For New Year's Eve, a Blue Moon

New Year's Eve revelers will be treated to a "blue moon" tonight

A second full moon in a single month is commonly known as a "blue moon."

Though it has no astronomical significance, it is a reminder of how we have built our calendars around the movements of celestial objects.

According to National Geographic, "The last time a blue moon appeared on New Year's Eve was in 1990, and it won't happen again until 2028."

"Even if you are downtown in a large city," said Jack Horkheimer, director of the Miami Space-Transit Planetarium, "if it is clear at the stroke of midnight the moon will be very visible if you look up."

Happy New Year.

image: a full moon is visible in this view above Earth’s horizon and airglow, photographed by an Expedition 12 crewmember on the International Space Station (credit: NASA)

One of the World's Oldest Animals Dies

RIP to one of the world's oldest animals -- and one of Paris' most-loved "lotharios"

The year Kiki was born, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The American Civil War was raging.

Almost a century-and-a-half later, the beloved giant tortoise has died from an infection at the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris, where he arrived in 1923 from Seychelles.

Kiki was 146 years old.

Giant tortoises know a thing or two about age: They belong to the oldest group of reptiles that first appeared around a quarter of a billion years ago.

But age didn't seem to slow Kiki down too much: His energetic lovemaking made him a favorite of the French public.

"We are rather upset to have lost Kiki. He had been here for such a long time...that we had kind of thought of him as eternal," said Michel Saint Jalme, the deputy director of the Ménagerie, in a Guardian UK article.

"He had a kind of charisma."

The world's oldest animal may be Jonathan, another giant tortoise, who lives in luxury on the British island St. Helena.

By comparison, Kiki was just middle-aged: Jonathan is around 178 years old. When he was born, Lincoln was just a scrappy 22-year-old.

GET INVOLVED

• Adopt a Galapagos giant tortoise from the Galapagos Conservation Trust
• Sign a WildAid petition to prevent Galapagos longline fishing, which kills hundreds of turtles every year
• Support American Tortoise Rescue
  
• Sign a Wildlife Conservation Society urging American lawmakers to increase conservation funding directed overseas to save global priority species in their natural habitats (U.S. citizens)

RELATED POSTS

• Following Two Turtles on Their Christmas Journey (December 24, 2009)
• Last Days for the Leatherbacks (September 5, 2009)
• Change A Fishing Hook, Save A Turtle (August 28, 2008)
• US Throws Lifeline to Sea Turtles (May 7, 2009)
• They May Have Leather Backs, But Inside It's Plastic (April 13, 2009)
• Tata vs. Turtles (March 12, 2009)
• Sea Turtle Victory (January 31, 2009)
• One Man's Trash is All Our Trash (January 12, 2009)

image: F-G GRANDIN/AFP

Species Feeling the Heat

A new report highlights the lesser-known animals fighting threats caused by climate change

The flamingo. The Bicknell's thrush. The Irrawaddy dolphin. The Musk ox. The Hawksbill turtle.

These are a few of the "unsung" animals that are facing new threats due to climate change, according to a report released this month by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

The report, "Species Feeling the Heat: Connecting Deforestation and Climate Change," profiles more than a dozen animals impacted by factors such as changing land and sea temperatures; shifting rain patterns; exposure to new pathogens and disease; and increased threats of predation.

"The image of a forlorn looking polar bear on a tiny ice floe has become the public’s image of climate change in nature, but the impact reaches species in nearly every habitat in the world’s wild places," said Dr. Steven E. Sanderson, president and CEO of the WCS, in a press release.

"In fact, our own researchers are observing direct impacts on a wide range of species across the world."

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a WCS letter urging American lawmakers to increase conservation funding directed overseas to save global priority species in their natural habitats
• Analyze and reduce your impact on the environment with the National Grid Floe

RELATED POSTS

• Protecting Polar Bears (December 23, 2009)
• Dethroning the Emperors of the South Pole (August 21, 2009)
• Slipping Away: The Polar Bear (November 17, 2009)
• Less Species = More Disease (December 10, 2009)
• Bye Bye Biodiversity (October 15, 2009)
• Exit Koala (November 19, 2009)
• The Rime of the Modern Mariner (November 10, 2009)
  
• Numbers Don't Lie (October 19, 2009)
• Farewell from Christmas Island (September 10, 2009)
• Last Days for the Leatherbacks (September 5, 2009)
• Last Chance to Save the Saola (September 4, 2009)
• Exit the Mangrove Dwellers (August 25, 2009)
• Atlantic Salmon Dying in Chile's Pacific (August 4, 2009)
• Extinction Crisis in Oceania (August 3, 2009)
• Gone in 75 Years: Polar Bears (June 29, 2009)
• The Albatross and the Rising Sea (February 12, 2009)
• Farewell to the Polar Bears (January 14, 2009)

image: Greenland Musk oxen (credit: Hannes Grobe, AWI)

The Monaco Proposal

In March, nations will vote on Monaco's proposal for an Atlantic bluefin tuna trade ban

The Atlantic bluefin tuna (thunnus thynnus) has seen better days, when it wasn't overfished. But those days are long gone.

