Tag: conservation

Low Flow Showers Put to the Test

  • By 2013, the EPA estimates that there’s going to be 36 states that will face catastrophic water shortages. (Photo courtesy of Energy Star)

Even if it meant saving a lot of hot water,
many people would rather stick with their
old showerheads. That’s because low-flow
showerheads often don’t measure up. Lester
Graham met up with Greenovation TV’s Matt
Grocoff to put new showerheads to the test:

Transcript

Even if it meant saving a lot of hot water,
many people would rather stick with their
old showerheads. That’s because low-flow
showerheads often don’t measure up. Lester
Graham met up with Greenovation TV’s Matt
Grocoff to put new showerheads to the test:

Showers use a lot more water than you might think. At 2.5 gallons a minute, a ten minute shower means 25 gallons of heated water.

Matt Grocoff has been testing some new shower heads in his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He says if you’re not thinking about saving water now, chances are you will be.

“By 2013, the EPA estimates that there’s going to be 36 states that will face catastrophic water shortages.”

Matt says, you might have tried a low-flow shower head before and gave up on it.

Matt: “With old school low-flow shower heads, it was a huge sacrifice. They didn’t work. They just constricted the flow. With these new high-tech shower heads that have been completely re-designed, they’re so much better you’re going to sacrifice zero comfort.”

Lester: “We’re going to test your theory, ‘cause we brought our resident skeptic. Jessi Ziegler’s our Production Coordinator at The Environment Report. And, what do you like about showers?”

Jessi: “I am a self-proclaimed shower snob. Long. Hot. High-pressure.”

Matt: “I guarantee you, you’re going to consider these showers a luxurious shower.”

Lester: “Let’s check it out.”

(sound of walking)

The first shower head Matt shows us is a Bricor.

Matt: “The one we have here uses only 1 gallon-per-minute.”

Lester: “Roll up your sleeve. Let’s get in there.”

Jessi: “I don’t know. The pressure is not as high as I would like. I mean, I want it to feel like a fire hydrant just got opened up, and this is a little bit drippy for me.”

Matt: “Alright, so you’re going to need a little bit more than this one?”

Jessi: “I need more oomph.”

Matt: “Let’s first go try the one down in the basement.”

(sound of stairs)

The second model is a Hansgrohe–Croma which uses 1.6 gallons-per-minute.

Matt: “Now that one’s going to have a whole lot more flow, but feel just as good as a 2.5.”

Jessi: “Okay. We’ll see about this. (sound of shower) Eh, it’s okay. It’s alright.”

Matt: “You are tough.”

Jessi: “I am tough. I mean I grew up with high school locker room showers. I’m used to like 1950s – whoosh – five-million gallons-a-minute.”

Matt: “Is it a good drenching shower, this one?”

Jessi: “It does have a wide surface area. That’s nice.”

We head up to the second floor where Matt has one more chance to impress Jessi with this new generation of high efficiency shower heads. Jessi: “Okay. (sound of shower) That feels better. You’re right, you did save the best for last. The oomph is there.”

Matt: “Alright! So with that oomph, would you say that’s as good as the shower head you have at home?”

Jessi: “It’s up there.”

Matt: “What if I told you if you replace your shower head, this shower head will save you $100 a year on your utility bill.”

Jessi: “It would really save me $100 a year?”

Matt: “For the average sized home, changing one single shower head will save you over 11,000 gallons of water. But it’s not just saving water, it’s saving you hot water. And so it’s saving you electricity or gas to heat that.”

But, Matt says there’s a problem. You can’t get these new generation shower heads just anywhere.

Matt: “I’m not going to lie to you. These shower heads, right now, are cutting edge. They’re not that easy to find. The good news is soon you’re going to be able to see these in your Home Depots and everywhere else. Right now, you can go online and buy these. And you can go to Greenovation.TV and find some places where you may be able to purchase these yourself.”

Lester: “Cost?”

Matt: “Cost – anywhere between $30 to a $100 for the highest-end Bricor.”

Lester: “So, are you persuaded, Jessi?”

Jessi: “$100 a year, that’s quite a bit of money.”

Lester: “That’s Jessi Ziegler and Matt Grocoff with Greenovation-dot-TV. Thanks very much, Matt.”

Matt: “Thank you, Lester. And here’s to happy showering!”

Lester: “For The Environment Report. I’m Lester Graham.”

