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Elected Officials Join the Call to Stop Oil Trains: 2016 #StopOilTrains Week of Action
This week people gather at 60 events across North America to mark the third anniversary of the Lac Megantic oil train disaster. Stand organizes the Stop Oil Trains Week of Action to help raise the voice of communities who oppose these dangerous, unnecessary trains. In 2016, elected officials joined our call for a stop to oil trains.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Oregon Governor Kate Brown are challenging federal railroad officials on the safety of trains carrying millions of gallons of explosive, toxic crude oil. They join Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley, Washington Senator Cantwell, and New Jersey Senator Booker on a long and growing list of state and local elected officials who understand that the oil trains rolling through American cities and towns are too dangerous for the rails. Or, in the words of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, a year ago, "a reckless gamble that we just can't afford to make."

Concern about these dangerous trains spiked again following the June 3 derailment and explosion in Mosier, Oregon. A rare windless day in the Columbia River Gorge prevented the fire from spreading to nearby homes or a school just a few hundred yards away. But the potential threat, and the inability to contain and control an oil train fire, was not lost on first responders to the inferno of explosive crude in Mosier. "What's at stake?" asked Mosier fire chief Jim Appleton in an interview with the Oregonian:

"Do we want to test the abilities of a small town again to respond to Armageddon? Or just understand, it's not worth the risk. It ain't worth shareholder value. I know the railroad's argument. But we need to tell them: You can't ship that cargo."

July 6 marks the third anniversary of the fatal oil train disaster in Lac Megantic, Quebec, that took the lives of 47 people. In the three years since that 2013 disaster we've seen more than a dozen major oil train derailments and explosions in the US and Canada. Mosier was another close call. In January Christopher A. Hart of the National Transportation Safety Board recognized the threat when he said, "We have been lucky thus far that derailments involving flammable liquids in America have not yet occurred in a populated area... But an American version of Lac-Megantic could happen at any time."

The Washington State Council of Fire Fighters first asked for a ban on oil trains in 2014, and followed up their request in a June 8 letter to Governor Inslee citing the danger from an oil train fire:

"...evidence keeps growing that there is no safe way to transport Bakken crude. A derailment and fire in dry wildfire fuels with high winds could easily overwhelm available personnel and equipment in many parts of our state and grow into a conflagration of immense proportions."

A week after the Mosier derailment and fire Governor Inslee responded to federal railroad officials that he was not "interested in symbolic measures," and called for a halt to oil trains traveling through Washington until railroads meet six specific safety improvements. In a joint letter to the administration Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley requested, "that the FRA place a moratorium on unit trains transporting crude oil and other hazardous materials through the Gorge until the FRA has issued a final investigative report for the Mosier accident."

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown was even more direct, calling for a moratorium on oil trains in the Columbia River Gorge, "until the strongest safety measures are put in place by federal authorities to protect Oregonians."

The railroads and oil industry, meanwhile, have ignored calls for safety improvements or a halt to oil train traffic while investigations move forward. Railroads point to common carrier requirements and federal preemption to ignore requests from fire fighters, local and state, and even federal, elected officials. Railroads like Union Pacific and even more so BNSF, and their owners, like Warren Buffet, cast morality aside and hide behind the thin veil of federal authority to avoid dealing with safety concerns about oil trains.

Imagine oil trains running down the Columbia River Gorge in between the burnt out skeletons of the derailed Mosier oil train cars cast along the sides of the tracks. It actually happened. Oil continues down those same tracks and thousands of miles of other rail lines in our cities and towns without any changes to the inspection system that led to the conflagration in Mosier. The exclusion of safety and fire officials, and all local and state elected officials, in decisions about rail safety leaves the protection of the 25 million Americans living in the blast zone tracks in the hands of the Warren Buffet and the other railroad executives of the world who care more about making even more money than public safety.

On July 6 more than 100 groups and elected officials delivered a letter to President Obama asking him to stop crude oil trains. These deadly trains add nothing to our energy security, but they undermine the safety of millions of Americans who live in the dangerous oil train blast zone. It's time to end this reckless industry before our luck runs out.

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Asia's Unknown, Ignored And Disappearing Animals

Often called the most beautiful of the monkeys, the Red-shanked Douc langur of Southeast Asia hasn't benefited much from its good looks. It is barely known to the public or most conservationists and is Endangered. Photo by Art G. on flickr CC BY 2.0

Try to name Asia's most endangered animals, and iconic species such as tigers, orangutans and rhinos likely leap to mind. But pangolins, langurs or saola? Not so much. Most of us haven't heard of these "other" species, and can't even picture them.

