees Celsius, they are surrounded by a remarkable abundance of marine life, including species of shrimp and snails never seen before.

The volcanic vents were discovered five kilometers down near the bottom of Cayman Trough - an undersea trench south of the Cayman Islands. Expedition co-leader Jon Copley, a marine biologist of the University of Southampton in England spoke to us via Skype.

Deep sea vents are hot springs on the ocean floor. They are a little bit like the geysers you may know from Yellowstone Park in the U.S., except they are underwater... [and] they are not erupting steam. They are erupting really hot fluid, still liquid, loaded with dissolved minerals that form particles that looked like smoke and thats why we nicknamed them black smokers, said Copley.

Hot fluid from Earths crust

Although they didnt measure the vent temperatures directly, the scientists estimate that the dark material spewing out - mostly copper and other dissolved minerals - is hotter than 450 degrees Celsius.

Thats the temperature you get right at the very throat of the vent, where the hot fluid is gushing out [from] the earths crust.  But the animals dont live there.  They live a little bit further away.  A few meters away the temperature is down to 20 to 40 degrees [Celsius].
In those cooler waters around the vents six-meter tall mineral spires, the scientists found teeming populations of marine animals, including a new species of shrimp.  Copley said the tiny white creatures exist in near-total darkness and feed mostly on bacteria.

New species discovered

Instead of two eyes on stalks like shrimp normally have as an adult, these shrimp have a light-sensing organ on their back, said Copley.

They also found hundreds of white-tentacled anemones, but they could not collect specimens.

Copley said that by studying the deep-sea vents and their animal colonies, scientists can better understand how marine life disperses and evolves in the deep ocean.  He noted that in the coming years, the ecosystem will see an increasing human presence, in the form of deep-sea fishing, oil and gas extraction and mining operations.

If we are going to make responsible decisions about how we manage those ocean resources, we need to understand what determines the patterns of life in the deep ocean, said Copley.

Copley and his team are now analyzing samples and data from black smoker vents recently found at four other seafloor sites around the world.

Study: Slow Global Warming by Cutting Soot, Methane

An international team of scientists says global warming can be slowed in the short term by focusing less on carbon dioxide and more on the emission of methane and soot.

Carbon dioxide emissions produced by burning fossil fuels are the major cause of global warming, so efforts to combat climate change have focused on ways to cut CO2 releases.  But according to the new study published this week in the journal Science, a quicker and more effective strategy would be to reduce emissions of other, shorter-lived air pollutants.  The measures would not just slow climate change, but also boost crop yields, save money, and save lives

Once CO2 is released into the atmosphere, it remains there for decades, while other global-warming pollutants such as methane and black carbon, or soot, do not.  Soot is a byproduct of inefficient burning, a big problem in developing countries with cook stoves using wood, dung or coal.  Soot stays in the air for only a few days.  Methane, a gas released from landfills, farms, mines and natural gas wells, stays in the atmosphere for about a decade

Researchers analyzed 2,000 existing pollution control measures for the two pollutants to determine which would be most effective in both slowing global warming and cleaning up the air

Drew Shindell, a climate scientist with NASA, the U.S.  space agency, led the analysis.  In an interview with the journal Science, he pointed to the control measures that ranked at the top of the list

For methane, he said, that means capturing leaks from pipelines and storage tanks, capturing instead of either releasing or flaring off methane that is produced naturally in coal mining, and in oil and gas production, and capturing methane from city landfills

Measures to reduce black carbon, also known as BC, focused largely on controlling soot emissions from diesel engines and switching to cleaner burning cook stoves.

So regions where you are reducing BC [black carbon], where the sources are especially large in Asia, especially south Asia and also parts of Africa, those regions would tend to see the greatest benefits in both local reduction of warming and in public health, Shindell said

Adopting such controls could avoid between 700,000 and 4.7 million premature deaths, the study estimates, and save one-third of a million lives in India and China alone

Shindell said the measures are cost effective.  For example, profits from captured methane from a mining operation or landfill could boost the economy and protect public health

Typically the benefits [come from] reduced damage to agriculture and to health, he said.  And if you value the climate benefits as well, these more than offset the cost.  If you invest $50 million and get $70 million back, we think its a great idea.

Control measures would also increase the annual yields of major crops by as much as 135 million metric tons.  And Shindell said other effects would begin immediately.

So for something like black carbon, one of the things that it will do is disrupt the hydrologic cycle, he said.  So as soon as you stop emitting it, the same week, the atmosphere responds and you would have a educed disruption of rainfall patterns, staring virtually immediately.

Under the methane and black carbon reduction scenario, the study predicts fewer droughts in southern Europe and parts of Africa, and less severe monsoons in Asia.  And implementing this strategy could shave a half degree off the expected 1.2 degree Celsius rise in global mean temperature now expected over the next four decades

Shindell says that while carbon dioxide emissions must be addressed in the long-term, these short-term measures that impact both climate change and public health are worth taking now.

US Bans Snakes Plaguing Florida Everglades

The United States is banning the import of Burmese pythons and three other species of giant constrictor snakes due to the danger they pose to local wildlife.

U.S.  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made the announcement Tuesday as he visited the Everglades National Park in Florida, saying the ban will take effect in about 60 days.  The move will make it illegal to import the snakes or transport them across state lines.  In addition to the python, the new policy refers to the yellow anaconda as well as the northern and southern African pythons as injurious wildlife

Salazar said in a statement that the nonnative, invasive snakes pose a real and immediate threat to the Everglades and other ecosystems in the United States.  He said the Burmese python has already gained a foothold in the Everglades.

