Everyday Thinking

Blue whales heard off the coast of New York

For the very first time in New York coastal waters, the voices of singing blue whales have been  positively identified. Acoustic experts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bioacoustics Research Program (BRP) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirmed that the voice of a singing blue whale was tracked about 70 miles off of Long Island and New York City on Jan. 10-11, 2009, as the whale swam slowly from east to west. At the same time, a second blue whale was heard singing offshore in the far distance.

“These endangered blue whales are the largest animals ever to have lived on this planet, and their voices can travel across an ocean. It’s just amazing to hear one singing out there on New York’s ocean stage only tens of miles from Carnegie Hall and Broadway!” said Christopher Clark, director of Cornell’s BRP. “This opens a whole new universe of opportunities for all of us to learn more about and appreciate these species and the vitality of New York’s marine environment.”

New York State’s DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis added, “This is a very important moment in the environmental history of New York State. Blue whales were almost hunted to extinction by the middle of the 20th Century, and the fact that now we're finding them migrating not far off our shores is truly remarkable. Although whaling no longer occurs in U.S. waters, whales still face numerous threats including vessel strikes and marine debris, and this latest finding will enable DEC and its partners to develop science-based management plans to protect these magnificent creatures.”

During 2008-2009, ten of Cornell’s acoustic recorders were deployed about 13 miles from the New York Harbor entrance and off the shores of Fire Island to study the acoustic environment of New York waters and examine whether noises, including shipping traffic, are affecting the whales. By knowing the whales’ seasonal presence, New York state policymakers can make critical conservation decisions to help protect blue whales by developing management plans to avoid ship collisions with whales and reduce noises that interfere with their communications.

The acoustic monitoring was initiated from March through mid-May of 2008 to record the northward migration of right whales from their calving grounds off the Florida eastern coast to their feeding grounds off Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The study had been temporarily halted due to state funding revisions, however, it is expected to start up again pending approval of the next New York state budget. Cornell scientists are able to monitor and provide specific data on the species that are detected, including when and where they occur in New York waters throughout the year.

For more information on the discovery of NY blue whales, related video files and Cornell’s Bioacoustics Program, visit <www.birds.cornell.edu/BRP>.

Video depicting one scientist work in understanding the meaning of the song of the blue whale:

And another video from the BBC's Blue Planet series:

Milky Way-rise...

Some dinosaurs may have survived the initial die-off

The great splat of an asteroid that might have wiped out the dinosaurs apparently didn't get all of them. New fossil evidence suggests some dinosaurs survived for up to half a million years after the impact in remote parts of New Mexico and Colorado.

The whole idea that a space rock destroyed the dinosaurs has become controversial in recent years. Many scientists now suspect other factors were involved, from increased volcanic activity to a changing climate. Either way, some 70 percent of life on Earth perished, and an asteroid impact almost surely played a role.

Scientists recently analyzed dinosaur bones found in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone in the San Juan Basin. Based on detailed chemical investigations of the bones, and evidence for the age of the rocks in which they are found, the researchers think some dinosaurs outlived the crash that occurred 65 million years ago and stuck around for a while.

"This is a controversial conclusion, and many paleontologists will remain skeptical," said David Polly, one of the editors of the journal Palaeontologia Electronica, in which the research was published April 28th.

Read the full article here.

Cornell to host summer workshops for science teachers

The Cornell University Institute of Biology Teachers (CIBT) will host two summer workshops for science teachers, which will provide hands-on labs and field experience for Cornell faculty. The workshops – all with free tuition and room -- will be held on the Cornell campus in Ithaca.

Teachers who complete these workshops will receive access to CIBT’s extensive lending library, where they can borrow equipment and materials necessary to perform expensive labs in their classrooms.

 Middle School Teacher workshop: July 6 - 9, 2009

The teachers will learn about immunology, ecology, genetics, reproduction, Earth science, botany, math, cell biology, and the scientific method. Workshop includes a field trip to Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology.

