Rhino Poaching In South Africa Decreased For The Third Year In A Row, According To South African Minister

Every year a dead zone forms in the Gulf of Mexico. This year’s dead zone is the largest on record. 

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

“Nitrogen and phosphorus pollution enters the Mississippi [River] throughout its watershed, which includes runoff from the Midwest cropland and factory livestock and chicken farms, and pollutants from sewer systems and septic tanks in other locations...The lighter freshwater containing the nutrients creates a layered effect when it reaches the Gulf and the nutrients trigger blooms of phytoplankton - microscopic marine algae - in the spring and summer. The fresher, warmer water in the upper layer is separated from the saltier, colder water in the lower layer, resulting in a barrier to the normal diffusion of oxygen from the surface to the bottom... When the algae dies and sinks to the bottom, it decomposes, using up oxygen in the deeper heavy saltwater and creating dead zone conditions. Those conditions don't change until wind or weather, especially tropical storms or hurricanes, mix the freshwater at the surface into the saltier water.”

A monitoring cruise measured a dead zone of 8,776 square miles, “4 1/2 times the size of the of the goal of about 1,950 square miles set by the federal-state Mississippi River Nutrient/Hypoxia Task Force.” The result are marine life, such as crabs and crustaceans, that die due to oxygen deprivation.

According to environmental historian Philip Wright, declining oil transport by the Trans-Alaska Pipeline is one impetus for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Less oil in the pipeline means the oil moves slows and cools down faster, resulting in technical problems like ice and wax buildup. Drilling proponents argue that drilling in ANWR is necessary to increase the oil supply in the pipeline.

44% of crocodilians are threatened according to the IUCN. The Chinese alligator, Orinoco crocodile, Phillippines crocodile, Cuban crocodile, Siamese crocodile and Gharial are all considered critically endangered. A conservation success story, the American alligator, once facing extinction, is now considered "low risk", although the American crocodile is "vulnerable".

Demand for ivory in Asian markets is driving illegal elephant poaching, with China posing the greatest threat.

Most (59%) Americans say that stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the economic cost, but there is a sharp partisan divide. Democrats overwhelming (77%) favor stricter environmental laws and regulations, but only 36% of Republicans agree. But this 41-point opinion gap is relatively recent. In 1994, the gap was only 8 points. Yet over the decades views of Republican and Democratic voters have diverged, with the divergence occurring rapidly and dramatically starting around 2008. 

A recent report from the Energy Information Administration found that U.S. plant owners and operators are getting ready to retire 27 gigawatts’ worth of coal generation, or about 8.5 percent of the coal fleet, between now and 2016. Considering the substantial contribution of burning coal to climate change, coal plant retirements are one of the greatest ways to reduce carbon emissions.

I'm back...

I apologize for my 5 months hiatus. I intend to divert my attention back to Envirographs, to continue using graphs and maps to explore environmental problems, trends and solutions.

According to the National Climatic Data Center, the average global temperature for 2012 made it the 10th warmest year on record since record keeping began in 1880. It also marked the 36th consecutive year with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last below-average annual temperature was 1976.

The map shows 2012 temperatre anomalies, with red indicating higher than average temperatures and blue lower. Looking at the United States,2012 was the warmest year on record.

While the coal industry is fighting Clean Water Act protections for rivers and streams from mountaintop removal mining (MTR), this 2011 poll of residents in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee found strong support.

Other interesting results:

57% of voters oppose MTR; 20% support

64% of Democrats, 60% of independents and 51% of Republicans oppose MTR

As the Trump administration announces they will rollback Obama’s regulations to improve fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas pollution from cars, a reminder that, as Vox’s Brad Plumer reported back in June:

For the first time since 1979, America’s cars, trucks, and airplanes emit more carbon dioxide than its power plants do... The story here is that the United States has made remarkable progress in greening its electricity sector since 2005. Whenever you see exciting headlines about renewable energy growth or the plunge in US emissions, those articles are usually talking about electricity.But power plants are only one-third of America’s CO2 emissions. Transportation, another third (and now the biggest source), remains tougher to address. In fact, since 2013, transport emissions have been creeping upward again.