DAILY QUICK READ - MAY 22, 2016

Is bigger is better when it comes to pollution.

When the gargantuan Harmony of the Seas slips out of Southampton docks on Sunday afternoon on its first commercial voyage, the 16-deck-high floating city will switch off its auxiliary engines, fire up its three giant diesels and head to the open sea.

But while the 6,780 passengers and 2,100 crew on the largest cruise ship in the world wave goodbye to England, many people left behind in Southampton say they will be glad to see it go. They complain that air pollution from such nautical behemoths is getting worse every year as cruising becomes the fastest growing sector of the mass tourism industry and as ships get bigger and bigger.

California’s drought has been big in the news, but the on-going drought in the Colorado River basin and watershed has the potential for even more drastic consequences.  Forty million people depend on this water for agriculture and their homes.  Those forty million are apparently the victim of the climate change hoax we hear so much about from the Republicans.

Lake Mead reached the all-time low Wednesday night, slipping below a previous record set in June 2015.

The downward march of the reservoir near Las Vegas reflects enormous strains on the over-allocated Colorado River. Its flows have decreased during 16 years of drought, and climate change is adding to the stresses on the river.

As the levels of Lake Mead continue to fall, the odds are increasing for the federal government to declare a shortage in 2018, a step that would trigger cutbacks in the amounts flowing from the reservoir to Arizona and Nevada. With that threshold looming, political pressures are building for California, Arizona and Nevada to reach an agreement to share in the cutbacks to avert an even more severe shortage.

This article on bee health is certainly at odds with this alarming report on hive collapse and this article on beehive theft.  Are bees in trouble?  Is the media irresponsible in reporting information regarding this issue? Lots of food for thought in this assessment.   

When it comes to covering bees and farming, a week does not go by without an out of context headline or a poorly written story creating misconceptions about a genuinely important issue.

The latest fumble came over the past week when the USDA released its first-ever honey bee health survey showing an 8 percent drop in total honey bee hives since last January. A number of reporters turned this dip into scare headlines, but few dropped the ball as badly as Alan Bjerga, writing for Bloomberg. His headline: U.S. Bee Colonies Continue to Decline as Pests, Chemicals Blamed.

But it wasn’t just the headline that failed to contextualize the issue correctly, the report itself also missed the mark. To be clear: bee colonies in the U.S. are not ‘continuing to decline.’ Yes, they declined in the one-year survey—falling from recent highs. But there is no downward trend, in the U.S. or anywhere in the world, despite the insinuations in the headline and article.

While pollination makes a substantial contribution to food production and human nutrition, its importance is often wildly overstated. Pollination is completely irrelevant to marine food sources such as fish or animal sources such as livestock. The U.S. Department of Agriculture identifies ten crops that account for over 95% of all U.S. commercial pollination services: almonds, sunflowers, canola for seed, apples, grapes, sweet cherries, watermelons, prunes, cultivated blueberries and avocados – and none are experiencing declining yields due to lack of pollinators. Sure, it’s better to have variety, but these items account for a tiny portion of the overall human diet. Other estimates have put the fraction of truly pollinator-dependent food production, at least in the U.S., at closer to 7.5%—far from the one-third frequently claimed, without reference, in press accounts and studies.

South Africa’s struggle to curb illegal fishing in its water has a deadly impact on the endangered South African Penguin.  Over fishing forces the nesting adults to swim farther from shore for food, increasing adult mortality and leaving abandoned chicks on shore.

In 1985, 13 Chinese vessels were operating in African waters. There are now nearly 500. China boasts the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet. Its vessels stand accused of numerous suspicious and illegal activities.

A 2014 Greenpeace investigation found that much of its African fleet underreported tonnage. Some vessels were also caught moving their catch to other vessels at sea. That meant less tax to be paid to the host nations.

Response to illegal fishing depends on fleet size. In March, Indonesian naval vessels were prevented from arresting a Chinese fishing vessel by larger Chinese coastguard vessels.  In the same month, Argentina sunk a Chinese trawler it accused of fishing illegally. This trawler was from the same company that had its vessel arrested in South African waters last week. In 2011, the South Korean coast- guard detained a fleet of Chinese fishing vessels.

People Are Stupid – Two Lions Die

A zoo killed two lions to save a man who jumped into the big cats' enclosure in the Chilean capital.

The man climbed over the fence Saturday and removed his clothes before approaching the lions, according to a statement posted on the Santiago Metropolitan Zoo Facebook page.

He was apparently attempting suicide, and a note was found in his clothes, Chilean media reported.

Zoo staff shot and killed two of the lions with live rounds to protect the man, the zoo's statement said.

"Due to the circumstances and to firstly protect the life of this person, we found ourselves obliged to apply all of our security protocols," the zoo's statement reads.