It is on the verge of a population collapse as man's appetite for the fish has skyrocketed around the world, driven in large part by the international sushi industry.

According to both the United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), all populations of Atlantic bluefin tuna have declined by at least 85% from their unexploited state.

Japanese fishermen have been found selling immature fish, an indication that there are not enough breeding adults left in the ocean to replenish their numbers.

Earlier this year, to support "The End of the Line," the first major documentary about overfishing, Greta Scacchi, Emilia Fox and Terry Gilliam got naked for a photo as they urged consumers to buy only sustainable fish to help fish stocks recover.

In March 2010, nations around the world will have a chance to vote on listing the Atlantic bluefin tuna on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix I, which will introduce a global trade ban.

This ban, proposed by Monaco, will help curb the decline of this critically endangered species.

The big tuna-eating nations like the U.S. and Japan (which is the biggest, with an annual consumption approaching half-a-million tons) have to get on board and stop eating this majestic fish -- at least until its populations can recover.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a Pew Environment Group letter urging the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service before January 4th, urging them to support and vote for the Monaco proposal
• Watch a trailer for "The End of the Line" (2009) the first major documentary about overfishing
  
• Download the Environmental Defense Fund's "Pocket Eco-Friendly Fish Selector" to make choices that help prevent overfishing

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• Another Inconvenient Truth: Overfishing (June 18, 2009)
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• Gone Fishin': Independence Day in Liberia (July 26, 2009)
• If Fish Could Talk: Get Off of Our Lawn (July 8, 2009)
• Pick up the Fish Phone (January 20, 2009)
• Overfishing: How Supermarkets Rate (December 28, 2008)
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image: Tom Puchner

Following Two Turtles on Their Christmas Journey

Thanks to a new research project, the public can follow the journeys of two leatherback turtles

Noelle and Darwinia are two adult female leatherback turtles that nest in Gabon, Western Central Africa.

And now, we have an unprecedented view of the holiday journey that these two turtles are taking throughout their natural habitat, courtesy of a new research project by the University of Exeter in the U.K.

Scientists have outfitted the two accommodating turtles with satellite-tracking devices which will allow their movements to be closely monitored.

"We are building a high precision model of how these amazing creatures use the seas near Gabon to breed," said project member Dr. Matthew Witt in a University of Exeter press release.

"Our aim is that this will help inform management of fisheries and mineral exploration as well as feeding into ambitious plans to widen the network of marine protected areas in Gabon. It is only by having detailed information on where these creatures go that we can try to protect them."

Humans have been around for a few hundred thousand years. Leatherback turtles have been around for 110 million. They can live up to 80 years and are critical members of all the ecosystems they inhabit.

But though they have proved to be very resilient, they are no match for destructive human activity. Their populations have been threatened by the devastating practice of longline fishing and the expansion of tourism.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists leatherback turtles as critically endangered globally.

"Sea turtles are the ancient mariners of the world" said Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Ocean Giants Program.

"Understanding broader migration patterns and use of the nearshore habitat around their nesting beaches is a key component to their conservation."

GET INVOLVED

• View the Noelle and Darwinia's journey around the waters of Gabon and subscribe to receive email updates of their progress
  
• Sign a Sea Turtle Restoration Project letter urging the Costa Rican legislature to maintain the current protections for the leatherback turtle
• Sign a WildAid petition to prevent Galapagos longline fishing, which kills hundreds of sea turtles
  
• Sign the Sea Turtle Restoration Project Seafood Pledge to avoid tuna, swordfish and shrimp to help sea turtles recover
  
• Sign a Wildlife Conservation Society urging American lawmakers to increase conservation funding directed overseas to save global priority species in their natural habitats (U.S. citizens)

RELATED POSTS

• Last Days for the Leatherbacks (September 5, 2009)
• Change A Fishing Hook, Save A Turtle (August 28, 2008)
• US Throws Lifeline to Sea Turtles (May 7, 2009)
• They May Have Leather Backs, But Inside It's Plastic (April 13, 2009)
• Tata vs. Turtles (March 12, 2009)
• Sea Turtle Victory (January 31, 2009)
• One Man's Trash is All Our Trash (January 12, 2009)

image: Darwinia, a female leatherback turtle (credit: Dr. Matthew Witt, University of Exeter)

Protecting Polar Bears

The U.S. Department of the Interior is asking for public comments on its plan to give the polar bear some protected land

Now is the time of year when polar cubs are born.

