The external bleeding on this freshwater drum fish is a result of VHS. Not all fish with the disease will bleed like this. Many will die of internal bleeding. (Photo by John Lumsden, University of Guelph)
One state is halting some fish stocking programs to stop the spread of a virulent fish disease. Steve Carmody reports that might mean fewer fish in some lakes and streams:
Transcript
One state is halting some fish stocking programs to stop the spread of
a virulent fish disease. Steve Carmody reports that might mean fewer
fish in some lakes and streams:
A disease called Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia has been spreading,
killing a lot of fish in some parts of the Great Lakes. The state of
Michigan is imposing a one year moratorium on hatchery production and
stocking of walleye, northern pike and muskies. That’s about five million fish.
Other Great Lakes states are taking steps as well to protect their fish
hatcheries. But Michigan is the only state taking the extraordinary
step of imposing a moratorium.
Gary Whelan is with Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
“If this disease would happen to get into one of our hatcheries, we
would have to disinfect in entire, depopulate and disinfect an entire
hatchery. Which means that hatchery would be out of business for two
years.”
Whelan speculates that VHS was introduced to the Great Lakes by an
ocean going vessel emptying its ballast tanks.
A mountaintop removal coal mine encroaching on a small community in West Virginia. (Photo by Vivian Stockman / ohvec.org, flyover thanks to SouthWings)
Another view of the mine. Environmental groups oppose mountaintop removal because it damages mountains and surrounding valleys. (Photo by Vivian Stockman / ohvec.org, flyover thanks to SouthWings)
The recent ruling makes blasting mountaintops to extract coal illegal in most cases. (Photo by Vivian Stockman / ohvec.org, flyover thanks to SouthWings)
Environmentalists are praising a court ruling that makes blasting the tops off mountains to extract coal illegal in most cases. Fred Kight reports:
Transcript
Environmentalists are praising a court ruling that makes blasting the
tops off mountains to extract coal illegal in most cases. Fred Kight reports:
Mountaintop removal coal mining is less expensive and safer than
underground mining, so coal companies have been using it more often.
But environmental groups oppose mountaintop removal because it damages
mountains and surrounding valleys, and Joe Lovett with the Appalachian
Center for the Economy and the Environment says in most cases, it’s
against federal law:
“I’m saying that it will be much less common because Congress intended
mountaintop removal mines to be the exception rather than the rule.”
Recently, a judge agreed, at least with cases involving four mines in
West Virginia. The judge ruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated
federal law by failing to adequately determine whether the environment
would be harmed. Lovett anticipates an appeal of the ruling.
A national baby food company is looking to increase its line of organic products. But first it has to find more organic apples. And, as Bob Allen reports, that might encourage some growers to put more acres into organic
crops:
Transcript
A national baby food company is looking to increase its
line of organic products. But first it has to find more
organic apples. And, as Bob Allen reports, that might
encourage some growers to put more acres into organic
crops:
Gerber Baby Foods is trying to meet demand for more organic
product, but growers aren’t likely to go organic unless the
price makes it worth their while.
Jim Koan says Gerber will add stability to the market. He
grows organic apples in Michigan, and he says he can’t
always trust local markets to do what they say they’re
going to do:
“We’re going to want to buy your product and it’s local and
regional and blah blah this and that. And then in a second
breath if somebody else comes along from another state
that’s selling a little bit cheaper all of a sudden you’ve
lost your home for your fruit that you were growing for
them.”
Gerber is based in the Midwest. A contract with Gerber
would give growers in the region some assurance they have a
place to sell their fruit. Right now, most organic apples
are shipped from Washington state.
Undoubtedly you’ve been asked “Paper or plastic,” at the grocery store.
Paper bags use trees and take lots of energy to produce. Plastic bags are cheaper, and take less energy to produce, but they’re made from petroleum and create litter problems. As Tamara Keith reports, shoppers in one city soon won’t have plastic as an option:
Transcript
Undoubtedly you’ve been asked, “Paper or plastic?” at the grocery store.