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The Great Depression and Green Jobs

  • The CCC worked on soil conservation projects, built 3,000 state parks, and replanted forests. The men in the CCC planted three-billion trees - that’s estimated to be half of the trees ever planted by humans in the U.S. (Photo courtesy of the National Resources Conservation Service)

Today we hear a lot of news calling
this “the worst recession since the
Great Depression.” Tonight, PBS
begins airing a series of documentaries
from American Experience called
“The 1930s.” Lester Graham reports
the series looks back at the Great
Depression:

Transcript

Today we hear a lot of news calling
this “the worst recession since the
Great Depression.” Tonight, PBS
begins airing a series of documentaries
from American Experience called
“The 1930s.” Lester Graham reports
the series looks back at the Great
Depression:

The documentaries in “The 1930s” series look at the stockmarket crash, the Dust Bowl, and the government’s response – such as President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Robert Stone directed one of the five documentaries. He looked at the Civilian Conservation Corps – the CCC. Stone says it was the first of Roosevelt’s work programs, but it also tackled the biggest environmental disasters.

“We’d spent hundreds of years just chopping down all of the forests in this country and over-using all of the farmland. The topsoil was all running into our rivers and off into the ocean. And it reached a sort of crisis point in the 1920s and early ‘30s.”

FDR had watched the forests disappear and soil erode near his home in Hyde Park, New York. Putting men to work correcting those problems made sense to him.

“FDR was very aware of that. He started a sort of mini-Civilian Conservation Corps in New York state when he was Governor and then when he went to the White House he came up with the Civilian Conservation Corps.”

FDR: “We are planning within a few days to ask the Congress for legislation to enable the government to take on public works, thus stimulating directly and indirectly the employment of many others in well-considered projects.”

But this was new for government. At that time, helping the poor was something for charity, not government.

Harley Jolley is one of four CCC veterans who tell their stories in the documentary.

He says hiring unemployed young men to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps was new to politicians. But they saw it for the practical politics it was.

“And because all those politicians were well aware that they had young men in their hometown, in their home state that could vote for them next time around, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll go with you.’ And very quickly it came to pass.”

FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps was the first, but several work programs followed.

The CCC worked on soil conservation projects, built three-thousand state parks and replanted forests. The men in the CCC planted three-billion trees – that’s estimated to be half of the trees ever planted by humans in the U.S.

This revolutionary idea got off the ground quickly. Camps were set up in every state. Men worked under military officers. The Civilian Conservation Corps members were required to send most of their pay back home.

Sometimes nearby towns welcomed the young men. CCC veteran Vincente Ximenes says, other times, people were wary of Roosevelt’s army of workers.

“And there were some farmers who didn’t like FDR and what he did. He was called a Communist, a Socialist, any name you could find. So, therefore, the CCC-ers also, of course, were no good as far as they were concerned.”

And it wasn’t just farmers.

The documentary’s director, Robert Stone says, in the beginning, President Roosevelt faced a lot of opposition to his government ‘green jobs’ program.

“Well, there were concerns very similar to what you have today with concerns about deficit spending.”

“The national debt today is 30-billion as compared to 19-billions under Hoover. And God knows Hoover was bad enough.”

“So that was on the right. And on the left there were concerns about paying these people a dollar-a-day. The unions were upset about it. But the success of it was such that it really quelled most any opposition.”

The Civilian Conservation Corps documentary, like the other documentaries in the 1930s American Experience series, looks at the connections between environmental damage and economic collapse in a way that still resonates today.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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Report Says Conservation Saves Big

A new national report from a business

consulting group says energy efficiency

could be a better solution to meeting our

energy needs than building new power plants.

Shawn Allee reports that new finding

supports the Obama administration’s call for more

energy conservation:

Transcript

A new national report from a business

consulting group says energy efficiency

could be a better solution to meeting our

energy needs than building new power plants.

Shawn Allee reports that new finding

supports the Obama administration’s call for more

energy conservation:

The McKinsey consulting group crunches all kinds of numbers for corporations.

It’s latest report suggests its cheaper to improve efficiency in heaters, homes, and electronics than it is to build new power plants.

It’s a welcome message to Lisa Jackson.

Jackson heads the US Environmental Protection Agency.

“I’m optimistic about Americans, who have so much common sense, saying, listen, the best energy is the energy we never have to use. It’s cheaper, it certainly means that we can invest in ourselves.”

The McKinsey report finds energy efficiency is economical in the long run, but it’ll take millions of consumers and businesses to boost power efficiency all at once to make a difference.

