From the Inbox: Killing whales for profit could soon be made legal. Join me in stopping it.

An important message from Pierce Brosnan “The Obama Administration is backing a deadly deal that would make it legal once again to kill whales for profit. Please call on the President to reverse course.” Dear Friend, I was appalled to hear -- on Earth Day of all days -- that the International Whaling Commission has put forward a deal that would legalize commercial whaling for the first time in a generation. Even worse, the Obama Administration has backed this deadly proposal, which would suspend the international ban on whaling and make it legal once again to kill whales for profit. During his campaign, President Obama promised America he would oppose the killing of these magnificent creatures. It’s time for you and me to hold him to that promise. Please call on the White House to oppose any deal that would legitimize the hunting and killing of whales. Obama Administration officials claim that the IWC deal would be a “step forward” for whales because it could rein in Japan, Iceland and Norway, which have killed thousands of whales since 1986 by exploiting loopholes in the whaling ban. But, in fact, this new deal is a giant step backward. It rewards those three nations for years of defying international law. It does their bidding by suspending the whaling ban for 10 years. It opens up the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to whaling. And it will not stop them from trading in whale meat or killing whales under legal loopholes like “scientific permits.” Don’t believe for a minute that this kind of deal would phase down whaling. Instead, it would breathe new life into a dying industry. Worst of all, the deal gives moral cover to the absurd notion that we can save whales by killing them -- instead of by banning their slaughter. There is no moral justification for killing whales. There is no scientific justification for killing whales. And if the Obama Administration persists in supporting a deal that encourages the killing of whales, it will tarnish not only the White House but our entire nation.Please join me in telling President Obama to vigorously oppose this deal and instead push for a deal that closes the loopholes and ends commercial whaling once and for all! Thanks to the efforts of NRDC, you and I have prevailed so many times in defense of our planet’s whales. We saved the gray whale’s last untouched nursery in Mexico’s San Ignacio Lagoon against Mitsubishi’s plans for industrialization. And we reined in the Navy’s use of dangerous sonar systems around marine mammals. Now, with our own government supporting an unthinkable deal that would legalize the commercial killing of whales, we must unite again and say: Not on our watch! I hope you’ll make your own voice heard inside the White House today. Thank you. Sincerely, Pierce Brosnan Natural Resources Defense Council

Oil slick threatens coastal marine life in Gulf of Mexico

The oil leak triggered by a deadly rig blast off the coast of Louisiana has the potential to cause more environmental damage than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, one of the largest ecological disasters ever recorded, some observers say. The oil well was ripped open by an April 20 explosion that sunk the drill rig Deepwater Horizon, leading to the presumed deaths of 11 men.

"As it is now, it's already looking like this could be the worst oil spill since the Valdez," John Hocevar, Oceans campaign director for Greenpeace USA, said on Thursday.

"It’s quite possible this will end up being worse than the Valdez in terms of environmental impact since it seems that BP will be unable to cap the spill for months. In terms of total quantity of oil released, it seems this will probably fall short of Exxon Valdez. But because of the habitat, the environmental impact will be worse." Hundreds of species of wildlife, some in their prime breeding season, are threatened, environmental organizations said.

The oil slick threatens hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Oil was thickening in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about five miles offshore.

If the leak is not capped, millions of gallons of oil could spill into the Gulf of Mexico. The environmental impact could be disastrous if the oil reaches the ecologically fragile U.S. coastline.

The spill was bigger than imagined — five times more than first estimated — and closer. Fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines.

Wednesday night, the Coast Guard and NOAA raised their estimate of the amount of oil the damaged well was pouring into the Gulf to 210,000 gallons a day -- about 5,000 barrels.

An effort to burn off part of the oil slick on Wednesday destroyed about 100 barrels, said Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of BP. But the technique "clearly worked," and larger burns are planned when weather conditions make them possible.