U.S.  Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe says the pythons have already caused substantial harm in Florida.  He said Tuesdays action will help prevent further harm from these large constrictor snakes to native wildlife, especially in habitats that can support constrictor snake populations across the southern United States and U.S.  territories.

Authorities say people who own these reptiles as pets will be allowed to keep them if state law allows, but cannot take, send or sell them across state lines.  Officials say people who wish to export the snakes have to do from a designated port within their state and obtain the appropriate permits.

Five other nonnative snakes remain under consideration for listing as injurious.  They include the reticulated python, boa constrictor, DeSchauensees anaconda, green anaconda and Beni anaconda.

It is estimated that the Everglades is now home to thousands of Burmese pythons, which have preyed on everything from small mammals to large wading birds.  The pythons are native to Southeast Asia.

Study: Nature Creates Buffer Against Climate Change

The most extensive study ever of biodiversity confirms what scientists have long believed, that natural ecosystems are healthier and more resilient when they support a large variety of plant life.

Reported in the Journal Science, this globe-spanning research finds that abundant forms of plant life keep soils more fertile and productive, and help to buffer ecosystems against the stresses of a changing climate

The study focused on semi-arid ecosystems which cover 40 percent of the planet and support 40 percent of the human population. Co-author David Eldridge, with the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at Australias University of New South Wales, says these dry lands are also among the ecosystems most at risk from changes in management, changes in rainfall, changes in climate.

An international team of scientists studied dry lands on every continent, except Antarctica. Eldridge points out that on each, they marked out 30-by-30-meter plots, inventoried the plant life within and measured how it cycled carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, elements considered essential for life on earth.

We also measured other attributes that we thought might be related, things like temperature, soil texture... how much sand or clay the soil has got in it, slope, latitude, longitude, all those attributes and used a modeling system to be able to pick out what some of the drivers were.

Eldridge says while there were differences among the areas - from the dry woodlands in Western Australia to the high alpine grasslands in Chile - the overall findings were remarkably similar.

Even with this huge diversity of different types of plant communities, the fact that when we analyzed our data from more than 200 sites, that even in these really diverse communities, diversity of plants came out as being a highly significant driver of how functional the soil was

And that wide variety of plant species was even more important than other factors, Eldridge says, such as annual rainfall and microbes in the soil. Loss of biodiversity reduces those services the ecosystem can provide.

If we go from a system where we have a lot of species to very, very few species, then we know that the ability of the soil to produce carbon, to allow water to infiltrate to hold together, actually break down.

The changing climate is also likely to reduce plant diversity and increase the areas affected by the desertification now underway in many developing countries. Eldridge says, for example, in a warmer world, sand content in soils would be expected to rise, lowering its productivity.

What this shows is that anything that results in increased temperatures is ultimately going to reduce the functionality of dry land soils. Our diverse community of plants is providing a buffer against increased climate change.

Oregon Moves to Zone Ocean

U.S. communities routinely use zoning laws to control where businesses may operate in a neighborhood. Now theres a move to zone the ocean. A number of coastal states and the federal government have fledgling plans to coordinate competing uses for their off-shore waters.

The prospect of new wind-turbine farms going up within sight of popular beaches prompted interest in such plans in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. On the U.S. West Coast, the impetus has been wave and tidal energy development, but balancing competing uses for coastal waters has proved a difficult challenge.

Uncharted territory

At first glance, the Pacific Ocean looks wide open and mostly empty, but its anything but that on a digital map the state of Oregon recently posted online.  The interactive display includes some 150 layers of data about existing ocean uses and natural features.

Oregon Sea Grant fellow Todd Hallenbeck checks out prime fishing grounds on his laptop.

Theres a large area of the territorial sea thats important to fishing with the darker red colors representing some of the most important areas for each of the ports, he says, looking at the map, which lights up from Neah Bay, Washington south to the Oregon-California border.  We can turn on things like commercial shipping lanes...We can turn on some of the seabird layers that represent areas where there are seabird colonies.

Purple lines crisscross the screen.  Little dots that appear along the shoreline and rocky reef areas represent seabird colonies.

Mixed-use approach

All this leaves wave energy developer Justin Klure, of Pacific Energy Ventures, feeling excluded from the initial set of lines drawn on the ocean planning map.

First blush, those maps look a little intimidating from the industry perspective, Klure says, because the areas that theyve identified are relatively small and dont align with some of the basic requirements that the industry is looking at, which is access to port, access to transmission, certain water depths.

Courtesy of Ocean Power Technologies Inc.

Ocean Power Technologies rendering of wave energy park

Hallenbeck acknowledges there are challenges. There are not a ton of areas that seem to not have something of importance in them already. So the challenge here is finding the few areas that do exist that have the least amount of conflict.

And Klure isnt giving up hope yet. Its early in the process, too early in his view to be drawing lines in the sand. To stay with the zoning analogy, he argues for a mixed use approach while more data is gathered.

Regulatory uncertainty

The planning process is moving slowly. Thats creating regulatory uncertainty. Its scared off at least one ocean energy company interested in Oregon. Scotland-based Aquamarine Power closed its Oregon office this fall.

In a statement, the company expressed its hope of returning to the Pacific Northwest someday, but said it will focus on California in the meantime.

Aquamarine Powers energy generator relies on a large mechanical flap placed just below the surf. A more traditional ocean energy design uses an array of bobbing buoys. There are also new prototypes that employ pressure-sensitive airbags on the sea floor.

Groups representing the fishing fleet remain leery of such technologies and the ocean-planning process

Ilwaco, Washington crab fisherman Dale Beasley has a hard time imagining sharing the sea with industrial energy installations.  Ocean energy and fishing are mutually exclusive.  They will not be able to coexist in the same area.

