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Icy creature populations to deplete as temperatures rise

Reports are all over the headlines recently of creatures, particularly Arctic and Antarctic marine creatures, being threatened by extinction because the Earth is warming too fast for them or their icy environments to be able to sustain themselves.

A colony of Antarctic penguins, for one, could be extinct in as little as eight years, according to one researcher who's been documenting their population since the mid-1970s. Upward of two-thirds of the Arctic polar bears could be wiped out by 2050 because their habitat is melting, according to one study.

Sounds a little like the Science report released last fall that said commercial fisheries will effectively collapse by mid-century at the rate we fish our oceans. There's definitely a pattern here -- is anyone else noticing this dismal trend?

New National Park Service rules allow 540 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone

National Park Service studies have shown that allowing 250 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone National Park causes ecosystem damage and noise pollution. So with new rules effective starting winter 2008, the agency logically will allow 540 snowmobiles a day into the park, down from an original suggestion of 720. The NPS followed through on its […]

Competitive birthing is a new fad

Economists explained to us long ago why fertility rates around the world have fallen. Characteristically, these explanations (part of the demographic transition theory) occurred after the fact. Also characteristically, they'll likely fail to predict future fertility trends. From NPR:

The newest status symbol for the nation's most affluent families is fast becoming a big brood of kids.

Historically, the country-club set has had the smallest number of kids. But in the past 10 years, the number of high-end earners who are having three or more kids has shot up nearly 30 percent.

Some say the trend is driven by a generation of over-achieving career women who have quit work and transferred all of their competitive energy to baby making.

They call it "competitive birthing."

I've mentioned this a few times in comments. The higher status (higher economic bracket) women I know tend to have three or four kids instead of the once-popular one or two. My personal observations did not form a database big enough to define a real trend, but apparently it is.

(Hat tip to KO)

If Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize …

I want some of whatever this guy’s smoking.

Wal-Mart to sell its own brand of compact fluorescent light bulbs, melting Siberian permafrost revea

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: We’re Just Going Through a Phaseout Walk It Off Compact With the Devil I Fought the Thaw and the Thaw Won Siberian Tusky The Anarchist Cookbook, Vegan Edition Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Brood Awakenings Junk Food Junkies Fit to […]

Bill Moyers on the legacy of Rachel Carson

You can watch the whole episode here.

California officials will poison lake to target nonnative fish

We’re not gung-ho about invasive species, but somehow poisoning an entire lake to get rid of them seems counterintuitive. Nonetheless, California’s Lake Davis will get that treatment from state Fish and Game Department officials tomorrow, in the latest attempt in 15 years to rid the reservoir of nonnative northern pike.

I stole that headline from this NYT article

To turf, or not to turf? The controversy continues.

Loggerhead turtle populations declining

Loggerhead turtle populations rose in the 1990s but are now falling again, according to a recent federal review. Thanks, commercial fishing!

Faster phaseout of ozone-damaging chemicals agreed to by 191 nations

At the conference marking the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol last week, some 191 nations agreed to a faster phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals than had originally been negotiated in 1987. Hydrochlorofluorocarbons, or HCFCs, emerged in the 1990s as a less-ozone-damaging alternative to CFCs, which did truly nasty things to the ozone layer. But HCFCs […]