WASHINGTON (AP) - A top executive of a Canadian company that has proposed an oil pipeline from western Canada to Texas says the project will have no measurable effect on global warming.
Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada's president for energy and oil pipelines, said opponents of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline have grossly inflated its likely impact on emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Pourbaix said Tuesday that Canada represents just 2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and that oil sands concentrated in Alberta, where the pipeline would start, make up 5 percent of Canada's total. Pourbaix said simple math indicates that oil sands represent just one-tenth of 1 percent of greenhouse emissions.
Opponents say the pipeline would carry 'dirty oil' that adds to global warming.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Climate contradiction: Less snow, more blizzards
WASHINGTON (AP) - With scant snowfall and barren ski slopes in parts of the Midwest and Northeast the past couple of years, some scientists have pointed to global warming as the culprit.
Then, when a whopper of a blizzard smacked the Northeast with more than 2 feet of snow in some places earlier this month, some of the same people again blamed global warming.
How can that be? It's been a joke among skeptics, pointing to what seems to be a brazen contradiction.
But the answer lies in atmospheric physics. A warmer atmosphere can hold, and dump, more moisture, snow experts say. And two soon-to-be-published studies demonstrate how there can be more giant blizzards yet less snow overall each year. Projections are that that's likely to continue with manmade global warming.
Consider:
- The United States has been walloped by twice as many of the most extreme snowstorms in the past 50 years than in the previous 60 years, according to an upcoming study on extreme weather by leading federal and university climate scientists. This also fits with a dramatic upward trend in extreme winter precipitation - both rain and snow - in the Northeastern U.S. charted by the National Climatic Data Center.
- Yet the Global Snow Lab at Rutgers University says spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has shrunk on average by 1 million square miles in the past 45 years.
- And an upcoming study in the Journal of Climate says computer models predict annual global snowfall to shrink by more than a foot in the next 50 years. The study's author said most people live in parts of the United States that are likely to see annual snowfall drop between 30 percent and 70 percent by the end of the century.
'Shorter snow season, less snow overall, but the occasional knockout punch,' Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said. 'That's the new world we live in.'
Ten climate scientists say the idea of less snow and more blizzards makes sense: A warmer world is likely to decrease the overall amount of snow falling each year and shrink the snow season. But when it is cold enough for a snowstorm to hit, the slightly warmer air is often carrying more moisture, producing potentially historic blizzards.
'Strong snowstorms thrive on the ragged edge of temperature - warm enough for the air to hold lots of moisture, meaning lots of precipitation, but just cold enough for it to fall as snow,' said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. 'Increasingly, it seems that we're on that ragged edge.'
Just look at the last few years in the Northeast. Or take Chicago, which until late January had 335 days without more than an inch of snow. Both have been hit with historic storms in recent years.
Scientists won't blame a specific event or even a specific seasonal change on global warming without doing intricate and time-consuming studies. And they say they are just now getting a better picture of the complex intersection of manmade climate change and extreme snowfall.
But when Serreze, Oppenheimer and others look at the last few years of less snow overall, punctuated by big storms, they say this is what they are expecting in the future.
'It fits the pattern that we expect to unfold,' Oppenheimer said.
The world is warming so precipitation that would normally fall as snow in the future will probably fall as rain once it gets above the freezing point, said Princeton researcher Sarah Kapnick.
Her study used new computer models to simulate the climate in 60 years to 100 years as carbon dioxide levels soar. She found large reductions in snowfall throughout much of the world, especially parts of Canada and the Andes Mountains. In the United States, her models predict about a 50 percent or more drop in annual snowfall amounts along a giant swath of the nation from Maine to Texas and the Pacific Northwest and California's Sierra Nevada mountains.
This is especially important out West, where large snowcaps are natural reservoirs for a region's water supply, Kapnick said. And already in the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest and in much of California, the amount of snow still around on April 1 has been declining so that it's down about 20 percent compared with 80 years ago, said Philip Mote, who heads a climate change institute at Oregon State University.
Kapnick says it is snowing about as much as ever in the heart of winter, such as February. But the snow season is getting much shorter, especially in spring and in the northernmost areas, said Rutgers' David Robinson, a co-author of the study on extreme weather that will be published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
The Rutgers snow lab says this January saw the sixth-widest snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere; the United States had an above average snow cover for the last few months. But that's a misleading statistic, Robinson said, because even though more ground is covered by snow, it's covered by less snow.