Not everyone agrees with that perspective.  A representative of environmental groups is more conciliatory

I do think there is a way through this, says Susan Allen, who directs a coalition called Our Ocean.  It has to do with the fact that Oregon is uniquely suited to deal with this.  We have a long legacy of figuring out what compromises are.  We are the state that pioneered...land use planning.

The ocean mapping and zoning process wont stop the West Coasts first commercial wave-energy park.  Ocean Power Technologies demonstration project near Reedsport, Oregon, has already been approved.

The company plans to launch the first of 10 massive floating wave energy generators there around the middle of this year.

Scientists: Agriculture Major Player in Climate Change

A team of scientists is urging that agriculture be a top priority in climate change negotiations, saying its vital for global food security and for reducing carbon emissions. The recommendations appear in the January 20^th issue of Science magazine.

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The international team was led by Sir John Beddington, Britains chief scientific advisor. The article, What Next for Agriculture After Durban, follows the latest U.N. climate conference in December. It says negotiations there made incremental progress in helping farmers adapt to climate change while reducing agricultures contribution to global warming.

Well, agriculture is important, period, because of the imperative of food security. And were falling short there in significant ways that have come to our attention, especially recently with the significant price shocks, said Professor Molly Jahn of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, co-author of the Science article.

International prices have remained high since the food crisis of 2007/2008.

Agriculture is a major emitter of greenhouse gases. But Jahn said it also offers opportunities to lessen their effects with known and proven farming practices.

So it represents both an activity thats essential for our survival -- an activity that is threatened by climate change, especially in vulnerable parts of the world. And an opportunity to better manage meeting our needs while we reduce the emissions of various greenhouse gases that are accumulating in the atmosphere, she said.

Faster response needed

The Science magazine article says the integration of agriculture in the climate change negotiating process has moved at a slow pace. However, it says at the same time climate change, forces affecting food security, and population growth have been moving much faster.

The scientists hope to influence policymakers.

Jahn said, It was important for this team to get together precisely because so much work has been done. Theres so much information about opportunities and options, as well as threats. So this body was convened to carefully, objectively review that vast amount of information and synthesize clear policy relevant recommendations.

Those recommendations include putting agriculture front and center in policy considerations.

While we are transitioning to climate-smart agriculture, we need to assure that the worlds most vulnerable people will be considered in any policy strategies, she said.

Another recommendation is to reduce the vast amount of food thats lost, wasted or spoiled along the food chain and to choose crops that place less stress on the environment.

Given current knowledge, theres a great deal we can do within current budgets and within current economic structures that will bring us forward to a better place with respect to agricultural practices in the developing and the developed world, said Jahn.

Playing a bigger role

The magazine article calls on scientists to assume a more prominent role by ensuring clear data is available for climate change negotiations. It says that data can help spur investment in agriculture.

Professor Jahn warns the window of opportunity to avert a humanitarian, environmental and climate crisis is rapidly closing. She adds urgent action is needed.

Agricultures role in climate change is expected to be discussed in June at Rio+20. The meeting in Brazil marks the 20^th anniversary of the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Its commonly known as The Earth Summit.

Study Links Flu Pandemics to La Nia

A newly-identified link between pandemic flu and the weather phenomenon known as La Nia, may one day permit advance warnings of severe influenza outbreaks.

Most of the time, influenza is a temporary annoyance. But every so often a super flu bug comes along, killing millions and sickening many more.

Jeffrey Shaman, of the Columbia University School of Public Health, notes there were four documented flu pandemics in the past century.

When we look at those four events, we see that all four of them began directly after a La Nia event in the Pacific, he says.

La Nia is a periodic cooling of Pacific ocean waters that triggers changes in global weather patterns. Among other things, that altered weather disrupts bird migrations

Birds can carry flu virus, and when their migratory patterns change, they can come into contact with other avian species they dont normally meet - birds which might carry a different strain of flu virus.

In the process, the viruses genetic material can get intermingled to create new influenza strains - in a process known as reassortment.

And its this reassortment, this creation of new sub-types that takes place - and we think its in the bird population - that generates, potentially, these pandemic strains that can infect humans and to which most of the worlds population will be susceptible, Shaman says.

La Nia events happen every few years, and most are not followed by a pandemic. But because the risk of a pandemic appears to increase after a La Nia, the next step for researchers is to get a better understanding of how birds and the flu viruses they carry are affected.

One result, Shaman says, may be the ability to improve prediction of an influenza pandemic.

Thats the thing thats exciting about it, he says. I mean, it offers this sort of tantalizing possibility that you can say, we have a La Nia coming, we need to make these preparations because we know theres an increased likelihood that a pandemic flu strain could arise and infect humans.

But Shaman cautions that more research is needed before that kind of prediction becomes possible. His research paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

NASA: 2011 Among Top-Nine Warmest Years Since 1880

The U.S.  space agency, NASA, says average global surface temperatures continued an alarming upward trend in 2011, which has been ranked among the top-nine warmest years since 1880.

Scientists worldwide overwhelmingly agree that billions of tons of man-made carbon dioxide emissions pumped into the Earths atmosphere over the last 100 years are largely to blame for increasing global warming

NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York says new data analysis indicates that surface temperatures in 2011 climbed 0.52 degrees Celsius above the average mark from the mid-20th century

The year 2010 is ranked as the hottest since 1880

However, the Goddard analysts say year-to-year temperature fluctuations are not as important as a trend spanning a decade or more.  A look at NASAs list finds that 11 of the 12 warmest years on record are occurred in the 21st century - from 2001 to 2011.  The other year is 1998

The NASA scientists also note that, so far, the 21st century has been warmer than any decade in the last 100 years

Last year, NASA researchers who conducted a separate study warned that the 21st century could see rapid and catastrophic climate changes if global warming continues rising at its current rate.  Scientists predict that people likely would face more frequent and intense storms; severe flooding and drought; and major shifts in rainfall patterns.