"We believe we can now scale that up and burn between 500 and 1,000 barrels at a time," Suttles said. They had to abandon burning the oil when weather conditions changed and the wind blew in the wrong direction for them. There will, they noted, be more chances to burn the oil.

The well is now leaking from three points, BP said. Under the 1990 oil pollution act, passed in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the company is required to foot the bill for the cleanup.

Coast Guard Update Oil Spill Update

A 120 mile oil spill spread out of control and started washing ashore along the Gulf Coast Thursday night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes. The shrimp were allowed to be retrieved in an emergency shrimping season which was opened to allow shrimpers to scoop up their catch before it is fouled by oil. Cannons were to be used to scare off birds. And shrimpers were being lined up to use their boats as makeshift skimmers in the shallows.

Oil company BP, whose ruptured well is at the heart of the spill, and state and federal agencies have strung nearly 175,000 feet -- about 33 miles -- of floating booms around the leading edge of the shoreline in an effort to contain the spill, but authorities said the spill could begin affecting some areas of the coast by Thursday evening. About a half-million more feet of floating booms are being readied, federal officials said. But the latest forecast from NOAA showed the leading edges of the slick reaching the Mississippi and Alabama coasts over the weekend and stretching as far east as Pensacola, Florida, by Monday.

Efforts to shut down the well have failed so far, and more complicated plans may take weeks.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday declared a state of emergency ahead of the oil slick's arrival, warning it covered as much as 600 square miles of water.

Oil spill could be disaster for wildlife

Ten wildlife refuges in Mississippi and Louisiana are in the oil's likely path, with the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area at the tip of the Mississippi River likely to be the first affected, Jindal announced. Wildlife conservation groups said Thursday the oil could be a disaster for coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

"For birds, the timing could not be worse; they are breeding, nesting and especially vulnerable in many of the places where the oil could come ashore," said Melanie Driscoll, director of bird conservation for the Louisiana Coastal Initiative.

"The efforts to stop the oil before it reaches shore are heroic, but may not be enough. We have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst, including a true catastrophe for birds."

"The best case is, the wind shifts and the oil doesn't hit," said Tom MacKenzie of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I'm not real confident about that. ... We're doing everything we can to prevent it, but it could be a bad one."

It's not just birds that could be affected, although they are usually the first to feel the effects, said Gregory Bossart, chief veterinary officer for the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The birds are right at the surface, get covered in the oil and swallow it, causing liver and kidney problems. "They need to be rescued and cleaned," he said.

But the coastline of Louisiana, with its barrier islands and estuaries, "is a very unique ecosystem. It's very complex," Bossart said.

Plankton found in the estuaries nourish organisms all the way up the food chain. Crabs, mussels, oysters and shrimp feed on the plankton, he said. Oil smothers the plankton, resulting in them not being able to eat. Also, "the estuaries here are a nursery ground, literally a nursery ground, for the entire fish population in this area," Bossart said.

River otters in the region eat mussels and other animals. And "we know, in this area right now, that there are sperm whales. There are dolphins right in the oil slick," he said.

If an oil spill is small enough, animals can leave the area. "Some of them can get away," Bossart said. "It's totally dependent on the size of the slick, and this is huge."

Exposure to the oil for a prolonged period of time can result in a toxic effect on the skin, and mammals can suffer lung damage or death after breathing it in, Bossart said. "When the oil starts to settle, it'll smother the oyster beds. It'll kill the oysters," he said.

Greenpeace's Hocevar said he's particularly concerned about the impact to critically endangered bluefin tuna. "It's their spawning season and bluefin larvae in this part of their life-cycle would be near the surface of water," Hocevar said.

The oil could also harm sea turtles, which are approaching nesting season; fin whales; menhaden, a fish species harvested mostly for fish meal and fish oil; bottom-feeding oysters; and numerous species of birds, Hocevar said.