But the effects of global warming have destroyed much of the polar bear habitat.

And Big Oil has been looking to open up an important part of polar bear habitat -- the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) -- for drilling.

According to "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States," a report issued in June by the Obama administration, "It is projected that there will be no wild polar bears left in Alaska in 75 years."

In response to this critical situation, the United States Department of Interior has announced a plan to designate more than 200,000 square miles of Arctic land as protected polar bear territory -- including the critical ANWR coastal plain which the polar bears use for denning and raising their young.

The Interior Department has asked to receive public comments on this proposal by the end of the year.

"Protecting this important denning habitat should help safeguard polar bear homes from destructive oil and gas exploration and drilling," according to the non-profit conservation group Defenders of Wildlife.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a Defenders of Wildlife public comment letter giving your support of the Department of Interior proposal to protect the polar bear onshore denning habitats (due December 28, 2009)
  
• Sign a Center for Biological Diversity letter urging Secretary Salazar to designate all areas used by polar bears on land and ice as critical habitat, and permanently protect these important areas rather than sacrificing them to oil companies (due January 1, 2010)
  
• Adopt a polar bear for $15 from Defenders of Wildlife
  
• Sign the Polar Bear Central petition to curb global warming
  

RELATED POSTS

• Slipping Away: The Polar Bear (November 17, 2009)
• Closing Off the Arctic (July 23, 2009)
• Gone in 75 Years: Polar Bears (June 29, 2009)
• Salazar to Decide Polar Bear Fate Today (May 8, 2009)
• Fate of Polar Bears in Salazar's Hands (April 22, 2009)
• Farewell to the Polar Bears (January 14, 2009)
• Using Art to Tell the Sad Tale of Polar Bears (September 29, 2008)
• Polar Bears Swimming Miles from Coast Cause Concern (August 23, 2008)
• EDITORIAL: Polar Transcendentalism (May 11, 2009)
• Selling the Arctic's Future to the Oil Industry (March 6, 2009)
• North Pole May Be Ice-Free in Five Years (August 12, 2008)

image: Care2

The Marines vs. the Dugongs

A new military airfield may signal the end of the Okinawan dugong

At one point, the family Dugongidae (in the order of Sirenia) was very diverse.

In the 18th century, one member of the family, the Steller's sea cow, was hunted to extinction.

Now, the only surviving member, the rare dugong, may face the same fate -- because of military expansion.

Related to the manatee (also a member of the Sirenia order), the dugong is a large marine mammal that has had a long relationship with humans.

Five thousand years ago, neolithic humans painted an image of a dugong in Tambun Cave of Ipoh city in the state of Perak, Malaysia.

Now, the United States has a plan to build a 2.5-mile-long airfield in Okinawa that over 400 environmental organizations say will doom the dugong to extinction, according to a recent Scientific American story.

"The Camp Schwab base expansion project would destroy some of the best remaining habitat for the highly endangered Okinawa dugong, one of the rarest marine mammal populations in the world," said Peter Galvin, conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD).

In October, the 4th International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Congress in Barcelona overwhelmingly adopted a motion, the "Promotion of Dugong," during the United Nations 2010 International Year for Biodiversity. It has become a resolution adopted by the IUCN (Res. 4.022).

However, the Japanese government abstained from voting on the motion.

The resolution, "The 2010 International Year of Dugong," recommends that all countries with dugong habitats (including Japan) participate in the memo of understanding.

It also asks that Japan conduct an environmental impact assessment for the construction of the U.S. Marine Corps facility at Henoko, Okinawa, and to establish and declare an action plan to avoid or minimize the adverse effects on the Okinawa dugong.

Many Okinawans are against the plan -- about 20,000 residents protested the presence of the American military last month.

The Okinawan dugongs would likely agree with them.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a Save the Dugong Campaign Center petition to stop the construction of the military base save the Okinawa dugong from extinction

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• Less Species = More Disease (December 10, 2009)
• Bye Bye Biodiversity (October 15, 2009)
• Exit Koala (November 19, 2009)
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• Numbers Don't Lie (October 19, 2009)
• Farewell from Christmas Island (September 10, 2009)
• Last Days for the Leatherbacks (September 5, 2009)
• Last Chance to Save the Saola (September 4, 2009)
• Exit the Mangrove Dwellers (August 25, 2009)
• Atlantic Salmon Dying in Chile's Pacific (August 4, 2009)
• Extinction Crisis in Oceania (August 3, 2009)
• Atlantis Rising (July 12, 2009)
• The End of An Odyssey Draws Near (May 25, 2009)
• A Six-Step Plan to Save the Oceans from An Extinction Crisis (August 17, 2008)

image: a dugong near Marsa Alam, Egypt (credit: Julien Willem)

Still Fighting: Chile's Mapuche

Over four centuries ago today, the Mapuche people of Chile won a major victory against Spanish conquistadors. These days, they are still fighting -- for their forests

Today in 1598, the Spanish governor of Chile Martín García Óñez de Loyola led 50 Spanish conquistadors and 500 indios auxiliares in the disastrous Battle of Curalaba against the Mapuche cacique Pelentaru and his 300 men in southern Chile.