The Goddard researchers drew their conclusions from analyzing data collected from a vast global network of weather and research stations, as well as from satellite observations.  The average global surface temperature the Goddard analysts used in their calculations is from 1951 to 1980.

Carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases are produced naturally as well as through human activity, such as the burning of fossils fuels for energy.

China Begins Effort to Come Clean on Pollutants

Chinese officials are starting to post new data about air quality on the Internet, but already there are questions about the reliability of the information.

The effort by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center comes in response to repeated calls from the public for better information about what exactly is in Beijings smog-filled air.

The new readings are for PM2.5 - particles that measure 2.5 micrometers or less, smaller even than the average width of a single human hair.  Scientists say despite their tiny size, the particles are among the most dangerous because they are able to lodge themselves into the lungs.

Saturdays initial reading, taken from a single monitoring station in the capital, registered between 0.003 and 0.062 micrograms per cubic meter, classifying the air quality as good.  But some environmental experts are suspicious.

Consultant Steven Andrews, who has studied Beijings pollution data since 2006, told the Associated Press that a similar monitor placed at the U.S.  embassy in Beijing registered such low levels of pollution only 18 times in the past two years.

Earlier this week, the embassy classified Beijings air quality as hazardous after it found the level of PM2.5 exceeded its monitors maximum reading of 500 micrograms per cubic meter.

Chinese officials say they plan to install additional air quality monitors around the city.  Until now, officials had based their air pollution readings on the prevalence of particles that measures at least 10 micrometers.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

Mans Africa Trek Saves Pristine Forests

Michael Fay calls himself a nature boy. Hes made a career of exploring the globe in the name of environmental protection, sponsored by organizations like National Geographic and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

In September 1999, Fay, then in his early forties, set out on the MegaTransect, a 15-month survey of plants and wildlife that took him more than 3,000 kilometers, on foot, across the forests of west-central Africas Congo basin.

As a result of that journey, millions of hectares of pristine forest were put into protected status.

Impossible mission

When the naturalist set out with about a dozen Pygmy guides to walk across the dense tropical forests of the Congo and Gabon, most people thought he was on an impossible mission.

You know, we were [on] like an epic voyage out there, he says. Every day you have to find food for 13 people, you have to keep everyone healthy. You have to be the mother, the father, the coach, everybody, for all these guys.

Fay intended for his journey through the last pristine forests in west-central Africa to draw international attention to the rich biological diversity being threatened by commercial logging.

National Geographic Society

National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Michael Fay stands in front of a Cessna plane in June, 2004, before his MegaFlyover of Africa.

He admits the local people on his team didnt really know what they were signing up for.

They certainly got depressed after three or four months out on the trail, he says.  So I had to switch teams about halfway through, because those guys were just burned out, basically.

At one point, they stopped at a small village where Fay warned his companions not to drink the water because of the risk of disease.

And sure enough, one of the Pygmies gets hepatitis like, probably two or three weeks later.  And the first reaction of those guys to something like that is to scarify them with razor blades and bleed them, you know, to get the bad blood out, Fay remembers.  And so here youve got this highly-infectious guy, who all of a sudden everybodys touching his blood, and I just had these nightmares of the whole crew getting hepatitis.

According to Fay, it took about a week to carry the sick man to a river, where they used a dugout canoe to transport him to safety.

Expedition of a lifetime

Using a satellite-based positioning system, digital cameras, and a laptop computer, Fay documented his experiences - good and bad - during his long trek through the forest

He crossed rivers, hacked through dense underbrush, and slogged through deep, muddy swamps.  Along the way, he saw an enormous variety of wildlife, from elephants to aardvarks to gorillas

Fay also came across roads and bulldozers, where logging companies were cutting down the forest.

Fay collected samples, took photographs, and compiled a detailed description of, as he puts it, every pile of dung, every tree, every cry of a chimpanzee along his route.  He sent occasional dispatches describing the trip to one of his funders, the National Geographic Society, which published his accounts online.

It was hard.  But we didnt lose a single person, and it was an expedition of a lifetime, for sure.

Making a difference

For Fay, the risk and hardship were worth it.  The knowledge that came out of his trip, and the attention it drew to the rich biodiversity of the Congo basin, spurred the creation of 13 national parks in Gabon, which placed more than four million hectares of forest into protected status.

And those parks are still very much protected and real.  And logging - just like I thought - has completely surrounded every single one of those parks in the interim.  So if we didnt do it when we did it, none of that forest would have been saved from logging.

After he finished the MegaTransect in 2000, Fay rented an apartment in Washington, D.C., intending to write up his findings.  But after sleeping outdoors in the forest for so long, he had a hard time readjusting to city life.

I spent one night in this apartment, and I immediately just fled, you know.  And I went to Rock Creek Park, which is the big National Park in the middle of Washington, D.C., and it was like Oh my God, this is perfect, this is beautiful, I can sleep outside, the birds are here, theres deer, theres trees, you know its forest cover, and I thought, you know, Why would I ever want to live inside

Since returning from his expedition across the Congo Basin, Fay has conducted other large-scale surveys of biodiversity.  His latest, in 2007, took him on a 3,000 kilometer hike through Californias redwood forests - not bad, for a guy in his early 50s.

And no matter where he is, Fay says he still avoids sleeping indoors, if he can help it.

