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Fish are great at fighting climate change. Too bad we’re eating them all.

by elvys303 Posted on June 10, 2014

Fish are great at fighting climate change. Too bad we’re eating them all.

By

Hallie Bateman

Climate change may be screwing with your seafood, but it turns out your seafood has been fighting back.

Fish, like Aquaman, might not seem to have a lot of relevance in the world-saving department. Never mind that the world is 99 percent ocean by habitable volume: We’re up here in the 1 percent of living space we care about the most, and they’re stuck breathing through gills and riding around on sea-ponies.

But in a DC Comics-worthy plot twist, a new study shows that fish have been doing a lot more world-saving than we thought, by way of sequestering carbon to stave off climate change — which on the danger scale is up there with supervillain plots like blocking out the sun or moving the moon. The catch (har) is that we can’t eat all our fish and have them save the world, too.

The sea absorbs about half of the billions of tons of CO2 humans emit; if it didn’t, it would already be absorbing quite a few of us. But it’s not like the oceans are just a giant sponge passively sopping up our atmospheric mess. They’re more like a forest — a really, really big one in which plants and animals grow and photosynthesize and eat each other and die, intaking carbon as they go. And a forest is made up of trees, or in this increasingly literal metaphor, phytoplankton and fish and other organisms. You can’t cut down all the fishtrees and expect your oceanforest to keep sucking up carbon.

Though we used to think that phytoplankton near the surface of the ocean did all the work of sequestration on their own, by taking their carbon with them when they died, it it now clear that the process is a little more vigorous than that. Instead of just waiting for carbon-laden plankton to get on their level, certain deep-dwelling, nightmare-inducing predators actually hunt down the tasty upper-level nibbles before swimming back into the extreme depths where all that carbon is effectively trapped for good.

And scientists recently learned that there are 10 to 30 times more of these mid- to deep-sea fish than they thought (and I made sushi jokes about them). Since these elusive fish turn out to make up 95 percent of the biomass in the ocean, they have a lot to do with why the ocean is so good at vacuuming up all our carbon. It goes (roughly) like this: Phytoplankton near the surface gobble up CO2 and are in turn gobbled by mid-level fish who swim up for their nightly buffet. These fish, once they head back to more familiar depths, are then gobbled by even deeper sea fish. It’s the circle of extremely creepy-looking life.

As with any cycle, there is a danger that even small changes can disrupt the whole system. In this case, overfishing scoops up lots of important mid- and deep-sea fish, either as bycatch or in the form of tasty endangered species like orange roughy or Chilean sea bass. A 2008 report on deep-sea fisheries from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea found that the pressure of overfishing on these ecosystems was especially severe:

A large proportion of deep-water trawl catches (upwards of 50 percent) can consist of unpalatable species and numerous small species, including juveniles of the target species, which are usually discarded … The survival of these discards is unknown, but believed to be virtually zero due to fragility of these species and the effects of pressure changes during retrieval … Therefore such fisheries tend to deplete the whole fish community biomass.

So eating lots and lots of fish is good for the climate, but only if you’re a fangtooth cruising the mesopelagic for takeout. The rest of us now have one more reason to check Seafood Watch before digging into that sustainably caught, bycatch-free, preferably local and abundant filet-o’-fish.


Source
Fish can slow down global warming—but not if we keep eating them, Quartz
How fish cool off global warming, Scientific American

Amelia Urry is Grist’s intern. Follow her on Twitter.

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Fish are great at fighting climate change. Too bad we’re eating them all.

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Stop Calling Office Parks "Nondescript"

by elvys303 Posted on January 30, 2014

Mother Jones

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The wars of the future will be fought over clichés.

Last week, WonkBlog‘s Brad Plumer took aim at one of the soundbite industry’s most pernicious crutches—describing a good-but-not-gamechanging thing as “not a panacea.” Plumer was right to criticize “not a panacea,” but “nondescript office park” and “nondescript office building,” are just as common—and just as bad. Office buildings and office parks are as a rule architecturally bland, so there’s no reason to point it out. Moreover, there’s nothing counterintuitive about an interesting project that’s housed in a boring building. If news reports are any guide, interesting projects are often housed in boring buildings.

In the interest of killing this cliché, here is a comprehensive list of all the things the New York Times has reported are housed in a “nondescript” office space:

Expecting Models, a modeling agency for pregnant women.

