Frankly Green

Ship of Plastic Bottles to Send Eco-Message

2009-06-27T08:06:56-07:00

Trek across Pacific will be atop 10,000 empties and dome with shower
Link to Article

SAN FRANCISCO - You've heard of a ship in a bottle. How about a ship made of plastic bottles? That would be the Plastiki, designed to sail the Pacific on an 11,000-mile voyage highlighting the dangers of living in a throwaway world.

"Waste is fundamentally a design flaw. We wanted to design a vessel that would epitomize waste being used as a resource," said expedition leader David de Rothschild.

The boat is named in honor of the 1947 Kon-Tiki raft sailed across the Pacific by explorer Thor Heyerdahl, an ocean adventure that inspired de Rothschild.

There's a bit more of a tie-in. One of the Plastiki team members is Josian Heyerdahl, the explorer's granddaughter.

An environmental scientist who works on business sustainability issues, Heyerdahl, 25, became part of the project after reading about it and introducing herself to de Rothschild.

...

Plans are for skipper Jo Royle and de Rothschild to sail the whole way from California to Australia, while other crew members will rotate. Heyerdahl plans to join the boat for the last leg of the journey as the Plastiki heads toward Sydney Harbor.

...

Turning thousands of reclaimed 2-liter bottles into a sailing vessel isn't a simple task. The launch date, which had been scheduled earlier this year, had to be pushed back to late this year because of the challenges of working with a new material.

The Plastiki is planned as a 60-foot catamaran with the hulls made of a rigid plastic structure forming compartments in which about 10,000 empty bottles are flattened and stacked to make it float.

Project manager Matthew Grey said the hulls are partially completed and the next step is bonding the various elements of the boat together.

Just how much longer it will take to complete the catamaran is uncertain, he said, because "we are dealing on a daily basis with so many unknowns."

On Friday, the Plastiki team plans to announce a partnership with Hewlett-Packard Co., which is providing technology for the voyage as well as the Plastiki Mission Control Center at Pier 45.

At the center, there will be a number of interactive displays and exhibits, including computer screens that visitors can touch to track the Plastiki's progress and send text messages.

"We see it as really a great educational opportunity and a very interactive place where people are coming to learn and enjoy and kind of get a taste of what Plastiki's all about," said Steven Hoffman, HP's director of worldwide marketing.

Geodesic dome for housing
The crew will be housed in a geodesic dome, topped by solar panels, and will have such creature comforts as bunks, solar shower and compost toilet.

The boat is fully recyclable, part of the mission to find ways to reuse plastics.

"What we have to do is realign our understanding of the material," said de Rothschild, a descendant of the well-known British banking family, who founded Adventure Ecology, which stages expeditions to raise awareness of environmental issues.

During the Plastiki voyage, the crew plans to document planetary pollution, from huge patches of floating ocean debris to fallout from nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll to the effects of climate change.

They'll keep in touch and get their navigational and meteorological data through HP laptops as well as a satellite phone. Power will come from 12-volt batteries charged by wind turbines and solar panels.

The Plastiki isn't the only vessel highlighting the perils of plastic.

Last summer, Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal sailed from Long Beach to Hawaii on a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles and the fuselage of a Cessna 310, part of the Long Beach-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation's project called "JUNK."

California to Require Climate Friendly Car Windows

2009-06-27T08:02:29-07:00

While I support the idea of reducing emissions, I think there are better ways to do it than to make mandates like this. Rather, I would prefer to see incentives for the automakers to address all aspects of emissions (not just glass). How about simply tightening overall emission requirements and let the auto makers figure out how to accomplish it. Glass may be one approach but there are certainly others. Sad thing is that most automakers, especially U.S. automakers, have been reactive, not proactive. Companies like Toyota have eaten their lunch. And companies like Tesla have gained real traction. Innovate or die!

