Green Options

This week The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) revealed that last month was the second hottest land and ocean temperature on record for the month of September. NOAA’s records date back to 1880. In the 100 plus year history, only September 2005 showed warmer temperatures.

This is a concerning trend, considering the 2 warmest months of September (the last month of summer) out of 129 years of record keeping, have been felt in the last 4 years. Scientists, researchers, and leaders in government and industry use NCDC’s monthly reports to help track trends and other changes in the world’s climate.

The spotted seal, a sea ice-dependent Arctic species, has been denied Endangered Species Act protection by the Obama Administration.

Disappointment: The Center for Biological Diversity has announced that the Obama administration denied Endangered Species Act protection for the spotted seal, a species whose habitat is rapidly melting away due to global warming.

Scientists have discovered that sunspots are not the only thing from the Sun that have a significant and varied impact on the Earth.

There is a “solar cycle” of approximately 11 years. Variation of the Sun’s impact on the Earth during those 11 years is generally thought to be due to sunspots. The Sun also shoots high-speed winds at the Earth, however, and scientists have just discovered that these super winds significantly affect the Earth in several ways.

Nitrous oxide, more commonly known at your dentist’s office as laughing gas, is now the most prevalent man-made substance damaging the ozone layer. And it’s a greenhouse gas. Sadly, the joke’s apparently on us.

Biologists have known for years that the low numbers of Southern Resident Killer Whales in Puget Sound may be tied to vessel traffic. A new plan for curbing vessel activity may help increase the population of these marine mammals.

New rules regarding vessel traffic have been proposed by NOAA’s Fisheries Service to provide additional protection of the Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca). The regulations, if adopted, would take effect as early as May 2010.

According to today’s release by NOAA, the new proposal would curb vessel activity by:

• Prohibiting vessels from approaching any killer whale closer than 200 yards
• Forbidding vessels from intercepting or parking in the path of a whale
• Establishing a half-mile-wide no-go zone along the west side of San Juan Island from May 1 through the end of September, where generally no vessels would be allowed

It’s in the papers and on TV. It spreads across the Internet (including this very post), and it is finding its way into the classroom. Global climate change is nothing new. And it certainly isn’t going away. Not yet, anyway.

The first known migration of blue whales from the coast of California to the Gulf of Alaska and areas off the coast of British Columbia since 1965 has been documented by scientists, suggesting that historical migration patterns are being established by these amazing marine mammals.

Scientists have been warning us that global warming may severely threaten the survival of marine populations for several years now. But in a new study, published in Science this past Friday, they may have just found the ocean’s equivalent of the canary in the coal mine when it comes to fluctuating ocean temperatures. There’s just one little problem. This canary is worth $500 million.

Twenty years ago last month, the supertanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef in Prince William Sound and ran aground, releasing 40 million liters {approximately 10 million gallons) into the surrounding sea and onto the beaches. It remains the worst oil spill in US maritime history. In the days that followed, impact inventories revealed the lethal outcome: a quarter of a million sea birds had been killed, along with 22 Orca whales, nearly 3000 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, and unknown millions of fish eggs.

In 1991, the Alaskan and US Governments reached an agreement with Exxon Mobil in a 900 million dollar settlement, almost 200 million of which was set aside for scientific study of the disaster and its impact on the PWS ecosystem. Exxon Mobile also funded its own studies (generating 400 papers and reports) which were frequently in disagreement with the government scientists’ reports and findings.

Twenty years after, the Exxon Valdez spill has become the most studied maritime, industrial disaster ever. A news report in Science Magazine (March 26, 2009) by Lila Guterman (with Jacopo Pasotti reporting) presented some of the scientific findings from the post-spill research.

The last time you visited an aquarium, you probably saw one. With their zebra-like stripes, multiple spines, and elaborate fins, they’re quite beautiful and incredibly distinctive. But red lionfish are also voracious carnivores that breed like rabbits and are poisonous to boot. And they’re invading the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

For the past eight years, NOAA has been collecting data from inexpensive instruments attached to lobster pots, in a little-known program called eMOLT.  Lobsters don’t have the sex appeal of NOAA’s newest recruit, the Click to Continue Reading