Y Combinator, “an organization that can be likened to a sleep-away camp for start-up companies.”

Public, a Brisbane restaurant whose “menu of sharing plates draws inspiration from around the globe.”

Bar High Five, owned by “master bartender” Hidetsugu Ueno.

High Tide, a Jacksonville eatery that specializes in a pita-wrapped cold cut sandwich called the “camel rider.” Hess Brewing, a San Diego-based “nano-brewery.”
The Brooklyn Table Tennis Club on Coney Island Avenue.
A meeting of the Asian-American Writers’ Workshop.

Frederick Taylor University, an unaccredited state-approved online institution.

Indus Entrepreneurs, a South-Asian professional network that invests in Silicon Valley start-ups.
The studio at MacGuffin Films, which serves as a set for Olive Garden commercials.
The current site of a planned New Jersey development that residents agree “will change the personality of West Windsor for better or worse.”

Atlantic Philanthropies, a once secretive charity that has “decidedly hung its shingle out in the open.”
A prototype of a new Russian A.T.M. that comes with a built-in lie-detector.
The Duluth headquarters of Lake Superior Brewing.
The corporate headquarters of Deutsche Börse, which operates the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
The Central Yiddish Cultural Organization, “the only secular Yiddish bookstore in New York.”
The Ecole de Cuisine Alain Ducasse, a Paris culinary workshop located “in a stolid bourgeois neighborhood in the outlying 16th arrondissement.”
The Perpignan branch of the Algerian Circle, a historical society devoted to the nation’s colonial age.
The glass-walled room in which Treasury officials auctions bonds to Chinese investors while wearing helmets.
The Republican National Committee’s Denver war room.
“A casino larger than the blackjack, dice and roulette pits at many Las Vegas gambling halls,” where card dealers learn their trade.

Rush Limbaugh’s new studio, “on a boulevard lined with tall palms.”
A stop on the Latin American Consular Fair in Harrison, New Jersey.
The Manhattan offices of The Smoking Gun.
A food pantry that caters to foreclosed homeowners.
The second-biggest gold depository in New York.
The “windowless studio” of WABC-TV and WPLJ-FM traffic reporter Joe Nolan.

Maus Hábitos, a vegetarian restaurant in Oporto that also offers massages.
A shareholder meeting for the London-based advertising-buying firm Aegis Group.
The “Spartan lodgings” of Realogy, the nation’s largest real estate company.
A training school for competitive barbecue judges.

Digital Chocolate, a start-up that develops apps for mobile phones.

Private Capital Management, “a little-known money management firm that discreetly handles the investments of wealthy families.”
An “unmarked building” in Irvine where video game designers add new features to World of Warcraft.
The company that wants to reinvent troll dolls.
President George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign headquarters.

Community Prep, “New York City’s first public high school for students who have been recently released from juvenile prisons and jails.”
A casting agency for television commercials.
The Business Software Alliance, an anti-piracy organization.
Nafka House, stone-and-cement structure in the Eritrean capital that is also “towering at nine stories above all surrounding structures.”
A Washington television studio appropriated by Sacha Baron Cohen.
The Air Transportation Stabilization Board.

Django, a Manhattan restaurant with “glittery, crystalline room dividers and a whimsical wall-papered rear.”
The former New York City digs of the Internal Revenue Service.
The Midtown offices of soft-core magazine empire Crescent Publishing Group.
The administrative offices of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

A movie theater “at the end of a placid, palm-lined street in Marina del Rey.”

