01 Nov 2010: Report

Hatch-22: The Problem with
The Pacific Salmon Resurgence

The number of salmon in the Pacific Ocean is twice what it was
50 years ago. But there is a downside to this bounty, as growing numbers of
hatchery-produced salmon are flooding the Pacific and making it hard for
threatened wild salmon species to find enough food to survive.
by bruce barcott

In the American Northwest, the
struggle to save endangered runs of salmon is one of the epic crusades of the
contemporary conservation movement. Seventeen strains of Pacific salmon are
currently listed as threatened or endangered. Two more are labeled “species of
concern,” meaning they are close to jumping onto the list.

So what are we
to make of this: A recent study published in the journal Marine and Coastal
Fisheries found that the north Pacific Ocean may be nearing the limit of
its salmon-carrying capacity. The North Pacific is becoming “overcrowded with
salmon,” according to Randall Peterman, one of the study’s authors and holder of
the Canada Research Chair in Fisheries Risk Assessment and Management at Simon
Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C. He and his co-author, Seattle-based
fisheries biologist Greg Ruggerone, recently set out to compile the most
complete set of data on Pacific salmon abundance. What they found is that
today’s total Pacific salmon population is twice what it was 50 years ago.
“We’re seeing more total salmon now than we’ve ever seen before,” says
Peterman.

A surprising number of those fish — more than one in five —
originate in hatcheries. And that has created its own set of problems. Masses of

In 1970, hatcheries released 500 million young salmon. By 2008,
that figure had jumped to 5 billion.
hatchery-bred salmon are
gobbling up smaller fish, krill, and other prey, reducing food supplies in the
North Pacific for endangered wild runs and hampering their recovery. In
addition, hatchery fish, which come from limited brood stock with less diverse
DNA, aren’t as genetically fit as wild salmon to support the long-term survival
of the species.

How can numerous Pacific salmon runs be on the verge of
extinction while total salmon numbers are straining the limits of the ocean’s
capacity to support them?

According to the researchers, the abundance of
some salmon species has been caused by a resurgence in wild salmon populations
due to productive ocean conditions, as well as to the ever-increasing production
of hatchery fish. But the problem is, the resurgence of wild populations hasn’t
been universal. Five species of salmon exist in the Pacific: Pink, chum,
sockeye, coho, and Chinook. (The Atlantic Ocean has only one species, the
Atlantic salmon.) Over the past quarter-century, pink salmon populations from
around the Pacific Rim have doubled, thanks, in part, to hatchery production.
Other runs, such as Upper Columbia River Chinook and Snake River sockeye, limp
along in alarmingly low numbers.

The triumph of industrial salmon
hatcheries is written in the numbers. Between 1970 and the late 1980s, the U.S.,
Canada, and their Pacific Rim neighbors ramped up their hatchery programs and
pumped out vast numbers of young salmon. In 1970, hatcheries released around 500
million young salmon into the Pacific. By 2008 (the last year for which data is
available), that figure had jumped ten-fold, to 5 billion.

Most of those
hatchery fish — about 90 percent — were pink or chum, the most common of the
five species of Pacific salmon. Japanese hatcheries pump so many chum salmon
into the Pacific that hatchery chum have outnumbered wild chum since the
mid-1980s. One-third of Alaska’s 2010 statewide salmon harvest originated from
five hatcheries in the Prince William Sound/Copper River
region.

(Hatchery-bred Pacific salmon are raised in industrial facilities
from eggs and then released as fry into rivers and flushed out to sea with the
spring freshets. They are not the same as farm-raised Atlantic salmon, which
live out their lives in net pens.)

That flood of hatchery salmon entered
the ocean during an auspicious time. Every 30 years or so the Pacific undergoes
a regime change,

Young salmon enter a fierce competition for finite food resources
in the North Pacific.
switching from an era of colder water
temperatures to warmer ones, and then back again. It’s called the Pacific
Decadal Oscillation. Around 1978, the ocean switched from a colder period to a
warmer one. (We may now be switching back to a period of cooling, partially
offset by the effects of global warming.) That warming boosted the production of
phytoplankton, which in turn increased populations of the tiny crustaceans and
juvenile fish that salmon feed on.