Yet these little-known primates and other mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and fish are no less valuable to their habitats, and to earth's overall biodiversity, than their more famous, more charismatic Asian animal compatriots.

But unfortunately for these lesser-known creatures, they face the same deadly threats as the "top" tier endangered species. They walk the same paths, use the same rainforest trees and mangrove swamps, and drink from the same rivers. They depend on the same ecosystems, and those ecosystems depend on them.

So when habitats are logged, fragmented by roads, polluted, or taken over by oil palm plantations, their survival is just as perilous as for the "big name" species.

Each species' loss slashes yet another thread from the web of life, and threatens to leave that rich weave hanging in tatters. Despite the urgent need, Asia's Almost Famous receive little attention, and even less money for research and conservation.

The leaky umbrella problem

A popular conservation argument runs this way: programs aimed at saving "celebrity" species such as orangutans in the wild also must protect their habitat. This preserved habitat then acts like a giant umbrella, which, in turn, hopefully helps shield all the other minor celebrities and total unknowns who share the same forests, swamps and estuaries over which the big name species roam.

The Sumatran rhino, like the orangutan and tiger, is an example of charismatic megafauna -- a species that gets tremendous media exposure and conservation attention, while many other equally threatened species receive little notice. Photo by wAlanb on Flickr CC BY 2.0

Unfortunately, that "one size fits all" approach presumes a lot. All too often these habitat umbrellas leave many species out in the rain -- living in biodiverse habitats that lack charismatic megafauna. Or the habitat umbrella leaks like a sieve -- with tigers protected, but gibbons still at the top of the bushmeat menu.

The problems for Asia's Almost Famous Animals are many. Often, scientists don't even know how many of a particular species are left in the wild, let alone where and how they live, what they eat and when they breed -- there just isn't enough money to do the needed research.

Because we don't know much about these creatures, conservationists don't know if some critical lifestyle detail is being overlooked -- a detail that may be crucial to long term survival, and whose absence will drop them into the abyss of extinction.

Such gaps in our collective knowledge may present themselves in the same moment a new species is discovered. Often, by the time scientists find a new animal, the species is already gravely threatened and its rescue becomes a race against time, lack of data and lack of funds.

One needn't look far for examples of such dire conservation conundrums: scientists found an astounding trove of new species unknown to science less than four years ago in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region -- a discovery that included 28 reptiles, 24 fish, 21 amphibians, three mammals and a bird, 367 new species in all, each with fascinating traits and life histories.

"2016-07-06-1467843305-987849-AsianArowanaFish.jpg"

The world's most coveted fish: the Asian Arowana fish (Scleropages formosus). A single adult can sell on the black market for $150,000. Photo by Josh More on flickr.

The list included the "scribbled arowana" (Scleropages inscriptus), a dragon fish from Myanmar with intricate, maze-like markings on every scale; and the Sweet Singing Frog (Gracixalus quangi) from the high-altitude forests of northern Vietnam, whose every song to attract females appears to be a new composition, with improvisational clicks, whistles and chirps instead of repetitive croaks.

Also numbered among the newly discovered was the red-and-white furred Laotian giant flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus laoensis), about which we know little today, except that it was first documented by researchers in a bushmeat market. B. laoensis had barely stepped out onto the global biodiversity stage, when scientists realized that it was under threat from overexploitation and a fast shrinking habitat.

All too often, Almost Famous endangered species share certain fatal characteristics in common: they may taste delicious, make cuddly pets, and/or live in areas coveted by loggers and agribusiness, or by the rapidly growing human population of Asia.

The frightening reality is that many Almost Famous species could disappear before we get to know anything about them -- including that they exist.

The full article includes a brief survey of some of Asia's Almost Famous -- a list of species that runs into the thousands of primates and other mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and fish -- Asian animals on the brink.

It is the first of 20 Mongabay stories highlighting Almost Famous Asian Animals -- all to be published by the end of 2016. You can find the complete Almost Famous series here.

Note: This is an excerpt of an article published on Mongabay.com and was reposted with permission.

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5 Things You Can Do To Keep The Air Around You Fresh
It's estimated that the average person breathes in approximately 11,000 litres, or 2,900-plus gallons of air every single day. That's why it's so important to protect our environment and do everything we can as global citizens to keep both Mother Nature and our lungs as clean as possible. Growing up as kids, we've all been drilled with the same message through school to reduce, reuse and recycle and to "litter not", but the fact is that as we grow older and as technology continues to make further advancements, we gain in our intelligence and knowledge and continue to find ways to improve the health of both our minds and bodies.

It's within that spirit of constantly evolving as both global citizens and healthy human beings that I leave you with five things you can do to keep the air around you fresh.