Paper bags use trees and take lots of energy to produce. Plastic bags are cheaper and take less energy to produce, but they’re made from petroleum,
and create litter problems. As Tamara Keith reports, shoppers in one city
soon won’t have plastic as an option:
Instead of plastic bags, groceries in San Francisco will soon be packed
in recycled paper bags, or compostable bags made from corn starch or
potato starch. Legislation recently approved by the San Francisco
board of supervisors will make the city the first in the nation to ban
plastic shopping bags, first at grocery stores, followed 6 months later
by large drug stores.
Jared Blumenfeld is director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment:
“It’s a great alternative to plastic. It sends a great message
that we can do small things in our lives to combat climate change. And
people love it here in San Francisco. They’re like, why did it take so
long.”
Blumenfeld says it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to make 100 million
plastic bags, and San Francisco stores hand out nearly twice that many
each year. The new bags will be able to go into curbside compost bins,
and Blumenfeld says he hopes the change will keep tons of waste out of
landfills.
Grocery chains oppose the change and say it stymies their efforts to
get customers to recycle plastic bags. They say the new bags will be
more expensive and they may have to pass those costs along to their
customers.
Recyclers say they hear all the time from people who want to recycle more of the
plastic containers they get from the store. But it’s not easy. In many places,
bottles are the only plastic packaging that’s accepted for recycling. Rebecca
Williams reports some people are looking for ways to give plastic packaging a
new life:
Transcript
Recyclers say they hear all the time from people who want to recycle more of the
plastic containers they get from the store. But it’s not easy. In many places,
bottles are the only plastic packaging that’s accepted for recycling. Rebecca
Williams reports some people are looking for ways to give plastic packaging a
new life:
Maybe you’ve noticed most of the bottles you buy have either a number 1 or a number 2 on the bottom. The number ones are usually things such as water or soda bottles… the number twos usually hold products such as milk or laundry soap.
You’ve might’ve also noticed some other products have other numbers on the
bottom. But your town probably won’t take anything for recycling that’s not a
number one or two and a bottle.
Part of the problem is that most of the time when people design plastic
packaging, they’re usually not thinking about recycling. They’re thinking about
making it lightweight and convenient and making it look good on the shelf.
Some people think that’s not enough. That’s because plastic is mostly made from
oil and other fossil fuels. And someday we’re going to run out.
Anne Johnson directs the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. She’s working with
about a hundred companies to rethink the way they package their products.
“Using a resource that’s 100 million years old for something with a 60 day shelf
life is not very temporally compatible.”
Johnson says plastic packaging should be designed to be more easily recyclable or
reusable, or made out of renewable materials. She says right now, we just think
of plastic wrapping as something to rip off and throw away to get to the good
stuff.
“It’s the wrap around the bread or bottle around the shampoo we’re interested in
and we don’t convey the value of the materials – the fact they’re made from
nonrenewable resources – to consumers.”
Johnson says of course companies still have to think about cost and performance.
But she says making packaging more recyclable or reusable is a smart business
decision.
“If you invest in a resource but you can extend the value of it over a longer period
of time, your money’s working harder for you and I think it is going to make
sense for the future. We’re talking about a lot of people cohabitating the planet
with us and demand for resources and energy is going to soar.”
Some analysts say packaging changes are already being driven by the world’s
biggest retailer. In 2005, WalMart announced plans to rate its 60,000 suppliers
on their packaging choices.
Patty Moore is president of Moore Recycling Associates. She’s a plastics recycling
consultant.
“We’ve seen WalMart get very serious about requiring their suppliers to provide
them with packaging that is sustainable. That has had a lot of ripple effects out
into the marketplace and folks are now looking to source recycled content
whenever they can.”
Moore says technically most kinds of plastic packaging could be recycled. But
there are lots of obstacles.
“If we collect all this material do we just then hope there will be a market for it?
Or do we try to develop a market for it and then try to collect enough to make it
worthwhile?”
Besides the chicken and egg question of recyclables and markets… there are also
the design challenges. Packaging is designed to look good and to protect the
product. Sometimes that might mean there are layers of different kinds of
material in plastic packaging. And that can make the package harder to recycle.
Sue Selke is a professor of packaging at Michigan State University.
“We do have a lot more complex packaging structures and very often that’s what’s
permitting us to use less material to make packages. So there’s an inherent
conflict between minimizing materials going into the package and maximizing
the recyclability of packages.”