Earth-Conscious Hotel Guests Re-Use Towels

You - yes, you - can save the planet

That message is being spread across America - not by environmental activists but by ordinary business men and women, families on vacation, truckers and salespeople who would never think of carrying a picket sign.

Their venues for this grass-roots movement are the motel bathrooms where travelers shower and the hotel beds where they lay their heads at night.

In more than 17,000 U.S. hotels and motels, travelers who are staying longer than one night are agreeing to forgo a change of towels, washcloths, and bed sheets in the name of conservation. This is quite a variance from the usual custom of enjoying clean linens each night.

Joelk75, Flickr Creative Commons

Youll find messages like this on the nightstand of thousands of U.S. hotels.

According to Project Planet - a company that grew out of the Inter-Continental Hotel chains efforts to save energy costs - this skip-the-clean-towels program in a 100-room hotel keeps 2,300 liters of dirty water and 150 liters of detergent out of the ecosystem - each month

Labor costs drop, too, since housekeepers can finish cleaning a room faster when they dont have to change linens and towels.

The Holiday Inn Express chain leaves little Project Planet placards in rooms that read, Yes, Ill help! Other motels instruct guests to drop towels in the tub if they want them washed; otherwise, the cleaning staff wont bother

Not everybody likes this idea. Some patrons, particularly at upscale hotels, grouse that theyre paying plenty for a room and want to be pampered with fresh linens - and dont forget the mint on the pillowcase

But as many as 95 percent of guests at other hotels are going along with the program - buying into the idea that theyre saving the planet, one washcloth at a time.

Aquaponics Could Signal Future of Food

Imagine growing vegetables and fish in the same space. Thats the idea behind aquaponics, a marriage of fish farming and soil-less plant cultivation in a single, sustainable closed system.

Supporters believe aquaponics can play a key role in alleviating food insecurity, addressing the problems of climate change, ground water pollution and overfishing.

Recirculating wetlands system

Aquaponics is really as old as nature itself.

Aquaponics is really a recirculating wetlands system, so its happening right on the banks of our lakes, says Sylvia Bernstein.

Bernstein was a hydroponic gardener for years - growing plants without soil using a water-soluble chemical fertilizer - before discovering she could use the waste water from fish to grow organic vegetables and fruits.

Honestly, I was very skeptical and just couldnt believe that something as simple as fish waste could become a complete fertilizer, she recalls. So I had to actually see a system that was in a friends basement. But when I did, it changed my life.

That was three years ago. Bernstein built her first aquaponics system with her 15-year-old son on a concrete pad outside her home in Boulder, Colorado. In her greenhouse today, she mainly raises tilapia and trout - feeding them once a day.

There are no weeds in her aquaponics garden, and she doesnt have to worry about watering.  The plants are growing in containers at a table height for easy access.

I, just this morning, pulled four radishes and some lettuce for lunch, Bernstein says.  In my greenhouse right now, I grow all sorts of herbs, tomatoes, peppers

Bernstein started her own business, The Aquaponics Source, with an online store, her own YouTube channel and a blog.  She teaches aquaponics at the Denver Botanic Gardens and recently published a book about how to set up an aquaponic garden at home.

According to Berstein, a growing number of people in the U.S.  and around the world are doing it, and enjoying the results: a year-round supply of healthful, safe and delicious food.

Earth-friendly food production

The Internet is helping many aquaponic gardeners get connected and learn from one another

Aquaponics is a perfect thing to invest ones mind and heart and elbow grease into, says James Godsil, co-founder of Sweet Water Organics, a commercial aquaponics farm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In 2010, Godsil helped set up a foundation to promote the approach

The Sweet Water Foundation was dedicated to democratizing and globalizing the information and the methodologies required to advance this very Earth-friendly food production system, which, by the way, only uses about 10 percent of the water normal farming does, and uses no pesticides. Its all natural.

According to Godsil, those advantages have been a powerful incentive for people from all walks of life who are considering a career in aquaponics

The Sweet Water Foundation probably has had 500 supporters, including school students, and a community of retired engineers, professionals, social enterprisers, teachers and artists, Godsil says. There are so many young elders who are retiring and looking for another career for the next 20 years.

Beyond borders

Through collaboration and joint projects, Godsil is carrying the inspiration beyond U.S. borders.

I was asked to go to Venezuela this March, he says. And Im working with people who have a project in Ecuador, Im working with people in the Congo, in Uganda and Tanzania.

A private group called the Society for Appropriate Rural Technology for Sustainability, is partnering with Sweet Water Foundation on an initiative in India.

Weve formed this Indo-American Aquaponics Initiative, and we aim to make aquaponics one of the fastest growing economic activities in India within a decade, says Subra Mukherjee, secretary of the group, based in Kolkata, India.

Advocates say, with fuel and fertilizer prices climbing and irrigation water supplies dwindling, aquaponics offers a sustainable alternative that can help feed the worlds growing population.

Scientists Developing Salt-Tolerant Rice

Scientists are developing a salt-resistant variety of rice.

The move was prompted, in part, by last years Japan tsunami, which flooded some 20,000 hectares of rice paddies.

The rice varieties Japanese farmers were growing in those paddies couldnt survive in salt-contaminated soil

Those ruined paddies might be the first to test out the new rice-growing techniques.

Delicate balance

The challenge before scientists, says plant biologist Sophien Kamoun at the Sainsbury Laboratory in the United Kingdom, is, How do you introduce a new trait like salt tolerance into that local variety, while at the same time you maintain all the other traits that make that variety really ideal for that region

Iwate Biotechnology Research Center

Two salt-tolerant rice varieties developed with the new methods. The parent variety, in the middle, is not salt-tolerant.

