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 Survival of Pacific salmon threatened by fish farms January 8, 2003: Dozens of open net-cage salmon farms occupy the sheltered waters between the islands and in the deep sea inlets that make up the Broughton Archipelago on British Columbia's lower coast. The same waters provide the region's native salmon their only means of passage between the ocean feeding grounds where they grow to adulthood and the rivers and streams where they return to spawn. There is evidence that the fish farms are sources of disease and parasites that pose an iminent and mortal threat to the survival of the wild salmon Power without pollution: the Zero Emission Coal Power concept May 27, 2002: Eighty-five percent of the energy used worldwide is obtained through the combustion of fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas. Emitted to the atmosphere, the resultant carbon dioxide will eventually cause a manyfold increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, with likely catastrophic consequences. Here we report on technology now under development to use coal with greatly increased efficiency and zero atmospheric emissions. We discuss the prospects for commercial impementation of this technology with Dr. Hans Ziock, of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Global warming is happening faster: effects to last for millenia Shanghai: January 20, 2001 A new scientific assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that global warming will accelerate during the present century to a rate unprecedented during the last 10,0000 years Nanobacteria: not a life-form? November 27, 2000: John Cisar and colleagues present evidence challenging the idea that "nanobacteria" are a life form Vaccine cures lung cancer in mice May 18, 2000: Researchers at the University of British Columbia report that a recombinant vaccinia virus containing the TAP1 gene increased mean survival times and eliminated some tumors in mice previously infected with small-cell lung carcinoma. Early branch of green plant evolution discovered February 14, 2000: In the current issue of Nature, Universit Laval scientists Claude Lemieux, Christian Otis and Monique Turmel report evidence to show that the unicellular alga Mesostigma viride predates the evolutionary division of green plants into two main lineages that occurred 800 million years ago Genetically modified corn exudes toxin Writing earlier this month in Nature, Deepak Saxena and others report that roots of corn, genetically engineered to produce an insecticidal protein from Bacillus thuringiensis, release quantities of the toxin into the soil where it persists for months with unknown effects on the soil fauna Peer review vindicates scientist let go for "improper" warning about genetically modified food Arpad Pusztai was forced to retire from Britain's Rowett Institute after giving a public warning about the danger of genetically modified foods. Now scientists from 14 countries have concluded that his research data justified the warning Large Atlantic ray fished to the brink of extinction Taken as by-catch in the pursuit for other species, the once widely distributed barndoor skate has been fished close to extinction off the coasts of Atlantic Canada and New England Fishing Down Marine Food Webs Cod (Gadus Mohrua), is one of many top marine predators in decline due to human predation. Here Jennifer English reviews a paper in Science Magazine and interviews the senior author, Dr. Daniel Pauly A New European Ice Age? Climate models indicate that unabated anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions may disrupt the Atlantic ocean thermohaline circulation that transports a billion megawatts of heat from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Atlantic and western Europe See letter: S. Fred Singer: Ocean Circulation and Climate Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: 10 Years After Montreal A United Nations meeting in Montreal reviewed the status of the Earth's ozone layer and produced an international agreement on reducing emissions of methyl bromide, a widely used ozone-destroying pesticide See letter: S. Fred Singer: Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: Causes and Consequences Is Scientific Inquiry Compatible with Government Information Control? Canadian Fisheries Management: A Case Study In 1991, Canada's east coast cod fishery, the largest cod fishery in the world, collapsed to a mere 2,700 tonnes of spawning biomass. Did government restraint on public expression by government scientists contribute to the disaster? See Also: Report: Forum on Fishery Science and Management Commentary: Science, the State and Freedom of Speech Greenpeace Is Right About B.C. Forestry: So Say Environment Ministry Documents Internal government documents released by the Sierra Legal Defense fund acknowledge that logging practices in British Columbia damage fish habitat and endanger the survival of many plant and animal species Mars Pathfinder: An Arrival Not a Landing NASA shows it is still a can-do-something extremely complicated agency |