Saturday, July 21, 2018

Nuclear Power, the demon of some environmentalists must be part of our going-forward energy paradigm..........Why?..........."Nuclear power plants operate at much higher capacity factors than renewable energy sources or fossil fuels"..........."Capacity factor is a measure of what percentage of the time a power plant actually produces energy"..........."It’s a problem for all intermittent energy sources".............."The sun doesn’t always shine, nor the wind always blow, nor water always fall through the turbines of a dam"..............."What are nuclear power’s benefits?............ "First and foremost, since it produces energy via nuclear fission rather than chemical burning, it generates baseload electricity with no output of carbon, the villainous element of global warming"............."Switching from coal to natural gas is a step toward decarbonizing, since burning natural gas produces about half the carbon dioxide of burning coal"............ "But switching from coal to nuclear power is radically decarbonizing, since nuclear power plants release greenhouse gases only from the ancillary use of fossil fuels during their construction, mining, fuel processing, maintenance, and decommissioning — about as much as solar power does, which is about 4 to 5 percent as much as a natural gas-fired power plant"................"In the United States in 2016, nuclear power plants, which generated almost 20 percent of U.S. electricity, had an average capacity factor of 92.3 percent, meaning they operated at full power on 336 out of 365 days per year (The other 29 days they were taken off the grid for maintenance.)"............."In contrast, U.S. hydroelectric systems delivered power 38.2 percent of the time (138 days per year), wind turbines 34.5 percent of the time (127 days per year) and solar electricity arrays only 25.1 percent of the time (92 days per year)".............."Even plants powered with coal or natural gas only generate electricity about half the time for reasons such as fuel costs and seasonal and nocturnal variations in demand"..............."Nuclear is a clear winner on reliability"..............So what is the perceived downside of Nuclear Power?............."Nuclear waste disposal, although a continuing political problem in the U.S., is no longer a technological problem".................."Most U.S. spent fuel, more than 90 percent of which could be recycled to extend nuclear power production by hundreds of years, is stored at present safely in impenetrable concrete-and-steel dry casks on the grounds of operating reactors, its radiation slowly declining".............."UNSCEAR — the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, composed of senior scientists from 27 member states has concluded that even the worst possible accident at a nuclear power plant — the complete meltdown and burnup of its radioactive fuel — was yet far less destructive than other major industrial accidents across the past century"........."Nuclear Power deserves better than the anti-nuclear prejudices and fears that have plagued it"..............."It isn’t the 21st century’s version of the Devil’s excrement"................"It’s a valuable, even an irreplaceable, part of our next generation energy solution"

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CLICK BELOW LINK TO READ FULL ARTICLE https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__yale.us1.list-2Dmanage.com_track_click-3Fu-3Db70...
Thursday, July 19, 2018

"An Auburn University study on the black bear population in Alabama shows a growing number of bears in northeast Alabama and a distinct genetic group in southwest Alabama"................"The state has two areas with bear populations: one with an estimated 30 bears centered around Little River Canyon near Fort Payne and another with an estimated 85 bears in Mobile and Washington counties north of Mobile"............."The latter number could be as high as 165"............."The north Alabama black bear population, which originally migrated from north Georgia, has more than doubled in the past four years"................“One interesting aspect we observed is that mother bears in north Alabama often have three or four cubs in a litter"...................“Normally a mother bear has only two cubs"................"The bears north of Mobile seem to be their own distinct group without any genetic connection to other bear populations"...................“We found high inbreeding in those bears"..............."They have the lowest genetic diversity of any comparison population in Southeast"

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https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2018/jul/18/black-bears-spreading-across-...
Wednesday, July 18, 2018