Molecular Biology High School Teacher Workshop: July 12-24, 2009

Teachers will participate in authentic genetic research through the Wolbachia project, by studying the genus of bacteria that infect arthropods. The workshop includes lectures by Cornell faculty and visits to research labs. Teachers will participate in a DNA electrophoresis lab to solve a paternity case, using the lab to establish evolutionary relationships among organisms. Also, they will receive experience in immunology, ecology, reproduction and statistics.

Click here for more information and to apply online. Teachers with questions may email Florianna Blanton  or call (607) 254-4400.

A little diversion...

If you've ever wanted to get a glimpse into the life of a loon (the bird, not your weird relative), then check out this webcam of a loon nest in Minnesota. There's no loon in sight as I'm watching it, but it makes for a nice diversion.

And speaking of other birding and animal webcams, here are some more that might grab your eye:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Nestcams - currently showing barn owls, carolina wrens, eastern phoebes, northern cardinals, eastern bluebirds, barred owls and wood ducks

Buffalo Audubon Society's FalconCam - two camera views of a peregrine falcon nest on the Statler Towers in Buffalo

The National Zoo's Animal Cams - includes webcams for the Asian small-clawed otter, cheetah, clouded leopard, black-footed ferrets fishing cats, gharial, golden lion tamarin, gorilla and more

National Geographic's WildCams - live-streaming remote video of animals in their wild habitats

Listen Again: The Families of 'Earth'

   Film directors Alastar Fothergill and Mark Linfied follow the movement of polar bears, elephants and humpback whales in their new film, Earth. Shot at 200 different locations in 64 different countries, Earth covers a vast terrain that ranges from the tops of mountains to the bottom of the ocean. The film was five years in the making.

Fothergill and Linfield also directed the BBC series Earth and the Discovery Channel series Planet Earth. The duo says that while the television series they directed were "habitat-based," the new film is "character-based."

Click here to the interview originally broadcast on Fresh Air.

Watch the trailer here.

The hunt for remains of an ancient planet near Earth

by Dr. Tony Phillips, Science@NASA

NASA's twin STEREO probes are entering a mysterious region of space to look for remains of an ancient planet which once orbited the Sun not far from Earth. If they find anything, it could solve a major puzzle - the origin of the Moon.

"The name of the planet is Theia," says Mike Kaiser, STEREO project scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "It's a hypothetical world. We've never actually seen it, but some researchers believe it existed 4.5 billion years ago—and that it collided with Earth to form the Moon."

 The "Theia hypothesis" is a brainchild of Princeton theorists Edward Belbruno and Richard Gott. It starts with the popular Great Impact theory of the Moon's origin. Many astronomers hold that in the formative years of the solar system, a Mars-sized protoplanet crashed into Earth. Debris from the collision, a mixture of material from both bodies, spun out into Earth orbit and coalesced into the Moon. This scenario explains many aspects of lunar geology including the size of the Moon's core and the density and isotopic composition of moon rocks.

It's a good theory, but it leaves one awkward question unanswered: Where did the enormous protoplanet come from?

Belbruno and Gott believe it came from a Sun-Earth Lagrange point.

Sun-Earth Lagrange points are regions of space where the pull of the Sun and Earth combine to form a "gravitational well." The flotsam of space tends to gather there much as water gathers at the bottom of a well on Earth. 18th-century mathematician Josef Lagrange proved that there are five such wells in the Sun-Earth system: L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5 located as shown in the diagram below.

When the solar system was young, Lagrange points were populated mainly by planetesimals, the asteroid-sized building blocks of planets. Belbruno and Gott suggest that in one of the Lagrange points, L4 or L5, the planetesimals assembled themselves into Theia, nicknamed after the mythological Greek Titan who gave birth to the Moon goddess Selene.

"Their computer models show that Theia could have grown large enough to produce the Moon if it formed in the L4 or L5 regions, where the balance of forces allowed enough material to accumulate," says Kaiser. "Later, Theia would have been nudged out of L4 or L5 by the increasing gravity of other developing planets like Venus and sent on a collision course with Earth."

