How To Clean Up Fish Farms And Raise More Seafood At The Same Time

Richard Harris — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:04:00 +0000

Last month, we told you about companies that are growing salmon on dry land. That's an effective — but expensive — way to reduce water pollution caused by fish farms.

Gizmo Uses Lung Cells To Sniff Out Health Hazards In Urban Air

Richard Harris — Fri, 31 May 2013 17:18:00 +0000

Cities like Houston are dotted with air-sniffing monitors that measure levels of benzene and other potentially unhealthy air pollutants. But those monitors can't answer the question we care about most: Is the air safe?

That's because there's no simple relationship between toxic air pollutants and health risks. Researchers at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill are trying to get a leg up on that problem.

Houston's Petrochemical Industry, Source Of Jobs And Smog

Richard Harris — Fri, 31 May 2013 09:16:00 +0000

Houston's air quality improved dramatically over the past decade, but the city is still short of meeting the latest smog standards. Getting there isn't simply a matter of cracking down more on the petrochemical industry — the city needs to deal with cars on its sprawling roads, and bad air blowing from out of town.

Breathing Easier: How Houston Is Working To Clean Up Its Air

Richard Harris — Thu, 30 May 2013 07:01:00 +0000

The Houston area produces about a quarter of the nation's gasoline, and about a third of the plastics that are in our cars, cupboards and just about everywhere else. So it is no surprise that this heavily industrial area has a problem with air pollution.

Go Fish (Somewhere Else): Warming Oceans Are Altering Catches

Richard Harris — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:06:00 +0000

Climate change is gradually altering the fish that end up on ice in seafood counters around the world, according to a new study.

"The composition of the [global] fish catch includes more and more fish from the warmer areas, and cold-water fish are getting more rare, because the temperatures are increasing," says Daniel Pauly at the University of British Columbia, a co-author of the study.

This Scientist Aims High To Save The World's Coral Reefs

Richard Harris — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:45:00 +0000

Most scientists find a topic that interests them and keep digging deeper and deeper into the details. But Ken Caldeira takes the opposite approach in search for solutions to climate change. He goes after the big questions, and leaves the details to others.

We caught up with Caldeira on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, where he was conducting an experiment to measure how coral reefs are coping with increasing acidity in the world's oceans. People are causing this change by burning fossil fuels and putting carbon dioxide into the air.

Coal And Coral: Australia's Self-Destructive Paradox

Richard Harris — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 10:17:00 +0000

NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels.

Scientists Use Antacid To Help Measure The Rate Of Reef Growth

Richard Harris — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:58:00 +0000
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 4: Richard catches up with one of the gurus of climate science out on the reef.
Ken Caldeira loves a challenge, and he has a big one right under his feet. He's standing on an expanse of coral reef out in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

It's 'Birds Gone Wild' Out On Australia's Heron Island

Richard Harris — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:35:00 +0000
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 3: Waiting for a boat to the next island, Richard meets some rowdy birds.
Weeds are not a true category of plant. A weed is simply a plant that's growing where a person wishes it weren't.
That came to mind when I heard the story of the buff-breasted rail, out on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

On Australia's Great Barrier Reef, There's A Turf Battle Raging

Richard Harris — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:49:00 +0000
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 2: The good news is life could get better for seaweed.
Picture a coral reef and the first things likely to come to mind are brilliantly colored fish swimming among stout branches of coral. Let your mind wander a bit more and you might imagine some sea turtles, stingrays and sharks.
Seaweed? Not so much.

Australia's Heron Island: A Canary In The Coal Mine For Coral Reefs?

Richard Harris — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 1: Richard gets a hefty dose of bad news.
I've seen the future, and it isn't pretty.
That's a tough sentence to write because the setting for this unhappy discovery is spectacular. Heron Island sits in tropical turquoise waters about 25 miles off the northeast coast of Australia.

Traces Of Anxiety Drugs May Cause Fish To Act Funny

Richard Harris — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:34:00 +0000
Many of the drugs we take aren't actually digested — they pass through our bodies, and down through the sewer pipes. Traces of those drugs end up in the bodies of fish and other wildlife. Nobody's sure what effect they have.
Now, a paper being published in Science magazine finds that drugs for anxiety drugs — even at these very low levels — can affect the behavior of fish.
This particular story starts with some fish that live in a creek just downstream from a sewage treatment plant in southern Sweden.

Did North Korea Test A 'Miniature' Nuclear Bomb?

Richard Harris — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:00:00 +0000
North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test is much more powerful than the previous two, according to estimates made by instruments that measure seismic waves from the blast. It's about the size of the bomb that devastated Hiroshima in World War II.
But it's not so easy to verify the claim that the nuclear explosive has also been miniaturized.

Could Some Midwest Land Support New Biofuel Refineries?

Richard Harris — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:11:00 +0000
Millions of acres of marginal farmland in the Midwest — land that isn't in good enough condition to grow crops — could be used to produce liquid fuels made from plant material, according to a study in Nature.

Drilling Rig's Thick Hull Helps Prevent Oil Spill

Richard Harris — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:38:00 +0000
Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Shell oil drilling rig that ran aground off Alaska last week is now anchored in a quiet harbor so divers can assess the damage. Wildlife officials say they have seen no evidence of a spill from the vessel, which was carrying tanks of diesel fuel.