Put simply, after 1978 there was a lot
more salmon food in the ocean. The total number of adult salmon in the North
Pacific jumped from roughly 300 million in the 1952-1975 period to nearly 650
million in the 1978-2005 period. Of those 650 million adult salmon, the
commercial fishing industry harvests about half. (What happens to those 5
billion hatchery fry? Like their wild counterparts, most get eaten before coming
of age.)

The salmon prey buffet is not unlimited, though. When young
salmon from around the Pacific Rim leave their rivers, they enter a fierce
competition for finite food resources in the great mixing chamber that is the
North Pacific. Greg Ruggerone’s previous research found that there are winners
and losers out there — and those results may have profound implications for
hatchery management, international fisheries agreements, and the future of
Pacific salmon.

The winners? Pink salmon. “Pinks are interesting because
they’re the smallest and shortest-lived of the salmon species,” Ruggerone told
me recently in his office near Fishermen’s Terminal in Seattle, home port for
much of America’s North Pacific commercial fishing fleet. “And yet they’re the
dominant competitor in the ocean, and the most abundant Pacific salmon
species.”

Much of their success lies in the pinks’ two-year life cycle.
Young pink salmon hatch in the early spring of an even-numbered year, overwinter
in the ocean, then return to spawn — usually in the lower reaches of coastal
rivers — in the autumn of the following odd-numbered year. “They have to grow
very fast, so they’re programmed to eat lots of food,” says
Ruggerone.

Other species have longer, more complicated life cycles.
Sockeye salmon typically spawn in or near lakes. They live in freshwater for
their first two years, then spend two years in the ocean before making the
journey back to

It’s no coincidence that most threatened salmon species are in the
West’s most industrialized river systems.
the spawning lake. That
journey to and from the lake can be epic. One run of sockeye spawns in Redfish
Lake, Idaho — 900 miles from the Pacific. Chinook and coho also spend a lot of
their lives in rivers, where they’re susceptible to the wear and tear of dams,
industrial pollution, high temperatures, low oxygen, and a sketchier food supply
caused by loss of habitat. It’s no coincidence that a majority of the federally
listed threatened or endangered Pacific salmon species are Chinook, coho,
sockeye, and chum that spend at least part of their lives in two of the West’s
most industrialized water systems, Puget Sound and the Columbia
River.

Pinks, by contrast, are built for 21st century reproductive
success: Dash to the ocean, avoid the human-based threats in the river, eat like
fiends, then make the short sprint home to spawn. Pink salmon are conspicuous by
their absence from the endangered species list.

And they’re only expected
to widen the gap. As climate change forces a warming of marine temperatures,
spring phytoplankton blooms — which lead to a boom in zooplankton, aka salmon
food — come earlier, which benefits the pinks. Pink salmon are typically the
first salmon to enter salt water in spring, ahead of the other salmon species.
In Puget Sound, for instance, the peak plankton blooms are arriving earlier. “By
the time Chinook salmon reach the sound in June,” says Ruggerone, “there’s less
food available because the peak plankton bloom has come and gone. And the pink
salmon have already eaten much of it.”

So even before they move from
Puget Sound into the open ocean, the pinks are well fed and strong, Chinooks
less so. When pinks compete with other salmon for food, pinks
win.

Consider this contest: pinks vs. sockeye. Every year more than 1.4
billion hatchery pinks are flushed into the ocean, mostly from the Russian Far

Image
Gallery

U.S. Fish and Wildlife

The pink salmon is the most abundant of
the five salmon species of the Pacific. Learn
more about the Pacific salmon species.

East (400
million) and Alaska (850 million). During odd-numbered years, those hatchery
pinks mix with abundant runs of wild pinks. (Nobody’s sure why even-year wild
pink runs are markedly weaker, but they are.) At the same time, wild and
hatchery sockeye enter the ocean and mix with the pinks in the North Pacific and
the Bering Sea. During even-numbered years, when the pink numbers are down,
sockeye growth is above average. But during odd-numbered years, when the North
Pacific is flooded with hungry young pinks, sockeye growth is below average, and
fewer young sockeye survive.

