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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from
View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:(6)
Plague/Virus:(3)
Climate Chaos:(11)
Resource Depletion: (5)
Biology Breach:(10)
Recovery:(7)
This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
contamination  ~ water issues  ~ stupid humans  ~ global warming  ~ climate impacts  ~ anthropogenic change  ~ ecosystem interrelationships  ~ toxic water  ~ invasive species  ~ short-term thinking  ~ falling fertility  



ApocaDocuments (7) for the "Recovery" scenario from this week
[see full week] ~ [see full Recovery scenario and stories]
Sat, Nov 29, 2008
from Chicago Tribune:
Scientists say they've found bacteria that will fight invasive mussels
Researchers seeking to slow the spread of invasive zebra and quagga mussels in American lakes and rivers have found a bacterium that appears to be fatal to the problematic species without affecting native mussels or freshwater fish. The bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, offers some hope for controlling the troublesome bivalves that are wreaking ecological and economic havoc in North American waters from the Colorado River to Vermont, and especially in the Great Lakes. But more testing remains to be done, and the bacteria could be used effectively only on a limited scale, said Daniel Molloy, the New York State Museum researcher who discovered the possible new use for P. fluorescens. ...


From the Great Lakes ... to the Ate-Up Lakes.

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Thu, Nov 27, 2008
from CGIAR, via Mongabay:
Carbon market could pay poor farmers to adopt sustainable cultivation techniques
... [P]roceeds from the carbon market could be used to reward farmers who adopt cultivation techniques that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Such methods include growing crops under a canopy of fruit or timber trees, planting fodder trees for livestock, and curtailing the use of slash-and-burn agriculture. "If we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and effectively as possible, we need to do everything we can to encourage the people living in and around the world's tropical forests to adopt carbon-saving and carbon-enhancing approaches to development," said Dennis Garrity, Director General of the World Agroforestry Center, one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). "One crucial way to do that is to give them the same opportunities to sell their carbon as a commodity in the global market as is encouraged in other sectors." ...


My only worry is that this is too sensible for humanity, but not conducive to agribusiness.

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Wed, Nov 26, 2008
from Telegraph.co.uk:
Stern urges switch to low carbon economy during downturn
The author of the Government's 2006 report on climate change said that while demand is low, it is a good time to switch to "a more sustainable pattern of growth" by replacing fossil fuels with more renewables and clean energy, designing new technologies and improving energy efficiency. The former economist at the Treasury warned that previous growth on the back of the housing market boom or dot.com bubble have been unsustainable. However investment in renewables and low carbon energy could improve the economy in the long term. ...


But then how will we grow the economy back to unsustainable levels?

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Wed, Nov 26, 2008
from Guardian (UK):
Inspiring people to grow their own food
... That's why I really like the idea of the WHO Farm Project in the US. It's an attempt to convince Barack Obama to also reach for the spade when he takes the keys to the White House in January and symbolically dig up the famous front lawn in order to toss in some vegetable seeds. It's exactly what the Roosevelts did during the second world war and it helped to inspire over 20m so-called "Victory Gardens" across the US. The garden at 10 Downing St isn't blessed with quite as many rods of prime growing land, but Buckingham Palace, and other world-famous sites across the UK, certainly are. It's not as if a decent veg patch needs to take up that much room. And just think of all those other wasted spaces where veg could easily be grown -- parks, verges, roundabouts (OK, that might be a little dangerous) and all those monoculture corporate HQ landscaped gardens. ...


We need not vanquish to declare victories like this.

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Tue, Nov 25, 2008
from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Fox River's dredging for PCBs starts soon
Green Bay - The workhorse in the biggest and most expensive phase to clean up the Fox River is a massive building rising from the banks of the river. Operating like a factory, the 242,000-square-foot facility will extract chemical compounds from river sediments for an estimated seven years and send them away in scores of dump trucks every day. After years of jockeying and extensive planning, the actual processing of the contaminated sediments starts in May - making the Fox and the Hudson River in New York the largest remediation projects in the country. The Fox is the largest single source of polychlorinated biphenyls on Lake Michigan. ...


Ideally it will be done in a fair and balanced way!

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Mon, Nov 24, 2008
from Environmental News Network:
'Fish technology' draws renewable energy from slow water currents
Slow-moving ocean and river currents could be a new, reliable and affordable alternative energy source. A University of Michigan engineer has made a machine that works like a fish to turn potentially destructive vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power.... Here's how VIVACE works: The very presence of the cylinder in the current causes alternating vortices to form above and below the cylinder. The vortices push and pull the passive cylinder up and down on its springs, creating mechanical energy. Then, the machine converts the mechanical energy into electricity. Just a few cylinders might be enough to power an anchored ship, or a lighthouse, Bernitsas says. These cylinders could be stacked in a short ladder. The professor estimates that array of VIVACE converters the size of a running track and about two stories high could power about 100,000 houses. Such an array could rest on a river bed or it could dangle, suspended in the water. But it would all be under the surface. ...


I love that sound of that: VIVACE energy from vortices -- va va VOOM.

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Mon, Nov 24, 2008
from Sydney Morning Herald:
Rescued whales reunite in Bass Strait
Five pilot whales tagged with satellite tracking devices after surviving a mass stranding have successfully joined a larger pod in deeper waters off Tasmania. It's the first time whales rescued from stranding have been tagged to track their progress. Wildlife officers were celebrating on Monday after launching a huge rescue operation, which followed Saturday's mass beaching by more than 60 whales at Anthonys Beach near Stanley on Tasmania's north-west coast. Despite the efforts of 60 volunteers and 15 government wildlife officers, 53 whales died, but 11 were saved after being transported on trucks 17km along the Bass Highway and released in deep water at Godfreys Beach on Sunday. ...


Good job, Aussies. Now, will the Japanese kill them for scientific research?

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