The spill also threatens the Louisiana and Mississippi fishing industry, as crab, oysters and shrimp along the coast could be affected, along with numerous species of fish. Gulf shrimp are in their spawning season. Experts said the spill could also destroy the livelihood of commercial fishermen and shrimp catchers and impact recreational fishermen. According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the state’s fishing industry is worth $265 billion at dockside and has a total economic impact of $2.3 trillion.

Fisherman's Livelihood Threatened by Oil Spill

The Louisiana coastline is mostly marsh, and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries is worried that the lowlands will catch and hold oil when the water washes into them, spokesman Bo Boehringer said. The department is advising response teams on where to place the booms to protect wildlife. That includes brown pelicans, Louisiana's state bird, and migratory birds.

Top Ten Categories of wildlife that will be most affected

Though it's unclear how badly wildlife along the Gulf Coast will suffer, the timing of the spill couldn't be worse. This is peak spawning and nesting season for many species of fish, birds, turtles and marine mammals. Many species remain in set breeding areas during this time and there's less instinct to move away from danger.

Disturbances to nests, fish spawning grounds or key links in the food chain might have lasting effects on species already at risk, commercial fish stocks and the people who make a living harvesting them. Minor oil spills are relatively common on the Gulf Coast, but this one has biologists, wildlife agencies, conservation groups and fishermen particularly concerned.

Here's a selection of animals at risk in the open water, along the coasts and in the wetlands.

1. North Atlantic Bluefin Tuna: The Great Bluefin Tuna, prized for sushi and sashimi, is one of the species most in danger of slipping into extinction. Traveling down across the Atlantic seaboard, bluefin tuna spawn in the Gulf of Mexico between mid-April and mid-June.

2. Sea Turtles: Five of the world's seven sea turtle species live, migrate and breed in the Gulf region. Kemp's ridley is the world's most endangered species of sea turtle, and one of its two primary migration routes runs south of Mississippi. Loggerhead turtles, also endangered, feed in the warm waters in the Gulf between May and October.

3. Sharks: Shark species worldwide are in decline. The grassbeds south of the Chandeleur Islands are very close to the oil spill. These grasses are a known nursing area for a number of shark species, which are now beginning their spawning season in the Gulf. Whale sharks, the world's largest fish, feed on plankton at the surface of the water and could also be affected.

4. Marine mammals (whales, porpoises, dolphins): Oil spills pose an immediate threat to marine mammals, which need to surface and breathe. Not only does the oil pose a threat, but also the nasty toxins that the oil kicks off into the air. A resident pod of sperm whales in the spill area could be at risk along with piggy sperm whales, porpoises and dolphins.

5. Brown Pelicans: The state bird of Louisiana, the pelican nests on barrier islands and feeds near shore. Brown pelicans only came off the endangered species list last year, but they've had a rough time in past seasons with storms. Their reproductive rates are low. Breeding season just started, and with eggs incubating the oil could pose a significant threat.

6. Oysters - The coastal waters around the very tip of Louisiana’s boot-shaped coast are home to some of the most productive oyster farms in the country. Oils and hydrocarbons are toxic to oysters. Unfortunately, hydrocarbons can persist in coastal sediments for months or even years. Louisiana oyster farmers, many of whom barely scrape by with high fuel costs and global competition, could have trouble weathering the oil spill if their harvests are affected.

7. Shrimp and blue crab - Coastal marshes are key to the life cycle and development of Louisiana shrimp and blue crab — both staples of the local seafood industry. Inshore shrimp season will open in mid-May, while brown shrimp are in their post-larval and juvenile development stages.

8. Menhaden and marsh-dwelling fish. - The young offspring of species such as mullet, menhaden and marsh-dwelling forage fishes are especially vulnerable at this time of year. Menhaden is a little fish you've probably never heard of, but people all over the world use it everyday. Menhaden fish oil and meat are used in everything from cosmetics to animal feed. Louisiana is one of the world’s biggest suppliers and the oil spill comes smack in the middle of menhaden spawning season.