And when those big storms finally hit, there is more than just added moisture in the air; there's extra moisture coming from the warm ocean, Robinson and Oppenheimer said. And the air is full of energy and is unstable, allowing storms to lift yet more moisture up to colder levels. That generates more intense rates of snowfall, Robinson said.
'If you can tap that moisture and you have that fortuitous collision of moist air and below-freezing temperatures, you can pop some big storms,' Robinson said.
Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann points to the recent Northeast storm that dumped more than 30 inches in some places. He said it was the result of a perfect set of conditions for such an event: arctic air colliding with unusually warm oceans that produced extra large amounts of moisture and big temperature contrasts, which drive storms. Those all meant more energy, more moisture and thus more snow, he said.
Then, when a whopper of a blizzard smacked the Northeast with more than 2 feet of snow in some places earlier this month, some of the same people again blamed global warming.
How can that be? It's been a joke among skeptics, pointing to what seems to be a brazen contradiction.
But the answer lies in atmospheric physics. A warmer atmosphere can hold, and dump, more moisture, snow experts say. And two soon-to-be-published studies demonstrate how there can be more giant blizzards yet less snow overall each year. Projections are that that's likely to continue with manmade global warming.
Consider:
- The United States has been walloped by twice as many of the most extreme snowstorms in the past 50 years than in the previous 60 years, according to an upcoming study on extreme weather by leading federal and university climate scientists. This also fits with a dramatic upward trend in extreme winter precipitation - both rain and snow - in the Northeastern U.S. charted by the National Climatic Data Center.
- Yet the Global Snow Lab at Rutgers University says spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has shrunk on average by 1 million square miles in the past 45 years.
- And an upcoming study in the Journal of Climate says computer models predict annual global snowfall to shrink by more than a foot in the next 50 years. The study's author said most people live in parts of the United States that are likely to see annual snowfall drop between 30 percent and 70 percent by the end of the century.
'Shorter snow season, less snow overall, but the occasional knockout punch,' Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said. 'That's the new world we live in.'
Ten climate scientists say the idea of less snow and more blizzards makes sense: A warmer world is likely to decrease the overall amount of snow falling each year and shrink the snow season. But when it is cold enough for a snowstorm to hit, the slightly warmer air is often carrying more moisture, producing potentially historic blizzards.
'Strong snowstorms thrive on the ragged edge of temperature - warm enough for the air to hold lots of moisture, meaning lots of precipitation, but just cold enough for it to fall as snow,' said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. 'Increasingly, it seems that we're on that ragged edge.'
Just look at the last few years in the Northeast. Or take Chicago, which until late January had 335 days without more than an inch of snow. Both have been hit with historic storms in recent years.
Scientists won't blame a specific event or even a specific seasonal change on global warming without doing intricate and time-consuming studies. And they say they are just now getting a better picture of the complex intersection of manmade climate change and extreme snowfall.
But when Serreze, Oppenheimer and others look at the last few years of less snow overall, punctuated by big storms, they say this is what they are expecting in the future.
'It fits the pattern that we expect to unfold,' Oppenheimer said.
The world is warming so precipitation that would normally fall as snow in the future will probably fall as rain once it gets above the freezing point, said Princeton researcher Sarah Kapnick.
Her study used new computer models to simulate the climate in 60 years to 100 years as carbon dioxide levels soar. She found large reductions in snowfall throughout much of the world, especially parts of Canada and the Andes Mountains. In the United States, her models predict about a 50 percent or more drop in annual snowfall amounts along a giant swath of the nation from Maine to Texas and the Pacific Northwest and California's Sierra Nevada mountains.
This is especially important out West, where large snowcaps are natural reservoirs for a region's water supply, Kapnick said. And already in the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest and in much of California, the amount of snow still around on April 1 has been declining so that it's down about 20 percent compared with 80 years ago, said Philip Mote, who heads a climate change institute at Oregon State University.
Kapnick says it is snowing about as much as ever in the heart of winter, such as February. But the snow season is getting much shorter, especially in spring and in the northernmost areas, said Rutgers' David Robinson, a co-author of the study on extreme weather that will be published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
The Rutgers snow lab says this January saw the sixth-widest snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere; the United States had an above average snow cover for the last few months. But that's a misleading statistic, Robinson said, because even though more ground is covered by snow, it's covered by less snow.
