Green Diary

At last we have some good news for the fast vanishing sea-dwellers. It’s just like a sudden twist of fate for the little creatures- while many countries are fighting for a long time to increase their fishing-quota, US President George W. Bush has proposed for the Largest Marine Sanctuary. The plan is likely to grant national-monument status to Pacific island regions that together are larger than Alaska and Texas combined. If it is implemented in reality, then it would be the largest protected marine reserve on this earth.

Thanks to new technology hooks, accidentally trapped turtles by fishing hooks can finally return to seas unscathed! This is indeed a good news for all wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists. Turtles are becoming endangered species all over the world and extensive fishing has been a threat to their survival. Often turtles end up as bycatch and standard ‘J’ fishing hooks prove fatal. New technology ‘O’ hooks will not put turtle population in danger and will not affect extensive fishing either.

According to a recent report by WWF and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), a small change from classic J hook to circular hooks and adequate training to release accidentally hooked turtles back to ocean can dramatically reduce the numbers of marine turtles affected by fishing. This could be best sustainable fishing practice in coming years.

Drought has been one of the primary concerns of cultivators and has resulted in severe famines over the ages. That is why the recent development of drought resistant variety of corn has raised hopes for many of them. The detailed report can be seen here.

The researchers at AgriLife Research, which is a part of the Texas A&M University System, have developed a hybrid variety of corn which can perform better in under irrigated areas. The good thing is that it is created by hybridization of two varieties and it doesn’t involve any genetic engineering. So all those GM food bashers can now relax.

India is proving to be an irresistible hot hub for most entrepreneurs and corporate firms as it has both the cheap man power to deliver products and a very large and growing market whose buying power seems to be generally on the rise. This implies that Indians today are willing to spend a lot more when they go out to shop or are willing to pay that extra buck for better facilities and that is good news for investors who wish to spread their own product. Despite the growth, India’s expansion and interest in the field of renewable energy has not been something that befits an economy that is gaining so rapidly in every other sector.

Oceans have always been a major source of food for people from ancient times. The large-scale fisheries and exploitation of sea life by fishing companies has lead to drastic reduction in the population of many fish. One of the reasons for this appalling situation could be globalization. Shocking as it may seem, 25% of the world’s known fish species are on the brink of extinction thanks to over fishing. Tuna and cod are facing survival threats and unfortunately nobody seems to be interested in taking the responsibility. Nobody is able to predict the consequences of a damaged oceanic ecological system either.

On a not so fine day, if the government storms down on you and begins to throw you out of your job, grab your land and bring down your house for no apparent reason, you will feel outraged. Won’t you? This is what is happening to the 370 million indigenous peoples spread across the globe. Like some bizarre beasts hunted by the knights in the past, these traditional societies are being driven to extinction by their own brothers who call themselves civilized. World over, animal activists and environmentalists are worried that many species of animals that have ornamented this earth for centuries are now fast dying a silent death. These virtuous people have been voicing their concerns about the drastic effect of this rapid loss on the whole of humanity.

Species of tiny marine and estuarine animals like the mussels have invaded sources of drinking water in California. Japanese crabs in large numbers have invaded Long Island Sound, which is more than 6,000 miles from their native habitat in Japan. The efforts at preventing the invasion of these species are badly delayed, and are aggravated by the slow pace at which the Congress is moving to introduce measures that will help contain the problem.

The source of the problematic invasive species has been identified as the ships that ply between foreign countries and the USA. The tiny animals get attached to the sides of the vessels and hitch a ride to the shores of the United States. The ballast water taken in by ships to maintain balance when they return empty from foreign ports serve as pools for hundreds of foreign species that range from fish, weeds, mussels, crabs and microscopic bacteria. The water filled in near Japan and emptied on the US coast introduces the new species to the environment and cause the crisis.

Inspite of all recent pollution control measures, the Beijing skyline is still hazy and the smog refuses to lift. With foreign journalists pouring in and opening of Olympic Games just round the corner, Chinese government is gearing up to impose more strict measures even during the Games. The measures which will be invoked only in ‘extremely unfavourable weather conditions’ were posted on the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection Website on Thursday.

A recent report says that a large ice shelf about 155 square miles has broken away from the Ward Hunt area in Canada. These far off events seem like only tabloid print in newspapers, designed to catch the eye of the reader and increase the popularity of the agency. We feel the same when there are reports of earthquakes and tsunamis in distant countries. But the problem with this bit of news is that it concerns all of us. It is not that nature or the world or our mother earth has come to harm. It is you, me and our kith and kin that suffer from this event.

The breaking of this white mass that has stood against time unwavering for 3000 years should be enough of a proof to suggest the possibility of a catastrophe. Even at the cost of repetition, I want to write about this ice breaking and its global effects,. The phenomenon of global warming is the cause of this event.

Climate change is a hot topic for media. With each new findings and experts opinions varying on the subject, it becomes difficult for media to put the issue in proper perspective. Often media has to face backlash for misinforming public.

Large number of scientists all over the world are engaged in research related climate change. Their research findings are published in scientific journals and they are picked up journalists and filed as news reports. The chances of misinterpretation and missing out nuances are high. And discordant findings add more to the confusion.One study may say warming has strengthened hurricanes and other may put forth findings suggesting no such link.

For the past one week Beijing hasn’t seen a clear sunny day. Hazy skies and high pollution levels has put the host city of Olympics 2008 on high alert. Drastic measures are being taken to cut down pollution. Authorities have been forced to restrict vehicular traffic and may even have to shut more factories to reduce cocktail of dust, fumes and haze during Olympic Games.

Normally, in the month of August Beijing reels under sultry heat. So combination of heat, humidity and pollution will pose health risks to athletes. They may even have to reschedule some of the high endurance games.

Can ants really predict earthquakes? If we go by observations and belief of Turkish man Kadir Sutcu they can. Kadir Sutcu is not an expert ant researcher but he claims that by watching behaviour of two ant colonies in his backyard he can predict earthquakes and save lives.

According to Kadir Sutcu, just before an earthquake in early July he observed the ants behaving in a distressed manner and some even started dying 24 hours before the earthquake!! It seems he even sent out warning emails before actual earthquake. If only people took amateurs seriously!

Man’s need for more and more land for agricultural cultivation and residential settlements is a major cause behind the destruction of vast areas of wetlands around the world. The environmental pollution caused by human activities is one of the culprits. In addition, pumping out groundwater for agricultural and industrial purposes has led to a drastic lowering of the level of under ground water table. Around 60 percent of the world’s wetlands have been lost in the past century alone, as lands were cleared to make way for urban expansion and large volumes of water was drained for cultivation.

A dramatic breakthrough has been achieved by British researchers against a lethal form of prostate cancer that is responsible for the death of about 12,000 male patients out of 35,000 that are diagnosed with the disease every year. In upto 80 percent of the cases the trials of a new pill has shown that the tumor shrinks and helps avoid damaging procedures of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The new advance has been hailed as potentially the biggest in the field of prostate cancer and claimed to be capable of saving thousands of lives. The technique could be effective for the treatment of other tumors as well, such as bresat and bowel cancers, it is believed by the scientists.

An unusual number of dead and live penguins, most of them young ones, have been washed ashore on the beaches of Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, more than 3,500 kilometers north of the Strait of Magellan near the southern end of south America. Over 400 dead birds have been spotted by officials in the last two months, and there is concern about more deaths. The causes for such a large number of penguins coming as far north as the Brazilian coast is not yet certain, though it is not unusual for some penguins to be carried northward by strong ocean currents.