September 2008 Archives

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Properly Managed Forests Emit Fewer Greenhouse Gases

This is a record year for wildfires in California with over a million acres burned. It would be timely to publish information on the estimated amounts of "greenhouse gases" that have resulted from these fires.

The data on emissions from fires needs to be put into perspective with overall emissions from other sources including automobiles and electric power generation.

Discussion is needed on how our timberlands could be better managed to minimize fire damage. Properly managed forests take in more carbon dioxide than mature and over mature forests that are just carbon sinks where trees die or burn and release the stored carbon to the atmosphere, rather than being harvested and utilized for forest products. Restrictions need be removed on salvage logging following fires.

Who else can better do this than UCB researchers?

This sort of information needs to be made available to the general media and is long overdue!

Bob Heyden
posted September 8, 2008 1:34 PM

work this past summer

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Hey blog readers! Before I jump into describing my first few weeks of medical school, I wanted to share with you guys my experiences this past summer as a faculty advisor with the National Youth Leadership Forum program at UCLA. I spent June through August with three separate groups of 22-23 high school students, all of whom were attending a program designed to expose them to the field of medicine.

I had a whole classroom-sized group of high schoolers to be responsible for at all times! Pretty challenging for a soft-spoken recent college grad. My job entailed three basic duties: 1) teach a curriculum that would introduce many key concepts and processes that are integral to medical education and the profession itself (i.e. med school admissions, traits and character, ethics), 2) supervise and chaperone students to different site visits and 3) manage and discipline students when necessary. This was how my room looked like at the end of every forum:

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Yes, that's a lot of bleached flipchart paper. Don't worry, it was all recycled.

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Believe it or not, I had a blast with this job. It was very rewarding working with high schoolers. Though there were times when I wondered what the heck I got myself into, it was great to get a glimpse of what the next generation of teenagers think, feel, and value. I worked with a diverse set of students--each with different backgrounds and beliefs--who broadened my perspectives on just how mixed our country really is. I also had a lot of fun with my co-workers.,,

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For any college grads with a free summer, I'd highly recommend this program. It requires a college degree, lots of energy, and a willingness to work with super-hyper high school students. Check it out!

Alex Lau
posted September 2, 2008 9:46 PM

Marine Sanctuary Proposed

Looks like the President of the US is doing something meaningful for our oceans.
This great news is reported by National Geographic. Link to the full article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080826-marine-monument.html


World's Largest Marine Sanctuary Proposed by U.S.

August 26, 2008

A proposal by U.S. President George W. Bush could give national-monument status to some of the world's most remote and pristine Pacific islands and their waters, potentially transforming them into the largest protected marine reserve on the planet.



But its success will hinge on whether the proposed ocean sanctuaries in the western and central Pacific are granted full-protection status, scientists warn.

That would prohibit potentially disruptive activities such as oil and gas drilling, fishing, and mineral extraction.

The administration has traditionally been friendly to industry needs.

Just yesterday the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—which falls under Bush's purview—proposed reducing a protective buffer zone against large ships in areas where endangered North Atlantic right whales swim. The move bows to shipping-industry preferences, conservationists say.

The central Pacific islands—which would include Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Jarvis and Howland Islands—could potentially cover about 776,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of protected area.

The western proposed reserve, comprising the Northern Mariana Islands, could cover as much as 115,000 square miles (297,000 square kilometers). It would include parts of the Mariana Trench, the deepest location on Earth's surface, along with coral reef islands called atolls.

Because the President has exclusive power to protect U.S. resources, conservationists expect the new proposal will become law.

"Great Choice"

Enric Sala, a marine ecologist and National Geographic fellow and emerging explorer, called the selected territories a "great choice."

The waters of the central Pacific islands are home to some of the best preserved coral ecosystems in the world, Sala said.

Any one of the central Pacific islands in the proposed sanctuary contains five times as many coral species as the entire Florida Keys, as well as hundreds of fish species; dozens of species of seabirds; and numerous whale, dolphin, and sea turtle species.

"These are among the only base lines that we have left of what the ocean was like hundreds of years ago," Sala said.

The waters off Kingman Reef, for instance, are dominated by gray sharks, white-tipped reef sharks, and other shark species.

"These places are completely different from what we know anywhere else. They're totally dominated by their predators," Sala said.

"Imagine the Serengeti with five lions per wildebeest. This is Kingman Reef."
There's more to the article, click here.

Christina
posted September 2, 2008 11:15 AM