And when those big storms finally hit, there is more than just added moisture in the air; there's extra moisture coming from the warm ocean, Robinson and Oppenheimer said. And the air is full of energy and is unstable, allowing storms to lift yet more moisture up to colder levels. That generates more intense rates of snowfall, Robinson said.
'If you can tap that moisture and you have that fortuitous collision of moist air and below-freezing temperatures, you can pop some big storms,' Robinson said.
Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann points to the recent Northeast storm that dumped more than 30 inches in some places. He said it was the result of a perfect set of conditions for such an event: arctic air colliding with unusually warm oceans that produced extra large amounts of moisture and big temperature contrasts, which drive storms. Those all meant more energy, more moisture and thus more snow, he said.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Highway Paleontologist Digs Up a New Species of Whale
Discovered: How a California law lead to a whale fossil discovery; over half of moviegoers want to puke while watching 3D films; dogs sniff out other dogs in crowds; tracking climate change through Rock Hyrax urine.
RELATED: Why the EPA Did an End-Run on Climate Change
Government-mandated paleontologist makes a whale of a discovery. If the state of California hadn't approved a highway-widening project in Laguna Canyon, we may never have found evidence of four previously unknown types of baleen whale which once swam the Earth's oceans. By law, new road projects in the state have to involve on-site supervision from a paleontologist and an archaeologist. That's why paleontologist Meredith Rivin of the John D. Cooper Archaeological and Paleontological Center was there to find 30 cetacean skulls that lead to the discovery of the newly identified toothed baleen whale species that lived 17 to 19 million years ago. Modern baleen whales of course don't have teeth, but these Miocene-era fossils suggest that today's filter-feeding whales descended from toothed ancestors. Nick Pyenson of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History says he'll 'be excited to see what [the researchers] come up with' in terms of what this finding means for our understanding of whale evolution. Though we're sure many a paleontologist has stood idly on fruitless California road-cutting projects, these findings are a big win for government-mandated researchers at transportation project sites. [ScienceNow]
RELATED: Greenhouse Gasses Reach Record Highs
3D movies nauseate a majority of viewers. If the 3D movies trend really is dying, a lot of moviegoers will be thankful. According to a new study published in Public Library of Science One, 3D movie technology makes over half of viewers want to vomit. The researchers gave 497 healthy adults a questionnaire after having them watch a traditional 2D film and a modern 3D film. While only 14.1 percent got nauseous during the flat movies, 54.8 percent reporting wanting to vomit while watching 3D films. 'Seeing 3D movies can increase rating of symptoms of nausea, oculomotor and disorientation, especially in women with susceptible visual-vestibular system,' the researchers conclude. [Discover]
RELATED: A Common Mining Byproduct Spreading Breast Cancer; Reading Palm Trees
Dogs pick dogs out of a crowd. Man's best friend has no interest in man when it's in a crowd - it's busy detecting the other dogs hidden amidst all the commotion. Dominique Autier-Dérian of France's National Veterinary School and his colleagues have found that dogs have a unique ability to find other dogs in crowds. In an experiment that presented dogs with tables of images - some of other dogs, most of various other species - the dogs were able to focus in on their own kind. 'The fact that dogs are able to recognize their own species visually and that they have great olfactory discriminative capacities insures that social behavior and mating between highly morphologically different breeds is still potentially possible and therefore that, although humans have stretched Canis familiaris to its morphological limits, its biological entity has been preserved,' the researchers conclude. [Scientific American]
RELATED: Polar Bears Are Older Than We Thought; Turning a Rat into a Jellyfish
Climate change affects Rock Hyrax pee. Melting ice-caps are one way to measure the progress of climate change. The occurrence of freak weather incidents is another. But one of the more scatological methods involves studying where the Rock Hyrax (a furry, guinea pig-sized mammal that lives in rock crevices in Africa and Asia) urinates. They tend to stay put for generations, with each wave of parents teaching their young where to relieve themselves. As all that urine dries up, it collects pollen, leaves, grass, and air bubbles that capture the atmospheric history of Earth's changing climate. Brian Chase of Montpelier University and his colleagues have studies this urine deposits, finding that places where the Rock Hyrax lives were greatly effected by glacier retreats in the last Ice Age. 'This had a huge local impact in northern Europe but we did not know how the rest of the planet was affected,' says Chase. 'Thanks to rock hyrax urine from the period, we have an answer. There was significant cooling in South Africa, and presumably the rest of the planet, at the time.' [Ars Technica]