Though both sides lost nearly all their men, it was widely seen as a major defeat for Spain, and the news started a general revolt against the Spanish occupiers that marked the end of Chile's "Conquista" period.

Today, the Mapuche are still engaged in a battle for their ancestral land, but the fight is not against Spain, but against the forest industry.

"Our fight is with the government, land owners and forestry companies," said Victor Queipul, chief of the Mapuche community of Temucuicui, in a recent Reuters story.

Protesters have been occupying forest company land and setting fire to lumber trucks. Recent conflicts with authorities have left several Mapuche dead and more than 100 arrested.

President Michelle Bachelet has used a controversial anti-terror law to prosecute the revolting Mapuche.

Queipul said that the Mapuche would not vote in the nation's presidential election, which was held on December 13. (A run-off will be held between center-right Sebastián Piñera and center-left Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle on January 17.)

"We won't vote. To do so would justify the death of Mapuche killed by police."

Although a 1993 law has returned hundreds of thousands of hectares of ancestral land that was taken by the Spanish centuries ago and then handed over to the Chilean government, the Mapuche claim that is not enough.

Chile has a population of 15 million. About 600,000 of them are Mapuche, which means "people of the land" in their native Mapudungun. Quarter of a million Mapuche live in rural communities in the impoverished Araucania region in the center of the country.

About a fifth of Chile is covered in forest.

"Each year, 120,000 hectares of its native forests are cleared, and about 80% of Chile's natural forests have been destroyed or degraded," according to a statement by the World Wildlife Fund.

During the 15-year period beginning in 1990, according to Mongabay.com, the country lost almost 10% of its forest and woodland habitat.

At risk from habitat loss are Chile's 775 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles (10% of which are threatened) -- and of course, indigenous people like the Mapuche.

GET INVOLVED

• Support the Freedom to the Mapuche Political Prisoners Campaign
  
• Support Survival International's campaigns to help the tribal people around the world
• Support Trees for the Future, a non-profit organization that has been helping communities around the world plant trees
• Download the Greenpeace Tissue Guide so you can purchase tissue and toilet paper that is manufactured from recycled paper -- not old growth forests

RELATED POSTS

• The Caribou People (December 2, 2009)
• Hey You, Get Off of My Cloud (May 30, 2009)
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• Dismembering the Earth's Heart and Lungs (January 25, 2009)
• Saving Sumatran Forests, Keepers of Carbon (October 11, 2008)
• Amazon Threatened By Oil and Gas Exploration (August 15, 2008)
• Kenya's Economy Tied to Forest Health (July 19, 2008)
• UN Urges Southeast Asia to Stop Deforestation (June 26, 2008)
• Happy Markets, Happy Forests (April 27, 2008)

image: Mapuche "machis," or shamans (credit: Carlos Brandt)

How the Sun Will Die

New close-up photos of a distant, dying star reveal what will eventually happen to our Sun

Chi Cyngi is a variable star in the northern constellation Cygnus (the Latinized Greek word for "swan").

It is about 550 light-years away from Earth and is very similar to our own Sun, except that it is in the throes of death.

"Chi Cygni has swollen in size to become a red giant star so large that it would swallow every planet out to Mars in our solar system," according to a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics press release.

"Moreover, it has begun to pulse dramatically in and out, beating like a giant heart. New close-up photos of the surface of this distant star show its throbbing motions in unprecedented detail."

"This work opens a window onto the fate of our Sun five billion years from now, when it will near the end of its life," said lead author Sylvestre Lacour of the Observatoire de Paris.

At that time, the entire surface of the Earth will be a sea of molten lava.

GET INVOLVED

• View the World Sunlight Map to see where the Sun in shining on the Earth right now
  
• Find out how to use solar power at home
• Visit NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day Web site
• Participate in the International Year of Astronomy
  
• See what's in the sky tonight

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• Empire of the Sun (August 7, 2009)
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• The Lost Siblings of the Sun (November 6, 2009)
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• A Message from the Universe's More Youthful Days (October 30, 2009)

image: Chi Cygni, a red giant star as shown in this artist's conception of Betelgeuse

The Origin of Life in a Blue-Colored Wave

The salt of a common pigment has ties to the origin of life

"The Great Wave Off Kanagawa" is a famous 1832 woodcut by the Japanese artist Hokusai and is a prime example of the use of the popular pigment known as "Prussian blue," so named for giving color to the uniforms of the Prussian army.

