Flower power faces a losing battle
INSECTS FOLLOW FRAGRANCES
THE NEWS Cyclists aren’t the only ones being choked by smog: A study in the journal Atmospheric Environment suggests that air pollution is smothering the smells of flowers.
Scientists at the University of Virginia used a mathematical model to examine how smog could affect flower fragrances, given that ozone is known to destroy certain scent molecules. They concluded that in highly polluted air, floral scents can travel only 200 or 300 metres before being degraded; in cleaner air, scents travel more than a kilometre. Since insects mainly find flowers by detecting and following their scent, this is bad news for both plant and pollinator: Insects need nectar for food and plants need insects to reproduce.
THE BUZZ Could this be a cause of colony collapse disorder – the mysterious and widespread disappearance of honeybees? “It is possible that it could be contributing,” says Professor Quinn McFrederick, lead author of the study. “But we don’t think it is a major factor – by no means have we found a nail in the coffin.” He says pathogens are still the most likely suspect, perhaps in combination with pesticides and air pollution.
THE BOTTOM LINE Even so, this could be yet another way that air pollution hurts plants. Other studies have shown that ozone lowers crop yields and damages leaves.
WIND ENERGY
THE NEWS Texan oil magnate T. Boone Pickens is making the first payment this month toward the construction of the world’s largest wind farm. The Texan farm will eventually cost $10-billion, have 2,700 turbines and produce 4,000 megawatts of energy – enough to power more than a million homes. He’s not in it for the eco-credentials, but for another kind of green: He expects to make a 25-per-cent return on the investment.
THE BUZZ Renegade ecologist James Lovelock (originator of the Earth-as-one-living-organism “Gaia hypothesis”) has derided wind farms as pathetically inefficient, “a waste of time” (he thinks nuclear is the answer). But Mr. Pickens says wind doesn’t dry up, like oil or uranium. He wants to blanket the American prairies with turbines, then cover the deserts from California to Texas with solar power stations. “You need a giant plan for America” for energy independence, he told The Guardian. “Not the pissant 83-megawatt deals being stamped all over the country. There needs to be a huge plan from someone with leadership.”
THE BOTTOM LINE Mr. Pickens isn’t the only wind fan. Turbines have become so popular that production can’t keep up. General Electric announced this month that its order backlog for turbines has grown to $12-billion.
WATER ENERGY
THE NEWS Now, imagine a tiny wind turbine anchored to the bottom of a river: The Ontario government announced this month that it will fund a field of such devices in the St. Lawrence River, near Cornwall, Ont. The proof-of-concept project should generate about 15 megawatts of energy, enough for about 11,000 homes.
THE BUZZ Hydroelectric dams, used in Canada for decades, don’t pollute the air, but they can still hurt the environment by flooding upstream ecosystems and destroying terrestrial habitats, while drying out downstream rivers and decimating fish populations. In some cases, they can also displace millions of people. Low-impact hydroelectricity is catching on, with trial turbines recently installed in the East River near New York, tidal turbines being lowered into the sea near Northern Ireland and wave farms in the works off Scotland, Cornwall, Portugal and California.
THE BOTTOM LINE The St. Lawrence project is small, but Verdant Power, the company behind the turbines, estimates that Canada’s tides, rivers and canals could generate 1,000 times more power, enough for 11 million homes.
TRAIN TRANSFORMATION
THE NEWS Subways are environmentally friendly by nature: They get people out of their cars. Now, the City of New York has a way to extend their eco-usefulness – by dumping retired cars into the ocean. More than 700 NYC subway cars lie on the sea floor 25 kilometres off the coast of Delaware, creating a deep-sea oasis of sea grasses, mussels and sponges. The program is so successful that others are vying for the dwindling supply of subway cars. New Jersey has ordered 600; Maryland and Virginia have also put in requests.
THE BUZZ Coral reefs, which support about a quarter of all marine species, have declined precipitously over the past half-century, destroyed by tourism, dynamite fishing, pollution, warmer waters (which cause corals to bleach), and acidic waters (from high CO2 levels in the atmosphere). But new habitats for fish can be created: Divers have known for decades that shipwrecks host a rich variety of sea life.
THE BOTTOM LINE True corals take thousands of years to grow. But artificial reefs can be helpful. The Delaware reef has seen a 400-fold increase in the past seven years in plankton and small baitfish (food for larger fish like tuna and bass).