The global warming alarmists don’t like hearing there might be other causes to climate change … say, like increased activity from the Sun. A friend, who really is a rocket scientist, sent me a link to the story - Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century.

For the first time in nearly 100 years the Sun passed without a single visible sunspot in a full month. I am not sure how they checked this out 100 years ago, but we’ll take their word for it.

Some scientists/researchers are now predicting another ice age. Talk about contrasts. A room full of scientists and a room full of economists are pretty much the same. Lay them end to end and they will never reach a conclusion.

On climate change - “the effect of sunspots on TSI (total solar irradiance) is negligible, but the reduction in the solar magnetosphere affects cloud formation here on Earth, which in turn modulates climate.”

“The sunspot cycle has strong effects on irradiance in certain wavelengths such as the far ultraviolet, which affects ozone production.”

Hmm … you mean it might not be us humans who are screwing up the climate after all? Go figure.

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As Bush made a move to protect the world’s largest marine sanctuary, on the other side of the world there is another surprise leader in the protection of the marine environment - China. China held its first international drill against oil spills with South Korea off the coast of Qingdao. Some 500 people, one helicopter, one fixed wing aircraft and 29 vessels were involved … none of them leaking anything, of course.

The Northwest Pacific region is at the highest risk of oil spills and a natural place for pollution prevention training. China gets some 400 oil tankers visiting each day carrying some 420 million tons of crude oil annually. In the past 24 years there have been 79 accidents involving oil spills of at least 50 tons of oil. Gosh, that’s about a year’s worth of crude oil wasted, no?

China lags in maritime firefighting capability and oil cleaning equipment. But, perhaps the Middle Kingdom is turning the corner. South Korea had the most serious oil spill in history last year when 15,000 tons of crude oil leaked into the sea near Hong Kong.

Is it just me that thought that crocodiles eat everything that passes their way? Or at least everything? If not, then my friends we’ve been wrong by a long shot because the ferocious predates obviously, either fear the hippos, are good friends with them or just don’t care to much about their vegetarian body fat. So next time you encounter a croc (that’s a crocodile, yes) tell him you’re a hippo and you eat vegetarian. That may save you.

While we’re at it, here’s how the hippos spend some quality time at the spa. It’s great to be a hippo I suppose.

We usually get really excited when things on Earth happen the way they should and that’s what could happen now that President Bush has made a public proposal last week. He wants all the 15 islands in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and parts of the islands in the Pacific to be granted the national-monument status, which would lead to the world’s largest marine reserve on the planet as big as Texas and Alaska combined.

“Life on Earth changes all the time, but these are like time machines that take us back to the time when humans didn’t impact coral reefs in any significant ways,” said Enric Sala, a marine ecologist and National Geographic fellow and emerging explorer.

Aerial view of a small pristine isle near Island Saipan

Large ancient lobe coral in Kingman Reef, studied by an ecologist

Rich coral ecosystem in the lush Palmyra Atoll

Gray reef sharks patrol Kingman Reef

Masked boobie in Palmyra Atoll

“These places are completely different from what we know anywhere else. They’re totally dominated by their predators. Imagine the Serengeti with five lions per wildebeest. This is Kingman Reef,” said Enric Sala

The proposal is great, but can we be sure these pristine reefs won’t be “vandalized” by fishing or other similar activities. Let’s hope so because it’s too beautiful.

All photographs by Paul Chesley/NGS

More Japanese researchers with nothing to do (remember the whales), have learned, or think they learned that elephants not only don’t forget, they can count, too.

In addition exercises, one elephant scored 87% and another scored 69%. American elephants scored in the lower percentile, wondering aloud “What’s addition?”

Researchers dropped different amounts of food into a bucket, blindfolded the elephant to to determine if Dumbo could conclude which bucket had the most food in it. The animals were tested using their favorite foods - oranges, cabbages, apples and little children.

I wonder, did they think to ask the elephants that got wrong answers if they were hungry or not?

The elephants were able to distinguish between the addition of just one food item, meaning, it’s not just pure guessing. Here’s a question I have - did the elephants know they were being tested? And, did they pray before the tests?

A biomechanics researcher wishes he had the brains of a fruitfly. Apparently the little fellows can:

1. calculate the location of an impending threat (flyswatter)
2. come up with an escape plan
3. place its legs in an optimal position to hop out of the way in the opposite direction.

