Monthly News Archive:
October 2003
Table of Contents:
- Earth Saving Tips
- Unsafe at Any Seed?
- New Study Claims One Gallon of Gas = 98 Tons of Prehistoric Plants
- Earth Saving Tips
- Everything but the Little Green Men - Stories of a Wildlife Rescue
- Sanyo develops corn-based CDs
- King County Metro Transit taking strides to help the environment
- New Washington State Birding Map - The Coulee Corridor
- Stories from Student Conservation Association Interns, on Patrol in Olympic National Park
- Navy to curb use of sonar system
- Unique Partnership Between Environmentalists and Farmers: Manatash Creek Restoration Project Launched
- Earth Saving Tips
- New Navy Sonar Scientifically Linked to Whale Deaths
- Is Traffic Really Improving in Seattle, as a Recent Study Suggests?
- Use Your Computer to Help Scientists Understand Climate Change - UPDATED
- Earth Saving Tips
Earth Saving Tips
Courtesy of our friends at Earth Share of Washington member Union of Concerned Scientists
What's in the Meat You Eat?
Did you know that approximately 70 percent of all antibiotics and related drugs produced in the United States are given to livestock and poultry? These drugs are used for nontherapeutic purposes such as accelerating growth and preventing the diseases caused by overcrowded and unsanitary conditions on "factory farms." Unfortunately, this practice results in antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can cause difficult-to-treat diseases in hu...Read the full story
October 31, 2003 | 
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Unsafe at Any Seed?
A new consumer revolution could change the way we label food
Read this excerpt from Grist Magazine:
There's a tongue-in-cheek ad campaign going on in New York City right now regarding smoking in public places. The ads feature slogans like, "If they ban smoking in airports, people will never fly again," and "If they ban smoking in bathrooms, people will never gossip again." I thought of this campaign when I stumbled across a Reuters article on Tuesday describing opposition to a new law requiring that meat, seafood, produce, and peanuts ...Read the full story
New Study Claims One Gallon of Gas = 98 Tons of Prehistoric Plants
A recent University of Utah study suggests that over 196,000 pounds of prehistoric plant material is required to produce just one gallon of gasoline.
"Fossil fuels developed from ancient deposits of organic material, and thus can be thought of as a vast store of solar energy" that was converted into plant matter by photosynthesis, according to ecologist Jeff Dukes, author of the study. "Using published biological, geochemical and industrial data, I estimated the amount of photosynthetically fixed and stored [by ancient plants] carbon that was required to form the coal, oil and gas...Read the full story
October 28, 2003 | Comments Off
Earth Saving Tips
Believe it or not, your choice of internet service provider (ISP) can help the environment. The week's earth saving tip showcases EcoISP. EcoISP provides dial-up internet service equipped with 6 free email accounts and 10 mb of web server space for $17.95 per month, but unlike competitors AOL and MSN, EcoISP donates 50% of their profits to the environmental group of your choice. They affiliate with the extensive Qwest Network to offer dial-up connections around the country.
Do you have dial-up internet access at your house? ...Read the full story
October 24, 2003 | Comments Off
Everything but the Little Green Men - Stories of a Wildlife Rescue
by Kevin Mack, PAWS Wildlife Naturalist
I often try to imagine what it must be like to experience the rehabilitation process from a wild animal's perspective. I find that this is extremely difficult to do. I don't truly know how another species experiences the world on a normal day, let alone when they are placed in extremely unfamiliar circumstances. Based on the way wild animals behave during treatment I think it is safe to say that they don't understand their injuries, they don't understand where they are, and they certainly don't understand what their caretakers are doi...Read the full story
October 22, 2003 | Comments Off
Sanyo develops corn-based CDs
PCWorld reports that Sanyo has developed a corn-based polymer that can be used to make biodegradable CDs, DVDs and Mini-Discs, that will go on sale in December. Current cost is 3x that of standard discs, but Sanyo estimates that it can bring down prices to 1.2x with volume productions.
Read the entire PCWorld article:
Could Your CD Contain Corn?
October 22, 2003 | Comments Off
King County Metro Transit taking strides to help the environment
King County Metro Transit is proving its dedication to conservation and the environment with its recent purchase of over 200 hybrid-electric buses and through its new pilot program to test biodiesel fuel. Both programs reduce pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help to increase fuel efficiency. Not only will this save money for Metro Transit, but it will protect the air that we breathe, and preserve our pristine skylines.
"Washington, and the Puget Sound region specifically, remains a leader in environmental stewardship and protection thanks to programs like these....Read the full story
October 21, 2003 | Comments Off
New Washington State Birding Map - The Coulee Corridor
Audubon Washington releases its second map in the series of Washington State birding maps. The Coulee Corridor Scenic Byway route features more than half of Washington's 365 bird species!