Now, scientists have linked Prussian blue salt to the origin of life, according to a recent press release.

"We have shown that when Prussian blue is dissolved in ammoniac solutions it produces hydrogen cyanide, a substance that could have played a fundamental role in the creation of the first bio-organic molecules, as well as other precursors to the origin of life, such as urea, dimethylhydantoin and lactic acid," said Marta Ruiz Bermejo, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA) in Madrid.

It seems that Hokusai's use of Prussian blue to depict waves was a perfect choice.

After all, the common ancestor to all life on Earth was most likely born within a hydrothermal vent at the bottom the ocean.

GET INVOLVED

• Download BOINC, the SETI@home program that allows your idle computer to add its computing power to help analyze data in SETI's hunt for extraterrestrial life
  
• Support Conservation International campaigns to protect biodiversity hotspots around the world

RELATED POSTS

• The Shadow Lives of Others (March 3, 2009)
• Let There Be Light (August 19, 2009)
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• The Common Ancestor of All Life on Earth (December 21, 2008)
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• EDITORIAL: The Final Frontier According to Ptolemy, Kennedy, Hubble and Obama (November 17, 2008)
• Something's Out There, And We're Racing to It (November 10, 2008)
• DNA Building Blocks Found in Meteorite Formed in Deep Space (June 24, 2008)
• By-product of Life Found on Distant Planet (March 20, 2008)

image: Hokusai's "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa"

Octopus Intelligence

The first incidence of tool use by an octopus shocks scientists

The use of tools was once thought to be the sole domain of humans.

But the list of tool-users in the animal world has grown to include a host of other animals, such as Fongoli-savanna chimpanzees in Senegal who use sharpened spears to hunt, wild western gorillas who use sticks to measure water depth, woodpecker finches who use cactus spines to extract grubs from trees, bottlenose dolphins who use marine sponges to protect their snouts from abrasions when foraging for food on the ocean floor, sea otters who use rocks to retrieve abalone shells and elephants who fill drinking holes with chewed tree bark to prevent water evaporation.

Now, an octopus has joined the ranks of these smart tool-users.

According to a BBC story, several wild veined octopuses (Amphioctopus marginatus) were filmed in Indonesian waters picking up halved coconut shells, transporting them some distance and then using them as shelters.

The British and Australian researchers have published their findings in the journal Current Biology.

It is the first documented case of an invertebrate using a tool, and adds credence to the long-standing belief that the octopus is the most intelligent of all the invertebrates.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a petition urging the National Hockey League to stop octopus abuse at hockey games
• Adopt an octopus from the World Wildlife Fund

RELATED POSTS

• First Case of Dolphin Tool Use Documented (December 22, 2008)
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• Hold That Thought About Thought (September 21, 2009)
• Last Days for the Leatherbacks (September 5, 2009)
• Atlantic Salmon Dying in Chile's Pacific (August 4, 2009)
  
• Atlantis Rising (July 12, 2009)
• The End of An Odyssey Draws Near (May 25, 2009)
• Ghosts in the Water (May 10, 2009)
• 13.7 BILLION YEARS EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Philip Renaud, Executive Director, Living Oceans Foundation (March 16, 2009)
• A Six-Step Plan to Save the Oceans from An Extinction Crisis (August 17, 2008)
• Marine Life Bounces Back After Fishing Ban (July 17, 2008)

image: R. Steene, BBC

No Snow, No Ice, No Water

Imagine a world in which a billion people don't have clean water

Yesterday at the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen, Al Gore delivered a stern warning: a billion people may lose their access to clean water with the record-breaking melting of the polar and Himalayan ice due to global warming.

In making his case, the former American vice president cited new research that suggests that the polar ice cap shrunk to record-low level in 2008.

"Some of the models suggest...that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire polar ice cap during some of summer months could be completely ice free within five to seven years," Gore said.

"There are more than a billion people on the planet who get more than half of their drinking water -- many of them all of their drinking water -- from the seasonal melting of snow melt and glacier ice."

There are about 1.3 billion people across Pakistan, India, China, Nepal and Bhutan that live downstream from the Himalayas are rely on the fresh water it provides.

