Twenty Four Inches Deep: An Update on the BP Oil Spill

     As I walked out onto the white sands of the Pensacola beach with my grandmother, I didn't realize at first what was going on. It was early morning, around eight o'clock, and as we trudged through the cold, slippery sand closer to the water I could by then clearly see six odd looking machines trundling down the beach. Two of them looked a lot like tractors, one a cement mixer, and in the back a little golf cart sporting a port-o-potty on its rear. They all were headed down the beach to a group of even larger and honkier machines which were surrounded by workers wearing orange shiny vests, walking around. On closer inspection, I noticed the workers all appeared to be chatting amiably to one another, the machines quite deserted for the time being.

There was one man herding the machines, waving them onwards and looking around importantly. We approached him curiously, and said hello. “What are all of your machines for?” I asked, though part of me already suspected the answer.

“We're digging for oil.”

“How deep are you finding oil?” My grandmother asked, looking slightly surprised.

“Around six to twenty four inches deep, ma'am. This area in front of the hotel here is pretty much clean, so we're moving on down to the pier there.” He pointed and I looked automatically to where the machines were indeed sitting close to a pier. As I watched, what looked like a small power shovel sprang to life and, huffing and puffing, began to dig a hole in the sand. The workers stopped chatting and turned to watch as well.

“What do you do with the contaminated sand once you dig it up?” Gran asked. I looked back to the man to hear his answer.

“Well, once the sand is mixed with oil, it gets kinda like asphalt, so BP is going to pave some roads down here with it for free.” The man said, nodding again. At this I have to contain myself from throwing him a disbelieving look, and instead respond with a timid, “Oh, I see.”

The man looked around and, seeing that his posse was leaving him behind, wished us a good day before jumping onto his own golf cart and speeding after them.

After the man departed and my grandmother and I have mulled over his words, I decided to dig a hole and see for myself whether I find oil or not. I found a large, handy shell and begin to dig where the sand was reportedly clean. It took me a while but I finally dug a hole about a foot deep and peered inside. The man was right; all I could see is that the sand is a couple shades darker and ringed with a few mysterious black circles. Oil? I decided after some observation that it probably wasn't, as the sand didn't look dark or smell foul enough to be oil.

The next day I went out onto the beach again, this time accompanied by biologist/activist Leanne Sarco (who happens to be my aunt). Though it was bitterly cold and windy, we persevered and went looking for oil on the sand, as well as any tar balls washing up onshore. Walking further from the hotel, we arrived at a patch of beach where the dunes had not yet been dominated by large corporate buildings. Sure enough, after a little searching we found not one but three shells that had foul smelling, reddish spots of oil on them, lying close to the gushing tide. I took a picture of one of them, back at the hotel room, and have included it to the right.

In addition to these shells, we found suspicious oily stains on some sand near the shells we'd found, though we couldn't readily identify the stains. What happened to all the oil? I wondered as we turned around a while later and headed back to the hotel. I remembered the endless news stories earlier in 2010 of oil washing up in Pensacola, Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, and countless Louisiana islands like Grand Isle and Grand Terre. Could BP really have swept it all away with their big, shiny machines and plans of cleaning all the contaminated beaches by spring 2011?

One hypothesis of mine as to where all the oil has gone is this: it went down. All of the toxic dispersant and oil, having broken up into tiny pieces, had nowhere to go after a while but settle down to the bottom of the ocean, where hopefully Mother Nature and some butt kicking micro organisms will take care of it. Some of this bottom-coating oil washed up onshore I expect, along with a few unlucky sea shells that had the misfortune of being spotted with grimy oil. Even though you can't see much oil on the Pensacola beaches, it is still a big threat our ecosystems, both marine and on land. And yes, I do mean us as well, the humans who started it all.

