Current Events: December 10, 2009

Prairie Dogs Deemed Not Endangered

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: December 2, 2009

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Black-tailed prairie dogs were denied protection under the Endangered Species Act on Wednesday after federal officials concluded the once prevalent species showed signs of rebounding.

This article is relevant to our class discussions lately about endangered and extinct species. According to federal officials, the black-tailed prairie dogs are no longer on the endangered species list and are now rebounding back to a healthy population size. There is a problem here though in that there is a new prairie dog poison that is supposed to repel the animals, but it has also hurt a bald eagle and two badgers, actually it killed them and there are other animals supposedly that were harmed by this chemical. I have a problem with this, solely because the prairie dog is a keystone species, so why would we be hurting it more first of all. And secondly, it just got off of the endangered species list, what are we doing that would be okay to go ahead and poison these animals. We need to have a reservoir for these critters so they can come back strong.

Current Events: December 4, 2009

The Doctors Where Real, the Patients Undercover

By DOUGLAS HEINGARTNER

Published: November 30, 2009


EDE, the Netherlands — It had all the markings of a television detective show. Posing as patients, three undercover observers got themselves admitted as patients to a locked psychiatric ward to investigate conditions on the inside.

This article is about the conditions of the mental hospitals that people go to in the Netherlands, and around the world. The idea here was to have fake patients go into the hospital and with the help of other undercover people, find the conditions of which the people must live in. To me, this is a very smart idea because it gets a first person perspective on the life of a mental hospital. Although i think that they should actually have the cameras on the patients rather than the visitors to get the full effect. It is important to have these places be as comfortable as possible because the people who live there are very unstable sometimes and need the environment around them to be soothing. Overall i agree with the idea to to surveillance on these wards, but it should be done in more of a discreet and more detailing way.

Current Events: November 19, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/science/earth/14turtles.html?_r=1&ref=earth

PLAYA GRANDE, Costa Rica — This resort town was long known for Leatherback Sea Turtle National Park, nightly turtle beach tours and even a sea turtle museum. So Kaja Michelson, a Swedish tourist, arrived with high expectations. “Of course we’re hoping to see turtles — that is part of the appeal,” she said.

Leatherback turtles have slowly been having their population decrease due to a few climatic factors such as global warming and higher seas. The biggest factor here is that the rise in temperature is a huge problem. Turtles are not genetically given their sex, but their sex depends on the temperature. The high temperature will give the turtle population more females which is an obvious problem. The turtles can be considered an indicator species in this case as well because they need the climate in order to live their lives. What i think should be done is to have a turtle farm that can increase the amount of turtles so the population can recuperate from its near extinction numbers. The turtles have been here for many years and shouldn't have their population end because of global warming.

Current Events: November 12, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/science/earth/12scallops.html?_r=1&ref=earth


GREENPORT, N.Y. — Bone-tired but grinning, Peter Wenczel and his son Ben eased their 26-foot work boat toward the dock here one recent afternoon, its deck piled high with bags of scallops.


There is a return of the scallop population in the Peconic Bay as of late. Recently there hasn't been a bounty of scallops due to the brown tide that has been present in the water. The brown tide is a result of high nitrogen levels, which alter the environment of the scallops and kill them off. The reason for the high level of nitrogen is unknown, but now that the levels are back to normal. To me, it's a good thing that the scallops are back to where they were, but i think they should try to figure out what was wrong with the water and try to fix the problem with organic material. They could test the water to make sure that everything is alright, because the scallop population was a mega source of commerce for the eastern Long Island natives. It's a good thing that the norm is back, but environmental agencies should think about finding a way to contain the water.

Current Events: November 6, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10obwolf.html?_r=1&ref=science

The Falklands wolf has puzzled evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin first encountered it during the voyage of the Beagle in the 1830s. It was the only native land mammal on the Falkland Islands, which are 300 miles off the coast of Argentina. No one knew how it got there or what mainland animals it was descended from — and it did not help that the wolf was hunted to extinction by 1876...

It has been recently discovered that the mysterious Falklands Wolf, which was originally thought to be native to South America, was in fact native to North American lands. Genetic research has proven that the Falklands Wolf is a relative to an South American species, but the two split off in time. What this says to me is that there are still plenty of mysteries that need to be solved. And there are plenty of creatures that have yet to be classified. The Earth is a small place in comparison to the universe. We as humans are even smaller, which only means that secrets are still hidden. We aren't going to find out everything about this planet, but we can still find out as much as we can.

Current Events: October 29, 2009

Polar Bear Habitat Proposed for Alaska

By John M. Broder

Published: October 22, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department on Thursday proposed designating more than 200,000 square miles of land, sea and ice along the northern coast of Alaska as critical habitat for the shrinking polar bear population.

The polar bears are continuing to have a decrease in their population. There are a few reasons for this but the two main ones that upset me are global warming and oil drilling. Of course there isn’t much we can do about the global warming crisis, we did this to ourselves and we cannot reverse it, but the oil drilling is controllable. The bears have no where to go so the government is going to give them a 200,000 square mile area in Alaska that they can live on. The only problem here is that there is still gas being dilled here. So why would you put the endangered, close to extinct, polar bears there when the land is still being used? The whole situation is stupid, the bears were there first and all we do is ruin ecosystems and ruin other life. We have to sustain ourselves, I understand that, but we need to stop this oil drilling. We need to find another source of energy because this is getting out of control. We aren’t doing anything to help ourselves, and we also end up hurting other species too.