A Better (Mac)intosh
Scientists and historians estimate that more than 14,000 varieties of apple have been cultivated in the United States, but over the past 100 years, much of that diversity has been lost as agriculture shifted its focus to large-scale production of just a few types. Today a mere 11 varieties account for more than 90 percent of all domestic apple sales. The good news is that researchers at the University of Arizona and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have recently identified 110 genetically unique types of apple on abandoned homesteads in the Southwest. The newly rediscovered heirloom varieties have survived for decades in the arid Southwest, indicating that they may contain genes that confer resistance to dry weather — an important trait that could come in handy for apple breeders if climate change increases the frequency or severity of droughts.
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A Better (Mac)intosh
An Ancient Carbon Fix
Sometime around 2000 B.C., the Amazon people discovered a trick for improving crop yields. They found that plowing the charred remains of burned food scraps, manure, and other organic waste into carbon-poor soil made plants grow better. What they didn’t know was that they had also discovered a method of carbon sequestration that could benefit a future civilization: ours. When allowed to decompose naturally, wood chips, yard clippings, cornstalks, and other types of organic matter give off about 90 percent of their carbon in the form of methane and carbon dioxide. But cooking them at high heat under low-oxygen conditions forms what’s known as biochar, which retains as much as 50 percent of the organic material’s original carbon. Some scientists who study biochar, including those at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, argue that we could theoretically dial back global warming by turning plant waste into biochar and mixing it into soil. The British company Carbon Gold is among the first to try to cash in on biochar’s promise. Though neither the United Kingdom nor the United States has implemented policies that would promote biochar, as of February, Australian political leaders were debating plans to make biochar a centerpiece of the country’s carbon-cutting effort.
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An Ancient Carbon Fix
Big Wind, Small Space
Starting your own wind farm but lack the backyard space? Try vertical-axis windmills. When grouped properly they’re more efficient than the more common propeller-style, horizontal-axis type, says Robert Whittlesey of the California Institute of Technology. In the right arrangement, vertical-axis turbines benefit from drafting, much like fish swimming in a school, making it possible to pack vertical turbines into just 1 percent of the space that would be required by an equivalent number of horizontal-axis turbines. And the faster they rotate, the more visible their cylindrical shape appears, making them safer for birds than traditional windmills.
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Big Wind, Small Space
Canada’s Toxic Mess
Tar sands production in Alberta, Canada, has shot up considerably in recent years, from 482,000 barrels a day in 1995 to 1.3 million barrels a day in 2008, destroying bird habitat and leaving barren landscapes along the way. Some 205 square miles have been cleared or disturbed by mining operations, and tailing ponds cover more than 50 square miles. Pollution from tar sands development is monitored by an industry-and-government collaborative known as the Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program, or RAMP, which tests the Athabasca River and other waterways for the presence of toxic chemicals contained in bitumen — the semisolid form of oil that is extracted from the sands. OnEarth first reported on the effects of tar-sands mining in 2007 (" Canada’s Highway to Hell ," by Andrew Nikiforuk), and in December, a group of researchers led by David Schindler of the University of Alberta published a study that found RAMP’s estimates to be much too low. The molecules they detected indicate that some of the pollution clearly came from refineries, not from natural seeps. "The concentrations we found in the river are within the range known to be toxic to fish embryos," Schindler says.
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Canada’s Toxic Mess