RELATED: Why the EPA Did an End-Run on Climate Change
Government-mandated paleontologist makes a whale of a discovery. If the state of California hadn't approved a highway-widening project in Laguna Canyon, we may never have found evidence of four previously unknown types of baleen whale which once swam the Earth's oceans. By law, new road projects in the state have to involve on-site supervision from a paleontologist and an archaeologist. That's why paleontologist Meredith Rivin of the John D. Cooper Archaeological and Paleontological Center was there to find 30 cetacean skulls that lead to the discovery of the newly identified toothed baleen whale species that lived 17 to 19 million years ago. Modern baleen whales of course don't have teeth, but these Miocene-era fossils suggest that today's filter-feeding whales descended from toothed ancestors. Nick Pyenson of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History says he'll 'be excited to see what [the researchers] come up with' in terms of what this finding means for our understanding of whale evolution. Though we're sure many a paleontologist has stood idly on fruitless California road-cutting projects, these findings are a big win for government-mandated researchers at transportation project sites. [ScienceNow]
RELATED: Greenhouse Gasses Reach Record Highs
3D movies nauseate a majority of viewers. If the 3D movies trend really is dying, a lot of moviegoers will be thankful. According to a new study published in Public Library of Science One, 3D movie technology makes over half of viewers want to vomit. The researchers gave 497 healthy adults a questionnaire after having them watch a traditional 2D film and a modern 3D film. While only 14.1 percent got nauseous during the flat movies, 54.8 percent reporting wanting to vomit while watching 3D films. 'Seeing 3D movies can increase rating of symptoms of nausea, oculomotor and disorientation, especially in women with susceptible visual-vestibular system,' the researchers conclude. [Discover]
RELATED: A Common Mining Byproduct Spreading Breast Cancer; Reading Palm Trees
Dogs pick dogs out of a crowd. Man's best friend has no interest in man when it's in a crowd - it's busy detecting the other dogs hidden amidst all the commotion. Dominique Autier-Dérian of France's National Veterinary School and his colleagues have found that dogs have a unique ability to find other dogs in crowds. In an experiment that presented dogs with tables of images - some of other dogs, most of various other species - the dogs were able to focus in on their own kind. 'The fact that dogs are able to recognize their own species visually and that they have great olfactory discriminative capacities insures that social behavior and mating between highly morphologically different breeds is still potentially possible and therefore that, although humans have stretched Canis familiaris to its morphological limits, its biological entity has been preserved,' the researchers conclude. [Scientific American]
RELATED: Polar Bears Are Older Than We Thought; Turning a Rat into a Jellyfish
Climate change affects Rock Hyrax pee. Melting ice-caps are one way to measure the progress of climate change. The occurrence of freak weather incidents is another. But one of the more scatological methods involves studying where the Rock Hyrax (a furry, guinea pig-sized mammal that lives in rock crevices in Africa and Asia) urinates. They tend to stay put for generations, with each wave of parents teaching their young where to relieve themselves. As all that urine dries up, it collects pollen, leaves, grass, and air bubbles that capture the atmospheric history of Earth's changing climate. Brian Chase of Montpelier University and his colleagues have studies this urine deposits, finding that places where the Rock Hyrax lives were greatly effected by glacier retreats in the last Ice Age. 'This had a huge local impact in northern Europe but we did not know how the rest of the planet was affected,' says Chase. 'Thanks to rock hyrax urine from the period, we have an answer. There was significant cooling in South Africa, and presumably the rest of the planet, at the time.' [Ars Technica]
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Perch exposed to human anti-anxiety drugs become isolated, aggressive - study
BOSTON (Reuters) - Wild perch living in water tainted with a commonly prescribed human anti-anxiety drug aggressively feed, shun other fish and become careless, according to the results of a study presented at a meeting of scientists on Thursday.
'We knew there was a pharmaceutical that was present in the environment that had behavioral-changing capabilities in humans, but what could this do to fish?' said chemist Jerker Fick of Umea University in Sweden.
The findings highlighted the potential ecological implications of even trace amounts of psychiatric pharmaceuticals that are excreted in human urine and survive wastewater treatment plant processes, scientists told a meeting in Boston of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
For the experiment, scientists divided 75 wild European perch into three groups. One group lived in clean water. The second group's water had low concentrations of Oxazepam, a commonly prescribed medication used to treat anxiety in humans.