But droughts are expected to occur, as "temperatures in the region have increased by between 0.15 and 0.6 degrees Celsius (0.27 and 1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) each decade for the last 30 years, dramatically accelerating the rate at which glaciers are shrinking," according to a recent AFP story.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign the "Seal the Deal" petition for a fair climate agreement at the Copenhagen conference
  
• Subscribe to the United Nations Climate Change Conference newsletter
• Analyze and reduce your impact on the environment with the National Grid Floe

RELATED POSTS

• Terra Australis (December 1, 2009)
• Dethroning the Emperors of the South Pole (August 21, 2009)
• Solving Antarctica's Tourist Problem (October 1, 2008)
• The Albatross and the Rising Sea (February 12, 2009)
• Low Country (October 22, 2009)
  
• A Crack in the Ice (May 14, 2009)
• The Sea Also Rises (March 14, 2009)
  
• Breaking the Ice (April 5, 2009)
• Sizing Up the "King of the World" (March 31, 2009)
  
• Long Journey Into Ice (March 5, 2009)
• Satellite Watches As Polar Ice Shelf Crumbles (July 7, 2008)
• Lilypad: Future Ecopolis for Global Warming Refugees (January 19, 2009)
• Pack Your Bags, We're Moving to New Zealand (October, 26, 2008)
• Call for Shipping to Limit Harm to Antarctica (May 18, 2008)
• Huge Antarctica Ice Shelf Crumbles (April 1, 2008)
• Record Glacier Melt from Climate Change (March 16, 2008)
• Dead Baby Penguins Appear on Brazil's Shores (July 22, 2008)
  
• Penguin Decline Is Bad Sign for Oceans (July 3, 2008)
• A.H. (After Human) (October 8, 2009)
• Four Degrees (September 29, 2009)
• The Pot Is Boiling (July 2, 2009)
• Congress Tackles Climate Change (June 24, 2009)
• EDITORIAL: Polar Transcendentalism (May 11, 2009)
• North Pole May Be Ice-Free in Five Years (August 12, 2008)

image: Himalayas, Manali (credit: little byte of luck)

Singing the Blue Whale Blues

A sonorous mystery deepens

Scientists don't know exactly why whales sing, but they do, and they are pros. Their singing is strikingly similar to human music composition.

One possibility is that male whales sing to attract mates.

Now, a new study published in the most recent Endangered Species Research journal has found that over the past few decades, the pitch of the songs of blue whales -- the largest animal in the world -- has been steadily getting lower.

"The basic style of singing is the same, the tones are there, but the animal is shifting the frequency down over time. The more recent it is, the lower the frequency the animal is singing in, and we have found that in every song we have data for," said John Hildebrand, a professor of oceanography in the Marine Physical Laboratory at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, in a press release.

The researchers studied two common culprits for recent marine animal behavioral changes -- climate change or human-caused marine noise like sonars.

But they think the reason for the decline in frequency is due to a rather positive bit of news: increasing blue whale numbers following the 1986 global ban on commercial whaling instituted by the International Whaling Commission.

They believe that the higher-pitched songs were necessary when blue whale populations were much lower, in order to project the sound across farther distances to attract faraway mates.

"It may be that when (blue whale) densities go up, it's not so far to get to the closest female, whereas back when they were depleted it may have been that the closest female was a long way away," said Hildebrand.

Blue whales are not out the woods yet. They are still endangered -- and singing the blues.

GET INVOLVED

• Listen to the songs of humpback whales (The Whalesong Project)
• Sign a Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society petition urging the Australian government to protect marine animals from the dangers of the Timor oil spill
• Support Sea Shepherd's efforts to stop Japanese whaling
  
• Sign a Greenpeace letter to Iceland's prime minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir urging her to cancel Iceland's five-year commercial whaling quota
  
• Sign the Whale's Revenge petition urging the International Whaling Commission to close the loophole that allows whaling in the name of so-called "scientific research"

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• Denmark: Humpback Whales Are Tasty (June 23, 2009)
• Illegal Whale Meat Still on Japanese Menus (April 14, 2009)
• Bloody Waters in the Faroe Islands (February 19 , 2009)
• Gray Whales, Meet Big Oil (November 22, 2008)
• Palin Rebuffed As Unique Alaskan Whales Score Major Victory (October 18, 2008)
• Whales Get New Sanctuary in Chile (September 30, 2008)
• Greenland's Request to Kill Humpback Whales Denied (July 1, 2008)
• Greenpeace Activists Jailed in Tokyo (June 22, 2008)
• The Future of Whaling (June 14, 2008)
• US Condemns Iceland's Whale Hunt (May 26, 2008)

image: blue whale (credit: NOAA)

Saturnian Hex

After almost thirty years shrouded in darkness, Saturn's mysterious hexagon comes into view

Named after the Roman god of agriculture and the namesake of "Saturday," Saturn is an oddball planet in our Solar System.

It is the only one with rings.

It is the only one less dense than water.

Titan, the largest of its 61 moons, in the only moon in the Solar System with a substantial atmosphere.

But there is one enigmatic feature of Saturn that has long puzzled scientists: It has a jet stream that follows a hexagonal-shaped path on the planet's surface.