_____

Carmakers, cell phone firms complained about sun-reflecting glass
Link to Article

California air regulators voted unanimously Thursday for a mandate requiring auto manufacturers to include sun-reflecting glass on all vehicles sold within the state by 2014.

The move by the California Air Resources Board was intended to keep cars, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles cooler during hot weather, reducing the use of air conditioning.

That was expected to improve fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"The end result of it is the customer gets a car that's more comfortable to ride in, air conditioners don't have to work as hard, and the atmosphere will be happier because we won't be emitting as much carbon dioxide," said board chairwoman Mary Nichols.

The auto industry complained about the expense but won an extra year to comply with the first phase of the regulation. Automakers also will be allowed to find other ways to cool down cars to avoid a tougher window standard to be phased in after 2014.

...

Beginning with the 2012 model year, a quarter of passenger vehicles sold in California must have specially coated windshields that block 50 percent of the sun's heat from a parked car. All vehicles must have those windshields within two more years.

In 2016, windshields must block 60 percent of the sun's heat unless car makers can demonstrate other ways to keep cars cool.

The regulation is projected to prevent 700,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere in 2020, the equivalent of taking 140,000 vehicles off the road for a year. There were nearly 22 million passenger vehicles registered last year in California.

The new windows would cool a sedan's interior by an estimated 14 degrees Fahrenheit or 12 degrees for a pickup or SUV.

Toyota's Plug-in Hybrid

2009-06-23T06:58:41-07:00

-- we may start seeing them by the end of the year.
Link to Article

More than 10 years ago, Toyota took a look at the alternatives to gasoline-powered vehicles -- battery electrics, fuel cell, hybrids, diesel -- and made a decision that, for now, at least, hybrids was the way to go.

They built the Prius, now in its third generation, and we know the wild success that car has had. But it's still not enough. Even though the 2010 Prius is rated at 50 mpg on the highway, the nascent plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) industry has shown that you can get the equivalent of 100 mpg.

Now Toyota says it's making its own PHEV and it will available for lease by the end of 2009.

But don't get out the checkbook and run down to your local dealer just yet. According to a report on the Treehugger.com Web site, Toyota says it will lease 500 of these gas-sippers, "primarily to fleet customers," which means government agencies and the like.

Nonetheless, it's a start. I would look for them in showrooms before the end of 2010.

Father's Day Gift Ideas

2009-06-08T20:16:07-07:00

Thanks to my friend Paul Banas at Great Dad (www.greatdad.com) for passing this along!

Here are some unconventional ideas for Father's Day from www.sustainstores.com. The company is a fantastic new resource and the family behind it is committed to providing customers with a wide selection of eco-friendly products, and showing them that living a more sustainable life is attainable.

To encourage your readers to try out the site, we offer a discount code "sustain" that when entered in the keycode part of the checkout form will provide a 20% discount off everything (the discount will be confirmed in an email after the order is processed.) This code expires June 21, Father's Day.

Here are a few items you will find on the site:

Solar Headlamp • $49.95
The world's first Solar Powered LED Headlamp with a powerful and lightweight lithium cell phone battery. The 5pcs bright white LEDs in this solar-rechargeable Headlamp run all night long with only 6 hours of full sun charging. The LED sequencing switch provides different operating modes – bright, photocell (for automatic dusk-to-dawn operation), dim and blinking. There is also a charge indicator for the battery and the LEDs switch off periodically as the battery runs low, so you're never left in total darkness without warning. Cutting edge solar-powered LED Headlamps are perfect for outdoor use (especially camping) off-grid living, or emergencies. Awarded Editors’ Choice 2008 by Backpacker Magazine.

Freeplay Kito Flashlight • $25.00
Simple, rugged, reliable light – anytime, anywhere. The Freeplay Kito flashlight combines the independence of trusted wind-up Freeplay technology with the reliability of LED illumination. The Freeplay Aid and Development Group exists to help Freeplay achieve its social mission: to bridge the energy gap in the developing world.