The concentration was similar to what is found in waterways downstream from sewage treatment plants.
The third group's water had 500 times the amount of Oxazepam typically found in waterways. After a week, the fish were subjected to routine behavioral tests.
'Before we exposed the perch to the drug they were all very shy. They were not taking any risks at all basically. After exposure, they were swimming around much more, like they were unconcerned, and they were not as social. They just wanted to swim on their own. Some even avoided schools as much as possible,' lead researcher Tomas Brodin, also with Umea University, told Reuters.
Fish exposed to Oxazepam also became more aggressive feeders, he said.
'I have no doubt that the behavioral effects we see are true and that they are potentially going on as we speak,' Brodin said.
'This is a global issue,' he added. 'We find these concentrations (of psychiatric drugs) or close to them, all over the world.'
The scientists plan to expand the study to look at the wider ecological effects of Oxazepam and to understand on a molecular level what happens to perch that are exposed to the drug.
The research appears in this week's Science magazine.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Tom Brown, Toni Reinhold)
'We knew there was a pharmaceutical that was present in the environment that had behavioral-changing capabilities in humans, but what could this do to fish?' said chemist Jerker Fick of Umea University in Sweden.
The findings highlighted the potential ecological implications of even trace amounts of psychiatric pharmaceuticals that are excreted in human urine and survive wastewater treatment plant processes, scientists told a meeting in Boston of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
For the experiment, scientists divided 75 wild European perch into three groups. One group lived in clean water. The second group's water had low concentrations of Oxazepam, a commonly prescribed medication used to treat anxiety in humans.
The concentration was similar to what is found in waterways downstream from sewage treatment plants.
The third group's water had 500 times the amount of Oxazepam typically found in waterways. After a week, the fish were subjected to routine behavioral tests.
'Before we exposed the perch to the drug they were all very shy. They were not taking any risks at all basically. After exposure, they were swimming around much more, like they were unconcerned, and they were not as social. They just wanted to swim on their own. Some even avoided schools as much as possible,' lead researcher Tomas Brodin, also with Umea University, told Reuters.
Fish exposed to Oxazepam also became more aggressive feeders, he said.
'I have no doubt that the behavioral effects we see are true and that they are potentially going on as we speak,' Brodin said.
'This is a global issue,' he added. 'We find these concentrations (of psychiatric drugs) or close to them, all over the world.'
The scientists plan to expand the study to look at the wider ecological effects of Oxazepam and to understand on a molecular level what happens to perch that are exposed to the drug.
The research appears in this week's Science magazine.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Tom Brown, Toni Reinhold)
Drugs Leaked Into Rivers Make Fish Antisocial
BOSTON - Drugs taken by humans can have unintended side effects - on fish, in the natural environment. Turns out, fish fed extremely low concentrations of an antianxiety drug eat more quickly, and act bolder and more antisocial than their un-medicated peers, a new study finds.
'We can see profound effects at the low levels that we find in surface water. Exposed fish are more bold,' Jerker Fick, a co-author and researcher at Umea University in Sweden, said at a news conference here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The study looked at the effect of oxazepam (also known as Serax), used to treat anxiety and panic in humans, on the widespread European perch fish. Researchers gave the fish a concentration of drugs similar to that found in rivers and streams in Sweden and elsewhere, according to a study published today (Feb. 14) in the journal Science. [Trippy Tales: The History of 8 Hallucinogens]
Here's how the drugs make their way into fishy habitats in real life: They get excreted by humans, pass through wastewater treatment facilities, which are not designed to break down such compounds, and then flow into rivers, Fick told LiveScience.
In the lab, perch were exposed to oxazepam in aquaria meant to mimic the animals' natural conditions. Once exposed, the fish became more antisocial, distancing themselves from fellow fish and likely putting themselves at greater risk of predation, said co-author Tomas Brodin, also of Umea University.
Exposed fish also ate more quickly, a trait that could have profound effects on the environment. This quick gobbling of zooplankton (tiny floating animals) could perhaps lead to blooms of algae, which zooplankton eat. If perch devour more zooplankton, more algae could survive, and their populations could explode, Brodin said.
Drug-exposed fish also left the dark enclosures in their lab homes more quickly, venturing out into open areas of the aquaria to feed, Brodin said. Fish not given drugs lingered longer in their refuges, acting more cautiously. 'But the exposed fish didn't care,' Brodin said.