So companies actually want to use less material in packaging but sometimes it
means using material that’s not recyclable.
Some environmentalists say companies should work harder to use packaging that
performs well and can be recycled.
Manufacturers might be looking at that idea a little more seriously. That’s
because as oil prices rise, the price for virgin plastic will also go up. And that
might create a stronger market for recycled plastic.
Packaging experts say that more and more of what we buy at the store comes wrapped in plastic. But it’s not always clear what you can do with that empty plastic container once you’re finished with it. Rebecca Williams visits some experts to sort out the confusion about recycling plastic:
Transcript
Packaging experts say that more and more of what we buy at the store comes
wrapped in plastic. But it’s not always clear what you can do with that empty
plastic container once you’re finished with it. Rebecca Williams visits some
experts to sort out the confusion about recycling plastic:
Next time you have a plastic bottle in your hand, check out the bottom. You’ll
probably find a little number with a recycle symbol around it. You might think:
great, this is recyclable. But it turns out those handy little symbols aren’t meant
for us consumers at all.
“It’s created nothing but trouble through history because people see that and
think it means the container is recyclable.”
Patty Moore is president of Moore Recycling Associates. It’s a consulting firm
that focuses on plastics recycling. She says those little numbers were put in place
so the recycling industry could know what kind of plastic the bottles were made
out of. It doesn’t mean that the plastic is actually recyclable.
“They put the recycling symbol on there to distinguish it from other symbols that
might be on the bottle… didn’t even say that the kind of plastic it was, was
necessarily recyclable. It was just a code so recyclers could identify the resin.”
So even if you see that recycle symbol… it doesn’t mean that container can go in
the recycling bin.
Moore says recycling plastic packaging is tricky. That’s because all plastics are
not created equal. They’re made of different resins. They often melt at different
temperatures, so they have to be recycled separately. If they’re recyclable at all.
Patty Moore says in the U.S., we’re doing a pretty decent job of recycling plastic
bottles. She says most cities are happy to take your soda bottles, milk jugs and
detergent containers. Usually that means any bottle that has a narrow neck, and
a little 1 or 2 on the bottom.
But then it gets really complicated.
There are those numbers 3 through 7. And sometimes you’ll see something with
a number one on it, but it’s not a bottle with a narrow neck. Or maybe there’s no
number at all.
I packed a bunch of those confusing containers into one giant plastic bag and
went to see Melinda Uerling. She runs a nonprofit recycling center near my
house.
First up, a cookie container with a number one on it and a recycle symbol, just
like you see on soda bottles. I’ve tried to recycle it in the past.
“Oh I’m glad you brought this! It’s one of those containers for cakes or cookies.
It’s not recyclable like soda bottles.”
Uerling says my cookie container has slightly different chemical properties from
soda bottles. So even though the container looks like it should be perfectly
recyclable, it’s not at all.
“So we’ve got a blue plastic plate, doesn’t even have a symbol on it. Again,
something that’s not recyclable. (RW: So, landfill?) Yup, landfill.”
“Bubble wrap! (pops some) Everyone’s going to be jealous… we take this but
there’s a better use for it. If you can reuse it it’s better than recycling… it’s not at
the end of its useful life.”
So you can keep the bubble wrap and use it again.
(snapping sound of bubble wrap)
It turns out all these plastic bags I brought are recyclable. But you usually can’t
put them in a curbside bin for pickup. You have to bring them to a drop-off
center – or back to the store. That’s if you can find where you’re supposed to put
them.
“You know a lot of grocery stores used to accept them in house, and I think
there’s a trend away from that because it was more of a contamination problem
than anything else. People would see open receptacle and put other types of bags
or trash. At the grocery store I go to there’s a collection point but they just don’t
advertise it the way they used to.”
Uerling says the bottom line with all these containers is whether they can be
recycled into something new. For example, those grocery bags might be mixed
with wood pulp and made into plastic lumber.
“You know, what’s out there? Is somebody making something out of this and can
sell it, that’s what really drives demand and whether we can collect it and turn
around and recycle it.”
So it’s still so confusing, you might feel like throwing the whole pile of stuff away.
But Melinda Uerling says there are a few things you can do instead. She says you
can start by badgering your local officials to look for new local markets for plastic
containers.