If this idea is correct, Theia itself is long gone, but some of the ancient planetesimals that failed to join Theia may still be lingering at L4 or L5.

"The STEREO probes are entering these regions of space now," says Kaiser. "This puts us in a good position to search for Theia's asteroid-sized leftovers."

Just call them "Theiasteroids."

Astronomers have looked for Theiasteroids before using telescopes on Earth, and found nothing, but their results only rule out kilometer-sized objects. By actually entering L4 and L5, STEREO will be able to hunt for much smaller bodies at relatively close range.

"The search actually began last month when both spacecraft rolled 180 degrees so that they could take a series of 2-hour exposures of the general L4/L5 areas. In the first sets of images, amateur astronomers found some known asteroids and new comet Itagaki was imaged just a couple of days after the announcement of its discovery. No Theiasteroids however."

Hunting for Theiasteroids is not STEREO's primary mission, he points out. "STEREO is a solar observatory. The two probes are flanking the sun on opposite sides to gain a 3D view of solar activity. We just happen to be passing through the L4 and L5 Lagrange points en route. This is purely bonus science."

"We might not see anything," he continues, "but if we discover lots of asteroids around L4 or L5, it could lead to a mission to analyze the composition of these asteroids in detail. If that mission discovers the asteroids have the same composition as the Earth and Moon, it will support Belbruno and Gott's version of the giant impact theory."

The search will continue for many months to come. Lagrange points are not infinitesimal points in space; they are broad regions 50 million kilometers wide. The STEREO probes are only in the outskirts now. Closest approach to the bottoms of the gravitational wells comes in Sept-Oct. 2009. "We have a lot of observing ahead of us," notes Kaiser.

Readers, you may be able to help. The STEREO team is inviting the public to participate in the search by scrutinizing photos as they come in from the spacecraft. If you see a dot of light moving with respect to the stars, you may have found a Theiasteroid. Links to the data and further instructions may be found at sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil.

Let the hunt begin!

Experimental prostate-cancer drug shows promise

An experimental drug for advanced prostate cancer has shown preliminary success in the first and second phases of clinical trials, shrinking tumors in the lab and reducing signs of the disease in patients with drug-resistant cancer, according to a report published in the April 10 issue of the journal Science.

Prostate cancer, which kills 29,000 men in the U.S. each year, is a tenacious disease in advanced stages. The treatment of cancer that has metastasized beyond the prostate involves drugs that block male hormones, the androgens testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, which feed tumor growth. Antiandrogen drugs, like bicalutamide, work by binding to the androgen receptors on prostate-cancer cells, chemically preventing the hormones from interacting with the tumor. Over time, however, cancer cells become resistant to the drugs as the number of androgen receptors on the cells increases, and in a cruel twist, the drugs somehow begin to stimulate the cancer instead of suppressing it.

Some researchers think the solution is to avoid involving androgen receptors altogether. But Charles Sawyers, a cancer researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), isn't convinced — and he has an alternative. In the new Science paper, co-authored by Sawyers and other researchers at HHMI, the University of California, Los Angeles, and a host of other institutions, data suggest that a new chemical compound may sidestep the problem of resistance. When used to treat mouse tumors that were derived from drug-resistant prostate-cancer cells, the compound led to dramatic shrinkage, which has researchers hoping for a similar effect in humans. "The compounds are working extremely well in our models," says Sawyers. "We think this might be able to deal with the resistance question."

Read the full article here.

Tonight on WSKG-TV: Sea Ghosts

There are places on this planet where it’s a marvel that anything survives. In the cold Arctic waters of the far north, the sea is alive with sound. The canaries of the sea are singing. They're beluga whales, named from the Russian word for “white ones.” They’re an evolutionary surprise — a warm-blooded mammal in a numbingly cold sea. Resembling curious ghosts, these intelligent mammals use one of the most complex sonars of any animal. In this episode of Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Adventures, Jean-Michel Cousteau travels with his team to the high Arctic to determine why some beluga groups are thriving and others are disappearing. There’s a clear connection between human activity and the beluga’s future. The beluga’s world is now ground zero for climate change; what threatens them is not confined to the Arctic — it’s global. What lies ahead for the beluga could become prophecy for many species everywhere, including our own. Wednesday, April 8 at 8 PM on WSKG-TV.

