Echo

Two Great Lakes states take action on animal ethics

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The New York Times recently reported that Ohio farmers have reached an agreement with the Humane Society of the United States to ban the construction of egg farms that pack birds into cages and to phase out tight caging of pregnant sows within 15 years and of veal calves by 2017. Farmers said the agreement was made because of increased consumer preference for more natural products. The Dispatch story focuses on egg production. Ohio is the second largest egg producer in the United States. This is a celebrated and somewhat monumental agreement, considering the battle between large-scale farms and animal rights activists has lasted for decades both in the region and across the U.S.

But Ohio is not the only place where controversy exists over the confinement of livestock.

Echo

Groundhog Wars

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Our landlord warned us that a beefy groundhog lived underneath the shed in the backyard. But we started our very first garden anyway. We cleared a patch of land and started everything from sweat and seeds: pumpkins, basil, tomatoes, carrots and sunflowers. And surprisingly everything grew, sucking up sun rays and spitting out chlorophyll, until the possibility of homegrown veggies was nearly a reality. Then the groundhog crawled out from his cave.

Echo

Satellite watch: A rare cloudless day over all five Great Lakes

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NOAA’s Great Lakes CoastWatch website is updated daily with satellite images of the lakes. It’s a great site, but unfortunately the images are often simple pictures of the tops of clouds floating over the region. But, as a post on NASA’s Earth Observatory site points out, the sky opened up in late August and gave the agency’s Aqua satellite caught a clear, cloudless glimpse of the Great Lakes region. Click the image above for an absurdly large version of the file.

Echo

Kirtland’s Warbler update

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In May Echo reported that the rare Kirtland’s Warbler population had increased for a seventh consecutive year in 2009.

But the unofficial 2010 census count shows that the population decreased to 1,758 males. Last year the count was 1,826.

Echo

The ethics of catch and release

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In a section of the New York Times called “Room for Debate,” I recently found a discussion about the fishing practice “catch and release.” The online section invites different experts to debate current events and topics. This particular one was prompted by the headline “Catching but Not Releasing” and followed by the questions “Do fish feel pain?’ and “Should invasive species be thrown on the grill?”

I suppose after writing about Great Lakes issues for the past year, my eye is trained to read and look for stories about invasive species. However, it was really the number of reader comments under each of the expert contributors pieces that spiked my interest. Part of the debate centers upon whether or not the long established conservation measure of catching and releasing actually harms the fish and leaves them with lower survival rates. The other half inquires whether anglers should release invasive species, in particular, back into the wild.

Echo

Researchers use planes, lasers to survey Lake Superior

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Planes outfitted with lasers have been probing the depths of Lake Superior for the past two months. Their mission? Measure lake bottom elevations along the coast using a laser surveying technique called LIDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging. The process is similar to how bats and dolphins use sound waves to judge distances. The planes shoot lasers into the water and measure how long it takes for the pulses to hit lake bottom and return; time indicates water depth.

Echo

A non-position position on “climate chaos”

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Mike Nichols doesn’t take a position on global climate change. He just writes newspaper editorials downplaying its effects. Nichols, a senior fellow with the free-market think tank Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, took exception in a recent column to the term “climate chaos,” which has gotten a lot of media play as floods drown Pakistan and a heat wave bakes Russia. In a recent article in the New York Times, reporter Justin Gillis describes the connection between chaotic weather and greenhouse gasses:
“Theory suggests that a world warming up because of those gases will feature heavier rainstorms in summer, bigger snowstorms in winter, more intense droughts in at least some places and more record-breaking heat waves. Scientists and government reports say the statistical evidence shows that much of this is starting to happen.”

Echo

Kalamazoo River spill: How much oil is 800,000 gallons?

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Amid the media frenzy following the 800,000-gallon oil spill in the Kalamazoo River, some confusion is brewing over how much oil that is. Specifically, just how deep it would bury a football field. Reporter Tim Martin tried to contextualize the big spill this way Wednesday in an Associated Press article:
“An 800,000 gallon spill would be enough to fill 1-gallon jugs lined side by side for nearly 70 miles. It also could fill a wall-in football field including the end zones with a 14-foot-high pool of oil.” News outlets from Indiana to Los Angeles ran the AP article, and gossip blog Gawker plucked out that quote in particular.

Echo

Michigan Now on the Kalamazoo River oil spill

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Listen to the story… The oil spill in the Kalamazoo River is entering its third day. It started when a transcontinental pipeline ruptured near the town of Marshall. Governor Granholm was on site yesterday. And President Obama has pledged support.

Echo

Carp bomb: Carp v. cooperation

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Recently, five Great Lakes states sued the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and the U.S. Corps of Engineers over the Asian carp issue. But, shortly after that, a group of Great Lakes leaders – including Chicago Mayor Richard Daley – announced a plan to collaborate on a $2 million study to determine the best way to keep invasive species from moving between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basins. It’s a scientific fact that nothing angers up the blood of Asian carp more than interstate cooperation. So it’s no surprise that the announcement has rekindled the carps’ previously documented (see here and here) hunger for human children:

Thanks to flickr user gbensinger for the contribution. Here’s the place to check out past carp bombs and learn how to get in on the fun.