The authors said the drug in question works by relieving stress (in both humans and animals), but a certain amount of stress is needed to prevent animals from taking unwarranted risks. Concentrations of drugs in the muscles of the laboratory fish were similar to those found in Swedish rivers, suggesting the effects seen in the study are likely happening in the environment, Fick said.
Oxazepam is a type of benzodiazepine, a very widely prescribed class of antianxiety drugs. It is the most commonly prescribed such medicine in Sweden, and is also formed when humans metabolize other benzodiazepines such as diazepam, also known as Valium, Brodin said.
These drugs are found in waterways throughout the world, and they likely affect all fish since they act on a cellular receptor found in almost all vertebrates, or animals with backbones, Brodin said.
'It's a global issue,' he said. 'It's probable these behavioral effects are happening around the world as we speak.'
Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
'We can see profound effects at the low levels that we find in surface water. Exposed fish are more bold,' Jerker Fick, a co-author and researcher at Umea University in Sweden, said at a news conference here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The study looked at the effect of oxazepam (also known as Serax), used to treat anxiety and panic in humans, on the widespread European perch fish. Researchers gave the fish a concentration of drugs similar to that found in rivers and streams in Sweden and elsewhere, according to a study published today (Feb. 14) in the journal Science. [Trippy Tales: The History of 8 Hallucinogens]
Here's how the drugs make their way into fishy habitats in real life: They get excreted by humans, pass through wastewater treatment facilities, which are not designed to break down such compounds, and then flow into rivers, Fick told LiveScience.
In the lab, perch were exposed to oxazepam in aquaria meant to mimic the animals' natural conditions. Once exposed, the fish became more antisocial, distancing themselves from fellow fish and likely putting themselves at greater risk of predation, said co-author Tomas Brodin, also of Umea University.
Exposed fish also ate more quickly, a trait that could have profound effects on the environment. This quick gobbling of zooplankton (tiny floating animals) could perhaps lead to blooms of algae, which zooplankton eat. If perch devour more zooplankton, more algae could survive, and their populations could explode, Brodin said.
Drug-exposed fish also left the dark enclosures in their lab homes more quickly, venturing out into open areas of the aquaria to feed, Brodin said. Fish not given drugs lingered longer in their refuges, acting more cautiously. 'But the exposed fish didn't care,' Brodin said.
The authors said the drug in question works by relieving stress (in both humans and animals), but a certain amount of stress is needed to prevent animals from taking unwarranted risks. Concentrations of drugs in the muscles of the laboratory fish were similar to those found in Swedish rivers, suggesting the effects seen in the study are likely happening in the environment, Fick said.
Oxazepam is a type of benzodiazepine, a very widely prescribed class of antianxiety drugs. It is the most commonly prescribed such medicine in Sweden, and is also formed when humans metabolize other benzodiazepines such as diazepam, also known as Valium, Brodin said.
These drugs are found in waterways throughout the world, and they likely affect all fish since they act on a cellular receptor found in almost all vertebrates, or animals with backbones, Brodin said.
'It's a global issue,' he said. 'It's probable these behavioral effects are happening around the world as we speak.'
Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Nuclear Weapons Sensors Could Monitor Environment
A vast network of sensors designed to detect a rogue nuclear test - like the one North Korea initiated on Tuesday (Feb. 12) - could be repurposed to monitor everything from tsunamis to pollution, scientists argue.
Both weapons sensing and environmental monitoring are 'two sides of the same coin,' said Raymond Jeanloz, an earth scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. 'They are the same desire to monitor what's going on in the environment around us,' said Jeanloz, who co-authored a paper on the topic published today (Feb. 14) in the journal Science.
Cold War relic
More than 254 sensor facilities are currently operated by the international monitoring system as part of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which 182 countries have signed.
When the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963, the Cold War was still in full force. But now that the Cold War has ended and nuclear tests are rare, it may make sense to repurpose some of these sensors, Jeanloz said.
Multipurpose sensors
For instance, the international monitoring system for nuclear tests uses seismic and water-based acoustic sensors, which measure sound waves that ripple through the ground after a nuclear explosion. But those same sensors could have been used to detect the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people, the authors write.