"As wolf populations plummeted in the 18th and 19th centuries due to our persecution of both them and their prey animals(deer, bison, caribou, Elk, Moose, Beaver), the eastern coyote assumed the role of apex predator in forests along the Atlantic Coast"................"New research from canid ecologist John Benson(U. of Nebraska-Lincoln) however, shows that the eastern coyote is no match for the wolf"................"While the eastern coyote can bring down moose and other large prey, it prefers to attack smaller animals and to scavenge"...........""Wolves rely on large prey to survive".............."But the smaller size of coyotes appears to give them dietary flexibility to survive on a wider variety of food and prey sizes, making them less predictable predators of large prey"..............."After GPS-tracking 10 packs of eastern wolves and analyzing their kill sites in Ontario, the Benson-led team estimated that the wolves consumed 54 percent of their ungulate meat from moose and 46 percent from white-tailed deer".................."By contrast, eight packs of eastern coyote ancestry that occupied separate but neighboring territories got just 11 percent of their ungulate meat from moose and 89 percent from deer"..............."The eastern wolf weighs between 50 and 65 pounds; the eastern coyote typically hits 40 to 50"................"Though the extra weight gives eastern wolves a greater chance of killing a moose -- or at least surviving the encounter -- it also demands the greater caloric intake that moose and other meaty prey can provide".............""It's important to understand the role that wolves play in ecosystems and to not assume that smaller predators ... perform the same ecological functions"................"If coyotes start hammering white-tailed deer, and deer start to decline, then (coyotes) can just eat rabbits or squirrels or garbage but continue to prey on deer, too"............Wolves are a Moose, Deer and Beaver predator,,,,,,,,,,,,not small game.........."The study emphasizes the value of preserving delicate predator-prey balances that ecosystems have calibrated over millennia".............."This new research suggests that there's an ecological role that wolves play that won't be played by Eastern Coyotes"............."That's probably a role that's worth conserving on landscapes, even outside protected areas"..............."If we're interested in restoring landscapes to a more natural, functioning ecosystem, bringing back Wolves will be an important part of that"

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170323152445.htm Big-game jitters: Coyotes no match for wolves' hunting prowess ...
Tuesday, July 17, 2018

"“SAVE THE BEES!” IS A COMMON REFRAIN THESE DAYS, AND IT’S GREAT TO SEE PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THE LITTLE ANIMALS CRITICAL FOR OUR FOOD SUPPLY AROUND THE GLOBE"............ "BUT I HAVE ONE QUIBBLE: YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT THE WRONG BEES"..........."HONEY BEES WILL BE FINE"..........."THEY ARE A GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED, DOMESTICATED ANIMAL"..............."THEY WILL NOT DISAPPEAR REGARDLESS OF THE NEWS REPORTS YOU READ".............."THE SPECIES IS NOT REMOTELY THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION".................."THE BEES YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT ARE THE 3,999 OTHER BEE SPECIES LIVING IN NORTH AMERICA, MOST OF WHICH ARE SOLITARY, STINGLESS, GROUND-NESTING BEES YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF"............"50 PERCENT OF MIDWESTERN NATIVE BEE SPECIES DISAPPEARED FROM THEIR HISTORIC RANGES IN THE LAST 100 YEARS"..............."FOUR OF OUR BUMBLEBEE SPECIES DECLINED 96 PERCENT IN THE LAST 20 YEARS, AND THREE SPECIES ARE BELIEVED TO ALREADY BE EXTINCT"..............."SEEDS OF ALL SORTS ARE COMMONLY TREATED WITH NEONICOTINOID PESTICIDES AS A PREVENTATIVE TREATMENT".................."NEONICOTINOID PESTICIDES CIRCULATE IN PLANT TISSUES, SO ANY INSECT MUNCHING ON THE SEEDLINGS WILL BE STOPPED".................."UNFORTUNATELY, THE PESTICIDE REMAINS IN THE PLANTS AS THEY FLOWER, AND BEES OF ALL TYPES MAY PICK UP THE CHEMICALS IN POLLEN AND NECTAR"..........."HONEY BEES SEEM TO BE UNAFFECTED BUT THE WILD BEES ARE DECIMATED BY THIS AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDE"...........HOW DO WE AS HOMEOWNERS ASSIST OUR WILD BEES?...........YOUR BACKYARD CAN BE A SURPRISINGLY BENEFICIAL HABITAT FOR WILD BEES..........."IF YOU MOW YOUR LAWN EVERY THREE WEEKS INSTEAD OF WEEKLY, YOU WILL LIKELY INCREASE THE NUMBER OF WILD BEES BY SOME 2.5 TIMES AS THE LAWN GRASSES, CLOVERS AND OTHER SPECIES WILL GO TO FLOWER, PROVIDING FOOD FOR THE BEES

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https://www.wired.com/2015/04/youre-worrying-wrong-bees/   DATE OF PUBLICATION: 04.29.15. 04.29.15; GWEN PEARSON You’re ...