Ocean Acidification One Deadly Threat To Unprotected Coral

     It turns out that not only does global warming have affect on our air quality due to a massive overload of CO2, it also has an equally scary partner: ocean acidification.  Ocean acidification is caused by CO2 being absorbed into our oceans, at a rate of around 1 million tons of carbon dioxide per hour.  According to a study by the National Research Council in early 2010, the acid levels in the worlds' oceans are increasing quickly, and poise a potential threat to many ecosystems under the sea. 
     What happens to the coral as the ocean becomes warmer is known as bleaching.  When the water becomes too warm for the coral, they automatically discharge the nutrient rich algae that is needed for their survival.  Growing levels of acid in the water also impair the corals ability to grow.  This acid treatment is not lost on the crabs, starfish, and other sea creatures that are finding it more and more difficult to create the hard shells they need to protect themselves from predators.

      Coral reefs, with their sprawling beauty and immense diversity, are one of the most sensitive organisms to ocean acidfication, as the colorful reefs have begun to erode all over the world at alarming speeds.  The Center for Biological Diversity has a petition for the government to grant protection to 83 critically endangered species of coral living in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as the Gulf of Mexico.  The Center has also filed a notice of intent to sue as there has been slow movement to gain protection for the corals.  Only two coral species have gained federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, the elkhorn and the staghorn.  Some of the other species on the CBD's list include the whitestar sheet coral, the pillar coral, the rough cactus coral and the lobed star coral.  The world’s leading coral biologist, Charles Veron, warns that unless CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere drop to below 350 parts per million quickly, coral reefs and reef dependant marine life will be doomed to a deadly and irreversible decline due to global warming and ocean acidification.


Image copyright catastrophemap.com.

Hiatus

Hello!  This is your favorite journalist, Hannah, letting you know that my assosciate Hunter and I are on a short winter break, but we will soon be back in business, bringing awesomesauce news articles to you.  Don't forget to subscribe to our feed, and Happy New Year 2011 :D

Welcome to the Family: Meet Some of the Newly Discovered Species of 2010

Meet the Histiophryne psychedelica. A newly discovered antennariidae, meaning - scary-looking fish that creeps around and eats things. This 'Psychedelic Frogfish' creeps around on it's pectoral fins and feeds mostly on small fish and shrimp Being a lophiiformes, it's scaleless and covered in charming - but deadly - protective mucus.














This seemingly adorable, pokemon-looking slug creature was given the name Aiteng Ater this year after being discovered off of the Gulf of Thailand. This Gastropoda was named after a shadowplay puppet used in Thailand. It's diet consists of mainly insects and lacks gills and a cerata.







Move over, King Kong - there's a new king of the jungle. The Tyrannobdella rex (or, tyrant leech king) likes to crawl up your nasal cavity and gnaw at your brain. This seven-centimeter long beast was discovered this year in the Peruvian Amazon. It's hobbies include climbing inside of your orfaces, enslaving roundworms to do their bidding, sucking your blood and eating your brain! ... I think I prefer King Kong.





That Peruvian brain-eating worm kinda freaks me out, so it's time for some comic relief. This charming new species of bat is referred to as the "Yoda Bat". It was discovered during a scientific expedition to Papua New Guinea and identified as a tube-nosed fruit bat. Might I also add that it was given a very scientific name. The Yoda bat, like other fruit bats, is crucial to it's environment because of the fruit seeds that it... disperses.






Yet another candidate for a new pokemon, this adorable little guy is being temporarily called 'purple octopus'. It was said to be discovered in a"very alien area"(off the coast of Canada, lol) - the validity of this species calls for further speculation and investigation. But, if I may be so bold as to make a suggestion - I believe we should call it Squishysquishius marginatus.





This recently discovered, but speculated monkey - is allergic to rain (and apparently staying alive). The sneezing snub-nosed monkey is currently being poached in Myanmar, leaving conversationalists paralyzed with fear! This monkey's hobbies and interests include eating tiny pieces of grass(rumored), getting eaten by locals and doing Michael Jackson impressions. ... (someone had to say it.) I think the name sneezing snub-nosed monkey is a little bit too vague. I believe that it should obviously be named Michael Jackson in honor of his passing and because of the fact that he loved monkeys almost as much as conversationalists claim to.