Get An Air Purifier

It's estimated that the average person will spend over 92,000 hours working should they enter the workforce in their teen years and work well into their 60s. That's a lot of time spent potentially spent indoors for those that spend their working life in an office. If you do indeed work inside, one of the best things you can do is invest in a good air purifier, or ask your employer to do so. An industry leading enterprise level supplier like Camfil USA and its City M purifier would be a simple option to consider. The company has been around for 50 years and most large-scale employers wouldn't have a problem investing in a good quality purifier.

Walk, Run, Bike & Commute More, Drive Less

According to the Department of Environmental Conservation, motor vehicles often make up the largest component of smog in ground level ozone. That smog can cause problems with coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and even permanent lung damage. Walking and cycling more are two clearly more environmentally friendly methods of getting around, not to mention both represent a great excuse for getting physically active and staying in shape. Simply put, walk, run, bike or commute rather than driving. If we all did that, the air around us would be much cleaner.

Don't Smoke, Or Expose Yourself To Second Hand Smoke

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, 70 of which cause cancer. Add to that the fact an estimated 2.5 million non-smokers have died from second-hand smoke related illnesses since 1964 and it's easy to see why making the decision not to smoke or be around the second hand variety is a good idea. Keeping the air clean both in your home and at work is good for your health, and smoking is simply a bad habit, not a necessity.

Get Your Home's Ventilation System Cleaned Regularly

While some home owners out there may believe that having your home or office's ventilation system cleaned regularly isn't a big deal, the Environmental Protection Agency does recommend having your ducts cleaned if:

• You suspect mold exists in your ducts
• You see a vermin infestation in your home
• You notice insects entering or exiting ductwork
• Black debris or dust is blowing out of your ventilation system or present around it

Wear A Face Mask When Appropriate

I first remember seeing facemasks worn by the general public back when the SARS virus broke out years ago, and years later when swine flu was becoming a global pandemic, governments ordered masks in the millions to try and protect the health of the general public. Masks do work if replaced regularly, but you don't have to wait for a pandemic to benefit from them. Wearing one while painting or renovating your home, or doing anything that might have you breathing in dust or harmful chemicals can help protect your respiratory system.

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These Photos of Reptiles and Amphibians Will Transport You to Another World
"aaron

A high angle view of the Yasuni National Park in the remote jungles of Ecuador.

YASUNI NATIONAL PARK, Ecuador -- Ecuador is a beautiful country on South America's west coast, and despite its small size, it has an extremely diverse landscape -- including the Amazon rainforest, the Andean highlands and the Galápagos Islands. I recently conducted a research expedition to Ecuador, and it was an unforgettable experience to say the least.

During our travels through the mainland and the Galápagos, we encountered an incredible diversity of frogs, snakes, lizards and salamanders. Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite amphibian and reptile encounters:

1. Rain Frogs

Our first night in Sumaco, Ecuador was a rainy one, perfect conditions for peeping rain frogs.

An itty bitty Dendropsophus minutus perched on my finger.

2. Fringed Leaf Tree Frog

The Fringed Leaf Tree Frog (Cruziohyla craspedopus) is one of the most fantastic amphibians in the Neotropics.

Living in high canopies, the Fringed Leaf Tree Frog is very difficult to spot.

3. Banded Tree Anole

A female Banded Tree Anole, characterized by those brilliant blue eyes.

This male Banded Tree Anole's bright dewlap is used to grab the attention of females and to defend his territory.

A Banded Tree Anole, perched on a leaf in the Yasuni National Park.

4. Amazon Tree Boa

An utterly gorgeous Amazon Tree Boa coiled around a tree in Yasuni.

A close-up of the Amazon Tree Boa.

The juvenile Amazon Tree Boa has a much redder underbelly than the adult.

The baby Amazon Tree Boas can be a little ... bitey.

5. Glass Frogs

Glass Frogs are incredible little amphibians. Their backs are mainly lime green but their underside is totally translucent. You can even see their little hearts beating.

Glass Frogs are one of my favorite critters in the cloud forest of Mindo. They lay their eggs in a clutch on leaves above a stream; when the tadpoles are developed enough to swim, they drop down into the water and venture off to become beautiful translucent frogs.

6. Tropical Salamander

Tropical Salamanders win the most adorable, squishy animal award, hands down.

We typically spotted these little guys on night hikes in Sumaco.

7. Geckos

A large gecko we found snacking on moths near a light at the Yasuni Research Station.

If it weren't for geckos, humans might never have invented sticky adhesive nanostructures. Gecko toes contain thousands of hair-like setae, and it wasn't until 2002 that the mechanism for their adhesive ability, which is based on van der Waals forces, was discovered.