9. Beach-nesting and migratory shorebirds - Overdeveloped beach fronts all along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida have made life difficult for several species of plovers, sandpipers, terns and oyster catchers. Those that build their nests on the ground and feed on invertebrates are susceptible to oil on the beaches. Some migratory shore birds fly nearly the length of the Western Hemisphere and use barrier islands in the Gulf for key resting and refueling spots on their journey.

10. Migratory songbirds — warblers, orioles, buntings, flycatchers, swallows and others - About 96 species of neo-tropical songbirds make a 500-mile journey without a pit stop across the Gulf of Mexico. The next two weeks mark the height of their migration as they travel north from Central and South America to breed in North America. The smoke from controlled burns to mitigate the oil spill could affect the migration, but the impacts will be difficult to monitor.

More than 400 species are threatened by the spill, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Thursday, citing the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

"When you stop and begin considering everything that this could impact, it really is stunning," Karen Foote, biologist administrator with the department, told the newspaper.

Source:
Cable News Network, "Oil slick just a few miles from Louisiana coast", accessed April 29, 2010
Cable News Network, "Oil spill could be disaster for animals, experts say", accessed April 29, 2010
CBS World Watch, "Ten Animals most at risk from Gulf oil spill", accessed April 29, 2010
Global Post, "Ten animals most at risk from Gulf Oil spill", accessed April 29, 2010
MSNBC, "Gulf spill: Worse than Exxon Valdez?", accessed April 29, 2010
Associated Press, "Oil from massive Gulf Coast starts washing ashore", accessed April 30, 2010

Court turns down Michigan over Great Lakes carp

The Supreme Court has made its final decision not to take up the case of closing the Chicago Shipping Canal to in an effort to keep the voracious invasive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes where they are considered a threat to fisheries.. That doesn't mean the issue has been settled, though.

Attorney General Mike Cox is still pushing to put pressure on President Obama and congressional leaders to take action on the matter. New York Senator Chuck Schumer is asking the EPA, Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a study to determine what the economic and ecological impacts would be on the Great Lakes if the carp establishes a significant population.

State officials and scientists already claim that the aggressive fish would destroy the state's 7-billion dollar fishing industry by devouring food resources utilized by native fish. Cox, meanwhile, is still collecting petition signatures on his web site at StopAsianCarp.com.

Two species of Asian carp -- the Bighead (upper right) and Silver carp, which can grow to five feet in length and weigh 100 pounds (45 kg) -- are seen as the primary danger to the lakes' $7 billion fisheries. These fish were imported by Southern catfish farmers in the 1970's to remove algae and suspended matter out of their ponds. During large floods as early as the 1970s, many of the catfish farm ponds overflowed their banks, and the Asian carp were released into local waterways in the Mississippi River basin.

The Asian carp have since been reproducing in the Mississippi River and its tributaries, slowly spreading upstream and into the Illinois River which connects to Lake Michigan. The carp have become the most abundant species (Silver carp right) in some areas of the River. These fish are are the river systems' illegal immigrants with no Green Card and once they establish residency, they can eat you out of house and home.

Scientists fear they would consume plankton and other small life forms, crowding out other fish species. "They just eat so much," says David Ullrich, executive director of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. "They're like the locusts of the river."

That's what makes them so dangerous to the lakes. Asian carp aren't direct predators, but they eat plankton, which knocks out the bottom layers of the food chain. If they were to successfully establish themselves in the Great Lakes and start breeding, they could utterly disrupt the existing ecosystem, potentially starving out the trout and other native fish that make the Great Lakes a tourism hot spot.

In an attempt to prevent the carp from entering the Great Lakes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. EPA, the State of Illinois, the International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have worked together to install and maintain a permanent electric barrier between the fish and Lake Michigan. Asian Carp DNA has been found beyond the electric barriers, which puts the fish dangerously near Lake Michigan. Various solutions have been examined and would be put into effect if Michigan can get the court's approval. So far, it has not been able to do that in two attempts. Michigan has taken their case for the third time now to the courts, winding up in front of the Supreme Court.

