Ban on plastic bags in the Outer Banks

From today's local paper

White house Creates an Ocean Policy Task force

Be sure to read the Proclamation from the President and the memorandum.

White house Creates an Ocean Policy Task force

Final chance for some blogging!

Hi all,

I hope you enjoyed the class. I'm glad that we had the opportunity, and have enjoyed reading your work. I must confess that I would have strongly preferred a face-to-face class.

Here's a final chance to get some blogging in:

What did you think of the course material?

What topic did you find the most interesting? Why?

What topic was the least interesting? Why?

Any topics that were confusing?

Were there topics that you would have liked to have seen covered but we didn't get to?
(My first pick here would be renewable energy, which I usually spend at least a couple of weeks on!)

Take good care and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Recycling laws in San Francisco

Here's a recent article from the NY Times about recycling in San Fran.

Bottom Longlining and Turtle Bycatch

From Fishnews:

Recently, several NGO's petitioned the U.S. Department of Commerce for an emergency rule under the Magnuson-Stevens Act to address loggerhead sea turtle interactions in the bottom longline commercial reef fish fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. NOAA Fisheries has determined that the requested action is not warranted because an emergency rule was developed independently at the request of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

Read about the emergency rule here (tons of great info on turtle bycatch).

Read about the NOAA response here.

Bluefin Tuna Catch Limits

The Federal Register from last Monday provides an example of a catch limit for a specific fishery.

The ruling starts at the end of the first page, at the bottom of the third column under "Department of Commerce".

Notice that we have a daily catch limit (commercial and recreational) and a minimum and maximum size restriction (slot limit).

How and why did NMFS change the regulation from last year? What do you think the effect will be?

Squatting and deforestation to be easier in the Amazon?

Also from NewScientist, here is an article describing a new piece of legislation in Brazil that could make illegal deforestation easier (though the initial intent seems to have been to make it harder).

The bill effectively grants title to lands obtained illegally, permitting easier use (read: slash-and-burn for agriculture and then grazing) and/or sale of the land, and basically rewarding past illegal logging with title and profit.

More details here from Global Voices and here from MongaBay.

Caribbean reef degradation

A short article from NewScientist describes a trend in Caribbean reef composition: tall corals are disappearing and short corals are taking over.

Trees as carbon sinks from UNEP

This might be useful for the chapter 6 discussion question.

Note the point about "proper market signals".

Always question the source!

Check out this article: Reusable bags labeled as a possible health risk.

When I read the headline I was thinking that we have another great example of good intentions leading to bad unintended consquences... but then I read the article and saw who paid for the study. Hmmmm...

How is this related to topics in this course?