8. Galápagos Iguanas

Galápagos Marine Iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) have short, flat noses so they can feed on algae in the ocean.

Current research and genetic data on Land Iguanas (Conolophus subcristatus) suggest the Marine Iguana split from the Land Iguana around 4.5 million years ago, forming the two different and distinct species we see today.

The night sky on the Galápagos Islands at the Floreana Lava Lodge.

9. Giant Galápagos Tortoise

Galápagos Giant Tortoises likely arrived at the islands around 2-3 million years ago by drifting from South America before diversifying into as many as 15 subspecies.

Giant tortoises are one of the longest-lived vertebrates, living over 100 years on average.

A treehouse located in the highlands of Santa Cruz island, where wild Giant Tortoises gather.

10. The Rare Pinocchio Lizard

The Pinocchio Lizard (Anolis proboscis) is an endangered anole found in the cloud forest of Mindo; only the males possess strange horns.

The Pinocchio Lizard has a very mossy pattern to camouflage with the wet moss in the canopy.

The Pinocchio Lizard's nose is used to attract females and defend territory from rival males.

I hope you enjoyed these incredible reptiles and amphibians as much as we did. Special thanks to Lucas Bustamante from Tropical Herping and thanks to TROPIC for hosting us during our visit to the Galápagos. If you want to plan your own trip, visit Destination Ecuador.

For more you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram!

An Ecuadorian, a Californian and a Venezuelan walk into a jungle...My first time in the field with Lucas Bustamante and Alejandro Arteaga, two amazing researchers and photographers who have traveled through the most remote parts of Ecuador's rainforests in search of new frog and reptile species. #Ecuador #TropicalHerping #snake #reptile #amphibian #research #Herpetologist #expedition #explore #discover #herpetology #journey #rainforest #science
A photo posted by Aaron Pomerantz (@nextgenscientist) on Jun 14, 2016 at 5:14pm PDT

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Get Smart Fast: Off-shore Wind Power
Off-shore wind energy has long been considered an important option for renewable power especially given the focus on finding low-carbon or no-carbon energy sources. Off-shore winds are typically stronger and steadier over the ocean. In addition, off-shore wind farms can be located near densely populated coastal cities.

However, the industry has struggled. There are no operational commercial projects in the United States. Cape Wind - which was expected to be the first - has become a symbol of the difficulties for off-shore wind because it has been plagued with law suits, technical challenges, and local opposition.

Despite the setbacks that Cape Wind has faced, off-shore wind energy is gathering momentum. In recent years, technology has improved, prices have come down, and perhaps most importantly, lessons have been learned about siting.

Other parts of the world have embraced this technology as well with more than 3,000 off-shore wind turbines in Europe. Here at home, federal regulations have been simplified and dozens of projects are now in the planning stages, especially along the eastern seaboard. Several companies have announced investments in off-shore wind technology or manufacturing. Therefore, we should expect U.S. projects to come online in the near future as American business works toward increased use of this natural resource.

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Why We Need Real Environmental Reform, Not "Greenwashing"
Does the "BPA-free" sticker on your water bottle mean it's safe, or just well-marketed? Is building an athletic field out of recycled tires a green choice, or one that introduces more toxic material into our environment?

These are the dilemmas we face as consumers. We make thousands of choices every day about what to put in, on and near our bodies. Even if we have the critical thinking skills to evaluate the merits of every product we simply don't have the time. We often must rely on others to make decisions that we implicitly trust are in our best interest. But often the toxic materials that make headlines are replaced by well-intentioned but unproven alternatives -- like replacing BPA with the chemically-similar and totally untested substance BPS.

The FDA currently does not have the budget to conduct extensive long-term research on many potentially harmful products. Industry is required to effectively self-regulate. Most consumers are completely unaware of this fact. This Spring my students raised a "Stink!" upon previewing the documentary by Jon Whelan and took incremental steps in a less toxic direction with the Silent Spring Institute's Detox Me App. The rest of us would be wise do the same.

Educators must ensure the STEM workforce be research-empowered to solve today's problems without creating issues for tomorrow. In the interim, consumers can turn to the Skin Deep Database and Think Dirty App, while decision makers must use the best information available.

Recently, Simmons College partnered with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to develop Daly Field, a Boston athletic complex with dirt fields that had fallen into disrepair. Hopefully, our stewardship and development choices will protect both our athletes and our community.

Simmons is installing new synthetic fields that save up to a million gallons of water needed to maintain comparable natural grass fields -- and help to eliminate existing erosion and reduce contaminants from fertilizers and pesticides.