Here's a sneak peak of tonight's episode:

The energy footprint of bottled water

 by Crystal Sarakas                                                                                           

This article from LiveScience examines a new study on how much energy it takes to produce bottled water. While the overall percentage may be small in terms of how much energy the United States consumes, does knowing just how much energy it takes change how you drink water? Have you switched from bottled water to something that uses less plastic? Do you bring water with you from home?

From the article:

Our bottled water habit has a huge environmental impact, including the amount of energy it takes to make the plastic bottles, fill them and ship them to thirsty consumers worldwide.

A new study breaks down just how much energy is used at each step of the process.

An estimated total of the equivalent of 32 million to 54 million barrels of oil was required to generate the energy to produce the amount of bottled water consumed in the United States in 2007, according to the study, detailed in the January-March issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters. Of course, this is but a third of a percent of the energy that the United States consumes as a whole in a year.

In 2007, the last year for which global statistics were available, more than 200 billion liters of bottled water were sold around the world, mostly in North America and Europe. The total amount sold in the United States alone that year (33 billion liters) averages out to about 110 liters (almost 30 gallons) of water per person, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation.

...

The final tally of 32 million to 54 million barrels of oil may be only about a third of a percent of the total U.S. energy consumption, but it could be considered an "unnecessary use of energy," Gleick said. (Roughly three times as much oil would have been needed to produce the global amount of bottled water consumed.)

The amount is 2,000 times more than is required to make tap water, "and we live in a country where we have very good tap water," Gleick said.

Gleick said that the purpose of the study was not to propose that bottled water be banned, but to help consumers "understand the implications of our choices." With the information on the energy impacts, "we may choose to do different things as individuals," he added.

Understanding the energy costs of the process also sheds light on the greenhouse gases that energy use emits. "Energy is sort of the first piece of the puzzle," Gleick said.

 

Earth Hour 2009

Earth Hour is an international event organised by the WWF and held at 8:30 p.m. local time on the last Saturday of March each year, which asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

WSKG TV to broadcast "March of the Penguins"

by Stacey Mosteller

 How exciting! WSKG has obtained the rights to broadcast the Academy Award-winning film, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, narrated by Morgan Freeman. It is a stunning insider's look at the life of the emperor penguin. The product of more than a year of filming in the brutal Antarctic ice, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS presents never-before-captured footage of the penguins' underwater life and explores their steadfast quest for monogamous mates. The film airs Saturday, March 14 at 9 pm on WSKG-HD. Here is a preview for you to enjoy:

A fish with a transparent head

Insect pest threatens local hemlocks

ITHACA, N.Y. — An insect pest newly arrived in the Finger Lakes region—the hemlock woolly adelgid—   was recently discovered in both the Cornell Plantations area of Cascadilla Gorge and the Beebe Lake natural areas, and is threatening hemlock trees and the biodiversity they support. This Asian species has decimated hemlock populations across the eastern United States, where altered habitats—due to the loss of the hemlocks—have caused a cascade of environmental changes for some amphibians, fish, invertebrates and plants in response to warmer temperatures and increased light.

The hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) causes nearly 100 percent mortality in the native eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). The small, aphid-like insects feed on the sap at the base of individual needles on the trees; eventually, needles yellow and drop, branches die and trees succumb in about 4 to 10 years.

Hemlock woolly adelgids were first reported in the central Finger Lakes region in mid-2008, and they now inhabit at least 17 local sites. Early detection of new sites of infestation is now a high priority, and local conservation groups are organizing volunteer surveys as a critical first step in managing this devastating invasive species.

