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Antidepressants in the water are making shrimp suicidal.
“Exposure to the antidepressant fluoxetine [Prozac] causes shrimp to radically alter their behavior. While normal shrimp are more likely to avoid swimming towards light because it’s often associated with prey like birds or fishermen, those exposed to fluoxetine [Prozac] become five times more likely to swim towards light than away from it. That change in behavior places them in harm’s way, and if enough shrimp are exposed to the antidepressant the entire population could be at risk.” Read more here…
Our bodies don’t fully absorb all the drugs we take, and what remains goes down the toilet and out to sea.
This chart compares doped (“Infected”/red) shrimp compared to drug-free shrimp (“Control”/blue). “Phototaxis” and “Geotaxis” scores just mean how likely these shrimp are to float higher to the surface, thereby endangering their own lives.
Read the full-length report: Aquatic Toxicology.
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Here’s a sticker I found on a lamp post in manhattan.
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Iceburgs: multipurpose architectural placeholders until developers resurrect their projects.
“With the economy on hold, there are lots of good (and some bad) construction projects currently frozen mid-construction, leaving a glaring rip in the urban fabric. As Woods Bagot New York Principal Jeffrey Holmes traveled to work every day, he contemplated these voids and wondered what could be done to make them more attractive and useful until developers resumed their projects. What he came up with is an urban ‘Iceberg‘ made of recycled and recyclable materials that could be easily installed and would serve as a temporary and flexible space for any number of uses.”
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Sleeping Beauty on the Tracks
The informal use of Berlin’s Anhalter Bahnhof since the opening of the Berlin Wall is, or was, a unique example of wild urban green space appropriation – an inner-city oasis for dog owners, (nature) lovers, sporty types, children and petty criminals. Since the end of WWII, fields of tansies, wild carrot and sweet clover have invaded the vast patchwork of cobblestones and crumbling railroad tracks now known as the Gleisdreieck. Dewberry and poplar shoots competed for space on a mountain of rubble in the northeast corner of the lot. Carved into the mountain’s base stood a fortress of half-rotten pressboard planks, folding chairs and other garbage found on site. Suspended in the branches of a lone elm fifty meters away, a rival fort watched out over the expanse of green concrete and bramble blossoms. Temporary projects included beach volleyball at one end, an impromptu driving range at the other, and intercultural community garden nestled between wild locust and birch trees. The rural meadows and urban forests between Potsdamer Platz and Südkreuz were a sprawling invitation to explore and get lost – a new fucking wilderness obscured by pavement and daily city life, devoid of swing sets or safety. For local residents and more than 400 plant and fern species, about a third of Berlin’s total flora, and the millions of insects, small mammals and birds that shared that biocoenosis, to call the abandoned railway depot a brownfield would be missing the point. Sleeping Beauty is more appropriate for those that loved her. But now she awakens to a new reality.
(more…)
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A sink hole swallows a Quebec Family. Much of Quebec is above a clay formed by an old sea that makes it vulnerable to collapse.
from NYT
Because the clay formed in salt water, Professor Bouchard said, the molecular structure of its particles resembles playing cards arranged as an unstable house of cards, rather than stacked in a deck, as occurs with clay formed in fresh water. A variety of events can break the molecular bonds holding the clay particles together. When that occurs, the clay can spontaneously liquefy with little or no provocation.
“Even a fly landing on the surface can set it off,” he said.
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The DeMilitarized Zone between North + South Korea is to be turned into a protected wildlife zone.This is one of the rare areas that has been left completely untouched for 50 years and is home to several endangered species like to Korea Tiger and Asiatic Black Bear. While only 2 miles wide, it provides a 155 mile corridor for animals to move freely.
CNN published a series of photos by photographer, Choi Byung Kwan.
“I gradually realized during my work that the Korean DMZ was not only a valuable source of irreplaceable natural life but also a historical site reminding humanity of the preciousness of peace,” Choi says.
“I thought many times that this buffer zone deserved serious international attention as a possible world conservation site, which could naturally facilitate peace in the Korean peninsula.” -CNN
via Treehugger + CNN
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NASA has posted some stunning images of the gulf oil spill as it creeps toward the Mississippi River Delta. Click on the 1st image to see it blown up 400% to see a lot of the details missing in the smaller version.
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It’s 1980, the Diamond Crystal Salt Company operates a salt mine underneath Lake Peigneur in Louisiana, Texaco drills for oil downward from the surface of the lake, the two mines meet and flush the entire lake…
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Open-pit zinc and lead mine devours Peru’s “Royal City of Mines.”
“Like it or not, we depend on this main industry to maintain any semblance of development.” AP/Yahoo News
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Its a nice reminder to realize that mother nature can still shut down the airspace over a whole continent.