The authors recommend government and banks find new ways to finance home improvements.

They also recommend stronger efficiency labels on household electronics.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Coral Conservation in the Caribbean

  • The island of Bonaire is somewhat of an anomaly in the Caribbean due to its remarkably preserved coral reefs (Photo by Ann Dornfeld)

Scientists say nearly half of the coral reefs in the US are in bad shape.
Many are dead. The situation is similar in much of the world. But not
everywhere, as Ann Dornfeld found on the Caribbean island of Bonaire:

Transcript

Scientists say nearly half of the coral reefs in the US are in bad shape.
Many are dead. The situation is similar in much of the world. But not
everywhere, as Ann Dornfeld found on the Caribbean island of Bonaire:

(sound of waves on shore)

Jerry Ligon was working as the on-board naturalist on a small Caribbean
cruise ship when he first saw Bonaire.

“And I saw how clear the water was. And I’d been able to compare, during
my stint on the cruise ship, other islands in the Caribbean, and I realized
how special Bonaire was. So that was at the end of my contract, so I
decided to stay here. And I’ve been here for 15 years!”

It’s wasn’t just the clarity of Bonaire’s water that made Ligon stick around. It
was the remarkably healthy coral reefs that lay beneath the waves.

“I can even talk to divers who come to Bonaire and they say, ‘What
fantastic diving!’ and they remember, ‘This is how the way it was in Cayman
Islands 25 years ago!'”

Ligon says the Cayman Islands might have even had more impressive
reefs than Bonaire’s back in the day. But coral throughout the US and
Caribbean has been in sharp decline for decades.

So how do Bonaire’s reefs remain intact?

Ramón de León is the manager of the Bonaire National Marine Park. He
says the island has an advantage in that it has no industries to pollute the
water.

The island is mostly undeveloped, which means relatively little farm and
lawn fertilizer run-off that can create marine algae blooms. And cool
upwellings in the region help balance the rising ocean temperatures. Warm
oceans can cause coral bleaching, which often kills the coral animal.

But de León says Bonaire really owes its healthy reefs to its history of
conservation laws. They date back to an era when such policies were rare.

“Bonaire start to protect sea turtles and turtle nests in 1961, back when
everybody was promoting sea turtle soups and nailing shells in the walls.”

By the end of the 1970s, Bonaire had banned spear fishing and made it
illegal to damage coral. For years, divers have been required to pay a
sizeable fee and take an orientation course before they’re allowed to dive
on the island. That helps them avoid touching the coral, which can kill it.

De León says the island still allows too much fishing. So several years ago,
he told the island’s fishermen they needed to choose a no-take zone to let
the reefs recover.

“I refuse to decide myself. I give the fishermen some prerequisites that they
have to have to close, and they chose which area. Is not my number-one
option, but is their number-one option. So I have to respect that.”

De León says because the fishermen chose the no-take zone, something
important happened. Compliance is high.

For all of Bonaire’s success in coral conservation, there are still some
problems. De León says its reefs suffer from leaky septic tanks and boat
pollution. And there are few of the large predator fish that used to maintain
population balance on the reefs.

But the island is a haven for researchers like Mark Patterson. He designs
underwater robots at Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences.

Last year he led a NOAA expedition to use robots to map Bonaire’s reefs.
He says the island’s reefs are valuable as a baseline by which other reefs
can be judged.

“If you’re an up-and-coming marine scientist and you go to a lot of the coral
reefs on the planet now, you might think that all coral reefs have always
look like this. And they haven’t! So the fact that we’ve got some pristine
reefs left is very important, and we’ve got to work very hard to protect them
because it shows us how the ecosystem should look and used to look
around the planet before things started to go downhill.”

For The Environment Report, I’m Ann Dornfeld.

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Building Penguin Beach Homes

  • The penguins' natural shelter (their own dung) is being removed from the landscape for fertilizer. So, conservationists are supplying penguins with artificial homes in which to nest. (Photo by Frank Olivier)

Along with lions and elephants, Southern Africa is home to a species of penguin. But the African penguin population is dwindling – and scientists are trying to turn things around for the bird. Ann Dornfeld reports:

Transcript

Along with lions and elephants, Southern Africa is home to a species of penguin. But the African penguin population is dwindling – and scientists are trying to turn things around for the bird. Ann Dornfeld reports:

Dyer Island sits just off the coast of the Western Cape of South Africa. It’s tiny, and pretty much consists of two things. Rocks. And birds.

