e360 Video Report

Colorado River: Running Near Empty

Photographer Pete McBride traveled along the Colorado River from its source high in the Rockies to its historic mouth at the Sea of Cortez. In a Yale Environment 360 video, he documents how increasing water demands have transformed the river that is the lifeblood for an arid Southwest.
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Interview: Amory Lovins On
His Clean Energy Master Plan

For four decades, Amory Lovins has been a leading proponent of a renewable power revolution that would wean the U.S. off fossil fuels and usher in an era of energy independence. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he discusses his latest book, Reinventing Fire, which lays out the following vision for a green energy future for the U.S. by 2050: cars completely powered by hydrogen fuel cells, electricity, and biofuels; 84 percent of trucks and airplanes running on biomass fuels; 80 percent of the nation’s electricity produced by renewable power; $5 trillion in savings; and an economy that has grown by 158 percent. Lovins tells e360 that business and society can pull off this transformation even if Congress keeps failing to act, why climate change need not even enter the discussion, and why the oil industry will ultimately forego fossil fuels and jump onto the green bandwagon. “One system is dying and others are struggling to be born,” says Lovins. “It’s a very exciting time.”
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22 Feb 2012: Near-Extinct Penguin Rookery
Recovers with Impressive Genetic Diversity

A century ago, a rookery of roughly 3 million king penguins on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island was nearly wiped out as a New Zealand blubber merchant boiled the birds to extract oil for lamps. Saved by one of the first international wildlife campaigns, the 4,000 remaining penguins on Macquarie Island have rebounded to 500,000 birds, and new genetic tests show that the population’s genetic diversity is close to pre-slaughter levels. Tim Heupink of Griffith University in Australia compared DNA from 17 penguins today with that from the bones of 1,000-year-old penguins dug up on the island. He found that the recovered population of king penguins is nearly as genetically diverse as the older population, offering hope that other beleaguered populations of birds and mammals can regain not just their numbers but also their genetic diversity. “It is remarkable that a nearly extinct population has recovered levels of past genetic diversity in only 80 years,” said Heupink, whose study was published in the journal, Biological Letters.

22 Feb 2012: Amazon Subsidiary Selling
Meat of Protected Whales, Probe Finds

Amazon Japan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Internet giant Amazon Inc., is offering for sale roughly 150 food products derived from whales, dolphins, and porpoises, including canned whale meat, whale jerky, and whale stew, according to a new report. In a survey of the Amazon Japan website in December, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) found 147 different products for sale, including from fin, sei, minke, and Bryde’s whales — species protected by the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium on commercial whaling and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Japanese fishermen hunt whales under the guise of conducting scientific research, and then sell whale meat widely in Japan, conservation groups contend. The EIA urged Amazon.com President Jeff Bezos to enforce company policy not to trade in endangered species and to pull the whale products from the site of Amazon Japan.

21 Feb 2012: Volcanic Rock Reveals
Composition of Ancient Forest

U.S. scientists say they were able to reconstruct an ancient tropical forest, including long-extinct plant species, using fossil remains trapped beneath the ash of a volcanic eruption that occurred about 300 million years ago in northern China. While palaeoecologists typically can only infer the density and composition of ancient forest ecosystems, researchers say the volcanic ash from the ancient eruption preserved the woodland in situ, a sort of “forest Pompeii” that has revealed a “coal-forming swamp in its prime.” In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from several U.S. universities describe a teeming peat forest ecosystem consisting of six plant groups, including trees resembling feather dusters, vines, and three species of a group known as Noeggerathiales — small, spore-bearing trees that may have been relatives of early ferns. “Many of these plant groups we knew from other places, but we had no idea that they actually grew together,” said Robert Gastaldo, a palaeobotanist at Colby College in Maine and a co-author of the study.

Interview: California’s Car Rules
Help Remake U.S. Auto Industry

With the passage last month of strict new auto emission and air pollution standards, California once again demonstrated its role as the U.S.’s environmental pacesetter. The driving force behind these new “clean car” rules — which require that 15 percent of all new cars sold in California by 2025 emit little or no pollution — is Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board. As a result of the rules, 1.4 million zero- and low-emission vehicles are expected be in California auto showrooms within a dozen years. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Nichols explains why California has consistently led the U.S. in passing the toughest air pollution standards, why Detroit automakers have decided to support California’s new rules, and why U.S. and international car makers are on the verge of a clean-car revolution. “Auto manufacturers have finally come to the conclusion that their future lies in very efficient, very clean vehicles,” says Nichols.
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21 Feb 2012: Global Permafrost Regions
Depicted in High-Resolution Maps

Swiss researchers have released a series of high-resolution maps depicting the global distribution of permafrostand highlighting those regions where thawing permafrost as a result of global warming could have the most profound effects. In a study published in The Cryosphere, glaciologist Stephan Gruber from the University of Zurich estimated that permafrost regions cover about 22 million square kilometers worldwide — or about one-sixth of Earth’s exposed land surface — including vast regions of Siberia, Central Asia, and the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau (shown above). Using high-resolution temperature and elevation data, he produced maps documenting the probability of permafrost existing. Thawing permafrost can cause building subsidence and collapse and can trigger the release of significant amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. “As a result of climate change, areas with permafrost have a great potential for unpleasant surprises,” Gruber said.

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