And do it all in about 100 milliseconds after the fly first spots the swatter.

This researcher knows this because he has spent some 20 years watching flies, um, fly, out of the way.

With high-resolution, high-speed digital imaging, he watched the fly maneuver its legs depending on the angle of the incoming missile, flyswatter. The good news - we have new insights into the fly nervous system. And that will help all fly chasers everywhere.

The plan for swatting a fly - “It is best not to swat at the fly’s starting position, but rather to aim a bit forward of that to anticipate where the fly is going to jump when it first sees your swatter.”

Now, aren’t you really glad you are reading GreenPacks? And, gosh, if we did have such brains as a fruitfly, we wouldn’t have to worry too much about being swatted, would we?

We like animals here at GP. We don’t like when they are mistreated, however. And, we don’t like when they pollute the place! Some 250,000 blue rubber ducks cooperated on a world record this year for the most plastic ducks in one place. Seriously.

Does somebody really keep track of how many rubber ducks get together in one place from time to time? Did somebody actually count the ducks? One little rubber ducky, two little rubber duckies, three little rubber duckies ….

The rubber ducks were tossed into the river by the Hampton Court Palace as part of the Great British Duck Race. The Brits need to find something else to do. The ducks are blue because last year people threw their own yellow duckies in uninvited.

There is a 2 pound entry fee and a 10,000 pound first prize for the ducky who floats the fastest. The money raised went to charity. Perhaps the start of this race can be traced back to 1992 when 29,000 rubber ducks fell overboard from a boat in the Pacific Ocean and floated about for some 15 years.

Listen and you can hear some Brits saying, “My rubber ducky is faster than yours.”

BTW, who is going to clean up this mess?

Pandas may be in short supply in Sichuan, China, where they come from. Earthquakes may be chasing them about and such.

But, elsewhere, Pandas are making a comeback … well, sorta.

The first panda born in the US this year was born in the Atlanta Zoo.

The little sex-to-be-determined critter’s sister, Mei Lan, is a couple weeks shy of her second birthday.

Zookeepers are still hoping there’s a twin inside yet to come out. “Jacob? Are you in there?!”

The sex of the newborn will be determined in a couple of weeks, sometime after mom lets them touch the cub. Until then, STAY CLEAR OF THE MAMA PANDA!

Well, this mama panda seems to be a bit frisky. I wonder if they have been taking videos to pass around the panda world to get others in the mood? What is it with Pandas anyway? I bet the fellas are game.

How do you say in Panda language, “Not tonight, I have a headache?”

Just for the records, that follows last week’s Panda artificial insemination at the Oji Zoo, in Japan

The Japanese have been claiming all along that they have been doing research on the whales, not just hunting for dinner for a football team for a month.

A study has come out that says the whales are losing their blubber because ocean resources have been dwindling.

Japan conducted “lethal research” on 6,779 whales, about two-thirds were killed and some were pregnant.

The problem for the big Nemos is a lack of krill, a critical link in the food chain. The scarcity is blamed on climate change and the recovery of species like the humpback whale.

Minke whales shed nearly 10% of the blubber over 18 years and lose about 38lbs a year. I wonder if I were to remove krill from my diet, would I lose weight, too?

The study was led by Japan’s government-backed Institute of Cetacean Research and published in Polar Biology. Whale lovers say, “There is no need to kill whales to study them. ‘Research’ whaling is just commercial whaling under another name.”

Poor whales … if the Japanese don’t get them, climate change will.

Right or wrong, the Brits fear that future developments of wind turbines (and they plan to have 7,000 by 2010) may hurt the dwindling bat population, and they have good reasons. A wind turbine reduces the air pressure around the spinning blades and can burst the tiny blood vessels that surround the bat lungs when they expand.

Dr Erin Baerwald, of the University of Calgary, Canada, conducted the research on 188 bats that were killed in just one night, and revealed that they all died because of internal bleeding. However, the threat is not that high with birds as with bats, because they have tougher lungs and support pressure changes much better.

With 17 bat species on the rare and endangered lists, no wonder the Brits fear they’ll be affected by wind turbines.

What would you choose? More energy for us and forget the bats, or less energy for us and keep the bats. It’s very hard to answer, I know.

Image courtesy of mosdave