Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (Feb. 8, 2013)

A Greener America
Carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. fell to their lowest levels since 1994 last year, with greenhouse gas emissions from the country's power plants seeing a 4.6 percent drop for 2012 alone.  Overall CO2 emissions fell by 13 percent over the past five years as a new energy-saving technologies were adopted, including a switch from coal to wind, solar and cleaner-burning natural gas.  The figures were released by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy.  Geothermal and hydroelectric sources also helped reduce air pollution.  But America got 31 percent of its energy from natural gas, which came about due to an explosion in the use of fracking.  Environmental groups say the shattering of the bedrock to help in the extraction of natural gas has come with its own cost to the environment.  America's improvement in emissions is offset by the burst in air pollution being generated in developing countries such as China.
City Radiators
Scientists have found that living within even 1,000 miles of a large city can affect everyday temperatures.  U.S. researchers collected data from areas around cities with high populations, like New York and Tokyo.  They found temperatures there were all slightly different than computer models predicted they would be.  It has been known for some time that cities, with their greater level of energy use, generate something called "waste heat," causing higher air temperatures.  Scientists discovered that the warmer air from cities rises and is carried hundreds of miles away by the prevailing winds aloft.  Temperatures downwind can be altered by as much as a whole degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).  The heat also widens the jet stream and alters weather patterns.
Deforestation Pledge
Pressure from environmental groups and customers has forced a major paper supplier to stop its deforestation operations in Indonesia.  The company, Asia Pulp and Papeer (APP), announced its new conservation policy after clearing nearly 5 million acres of Indonesian tropical forest since 1994.  Areas felled included key habitats for the country's dwindling tiger and orangutan populations.  Only trees from farms will be harvested in the future.  The move came as a result of a long campaign headed by Greenpeace and other groups.  They convinced many of APP's customers, such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Xerox and Lego, to stop buying its products while the deforestation continued.
Winter's Worst
The Russian capital has received more snowfall so far this winter than it has in the past century.  The 7 feet of snow has snarled traffic and created backups on the roadways around the capital that could have stretched from Moscow to Madrid.  Some commuters who were stranded in early February took as long as 10 hours to get home.
Elephant SOS
Poachers have killed more than 11,000 forest elephants over the past decade in Gabon's Minkebe National Park.  The increased demand for ivory in Asia has enticed the poachers into the densely forested central African country to kill the jumbos for their tusks.  Gabon is home to about half of the world's roughly 100,000 remaining forest elephants.  But a study conducted by the government in cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society found that two-thirds of them inside the park have been slaughtered since 2004. Gabon's president says the poachers typically use rifles to kill the animals, then hack off their tusks with chainsaws.
Earthquakes
At least nine people died in the Solomon Islands after an 8.0 magnitude temblor generated a tsunami up to 5 feet in height.
*  Earth movements were also felt in the northern Philippines, New Zealand's South Island, Taiwan, Japan's Hokkaido Island and along the Georgia-Tennessee border.
Bird Jive
A new study reveals that male sparrows flap their wings violently to avoid battling with other males over territory or mates.  "For birds, wing waves are like flipping the bird or saying, 'Put up your dukes.  I'm ready to fight,'" said Duke biologist Rindy Anderson.  While scientists had long suspected this kind of behavior, it had been difficult to prove by seeing the birds in action.  Toget closer, Anderson and an engineering student built a computer and robotic parts to install inside the body of a deceasedmale sparrow.  They then created a "robosparrow" that could flap its wings and sing like a real bird.  Anderson brought the robot to a sparrow nest in Pennsylvania and placed it around the live males.  Testing the birds reactions to the robot showed that its wing movement created the most aggressive response from the male sparrows.  The robosparrow worked so well that many of the male sparrows swooped in so aggressively they tore off the head of Anderson's robotic bird, putting future experiments on hold.