Princeton eCom, an electronic billing service.
The Brazilian IT security firm Módulo.
Three Star Leather, a tailor on the Upper East Side that specializes in skintight pants.
The practice studio for the Korean Traditional Performing Arts Association.
California Independent System Operator’s Folsom offices, the non-profit power grid-manager that is “ground zero for the energy crisis in California.”
The offices of Macintosh splinter Eazel Inc., “filled with Silicon Valley-style cubicles and adorned with the ubiquitous penguin mascot of the Linux free software movement.”
A New York City mosque.
Esaki, a trendy Tokyo restaurant in “a part of town known for its trendy shops and boutiques.”
“A modest little company called Audible Inc., which just happens to have outsize ambitions.”
The Harrisburg law office of former Democratic Rep. Don Bailey.
Monica Lewinsky’s legal team.
The London headquarters of N.M. Rothschild & Sons, marked by “starkly empty corridors.”
The New York Times‘ archives.
GM’s European headquarters.
Adcom Inc.-Psychic Fairs, which organizes festivals for astrologists at suburban malls.
The Manhattan office of LBJ biographer Robert Caro.
The suburban Atlanta space where Mickey Hall is building the perfect pitching machine.
New York’s Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art (next to the “equally undistinguished” Daniel Newburg Gallery).
Geneva’s European Free Trade Association building, where the Vatican reached an historic agreement to pay creditors of a defunct Italian bank.
The suburban Virginia Soviet department of the C.I.A., “directed by Robert M. Gates, the Deputy Director for Intelligence who is a Soviet authority himself.”

International Business Government Counsellors Inc., a DC political intelligence firm.
A Connecticut electronic shopping service where “the future of American retailing is taking shape.”
Ronald Reagan’s presidential transition offices.
The offices of the Fortune Society, which helps convicted felons get jobs.
Conservative direct-mail pioneer Richard Vigeurie’s Falls Church, Va. war room.
The New York Neighborhood Dry Cleaner’s Association.
The former Empire Theater.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service’s only ombudsman.
The Winnipeg Commodity Exchange.

Ban clichés.

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Stop Calling Office Parks "Nondescript"

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Trade Fight Over Solar Benefits a Bystander

by elvys303 Posted on July 30, 2013

green4us

Munitorum: Quake Cannons – Games Workshop

A Quake Cannon is capable of hurling a macro cannon shell at targets kilometres away before they even know they are within range. Each mighty shell from a Quake Cannon can sunder fortress walls, shatter tank formations and leave craters dozens of metres deep. About this series: Weapons are the tools of war and with them soldiers ply their bloody trade […]

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A Street Cat Named Bob – James Bowen

James is a street musician struggling to make ends meet. Bob is a stray cat looking for somewhere warm to sleep. When James and Bob meet, they forge a never-to-be-forgotten friendship that has been charming readers from Thailand to Turkey. A Street Cat Named Bob is an international sensation, landing on the bestseller list in England for […]

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Dogtripping – David Rosenfelt

David Rosenfelt’s Dogtripping is moving and funny account of a cross-country move from California to Maine, and the beginnings of a dog rescue foundation When mystery writer David Rosenfelt and his family moved from Southern California to Maine, he thought he had prepared for everything. They had mapped the route, brought three […]

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Trident K9 Warriors – Michael Ritland & Gary Brozek

As Seen on “60 Minutes”! As a Navy SEAL during a combat deployment in Iraq, Mike Ritland saw a military working dog in action and instantly knew he’d found his true calling. Ritland started his own company training and supplying dogs for the SEAL teams, U.S. Government, and Department of Defense. He knew that fewer than 1 percent of […]

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Index Astartes: Tactical Dreadnought Armour – Games Workshop

Terminator Armour, also known as Tactical Dreadnought Armour, is the heaviest personal protection known to the Imperium. Commonly issued to Terminators, the armour offers protection against the hard vacuum of space as well as the bolts and blade of the enemy. About this Series: The Adeptus Astartes are genetically engineered warriors, created by […]

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, says, “Yes, […]

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Warhammer 40,000: The Rules – Games Workshop

There is no time for peace. No respite. No forgiveness. There is only WAR. In the nightmare future of the 41st Millennium, Mankind teeters upon the brink of destruction. The galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man is beset on all sides by ravening aliens and threatened from within by Warp-spawned entities and heretical plots. Only the strength of the immortal […]

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Farsight Enclaves – A Codex: Tau Empire Supplement – Games Workshop

Commander Farsight was once hailed by every Tau caste as a genius warrior-leader without compare. As his career blazed a bloody path across the Damocles Gulf and back again, O’Shovah split away from the Tau Empire, doggedly pursuing the Orks that had killed so many of his Fire caste comrades. It was the first overt sign of a rebellion that was to change the […]

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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete

For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America’s most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of German shepherds and as t […]

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I Could Chew on This – Francesco Marciuliano

A New York Times bestseller? Oh, you know the dogs weren’t going to let the cats get away with that! This canine companion to I Could Pee on This , the beloved volume of poems by cats, I Could Chew on This will have dog lovers laughing out loud. Doggie laureates not only chew on quite a lot of things, they also reveal their creativity, their hidden moti […]

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Trade Fight Over Solar Benefits a Bystander

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Watch This House Being Raised Out of the Floodplain

by elvys303 Posted on July 29, 2013

Mother Jones


Watch This House Being Raised Out of the Floodplain

See more MoJo coverage of climate change.

