#47 Sea Ice Melt

The jury is still out as to whether 2010 will rival 2007 for the greatest loss of Arctic sea ice in its recorded history. Already the temperature on the poles is heating up at a greater rate than the rest of the planet. It has increased by 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike the white ice which naturally reflects the sun’s heat back up into the atmosphere, the dark Arctic Ocean absorbs the solar heat and raises the water temperature. There is an acceleration of melting sea ice, global weather fluctuations, and the heating of the surrounding land masses, which releases methane and CO2 into the atmosphere further impacting global warming. The atmosphere, cloud impact, and now recently the Arctic wind study, are all contributors to the rapid loss of sea ice. Many naysayers are jumping on this newly released wind study to disprove that man is a contributor and harbors responsibility for the greenhouse effect on Climate Change. This piece is about melting sea ice, the heating up of the ocean, and the sweep of the wind.

#46 Desalination

As the planet heats up vast areas are experiencing extended periods of drought, from changing weather patterns. This is particularly true of subtropical areas such as the Southwestern part of the US, Australia, Africa and Europe. No animal, plant, or human, can live without water and future wars could develop should populations feel threatened.

Australia out of necessity, with a threatening extended drought, has been fine tuning the technology behind desalination plants to rescue the land from a potentially disastrous situation. By the process of reverse osmosis, salt is removed from sea water which then can be used for farming and human consumption. To date desalination has been technically difficult and expensive, but necessity drives innovation and man is in hot pursuit of a cheaper and technically simpler way to solve this problem. This piece is about desalination with the sea water being sucked into the bottom of the stick/pipe where it is then run through a valve at the top where the salt remains and the fresh water is then spewed out over the parched land.

#45 Biodiversity

In honor of South Africa and the World Cup, I decided to focus on the Rooibos bush, which has the distinctive feature of only existing in one place on the planet, the Western Cape of South Africa. This fragile plant has adapted beautifully to the seasonal harsh conditions of this Cedartree region. The Rooibos flowers make a highly prized red tea and the local farmers consider it a very valuable cash crop. There is added value to the tea if the farmers don’t use pesticides and get Biodiversity certification. That means that they use nature’s creatures to control the health of their bushes. In the case of the Rooibos there is a problem with a small moth that lays an egg in the stem of the Rooibos flower. The egg hatches into a grub which then munches its way through the stems and eventually kills the bush. Rather than use pesticides the farmers have found a novel way of solving the problem. Their farm lands are open and fence free, allowing baboons, native to the area, easy access to the plants. They love grubs and comb their way through the bushes in search of these nutrious sources of protein. The plants are saved, the farmers make money selling their popular tea and the baboons are revered and considered heroes by all the villagers.

# 44 Road Runoff

In 1999 there was an outbreak of mosquitos on Long Island. There was a fear that the mosquitos might be carring a disease that would infect the population so they were sprayed with Malathion a very toxic pesticide. It was a success and the mosquito population was wiped out. Shortly after they were sprayed the heavy rains from a hurricane brushed the coast, cleaning the land of all forms of pollution and washing it into the closest receiving body of water, Long Island Sound. It wasn't long after the heavy rains that millions of baby lobsters growing in Long Island Sound were found dead. As it turns out lobsters are structurally very similar to the mosquito's, and to this day the lobster men up and down the east coast blame the lobster die off on the pesticide Malathion. Many scientists say that the lobster die off was due to Climate Change, which was creating warmer water, and lower oxygen levels that tend to weaken and stress out the lobsters. The lobster men remain united in blaming the pesticide. Just recently scientists are revisiting the Malathion toxicity to see if perhaps the lobster men might be right and it did in fact add to the demise of a whole population of lobsters. The jury is still out and the pesticide is still widely used along the shoreline.. This piece is about road run off, or non-point source pollution. The spray is the pesticide which is being carried off by the rain and running into the ocean water where there are baby lobsters. The mosquitoes are shown in the middle of the spray.