Earth-Save

A huge oily slick floating a half mile off the coast of Wainwright, Alaska has scientists puzzled.  Preliminary tests show the goo is algae and not petroleum, as originally feared.  Yet, scientists still don’t know what type of algae it is or where it came from.  They also don’t know if the goo presents a danger to humans, fish, or other sea life.

“We’re still at the formative stages of looking at this and the practical issues, like what is it and what caused it,” said Raymond RaLonde, aquaculture specialist at the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program at the University of Alaska in Anchorage.

The blob was first discovered by indigenous subsistence hunters on July 10.  The Coast Guard gathered samples and brought them back to Anchorage for analysis.  When scientists observed the samples under a microscope, they were surprised to find the goo was made of algae and not oil.

The Coast Guard estimates the blob’s size at 13 miles long by a quarter of a mile.  The goo is broken up into clumps and is constantly changing shape.  “When we made the determination that it wasn’t an oil and was some sort of other marine organism, people were shocked," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Terry Hasenauer.  “The Coast Guard and other environmental agencies and the locals all said they hadn’t seen anything quite like that before.”

Story at Discovery

(NAPSI) - Here’s a statistic you may not want to raise a glass to: The average American uses 100 gallons of water each day (enough to fill 1,600 drinking glasses), according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Meanwhile, the U.S. government has projected that more than 70 percent of the country-at least 36 states-will face water shortages by the year 2012 due to a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.

Managing water is a growing concern in the United States and around the world. The good news is that there is much we can do to preserve and protect this precious, limited resource-starting at home. Following are eight easy ways you can help make every drop count:

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There’s a good chance that fresh, clean water will become the world’s most precious resource by the end of this century.  Good Magazine has produced an interesting chart that shows how simple choices you make during the day can greatly affect your water consumption.

For example, the difference in water consumption between a hamburger and salad is over 600 gallons!

Of course, that’s 600 gallons of “virtual water,” meaning it’s the water required during the entire cycle to produce that product.  For a hamburger, this includes water required for the cow; water for the grass and corn the cow eats; water required to produce, clean and transport the meat, etc.  Much of this water may currently be free, such as rainfall or river water.  But in a water-restricted future, there may be no such thing as free water.

Reduce Your Water Footprint

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