In a first of its kind survey of the planet’s largest lakes, NASA has found that the temperatures have been steadily warming over the past 25 years in response to climate change. The researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, reported an average warming rate of 0.45 degrees Celsius (0.81 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, with some lakes warming as much as 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade.

Los Angeles County joins the small but growing ranks of local governments that have banned single-use plastic bags.  After California’s statewide plastic bag ban law (AB 1998) failed to pass this year under pressure from the chemical and plastic bag industries, it is up to cities and counties to take local action to halt the  plastic bag monster.

Los Angeles County supervisors approved a measure on Tuesday that bans plastic bags from being given out at stores.  The measure affects only the unincorporated areas of the county, so does not include the city of Los Angeles, but will apply to over a thousand stores and a million residents.  The measure also requires stores to collect a ten cent fee on paper bags.  For low income customers that receive supplemental food assistance, the new ordinance requires stores to provide paper or reusable bags free of charge.

Genetically modified organism (GMO) proponents constantly proclaim that GMOs will help feed the hungry and solve world hunger. This is one supposed benefit of genetically modified (GM) salmon as well. But a recent report out of Europe, GE Salmon Will Not Feed the World, says otherwise.

Food & Water Watch reports:

GE* Salmon Will Not Feed the World outlines several reasons why this transgenic fish is likely to be more expensive to produce than perceived, as well as problematic for the environment, fishing communities and consumers. The report was released a day after Scottish MP Rob Gibson motioned to petition the Scottish Government to monitor the FDA’s approval process, noting that escapees are likely to occur through time and could easily reach the shores of Scotland, “altering forever the genetic integrity of wild Atlantic salmon and of quality Scottish farmed salmon.”

When the FDA held hearings on AquaBounty’s AquAdvantage GMO salmon earlier this year, they neglected to include a statement by other federal agencies indicating that raising the GMO salmon in open-ocean pens would violate the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Will commercialization mean sunset for the Great Lakes?

Willie Sutton famously said when asked why he robbed banks, “Because that’s where the money is.”  Why would anyone want to rob the Great Lakes?  Because that’s where the water is.

Almost 20% of the world’s surface freshwater (6 quadrillion gallons) is in the Great Lakes.  Talk of tapping that water reaches back decades, and includes proposals to use Lake Superior water in a coal slurry pipeline reaching to Wyoming and a massive pipe dream of pumping Lake Michigan water to slake the thirst of America’s fast-growing, arid Southwest.

We are all familiar with the fact that as our world warms, ice in the North and South melt and cause sea levels to rise. But there is another major factor causing sea level rise as well — water mining.

What is Water Mining?

Water mining is the pumping of large amounts of water from non-replenishing groundwater (also called fossil water) to the surface for human use. This is mostly done for crop irrigation. In recent years, we have been doing a ton more water mining than in the past and at clearly unsustainable rates. The rates at which we are pumping up this fossil water has more than doubled in recent decades.

It is the Chinese Year of the Tiger and also the International Year of Biodiversity.  So it seems more than fitting that this year will also see the first Tiger Summit, scheduled for this coming November, to be hosted by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, prime minister of the summit’s host nation.

The summit marks the culmination of efforts by the Global Tiger Initiative GTI), begun in 2008*, to address and mitigate the severe declines in tiger  populations world wide. Leaders of 13 tiger range states and their supporting donors, NGOs and conservation groups will be asked to commit to “substantive measures” to prevent the extinction of the world’s last, wild tiger populations.

What seems to be a serene country road is actually a massive Gulf fish kill.  Fish kills are common along the Gulf of Mexico, where dead zones pop up almost every year – but these fish kills have typically been limited to a single species of fish.  What you see above, however, is a broad die-off of dozens of species, including – if a local Louisiana news station is correct – a whale.

This is the surface of a Louisiana waterway, covered with hundreds of thousands of dead fish, crabs, eels and stingrays… even a dead whale.  The scope of this huge dead zone in the gulf is raising alarms with Louisiana governmental officials like Billy Nungesser, who distributed the photos above to local media this morning.

In a long overdue measure, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that it has asked drilling companies for information on the 200-plus chemicals routinely pumped into the ground during a natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. Also known as fracking, the practice has touched off a firestorm of concern over groundwater contamination in Pennsylvania and other states.

The operative word here is “ask,” because compliance with the request is voluntary. However, considered the decades-long immunity that drilling companies have enjoyed from scrutiny – and EPA’s aggressive rediscovery of its intended mission under the Obama administration – this “voluntary” request could soon turn into an enforceable demand.

Black beans are good for you health in many ways. One important thing they do is help build bones. Here is a little more info on that and a good black bean recipe.
Black beans, as with other dark foods, contain minerals important for our blood, such as iron. Chromium is also said to be rich in dark foods. And we all know legumes have a good amount of protein in them. As a result of these factors, one can get most of the nutrients one needs to grow strong bones and teeth from black beans (as well as some other dark beans). This is especially important for children, of course.

I imagine this is one reason why one of our Facebook fans recently suggested black bean soup as a good mid-week dinner.

The average American uses 2000 gallons of water each day. What’s surprising is how much of that is hidden in our lifestyle.

Only 5% of that 2000 gallons is actually used as water in the home – drinking, washing dishes, bathing, watering the yard and garden, and other things. The rest is embedded in the things we do, the food we eat, and goods we buy.

National Geographic has put together a water footprint calculator that can help each of us understand where we use the most water and how we can cut back. Through a series of questions, like how many loads of laundry do you do each week, how long are your showers, and what sort of plants grow in your yard, the calculator determines how much water you use.

The Gulf has had a rough few years: monstrous hurricanes, then floods, now oil spills.  It’s no wonder that the government and industry are trying to bolster consumer confidence in Gulf seafood.  But is it too soon?

Obama doesn’t think so.  He plans to serve Gulf seafood at his birthday bash.  Neither does BP big-wig, Doug Suttles.  He says he’d eat it himself and serve it to his family.

However, some fishermen think it’s too soon.  If you ask me, this all sounds like a bunch of PR, and I’m with the fisherman…at least until there is time to do some proper science.