The Raging Disease Against North American Bats Seems Endless

 

  You may not know it, but bats make up a fundamental, and mysterious, part of our society. Though they are often unseen, a colony of Little Brown bats can consume many of the insect pests that eat at valuable crops in one night. The Little Brown is the most common species of bat in North America, their diet consisting mostly of mosquitoes, moths, flies, and the like. But a raging epidemic known as the White Nose syndrome has been killing off these insect lovers; the first outbreak was estimated to have occurred in 2006, when a caver reported a number of bats with unusual white fungus on their noses and wings. Since then, the White Nose syndrome has become the ultimate predator for bats across North America.

   When the bats are hibernating in their caves, the fungus starts to spread across their snouts and wings, causing them to wake up before spring. They then flee the cave, searching for prey that is not there. This is why many bats stricken with the disease either die of starvation, or from other bat eating predators. The Tri-color, the endangered Indian and the Northern bat have all just about died out, and Little Browns appear to be headed the same way. While there have been countless attempts to find a cure for White Nose, researchers and biologists are stumped.

  The disease is a remarkably fast spreading one. In just four years (2006-2010), it infected over 116 caves, equaling millions of bats, in seven different states, as well as Canada and the Appalachian mountains.  "One of the biggest problems we're facing is that we don't really know much about bats or this fungus," said Hazel Barton, a British professor of microbiology working at the University of Kentucky. She and her team have concentrated most of their efforts into studying the White Nose syndrome. "But what we do know is everything is stacked against the bats. It's like this disease was tailor made to kill them off in their millions."

  How exactly does the syndrome kill the bats? This too is a mystery, though the general theory is that the disease interferes with the hibernation patterns, and attacks their immune system. Never before has there been such a fierce plague against the bats, or so many millions killed in such a short time. Scientists will continue to help the small remaining percent of bats fight off the disease, and hope to find a cure- fast.

The Undemocracy: A Look Inside the American Vote

     When we think of voting machines, whether they be electronic touch screens or punch cards, they're considered mostly to be infallible, a cornerstone of democracy. The public votes, the votes are tallied, and the winners announced. But what really goes on during this process? It turns out that when you do a little digging in the American voting system, the very word 'vote' starts to crumble.
When the Presidential election voting days are over, all electronic votes and all punch card votes are saved and eventually are put through a “master computer”. This computer counts the total number of votes and announces the winning candidates.  There are occasionally recounts but usually they are just for show, and provide inaccurate results.  The surprising side of this is that the software the computers use to calculate the votes is a total secret to all but a few people. Not even the purchasers of the software are allowed to look at the coding, which creates a pretty big question: do these electronic voting machines truly work?


  The answer to this question turned out to be a pretty big no. Bev Harris, the founder of blackboxvoting.org, proved that Diebold Election Systems (now called Premier Election Systems) voting machines are easily hacked. Premier Election Systems voting machines and voting software are widely used across the United States. She discovered and was able to download GEMS source code on an obscure website page, and went on to demonstrate how easy it is to hack into the GEMS central tabulating software on national television in 2005.  Yet, despite this evidence which seems rock solid, there were little repercussions.  The software was tested and apparently "updated" by selected computer programmers, though even further inspection resulted in that no changes had been made to the original software at all.


  In her documentary, Hacking Democracy, Bev and her companions found many bags full of original audit records in the trash at a Volusia County warehouse, and more behind the elections office in the trash. These original records proved to be incomplete, and many more of the audit records were not found. This proved that the vast majority of the American voting system is a flawed and fraudulent one, though many representatives and politicians turned a blind eye to this striking evidence.  One example of the absurd ways the American voting system works is the 2000 Presidential election.  George W. Bush scored a very close win, with 271 electoral votes to Al Gore's 266. There is still much suspicion regarding whether or not Bush was voted as President by the American people or through secrecy and illegal tampering with the voting machines.  To public disappointment, Al Gore did not challenge the vote count like he had said he would prior to the election, and instead congratulated his opponent on the win. Was he bought out by George Bush, or did he simply decide not to pursue the issue? We may never know what changes could have been made for the better of the American people if Al Gore had fought against the final vote count.  This broken wheel of pretended democracy will continue to spin unless American citizens step up and demand change for their nation.

