Eco-Portal: The Environmental Sustainability Information Source
http://www.eco-portal.com/
Eco-Portal, the self-described "information gateway empowering the movement for environmental sustainability," provides timely information on a number of environmental issues. On the tail end of the recently concluded World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, this Web site is worth a visit for news and commentary about summit proceedings. Click on the special Johannesburg coverage feature to access related stories from newspapers around the world. Aside from reviewing the Johannesburg Summit, this Web site offers a convenient collection of environmentally-related resources. Features include an Internet search engine for locating information about environmental concerns, the latest environmental sustainability news headlines, and dozens of links to related organizations. [RS]
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Discover Chimpanzees! [.pdf, QuickTime]
http://www.discoverchimpanzees.org/home/home.php
Meet the chimps of Tanzania's Gombe National Park at this entertaining Web site from the Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies. With colorful photos on every page, this site offers biographies about specific chimpanzees written by the researchers who study them, a virtual tour of the park, recorded chimp calls, interactive games, relevant links, and more. Users can download over a dozen documents for additional information and activities, such as a guide to chimpanzee territorial behavior, instructions how to do a field sketch, and a map of Gombe National Park. The Behavior Glossary, which offers terrific QuickTime videos of dozens of chimp behaviors, is best accessed with a cable or DSL connection. Users with a 56K connection may be put off by the lengthy download time for many of the videos. [RS]
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Seafood Lover's Guide [.pdf]
http://www.audubon.org/campaign/lo/seafood/
The Audubon Society's Living Oceans program aims "to change the fundamental nature of how consumers and food service professionals select seafood," as the "buying power of consumers can create a market environment that encourages sustainable seafood and abundance in the seas." The online Seafood Lover's Guide works toward this goal by offering free information about the ecological sustainability of the way some of our favorite commercial fish and shellfish are managed. Visitors to the Web site can easily check the status of over a dozen species in the Seafood Guide, find out more about the seafood industry in the Seafood FAQ, learn how Audubon sets the criteria for ranking different seafood species, and more. Visitors are encouraged to contact Living Oceans for a free wallet-sized seafood guide or download it with Adobe Acrobat (prints out as a full page). [RS]
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National Fire Plan [.pdf]
http://www.fireplan.gov/
In light of President Bush's recent proposal to allow increased logging as a preventative measure against future forest fires, readers may want to keep tabs on this official Web site of the National Fire Plan, a joint project of the US Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, Forest Service, and National Association of State Foresters. The site is quite comprehensive, offering fairly detailed information about firefighting, plans for landscape rehabilitation and restoration, research and accountability, fuel reduction strategies, and more. The site also provides a link to the National Fire Plan Maps Web site, which is an "internet based mapping application that visually portrays the Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture land management agencies hazardous fuels program projects in relation to the wildland urban interface communities." Other useful features include an extensive glossary and a link to wildfire updates from the National Interagency Fire Center. In all, this is a well-designed, comprehensive resource. [RS]
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Plants in Motion [QuickTime]
http://sunflower.bio.indiana.edu/~rhangart/plantmotion/PlantsInMotion.html
Roger P. Hangarter of Indiana University's Department of Biology has created this wonderful collection of time-lapse photography that allows us "to see the movements of plants and clearly demonstrates that plants are living and capable of some extraordinary things. " The videos available show a broad range of plant growth phenomena, including germination, circadian responses, phototropism, and much more. The movies are fun to watch in and of themselves, but don't miss out on the informative descriptions that accompany each video and category heading. Macintosh users can also print out a flip book using NIH Image, a free image analysis software (link provided). Even those with only a passing interest in botany will find this Web site entertaining and informative. [RS]
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Coral Mortality and African Dust [.pdf, QuickTime]
http://catbert.er.usgs.gov/african_dust/
This Web site from the US Geological Survey contains in-depth information about the idea that airborne dust from increased desertification in northern Africa may affect the health of coral reef systems in the Caribbean. The site provides a short but thorough explanation of the phenomenon, and links to other Web sites that have featured it as a news story or television documentary. The site also contains an image gallery depicting the decline of two coral reefs over a four-decade period, as well as satellite images of African dust spanning the Atlantic and beyond. The most engaging feature of this site is the online movie, a mini-documentary about the dust-coral reef connection, which can be viewed with QuickTime. Other features include a printable info-sheet with high quality photos, descriptions of recent coral mortality events, and information about coral diseases. This Web site is worth a visit for its comprehensive overview of an environmental problem that has probably escaped the notice of most people. [RS]
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Fossil Hominids: The Evidence for Human Evolution
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/
This Web site from Talk.Origins, a "Usenet newsgroup devoted to the discussion and debate of biological and physical origins," aims to "provide an overview of the study of human evolution, and of the currently accepted fossil evidence." Recognized for excellence by a number of science and education organizations, this site has been updated to include new material concerning Homo habilis and two newly discovered fossil hominid skulls. As before, the site also offers an overview of the latest developments in paleoanthropology, general information about hominid species, and links and references, as well as closely following the controversial evolution vs. creationism debate. The site is simply presented and easy to navigate, and offers a convenient way to keep current with paleoanthropological issues. [RS]
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In Search of Moon Trees [.m3u, QuickTime]
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/13aug_moontrees.htm
In 1971, hundreds of tree seedlings germinated aboard NASA's Apollo 14 mission to the moon. A few years later, they were planted around the nation, often with much fanfare. However, no one kept a systematic record of these plantings, and as a result, the whereabouts of most of the trees remains a mystery. Visitors can read or listen to an account of the history and current status of them at this Web site, and follow links to access additional information relating to the story or to learn the location of known Moon trees. NASA scientist Dave Williams continues to search for the remaining trees and encourages readers to contact him if they believe they know of trees not currently mentioned on his list. What this site lacks in colorful, interactive features is more than made up for by its engaging feature story. [RS]
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