RSS Feed
Author Archive
Rutgers fish surveys show effects of climate change
Posted by Philadelphia Inquirer: Sandy Bauers on September 22nd, 2013
Philadelphia Inquirer: On a dark night in the middle of a wide marsh near Tuckerton, N.J., a team of Rutgers University researchers lowered a net over the railing of an old wooden bridge.
Then they turned off their flashlights and waited. Below, in Little Sheepshead Creek, the incoming tide was washing hundreds of tiny fish larvae into the net.
By now - 24 years after these weekly surveys began - Rutgers ichthyologist Ken Able is seeing the unmistakable effects of warming oceans and climate change.
Especially...
Posted in 
Canada’s vast boreal forest a biodiversity hotspot
Posted by Philadelphia Inquirer: Sandy Bauers on May 25th, 2013
Philadelphia Inquirer: In case you missed it and forgot to send a card -- as did I -- Wednesday was the International Day for Biodiversity.
What's biodiversity?
Ask most people, and they think it's related to the number of species in a particular area. The more species, the more biodiversity.
So, naturally, they think of places like the Amazon as being biodiversity strongholds.
But a report from the Boreal Songbird Initiative and Ducks Unlimited begs to differ. They think other characteristics -- concentrations...
How much is Delaware Bay’s sea level rising?
Posted by Philadelphia Inquirer: Sandy Bauers on April 28th, 2013
Philadelphia Inquirer: A foot.
That's how much sea level has risen in the Delaware Bay in the last century, measurements show.
Two factors are driving the rise: The biggest reason is that the volume of the ocean is increasing - an event scientists say is related to warming water, caused by a warming planet, brought on in turn by higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The other factor is that the land is sinking. About 20,000 years ago, when glaciers extended roughly to the top of New Jersey, the land...
EPA Releases Data on 7,674 Chemicals
Posted by Philadelphia Inquirer: Sandy Bauers on February 12th, 2013
Philadelphia Inquirer: As publicly-accessible databases go, the U.E. Environmental Protection Agency's chemicals reporting area is a tad mind-boggling.
The 2012 "Chemical Date Reporting" set released today lists 7,674 chemicals that were manufactured, imported or used in quantities over a particular threshold. It related to 4,753 sites and 1,515 companies.
I expect that academics, officials and activists will find plenty to plumb in that database.
One thing that's important is that companies are now required to...