Synthetic turf is an easy choice, but Simmons recently made a tougher call. As a result of an ongoing federal investigation into the safety of crumb rubber (made largely from recycled tires) as infill in synthetic fields, Simmons opted for a more expensive all-natural alternative at Daly Field. Geofill consists of 90% crushed coconut husks and 10% cork. It has been in use for more than 10 years. By choosing to install Geofill rather than crumb rubber, Simmons has assured that Daly Field will be the greenest and cleanest public playing field in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Long overdue reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act is headed for President Obama's pen with bipartisan support. Whether the legislation will lead to much-needed consumer protections or future problems remains to be seen. With any luck, the reform will not follow the current trend of replacing a hazard with an alternative that later proves to be worse.

Let's hope that the government looks to the future and funds the study and development of greener alternatives that are better for both our health and the environment. Our STEM students are up to the challenge.

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The Climate Post: Natural Fluctuations Responsible, in Part, for Antarctica Ice Growth
Natural fluctuations specifically related to the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) are responsible for the increased growth of Antarctic sea ice, according to a new study in the journal Nature Geoscience. A negative shift in the IPO has caused cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Pacific, allowing Antarctic sea ice to expand since 2000.

"The climate we experience during any given decade is some combination of naturally occurring variability and the planet's response to increasing greenhouse gases," said National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist Gerald Meehl, lead author of the study. "It's never all one or the other, but the combination, that is important to understand."

But what's new in the latest study, writes Chris Mooney in The Washington Post, "is the suggestion that this negative IPO phase had consequences that stretched all the way to the Southern Ocean waters surrounding Antarctica--and that this, in turn, explains why most climate models didn't predict the observed growth of Antarctic sea ice."

Study researchers suspect that the IPO began switching to a positive phase in 2014 and that ice in the region may shrink in the next decade.

Study Points to Human Influence on Changes in Earth's Biggest Body of Warm Water

A study in Science Advances has provided the first quantitative attribution of human influences on and natural contributions to warming of the Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP), Earth's largest region of warm sea surface temperatures and one "fundamental to global atmospheric circulation and the hydrological cycle."

To "fingerprint" anthropogenic forcings and natural causes of substantial IPWP warming and expansion, researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology and their international colleagues paired observations with multiple climate model simulations integrated with and without human influences. They found that the IPWP had warmed by 0.3 Celsius and increased in size by about a third over the last 60 years primarily due to an increase in human-made greenhouse gases.

About 12 to 18 percent of the warming has been due to natural variability in the ocean, but the remaining portion is due to the greenhouse gas increase, according to study co-author Seung-Ki Min of Pohang University in South Korea.

"We have more energy available from the hotter ocean," said Min. "That means the atmosphere will be enhanced to transport more energy from the tropical ocean to the high latitude zone."

The findings indicate that future ocean warming could increase storm activity over East Asia and strengthen monsoons over South Asia.

"This wasn't entirely surprising. We've long suspected climate change to be behind the changes, but no one had yet proven it," said Evan Weller, lead author, noting that what was surprising is that the western portion of the pool, near India, is expanding more than the eastern part in the Pacific. "We don't really know why. We'll try to figure that out next."

Report: United States Is Oil Reserves Leader

The United States holds the largest share of the world's oil reserves--264 billion barrels to Russia's 256 billion and Saudi Arabia's 212 billion, according to Rystad Energy, a Norwegian industry research group that tracks proved and probable reserves, discoveries and undiscovered fields. More than 50 percent of remaining oil reserves, it claims, are unconventional shale oil. Texas alone holds more than 60 billion barrels of shale oil.

On the basis of a three-year analysis of 60,000 fields worldwide, the group estimates global reserves to be 2,092 billion barrels--roughly 70 times the current production rate of some 30 billion barrels of crude oil per year.

"This data confirms that there is a relatively limited amount of recoverable oil left on the planet," the report says. "With the global car-park possibly doubling from 1 billion to 2 billion cars over the next 30 years, it becomes very clear that oil alone cannot satisfy the growing need for individual transport."

The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

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First planet spotted by SPHERE is a weird one

The veil by Romina Dughero

Sünni by Miro Hofmann

A new friendship by Piroska Pádár

Uncovering the 80 yr old SS Monte Carlo Coronado by Aldryn Estacio

1. Rain Frogs

2. Fringed Leaf Tree Frog

3. Banded Tree Anole

4. Amazon Tree Boa

5. Glass Frogs

6. Tropical Salamander

7. Geckos

8. Galápagos Iguanas

9. Giant Galápagos Tortoise

10. The Rare Pinocchio Lizard