Along with Cape cormorants, Hartlaub’s gulls and swift terns, Dyer Island is the nesting ground for hundreds of African penguins. Although they’re half the size of the Emperor penguins from that movie you might have seen, the species act a lot alike – waddling, awkwardly hopping, and squawking at each other over territory disputes. But today, these African penguins aren’t doing much of anything. That’s not them you hear. They’re mostly just standing still, trying to catch a breeze in the 90-degree heat.

“If you have a look here, you get an idea of just the heat stress of the birds. See this bird over here who’s just sort of standing, gasping, that’s an indication of heat stress.”

Lauren Waller monitors the penguin colony for Cape Nature. That’s the provincial conservation department. Waller says penguins used to find protection from the heat by burrowing into centuries’ worth of bird guano. That allowed them to keep cool, and lay their eggs out of predators’ reach. But in the 19th and 20th centuries, people dug out the guano between the rocks along the Southern Africa coast and sold it as fertilizer.

“And now what you’ve got if you have a look around the island is just – it’s rock, and the penguins can’t burrow into that. And so it now forces them to breed on the surface.”

When penguins make their nests out in the open, kelp gulls can snatch their eggs and chicks. And because penguins breed during African summers, the heat can be overwhelming. Parents often leave the nest just to cool off at sea, and their eggs or chicks die. It will take decades for the guano to build back up.

Scientists are trying to help the penguins out. They’re building nests for them. Waller says Dyer Island is the main testing ground.

“The nests are made out of fiberglass mold and they sort of mimic natural burrows that the bird would make in the ground. They’re kind of like a really small igloo shape, and big enough that you can fit two adult birds inside and their chicks as well.”

The nests are covered with rocks to prevent a greenhouse effect inside the igloos. Waller says they’re experimenting with different materials and nest arrays to see whether the penguins prefer their igloos in a cul-de-sac pattern, or a secluded ocean view. Some nests never catch on, but others have become prime real estate.

“Here you can see we have a colony of 15 nests, and already nine of them are occupied and it’s not their peak breeding yet. So this specific colony is looking really, really good.”

We peek inside one of the plastic igloos where a mother is guarding two fuzzy brown chicks.

“She’s turning her head from side to side.”

“Yeah, it’s a kind of aggressive, stay-away kind of behavior. But if you look behind her you can see the little heads sticking out!”

Waller says as successful as the artificial nests have been, commercial overfishing of sardines and anchovies also affects chick survival. At one well-protected nest a few yards away, she finds an abandoned egg and a dead chick. She says it may be that the parents couldn’t find enough fish.

“It is hard. Knowing their numbers are just going down every year. And you become quite desperate to do something so that these birds don’t have these breeding failures.”

The South African government has banned fishing around one island with penguin colonies to see whether it makes a difference in the birds’ survival rates. Waller says she’s hopeful that now is the turning point for African penguins.

For the Environment Report, I’m Ann Dornfeld.

Related Links

Tapping Into Tax Savings for Your Home

  • Insulating your home is one of the things the Alliance to Save Energy says you can do to save energy and earn up to 1,500 dollars in tax credits. (Photo courtesy of the EPA)

Tax credits have been extended and expanded for people who want to make their homes more energy efficient. Lester Graham spoke with Ronnie Kweller about that. She’s with the Alliance to Save Energy:

Transcript

Tax credits have been extended and expanded for people who want to make their homes more energy efficient. Lester Graham spoke with Ronnie Kweller about that. She’s with the Alliance to Save Energy:

Lester Graham: Ronnie, this stimulus package offers people a chance to save some money if they decide to insulate their home, or replace their heating or cooling system. How much is available?

Ronnie Kweller: Right now, up to $1500 – which is three times the amount that was available under earlier legislation. They also expand the percentage of the cost that can be covered, from 10% in the case of some of the items under the old law to 30%. The other good thing is that the tax credits have been extended through 2010. Originally, they were only for this calendar year. So I think that gives folks some opportunity to save and budget for some of these higher-ticket items, and get them in place between now and 2010, and still get that $1500 off their taxes.

Graham: Now, let’s say I want to replace my old water heater. How much could I get back in tax credit next year?

Kweller: 30%, up to $1500 – that’s if the water heater cost $5000, which probably it’s not that expensive.

Graham: This is a tax credit, not a tax deduction. What’s the difference?