Uerling says you can also vote with your dollars, and avoid buying packaging
that’s not easily recyclable. Or try to buy packaging with some recycled content to
help create demand for it.
Zebra mussels continue to plague many of the nation’s waterways,
crowding out native aquatic life and aggravating fishermen and
engineers. But Brian Bull reports that the invasive species might play
a key part in the surgery room:
Transcript
Zebra mussels continue to plague many of the nation’s waterways,
crowding out native aquatic life and aggravating fishermen and
engineers. But Brian Bull reports that the invasive species might play
a key part in the surgery room:
The Nerites Corporation specializes in bio-degradable, waterproof
tissue adhesives. The concept is familiar if you’ve ever superglued
your fingers together.
The Madison, Wisconsin company is currently developing an adhesive that
could be used in complex heart surgeries, to seal, attach, or re-join
blood vessels. CEO Thomas Mozer says they’ve based their research on
zebra mussels, which attach themselves to surfaces like ship’s hulls
and water intake pipes.
“They adhere to surfaces underwater in the rather messy environment of
the ocean or lakeshore. Where the zebra mussels attach to surfaces.
The kind of environment where synthetic adhesives made by man – prior
to ours coming along – wouldn’t work.”
Mozer predicts it’ll be about three years before the tissue adhesive is
perfected for use in hospitals and clinics.
A new study predicts global warming will prompt some types of climates
to disappear from parts of the world. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
A new study predicts global warming will prompt some types of climates
to disappear from parts of the world. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Scientists asked that if the planet warms up, where would new climates
be created and where would existing climates disappear? Geography
professor Jack Williams heads a research team at the University of
Wisconsin and University of Wyoming.
Using computer modeling, he predicts by the year 2100,the main changes
will be in low-lying tropical areas, at the top of very high
mountains, and at the poles:
“So the warmest areas get warmer and are first to move outside the
range of what we experience at present and then the coldest areas,
also get warmer… so that these sets of cool or cold climates
disappear as we move to a warmer world.”
Williams says where climates disappear, that will put local species in
danger. He says it’s not clear what the new climates will be like.
One of the nation’s largest electric utilities is planning to reduce
carbon dioxide pollution at two of its coal-fired plants using a new
technology. Fred Kight reports:
Transcript
One of the nation’s largest electric utilities is planning to reduce
carbon dioxide pollution at two of its coal-fired plants using a new
technology. Fred Kight reports:
American Electric Power will install what it calls “carbon capture,”
first at a plant in West Virginia and then at one in Oklahoma. AEP
says it’s the first company to use this technology on a commercial
scale.
Carbon dioxide will be removed from smokestack emissions and injected
9,000 feet into the ground. With the possibility of federal
legislation on greenhouse gases looming, AEP says it’s the right time
for carbon capture.
AEP’s Pat Hemlepp says this kind of thing is already being done by
companies storing natural gas underground:
“What we’re going to be doing with the CO2 is storing it even deeper in
saline aquafers under high pressure… so we’re not concerned.”
A government lab has unveiled the first global system to track
greenhouse gas emissions. Rebecca Williams reports scientists hope the
system will be the next step in cutting emissions that have been linked
to global warming:
Transcript
A government lab has unveiled the first global system to track
greenhouse gas emissions. Rebecca Williams reports scientists hope the
system will be the next step in cutting emissions that have been linked
to global warming:
The system’s called Carbon Tracker. It pulls in data from sampling
stations around the world and creates maps. The maps show carbon
dioxide emissions from both natural sources and manmade sources such as
burning fossil fuels.
Carbon dioxide – or CO2 – is a potent greenhouse gas.
Pieter Tans is a climate scientist with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. He says the goal of Carbon Tracker is to
have an accurate measure of manmade CO2 emissions… down to the state
and city level.
“If this indeed works out as I hope it will, we will have an objective
tool to measure the effectiveness of whatever it is that we’re doing.”
Pieter Tans says the carbon tracker system might pave the way for
policies such as a carbon tax or a cap and trade system for CO2
emissions.
The external bleeding on this freshwater drum fish is a result of VHS. Not all fish with the disease will bleed like this. Many will die of internal bleeding. (Photo by John Lumsden, University of Guelph)