All of this wouldn’t be a worry if hatchery
salmon were the equal of wild salmon. But they’re not. Until recently, most
hatchery salmon came from a small pool of eggs, with little thought given to
matching hatchery runs with broodstock from their river of origin. The genius of
the salmon species, of course, lies within their diverse DNA, with each run
exquisitely adapted to the conditions of its home river. Hatchery fish, for the
most part, have dumber DNA. And the advantage hatchery pinks have over wild runs
of other salmon species is only expected to increase as ocean temperatures rise
as a result of climate change.

In a controversial study, University of
Washington fisheries professor Ray Hilborn and Alaska Department of Fish and
Game biologist Doug Eggers

‘We’re seeing very clear signs that the north Pacific Ocean is
reaching its limit for salmon,’ says a researcher.
published
research suggesting that hatcheries played little part in Alaska’s great pink
salmon boom. The state’s commercial pink salmon catch grew from 3 million fish
in the 1970s to more than 20 million in the 1980s, after the installation of
industrial hatcheries, and the boom is popularly attributed to the hatcheries.
Hilborn and Eggers argued, however, that the same boom would have happened
without the hatcheries because of more favorable ocean conditions — and those
runs would have been wild, not tank-raised.

“What we did with hatcheries
was take a free way of making fish, and turn it into an expensive way of making
fish,” Hilborn told me.

The implications of the research by Hilborn,
Peterson, Ruggerone, and others is starting to affect policy decisions. Over the
past decade, a wave of hatchery reform — designed to help wild runs, rather than
hurt them — has swept through the industry in Washington State. In Alaska, state
regulators are starting to push back. Earlier this year the Prince William Sound
Aquaculture Corporation, one of the world’s largest salmon hatchery operators,
asked permission to release an additional 95 million pink salmon fry. The Alaska
Department of Fish and Game denied the request — a rare refusal of the
politically powerful fishing industry. The state wanted to safeguard wild salmon
runs against genetic mixing with the hatchery stocks, and was concerned that the
increase might push the North Pacific to a tipping point. (The state did approve
increases in the company’s chum and sockeye releases.)

MORE FROM YALE e360

The
Natural World Vanishes:
How Species Cease To Matter

Once, on both sides of the Atlantic, fish such as salmon, eels,
and, shad were abundant and played an important role in society. But as these
fish have steadily dwindled, humans have lost sight of their significance, with
each generation accepting a diminished environment as the new norm, writes
biologist John Waldman.
READ
MORE
While it’s possible to stop, or at least slow, increases in
hatchery releases in the U.S., it’s nearly impossible to do much about it beyond
our borders. Russia has aggressively increased its pink salmon hatchery
production, and Russian officials have spoken about their plans to build still
more hatcheries. Those pinks will put more pressure on the common pool in the
North Pacific, but other nations don’t have the political muscle to block them.
The North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission — an organization of fisheries
officials from the U.S., Canada, Japan, Russia, and the Republic of Korea — was
set up in the early 1990s to promote the conservation of fish in the North
Pacific, but it has no teeth. “Quite frankly, there’s no regulatory authority
right now,” says Peterman.

So for now, hatcheries will continue to pump
more and more salmon into the system. “Ecosystems have limits,” says Ray
Hilborn. “And we’re seeing very clear signs that the north Pacific Ocean is
reaching its limit for salmon.”

POSTED ON 01
Nov 2010 IN Biodiversity Business &
Innovation Climate Energy Oceans Policy &
Politics Sustainability North America North
America

Print Email
Tweet Facebook Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Mixx

COMMENTS

Bruce, a fascinating article.

A different facet of
the topic: http://crosscut.com/blog/crosscut/19897/Save-the-land!-Eat-fish!/

Posted
by Judy Lightfoot on 02 Nov 2010

Interesting article, I have
to say. However, I also have to make a comment. You can never please a green.
Every silver cloud has a dark lining.

While I can understand the concern
over the diversity of the salmon population and the possible overpopulation of
salmon in the foreseeable future, trying to play the current salmon boom as
anything but a good thing is being simply ridiculous.

Posted
by Ben on 02 Nov 2010

The comment that there are more salmon
in the Pacific Ocean than ever before is disengenious and broad. There probably
are more fish than there was 50 years ago, thanks to hatcheries, but there could
well have been way more 100 years ago or even 75. Habitat degradation in the
lower 48 has done more to hurt salmon runs than anything. Canada's disastorous
and ridiculous management of their salmon resources has also destroyed or
weakened numerous runs. We need these hatcheries to feed a very hungry world.
Salmon, inexpensive salmon, is an excellent source of protein.

