Seafood Mislabeling is more prevalent than we think. Of particular interest is that red snapper seems to be the leader with respect to mislabeling. To quote: “None of the 22 “red snappers” we bought at 18 markets could be positively identified as such.” Story from Consumer Reports can be found here.
What does this mean for our planet? The 7 Billionth Baby Born Today. Story at USA Today, October 31st
Evidence of Climate Change? Extreme Weather Events:
Snow Storm in the Northeast before Halloween–and with snow storms comes inconvenience and cost. The Wall St. Journal, October 31st, 2011
Flooding in Bangkok, The Telegraph, October 29th, 2011
In more positive news,
Flying Flags for Biodiversity, in National Geographic, October 21st, 2011
Cherry Trees Sculpted Over Time, Treehugger October 25, 2011
A game to test your biodiversity hotspot knowledge…from Planet Green.
Shark fin trade ban signed into law on the West Coast. ….from Oceana. They also have many campaigns that you can sign your name to or donate to including Defend Dolphins and Sea Turtles, Save the Seals from Drilling in the Arctic, and Save the Sharks.
And….some tips for having a Green Halloween, from Treehugger, October 26, 2010.
biodilloversity 
So much mislabeled seafood. We’re going to get another mercury poisoning outbreak.
And that cherry tree is beautiful
Haha Probably one of the reasons why I don’t really like seafood…
But then i have to think about that when I eat Sushi…
Its sad to see the carelessness of people in the food industry!
I don’t want to say that money and greed is blinding them, but at the same time when articles like this come out, I can’t overlook that fact.
I’d say I’ll give up seafood…But that would mean no sushi…And that’s a no no too!
I remember, on the news, in the late 90s there was a wide spread problem with fish farms dyeing salmon pink in order to sell them for more money, I would imagine this is still a problem but since the mainstream media isn’t constantly covering it the US jsut forgets about.
They also regularly spray carbon monoxide on tuna to help it keep its nice fresh look–particularly for the raw market.
mmmm. don’t you just love that Monoxide taste.
seriously though. There are many things we don’t know about the things we eat. We always joke about mystery meats and such when it comes to different fast food places but we really must watch out with everything that we purchase and eat. I’m guilty of not doing it but we really should all be keeping better tabs on where are food comes from and how its been treated. change always comes from the ground floor up.
It’s so weird to think that a decreasing mortality rate and a (generally) higher standard of living could have any negative effects, especially on the planet.
The planet has a carrying capacity–just as any ecosystem does.
Those cherry trees are fantastic! It’s definitely a cool experiment idea.
The Cherry Tree Project sounds like a beautiful and very unique idea.
Its something I could see Ringling students having a hand in.
However, something about the whole thing doesn’t sit right with me. I guess the main point is mans influence to manipulate and change the way plants grow.
But then again, that would contradict everything in society today. We have humans control vast amounts of crops simply by manipulating plant life and its growth. However, this is with the use to chemicals.
This project (from what i read)
shows potential of human manipulations and care without the use of chemicals and simply using resources that are “green” and are naturally available.
In any case, the cherry tree idea is beautiful and a very creative and unique idea!
I’m almost excited to see if they can pull it off!
I think what we must keep in mind though is that when completed they would like this to be a retreat for humans. what affect will that have on the trees? I think its really cool that they are shaping them this way but wouldn’t it damage the trees in the end and possibly kill them if you have people climbing all over them. installing steps and such?
I remember a time when there were only 6 billion people on earth. This was scary enough! now that population is growing at an even faster rate will it only be 10 year or 5 until we reach another billion? If we continue at the current rate, our children will experience the largest change in natural history since our ancestors during the last ice age!
in response to the floods in bangkok. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out who your rooting for, mankind or the enviornment? Always I want mankind to thrive, but sometimes I wonder if the Earth itself is trying to even out the playing feild. The more we anger it, the bigger and more deadly the storms will be. Sometimes,I don’t feel bad for people because in a way, it is somewhat justafiable that the earth would turn on us. We always ask god or whatever one may beleive, Why? why must terrible things happen? Almost all of the time, it is our own fault. We must take responsibility and solve the problem. If we truely make this a priority, we can make peace with the planet and its inhabitants.
“cherry trees sculpted over time” is just one great example of beautiful, self sustainable structures. If we could adapt this sort of thinking into creating housing, it could revolutionize how architecture and sustainability are viewed. In the future, I hope that all houses have their OWN way of collecting and recycling water, reducing and collecting waste products, and even creating its own electricity from solar panels or even plants. This is genius, now how can we take a small idea and apply it to larger structures? I want the world to look like the hobbit’s houses from lord of the rings!
When I took the biodiversity hot spot test, I was suprised to find out that I knew little about WHERE the biodiversity hot spots were. I didn’t know that there were three located right here in the US. Although I got 60 percent right (thanks to the knowledge I obtained from this course) and the test said I did well, I feel that I should have known them all. Afterall, this is OUR little, blue planet and we should be aware of these issues.
This is troubling, especially since they do the same dishonest things with dolphins for tuna. Even though it may say “dolphin safe”, it really only means they won’t kill as many dolphins, or put as many dolphins in the product, instead of the assumed – not harming or including them at all. 😦 sad face.
Woah! the cherry tree project is awesome, I think it’s pretty amazing that the trees all grow together into a living sculpture like that. A different kind of design would’ve been interesting, like a spiral or something, but the wide open dome leads to an interesting space underneath.
I don’t really understand what the mislabeled fish story has to do with biodiversity other than some of the fish types were over-fished species. As a side note however it’s pretty remarkable what markets and restaurants get away with.
Shark fin trading is a big problem. I can’t wait to see if they’ll actually enforce a ban. All too often government types ban something or pass a law making something illegal and then never put forth the manpower to really enforce that very law.
so happy i dont eat seafood ever. it scares me that so much mislabeling is happening and that the fish people are eating can come from heavily polluted waters which the fish’s skin absorbs which has to go into their meat. no thanks. i want to live in that cherry tree
It’s really sad to see that so many people in the food industry all over the world have no feelings towards other human beings! That people could have no problem mislabeling food products knowing ful well that someone could get extremely ill from it or even die because of their negligence is just so heartbreaking.
Thats funny you mentioned the red snapper, I caught one of those and gave it to my girlfriends dad who loves to cook and he said it tastes completely different that what he’s used to (better).