Scottish Red Squirrel wallpaper 1280×1024
The red squirrel population in Scotland is in decline mostly because the North American grey Squirrel was introduced there. Some think that the grey squrrel out compeats the red because cannot digest acorns. The other major factor is that the grey while a carrier of squirrel parapoxvirus is immune to the disease, but the parapoxvirus kills red squirrels. Once again the introduction of an exotic animal has unforeseen consequences.
FDA Halts Imports Of Some Chinese Seafood
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday banned the import of five types of farm-raised fish and shrimp from China because they have been found to contain unsafe drugs, some of which can cause cancer.
The species include catfish, shrimp, eels, basa — a kind of catfish — and the carp-like dace. The FDA is not ordering that the products be pulled out of restaurants or from supermarket shelves but said that all incoming shipments would be stopped immediately. The chemicals found in the food “could cause health problems if consumed over a long period of time,” said David Acheson, the FDA’s assistant commissioner for food protection.
It is disappointing that the FDA isn’t taking a closer look at food that is already on the shelf and foods that are being prepared and sold in restaurants, China shuts 180 food plants
China Daily, the nation’s English language newspaper, said industrial chemicals, including dyes, mineral oils, paraffin wax, formaldehyde and malachite green, had been found in everything from candy, pickles and biscuits to seafood.
Regulators said they also learned that sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid were being used to process shark fin and ox tendon. These industrial chemicals are often toxic or corrosive and can be used in everything from drain cleaners to surfboard wax.
As we all know there is sometimes tension between wildlife, those that want to preserve it and business interests. Often those tensions are exaggerated by people that just have a certain contempt for the environment. Still there are situations where if everyone would just take a breath and look for compromises both sides can get what they want, Wildlife Habitat Protected In First Test Of Ecological Investment Markets
The project to protect habitat for bobolinks, a grassland-nesting bird whose population is declining in New England, was designed by a team of University of Rhode Island economists in collaboration with a URI biologist and Providence-based EcoAsset Markets, Inc.
“The public constantly says that they value a clean and healthy environment, and yet the economy overlooks those values and instead creates environmental problems,” said Stephen Swallow, a URI professor of environmental economics. “Ecological markets are a way to correct these environmental problems by enabling businesses and individuals to express their values and invest in the environment. It’s a way of bringing environmental qualities into our everyday decision making.”
Farmers who grow hay for their livestock can usually get two cuttings a year from their fields, but the first one typically interferes with nesting grassland birds. The mowing machines can destroy the birds’ nests, eggs and young. By compensating the farmers for the cost of delaying the harvest and purchasing replacement hay, the birds have enough time to mature and fly away without negatively impacting the farmers.
“This market approach is brand new,” said Emi Uchida, assistant research professor in the URI Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. “The Jamestown residents and farmers experienced one of the first experiments in the world to use a market approach to enhance ecosystem services.”
The Jamestown project, which is funded by a $600,000 Conservation Innovation Grant from the Natural Resource Conservation Service and matching funds from URI and EcoAsset Markets, was launched last fall with a comprehensive survey of residents to learn about their attitudes and environmental values. The survey results helped the researchers determine the pricing strategies that would be most successful in raising the funds the farmers require.
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