Cornell Plantations, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Cornell Department of Natural Resources, the Finger Lakes Land Trust and the Finger Lakes Native Plant Society are organizing three workshops aimed at training volunteers to identify and report new hemlock woolly adelgid infestations. Each two-hour session will feature a presentation by Mark Whitmore from the Cornell Department of Natural Resources on the adelgid’s biology and the threat it poses to local hemlock forests. Participants will visit Beebe Lake to observe hemlock woolly adelgids firsthand and gain experience in detection and survey protocols. Participants will also have the opportunity to volunteer in the “Adopt-a-Hemlock” program to conduct surveys and report new infestations in local hemlock forests.

The training workshops will be held at Cornell Plantations’ Lewis Education Center, located at One Plantations Road on the Cornell campus, on Friday, March 13, at 1 p.m.; Saturday, March 21, at 10 a.m.; and Monday, March 23, at 3 p.m. Find out how to register for the training workshops, or for more information on the hemlock woolly adelgid here.

In winter and early spring, adult adelgids can be easily observed at the base of individual needles, covering themselves with fluffy white, cottony wax, which remains on the branches long after the adelgids die.

 

EarthTalk: Are hybrid cars really better for the environment?

Dear EarthTalk: If you have an electric or plug-in hybrid car, you’re paying for electricity rather than gasoline all or most of the time. How does that cost compare to a gas-powered car’s cost-per-mile? And since the electricity may be generated from some other polluting source, does it really work out to be better for the environment?   -- Kevin DeMarco, Milford, Connecticut

When you compare battery to gasoline power, electricity wins hands down. A 2007 study by the non-profit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) calculated that powering a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) would cost the equivalent of roughly 75 cents per gallon of gasoline—a price not seen at the pump for 30 years.

The calculation was made using an average cost of electricity of 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour and the estimated distance the car would travel on one charge, versus a car that gets 25 miles per gallon and is powered by $3 per gallon gasoline. Change any of those variables and the relative costs change. For example, substituting a car that gets 50 miles per gallon doubles the comparative electrical cost (though it still works out much cheaper than gasoline). On the other hand, in some areas where wind or hydropower is wasted at night—just when the PHEV would be charging—the utility might drop the kilowatt hour cost to two to three cents, making the charge much less costly.

And don’t worry that we’ll run out of electrical power: A 2005 study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory estimated that three-quarters of the country’s current small vehicle fleet could be charged by our existing electrical grid without building new power plants. (And if all those cars were replaced by PHEVs, it would eliminate the need for 6.5 billion barrels of oil per day, or 52 percent of current U.S. oil imports.)

Regarding environmental impact, charging up your car with electricity from the grid also wins handily over filling up at the gas station. In the most comprehensive PHEV study to date, released in 2007 by EPRI and the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), results predict that all greenhouse gases will be reduced as PHEVs begin to penetrate the car market. Estimated cumulative greenhouse gas reductions from 2010 to 2050, depending upon how fast PHEVs take hold, range from 3.4 to 10.3 billion tons.

More than one half of our national energy grid is powered by coal, and in areas where PHEVs are charged through coal-provided electricity, says NRDC, there is the possibility of increased levels of soot and mercury emissions. However, charging up can be much less of a guilt-ridden affair where cleaner electrical sources like wind and solar are available. The website HybridCars.com points out that as more power plants are required to develop green power and emit fewer greenhouse gases, the environmental and health benefits will further increase.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it online , or by e-mail. You can read past columns on our archives.

Cornell initiative transforms 'biotrash' into 'bioenergy'

by Lauren Chambliss, for the Cornell Chronicle

In a new campus initiative, vegetable oil from deep fryers in campus dining halls, animal bedding, farm waste and other sources of "biotrash" will be transformed into fuels for use on campus.

The Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (CUAES) has launched the Cornell University Renewable Bioenergy Initiative (CURBI), an ambitious plan to use 57 campus waste streams and other biomass resources to generate bioenergy to keep Cornell humming in economically, environmentally and socially sustainable ways. CURBI is a key component of President David Skorton's Advanced Sustainability Action Plan and the Cornell Climate Action Plan and is intended to be a model bioenergy operation for New York state and the country.