Plant breeders normally take that ideal variety and mate, or cross, it with one that is salt-tolerant. Some of the offspring would acquire that trait. But they may also differ from the ideal variety in other ways

If you make a cross, for example, with an unrelated variety of rice, you will have thousands of differences, Kamoun says.

Those differences may be good or bad. Accentuating the positive while eliminating the negative may take a decade or more.

Kamoun and colleagues in Japan started instead with a popular high-quality rice variety and, using a technique common in plant breeding, introduced random changes - or mutations - in the plants genes with a chemical.

Then you end up with thousands of plants that have all kinds of changes in their habits, Kamoun says. And then you plant them out there in the field and identify the plants that have particular traits of interest.

Iwate Biotechnology Research Center

New salt-tolerant rice varieties are doing well in greenhouse experiments.

Sequencing lots of genomes

Then Kamouns group did something that would have been too difficult and expensive just a few years ago.  They used new technology to sequence the entire genomes of the plants with those traits of interest.  They identified precisely what genetic changes were found in plants with the new traits and where those changes appear on the map of the rice genome

Its a big improvement for crop breeders who usually follow rough landmarks in the genetic map to guide their efforts.

Instead of saying, Its between Street A and Street B, you can say, Its exactly this address, says U.S.  Department of Agriculture scientist Shannon Pinson.

She was not involved in the research.  But she says it is exciting not only because it makes plant breeding more precise.  She says even when breeders know where in the genetic map to find the genes responsible for a trait, or phenotype, That doesnt mean we know exactly what the gene is, and what the sequence is and what change in that sequence is causing that change in phenotype.

Pinson says the new method hones in on the precise changes in a gene responsible for changes in a trait.  That should make it easier to figure out how the gene works

Sophien Kamoun says his colleagues have already improved the salt tolerance of a high-quality rice variety in greenhouse experiments and expect to have it ready for farmers in a couple years - far sooner than conventional breeding would take

And he says the methods should cut the time needed to develop other varieties and other crops as well.

Sumatran Elephants Join Critically Endangered Species List

The World Wildlife Fund announced Tuesday that Indonesias Sumatran elephant is now facing a greater risk of extinction and that its status has been changed from endangered to critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  The elephants shrinking population is caused, in large part, to the conversion of its forest habitat to agricultural plantations.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which maintains the worlds most comprehensive inventory of biological species, says there are only about 2,400 to 2,800 of Sumatran elephants remaining in the wild.  This is about a 50 percent drop in numbers from a count in 1985.  The drastic population reduction, combined with a 70 percent loss of its natural forest habitat, prompted the organization to move the Sumatran elephant subspecies to the Red List of threatened species.

The World Wildlife Fund points to Sumatras rapid deforestation rate as the main cause for the increased threat to the elephants.

Two-thirds of Sumatras forests have been cleared in the past 25 years to make way for lucrative palm oil plantations.  World Wildlife Fund elephant and tiger monitoring coordinator Sunarto says the most suitable habitat for elephants is also the most sought after land for palm oil production.

Elephant habitat happens to be very strictly competing with the need for oil palm because elephants live mainly in the wet, lowland areas where [they are] exactly considered very good for planting oil palm, he said.

Sunarto says, although Indonesia has designated the Sumatran elephant a protected species, little is being done to protect its habitats.

The World Wildlife Fund has called for an immediate moratorium on habitat conversion.

In 2011, the Indonesian government enacted a two-year moratorium on the development of new forest land, as part of a $1billion-deal with Norway to protect forests and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  But Sunarto says, so far, the moratorium has not slowed the rate of deforestation in Sumatra.

Rather than banning development, he says a new financial incentive program being offered by the government may prove a more effective approach to conservation.

The government has recently allowed companies to have restoration areas instead of logging concessions for some remaining forest area, so those kind of initiatives can be done by companies where they can also still make profit and at the same time also have the recovery of the endangered species, said Sunarto.

The Sumatran elephant joins the Sumatran orangutan, the Javan and Sumatran rhinos and the Sumatran tiger on a growing list of critically endangered species found in Indonesia.  Scientists say if the current trend of forest conversion continues, Sumatran elephants could be extinct in the wild in less than 30 years.

Study: Ocean Acidity Exceeds Natural Norms

New research suggests an overload of carbon dioxide in the oceans is posing a serious threat to marine life, food security and tourism.

While most CO2 emissions from automobiles, buildings and factories go into the atmosphere, one-third ends up in the oceans, changing ocean chemistry and making seawater more acid

A study in Nature Climate Change tracks ocean acidity over 21,000 years of climate history. Tobias Friedrich, co-author and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Hawaii International Pacific Research Center says the record shows natural increases in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere over time and differences from region to region.

This, of course, also had an effect on acidity levels in the ocean, and then (we) compared this naturally occurring increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations with man-man emissions over the last two-hundred years.

The scientists used computer models with data from ice and ocean sediment cores to simulate ocean conditions, back to the ice age and forward to the end of the 21st century

When Earth started to warm 17,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, atmospheric CO2 began to rise. Over the next 6,000 years, it grew from 190 parts per million to 280 parts per million.

Marine systems had time to adjust

Axel Timmerman is a professor of oceanography at the University of Hawaii International Pacific Research Center and co-author of the study. He says the past 200 years paint a much different picture.

Starting with the pre-industrial revolution, anthropogenic emissions increased so much that the oceans suddenly started to take up huge amounts of carbon

CO2 concentration in the atmosphere now stands at 392 parts per million. Timmerman says the study, which also includes 30 years of observational data, finds dangerously high levels of ocean acidification in certain regions.