Freeplay ML-1 Mini Lantern • $55.00
The Freeplay Energy ML-1 Mini Lantern is a compact, dependable lantern ideal for most portable illumination requirements. It has no bulbs to burn out, nor disposable batteries to replace, and you can power it yourself when needed. Easy to tuck into your pack, easy to use. The Freeplay Aid and Development Group exists to help Freeplay achieve its social mission: to bridge the energy gap in the developing world.

Freeplay Solar Radio Eyemax Weather Band • $80.00
The Eyemax WB radio receives AM, FM, and the US/Canada Weather Band, and acts as a speaker system for your iPod/MP3 player. It has both a solar panel and the ability to power it yourself when needed. It also includes an integrated LED flashlight. The Eyemax WB 2009 is a radio that you and your family can depend on, anytime, anywhere, any weather.

Envirocycle Composter • $140
A truly easy, convenient way to compost. Just place your organic waste in the drum, spin every so often, and soon you have amazingly rich and garden-growing compost. A perfect choice for those not interested in an open compost pile--more discreet and no smell. The Envirocycle produces two excellent compost fertilizers, both solid and liquid. Comes with complete instructions. This item ships directly from the manufacturer via Standard Ground Shipping only. There is an additional shipping and handling charge of $30.00.

Guasanito 4-Tray Worm Composter • $68.95
Just let the worms do their work in their Worm Farm inside or outside and at the bottom you'll get worm tea, perfect for enriching the soil of your garden and create super-growing plants. Use Red Wiggler Worms, which are not included. First fill your Worm Farm with bedding: leaves, shredded paper and dirt, for example. After the worms have moved in, start feeding them you all your organic kitchen waste like coffee grounds, leafy green trimmings and eggshells. Soon you'll have worm castings (otherwise known as "black gold" for gardens) in the bottom of the bin. Collect, and watch your plants act like they're on steroids, completely naturally. Lid keeps worms covered, maintaining the dry bedding they thrive in, yet roof is ventilated for worm comfort. High Strength. 4 Trays. Made from recycled material. This item ships directly from the manufacturer via Standard Ground Shipping only.

USB + AA Solar Charger • $99.00
Ultra compact, ultra lightweight and yet very durable, the PowerFlim® USB + AA Solar Charger is ideal for everyday use. The USB + AA Solar Charger charges most small USB devices. Proprietary charging circuitry maximizes charge into the batteries. It provides full charge in four hours of full sun, and with a charging light on the side of the enclosure, indicates charging status. Six grommets are built into the charger to allow for secure fastening to a pack or to the ground. Direct integration of the PowerFilm flexible solar panels onto the fabric allows for easy storage into a pocket. 0.4 Amps, 3.6 Volts. Weight 4.9 ounces w/o batteries.

ABOUT SUSTAIN
Sustain is dedicated to providing the resources necessary for families and individuals to live more sustainably in today’s world. Through sales, education and community outreach they aim to connect consumers with products that enhance quality of life while reducing adverse effects on the environment and its limited resources.
By offering organic and fair trade cotton, soy and bamboo clothing, sustainably produced household goods, natural personal care products, biodegradable cleaning products and a variety of locally sourced products, they’re providing the resources necessary to make sustainable living easy.

The World Without Us

2009-05-26T21:34:14-07:00

by Sharman Apt Russell
Link to Article

Imagine an earth without humans. The how or why doesn't matter -- just poof . We die from disease or simply wink out. The premise of science writer Alan Weisman's The World Without Us is frankly delicious. Okay, sorry, I meant disturbing. Illuminating? Humbling? Insidious? In truth, I am not sure how I feel -- except completely hooked.

