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Tuesday, 8 July 2008
1. Smoke is normal - for 1800s
Sacramento Bee
July 8, 2008
...Analysis of tree rings and oral histories of American Indians and Euro-American surveyors suggests that the cobalt blue skies typifying the Sierra today were more the exception up through the 19th century....
"Fire suppression became its reason for being," Yosemite-based U.S. Geological Survey scientist Jan W. van Wagentdonk wrote of the Forest Service in an article last year for the journal Fire Ecology.
"It was the only policy for all federal land managers until the late 1960s when (National Park Service) officials recognized fire as a natural process."
The amount of land burned in today's far more urbanized and farmed California pales against the acreage consumed historically, before Euro-American settlements, according to UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCHERS.
The scientists estimated that an average 4.4 million acres burned annually in California before 1800, compared with an average 250,000 acres a year in the last five decades, 1950 through 2000....
To calculate the extent of historic wildfires, scientists led by UC BERKELEY'S SCOTT STEPHENS calculated the extent of pre-1800 fires from published data on fire rotation - the length of time necessary to burn an area.... Full Story
2. Wild refuges pay price for protection
Study: National parks in developing nations are attracting the human encroachment and the conflict they were meant to be shielded from
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
July 4, 2008
The execution-style killing last year of a gorilla family in Congo may portend future conflicts as humans encroach on resource-rich national parks in developing countries, according to authors of a new study.
The report, published Friday in the journal Science, surveyed strips of land surrounding protected areas and found that people are moving closer to such parks to take advantage of the economic development that often stems from conservation initiatives.
Yet those settlers also threaten the protected areas by unlawfully cutting down trees, growing crops, and hunting endangered animals within park boundaries....
In areas like sub-Saharan Africa, "Parks are some of the last uncultivated wilderness areas where you're not on someone else's land," said JUSTIN BRASHARES, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, POLICY, AND MANAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY, and one of the study's two lead authors.
[A story on this topic also appeared in Science by subscription only]
3. Lawmakers call for probe of chemical plant
San Francisco Chronicle
July 8, 2008
Three California lawmakers called Monday for an investigation of a Mojave Desert chemical plant after a Chronicle series about a woman who has battled for a decade to convince regulators that toxic substances at the plant have harmed workers....
Some of the experts interviewed see the Smiths' story as evidence of a broader problem.
"The Smiths are a keyhole into this enormous roomful of weaknesses and failures in the laws and policies that protect workers in the United States," said MICHAEL WILSON, A RESEARCH SCIENTIST AT THE UC BERKELEY CENTER FOR OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH. Wilson was the lead author on a recent University of California report, signed by 127 UC faculty members, which called on California to embrace a "green chemistry" approach promoting the design, production and use of chemicals and products that are safer for humans and the environment.
Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's environmental protection secretary, Linda Adams, pledged to push a "Green Chemistry Initiative."... Full Story
4. Outdoor buffs must exercise caution on smoggy days
Poor air quality can trip up even the healthiest person. Pay attention to daily reports and your body's reactions.
Los Angeles Times
July 7, 2008
SMOG, shmog. Exercising outdoors is a way of life in Southern California, and die-hard runners, walkers, cyclists and skaters aren't going to let a brown layer of air stop them.
But maybe they should. The Southland is heading into its roughest air quality season, when heat, sun, air pollution and smoke from wildfires can cause lung irritation and shortness of breath in even healthy people. Northern California is in the throes of several wildfires that are sending plumes of smoke into the atmosphere, and Southern California has already racked up a few fires, with more likely....
"I think the public needs a little better education about the seriousness of the potential effects," says DR. JOHN BALMES, PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES AT UC BERKELEY'S SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH and a spokesman for the American Lung Assn. of California.... Full Story
5. Volunteers and Local Federal Agencies Eradicate Non-Native Algae
Oakland Tribune
July 7, 2008
It's brittle, slimy, green and invading Alameda's Bay Farm Island shoreline. It's not "Swamp Thing," but it's not supposed to be in Bay's water. It's the non-native alga known as Ascophyllum nodosum.
"It's just nasty," said Betsy Wells, a UC Davis graduate student studying Predation Dynamics of Invasive Invertebrates in the San Francisco Bay.
Monday morning, Wells along with 10 volunteers -- federal, state and university employees -- helped gather the alien alga on the Bay Farm Island next to the Bay Farm Island Bridge....
PAUL SILVA, A RESEARCH BOTANIST EMERITUS AT UC BERKELEY, said the alga has not been noted as a harmful or invasive species, but an introduced species. The difference is that a harmful or invasive species would grow quickly and take up resources necessary for other species and an introduced species would simply be a non-native species.
"I think there is just a general feeling that we need to preserve what we have," Silva said.... Full Story
6. Fourth protester occupies a tree at UC Berkeley
Contra Costa Times
July 7, 2008
Berkeley — A fourth protester was occupying a tree Monday in an oak grove where three remaining tree sitters were living near UC BERKELEY'S MEMORIAL STADIUM.
UNIVERSITY SPOKESMAN DAN MOGULOF said the man — who has not been identified — climbed into the tree late Sunday afternoon. He told university officials that he is "not part of the other group," Mogulof said.