Thousands of Sandhill Cranes migrate along the Pacific Flyway in spring and fall. Black-crowned Night-Herons and Great Egrets nest here in summer. Washington's large populations of Bald Eagles and waterfowl offer great winter birding. The Coulee Corridor follows the ancient route of the Columbia River where ice-age floods sculpted dramatic canyons and tablelands, where Native American tribe...Read the full story
October 20, 2003 | Comments Off
Stories from Student Conservation Association Interns, on Patrol in Olympic National Park
Student Conservation Association's first Conservation Crew, which arrived at Washington's Olympic National Park in June of 1957, was an all-male crew as young women at the time were not thought capable of hard work. Boy, how have times changed! Today, SCA actually places equal numbers of young women and men in conservation service positions. Learn first-hand what some of SCA's members experienced during their Olympic experiences…
"On my first day of duty I was walking up the trail to my backcountry Ranger station 9.1 miles from the trailhead, when I saw a family walking towards ...Read the full story
October 17, 2003 | Comments Off
Navy to curb use of sonar system
In a follow up to a story that we covered last week on harmful navy sonar, the Navy has agreed to curb use of harmful low frequency sonar. Read this excerpt from a story this week in the Seattle P-I:
Environmental groups and the U.S. Navy have struck a deal to dramatically limit the peacetime use of a new kind of sonar in the world's oceans after scientists found the technology can harm marine life, including whales and dolphins.
Navy sonar is being investigated as a possible cause of the deat...Read the full story
Unique Partnership Between Environmentalists and Farmers: Manatash Creek Restoration Project Launched
October, 2003 - Ellensburg, WA - Bucking the trends of water wars in the west, local farmers and environmentalists announced that they are moving forward with a win-win solution for restoring the Manastash Creek near Ellensburg. The plan is designed to protect threatened fish in the creek by screening water diversions, eliminating passage barriers and restoring stream flows, while ensuring irrigated agriculture and water right holders on the creek remain whole.
Local irrigators, state agencies, the Yakama Nation and Earth Share of Washington member Washington Envir...Read the full story
October 14, 2003 | Comments Off
Earth Saving Tips
We all know that cars have a serious impact on the environment -- but because we depend on them in our daily lives, it's unrealistic to suggest that people stop driving altogether. Don't despair, even if you drive every day, there are some simple things that you can do to help the earth: Make sure your car is running as efficiently as possible. Getting good gas mileage is less destructive to our planet.
DID YOU KNOW
- Autos, light trucks, and SUV's emit 20% of this country's carbon dioxide (CO2) - the primary greenhouse gas.
- The amount...Read the full story
October 10, 2003 | Comments Off
New Navy Sonar Scientifically Linked to Whale Deaths
Read this excerpt (from the Seattle P-I) about a new scientific study from the science journal Nature linking recent whale deaths to powerful new navy sonar.
Can whales get the bends?
Sure they can, says a scientific report due out today, and it appears that sonar is to blame. A research team said more care should be taken in using powerful Navy sonar systems around marine mammals.
After a series of incidents in which naval sonar was suspected of killing or harming whales, orcas and other marine mammals -- including one last summer in the San Juan...Read the full story
Is Traffic Really Improving in Seattle, as a Recent Study Suggests?
A new national traffic study places Seattle 12th worst amongst the largest 75 cities in the country, a big improvement from the 2nd worst, measured just two years ago. What is the reason for this drastic change? By all accounts, traffic remains a persitent problem in Seattle, but new traffic measurement techniques provide some insight into this improvement.
Seattle's rating improved primarily because this year researchers took into account the benefits of transit, HOV lanes and other improvements such as metered freeway on-ramps, synchronized traffic lights and incident-respons...Read the full story
October 07, 2003 | Comments Off
Use Your Computer to Help Scientists Understand Climate Change - UPDATED
Put your computer to work for the environment when you are not using it! With software from www.climateprediction.net, you can download climate models onto your home/work/school computer to help scientist make predicitons about climate change. It runs on the background of your computer and stays out the way of whne you are working. The software is very good about not slowing down your computer when you are using it. Here is an excerpt from the Climate Prediction website:
The climateprediction.net experiment has been dev...Read the full story
Earth Saving Tips
Just last week, scientists recorded the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic to be the second largest on record. The ozone layer protects the planet from being bombarded with harmful UV radiation, that can cause skin cancer in humans and a host of other problems. Scientists agree that this problem is caused by humans and can be attributed to products that we use in our homes and offices.
DID YOU KNOW
- The ozone layer is being depleted by manmade gases (chlorof...Read the full story
October 03, 2003 | Comments Off