Such as the coral triangle, the western tropic of the Pacific and the Caribbean exceed the naturally occurring levels by factors of up to thirty in a few spots

Timmerman says this is happening at an accelerated pace. The rate of change is about two orders of magnitude faster than what occurred during the last glacial period about 20 to 15,000 years ago.

While ocean acidification could have been detected much earlier, scientists only began to monitor it a few decades ago. As seawater becomes more acid, carbonate - the mineral many sehllfish and corals use to form their shells and skeletons - is reduced.

Coupled with pollution and warming temperatures, it is a serious threat to ocean life. Axel Timmerman says his study gives decision-makers another tool for assessing that threat and evaluating the steps they can take to mitigate it.

Wildlife Experts Distraught as Record Rhino Killings Plague South Africa

_{This is Part 1 of a 5-part series: Saving Africas Endangered Rhinos}

_{Continue to Parts: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5}

In April, conservationist Alan Weyer witnessed a scene he said had continued to haunt him. Summoned to an area of the Kariega Game Reserve in South Africas Eastern Cape province, the parks manager saw a rhino shivering silently in a clearing in the bush.

(Photo courtesy Alan Weyer)

Poachers killed this rhino at South Africas Kariega Game Reserve last year

This animal had been darted (and sedated), the horn had been removed, but the animal hadnt died. The animal stood up and it was walking around with, literally, its face hacked off. It was absolutely dreadful, Weyer said. We could not save it. A vet had to put the rhino down.

Just a month before, poachers had targeted another of his rhino. Its clear that the animal bled to death because of the hemorrhaging where they cut the horn off, Weyer explained.

The rhinos killed on Kariega are just two of the almost 450 slaughtered by poachers in 2011in South Africa. We are incredibly worried at the moment. We are actually facing the worst rhino poaching crisis for decades, said Lucy Boddam-Whetham, deputy director of the United Kingdom-based organization, Save the Rhino International.

In 2010, 333 of the endangered animals were killed in South Africa. Both 2010 and 2011 were record years in terms of killings in the country. In most cases, the rhinos members of South Africas famous Big Five animals were tranquillized with veterinary drugs before poachers sawed their horns off.

More expensive than gold

In Asia, rhino horn has been used for centuries in traditional medicines to treat minor ailments such as headaches and fevers. Commonly its ground into a powder and combined with other ingredients to form a medicine that you would swallow like a pill, or it can be ground and mixed into water so that you drink it, said Tom Milliken of Traffic International, which monitors the world trade in wildlife products.

(Photo: Kariega Game Reserve)

Rhinos graze in the Kariega wildlife reserve. The animals horns are much-prized in some parts of Asia, where some people believe the ground horn cures cancer

The Zimbabwe-based director of Traffics operations in Southern and Eastern Africa added that demand for rhino horn had boomed in recent years because of a growing belief in parts of Asia, most notably in Vietnam, that it could cure cancer.

If youre selling the gift of life, youre able to ask a premium price and I believe thats whats going on, commented Milliken, whos traveled across the globe to investigate the increase in poaching in recent years.

According to the International Rhino Foundation, the price of horn is currently nearly $57,000 a kilogram making it more expensive than gold.

You lose one rhino, youve just lost half a million rand (about $62,500); you lose two, youve lost a million rand. Sadly the poachers are selling (horn) for a lot more than that, said Weyer.

Several studies put the average weight of white rhino horn entering the black market at almost 3.7 kilograms. So criminal syndicates are making huge profits. And theyre reaping these rewards by selling horns that consist just of keratin the same protein that makes up human hair and fingernails, which science has proven has no curative properties.

(Photo: AFP)

Rhino horns from South Africa seized late last year by customs officials in Hong Kong

On par with drugs and weapons trafficking

But the scientific facts have not permeated the markets for rhino horn in Asia, said Boddam-Whetham, resulting in South Africa becoming the international epicenter of poaching. Its wildlife reserves are home to most of the worlds remaining white and black rhinos about 20,000 animals.

The World Wide Fund for Nature said poachers killed more than 1,000 rhinos in South Africa in the past four years. Its a really sudden increase in rhino killings, said Boddam-Whetham. If you look back to 2007, there were only 13 lost. So you can see the massive jump. I think its been a massive shock to everyone the level of poaching at the moment.

Certainly not the least reason for the sudden spike is that rhino poaching has now become part of international organized crime, on the same level in terms of execution, sophistication and ruthlessness as drug and weapons trafficking, said Kirsty Brebner, director of the Rhino Security Project at South Africas Endangered Wildlife Trust.

(Photo: AFP)

Conservationists attribute the sudden increase in rhino poaching in large part to an economic boom in Asia in recent years, with more Asians now able to afford expensive rhino horn medicines

Despite this, she said, governments and law enforcers have not invested enough resources in anti-poaching operations and the smuggling of illegal wildlife products.

This opened the door for organized crime. Rhino poaching is an easy avenue to riches, Brebner said. Some of the organized crime syndicates are seeing it as an easy option, to move away from their traditional drugs and explosives and guns and so on. Its a low risk, high reward type of operation.

Asian economic success fuels poaching

Another factor in the upsurge of rhino poaching, according to many in the wildlife industry, is the Asian economic boom of recent years. Suddenly, with more disposable income than ever before (in Asia), rhino horn has made a huge resurgence on the local market, Milliken stated.

(Photo: Pumba Game Reserve)

In South Africa, the race is on to save the lives of rhinos such as this from being wiped out by ruthless poachers

He said this is particularly true of Vietnam, which is now one of the worlds fastest growing economies on the back of its oil, mining, manufacturing and agricultural industries.

