I include below an excellent article from The Guardian , by Alison Benjamin, on the state of honey bees in the US, Europe and Asia. The problem is still very serious and scientists still have no consensus regarding the cause of this bee die-off. The article is very comprehensive, and this is because she has written a book with, Brian McCallum, called ‘A World Without Bees‘. This is a must-read piece for those who care about the fate of honey bees and would like to learn more about their over-worked, and vital presence in our lives and our dependence on them.

Here is another nicely written article regarding North Atlantic Right whales and the Bush administrations determination to let them struggle. Oh, yes, and it’s also another slice right out of this government’s modus operandi, which is, let industry regulate itself, because it always does the right thing.  Mwa, haha.  Oh, and it’s also more feedback on the Bushies attempting to rewrite, ignore and/or suppress science.  I don’t know why any self-respecting scientist would work for this administration, except maybe to valiantly shine a light into the dark, dark caves of double-speak and propaganda these sychophants-to-industry have erected all over our federal government.  Anyway, these poor whales were nearly hunted to extinction and they haven’t bounced back yet.  Most scientists agree that it is very important to minimize collisions between ships and whales, and one way to minimize this is to have the ships obey slower “speed limits” in certain areas off the east coast.  Industry has not obeyed “voluntary” speed limits and is resisting the limits becoming law.  They say, in fact, that the boats should go faster through the whale habitats, so they have less chance of hitting them.  Hah!  So, as the article mentions, we all need to start speeding through school zones so we have less of a chance to hit any children that might be straggling around out there.  So, funny.  Not really.

Butterflies are amazing, scientifically fascinating, beautiful creatures. Yes, of course I’m going to mention that their numbers are diminishing over the decades due to habitat loss and insecticide/herbicide use. This very good article, from The National Wildlife Federation covers the perils that these mighty lilliputians have experienced over the years as we humans have developed the land that used to contain their food plants. It also contains some heroic stories of individuals that have been responsible for saving some of these beauties from becoming extinct from the planet forever. These people are the thin line that is staving off humanity’s plunge into an Earth-wide extinction meltdown. If you want to help, the article also has links for some simple native plants you can grow in your yard to replenish their habitat. If we all did this in our yards, grow native plants and trees to feed the wildlife, provide water and shelter in the form of undisturbed areas and brambles, we could be a mighty force against habitat destruction. So, plant some milkweed for the monarchs!

I wrote an earlier post on 2008 being ‘The Year of the Frog“. Well, it still is! How can you help our little ribbity friends? It’s pretty easy for you and your children to make a difference that matters. So, for a nice list of easy ways for you to help, I include the following link from the Amphibian Ark. After all, it ain’t easy being green if you’re a frog, but, it’s a lot easier if you are a human with a heart of green.

• Save the Frogs!

Below is a link to little article on geothermal energy. It is yet another Alternative energy or wedge energy, including wind, solar, biomass and wave, among others, that might help us to deal with our energy supply/demand and global climate change issues.  Water use is always a concern, and water likely would be involved with this technology, and that would have to be dealt with responsibly.  Again, the American west makes out like a bandit, as it does with solar.  What will the east do?

• Geothermal Energy

Hey, you remember the mnemonic for the great lakes, right? It’s HOMES, for lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, and Erie. Well, maybe it should be HOMESS, with the extra S standing for Sewage, because each year something on the order of 10 billion gallons of sewage gets dumped into just lake Erie and its basin each year alone. Yah, you read that correctly. It’s a big problem all across the US, wherever lakes, streams and coastlines exist. And, as the US population increases, so will the amount of merde flowing through our sewer pipes. Our infrastructure in this country is old, old, old and it isn’t up to the strains of our increasing population. We need to get our act together, before the shit really hits the fan. Let’s put some of our tax dollars into improving our sewage-handling facilities. Meanwhile, I’d think twice about taking the family to a natural swimming spot.

Here is a great story about what can be done with a little interest, effort and optimism. A young man, 16-year old Daniel Burd from Waterloo, Canada, has invented a process to break down plastic bags. The method he refined might be used industrially to prevent the bags from going to landfills and ending up in our waterways and oceans. Here’s to you, Daniel Burd. His is an example where even an individual can make valuable contributions to humanity and motivate people to do the right thing.

• Teenager Environmentalist-Scientist

Tomorrow will be a big, big day for NASA and the Mars Phoenix Lander, which will end its 7 month journey to the red planet on Sunday. This lander will touch down near the North Pole of Mars, on water-ice, and its mission is to search for active processes resulting from living organisms residing in the water ice.

• Mars and 7 Minutes of Terror

Ok, a positive blog post for once. Yay! It seems that, after hunting humpback whales to the brink of extinction, their numbers are making a comeback. See, it just goes to show that when humans make an honest effort, they can save species from being eradicated by our wasteful ways. Of course, slavering commercial types will immediately want to start harvesting them and delisting them from protected status, but we must remember that ocean habitats and ecosystems are on the brink of collapse. That means that we we may need many whales around in case true ecosystem collapse happens, taking away or greatly reducing the food that whales need to eat to survive. If that happens, many may die. So, an abundance may be a valid insurance policy for whale survival.

The title is taken from the included link, written by Jennifer Lance for Red, Green and Blue, a website dedicated to environmental politics. Does the title sound inflammatory to you? Well, you should take into account that the writer’s family is supported by commercial fishing, including dungeness crab and king salmon. The short article is about the collapse of the salmon fisheries on the west coast. It is serious, and it effects many people across the population, from those who profit by it commercially, either through direct fishing, or through the tourism industry, or those who simply like to eat salmon. This is a concern that is serious for everyone, but, will we as humans ever be able to get it together to stop our wholesale abuse of the environment, and return to sustainable fishing and agriculture, land and water use? We are supposed to have the most sophisticated brains on the planet, too bad we don’t use them for good, but run things to ruin for profit. Also, though I have been tracking the Bush administration’s neglect and abuse of the environment, this problem has been going on for a long while, and transcends political parties. It is a human problem.