Pete Beckman says even with some of the fastest computers in the world, the model of the spill could take days to finish. (Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)
Oil from the big spill in the Gulf of Mexico is starting to turn up in places people did not expect.
That’s making it tough for cleanup crews to stay one step ahead of the oil.
Shawn Allee reports some scientists hope supercomputers might help.<
Transcript
Oil from the big spill in the Gulf of Mexico is starting to turn up in places people did not expect.
That’s making it tough for cleanup crews to stay one step ahead of the oil.
Shawn Allee reports some scientists hope supercomputers might help.
Scientists want to put together a 3D picture of what the gulf oil plume looks like, and they’re using new computer code and supercomputers to do it.
The numbers are getting crunched at Argonne national laboratory outside Chicago.
Pete Beckman runs the computing center there.
He says satellites and water samples give us some information, but we could really use a more complete picture.
“If we know for example that, because of eddies and currents, that things will accumulate at a particular map location, well, that’s where you would send the booms to soak up the oil. If you can concentrate your resources in one place, you’re much more effective.”
Beckman says even with some of the fastest computers in the world, the model of the spill could take days to finish.
Hurricane Rita in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005. (Photo courtesy of
Jeff Schmaltz, NASA/GSFC )
Hurricane season starts soon. Experts predict an active season with four “major” hurricanes. What happens if a storm hits while there’s still an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? Tanya Ott reports.
Transcript
Hurricane season starts soon. Experts predict an active season with four “major” hurricanes. What happens if a storm hits while there’s still an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? Tanya Ott reports.
If a tropical storm hits while there’s still oil in the water, it could disastrous for the coastline and several miles inland. Mark Wysocki is a Cornell University climatologist.
“All that oil would get into the marshlands and some of the homeowners’ properties and so forth and that would make it very difficult then to remove that oil from those types of locations.”
When Katrina hit Louisiana it destroyed some of the oil distributor piping, and they’re still cleaning up in some of the wetland areas.
Wysocki says the one upside is that oil makes it harder for water to evaporate. Tropical storms need evaporation to build strength. So an oil spill might actually keep storms smaller.
The gulf region is the world's largest producer of oysters and shrimp(Photo courtesy of the NOAA)
When an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana exploded last week, gulf coast officials knew they had a problem on their hands. But as Tanya Ott reports from Alabama, everyday they find it’s worse than they originally thought.
Transcript
When an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana exploded last week, gulf coast officials knew they had a problem on their hands. But as Tanya Ott reports from Alabama, everyday they find it’s worse than they originally thought.
It’s estimated more than 200-thousand gallons of oil are spewing out of the well each day. Cleaning up using chemicals causes problems because it might make it easier for marine animals to eat the oil. Burning the oil on the water is not great either. Casi Callaway is with the environmental group Mobile Baykeeper.
“The air quality impacts from it and therefore the health impacts from it are great – and frankly unknown.”
It’s not just an environmental crisis. It’s an economic crisis. This area is the world’s largest producer of oysters and shrimp. And the pristine gulf coast beaches fuel a tourism industry worth 20-billion dollars a year.
This wildfire ignited along Idaho Highway 55 and was started by people. Scientists say as the climate warms, fires like this one will become common place in many parts of the world. (Photo by Sadie Babits)
Moments after this fire started, flames raced through dried sage brush and grasses on an Idaho hillside. This fire burned close to homes and was quickly put out. (Photo by Sadie Babits)
Wildfire burn so intense they often create their own weather system. Here, this towering column of "clouds" is actually smoke seen from an Idaho ski resort. (Photo by Sadie Babits)
Multiple wildfires merged into one massive blaze in Idaho's central mountains. Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes. (Photo by Sadie Babits)
This bank of clouds is really a bank of smoke created by a massive wildfire in Idaho. Climate change is expected to increase wildfires in the Western U.S. while decreasing the chance of fire in other regions. (Photo by Sadie Babits)
A helicopter uses a water bucket to scoop up river water to put out a wildfire burning through Idaho forest land. (Photo by Sadie Babits)
Climate change has already brought
warmer temperatures, rising sea
levels and melting glaciers. Now,
researchers believe global warming
will cause major shifts in wildfire
patterns around the world. As Sadie
Babits reports, scientists hope to
predict where future wildfires will
light up:
Transcript
Climate change has already brought
warmer temperatures, rising sea
levels and melting glaciers. Now,
researchers believe global warming
will cause major shifts in wildfire
patterns around the world. As Sadie
Babits reports, scientists hope to
predict where future wildfires will
light up:
Trying to predict where wildfires are likely to start decades from now, is
kind of like getting a full body scan.