Much of the book is concerned with the things we leave behind. What, for example, happens to New York City? Without humans to pump the subways dry, the city floods. Sewer lines plug, pipes burst, streets become rivers. Even skyscrapers topple in this waterlogged mess. In about 300 years, all the bridges have collapsed. Moose and bear swim over to explore a forest of oak and beech. Rats and roaches, which relied on people for food and shelter in the bitter New York winters, are long gone. In New York, as elsewhere in the world, most domesticated animals and plants fail to survive in our absence. Feral cats, however, do just fine.

Our greatest monuments -- the Hoover Dam and the Panama Canal -- disappear with surprising ease. Plastic is another story. Over the course of 50 years, we have produced more than one billion tons of the stuff. It is all still here, notably in the oceans, where instead of chemically biodegrad-ing, plastic physically breaks down into ever-smaller pieces, bite-size chunks for larger fish and fine particles for zooplankton. No one knows how this will affect the food chain; we can only surmise that the consequences will be long-term. In a world without us, plastic remains our legacy.

Nuclear power plants share that honor. There are 441 on earth right now. Unmanned, they soon overheat. About half burn and the rest melt, spilling radioactivity into the air and nearby bodies of water. The resulting 441 "hot spots" will contaminate the planet for thousands of years. The good news is that, without us, the 30,000 nuclear warheads we leave behind will never be detonated.

Despite this formidable release of radioactivity, despite the chance that we may have already caused runaway global warming, The World With-out Us can seem perversely optimistic. Without us, the world will recover from us. No more overfishing. No more dumping of phosphates and nitrates into fields and rivers. No more tearing down mountains for coal. No more pollution from burning fossil fuels. Without us, the oceans fill again with abundant life. Rare animals like the Siberian tiger and red-crowned crane return.

Not only does nature rush in with her oaks, beeches, tigers, moose, and bear; she also has more subtle powers. Consider the voles that live exposed to the radiation still emanating from the Chernobyl site. According to the biologists whom Weisman interviewed, these animals now mature, breed, and die more quickly than unexposed members of the same species. Weisman writes that this speeded-up selection may be "upping the chances that somewhere in the new generation of young voles will be individuals with increased tolerance to radiation." And one day -- say in 100,000 years -- a bacterium will evolve that can eat plastic, suggests one evolutionary biologist. Weisman acknowledges what an earth without humans would lack: the unique creativity and consciousness that is the source of our music and art, our spirituality, our family life. But he doesn't spend much time grieving.

The World Without Us is a glimpse of an arguably healthier world -- and implied in that vision is a call to action. At the end of this thought experiment, Weisman suggests that since humans are not about to wink out soon, we should at least agree to get smaller, by limiting popu-lation growth and using fewer resources. This would take us closer to what we really want: to live in that world without us.

Video: Waves and Tides Next Frontier for Energy Exploration

2009-05-20T10:16:38-07:00

Frank Gerber

Video: New Crop of Electric Cars

2009-05-11T08:25:40-07:00

Frank Gerber

Save Energy, Take the Car

2009-05-11T08:24:48-07:00

In the race for fuel efficiency between cars and mass transit, put your money on cars.

By Patrick Bedard
Link to Article

Some things everybody knows, just knows. Like the WMD Saddam had in his back pocket. Everybody just knew he had ’em.

Everybody just knows that mass transit is cleaner than cars, too, and saves fuel. And once again, everybody’s got it wrong.

“Light rail” is the darling of transit boosters these days, operating or under construction in 26 American cities, including sprawling Phoenix and scattered Seattle-Tacoma. This is a system of self-powered cars. Depending on the design, it may run on its own exclusive right of way or on tracks through the streets. “Heavy rail,” either subways or elevated, always runs on its own right of way. “Commuter rail” uses passenger coaches pulled by locomotives, often on tracks shared with freight lines.

“Most light-rail systems use as much or more energy per passenger mile as the average passenger car, several are worse than the average light truck, and none is as efficient as a Prius,” writes Randal O’Toole in a new study from the Cato Institute titled “Does Rail Transit Save Energy or Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?”