In Vietnam its at the point now where theyre selling horn for home use, said Milliken. Theres a whole subsidiary industry that is manufacturing these rhino horn grinding bowls, so that you can grind the powder at home and then add water to it and drink it. This is a usage that Ive never seen anywhere in the world except in Vietnam.

(Photo: Darren Taylor)

South African game park manager Alan Weyer says the battle against the poachers has escalated into a war

Boddam-Whetham explained, More Asians are now able to afford expensive rhino horn products and also the increasing Asian footprint in Africa has opened up trade routes to get rhino horn out of Africa and into Asia.

The cancer factor

Brebner said the myth that rhino horn could cure cancer was undoubtedly the biggest driver of poaching. Milliken agreed: This has stimulated usage (of horn) in a way that we havent seen before.

Many in the global wildlife sector attribute the surge in rhino killings to supposed claims a few years ago by Asian politicians and celebrities that the horn cured their life-threatening cancer.

There was a Vietnamese diplomat or MP that came out a couple of years ago saying that rhino horn had cured his cancer. This has led to a big interest in rhino horn and demand for it, said Boddam-Whetham.

South African conservationist and game park owner Dale Howarth insisted that soaring demand for horn stemmed from a Korean national minister who publicized that hed been cured from cancer from taking rhino horn.

Milliken said such stories were commonly told in Asia and spread around the world. Everybodys heard it. Theyve heard it so much that theres kind of a tacit belief that maybe it happened, but we cant actually validate any of these stories. When you really go for the details to get a name and to put a face on this, you cant get there, he maintained.

Milliken described the cancer cure legends as urban myths that are brilliant marketing tools invented and spread by criminals to boost demand, and thus prices, for rhino horn.

He said killings have increased massively as the poaching syndicates have been driven to kill as many rhino as fast as possible because they know that the rhino horn market is a bubble economy that will burst relatively soon.

Obviously people who take rhino horn and have cancer are not going to be cured in the long run. So I think that theres a race against time here (and) that the criminal syndicates are maximizing their profits while they can.

Milliken remained concerned that the bubble would not have burst before the large-scale entry of China into the illegal rhino horn trade.

China looms large in the background. Were increasingly worried about the market for rhino horn in that country, he said. With the largest number of consumers in the world, any resurgent rhino horn trade in China is going to have major consequences around the world.

Back on South Africas wildlife reserves, conservationists and anti-poaching units continue their efforts to save the countrys rhinos. Its a battle that many acknowledge they lost in 2011. Its also a battle thats transforming as it intensifies.

Its now a war, plain and simple, said park manager Alan Weyer.

Falling Costs Drive Growth of Solar Energy Generation in India

Two years after India launched an ambitious plan to dramatically increase the use of solar power, this renewable energy is beginning to light up homes and fire factories.  Falling costs of solar energy are making it a viable alternative to power generated by fossil fuels.

In remote Nagaur district in northern Rajasthan state, gleaming solar panels installed by an entrepreneur generate five megawatts of solar energy.  A state-run electric utility supplies the power to hundreds of village homes.

Inderpreet Wadhwa heads Azure Power, the company handling the project, which will ultimately generate 35 megawatts of power.

Similar solar farms are springing up in several states as businesses and investors begin to tap the potential of solar power.  Wadhwa says they are changing the perception about solar energy

All of a sudden people say, hey, this is not a pilot or a test or a science that is going on.  This is actually here to stay and compete with other sources of energy, said Wadhwa

Two years ago, India generated virtually no solar power.  Although most of the country is drenched in sunshine for 300 days in a year, the high cost of solar power equipment had deterred investment in the area.

But faced with a huge energy shortfall and under pressure to reduce its carbon emissions, in 2010 the government launched the so-called National Solar Mission.  Its target -- to generate 20,000 megawatts of power by 2022, and reduce dependence on coal-based power plants which provide most of Indias energy.

Tobias Engelmeier is the head of Bridge to India, a research and consulting firm in New Delhi.  He says a sharp drop in the international price of solar panels in the past year is making this ambitious goal look achievable

In the initial year or so of the National Solar Mission, it was seen very skeptically by both international investors and international companies and there was doubt about whether India would provide a viable, profitable market for anyone, said Engelmeier.  That has changed as solar prices have come down significantly by up to 30 percent on a global level

So far the cost of solar power is nearly double that of coal-based power.  But it has already become cheaper than power generated by burning diesel, which is widely used by Indian homes and factories during power outages - a common occurrence.

That is why entrepreneurs hope that both commercial enterprises and homes will slowly begin to replace their diesel generators with rooftop solar installations

Wadhwa of Azure Power is optimistic that the gap with thermal energy will also narrow down

The only challenge to solar is cost and that is on the favorable sideWhile you are exploring greater capacities of thermal power projects, the fact remains that coal is getting to be a scarce commodity, and that is going to drive the prices of commercial power higher, said Wadhwa.

Solar power companies are mostly importing photovoltaic panels from China, the U.S.  and Europe.  But as demand rises, there are hopes that a domestic manufacturing industry will grow in the country

Essentially, the objective is not only to import everything and put up, the objective is that gradually our domestic capacity also increases in the process, and that would add to the cost reduction ultimately, said Amit Kumar, who is with The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi.

The growing use of solar energy is good news for both the India and the world.  It will not only help plug the countrys massive energy shortfall, it will also help to tackle one of the most pressing global problems - climate change.

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Wildlife Experts Distraught as Record Rhino Killings Plague South Africa

(Photo courtesy Alan Weyer)

(Photo: Kariega Game Reserve)

(Photo: AFP)

(Photo: AFP)

(Photo: Pumba Game Reserve)

(Photo: Darren Taylor)

Falling Costs Drive Growth of Solar Energy Generation in India