What’s it like to stand by as your house is ripped from its foundations and hoisted six feet in the air? “It’s a dream come true,” says Sue Graf, who owns a getaway cottage in Gloucester County, Virginia. “It’s surreal. It’s exciting,” she says. “This is the eighth summer of worrying about flooding with all the storms. We finally don’t have to worry about that any more.” So we rigged the house with cameras for the event. Watch above as Expert House Movers—a company that has been raising houses with the help of FEMA grants for about four years—excavate Sue’s house, and elevate it onto a new foundation.

In Part Two, below, watch â&#128;&#139;Mother Jones reporter Kate Sheppard explain why this historic stretch of the Virginia coastline, some of the first areas in America to be settled by Europeans, is so susceptible to sea level rise. “It’s becoming very real here,” says Skip Stiles, the executive director of Wetlands Watch. “If you want to see what’s going to happen to your East coast city, come here, because we’re getting it now. This is America’s coastal future here.”

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Watch This House Being Raised Out of the Floodplain

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Cook Your Berries. Drink Dark-Roast Coffee Instead of Light. Let Your Garlic Sit.

by elvys303 Posted on July 20, 2013

Mother Jones

Normally I ignore the latest diet craze. But I can’t resist the message of Jo Robinson’s new book Eating on the Wild Side. In it, Robinson argues that humanity’s 10,000-year-old fixation on agriculture has stripped our most commonly eaten foods of most of their phytonutrients, which are plant-based chemical compounds that keep us healthy. Her recent New York Times op-ed on the topic inspired me to pen a paean to edible weeds. But you don’t need to go feral to boost your phytonutrient intake, Robinson shows. She gives tips on how to navigate the supermarket produce shelf and the farmers market to find phytonutrient-dense foods not very far off from what our hunter-gatherer ancestors thrived on. After a phone conversation recently, I hung up with the urge to crack open a hoppy beer—and not out of stress.

Mother Jones: What exactly is a phytonutrient?

Jo Robinson: The technical term for phytonutrients is polyphenols. They are substances produced by plants, a lot of them for self-defense. Twenty-five thousand different ones have been identified. Vitamins E, C, and beta-carotene are examples. Many of them are potent antioxidants, while some don’t have antioxidant activity but boost our own antioxidant defense system. Others are involved in communication between cells, many affect gene expression, and others have detoxifying functions.

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Cook Your Berries. Drink Dark-Roast Coffee Instead of Light. Let Your Garlic Sit.

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8 Questions About Snowden’s "Flight of Liberty"

by elvys303 Posted on July 10, 2013

Mother Jones

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On Tuesday, WikiLeaks hinted that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden may soon begin his journey to a country willing to grant him asylum. The group tweeted cryptically that “the first phase of Snowden’s ‘Flight of Liberty’ campaign will be launched” today. As of this afternoon, WikiLeaks has provided no additional information about what that entails. Here are eight questions we have about Snowden’s “Flight of Liberty”:

1. Where is Snowden going?
Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia have offered Snowden asylum. Venezuela looks like the most likely option, but it’s unknown whether he has accepted any of the asylum offers he has received. Snowden applied for asylum in at least 21 countries, and several have still not publicly responded, including China and Cuba.

2. How will he get there?
As we reported yesterday, Snowden’s best bet is a chartered plane, which can fly a route that will avoid crossing airspace belonging to the United States or one of its allies. However, Snowden could still risk flying to Venezuela, Bolivia, or Nicaragua commercially, or even go by boat. Of the boat option, former CIA analyst Allen Thomson says: “I don’t think he’d go from St. Petersburg through the Baltic and out to the Atlantic, as that gets him too close to US-friendly territory. Leaving from Murmansk and then going down the Norwegian Sea, North Atlantic, and on to Caracas, maybe.”