Kweller: That is correct. A tax deduction means you take the amount off your taxable income and then you’re taxed on a lower amount of income. A tax credit is worth more, because once you have calculated the tax that you owe, it’s a dollar for dollar reduction in that tax bill.

Graham: What kind of energy efficiencies make the most sense for a home? If I’m looking at my house, where should I start making changes first?

Kweller: The thing that we usually recommend as the first step is to seal and tighten up the house with sufficient insulation for your climate region. And then sealing leaks and cracks around doors and windows with sealing product, such as caulking, weather-stripping, and foam sealants. And the good news is that all those types of products are now eligible for these tax credits. Again, assuming that they meet the standards that are in the law.

Graham: We tend to think of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program as an assurance we’re buying an energy efficient product, but I understand not all Energy Star labeled products qualify for these tax credits.

Kweller: That’s correct. The one change that makes life a little bit more complicated for consumers is that under the old law, all energy star windows qualified for a tax credit. Now, there are certain additional requirements for the windows, as well as for the heating and cooling equipment. So, you can’t just go buy the Energy Star label, you really have to look at the very specific energy efficiency levels that these products must meet.

Graham: So, if I need details on that kind of requirement, where’s the best place to find them?

Kweller: One of the best places would be the Alliance Energy’s website at ase.org/taxcredits. We’ve made a great effort to have a user-friendly website that spells out the criteria in very clear language. The Energy Star website at energystar.gov is always very helpful in general on energy efficiency, as is the Department of Energy’s Energy Saver’s Booklet, which is at energysavers.gov.

Graham: Alright, thanks for joining us.

Kweller: Thank you.

Graham: Ronnie Kweller is with the Alliance to Save Energy. I’m Lester Graham.

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Opening Up New Waters for Whale Hunts?

  • Mother-calf pair of "Type C" orcas in the Ross Sea. (Photo by Robert Pitman, NOAA)

Japan kills more whales than any other country in the world. A new proposal would allow Japanese whalers to hunt off their county’s coasts. Mark Brush reports – some think opening up these waters to whale hunts is a bad idea:

Transcript

Japan kills more whales than any other country in the world. A new proposal would allow Japanese whalers to hunt off their county’s coasts. Mark Brush reports – some think opening up these waters to whale hunts is a bad idea:

The International Whaling Commission passed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. But it allowed some countries to kill whales for what it calls scientific study.

Japanese boats kill hundreds of minke whales in the southern ocean under this designation. Critics say there’s nothing scientific about these hunts.

Now, the Commission wants to stop Japan from killing whales in the southern ocean. Phasing out these so-called scientific whale hunts. But in exchange, they might let the country openly hunt whales off its own coasts.

Jonathan Stern is with the American Cetacean Society. He says whale populations could take a hit, if Japan is allowed to start hunting in these waters:

“I’m just afraid once their fleet starts operating. They’re going to want to take more whales and more different species of whales.”

Japan has long maintained that these hunts are part of their cultural heritage. The International Whaling Commission will meet next month to decide the issue.

For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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Google’s Power Meter

  • Google's new smart meter technology will eventually let consumers see how much energy each appliance (like a fridge) in their home uses, in order to help them find ways to reduce their monthly bill. (Photo by M. Minderhoud, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

There’s 11-billion dollars in the new economic stimulus plan for upgrades to the electric grid and so-called smart meters. These smart meters hook up to your home and give the utility company real-time feedback on how much energy you’re using. Rebecca Williams reports Google is working on a way to let you see that information:

Transcript

There’s 11-billion dollars in the new economic stimulus plan for upgrades to the electric grid and so-called smart meters. These smart meters hook up to your home and give the utility company real-time feedback on how much energy you’re using. Rebecca Williams reports Google is working on a way to let you see that information:

Google’s system is called PowerMeter. It’s in beta testing right now but the idea is: if you get a smart meter, you’ll be able to see exactly how much energy your TV, fridge and computer use.

The system will hook into the info utility companies draw from your home. Then, you can log into your secure i-Google website, for free. And get real-time feedback so you can figure out how to spend less on your power bill.

Kirsten Cahill is a program manager at Google. She says they’ve been testing the PowerMeter around the office:

“I think people are surprised about things like their oven; how much the oven uses or the microwave. Things that you using every day that are actually, you know, pretty huge energy users.”

It’ll probably be a year or more before the Google system is open to everybody.