(sound of medical scanner)
Except instead of a medical scanner, scientists scanned the earth using
satellite data, climate models and the history of present day wildfires to
map out global wildfire patterns.
“The impacts of climate change on wildfires are expected to be widespread
around the world.”
Katherine Hayhoe is a climate scientist at Texas Tech University. She’s part
of a group of scientists that has for the first time, tried to project where fire
hotspots will crop up around the world. She says they found that climate
change will affect wildfire patterns.
Hotter temperatures and rain and snow coming at different times in the
year or perhaps not at all, will mean forests and grasslands will dry out
quicker – becoming tinder boxes for fire.
In the next 30 years, scientists believe that the Western U.S. will continue
to see catastrophic fires like the recent blaze in Santa Barbara, which
destroyed 80 homes.
In the next 60 years, they predict wildfires will increase in the Corn Belt and
spread into the East Coast.
Hayhoe says having an idea of how wildfire patterns will shift will help
communities better prepare.
“We can never eliminate the risk of climate change entirely but by making
wise choices and planning strategically we can minimize those risks.”
Some communities are already taking steps to prevent wildfire. The city of
Bend, Oregon was one of the first in the country to launch a public
education campaign to get homeowners to fire proof their homes. The
program, called FireFree, started more than a decade ago, after a massive
wildfire burned nineteen homes and scorched thousands of acres.
“It was something that scarred our community.”
Gary Marshall is the deputy chief of Bend’s Fire Department.
“We have this history of people wanting to live outside the urban area and
live out in rural areas, where they can see the deer and be out in the trees
and live that lifestyle that most Americans who move out to the West want
to be a part of that.”
Bend lies in what’s known as wildfire alley. Every year there are dozens of
fires that crop up either from lightning strikes or from people. The flames
are fed by dried out grasses and forests so dense you can’t see through
them. Add homes to the mix and you have a recipe for disaster not just
here but throughout the West.
But Marshall says the Fire Free program is working.
(sound of a truck driving on a dirt road)
County forester Joe Stutler and Gary Marshall drive me through
neighborhoods outside Bend. We stop first at an upscale suburb called
Coldera Springs. Everyone here has volunteered to fire proof their new
homes.
But just down the road, there’s a much older suburb and a lot of trees that
have been thinned out.
Sadie: “You can’t see through the trees it’s so dense.”
Joe: “You can’t walk through.”
Gary: “And a firefighter won’t go in there. You’d write that off. So if you
don’t take care of it, the fire will.”
That’s a picture that climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe hopes to avoid.
She says having a long term view of where wildfires might pop up could
help communities to start now and follow Bend’s lead.
It took Bend years to get most of the homeowners here to take
responsibility, and give their homes a fighting change to survive a
devastating blaze.
Adult emerald ash borer (Photo by David Cappaert, Michigan State University, courtesy of the Michigan Department of Agriculture)
The emerald ash borer has eaten through
millions of trees in the US and is spreading
west. Erin Toner has more:
Transcript
The emerald ash borer has eaten through
millions of trees in the US and is spreading
west. Erin Toner has more:
For six long years, the tiny metallic-green emerald ash borer has been a killing machine,
starting with millions of ash trees in Michigan and Canada, and then munching its way
into 10 states.
It was recently discovered in Missouri, and now, it’s in Wisconsin.
The prognosis is not good.
Darrell Zastrow is with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
“Our forests are not typically resilient against non-native species and that is true for
the emerald ash borer. It is generally considered to be a poster child for invasive
species.”
Officials in Wisconsin are doing what everyone else has done – restricting the movement
of firewood and telling people how to protect their trees.
Some promising treatments to fight the emerald ash borer are being tested, but so far,
nothing has worked at keeping the insect from spreading west.
Researchers have created a genetically
modified mosquito. Rebecca Williams reports the
scientists hope the mosquito will help save lives:
Transcript
Researchers have created a genetically
modified mosquito. Rebecca Williams reports the
scientists hope the mosquito will help save lives:
Malaria kills more than one million people every year. The disease is
spread by mosquitoes.
Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena is a researcher at Johns Hopkins Malaria
Research Institute. He’s part of a team that has bred a genetically
modified mosquito. It can’t get infected by the malaria parasite.
“If we go to a region where malaria is prevalent and we are able to
substitute the local mosquito population by the modified mosquito that
cannot carry the parasite, then the net effect will be interruption of
transmission.”
Jacobs-Lorena says they’re confident the super mosquito is safe to
release into the wild.
But he says they’ll have to convince a lot of people that it’s okay to let it
out of the lab.