From several federal sources, O’Toole calculated the average energy used per passenger mile for various transportation methods. Ferry boats came out worst, sucking up 10,744 BTUs per passenger mile. A Toyota Prius was best at 1659 BTUs per mile. The average of all automobiles, which includes SUVs, vans, and cars together, is 3885 BTUs per mile, whereas passenger cars alone average 3445. The average light-rail system is slightly worse at 3465. Buses, at 4365 BTUs, are much worse; commuter rail and heavy rail are better at about 2600 but still no match for the Prius.

It turns out that light-rail cars aren’t light, weighing in at about 100,000 pounds, roughly four times the weight of a bus and 34 times the weight of a Prius. Another problem: With electrical power, there’s major shrinkage between the energy of the fuel going into a generating plant and the actual power out the far end of the transmission system to the railway—10,300 BTUs in for 3400 BTUs out, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Yet another problem: To justify the political demands that come with the huge investment, light rail runs at a greater frequency than buses, and the trains are largely empty at off-peak travel times and toward the ends of the lines. Fully loaded rail cars are very energy efficient, but every mile traveled by a nearly empty car pulls down the average.

...

Ready for a radical idea? Forget building new light rail for commuters—few ride it anyway—and streamline the roads instead. Here’s why. New rail systems take at least 10 years to plan and build, then last 30 to 40 years before needing a major overhaul, so new rail planned today will, on average, be in the middle of its life in the 2030s. So it must compete with the cars on the road then.

This will be a tough league. Although rail systems are locked into today’s technology for years to come, cars respond very quickly to new mileage requirements. The average car sold in 2020 will get 35 mpg—it’s the law! As those new cars replace older models in the fleet, average mileage will improve, dropping the BTUs per mile from 3445 today to 3000 in 2020, and on to 2500 in year 2035, O’Toole calculates, even if the mileage law never tightens beyond what’s already on the books.

Looking at publicly available records, only one light-rail system in the country now, San Diego, beats 2500 BTUs per mile by more than one percent—well, actually, Boston beats it by 1.08 percent—but the point still stands: Unless there’s an unexpected move toward nuclear-sourced electricity, the cars of the future will outperform light rail on energy efficiency.

The CO2 situation is harder to predict. Will biofuels survive ethanol’s current bad press? Will the Chevrolet Volt and other plug-in hybrids actually happen? If they do, cars look even better because cars have one advantage that trains will never match. Cars don’t run when nobody wants the trip.

GrayisGreen.org - The National Senior Conservation Corps

2009-05-03T17:25:59-07:00

I had the good fortune of meeting Robert E. Lane when my friend Robert Lane (no "E" and no relation to the former) introduced us. They met by chance and by virtue of sharing the same name. When I first met Robert E. Lane, he had the idea for GrayisGreen.org and now, through his efforts and the efforts of others, it has come to reality.

Below is a description of the National Senior Conservation Corps. I love the energy and attitude that they, and their entire generation for that matter, bring to tackling tough problems (and they have tackled a few!).

So congratulations Robert E. Lane and thank you Robert Lane for the introduction.

__________

GrayisGreen.org is a product of the elderly residents of Whitney Center, a retirement home in Hamden, Connecticut. While the generation born in the 1930s may be called seniors, we elderly were born in the 1910s and 1920s. With one exception, ours is an honorable history. We grew up in – and survived – the depression, defeated Fascism, Nazism, and Japanese imperialism, created the United Nations, held steady in the Cold War and, along with our children, defeated the tyrannical Communist system. We have been called the “Civic Generation” because, more than earlier and later generations, we took an interest in public affairs, turned out to vote, organized civic groups to fight for civil rights, civil liberties, and the relief of illness and poverty.