Farmers in the United States: A Vanishing Population

A hundred years ago, it was common for young people to be involved in farming and agriculture, whether it be through working on their parents' farm or getting a job on another. Now, according to the USDA'S Agricultural Census, the number of adults under the age of 35 working on farms has been reduced from around 1.8 million in 1910 to just 118,000. There is expected to be over 500,000 farmers retiring in the next twenty years, which puts heavy expectation on young aspiring farmers.

It is for this reason that Tom Vilsack, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, has put out a message asking for 100,000 new farmers to step up to the field. The last Farm Bill of 2008 (the primary food and agricultural policy tool for the government) contains some mostly unknown elements, like several governmental programs aimed towards young and beginner farmers. One such program is the Beginner Farmer and Rancher Development Program, and there are also direct loans available to farmers as a start up to buying and maintaining their own land. These programs would work out very well if the new farmers knew more about them; many say they have never heard of the programs, aren't qualified for them, or were misinformed.

For those who are seeking a Farm Service Agency (FSA) loan, you might be in for a long struggle. The USDA requires that any farmer applying for a loan must have at least three years of experience working in the agricultural as well as the business environment of a farm. Apparently, this secures a “reasonable prospect of success” for the farmer and/or farm. You must also show that you were more than a “laborer” on the farm by providing bills addressed to them, checks you signed for the farm, or a written statement describing their role on the farm in detail by the farmer you worked for.

The FSA process of acquiring a loan is still painfully slow, and not at all desirable with the competitive prices of buying good farm land. The FSA also doesn't offer pre approval, meaning if you find the perfect piece of land but you don't yet have a loan, even if you are in the process of getting a loan, you can't make a bid on that land. Because of the lack of pre approval, these loans are usually only suitable for those buying from patient sellers and slow real estate markets, and neither of those things are very likely to occur.

Hmong: The Heroes You've Never Heard of

They aided us in the Vietnam war. We abandoned them in the forest.

After the Laotian Civil War, the Hmong were alienated from Asia. Looking for political asylum and a place of their own, they fled to Thailand. Today, most Hmong remain in Asia, but many are scattered throughout the globe in places like Australia, Canada, Argentina, French Guiana and the U.S.

Although often mistaken for Chinese or Vietnamese, the Hmong speak their own language. It is a tone-based language that has a wide range of dialects. When this language is entered into google translate, it is detected as Swedish. The Hmong call this language Hmoob, or Moob.

The Secret Army.

In the early 1960's, the CIA began recruiting Hmong men to help us in the Vietnam war. The Hmong agreed to fight not for us, but for their own freedom. The Hmong felt the threat of the opposing Vietnam forces, and realized there was to be little freedom for them under communist rule. By 1961, the CIA had 9,000 Hmong men to expend where they wished. They mainly stationed the Hmong in Laos because at the time, we had signed a treaty that had forbidden us to fight in Laos. But the opposing communist forces instantaneously violated this agreement and exploited Laos. Some Hmong were used to block the Ho Chi Minh trail which was used by the Vietnamese in Laos as a means of food transportation.

The U.S government basically made a pinky promise with the Hmong. The pinky promise stated that if they fought for us, we would always be there to protect and help them. A promise easily forgotten.

The poorly equipped and trained Hmong continued to fight in Laos under the CIA against dreadful odds. A total of 3,771 Hmong had their lives stolen. The Kennedy administration took notice of this and urged the CIA to recruit more Hmong men.

In 1963, the CIA now had 20,000 Hmong men fighting in Laos. Many were educated and were trained by the CIA to be pilots. The fearless Hmong took to the air and fought vigorously until every single one of them was killed. Their bravery inspired by thirst for freedom seemed to know no bounds. America took advantage of this fact.