"CURBI -- a partnership between research, the CUAES and Cornell's administration office to create a living learning laboratory at Cornell -- represents a new chapter in Cornell's efforts to promote a sustainable environment," said Stephen T. Golding, executive vice president for finance and administration.

CURBI will not only be an operations and research-based facility but also will be used for teaching and outreach to showcase multiple cutting-edge technologies under one roof to produce renewable energy.

Slow pyrolysis, for example, is one of the technologies CURBI is considering; it generates both energy and a valuable soil amendment called biochar, which when added to soil, sequesters carbon, making it the only renewable energy technology that actually removes carbon from the atmosphere and buries it. Although no commercial slow pyrolysis operation yet exists in the United States, Cornell is home to Johannes Lehmann, Cornell professor of crop and soil sciences, one of the world's leading experts in biochar.

A feasibility study -- funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in partnership with Cornell and launched in January by the engineering firm Stearns and Wheler -- is assessing the engineering, economic and environmental viability of pyrolysis and other technologies being considered for CURBI.

CUAES agricultural operations director Drew Lewis, who spearheads CURBI, says that housing different renewable energy technologies under one roof -- or in close proximity -- will offer beneficial opportunities for comparing, demonstrating and improving efficiencies, while addressing operational, environmental and economic issues through integrated, collaborative efforts with researchers and educators.

The CURBI feasibility study is also looking at anaerobic digestion, high-efficiency direct combustion and other "stackable" renewable energy technologies, so that waste products from one system can be used by another. This would increase the overall efficiency of the systems and make using biomass even more attractive.

Michael Hoffmann, CUAES director, notes that CURBI's harvest of energy from on-hand resources at Cornell's many operations -- including some 8,000 tons of organic waste that is generated by Cornell annually -- could be a model not only for the state but for the country.

"We are in a unique position to use input streams that are readily available," says Hoffmann. "Also, the interest of research faculty and extension experts from many different departments see this as an opportunity to further their research, teaching and outreach programs in bioenergy. In partnership with others in the private and public sector, we have the intellectual and operational capacity to do this right and be a model for the state, the region and the nation."

CURBI involves faculty and staff from several departments in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Environmental Compliance and Sustainability Office, and the Department of Utilities and Energy Management.

Upcoming lecture examines the distribution of breeding birds in NYS

Kevin McGowan, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, will present results of statewide research efforts showing the surprising amount of change in the distribution of breeding birds in New York state over the past 20 years, on Thursday, Feb. 26, at SUNY Cortland.

McGowan's talk, "The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York: 20 Years of Change," will take place at 7 p.m. in Sperry Center, Room 106.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is the annual Wilkins Bird Lecture of the Lime Hollow Center for Environment and Culture (LHCEC). The lecture is co-sponsored by SUNY Cortland's Biology Club. Refreshments will be served and a question and answer period will follow.

McGowan moved to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 2001, where he helped create the "All About Birds" Web site and wrote the bird guide section. He is the co-editor and author of the recently published book, The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State. McGowan currently coordinates the Lab's home study course in Bird Biology.

For the past 20 years, McGowan has studied the biology and social behavior of crows around Ithaca, N.Y.

In 1988, McGowan came to Cornell University as curator of the Ornithology and Mammalogy collections in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

McGowan earned a bachelor's and master's degree in zoology from Ohio State University. He received a doctorate in biology from the University of South Florida, where he studied the social development of Florida Scrub-Jays.

The annual Wilkins Bird Lecture was established by the Cortland County Bird Club, now called the Lime Hollow Bird Club, in 1988 in honor of club founder Connie Wilkins. The program is continued by the LHCEC, a member-funded, non-profit organization situated on the Cortland and Tompkins County border and offering free hiking trails, public nature and educational programs, and adventure day camps for youth.

For more information, contact Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Patricia Conklin at (607) 753-2717; or Peter Harrity, associate director of the LHCEC, at (607) 662-4632.

For the birds...

A quick link for the many bird lovers in the area...