The action marked Michigan's third Supreme Court setback this year. In January and in March, the justices rejected separate state requests for an order to close two Chicago-area waterway locks and for other steps that would keep the carp out of the lakes.

In the latest request, Michigan had sought to reopen Supreme Court cases that dated back to the 1920s and involved the Chicago-area waterway system and how much water can be diverted from Lake Michigan.

Michigan had sought to reopen the litigation by arguing the Chicago-area waterways now serve as a conduit for the carp to pass into Lake Michigan, threatening ecological and economic havoc to the Great Lakes.

Michigan also had requested that the federal government, the state of Illinois and Chicago's sewer authority take steps to stop the carp migration into Lake Michigan.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan, representing the federal government, opposed Michigan's request. She said the carp issue was unrelated to the decades-old cases.

Instead of trying to reopen the Supreme Court cases, the proper forum for Michigan would be to bring a lawsuit before a federal judge, she said.

Source:
Reuters,"Court turns down Michigan over Great Lakes carp", accessed April 27, 2010
WTVB, "Supreme Court Will Not Take Up Asian Carp Issue", accessed April 27, 2010
EPA, "Asian Carp and the Great Lakes", accessed April 27, 2010
Time, "Asian Carp in the Great Lakes? This Means War!", accessed April 27, 2010

Constant flooding forces out Pacific Northwest tribe

For the Hoh, life centers on the silver waters just off their reservation. Throughout the tiny Native American tribe's history they have lived and fished on the westernmost point of Washington state where the river that shares their name meets the Pacific Ocean.

According to the tribe's legends, the Hoh were created on the river by K'wati or the "Changer" in what the tribe refers to as the "Time of the Beginnings."

In Hoh lore the tribe were "upside down people," who walked on their hands and struggled to throw fishing nets with their feet. K'wati, the legend goes, righted them and taught the tribe to live from fishing the river and ocean.

Those same waters now threaten the tribe's future.

For tribe member and treasurer Amy Benally, the danger can be seen on the doorstep of her family's home that has stood at the mouth of the river for nearly a century.

Benally grew up there with 12 members of her family. Now the home is a gutted wreck from repeated flooding.

At first the waters took out the garage and the small building Benally's grandfather used to smoke fish. Then the family had to

Marie Riebe, Hoh tribal secretary, displays a photo from 1905 of village buildings from nearly the same place she's standing, where the Hoh River meets the Pacific, on the Hoh Indian Reservation

flee upstairs. "We'd see the waves and the logs coming," Benally said standing in the musty ruin of the home. "We'd stand out here on the porch, and my grandfather would get mad at us and tell us to come back into the house. It was pretty scary."

Although the lowlands where her family lived were always prone to flooding, Benally said the water rises more often now. "It never used to be this bad," she said. "The river's changed."

Ernest Penn, the tribe's fish and wildlife officer, is a constant presence on the river and sees the difference too.

Cruising up the river in his boat, Penn showed where heavy rains caused a landslide, where erosion changed the river's bank and where, pointing to a stretch of water, a "big pasture used to be."

The flooding is no small problem for a tribe of just under 300 people who occupy a reservation only one square mile in size.

Several homes have been abandoned, other homes and the tribe's community center wear permanent necklaces of sandbags to keep away floodwaters.

There is little room for new buildings and even where there is
it's unlikely they could be put up -- more than 90 percent of the reservation is in the flood plain, according to tribal leadership.

There are no clear culprits for the tribe's woes. According to Spencer Reeder, the Washington Department of Ecology's lead strategist for climate change policy, the increased flooding could be due to a combination of factors including global warming, logging upriver and cyclical weather patterns that have brought heavy rains.