Posted
by Max Worhatc on 03 Nov 2010

Perhaps unwittingly this is a
biased piece of reporting, at least to the extent that it reports only one side
of a long-running debate in fisheries science. I'd be glad to provide Barcott
with the other side side of the debate in the form of published peer-reviewed
papers.

In elementary ecology we learn that density dependent mortality
can restrain population size when populations are large, as the aggregate
populations of the 5 main species of Pacific salmon populations have been over
the past 30 yr, in part due to hatchery production primarily in Japan and
Alaska.

The evidence of density dependence that Barcott refers to,
however, is circumstantial and mostly of density effects on individual growth
and size. One would think this would immediately translate into reductions of
survival, but the historical evidence is contrary--the great preponderance of
Pacific salmon stocks, including wild stocks, have experienced remarkably high
abundance during the past 30 yr when hatchery production has been high.

Worhatc is wrong. There have been more wild Pacific salmon in the ocean
in the past 30 yr, maybe more than ever, certainly more than 50 yr ago. This is
primarily a consequence of a shift in the climate of the North Pacific 35 yr ago
but also a consequence of the roughly simultaneous reduction of high seas
fishing.

Worhatc is also wrong about Canada. The high abundance of wild
adult salmon in British Columbia in 2010 was unprecedented.

What Barcott
and many others fail to recognize is that the two large hatchery programs, those
of Japan and Alaska, have as their main purpose the economic sustainability of
local family-scale harvesters and the small coastal communities where they live.
Economic sustainability requires the hatchery resource that is available every
year and cannot be realized when the local economies depend on a wild salmon
resource that has not been harvestable every fifth year, even in the recent era
of high abundances. Without these hatchery programs these coastal communities
would fade. Or become entertainment economies for rich tourists.

I'm a
retired salmon biology professor from the University of Alaska

Posted
by Bill Smoker on 05 Nov 2010

Puleese-

The wild
stock abundance you point to in bc was unprecedented. However, like all
scientists, you always refer to data that supports your theory, and dismiss data
or evidence that doesn't. The Frazier sockeye run up until this season has been
a dismil, classic example or how to ruin a natural run. It is also important to
note that FISHERY BIOLOGISTS predicted this run to be nowhere near where it was
supposed to be. I assume the biologist that did this were probably schooled much
the same way you were, used the same scientific methods, etc. My point here is
that even the experts in this field are groping in the dark, making assumptions,
etc. They just agree that they obviously do not have a handle on it. It is
pretty obvious they don't. It is also important to note that the Frazier river
is only ONE natural run in BC.. How are the Vancouver IS. stocks these days? The
Nass and Skeena?

Your contention that there are more fish than ever is a
personal opinion, not a fact. You cannot prove it. For ever hatchery that has
popped up, there has been an absence of fish is some other system somewhere
else. Nothing is static. Some runs have even disappeared to apparent natural
reasons. Glacial rebound, beaver population increases, even naturally occurring
land slides.

When the phrase "extrapolation rate" is used we all know
the number is subjective.

Posted
by Max Worhatch on 06 Nov 2010

As a fisheries biologist,
I've followed the scientific literature suggesting that oceanic density
dependence is occurring for Pacific salmonids. Hence, hatchery production tends
to be more successful off the continental USA when ocean conditions are better,
i.e., colder. Indeed, colder conditions are better for coastal upwelling that
brings up nutrients that power the food web. By contrast, warmer interdecadal
periods tend to cause crunches for both wild and hatchery salmonids, with the
latter showing relatively poor survival because of their lesser adaptations to
natural-stream environments. Hence, hatchery production tends to have limited
usefulness then.

Posted
by Robert L. Vadas, Jr. on 08 Nov 2010

Thanks for an
interesting report. I hope you keep digging on this issue, because you're
scratching the surface here.

And there are SIX species of salmon in the
Pacific--you missed the Masu or cherry salmon--not including steelhead and
cutthroat, which should probably be included.

