http://tracyleesmith.com/blog Once more unto the breach... Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:45:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/06/05/update-colony-collapse-disorder/ 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.  ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/06/05/right-whale-wrong-adminstration/ 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 ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/06/03/lepidopterists-to-the-rescue/ 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 ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/05/24/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, ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/05/24/the-geothermal-wedge/ 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 ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/05/24/land-of-lakes-and-sewage/ 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 ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/05/24/young-scientist-tackles-plastic-bag-pollution/ 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 ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/05/24/seven-minutes-of-terror-on-mars/ 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 ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/05/24/hooray-for-humpbacks/ 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 ... http://tracyleesmith.com/blog/2008/05/24/bush-lies-salmon-die/