Catch of the day: Sustainable fish

The tuna were headed to the dinner tables of Japan, and the warehouses would fill with fresh kill the next day. And the next. And the next. Some tuna were so young, they hadn't reproduced.

It was then that the couple, who ran a $20 million-a-year lobster export business in Boston, knew they had to stop doing what they were doing. "We thought, 'This industry has some serious environmental baggage,' " says Henry, 43. "We had a strong level of discomfort being part of an industry that wasn't managing its resources well."

Out of that sentiment came EcoFish, an 8-year-old company considered a pioneer in the market of "sustainable" seafood — a movement increasingly embraced by major seafood producers and retailers, including Wal-Mart. (WMT)

EcoFish sells only seafood that is grown or caught in eco-friendly ways. That means the fish producers don't harm the environment and take no more fish out of the ocean than are born each year.

EcoFish, with $3 million in annual sales, is a small fish in the $52 billion U.S. seafood industry. But it's living proof that seafood companies can make money without harming the environment, says Michael Sutton, director of the Center for the Future of the Oceans at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He sees EcoFish as a company that can pioneer an industry transformation.

"They're a drop in the ocean that creates a lot of ripples," says Sutton, who serves on EcoFish's volunteer advisory board.

The whole article

Scientist: 'Arctic is screaming'

WASHINGTON (AP) — An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years.

Greenland's ice sheet melted nearly 19 billion tons more than the previous high mark, and the volume of Arctic sea ice at summer's end was half what it was just four years earlier, according to new NASA satellite data obtained by The Associated Press.

"The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colorado.

Just last year, two top scientists surprised their colleagues by projecting that the Arctic sea ice was melting so rapidly that it could disappear entirely by the summer of 2040.

This week, after reviewing his own new data, NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally said: "At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions."

2007 shattered records for Arctic melt in the following ways:

• 552 billion tons of ice melted this summer from the Greenland ice sheet, according to preliminary satellite data to be released by NASA Wednesday. That's 15 percent more than the annual average summer melt, beating 2005's record.
• A record amount of surface ice was lost over Greenland this year, 12 percent more than the previous worst year, 2005, according to data the University of Colorado released Monday. That's nearly quadruple the amount that melted just 15 years ago. It's an amount of water that could cover Washington, D.C., a half-mile deep, researchers calculated.The surface area of summer sea ice floating in the Arctic Ocean this summer was nearly 23 percent below the previous record. The dwindling sea ice already has affected wildlife, with 6,000 walruses coming ashore in northwest Alaska in October for the first time in recorded history. Another first: the Northwest Passage was open to navigation.
• Still to be released is NASA data showing the remaining Arctic sea ice to be unusually thin, another record. That makes it more likely to melt in future summers. Combining the shrinking area covered by sea ice with the new thinness of the remaining ice, scientists calculate that the overall volume of ice is half of 2004's total.
• Alaska's frozen permafrost is warming, not quite thawing yet. But temperature measurements 66 feet deep in the frozen soil rose nearly four-tenths of a degree from 2006 to 2007, according to measurements from the University of Alaska. While that may not sound like much, "it's very significant," said University of Alaska professor Vladimir Romanovsky.

The Whole Story

The review article, co-authored by 17 marine scientists in seven countries, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is the most comprehensive review so far of the catastrophic threat global warming poses to coral, and by extension many ocean species.

Burning coal, oil and gas adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, the same gas used to give soft drinks fizz. Just as carbon dioxide is absorbed into the drink, ocean water absorbs it from the air. When the carbon dioxide enters the ocean, it makes the water more acidic. That interferes with the ability of coral to calcify their skeletons: They can no longer grow and they begin to die.

Coral reefs are important because they act as hatcheries and nurseries for open ocean fish. They also protect coasts from storms, and provide fish, recreation and tourism dollars. It is estimated that coral reef fisheries in Asia feed one billion people. The total economic value of coral is estimated to be $30 billion.

But global warming is seriously threatening that crucial component of the ocean biodiversity, the marine scientists said.

"We have created conditions on Earth unlike anything most species alive today have experienced in their evolutionary history. Corals are feeling the effects of our actions and it is now or never if we want to safeguard these marine creatures and the livelihoods that depend on them," said Bob Steneck of the University of Maine and co-author of the paper.

The scientists provide three possible scenarios of what might happen to the world's coral reefs, all based on the lower range predictions of atmospheric carbon dioxide given by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In the best-case scenario, carbon dioxide emissions are stabilized at today's levels of 380 ppm. Coral reefs survive mostly intact.

In the midrange scenario, carbon dioxide levels rise to 450-500 ppm and the temperature goes up 3.6 degrees. Heat-tolerant forms of coral take over and reefs become significantly less diverse, with a decline in fish and other sea life.

In the worst scenario, carbon dioxide levels rise above 500 ppm and the temperature increases more than 5.4 degrees. At this point, the reefs crumble and half of sea life disappears. Red, brown and green algae take over, plankton blooms increase and water quality erodes. Today's levels are rising quickly due to ever-larger amounts of fossil fuels being burned.