Writer, naturalist, NPR commentator and birder Julie Zickefoose wonders how the peanut recall affects birders who use peanut butter in their feeders for wintering birds, in additon to trying to make sure her own peanut consumption is safe. Apparently birds can also get salmonella from tainted peanut products and some commercial suet doughs must be "viewed with suspicion." There's a bonus as she shares her recipe for homemade Peanut Butter Suet Dough.

Tree deaths have doubled across the Western U.S.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2009) — A new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey and involving the     University of Colorado at Boulder and Oregon State University as well as other research institutes indicates tree deaths in the West's old-growth forests have more than doubled in recent decades, likely from regional warming and related drought conditions.

The study, published in the Jan. 23 issue of Science, documented tree deaths in all tree sizes in the West located at varying elevations, including tree types such as pine, fir and hemlock. Significant die-offs also were documented in the interior West -- including Colorado and Arizona -- as well as Northwest regions like northern California, Oregon, Washington and southern British Columbia.

The researchers speculated higher tree deaths could lead to substantial ecological changes in the West, including cascading effects affecting wildlife populations. The tree deaths also could lead to possible increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels contributing to warming, which could stem from lower CO2 uptake and storage by smaller trees and increased CO2 emissions from more dead trees on the forest floors.

The study shows the establishment of new, replacement trees is not keeping pace with climbing tree mortality in the study plots, said CU-Boulder geography Professor Thomas Veblen, study co-author. The new study is the largest research project based on long-term forest plots ever published on North American forests, said Veblen.

Read the full article here.

EarthTalk: Reducing home energy use

Dear EarthTalk: This winter is shaping up to be one of the coldest in recent memory where I live. What can I do to reduce my home heating bill now and in the future?     -- Eric Lenz, Seattle, WA

Whether global warming is somehow to blame or not, much of the United States is getting walloped this winter. The Seattle area has suffered its most significant and lingering snowfall—and lower than average winter temperatures—in decades. Even Los Angeles is getting a nasty taste of winter, with several days topping out at the freezing mark on the thermometer. And other parts of the country more used to challenging winter weather have been getting an extra dose of wind, snow and ice this year as well.

Besides the cold, another challenge this wintry weather presents, especially during such trying economic times, is higher heating bills. Heating typically accounts for about 28 percent of the average American home’s energy use, but this year staying warm might occupy a larger slice of the household expenditure pie. Homeowners who take a few simple steps to make their homes more weather-tight, though, just might be amazed to see their heating bills go down while they languish inside their toasty and warm homes.

If you’re a handy person and your draft issues are minor, you might want to go around and assess just where cold air seems to be coming in—and then caulk, putty or insulate to your heart’s content. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC’s) green-living oriented SimpleSteps website, small gaps around windows, light fixtures and plumbing are easy to cover with caulk. Large drafty areas that are protected from moisture and sunlight can be covered with expanding foam sealant, while a little weather-stripping around door jambs goes a long way toward keeping the cold out.

Beyond these easier fixes, adding or updating insulation can pay dividends on your utility bills. NRDC says that if you do it yourself, be careful not to cover or close up attic vents, as proper air flow is key to keeping indoor air quality good. Replacing single pane windows with sealed double or triple pane windows will also improve your home’s energy efficiency significantly. Other tips include insulating heating ducts and your hot water tank, and upgrading to a programmable thermostat which allows you to heat your home when you’re there and lower the temperature when you’re sleeping or at work. Switching ceiling fans to rotate in a clockwise direction will help circulate warm air throughout your home.

Older, inefficient furnaces can also lead to large heating bills. New models which qualify for the federal government’s Energy Star program will use far less gas or oil and reduce your utility bill handily. The non-profit American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) rates different furnaces and boiler options and reports on their findings for free via the consumer guide section of its website.

For those of us less qualified or less interested in doing our own home repair, bringing in a professional energy auditor might be just the ticket. Many local and regional utilities offer free basic energy audits. Meanwhile, the trade group Residential Energy Services Network, as well as the federal government’s Home Performance with Energy Star program, offer free searchable online databases of trustworthy local contractors with experience keeping homes in your area nice and warm.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it online , or by e-mail. You can read past columns on our archives.