Radionuclide detectors attached to airborne satellites can sense radioactive particles spewed out by nuclear tests. These detectors were used to track the plume of radioactive material after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. And the Open Skies Treaty allows 34 member states to fly aerial surveillance over their territories to gather military information, but with a few retrofits of archaic sensors, the same planes could monitor air pollution or the spread of microorganisms (like those that cause diseases) across the globe. [The 10 Greatest Explosions Ever]
In addition, hundreds of scientists interpret the data from these sensors, and their expertise could be harnessed for other types of environmental monitoring.
The Comprehensive Test-Ban-Treaty Organization has already agreed to use some of their seismic sensors for tsunami detection and no member objected when the organization used the sensors for the Fukushima nuclear accident, said Annika Thunborg, a spokesperson for the organization. But broadening the use of these sensors for environmental monitoring could run into challenges; the political framework for their operation is centered on nuclear weapons testing or military surveillance, and each country interprets those rules differently.
Bigger opportunities
In their paper, Jeanloz and his colleagues focus on increasing the scientific community's use of such sensor data, but it could have even broader use as a way to bypass government control of environmental data, said Christopher Stubbs, an experimental physicist at Harvard University who has written about more extensive use of such sensors.
For instance, closed-government countries may not want their carbon dioxide emissions tracked, but citizen scientists could agree to receive carbon dioxide (CO2) sensors and then submit their data to a global repository, creating an unprecedented picture of global greenhouse gas levels.
'Suddenly we find ourselves with 500,000 CO2 sensors distributed around the world without any government intervention whatsoever,' Stubbs told LiveScience.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Both weapons sensing and environmental monitoring are 'two sides of the same coin,' said Raymond Jeanloz, an earth scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. 'They are the same desire to monitor what's going on in the environment around us,' said Jeanloz, who co-authored a paper on the topic published today (Feb. 14) in the journal Science.
Cold War relic
More than 254 sensor facilities are currently operated by the international monitoring system as part of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which 182 countries have signed.
When the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963, the Cold War was still in full force. But now that the Cold War has ended and nuclear tests are rare, it may make sense to repurpose some of these sensors, Jeanloz said.
Multipurpose sensors
For instance, the international monitoring system for nuclear tests uses seismic and water-based acoustic sensors, which measure sound waves that ripple through the ground after a nuclear explosion. But those same sensors could have been used to detect the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people, the authors write.
Radionuclide detectors attached to airborne satellites can sense radioactive particles spewed out by nuclear tests. These detectors were used to track the plume of radioactive material after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. And the Open Skies Treaty allows 34 member states to fly aerial surveillance over their territories to gather military information, but with a few retrofits of archaic sensors, the same planes could monitor air pollution or the spread of microorganisms (like those that cause diseases) across the globe. [The 10 Greatest Explosions Ever]
In addition, hundreds of scientists interpret the data from these sensors, and their expertise could be harnessed for other types of environmental monitoring.
The Comprehensive Test-Ban-Treaty Organization has already agreed to use some of their seismic sensors for tsunami detection and no member objected when the organization used the sensors for the Fukushima nuclear accident, said Annika Thunborg, a spokesperson for the organization. But broadening the use of these sensors for environmental monitoring could run into challenges; the political framework for their operation is centered on nuclear weapons testing or military surveillance, and each country interprets those rules differently.
Bigger opportunities
In their paper, Jeanloz and his colleagues focus on increasing the scientific community's use of such sensor data, but it could have even broader use as a way to bypass government control of environmental data, said Christopher Stubbs, an experimental physicist at Harvard University who has written about more extensive use of such sensors.
For instance, closed-government countries may not want their carbon dioxide emissions tracked, but citizen scientists could agree to receive carbon dioxide (CO2) sensors and then submit their data to a global repository, creating an unprecedented picture of global greenhouse gas levels.
'Suddenly we find ourselves with 500,000 CO2 sensors distributed around the world without any government intervention whatsoever,' Stubbs told LiveScience.
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NASA Climate Scientist Arrested in Pipeline Protest
Climate scientist James Hansen was arrested today outside the White House while protesting the proposed construction of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline.
The 1,179-mile (1,897-kilometer) pipeline would carry heavy crude oil from Canada (Hardisty, Alberta) to the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to news reports. The project needs the president's approval for a construction permit.
Some 48 activists, including Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, executive director of the Sierra Club Michael Brune, Bill McKibben, co-founder of the grassroots climate group 350.org, and civil rights activist Julian Bond, practiced civil disobedience in front of the White House. They are demanding the president deny the pipeline construction and address the climate crisis.