For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Communities Welcome Wilderness

  • Eric Fernandez of Oregon Wild says wild areas still allow for a lot of activity - "just leave your chainsaws and bulldozers at home." (Photo by Sadie Babits)

More than two million acres in nine states could soon become permanent wilderness. Congress is expected to vote on the plan today. Sadie Babits recently visited one of the sites, Mount Hood in Oregon:

Transcript

More than two million acres in nine states could soon become permanent wilderness. Congress is expected to vote on the plan today. Sadie Babits recently visited one of the sites, Mount Hood in Oregon:

A steady stream of traffic runs through the small town of Sandy, Oregon every day.

It’s known as the “Gateway to Mount Hood.”

This used to be a town of lumberjacks. The timber industry was king here.

And a wilderness designation means no logging.

“It wasn’t that long ago that this was a mill town so for the city council unanimously support wilderness is an interesting thing.”

That’s Scott Lazenby. He’s the town’s city manager. He says in the past a wilderness proposal would end up in a Paul Bunyan sized tussle.

But Lazenby says the city council saw real benefits to having wilderness in Sandy’s backyard.

“We do have a watershed that our city water comes from. It’s important to protect that and part of that watershed would be protected by the wilderness bill.”

Not only that. Lazenby says these days, it’s not timber – it’s tourism that brings money to Sandy.

“Even though the number of people who can go into wilderness is relatively limited, the presence of wilderness is a very positive thing.”

Under a massive bundle of bills now before Congress, 127,000 acres surrounding Mount Hood would become wilderness along with other sites across the nation.

“Right now we’re standing in White River Canyon and in the winter this is a really popular place for cross country skiing, snow showing.”

That’s Eric Fernandez. He’s the wilderness coordinator for Oregon Wild – a conservation group out of Portland.

He says a wilderness designation still leaves a place open to all kinds of activities hunting fishing camping.

“You just have to leave your chainsaw and bulldozer at home.”

Fernandez says, yes, this entire area will mean clean drinking water, and wildlife protection.

“But in this instance, the reason I’m so excited about protecting this area of White River Canyon as wilderness is because it has the world’s best sledding habitat.”

Yep, he said sledding – like tobogganing. There’s nobody sledding today.

But, we did bump into Jeff McKnown, who’s out skiing.

“It’s great to come here on the weekday when no one is here.”

McKnown says he loves the trees and the snow so bright it hurts your eyes.
He’s been escaping to White River canyon when he can for the last fifteen years.

“You know when you have a wife and five kids these moments are pretty precious.”

The law that makes wilderness designations possible has been around since 1964. There are more than 700 wilderness areas in 44 states.

But Oregon has lagged behind. Even conservative Idaho has more wilderness than the more progressive Oregon.

Mike Matz thinks that could change. He leads the ‘Campaign for America’s Wilderness’. It’s been pushing for the new wilderness designations before Congress.

“It’s really become amazingly so a motherhood and apple pie issue. This is something that Republicans and Democrats alike have gotten strongly behind.”

And from Oregon’s Mount Hood, to rolling hills in West Virginia, from red rock country in southern Utah, to sand dunes along the Great Lakes – it looks like Congress will preserve two million acres more as wilderness.

For The Environment Report, I’m Sadie Babits.

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Noisier Oceans Bad for Whales

  • Beluga whale (Delphinaptherus leucas) with its mouth wide open, White Sea, Russia, Kareliya. (© Andrey Nekrasov / WWF-Canon)

Scientists say the oceans are
getting noisier. The racket threatens
whales and other marine mammals that
communicate through sound. Nancy
Greenleese reports:

Transcript

Scientists say the oceans are
getting noisier. The racket threatens
whales and other marine mammals that
communicate through sound. Nancy
Greenleese reports:


The oceans are already noisy from military sonars and oil and gas exploration. Scientists say it could get worse. Some of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, is getting soaked up by the oceans and seas. The carbon dioxide makes the water more acidic. Sound travels through that acidic water more easily. A UN climate change panel recently issued a report raising concerns about the chemistry change. Mark Simmonds of the Whale and Dolphin Conversation Society says already there’s an “acoustic fog” in the world’s waters.

“The ambient noise levels in the oceans because of pH are likely to rise. This is a very unexpected finding. They’re anticipating that marine mammals will have further problems communicating.”

The noise confuses marine mammals. So, they’re beaching themselves and running into ships more often.

For The Environment Report, I’m Nancy Greenleese.

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