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Are things any better?

By Times Staff
Published April 21, 2006

As Earth Day arrives today, what is the state of planet? Oil prices are gushing ever higher, but so is worldwide demand. We love gasoline-saving hybrid engines, but now we're putting them into energy-guzzling SUVs, using them for more power rather than gas-savings. Water quality in the Tampa Bay area has dramatically improved. But in spite of years of conservation talk, Florida's per capita water use actually increased. A look at the news -- good, bad and toxic -- from the home planet.

CLIMATE

2005 was Earth's hottest year in more than a century, NASA says. Temperatures are about 1 degree Fahrenheit warmer now than in the mid 1970s. The number of glaciers in Glacier National Park has decreased from about 150 in 1850 to 37 now, and they could disappear by 2020, the New York Times says. Some predict that the ice cap atop Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro could melt within the next 15 years.

ENERGY

Fuel efficiency of U.S. passenger cars has increased from about 16 miles per gallon in 1980 to 22.4 in 2004. But demand for oil has renewed pressure to drill off Florida's coast. A London company plans to start selling a hydrogen fuel cell-powered motorcycle in the United States, but widespread use is still expected to take more than a decade. Meanwhile, Gov. Jeb Bush has encouraged state agencies to pioneer alternate fuels.

TECHNOLOGY

Americans will throw away more than 500-million computers and analog televisions between now and 2009. There is no comprehensive way of dealing with the toxins they contain. On the positive side, telecommuting allows many to work without driving anywhere.

POPULATION

In case you hadn't noticed, you are now sharing the planet with more than 6.5-billion people. More people tends to mean more development and less land for wild habitats. For example, Florida lost about 84,000 acres of environmentally important wetlands to development from 1990 to 2003, a St. Petersburg Times study showed.

HURRICANES

The duration and intensity of hurricanes has increased by about 50 percent over the past 50 years, according to an MIT professor.

WILDLIFE

Extensive amounts of coral died from disease and warmer than usual waters in the Caribbean last summer. A massive number of chickens, ducks and geese - possibly 200-million - have died from avian flu. On the positive side: The Rhine River was once so polluted that a species called the Rhine salmon went extinct, but now Atlantic salmon is surviving there. Other species once considered endangered, including the American peregrine falcon and the American alligator, have now recovered.

Compiled by Times staff writer Curtis Krueger, Times researcher Caryn Baird.

[Last modified April 21, 2006, 22:52:02]