Keep going!!

Posted
by Rob Russell on 11 Nov 2010

Bruce, great article. I am a
chef, fly fisherman, and salmon conservationist. I write an article on
sustainable seafood for www.CHEFnews.com and I appreciate the work you are doing
to inform the public of the difference between hatchery and wild salmon.

Keep in mind that Bristol Bay is 100% wild salmon w/o hatchery
assistance. Bristol Bay
salmon are about 21% of total AK commercial harvest
by pounds. As of Nov. 5th 2010 total
harvest 810,630 total pounds. 168,650
pounds from Bristol Bay. If you backout Bristol Bay, the total harvest is
632,980 pounds. With 256,521 pounds coming from hatchery fish (based on 32%
hatchery fish harvest). This actually makes over 40% of the AK commercial
harvest is of hatchery origin. (are you aware of any other AK fisheries that are
100% wild like Bristol Bay?)

THE MSC has a lot of work to do before word
gets out. This could discredit their entire certification process!

Considering 95% of the salmon sold to consumers is from Alaska and over
32% of those are from hatcheries and over 40% if you backout Bristol Bay and
with about 80% of the salmon in OR and WA coming from hatcheries there is a
pretty clear issue with 'wild' salmon!

Keep up the good reporting!

Posted
by bryan szeliga on 02 Jan 2011

This writer is very naive
and careless with his scientific facts. To lump all species of salmon together
and to draw conclusions of survival based on assumptions, not science, only adds
turbidity to the issue. It muddies the waters, adds confusion and may be a
reflection of (to use his words) dumber DNA.
Here are the facts:

Food Habits
In the sea, young pink salmon feed on small crustaceans
and plankton, shifting their diet to include shrimp-like crustaceans and fishes
as they grow. Other foods include mussel shrimps, crayfish larvae, barnacles,
tunicates and insects.

The food of the marine adult chinook consists
mainly of fish and some invertebrates such as squids, shrimps, crab larvae and
other crustaceans.

The food of the marine adult coho is more varied than
that of many pacific salmon and consists mostly of fish and invertebrates. In
the Great Lakes, the bulk of the food of larger coho consists of rainbow smelt
and alewifes.

He is wrong about most hatchery reared salmon being
released to the ocean in the fry stage of development. Most are raised to the
smolt stage where it is argued that they are less able to compete with wild
stocks because they were trained to feed on the surface with pellets.

In
the early 20th century there were some 20 million annual returning salmon to the
Columbia River. Assuming a 2% return for salmon, wouldn’t that require 1 billion
smolts each year being flushed into the ocean from the Columbia River drainage
alone? Hatch-22, I don’t think so.

Posted
by Ray Anders on 18 Apr 2011

"The number of salmon in the
Pacific Ocean is twice what it was 50 years ago"

oh, you mean at the
peak of commercial fishing and the total lack of conservation? hardly anything
to compare too.

though no figures exist, 200 years ago there were
billions more fish then you could imagine.

last year the fraser had a
record return of fish. somewhere in the range of 30 million.

15 million
were harvested... thats more then half the run! imagine 20 years ago when less
then 1 million were taken. the run size would be in the 50-100 million range
with no fishing pressure. that being true, the other small streams would be
equally huge compared to today's standards.

the reason catch rates were
so low for pinks in the 50s- 70s was because nobody wanted them. the other runs
were so large, who would target pinks?
from a commercial stand point, it
takes 600-700 pinks to make the same amount of money as 100-200 chinook, and the
pinks are twice the work. (cleaning 600-700 fish over 100-200)the rise in
capture is because of the other stocks demise.

hatcheries are helping
runs that are near extinction due to commercial and sport fishing pressure
survive.