While coral expert Chris Langdon says it's clear this trend looks bad for corals, he does say that to predict their total loss by some date is a little sensational. "There's a chance that they'll be able to adjust their physiology," says the University of Miami marine biologist, who was not a contributor to the study.

The whole story 

Very well done video on You Tube. It presents the arguments about Global Warming and perhaps pollution effects. Whether to do something or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_anaVcCXg&feature=related

New hope for battery powered electric cars

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine.

An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline.

By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 50 miles of gasoline-free commute. And the popular hybrids on the road today still depend heavily on fossil fuels.

"It's a paradigm shift," said Ian Clifford, chief executive of Toronto-based ZENN Motor Co., which has licensed EEStor's invention. "The Achilles' heel to the electric car industry has been energy storage. By all rights, this would make internal combustion engines unnecessary."

Clifford's company bought rights to EEStor's technology in August 2005 and expects EEStor to start shipping the battery replacement later this year for use in ZENN Motor's short-range, low-speed vehicles.

The whole article

Since my, environmental blog was recently attached by a group from Russia, I decided to add my Environmental articles here, in my main blog.

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Recycling – How to do it

Recycling is so important in our society.

    * The first and most important reason to recycle is to help reduce our Air & Water pollution
    * Reduce land fill.
    * Reducing the Cost of Waste Disposal
    * Saving Energy
    * Saving Natural resources
    * Creates Jobs -There are business opportunities sprouting from the the concept of recycling.

I found a some informative Articles for Recycling:

Websites for "How to Recycle":

http://earth911.org
http://www.emagazine.com
http://www.ehow.com/how_9160_recycle-plastic.html
http://www.ehow.com/articles_2381-environmental-health.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling

Most communities offer recycling to their residents. The main Items that most people recycle in their communities are:

    * Glass
    * Aluminum
    * Plastic
    * Paper – Newspaper -Boxes
    * Steel
    * Electronics

http://www.eia.doe.gov

Other items that may be a bit more difficult to recycle that everyone should recycle:

Batteries
Single-use batteries: If your community hazardous waste program doesn’t take them or can’t refer you to a local business that does,  all Walgreens stores accept old batteries. Across the country, Batteries Plus stores accept all batteries for recycling (800-677-8278, www.batteriesplus.com).

Rechargeable batteries:
Visit RadioShack and Office Depot to dispose of batteries from wireless phones, laptop computers, camcorders, cordless power tools, digital cameras and radio-controlled toys at no charge.

    * Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd)
    * Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH)
    * Lithium Ion (Li-ion)
    * Small Sealed Lead Acid (Pb) batteries weighing less than two pounds.

Eyeglasses

Refurbished glasses are delivered to developing countries.
    * LensCrafters
    * Pearle Vision
    * BJ’s Optical
    * Optical stores at Sears or Target
    * Your local Lions Club.

Fruit Rinds, Veggie Scraps, Coffee Grounds, Tea Bags
Start a compost for your garden or houseplants. Find step-by-step instructions for starting a backyard compost system at any of these website:

    * http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu
    * http://www.NYCCompost.org
    * http://www.howtocompost.org
    * http://www.compostguide.com/
    * http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk

To locate other nearby recyclers:

    * http://Earth911.org
    * http://www.recycle.net
    * http://www.iaer.org
    * http://www.electronicrecyclers.com
    * http://www.eworldrecyclers.com
    * http://www.plasticsnews.com/subscriber/rankings/recyclers.html
    * http://www.nema.org/lamprecycle/recyclers.html
    * http://www.ecarcenter.org

I recently found that someone had managed to spam my Blog recently for Free Ringtones. They added a bunch of links and an image about ringtones.

I had since removed the offending links but found they posted links to all sorts of FFA link farms to my wordpress blog – hundreds of links. This will no doubt be a source of concern of me, because I feel they can have a negative impact to my rankings and I totally disapprove of this type of marketing or linking. This makes me feel this person violated my website by exploiting a security weakness of my blog. Unfortunately, there is nothing to do at this point until the links disappear over time.

I tried to look at the scope of the incoming links this jerk performed and they were quite busy. Hundreds of posts were made to the  blog where the web page was residing. There wasn't just one spam post, but several and this person took advantage of it.

The whole issue is that I am ultimately responsible for everything on my website – especially, the blog and I now have to watch my website more closely. It is a lesson for everyone that allows people to post messages, replies or comments to anything you have on your website. Hence, I am turning off the ability to make comments to my blog.

When you look at a website the first time, do you understand what the web owner is trying to say?

I have been to so many website, that I feel lost when I visit some sites. Does the website have a Title? Does it clearly state what the site is for? Is there a mission or summary paragraph that encapsulates the site's purpose?

How can I purchase the product, or do I have to hunt around the site to find it? Where is the information I need? Do I have to look at every webpage to locate it?

How do I contact someone? 

I t is so important that the first page grabs your attention, but also it must include the following:

• Who you are
• What you offer
• Why you offer it
• When do you offer it
• Where can you get it
• How can I get it

If a visitor has to guess at any of these questions, then the site just doesn't do it's job. It is important to take the time to answer these questions and to provide a website that will hold on to it's visitors. You can always update the site, but more importantly, you need to start with a clear message.

Smitty 

http://www.smittysholdings.com