But we exploited the earth’s limited resources like no other generation before us. We used up nonrenewable fossil fuels, cut down the world’s forests, exhausted our fisheries, extinguished many rare species, polluted the air we breathe and the water we drink, and heedlessly contributed to global warming. Now, at last, we know better and, as best we can, seek to repair the damage and to leave the world a more habitable and greener place.

We address our appeal broadly: first, of course, to our fellow elders, then to seniors about to become elders, then, to our children, the boomers, who are about to inherit the earth, and to their children and their children’s children in that seamless web of continuity that is the future of humankind. Elsewhere on this website is a Pledge to Planet Earth, where, modeled on the Athenian Oath, we ask others to join our pledge to leave the world a better place. To this end, we have organized resident-management “green teams” seeking to conserve energy (cheering the bookkeeper who pays the utility bills), recycle waste, reduce emission of CO₂, police the use of pesticides, control water runoff from impervious ground covering, guide purchasing policy toward low carbon footprint goods, and monitor building to follow LEED standards. We educate ourselves and others by mounting conservation exhibits, publishing “greentips,” and volunteering to manage this website dedicated to conservation by and for the elderly.

Imagine Earth Without People

2009-04-25T08:06:55-07:00

The human impact on earth

by Bob Holmes

Link to Article

Humans are undoubtedly the most dominant species the Earth has ever known. In just a few thousand years we have swallowed up more than a third of the planet's land for our cities, farmland and pastures. By some estimates, we now commandeer 40 per cent of all its productivity. And we're leaving quite a mess behind: ploughed-up prairies, razed forests, drained aquifers, nuclear waste, chemical pollution, invasive species, mass extinctions and now the looming spectre of climate change. If they could, the other species we share Earth with would surely vote us off the planet.

15,589 Number of species threatened with extinction

Now just suppose they got their wish. Imagine that all the people on Earth - all 6.5 billion of us and counting - could be spirited away tomorrow, transported to a re-education camp in a far-off galaxy. (Let's not invoke the mother of all plagues to wipe us out, if only to avoid complications from all the corpses). Left once more to its own devices, Nature would begin to reclaim the planet, as fields and pastures reverted to prairies and forest, the air and water cleansed themselves of pollutants, and roads and cities crumbled back to dust.

"The sad truth is, once the humans get out of the picture, the outlook starts to get a lot better," says John Orrock, a conservation biologist at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California. But would the footprint of humanity ever fade away completely, or have we so altered the Earth that even a million years from now a visitor would know that an industrial society once ruled the planet?

9.7 Average eco-footprint of a US citizen, in hectares

If tomorrow dawns without humans, even from orbit the change will be evident almost immediately, as the blaze of artificial light that brightens the night begins to wink out. Indeed, there are few better ways to grasp just how utterly we dominate the surface of the Earth than to look at the distribution of artificial illumination

(see Graphic)

By some estimates, 85 per cent of the night sky above the European Union is light-polluted; in the US it is 62 per cent and in Japan 98.5 per cent. In some countries, including Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, there is no longer any night sky untainted by light pollution.

18.7 Percentage of Earth's surface affected by light pollution

"Pretty quickly - 24, maybe 48 hours - you'd start to see blackouts because of the lack of fuel added to power stations," says Gordon Masterton, president of the UK's Institution of Civil Engineers in London. Renewable sources such as wind turbines and solar will keep a few automatic lights burning, but lack of maintenance of the distribution grid will scuttle these in weeks or months. The loss of electricity will also quickly silence water pumps, sewage treatment plants and all the other machinery of modern society.

The same lack of maintenance will spell an early demise for buildings, roads, bridges and other structures. Though modern buildings are typically engineered to last 60 years, bridges 120 years and dams 250, these lifespans assume someone will keep them clean, fix minor leaks and correct problems with foundations. Without people to do these seemingly minor chores, things go downhill quickly.

