MUENCHHAUSEN, Sept. 22, 2011

MUENCHHAUSEN
AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET
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SEPTEMBER 22, 2011
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WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications. The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.


BLACK AND CASPIAN SEAS
The Black and Caspian Seas are generally closed bodies of water (the Black Sea does have an outlet via the Bosporus), left in their place as two tectonic plates from south and north began to collide and cause the Tethys Sea to disappear. Other such bodies of water comprise the Mediterranean Sea, the Sea of Aral (what's left of it now!), Lake Balkhash, and the ancient Lake Baikal, that last one said to be the oldest lake in the world, geologically, and holder of about 20% of Earth's fresh water. The map immediately below contains some typographical errors: The sea should be labeled Tethys Sea, not Thethys Sea, and the word "continental" should read "continenytal" (1).

The Caspian Sea is very rich in oil and natural gas resources, especially around the Republic of Azerbaijan. So is the Black Sea, particularly in its northeastern regions, off parts of European Russia and the Republic of Georgia. At a conference on the South Caucasus region, TGB asked Mamuka Tsereteli of American University (Washington, DC) and Reshad Karimov, of the Center for Strategic Studies of Azerbaijan (Baku, Azerbaijan), what, if any action is being taken to combat and clean up any pollution in those water bodies. TGB noted that especially for such enclosed waters, "The notion that the solution to pollution is dilution is hardly workable anywhere, but especially in these landlocked seas."

Tsereteli and Karimov explained to TGB that their respective countries, and others bordering on those waters are concerned about increased pollution potential and the need for pollution abatement and prevention, and that recently, nations concerned sent representatives to a meeting in the Georgian port of Batumi, on the Black Sea, to consider these environmental matters and try to develop a plan for countermeasures (2). For now, however, TGB has the impression that progress in that direction will be getting off to a slow start. Given the nature of oil and gas exploration, drilling, and extraction, however, eventually some accident or pollution must occur, even with the most modern equipment and protective and cleanup measures. Perhaps the only saving grace is that there are fairly long warm seasons in the Black and Caspian Sea regions.

TGB could not delve into the above topics very much because the main thrust of the conference (2) was the frozen conflicts in the South Caucasus and nearby regions. Examples of frozen conflicts include Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenia vs. Azerbaijan), South Ossetia and Abkhazia (Georgia vs. Russia), and Northern Cyprus (Cyprus vs. Turkey).

Caspian Sea oil wells, Azerbaijan. Where might pollutants go?

Port of Batumi, Georgia, oil terminus. Marine environment was discussed there.

PIPELINE PROTESTS IN DC

The Keystone XL Pipeline is a planned megaproject whose function would be to carry oil beneficiated from the tar sands (oil sands) of northern Alberta to Midwestern states of the United States, and ultimately as far as Texas. Large protests against the Keystone XL Pipeline were held in Washington, DC, in Lafayette Square Park, and in front of the White House. Upwards of 100 arrests were made, including those of prominent persons such as actress Darryl Hannah and NASA official James Hansen. Hansen is a highly outspoken advocate of environmental action to mitigate and ward off effects of climate change, in this case interpreted as "global warming" caused by human economic and industrial activity. Currently, it appears that US authorities will look favorably upon permitting the project to enter and cross US territory. TGB is guessing, however, that there will be batteries of lawsuits aimed at delaying the project(s) perhaps until these become too costly to build and (ideally) viable alternatives to fossil fuels are found.

Map of Keystone XL and related existing and planned pipelines. A subject of vehement protests.

HISTORICAL INVASIVES
Just a brief look into history, given the large amount of invasive plant and animal species that have come to plague the United States.

Ever hear of Lymantria dispar? You haven't? Yes, you have, only not by that name, unless you are into entomology. L. dispar is the pesky gypsy moth, also known as the Asian gypsy moth. The gypsy moth is, to put it most colloquially, hell on many hardwood trees; actually, its caterpillars or larvae are the guilty parties.

The gypsy moth was first introduced into the US in 1868 by one Léopold Trouvelot, a French scientist living in Medford, MA, now a part of Greater Boston. Because native silk-spinning caterpillars were disease-prone, Trouvelot imported some gypsy moth eggs from Asia to try to develop a disease-resistant silk-spinning caterpillar. Some of the imported moths escaped out a window, found suitable habitat with few or no natural enemies, and began to multiply rapidly. Ultimately they became a bane of hardwood trees, especially in the Eastern US. In time, mice, shrews, and Calosoma beetles have come to develop a taste for these invaders, but apparently do not make much of a dent in their population.

Voracious gypsy moth larva (3).

Another infamous case, and there are many, was the introduction, circa 1904, of the chestnut blight fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica. Once introduced, also apparently from Asia, it decimated most of the famed and majestic forest stands of the American chestnut, Castanea dentata, until by as early as 1911, most of those forests were history (4). It is said that in autumn, ripe chestnuts used to "rain" from their trees, and were there for the taking from the ground. They were regarded as a delicacy worldwide. The tree also is referred to in the beginning of a classical American poem (5).

Yet another mass invader was the sea lamprey, which almost wiped out the Great Lakes trout fishery. This fish could migrate from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes once the St. Lawrence Seaway megaproject was completed. Then, the lamprey no longer encountered barriers in the St. Lawrence River. The sea lamprey is a parasitic fish. Perhaps in the future, TGB might delve into this story a bit more, but for the meanwhile, let us ascribe the lamprey invasion to a project's Law of Unintended Consequences.


REFERENCES:
1. University of Michigan. http://michigantoday.umich.edu/95/Dec95/fo08bd95.gif

2. Tsereteli, M.; Karimov, R. At "25 Years of Independence in the South Caucasus: Achievements and Challenges": Conter for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, Sept. 15, 2011.
3. State of Wisconsin, Dept. of Natural Resources, http://dnr.wi.gov/forestry/fh/gm/.
4. The Green Baron. Muenchhausen, Feb. 23, 2010, toward bottom.
http://muenchhausen.blogspot.com/search?q=chestnut
5. Longfellow, H.W. The Village Blacksmith.