Save the Oaks at the Stadium spokesman Doug Buckwald said the man, who goes by Jeff and is in his 30s, is outside the first chain link fence erected to keep protesters out, but inside the second fence. The university erected two fences last year to control protesters at the site. …
Mogulof said the new protester won't likely be there long. He may not have many supplies and is isolated from the others, he said.... Full Story
7. Is Solar Power Really Practical?
Harnessing The Sun's Energy Is Becoming More Popular - But Experts Question Its High Cost
CBS News
July 7, 2008
...Known for fun in the sun, California more than all the other states combined, is now putting the sun to work.
“This is going to become a launching pad,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger recently announced the most ambitious program - Southern California Edison, the region's largest utility, installing solar cells on 65 million square feet of commercial rooftops over the next five years. “When it’s complete, it will produce enough power for 162,000 homes,” he said.
Much of this sun worship is pie in the sky, say critics like U.C. BERKELEY'S SEVERIN BORENSTEIN.
“Solar energy is definitely not the magic bullet for high energy costs,” said Borenstein. “Right now, solar photo voltaic power is very, very expensive compared not just to fossil fuels, but compared to the other renewable sources that are out there."...
Rising demand for solar technology should bring prices down eventually, but for now it helps to have green in your heart and in your pocket. Full Story
8. Skepticism on McCain Plan to Balance Budget by 2013
New York Times (*requires registration)
July 8, 2008
Washington — The package of spending and tax cuts proposed by Senator John McCain is unlikely to achieve his goal of balancing the federal budget by 2013, economists and fiscal experts said Monday.
“It would be very difficult to achieve in the best of circumstances, and even more difficult under the policies that Senator McCain has proposed,” said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group....
J. BRADFORD DELONG, A PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, who worked at the Treasury under President Bill Clinton, said, “Senator McCain and his advisers want to claim they will balance the budget by 2013, but they have given us no clue and no plan to meet all the commitments he has made and still get there.”... Full Story
9. Animal rights protesters torment scientists
Contra Costa Times
July 8, 2008
Berkeley,—In the hills above the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA'S BERKELEY CAMPUS, nine protesters gathered in front of the home of a TOXICOLOGY PROFESSOR, their faces covered with scarves and hoods despite the warm spring weather.
One scrawled "killer" in chalk on the scientist's doorstep, while another hurled insults through a bullhorn and announced, "Your neighbor kills animals!" Someone shattered a window.
Borrowing the kind of tactics used by anti-abortion demonstrators, animal rights activists are increasingly taking their rage straight to scientists' front doors....
Scientists say the vandalism and intimidation threaten not just themselves and their families but the future of medical research. Specialists in such fields as addiction, eyesight and the aging brain have been targeted....
Activists say the escalation in tactics results from a frustration that nonviolent methods have failed to stop what they call the needless torture and killing of animals.
"An animal has as much of a right to life as we do. To take a life without provocation is immoral, it's violent, there's no excuse for it," said Jacob Black, 23, an organizer of demonstrations at the homes of UC BERKELEY RESEARCHERS. "To name and shame these people as morally bankrupt individuals in our society is key."...
Though no one has been seriously hurt since the jump in home protests, the attacks have drawn the attention of the FBI. The agency has broad authority to investigate animal rights incidents under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006. Full Story
10. Toyota reportedly to put solar panels on Prius
San Francisco Chronicle
July 8, 2008
Solar power on a Prius? It sounds like a match made in eco-heaven.
Toyota Motor Corp. plans to stick solar panels on some models of its popular Prius hybrid car, according to news reports Monday. The panels, made by Kyocera, would help power the air conditioner.
Details are sketchy. The Nikkei financial newspaper of Japan and the Reuters international news service reported the story, but both relied on unidentified sources. Toyota refused to confirm or deny the reports, saying the company doesn't talk about future product plans....
But some alternative energy experts find the idea intriguing. Today's solar panels can't provide nearly enough power to run a passenger car by themselves, and they could significantly inflate a car's cost. But they could also make a car more efficient....
The idea of using the sun to power a car isn't new. But it has rarely left the experimental stage.
UC BERKELEY, for example, has a student team that has designed and built an all-solar car called the Sol Calibear, covered in more than 400 solar cells. The team plans to enter it in upcoming races against other solar cars built by other universities.... Full Story
11. Jim Campbell at the Berkeley Art Museum
Arts Journal
July 7, 2008
About 30 minutes after seeing Jim Campbell's Home Movies 1248-1 at the BERKELEY ART MUSEUM, I couldn't remember what the heck the piece was about. I remembered the extravagant, near-floor to near-ceiling strings of wall-facing LED lights that make up the physical part of the piece. I remembered that Home Movies existed of shadowy objects, figures and shapes that I could make out on the wall. But I couldn't remember a single image or sequence of images. Considering that Campbell's work is substantially about memory, about what we remember and what we don't, about how we remember and how we don't, that seemed just about right.
BAM recently acquired Home Movies 1248-1. It's on view through Aug. 3. Also on exhibit is Campbell's 2000 Triptych (Fire/Freeway/Walk), another LED-driven piece that challenges the viewer to find subject matter in a reflected digital stream of light.... Full Story