"The hexagon was hidden in darkness during the winter of Saturn's long year, a year that is equal to about 29 Earth years," according to a NASA press release.

"But as the planet approached its August 2009 equinox and signaled the start of northern spring, the hexagon was revealed to Cassini's cameras. This is the first time the whole hexagonal shape has been mapped out in visible light by Cassini, and these images show unprecedented details of Saturn's high northern latitudes."

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was inserted into Saturn's orbit in July of 2004. It has since been making detailed observations the planet and Titan.

"The six-sided shape remains a mystery," the release states.

"Scientists think the hexagon is a meandering jet stream at 77 degrees north latitude, but they don't know what controls the path the stream takes."

GET INVOLVED

• Watch the Cassini video of the mysterious hexagon
• Download this month's free night sky map and calendar from Skymaps.com
• See what's in the sky tonight
• Download Google Earth 5.0, which includes an interactive map of the surface of Mars
• Buy a beginner telescope from the Discovery Channel store
• Sign a petition to add the option for US taxpayers to contribute to NASA on the IRS 1040 tax form

RELATED POSTS

• Orbiting Saturn, Five Years Later (July 10, 2009)
• Saturn's Vanishing Rings (August 11, 2009)
• The Tears of St. Lawrence (August 12, 2009)
• Reclaiming the Night Sky (October 2, 2009)
• The Lost Siblings of the Sun (November 6, 2009)
• Empire of the Sun (August 7, 2009)
• Where Stars Are Born (July 16, 2009)
• Goodbye Ulysses (June 30, 2009)
• An Old Lake on the Red Planet (June 20, 2009)
• It's the End of the World As We Know It (June 12, 2009)
• Getting Closer to the Beginning of Time (May 16, 2009)
• A Possible New World Fit for Life (April 28, 2009)
• Sizing Up the "King of the World" (March 31, 2009)

image: still from a movie made by the Cassini spacecraft shows new details of a jet stream that follows a hexagon-shaped path and has long puzzled scientists. (credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

Less Species = More Disease

A new study connects biodiversity loss with a rise in infectious diseases

"The extinction of plant and animal species can be likened to emptying a museum of its collection, or dumping a cabinet full of potential medicines into the trash, or replacing every local cuisine with McDonald's burgers," writes Joshua E. Brown in a recent University of Vermont press release about "Biodiversity Loss Affects Global Disease Ecology," a new study that published in the December issue of the journal BioScience.

But there is another worrisome effect of the global loss of biodiversity: The decline in species means that we may be more susceptible to contracting a disease.

"Habitat destruction and biodiversity loss," -- driven by the replacement of local species by exotic ones, deforestation, global transportation, encroaching cities, and other environmental changes -- "can increase the incidence and distribution of infectious diseases in humans," write University of Vermont biologist Joe Roman, EPA scientist Montira Pongsiri and seven co-authors of the study.

The scientists give the spread of Lyme disease as an example.

Ticks get the bacterium by feeding on many species that act as hosts -- but the best host is the white-footed mouse.

In "species-poor places" devoid of larger predatory mammals, the mouse thrives. And when it does, so do the ticks that can transmit the bacterium to humans.

The effect is clear: The probability of humans contracting Lyme disease is increased in regions that are losing species.

And considering the rapid global spread of viruses that got their start locally -- such as West Nile virus -- biodiversity loss in one area doesn't mean that the attendant increase in infectious disease won't become a worldwide phenomenon.

Noting that a third of the bird species on the planet are at risk of extinction and a quarter of the mammals, Roman says, "We have an incredible amount of habitat being destroyed, along with climate change. We should expect to see the impacts of these changes occurring now, to people -- and we do."

GET INVOLVED

• Support the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Countdown 2010 to save the world's biodiversity
• Sign a petition to the United Nations to show your support of biodiversity

RELATED POSTS

• Bye Bye Biodiversity (October 15, 2009)
• Exit Koala (November 19, 2009)
• Numbers Don't Lie (October 19, 2009)
• Farewell from Christmas Island (September 10, 2009)
• Last Days for the Leatherbacks (September 5, 2009)
• Last Chance to Save the Saola (September 4, 2009)
• Exit the Mangrove Dwellers (August 25, 2009)
• Extinction Crisis in Oceania (August 3, 2009)
• Exclusive Interview with Francois Hugo, Founder, Seal Alert-SA (July 15, 2009)
• Slip Slidin' Away (June 9, 2009)
• The End of An Odyssey Draws Near (May 25, 2009)
• Dying for Daggers: Zimbabwe's Black Rhinos (May 20, 2009)
• New Caledonia (May 13, 2009)
• Enter the Dead Zone (April 20, 2009)
• From Snakes on a Boat to Guam's Silent Forests (February 7, 2009)

image: Deer tick (Ixodes scapularis), vector for Lyme disease (image: Wikimedia)

Sled Dogs Escape Certain Death

Almost 100 sled dogs were rescued in the Laurentides-Labelle district of Quebec

When they were found, they were chained to dilapidated plywood doghouses on a desolate expanse of frozen mud.

