Indonesian Mangroves, Plastic in the Pacific, A Fake Moon Rock
This week: The World’s Technology Correspondent Clark Boyd is back, with five stories about environmental change. Climate scientists show that, if it weren’t for greenhouse gases, the Arctic would be getting colder rather than warmer. Senegal struggles to maintain its once bountiful fish stocks. Indonesian communities nurture mangroves. Two scientists check in from research vessels–one in a slurry of swirling garbage, one off the shore of a recovering volcanic island. Plus, neuroscientists follow up on China’s Sichuan earthquake, and geologists expose a fake moon rock.
Elsa’s favorite science stories:
- Earthquake Trauma: Neuroscientists have detected the earliest known signs of psychological trauma in the brain. Researchers examined survivors of China’s 2008 Sichuan earthquake just a few weeks after the disaster. (The study.)
- Fake Moon Rock: Under a geologist’s microscope, a Dutch museum’s prized “moon rock” turns out to be common petrified wood. (Here’s a news story. We got the scientific details from geologist Frank Beunk.)
Arctic Ice: A new study provides the most detailed record yet of past Arctic temperatures–and confirms that recent warming is linked to greenhouse gases. Researchers used lake sediments, ice cores, and tree rings to reconstruct 2,000 years of Arctic temperatures. Only in the 1990′s did the enhanced greenhouse effect reverse a long-term cooling trend caused by a wobble in Earth’s orbit.
Report: By The World’s Katy Clark.
Senegalese Fisheries: In the 1970’s, thousands of Senegalese workers turned from mining and farming to fishing, and large foreign trawlers began to ply the same waters. Decades later, the fish are in trouble. The Senegalese government and local councils are now struggling to cut back on fishing and preserve what’s left of their marine resources.
Report: By Jori Lewis in Senegal. (See photographs here.)
Restoring Mangroves: In the past three decades, Indonesia has cleared more than half its mangroves for charcoal, firewood, and fish or shrimp farms. The destruction of these coastal habitats left the Asian nation more vulnerable to damage from the deadly 2004 tsunami. Now Indonesia is working to restore its mangrove forests.
Report: By Ari Daniel Shapiro in Indonesia. (See photos here.)
Life after Eruption: Alaska’s volcanic island Kasatochi erupted last year, burying the island in a thick layer of ash. It seemed that nothing could survive the scorching onslaught, but researchers have found some surprises as they document the gradual rebirth of Kasatochi’s ecosystem.
Guest: Entomologist Derek Sikes, University of Alaska’s Museum of the North.
Pacific Plastic: Garbage from the west coast of North America and the east coast of Asia ends up swirling in a giant, slow whirlpool known as the North Pacific Gyre. Scientists on a research ship near the gyre are trying to understand how marine organisms—from bacteria to whales—are interacting with the vast slurry of disintegrating plastic.
Guest: Oceanographer Miriam Goldstein, Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