Posted
by Aidan on 10 Aug 2011

Comments have been closed on this
feature.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bruce
Barcott is an environmental journalist whose articles have appeared
in Outside Magazine, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine,
and OnEarth magazine. A 2009 Guggenheim Fellow in nonfiction, he is the
author of the book The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw. He is working
on a narrative history of the battle over salmon and treaty rights in the
Pacific Northwest.
MORE BY THIS
AUTHOR

ARTICLE TOOLS

Recommend

Tweet

DIGG

Email

Print

Stumble Upon

Share

RELATED ARTICLES

The
Dirty War Against
Africa’s Remaining Rhinos
The killing of
rhinoceroses has escalated dramatically, especially in South Africa, which is
home to 75 percent of the world’s rhino population. The slaughter is being
orchestrated by brazen, highly organized gangs that smuggle the rhinos' horns to
black markets in China and Southeast Asia.
READ
MORE

For
Wolves on the Brink,
A Hobbled Recovery Plan
Few creatures in
the United States have come as close to extinction as the Mexican wolf, which
was wiped out in the U.S. by 1970. Now, scientists and conservationists contend,
federal officials are caving into political pressure and failing to implement a
legally mandated reintroduction plan.
READ
MORE

How
the Web Can Help Identify
Countless Undiscovered Species

Taxonomist Quentin Wheeler is calling for a concerted effort to
classify the millions of unidentified species in the world. In an interview with
Yale Environment 360, he talks about the new field of “cybertaxonomy” and how it
is harnessing the Web to speed up the effort to catalog life on earth.

READ
MORE

Shining
a Bright Light on
Africa’s Elephant Slaughter
Fueled by a
rising demand for ivory, the mass killing of African elephants has reached
extraordinary levels. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, New York Times
reporter Jeffrey Gettleman discusses his in-depth investigation of the deadly
ivory trade, which involves the U.S.-backed military forces of several African
nations.
READ
MORE

Tracking
the Big Snakes
Devouring the Everglades
The invasive Burmese
python has altered ecosystems in Florida’s Everglades, decimating populations of
native animals. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, python expert Michael
Dorcas describes the ecological damage these huge snakes have caused and why it
will be nearly impossible to get rid of them.
READ
MORE

MORE IN Reports

Should
Environmentalists
Just Say No to Eating Beef?
by marc gunther
Conservation organizations are
working with industry to try to make beef production more sustainable. But some
are questioning whether green groups should be accepting funds from the beef
industry or whether they should instead be urging consumers to stop eating
beef.
READ
MORE

How
Data and Social Pressure
Can Reduce Home Energy Use
by dave levitan
With the relationship between
utilities and their customers changing in unprecedented ways, new companies are
deploying vast amounts of data and social psychology techniques to try to
persuade people to use less electricity in their homes.
READ
MORE

Tar
Sands Oil Boom Drives
Push for A Northern Pipeline
by ed struzik
The rapid development of Alberta’s tar
sands has spawned a new proposal for a 731-mile pipeline that would transport
oil to the British Columbia coast. The project is strongly opposed by
conservationists and First Nations leaders, who fear the environmental risks it
would bring.
READ
MORE

The
Dirty War Against
Africa’s Remaining Rhinos
by
adam welz
The killing of rhinoceroses has escalated dramatically,
especially in South Africa, which is home to 75 percent of the world’s rhino
population. The slaughter is being orchestrated by brazen, highly organized
gangs that smuggle the rhinos' horns to black markets in China and Southeast
Asia.
READ
MORE

As
Myanmar Opens to World,
Fate of Its Forests Is on the Line
by charles schmidt
Years of sanctions against
Myanmar’s military regime helped protect its extensive wild lands. But as the
country’s rulers relax their grip and welcome foreign investment, can the nation
protect its forests and biodiversity while embracing development?
READ
MORE

Battered
New York City Looks
For Ways to Hold Back the Sea
by bruce stutz
New York City had been gradually
preparing for a world of rising seas and more powerful storms. But the
devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy is now forcing officials to consider
spending billions of dollars on storm protection, including a network of surge
barriers.
READ
MORE

An
Obsessive Quest to Document
Earth’s Disappearing Glaciers
For
the past six years, photographer James Balog has deployed dozens of time-lapse
cameras around the world to chronicle one of the starkest examples of global
warming — melting glaciers. In a Yale Environment 360 interview, Balog talks
about his passion to capture these vanishing landscapes.
READ
MORE

How
Fishing Gear is Killing
Whales in the North Atlantic
by rebecca kessler
Researchers have been documenting
the deadly threat that fishing lines and ropes pose to large whales that become
entangled in them. Now, new studies are pointing to another disturbing fact: the
ensnared whales endure enormous pain and prolonged suffering.
READ
MORE