3. Will there be a movie on his flight?
If Snowden flies commercial to Latin America, he will have to take the Russian airline Aeroflot, where he can choose between these movies that are currently playing onboard: Stoker (review), Trance, Jack the Giant Slayer, War Horse, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and A Good Day to Die Hard (review).

4. Does Snowden speak Spanish?
It is unknown if Snowden speaks Spanish or another foreign language. His letter to the president of Ecuador requesting asylum was written in Spanish, but it’s unclear if he wrote it.

5. Who is bankrolling Snowden’s escape?
WikiLeaks has reportedly been helping Snowden out financially. But according to the Daily Beast, WikiLeaks raised only $90,000 in 2012—though the group has been receiving about $1,300 per day in donations since it began assisting Snowden. That’s still not enough to cover the cost of a private jet. None of the countries who have offered Snowden asylum have said they would foot the bill for his transportation.

6. Where has he been all of this time in the airport?
According to the Washington Post, Snowden “has made himself lost for days in a mile-long transit corridor dotted with six VIP lounges, a 66-room capsule hotel, assorted coffee shops, a Burger King and about 20 duty-free shops selling Jack Daniel’s, Cuban rum, Russian vodka and red caviar.”

7. Have the Russians or the Chinese obtained information from Snowden’s laptops?
Snowden is reportedly carrying numerous laptops. An unidentified official told the New York Times that China has hacked into Snowden’s laptops and taken all of the contents, but Snowden told the Guardian this week that “I never gave any information to either government, and they never took anything from my laptops.”

8. How far will the United States go to extradite him?
President Obama said recently that “we’re not scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker” but Thomson, the ex-CIA analyst, notes he “sure wouldn’t bet against” the idea of the United States going out of its way to ground a plane that flies over US airspace.

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8 Questions About Snowden’s "Flight of Liberty"

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Oregon bans some insecticides following bee deaths

by elvys303 Posted on July 1, 2013

Oregon bans some insecticides following bee deaths

By John Upton

Forestry Distributing

Banned in Oregon.

Bees and other insects can breathe a little easier in Oregon — for now. The state has responded to the recent bumbleocalypse in a Target parking lot by temporarily banning use of the type of pesticide responsible for the high-profile pollinator die-off.

For the next six months, it will be illegal to spray Safari or other pesticides [PDF] containing dinotefuran neonicotinoids in the state.

Oregon’s ban comes after more than 50,000 bumblebees and other pollinators were killed when Safari was sprayed over blooming linden trees to control aphids in a Wilsonville, Ore., parking lot. A similar incident in Hillsboro, Ore., was also cited by the state’s agriculture department as a reason for the ban.

Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba said in a statement [PDF] that she has directed her agency to impose the ban to help prevent further such “bee deaths connected to pesticide products with this active ingredient until such time as our investigation is completed. Conclusions from the investigation will help us and our partners evaluate whether additional steps need to be considered.”

Somewhat confusingly, retailers will still be allowed to sell the products. It will just be illegal for landscapers and gardeners to actually use them. From The Oregonian:

“We’re not trying to get it off the shelves, or trying to tell people to dispose of it, we’re just telling people not to use it,” said Bruce Pokarney, a spokesperson for the department of agriculture.

While Pokarney acknowledged it would be difficult to cite individual homeowners, he said licensed pesticide applicators would be violating Oregon regulations if they use dinotefuran-based insecticides on plants in the next 180 days.

The temporary ban only affects pesticide use that might harm pollinators, like bumblebees. Safari is one of the insecticides restricted by the Agriculture Department. Most of the restricted insecticides are used primarily for ornamental, not agricultural, pest control.

Dinotefuran use in flea collars, and ant and roach control will still be allowed.

The Xerces Society, a nonprofit insect conservation group that’s helping to investigate the pollinator die-offs, thinks the temporary ban is a good idea. But Executive Director Scott Black said it would be an even better idea if sales of the pesticides were suspended, lest consumers unwittingly use them in violation of the law. “At a minimum, all products on the shelf should have clear signage about the restriction on their use,” he told Grist.

Guess who thinks the ban is not such a good idea?

“We do not believe the scope of these measures is necessary with the information available,” Safari manufacturer Valent said in a statement, “and we will work to get the restrictions lifted as soon as possible.”

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Oregon bans some insecticides following bee deaths

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