Signs of VHS, from the Michigan DNR (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
Despite efforts to stop it, there’s a new
indication a nasty fish virus is spreading. Christina
Shockley has the latest:
Transcript
Despite efforts to stop it, there’s a new
indication a nasty fish virus is spreading. Christina
Shockley has the latest:
The name even sounds scary: viral hemorrhagic septicemia. It causes fish to bleed to
death.
VHS has been in the Great Lakes for at least three years. Officials have been trying
to confine it to the Great Lakes basin, but now it’s spread into central Ohio.
Elmer Heyob is with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
He says the worst-case scenario is that VHS could get into a hatchery that stocks fish
for lakes and streams, and that cloud hurt the region’s economy.
“First the hatcheries, then the fishery, then the people that support the fishery, the
boating industry, it just goes on and on.”
Heyob says to stop VHS from spreading, you shouldn’t move fish from one lake to
another, and you should clean boating and fishing equipment before you move to a
different lake.
Researchers believe eventually fish build up immunity to the disease.
VHS does not pose a threat to people.
For The Environment Report, I’m Christina Shockley.
Zebra mussels were discovered 20 years ago, and have since spread across the country (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
Researchers say they’ve found something
that will kill invasive zebra and quagga mussels.
The mussels got into the US in the ballast of
foreign ships. Since then they’ve spread throughout
the country. Rebecca Williams reports:
Transcript
Researchers say they’ve found something
that will kill invasive zebra and quagga mussels.
The mussels got into the US in the ballast of
foreign ships. Since then they’ve spread throughout
the country. Rebecca Williams reports:
So, let’s say you have a nasty pest, an invasive species. Then someone says, we can get rid of that
pest and it looks like there’s no environmental downside.
“It kinda sounds like snake oil. But it’s true.”
That’s Dan Molloy with the New York State Museum lab. He’s come up with a
way to kill zebra and quagga mussels.
Molloy says a strain of common bacteria is toxic to zebra and quagga
mussels. And, even if the bacteria are dead, they can still kill the
mussels.
“You know maybe horror stories of people applying biocontrol agents. And it
had effects they didn’t anticipate. We’re applying dead cells. And they’re
just as effective live or dead.”
It’s great news for power plants, because the mussels clog up intake
pipes.
But it’s not clear if the bacteria can kill mussels in open water.
Adult emerald ash borer (Photo by David Cappaert, Michigan State University, courtesy of the Michigan Department of Agriculture)
There might be a new weapon to use against a
destructive pest. Rebecca Williams reports the emerald
ash borer has killed more than 30 million ash trees in
eight states and Ontario:
Transcript
There might be a new weapon to use against a
destructive pest. Rebecca Williams reports the emerald
ash borer has killed more than 30 million ash trees in
eight states and Ontario:
No one’s been able to stop the tiny green beetle from killing trees. But
officials are hoping a new insecticide will help.
Researchers at Michigan State University ran trials for one year with a
chemical called Tree-age. In those tests, the insecticide killed all of the
beetles. The state of Michigan has approved the insecticide for use on ash
trees. Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia are also considering it.
Jim Bowes is with the Michigan Department of Agriculture. He says the
emerald ash borer probably can’t be stopped, but the insecticide might
slow the beetle’s spread.
“Nobody here and I don’t think anybody in the federal government at this
point is talking about eradication. I think everybody is talking about how
are we going to coexist?”
Bowes says the insecticide might be able to save trees in your yard, if
the infestation is caught early enough.
A foreign invasive species is spreading to new areas. It’s a snail that could spread in huge numbers and compete with fish for food. The GLRC’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
A foreign invasive species is spreading to new areas. It’s a snail that could
spread in huge numbers and compete with fish for food. The GLRC’s Mike
Simonson reports:
The New Zealand Mudsnail has made its way to Lake Superior. It had already
been identified in Lake Ontario. These snails become dense on a river or lake
bottom. Minnesota Seagrant Aquatic Species expert Doug Jensen says it’s like
having half a million in the space of a bathtub. They can squeeze out bottom
dwelling organisms that fish eat. Jensen says native fish eat New Zealand
Mudsnails, but the fish don’t digest them:
“They can pass through the guts of fish and potentially waterfowl and then
survive that situation and then breed in a new location, where ever they’re
deposited. They reproduce asexually. They produce clones of themselves; they
don’t need a male to establish a new colony.”
The snails are the latest on a long list of invasive species that have likely been
carried in by foreign ships.
Pete Beckman says even with some of the fastest computers in the world, the model of the spill could take days to finish. (Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)