Green
Crude: The Quest to
Unlock Algae’s Energy Potential
by marc gunther
A host of startup companies are
pursuing new technologies that they claim will soon lead to large-scale
commercialization of biofuels made from algae. But questions remain about the
viability and environmental benefits of what some of its developers are calling
“green crude.”
READ
MORE

How
No-Flush Toilets Can
Help Make a Healthier World
by cheryl colopy
Inadequate sewage systems and the
lack of toilets in much of the developing world have created a major public
health and environmental crisis. Now various innovators are promoting new kinds
of toilets and technologies that use little or no water and recycle the
waste.
READ
MORE

RELATED e360 DIGEST ITEMS

14 Dec 2012: Car-Mounted
Sensor Able to
Pinpoint Sources of Natural Gas Leaks

13 Dec 2012: U.S.
Awards $28 Million
To Offshore Wind Farm Projects

12 Dec 2012: Large
Cellulosic Biorefinery
Will Convert Corn Stalks into Biofuel

05 Dec 2012: African
Lion Populations
Plummet as Habitat Disappears, Study Says

05 Dec 2012: Interview:
Designing Green Cities
To Meet 21st Century Challenges

03 Dec 2012: An
Advocate's Novel Campaign
To Call Attention to Rhino Slaughter

26 Nov 2012: Giant
Galapagos Tortoise
May Not Be Extinct After All, Tests Reveal

21 Nov 2012: Solar-Equipped
‘iShacks’ Offer
Cheap, Sustainable Housing in South Africa

19 Nov 2012: Breeding
Birds in UK
Have Declined 20 Percent Since 1960s

19 Nov 2012: Five
Questions for Bill McKibben:
On the Road for ‘Do the Math’
Tour

Yale Environment 360 is
a publication of the
Yale School of
Forestry
& Environmental Studies.

SEARCH e360

Donate to E360
Yale Environment 360 depends on
individual contributions to continue to provide quality coverage of global
environmental issues. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

CONNECT
Twitter:
YaleE360
e360 on
Facebook
Donate to e360
View mobile site
Bookmark
Share e360
Email newsletter
Subscribe to our
feed:

ABOUT
About
e360
Contact
Submission Guidelines
Reprints

e360 VIDEO

In
a Yale Environment 360 video, photographer Pete McBride documents how
increasing water demands have transformed the Colorado River, the lifeblood of
the arid Southwest.
Watch the video.

DEPARTMENTS
Opinion
Reports
Analysis
Interviews
e360 Digest
Podcasts
Video
Reports

TOPICS
Biodiversity
Business &
Innovation
Climate
Energy
Forests
Oceans
Policy &
Politics
Pollution &
Health
Science &
Technology
Sustainability
Urbanization
Water

REGIONS
Antarctica and
the Arctic
Africa
Asia
Australia
Central &
South America
Europe
Middle East
North America

e360 VIDEO

The Warriors of Qiugang, a Yale
Environment 360 video that chronicles the story of a Chinese village’s
fight against a polluting chemical plant, was nominated for a 2011 Academy Award
for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Watch
the video.

e360 MOBILE

The latest
from
Yale
Environment 360 is now available for mobile devices at e360.yale.edu/mobile.

e360 VIDEO REPORT

As temperatures rise and water supplies dry up,
tribes in East Africa increasingly are coming into conflict. A Yale Environment 360 video reports on
a phenomenon that could become more common: how worsening drought will pit
groups — and nations — against one another. Watch
the video.

Top Image: aerial view of Iceland. © Google & TerraMetrics.

e360 VIDEO REPORT

Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal
Mining, an e360 video examining the environmental and human impacts of this
mining practice, won the award for best video in the 2010 National Magazine Awards for Digital
Media. Watch the
video.

OF INTEREST

Centre
for Science and Environment

Chinadialogue

Circle of Blue

Climate Progress

DotEarth

Ecological Internet

Environmental Health News

Environmental News Network

Grist

Guardian

Mongabay

Nature-Climate

New Scientist

Real
Climate

Science Blogs

Scientific American

TreeHugger

YaleGlobal

© 2008-2012 Yale University | TOP
| HOME | CONTACT | PRIVACY POLICY