Author: Richie Duchon

New Polar Bear Rule for Oil

  • Oil companies are legally protected from any accidental harm caused by trucks, boats and experiments that alter the polar bear’s environment (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)

Just when you thought polar bears in the United States were safe under the Endangered Species Act… they’re facing a new threat. The Bush Administration has announced regulations that allow oil companies to harass polar bears while they explore for oil off the coast of Alaska. Richie Duchon has more:

Transcript

Just when you thought polar bears in the United States were safe under the Endangered Species Act… they’re facing a new threat. The Bush Administration has announced regulations that allow oil companies to harass polar bears while they explore for oil off the coast of Alaska. Richie Duchon has more:

Oil companies can’t kill polar bears. That still brings a penalty. But they are legally protected from any accidental harm caused by trucks, boats and experiments that alter the polar bear’s environment.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bruce Woods says oil exploration is not much to worry about.

“Believe me, you won’t find more concern for the polar bear anywhere than you will in this office, but we just don’t really believe that this activity at this level poses any significant threat. The threat to the polar bear is the loss of sea ice.”

Environmental groups are furious. They say the loss of sea ice from global warming is a threat to the polar bear, but they say we need to minimize other threats with a moratorium on oil exploration.

For The Environment Report, I’m Richie Duchon.

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Virus Spreads to More Fish & Waters

A disease that’s killing fish in the Great Lakes region is spreading;
and, as Richie Duchon reports, it’s infecting more and more species:

Transcript

A disease that’s killing fish in the Great Lakes region is spreading;
and, as Richie Duchon reports, it’s infecting more and more species:


The disease is called Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, or VHS. It weakens
fish immune systems, and they often die of organ failure and internal
bleeding.


Gary Whelan is with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. He
says the disease is here to stay:


“We cannot stop the disease. That’s very unlikely. It will continue
to spread. But we certainly can try to keep it out of sensitive fish
populations and out of inland lakes to our best that we can.”


Whelan says that includes not moving fish or water from lake to lake.
Just last month, VHS was confirmed in two popular sport fish in Lake
Huron.


Whelan says the virus could make it to Lakes Michigan and Superior this
year.


For the Environment Report, I’m Richie Duchon.

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Tree Pest Spreads From East to Northwoods

An invasive insect that has hurt forests in eastern states for more than 50 years is spreading to northern forests. Richie Duchon reports officials think it came by way of out-of-state nurseries:

Transcript

An invasive insect that has hurt forests in eastern states for more than 50 years is spreading to
northern forests. Richie Duchon reports officials think it came by way of out of state nurseries:


The tiny bug kills hemlock trees. The Hemlock Wooly Adelgid makes the trees weak and
vulnerable to droughts. Most of them die within ten years.


Mike Phillip is with the Michigan Department of Agriculture. He says this is an important time
of year for finding the adelgid.


“It begins to become active and will develop a white cottony, fluffy surrounding for its body. It’s
called an ova sac. And that is where it gets its name Wooly Adelgid. And that is an important
stage for us, because that’s where it becomes visible to us, and we can really get an idea of the
size of an infestation and what we’re really facing.”


Hemlocks are an important tree in forests, because they make good habitat for birds and animals.


For the Environment Report, I’m Richie Duchon.

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A “Poplar” Solution for Hog Waste?

Large scale hog farmers typically store their animal manure in large open air ponds called waste lagoons. They mix the liquid and sludge in the lagoons to fertilize their farmland. The process often poses problems for pork producers. But some farmers are using trees as a solution. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Richie Duchon has more:

Transcript

Large scale hog farmers typically store their animal manure in large open
air ponds called waste lagoons. They mix the liquid and sludge in the
lagoons to fertilize their farm land. The process often poses problems for
pork producers. But some farmers are using trees as a solution. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Richie Duchon has more:


As hog farmers spray liquid manure on their land, they risk saturating the
soil with nutrients.


Environmental officials fear that these nutrients might be running off into
nearby lakes and streams, which can cause harmful algae blooms.


This is forcing farmers to spray the waste on more and more land.


Researchers are exploring other options for the waste.


The plan involves drying the waste lagoons and planting poplar trees on
top of them.


The trees would absorb many of the nutrients from the sludge. And they
hope this would reduce the amount of land needed to get rid of the
manure.


Frank Humenik is a researcher at North Carolina State University. He
says the sludge from the dried lagoons would stay in place while the
trees grow.


“The poplar trees restrict its movement, because they take up so much
moisture, and they also take up some of these nutrients, and give us a
harvestable wood product.”


Researchers are still running tests on water near the sites. And they think
the poplar trees will make the land reusable in about ten years.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Richie Duchon.

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Plastic Solar Cell a Competitive Energy Source?

A European semiconductor firm is developing a new kind of solar cell. They hope it could make renewable energy competitive with coal and natural gas. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Richie Duchon reports:

Transcript

A European semiconductor firm is developing a new kind of solar cell. They
hope it could make renewable energy competitive with coal and natural gas. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Richie Duchon reports:


Most solar panels use silicon semiconductors to convert the sun’s energy into
electricity. They’re the most efficient, but they’re also the most expensive. Right
now, solar energy costs about ten times more over a 20 year period than oil or
natural gas.


STMicroelectronics is developing a semiconductor made primarily of plastic. It
will be less efficient, but the company hopes that a significantly lower cost will
make it a competitive source of energy.


Salvo Coffa is the head of STM’s research and development.


“What we would like to see is to eliminate the first reason for not using the solar
cell, which is the high costs.”


Coffa and his team are still in the research phase, but he hopes that his company
will have plastic solar cells out by 2005.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Richie Duchon.

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