Environmentalists argue that not only would the pipeline seal the country's dependence on 'dirty fuels,' adding to the emissions of greenhouse gases and the warming of the planet, it would also disrupt various ecosystems as it slices through critical habitats.
Hansen, director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, argues that promoting both renewable energy and oil and gas production, with projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline, isn't feasible. 'We have reached a fork in the road,' he said, as reported by the Washington Post, 'and the politicians have to understand we either go down this road of exploiting every fossil fuel we have - tar sands, tar shale, off-shore drilling in the Arctic - but the science tells us we can't do that without creating a situation where our children and grandchildren will have no control over, which is the climate system.'
The pipeline would carry what environmental groups call one of the dirtiest types of oil, called tar sands, which is a mix of clay, sand, water and bitumen (a heavy black oil). [The 7 Most Surprising Uses of Oil]
After blocking a thoroughfare in front of the White House and refusing to move (some even locking themselves to gates with plastic handcuffs), the activists were arrested, according to a statement by 350.org. They were brought to the Anacostia U.S. Park Police Station in Washington, D.C.
'The threat to our planet's climate is both grave and urgent,' Bond said a statement. 'Although President Obama has declared his own determination to act, much that is within his power to accomplish remains undone, and the decision to allow the construction of a pipeline to carry millions of barrels of the most-polluting oil on Earth from Canada's tar sands to the Gulf Coast of the U.S. is in his hands.'
Bond added, 'I am proud today to stand before my fellow citizens and declare, 'I am willing to go to jail to stop this wrong.' The environmental crisis we face today demands nothing less.'
Estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency suggest the pipeline would increase the annual production of carbon emissions by up to 27.6 million metric tons, or the equivalent of nearly 6 million cars on the road, according to 350.org.
In the next few weeks, the U.S. State Department is expected to release its environmental impact assessment of the pipeline, according to the Washington Post.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
The 1,179-mile (1,897-kilometer) pipeline would carry heavy crude oil from Canada (Hardisty, Alberta) to the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to news reports. The project needs the president's approval for a construction permit.
Some 48 activists, including Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, executive director of the Sierra Club Michael Brune, Bill McKibben, co-founder of the grassroots climate group 350.org, and civil rights activist Julian Bond, practiced civil disobedience in front of the White House. They are demanding the president deny the pipeline construction and address the climate crisis.
Environmentalists argue that not only would the pipeline seal the country's dependence on 'dirty fuels,' adding to the emissions of greenhouse gases and the warming of the planet, it would also disrupt various ecosystems as it slices through critical habitats.
Hansen, director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, argues that promoting both renewable energy and oil and gas production, with projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline, isn't feasible. 'We have reached a fork in the road,' he said, as reported by the Washington Post, 'and the politicians have to understand we either go down this road of exploiting every fossil fuel we have - tar sands, tar shale, off-shore drilling in the Arctic - but the science tells us we can't do that without creating a situation where our children and grandchildren will have no control over, which is the climate system.'
The pipeline would carry what environmental groups call one of the dirtiest types of oil, called tar sands, which is a mix of clay, sand, water and bitumen (a heavy black oil). [The 7 Most Surprising Uses of Oil]
After blocking a thoroughfare in front of the White House and refusing to move (some even locking themselves to gates with plastic handcuffs), the activists were arrested, according to a statement by 350.org. They were brought to the Anacostia U.S. Park Police Station in Washington, D.C.
'The threat to our planet's climate is both grave and urgent,' Bond said a statement. 'Although President Obama has declared his own determination to act, much that is within his power to accomplish remains undone, and the decision to allow the construction of a pipeline to carry millions of barrels of the most-polluting oil on Earth from Canada's tar sands to the Gulf Coast of the U.S. is in his hands.'
Bond added, 'I am proud today to stand before my fellow citizens and declare, 'I am willing to go to jail to stop this wrong.' The environmental crisis we face today demands nothing less.'
Estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency suggest the pipeline would increase the annual production of carbon emissions by up to 27.6 million metric tons, or the equivalent of nearly 6 million cars on the road, according to 350.org.
In the next few weeks, the U.S. State Department is expected to release its environmental impact assessment of the pipeline, according to the Washington Post.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
- The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted
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- Images of Melt: Earth's Vanishing Ice
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