Life of a Nature Nerd

Limiting catch of one type of fish could help save coral reefs

Limiting the take of just one type of fish could protect coral reefs around the world from the most serious immediate impacts of climate change, researchers have found.

Studying Caribbean coral reefs, Peter Mumby and colleagues from the University of Queensland found that enforcing a rule limiting the fishing of a single type of herbivorous fish – parrotfish – would allow coral reefs there to continue to grow, despite bleaching and other impacts associated with climate change.

Coral reefs damaged by bleaching or storms can recover when new baby corals settle and grow on the dead old corals. But the new recruits must compete with seaweed. If the seaweed outcompetes the coral, the reef can be lost forever, transforming into a seaweed-dominated ecosystem, where most of the biodiversity is lost.

Oligochaete (water worm)

Darwin Dale

Fertilizer use to surpass 200 million tonnes in 2018

Global fertilizer use is likely to rise above 200.5 million tonnes in 2018, 25 percent higher than recorded in 2008.

Today is Use Less Stuff Day! As the holiday season approaches, we’re taking a moment to consider the environmental impact of the throwaway “stuff” we consume all the time… Starting with plastic water bottles. Read more here on our blog.  There are so many things we could cut back on daily. And just imagine how simplifying our lives could help save the planet! 

Flowers could be blooming on the International Space Station after the New Year

Having already grown lettuce (images above) on the International Space Station, astronauts are now attempting to grow the first flowering plants. On 16th November, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren activated the plant growth system named Veggie and its rooting “pillows” containing Zinnia seeds.

“Growing a flowering crop is more challenging than growing a vegetative crop such as lettuce,” said Gioia Massa, NASA Kennedy Space Center payload scientist for Veggie. “Lighting and other environmental parameters are more critical.”

Lindgren will turn on the red, blue and green LED lights, activate the water and nutrient system to Veggie, and monitor the plant growth. The experimental flowers are expected to bloom early 2016, after 60 days of growth.

“Growing the Zinnia plants will help advance our knowledge of how plants flower in the Veggie growth system, and will enable fruiting plants like tomatoes to be grown and eaten in space using Veggie as the in-orbit garden,” said Trent Smith, Veggie program manager at Kennedy. Growing tomato plants on the space station is planned for 2017.

Declines in whales, fish, seabirds and large animals disrupt Earth’s nutrient cycle

This diagram shows an interlinked system of animals that carry nutrients from ocean depths to deep inland – through their poop, urine, and, upon death, decomposing bodies. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that – in the past–this chain of whales, seabirds, migratory fish and large land mammals transported far greater amounts of nutrients than they do today. Here, the red arrows show the estimated amounts of phosphorus and other nutrients that were moved or diffused historically – and how much these flows have been reduced today. Grey animals represent extinct or reduced densities of animal populations.        Credit: Diagram from PNAS; designed by Renate Helmiss

This is the third in a series of articles published by InsideClimate News disclosing that ExxonMobil was conducting an extensive internal research project internally to analyze the effect of carbon emissions on atmospheric CO2, global warming and climate change. It’s clear from the material described and presented in the article that ExxonMobil, within its science group and at the highest management levels, was aware of the risk of climate change from carbon emissions. Notwithstanding that knowledge, ExxonMobil decided to protect its business model and go down the denial path.

What’s amazing is how accurate the ExxonMobil scientists were in their projections of the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere and the effect those levels of concentration would have on global warming.

Here’s an example of an internal memorandum. An explanation of this memo, including more on its contents, the context in which it was written and delivered and the identities of the author and addressee, are included in the article.

A timeline of ExxonMobil’s research and external outreach efforts on the climate change issue. If the text is too tiny or blurred, a better copy, which you can enlarge, is included in the article.

I agree that Exxon should be condemned, even sued, for funding organizations that intentionally clouded the science or created false debates. It’ll be difficult to show that nefarious behavior was illegal, unfortunately.

On the other hand, Exxon has - consistently - acknowledged anthropocentric climate change. In fact most, if not all, oil and gas companies publicly share their climate and emissions research right on their websites.

I published a list of oil company’s climate change websites two years ago, here: http://climateadaptation.tumblr.com/post/47456183104/why-dont-oil-companies-hire-climate-deniers.

Oil companies disagree with some of the untested policy tactics advocated by policy makers and environmental groups; the companies openly want clarity on the affects of such policies on economies. These are fair questions! Exxon really fucked up by repackaging these questions by hiring hacks and goons.

Ironically - and virtually unreported - Exxon arguably has funded more research for lowering emissions than they have funded anti-policy groups. See, for one example, “Exxon and others Give $225 Million to Standford to Research Lowering Emissions” NYTimes, November 2002:                    

Four big international companies, including the oil giant Exxon Mobil, said yesterday that they would give Stanford University $225 million over 10 years for research on ways to meet growing energy needs without worsening global warming.                          

Exxon Mobil, whose pledge of $100 million makes it the biggest of the four contributors, issued a statement saying new techniques for producing energy while reducing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases were “vital to meeting energy needs in the industrialized and developing world.”

Blood Moon Eclipse after the Sun sets today

If your skies are clear after the Sun sets today, September 27th, be sure to head outside to see the total lunar eclipse. This will mark the end of a “tetrad” of four total lunar eclipses spaced a half year apart that began back in early 2014. It’s the last one visible anywhere until 2018.

The full moon will pass through Earth’s shadow and sunlight scattered by Earth’s atmosphere will cast red colors on it!

Naoto Matsumura is the only human brave enough to live in Fukushima’s 12.5-mile exclusion zone

He fled at first but returned to take care of the animals that were left behind

He returned for his own animals at first, but realized that so many more needed his help, too

Matsumura, who is 55 years old, knows that the radiation is harmful, but he “refuses to worry about it”

“They also told me that I wouldn’t get sick for 30 or 40 years. I’ll most likely be dead by then anyway, so I couldn’t care less”

Matsumura discovered that thousands of cows had died locked in barns

He also freed many animals that had been left chained up by their owners

Many of them now rely on him for food

The government has forbidden him from staying, but that doesn’t stop him either

He started in 2011 and is still going strong 4 years later

He relies solely on donations from supporters to work with and feed the animals

His supporters are calling him the ‘guardian of Fukushima’s animals’

The man clearly has a sense of humor as well