50 Ways to Help Save the Planet-Ditch Plastic Bags

DITCH PLASTIC BAGS

Californians Against Waste (cawrecycles.org), a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, estimates that Americans use 84 billion plastic bags annually, a considerable contribution to the 500 billion to one trillion usedworldwide. Made from polyethylene, plastic bags are not biodegradable and are making their way into our oceans and waterways. According to recent studies, the oceans are full of tiny fragments of plastic that are beginning to work their way up the food chain.

Invest in stronger, re-usable bags, and avoid plastic bags whenever possible. If you do get plastic bags from a store try and reuse them or at least recycle them.

Trader Joe's, Ikea, and Oprah.com all sell reusable grocery bags.

Shark's virgin birth stuns scientists!

Birds do it. Bees do it. Now it seems that sharks are the latest, and largest, creatures that are able to reproduce without having sex, a finding that could have important implications for conserving these endangered fish.

A female hammerhead shark has given birth without the help of a male, after genetic tests revealed that its baby shark had no paternal DNA.

An international team reports that the shark's "virgin birth" was down to an unusual method of reproduction known as "parthenogenesis", where an egg starts to divide without being fertilized.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/05/23/eashark23.xml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6681793.stm

Humpback whales lost near Vacaville, California!

A humpback whale mother and her calf made the 90-mile river journey from the San Francisco bay to the Port of Sacramento in the Sacramento River.

Biologists hope to get the whales back into the ocean, where food is more plentiful and the saltwater can heal their cuts. Recorded whale sounds worked in 1985 with a humpback nicknamed Humphrey, which swam in the delta for nearly a month before returning to the Pacific.

The two likely had been on their northward migration from Mexico up the California coast when they were sidetracked, biologists said. Because they are at the end of their hibernation season, they have less blubber to rely on for fuel than they would later in the summer or fall.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/18/delta.whales.ap/index.html

Bio 201 and Bio 202 Students

Keep your classmates and me up to date on your accomplishments. Let us know what school you transfer to and awards you receive. Send me links to interesting articles about any science related topic and I will post it on the blog.

Have a great summer!
Dr. Yabroff

Help the Global Fight Against AIDS

An estimated 38.6 million people worldwide were living with HIV in 2005. An estimated 4.1 million became newly infected with HIV and an estimated 2.8 million lost their lives to AIDS.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established in 2002, with the support of the world's leaders and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world's most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need by supporting locally-driven strategies. To date, the Global Fund has committed US$7 billion to 460 programs in 136 countries.

To help join the fight against AIDS:
http://www.joinred.com

Help locally at AIDS Project Los Angeles:
http://www.apla.org/

To find out more facts about AIDS around the world, visit:
http://www.unaids.org/en/HIV_data/2006GlobalReport/default.asp

Happy Birthday Lainey!

27 million unwanted animals are given to shelters in the U.S. every year. Over 10 million animals are put to death every year in the U.S. alone because they are abandoned and unwanted.

Lainey was rescued one year ago today from a shelter in South Central Los Angeles (http://www.farescue.org).

Challenge: Volunteer for a local shelter or rescue organization (http://www.1-800-save-a-pet.com)

50 Ways to Help Save the Planet-Light Bulbs

1. LIGHTBULBS MATTER
Switch from traditional incandescent lightbulbs to compact fluorescent lightbulbs (C.F.L.). If every American household replaced one regular lightbulb with a C.F.L., the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road. A 30-watt C.F.L. produces about as much light as an ordinary 100-watt bulb. Although the initial price is higher,C.F.L.'s can last 12 times as long. C.F.L.'s are available at most home-improvement stores and at bulbs.com.

Right now, with an instant rebate, you can get four 30-watt C.F.L. bulbs at Costco for only $2.49!

Challenge: Change one light bulb in your house to a C.F.L.

Global Warming is turning coral reefs white!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/05/08/global.warming.reefs.reut/index.html