Some were blind. About 30 were pregnant. All were neglected.

Thankfully, they were all rescued by the SPCA Laurentides-Labelle and Humane Society International (HSI) and are now recuperating.

"Hungry and dehydrated, they were unable to move more than the two-meter radius their chains permitted," said HSI director Rebecca Aldworth.

The owner, who could not afford to care for them, agreed to give the dogs over to the authorities in exchange for avoiding prosecution.

"Without our intervention, the owner could easily have found himself with 150 more puppies when winter is right around the corner," said Corinne Gonzalez, executive director, SPCA Laurentides-Labelle in a recent press release. "The SPCA LL is asking the population for financial help for part of the food and vet fees for these dogs during their stay in Val-Morin."

"What’s sad here, in addition to cases of neglected sled dogs being common," writes Alicia Graef in a Care2 story, "is that the laws aren't strong enough to even bother trying to pursue criminal charges against someone who would leave their animals in such unacceptable conditions, leaving them entirely unaccountable and free to do it again."

GET INVOLVED

• Watch a Humane Society International video of the rescue (not graphic)
  
• Support the efforts of SPCA Laurentides-Labelle to care for the rescued dogs
  
• Sign a Care2 petition urging the Canadian government to adopt tougher animal welfare laws
  
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare

RELATED POSTS

• She's Got A (One-Way) Ticket to Ride (November 3, 2009)
• Man's Best Friend Probably Began As a Meal (September 22, 2009)
• Taiwan's Typhoon Dogs (August 17, 2009)
• The Fast and the Furious (August 5, 2009)
• The Korean Taste for Dog (September 6, 2009)
• Napoleon Complex (July 13, 2009)
• Over 30,000 Dogs Slaughtered in China (June 17, 2009)
• A Real Killer: The World's Toughest Dog Race (April 18, 2009)
• Thousands of Dogs Poisoned to Death in Bali (March 9, 2009)
• The Devil in Human Form (March 7, 2009)

image: Humane Society International

Senatorial Taste Test: Shark Fin Soup

The American Senate may be rewriting some menus

Never in their 400-million-year existence have sharks been so maligned and treated so poorly by another animal -- Homo sapiens.

To fuel a global demand for the Chinese delicacy known as shark fin soup (popular since the Ming dynasty), the barbaric practice of shark-finning maims and kills millions of sharks every year.

The act involves catching a shark, cutting off its fins, then throwing it back in the water, where it sinks to the sea floor, unable to swim. There it dies a slow death, often being eaten alive by other fish.

But amidst all the shark-finners and shark soup-eaters out there, there are some who are trying to help this amazingly resilient and extraordinarily adept predator. Some of those people are American lawmakers.

Introduced by Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo, the U.S. Shark Conservation Act of 2009 has passed the House of Representatives.

Bordallo is a delegate from Guam , a U.S. island territory in the western Pacific that is home to many shark species, including blacktip (Carcharhinus melanopterus), grey (C. menisorrah), whitetip reef (Triaenodon obesus) and nurse (Ginglymostoma ferrugineum).

According to GovTrack.us, the bill includes measures "to prohibit removal any of the fins of a shark (including the tail) and discarding the carcass of the shark at sea."

According to the marine conservation nonprofit group Oceana, the bill "also closes a loophole related to the transfer of fins at sea, which allows bad actors to circumvent the current law" and "allows the U.S. to take actions against countries that have weaker protections for sharks."

Now it's the Senate's turn to vote.

Sharks are a hardy bunch -- the earliest of them appeared before the dinosaurs. But unless our tastes -- and feelings -- change, they may soon join the "terrible lizards."

GET INVOLVED

• Sign an Oceana letter urging U.S. senators to pass the Shark Conservation Act of 2009
  
• Sign the Coral Reef Care petition supporting an E.U. Plan of Action for the protection of sharks

RELATED POSTS

• The World's First Shark Sanctuary (October 14, 2009)
• South Africa's Shark Tale (June 24, 2009)
• Ghosts in the Water (May 10, 2009)
• 13.7 BILLION YEARS EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Philip Renaud, Executive Director, Living Oceans Foundation (March 16, 2009)
• Singapore's Dolphin Deal with the Solomons (December 8, 2008)
• Sharks Get a New Best Friend in Galapagos (October 23, 2008)
• A Shark's Immaculate Conception (October 13, 2008)

image: Oceana/Care 2