April 2007:

Shhhhh! There are Birds Trying to Sing Here

Songbirds, fed up trying to compete with the noise of urban life, have taken to singing at night, according to researchers at the University of Sheffield. While country nights are filled with the sounds of crickets, frogs and the occasional owl, it’s “Avian Idol” once the sun goes down in the city, with songbirds tweeting in full competitive glory deep into the wee hours. Although the phenomenon has long been noted, it was thought that light pollution was to blame. Not so, say researchers who tested the effects of nocturnal light and daytime noise on urban robins. Light pollution contributes, but it’s noise that’s driven these lovesick birds to perform after hours. Which means, among other things, that the early bird catching the worm is really a bird that just stayed up late.

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February 2007:

CO2 emissions: Ethanol versus Gasoline

According to Argonne National Lab calculations, burning one gallon of gas generates 19.6 pounds of CO2, and one gallon of ethanol generates 12.6 pounds. Since it takes a gallon and a half of ethanol to produce the same amount of energy as a gallon of gas (gallon for gallon, ethanol produces only 2/3’s as much energy as gas), the emission totals are much closer: Per “energy equivalent of one gallon of gas,” gasoline generates 19.6 pounds of CO2, while ethanol generates 18.9 pounds, a difference of about 4%.

To slow climate change emissions will need to be reduced at least 50%.

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January 2007:

Dead Zones

There are at least 200 oxygen-depleted “dead zones” in the world’s oceans. Dead zones happen when run-off full of nutrients from farm fertilizers and car exhaust nitrous oxides trigger massive algal blooms. When the algae die, it’s a feast for bacteria that then use up the water’s oxygen. The largest dead zone is about the size of Pennsylvania: 46,000 square miles in the Baltic. In the United States, the most famous dead zones are in the Chesapeake Bay and in the Gulf of Mexico near the Mississippi Delta.

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Car “Baby Boom”

There are an estimated 250 million cars in the U.S., making them the most abundant non-insect, non-rodent “species” in North America after Man. By mass and weight, Man comes in a distant second. Globally, the total car population is at least triple. Include trucks and the total likely exceeds one billion.