According to a department study, the coast where the Hoh live could see an additional rise from climate change in sea levels of as much as 3 feet over the next century.

Already, when the reservation floods, the water comes up with terrifying speed. Baseball games have been interrupted, said Penn. "We'll be waist deep on the ball field."

Last year, Penn decided to move away from the reservation. "I got two little kids, what if the river came up around them?"

To rescue the tribe's future the Hoh leadership decided to move most of the reservation to higher ground and purchased new land for the expansion. Before they begin building homes though, the Hoh are waiting for Congress to pass a bill that places 37 acres of national park land in a trust for the tribe.

The tribe would not be able to develop that land, but the grant would mean that tribe members will continue to live on one piece of land and help the Hoh obtain funding for new housing.

According to a spokesman for Rep. Norm Dicks, the Washington state Democrat who sponsored the bill, Congress is expected to vote on the measure by the end of the year. (Left: Hoh rainforest)

For Tribal Chairperson Maria Lopez, the move away from the water won't come soon enough.

"We are ready to move, we are ready grow," Lopez said looking out at the coastline where a major fault line sits.

Tribal lore talks of an earthquake and giant wave that devastated the Pacific Northwest coastline 400 years ago. "What would happen," Lopez asked, "if a tsunami comes while we are here?"

Source:
Cable Network News, "Constant flooding forces out Pacific Northwest tribe", accessed April 23, 2010

Will Global Warming Make Iceland's Volcanoes Angry?

You drop a bottle of soda on the floor. You pick it up and without thinking crack the cap. Woosh, Fizzz! The cap goes flying, and the contents of the bottle erupt all over you and your kitchen.

Pretty predictable outcome for an overcharged carbonated beverage, right? It shouldn't be too much surprise, then, that volcanologists think that as icecaps melt on volcanoes all over the world, explosions like the ongoing eruption at Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano will become more common, and more violent.

Caveat time: as far as I know, there is no evidence to suggest that Eyjafjallajokull's eruption has anything to do with human-induced climate change. Saying that this eruption was caused by greenhouse gases would be utterly misguided.

But Hugh Tuffen of Lancaster University in the United Kingdom thinks it might not be long before melting glaciers on volcanoes in places like the Andes mountains, North America's Cascades, Alaska's Aleutian Islands -- and yes, even Iceland -- could release enough pressure from supercharged magma chambers to increase the frequency and intensity of volcanic eruptions.

In short: our greenhouse gas-emitting habits will eventually increase Earth's volcanic activity.

It may not be long before we see things ramp up either; according to Huffen, activity could increase significantly before the year 2100.

The above figure was pulled from Tuffen's article on the subject, published yesterday in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. It shows the currently-erupting Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the very dangerous Katla, which are both adorned with large icecaps (the arrows represent pathways for catastrophic flooding when the glaciers melt during an eruption).

Climate change is affecting different regions in unique ways -- the famous ice fields of Mt. Kilimanjaro could be gone entirely by the end of the century. Areas of Antarctic ice are thinning at a rate of close to 2 meters (6.6 feet) per year. Here and there, a few glaciers around the world are actually growing. That makes issuing blanket statements about how climate change will affect the planet's volcanoes pretty impractical.

What's more, even if a volcano loses several hundred feet of ice (and many thousands of tons of weight), we don't know how it will react. Will it pop like a shaken-up champagne bottle, fizzle quietly, or do nothing?

Scientists have looked at long-term, millennium-scale trends since the peak of the last ice age, and found that volcanic activity has indeed increased as ice sheets retreated. But what that means for people living near ice-covered fire mountains -- and for air travel -- remains unclear over the next few decades.

The best bet would be to try and stop warming quick as we can; try and leave the cap on the soda bottle, and never give it a chance to pop.

Source:
Discovery, "Will Global Warming Make Iceland's Volcanoes Angry?", by Michael Reilly, accessed April 22, 2010
Some photos courtesy of Getty Images