The best illustration of this is the city of Pripyat near Chernobyl in Ukraine, which was abandoned after the nuclear disaster 20 years ago and remains deserted. "From a distance, you would still believe that Pripyat is a living city, but the buildings are slowly decaying," says Ronald Chesser, an environmental biologist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock who has worked extensively in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl. "The most pervasive thing you see are plants whose root systems get into the concrete and behind the bricks and into doorframes and so forth, and are rapidly breaking up the structure. You wouldn't think, as you walk around your house every day, that we have a big impact on keeping that from happening, but clearly we do. It's really sobering to see how the plant community invades every nook and cranny of a city."

...

The area around Chernobyl has revealed just how fast nature can bounce back. "I really expected to see a nuclear desert there," says Chesser. "I was quite surprised. When you enter into the exclusion zone, it's a very thriving ecosystem."

The first few years after people evacuated the zone, rats and house mice flourished, and packs of feral dogs roamed the area despite efforts to exterminate them. But the heyday of these vermin proved to be short-lived, and already the native fauna has begun to take over. Wild boar are 10 to 15 times as common within the Chernobyl exclusion zone as outside it, and big predators are making a spectacular comeback. "I've never seen a wolf in the Ukraine outside the exclusion zone. I've seen many of them inside," says Chesser.

...

In contrast, places where native forests have been replaced by plantations of a single tree species may take several generations of trees - several centuries - to work their way back to a natural state. The vast expanses of rice, wheat and maize that cover the world's grain belts may also take quite some time to revert to mostly native species.

At the extreme, some ecosystems may never return to the way they were before humans interfered, because they have become locked into a new "stable state" that resists returning to the original. In Hawaii, for example, introduced grasses now generate frequent wildfires that would prevent native forests from re-establishing themselves even if given free rein, says David Wilcove, a conservation biologist at Princeton University.

...

In the oceans, too, fish populations will gradually recover from drastic overfishing. The last time fishing more or less stopped - during the second world war, when few fishing vessels ventured far from port - cod populations in the North Sea skyrocketed. Today, however, populations of cod and other economically important fish have slumped much further than they did in the 1930s, and recovery may take significantly longer than five or so years.

The problem is that there are now so few cod and other large predatory fish that they can no longer keep populations of smaller fish such as gurnards in check. Instead, the smaller fish turn the tables and outcompete or eat tiny juvenile cod, thus keeping their erstwhile predators in check. The problem will only get worse in the first few years after fishing ceases, as populations of smaller, faster-breeding fish flourish like weeds in an abandoned field. Eventually, though, in the absence of fishing, enough large predators will reach maturity to restore the normal balance. Such a transition might take anywhere from a few years to a few decades, says Daniel Pauly, a fisheries biologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

With trawlers no longer churning up nutrients from the ocean floor, near-shore ecosystems will return to a relatively nutrient-poor state. This will be most apparent as a drop in the frequency of harmful algal blooms such as the red tides that often plague coastal areas today. Meanwhile, the tall, graceful corals and other bottom-dwelling organisms on deep-water reefs will gradually begin to regrow, restoring complex three-dimensional structure to ocean-floor habitats that are now largely flattened, featureless wastelands.

Long before any of this, however - in fact, the instant humans vanish from the Earth - pollutants will cease spewing from automobile tailpipes and the smokestacks and waste outlets of our factories. What happens next will depend on the chemistry of each particular pollutant. A few, such as oxides of nitrogen and sulphur and ozone (the ground-level pollutant, not the protective layer high in the stratosphere), will wash out of the atmosphere in a matter of a few weeks. Others, such as chlorofluorocarbons, dioxins and the pesticide DDT, take longer to break down. Some will last a few decades.

The excess nitrates and phosphates that can turn lakes and rivers into algae-choked soups will also clear away within a few decades, at least for surface waters. A little excess nitrate may persist for much longer within groundwater, where it is less subject to microbial conversion into atmospheric nitrogen. "Groundwater is the long-term memory in the system," says Kenneth Potter, a hydrologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

...

Click on link above to read the full article.