An estimated 100,000 Hmong men died while fighting in Laos. Once the war was over and Laos fell to communism, the Hmong tried to escape to Thailand. Un-aided by America, 30,000 men, women and children died - trying to reach safety. The Hmong gave up literally everything to fight for us in Laos. Their homes, their country, their way of life and their families. All for a promise that we forgot to keep.

Finally recognizing the great sacrifice of the Hmong, America began accepting refugees in December, 1975. Today, approximately 250,000 Hmong reside in the United States, while just as many are still living in fear in Laos - residing in jungle camps, still using the artillery that America issued them in Vietnam.

For those still trapped in Laos, every day is like Vietnam.

'If our dream is not big enough to unite us, then people tend to create problems to divide us.'
Hmong proverb.

An Ancient Discovery: The Vegetarian Crocodile

 

     Paleontologists have recently reported that they unearthed some of the first vegetarian crocodile fossils, the bones dating over 80 million years. This kind of crocodile, named Simosuchus clarki, is one of many different crocodile subspecies. It has thick armored skin and a snout too short to be suitable for catching live prey, but perfect for munching on wild vegetation. The crocodile is a short one, only four feet long, with a short tail and a wide body, its hide covered in armored plates.

     David Krause, a paleontologist with Stony Brook University, was part of the team that found the ancient crocodile, and said, “No other crocodile looks as bizarre as this one. Crocodiles evolved into a wide variety of body plans in the Age of Dinosaurs, but this one really looks unusual.”  Six well preserved fossils of these strange crocodiles have been found on the island of Madagascar, the teeth of the crocodiles still intact with the skull. Several South American crocodiles over 65 million years ago also show signs of eating a vegetarian diet rather than the carnivorous way of life of today's crocodiles.

     Simosuchus was first discovered in 2000, but only now is there enough fossil evidence for it to be included in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Many paleontologists around the world are excited by this ancient discovery, some saying that this particular crocodile is an exceptional and unique creature. Its way of life can be most compared to that of an armadillo, hunkering down in forests and plains to munch on grasses. This crocodile will surely be remembered in future discoveries.

Chocolate Slaves: The Real Cost of Your Chocolate Bar

Who doesn't love chocolate? It seems irresistible: the rich, luxurious, sweet cocoa treat can be in some cases addicting. Chocolate is often imported and shipped thousands of miles around the world to land neatly on your local supermarket shelf, waiting for a hungry customer to pick it up and drop it in their shopping basket. But for those of you who don't know, or who have never bothered to find out, where chocolate really comes from, it could be quite a shock.



Cocoa beans are the main component of chocolate, and are harvested in many different tropical areas of the world, like Africa and the Caribbean. The West African country of Cote d'Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast, is the largest producer of cocoa beans in the world. Ivory Coast alone provides over 43% of the world's cocoa beans, a big number for a small country. While the farmers are doing well, with mass buyers like Nestle and Hershey's, their method of harvesting and producing the cocoa beans is appalling.

Every year, an estimated 200,000 boys between the ages of twelve and sixteen are tricked and lured from neighboring African countries onto Ivory Coast, with false promises of high payment and luxurious gifts. Once they arrive, however, they are being forced to work as slaves under farm owners. These boys receive no pay and are forced to work from dawn till dusk carrying and hauling sacks of cocoa beans on the farms, and receive beatings when they fall or lag in their work. It is truly a horrifying experience, and the fact that these beans are made to produce the sweet snack we all love to eat is almost comical.

There are an estimated 60,000 cocoa farms on Ivory Coast, and the number of slaves working on them grows every day. A freed slave by the name of Aly Diabate told reporters, “Anytime they loaded you with bags of cocoa beans and you fell while carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again.” Aly Diabate was freed from the farm he worked on for eighteen months when a fellow slave managed to escape and alert the authorities. The farmer was arrested and Aly received $180 for his unpaid and torturous work. Unfortunately, there are many other cocoa farms on Ivory Coast where children are living undignified and downtrodden lives, to say the very least. Though Aly was returned to and lives with his family now, the psychological and physical scars still remain.