Phew, that was a furious Blog Action Day ‘09 yesterday — with more than 13,000 blogs posting 27,000 blog posts in 24 hours on climate change in 155 countries to almost 18 million readers. (The Nature Conservancy and Cool Green Science were thrilled to be partners in the effort.) But the sun has risen again — and this day brings new word of disappointment for extremely rare turtles, a decrease in American driving, and bad news for freshwater species. Consume it all below:

1. It’s back to the, er, drawing board for the last female Yangtze giant soft-shelled turtle in the world (see video) — she (known by the nickname “China Doll”) laid 188 eggs this year, but none of them hatched, reports EcoWorldly.
2. Why is Senator Lindsay Graham now supporting a climate change bill? The Vine says the South Carolina Republican has  been swayed by the climate-change-is-a-national-security argument and by South Carolina hunters who are seeing the effects of climate change on the landscape. Kate Galbraith at Green Inc. says his constituents are giving him heat for his new stance.
3. More ice, please! Bright Green Blog reports that the Arctic ice cap is melting so fast, it will be gone during summers in a generation, says a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge.
4. Has driving jumped the shark? Fifty percent of American drivers are driving less than usual, says a new Harris poll reported in Environmental Leader, with 18 percent walking to places more than they did six months ago. (Self-powered scooters don’t show up as an option in the poll, even though they’re seemingly everywhere these days.)
5. Finally, some cheery news for the weekend: Freshwater species are the most threatened on Earth, reports Mongabay, with their extinction rates four to six times that for terrestrial and marine species. Even worse, say scientists, the problem is being completely ignored at the policy level.

1. What are the must-read climate books to get you ready for the UN conference in Copenhagen in December? Climate Feedback surveys some leading climate experts.
2. More Arctic mammals than just the polar bear are under stress from climate change — the Pacific walrus is suffering from the loss of Arctic sea ice, reports Andy Revkin on Dot Earth.
3. Can the orangutan be saved from conversion of rainforests into palm oil plantations? Mongabay reports that conservationists and palm oil companies are meeting in Malaysia on the issue. (Former Conservancy scientist and Cool Green Science blogger Erik Meijaard is quoted in the piece.)
4. The decline of large predators worldwide is leading to an increase in smaller predators — and that’s wreaking havoc on ecosystems and economic systems, says a new report in Bioscience. (Hat tip: Yale Environment 360.)
5. What about an ATM that recycles your old cell phones and gives you money if they’re still worth something? If you live in Omaha, you’ve got one — called the EcoATM — reports Crave.

1. PETA gives a new 82-story Chicago skyscraper an award for being friendly to birds — incorporating design elements that will minimize bird strikes, reports the Chicago Tribune. (Hat tip: 10,000 Birds.)
2. If you feed sustainably fished anchovies to other fish on unsustainable fish farms, are they still sustainable? Blogfish ponders.
3. How to talk about climate change? Ecopolitology says there are great lessons to be learned from the debate over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
4. Companies that are calling themselves “green” are feeling less scrutiny about those claims, according to a new report in this morning’s Environmental Leader.
5. Can dog waste — a huge pollutant problem for some urban watersheds — be composted? Ithaca, NY is trying to find out, says Green Inc.

1. Ever find an injured wild bird and not know what to do? 10,000 Birds now features a very informative Wild Bird Rescue 101. (Rule #2: Never try to put water down a bird’s throat. We could have guessed that wouldn’t work…)
2. Global warming has made the Arctic Earth’s newest open ocean — The New York Times reports that two cargo ships have crossed the Arctic from South Korea to Rotterdam, the first recorded commercial shipment from Asia to Europe via the Arctic.
3. The Arctic is also undergoing big ecosystem changes due to climate change, says a new study in Science magazine — including a plummet in caribou calf survival in Greenland because peak plant growth there is now out of sync with the calving season. (Hat tip: Journal Watch Online.)
4. Weird effect #19,834 of climate change: It could mean that airport’s current runways will become too short, reports Bright Green Blog. (Planes take longer to take off when it’s warmer and more humid.)
5. The Japanese dolphin-hunting town of Taiji featured in the hit movie “The Cove” will go ahead with its annual hunt of Flippers despite the film’s popularity. (Hat tip: Grist.)

1. From the Sounds Like a Perpetual Motion Machine Department: CleanTechnica reports that Amerigon Incorporated is working on a car that recaptures waste energy from its exhaust and recycles it into electricity.
2. Dot Earth’s Andy Revkin goes fishing with a biologist and master angler who says you must always throw the big fish back — to keep being able to fish.
3. The rare earth metals that are essential to hybrid motors are starting to run low, says EcoGeek’s Hank Green — and that could spell trouble for green tech innovation. Environmental Leader says China — which has 70% of such metals — is considering a ban on their export.
4. “Precycling” — buying products that have recyclable packaging or components that are easy to recycle — is a hot green trend. But Heidi Tolliver-Nigro at The Inspired Economist says it’s getting oversold and might work against real sustainability.
5. Summer sea ice will disappear from the Arctic by 2015, according to research presented reported in Mongabay. In other cheery news, Greenland is melting.

1. Is the International Panel on Climate Change losing its relevance? (It just won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with one Mr. Al Gore.) Andy Revkin reports in The New York Times that, while some criticize the IPCC for stressing best-case scenarios, governments seem to be ignoring its findings in practice.
2. A Google map of greenhouse gas emissions? Treehugger says it’s a reality — and really helps you understand the totality of GHGs.
3. The wetter the Arctic tundra gets from melting due to warmer temperatures, the more carbon dioxide it gives off, says a new study reported in NatureNews — a finding one coauthor calls “a big deal.” (Hat tip: The Great Beyond.)
4. The black plague has been the scourge of the prairie dog and the black-footed ferret — which eats prairie dogs and is one of the most endangered mammals in North America. Now a new vaccine could save both, reports Wired Science.
5. Will evolution speed up in reaction to climate change? Yale Environment 360 reviews the literature and says…maybe?

The image above shows ice sheets off the coast of Alaska in 2006 (left) and 2007 (right). What’s different about these two photos? (Hint: it’s related to climate change.) Read on for all the Cool Green News of the day.

1. Why didn’t we know about this before? Newly declassified images from U.S. spy satellites show ice melt off the coast of Alaska. (Hat-tip: Red Green and Blue.)
2. Is your local beach clean? NRDC has released its annual survey of water quality at America’s beaches. While some are doing better this year, and some worse, overall the stats look about the same: 7 percent of beaches surveyed had harmful levels of bacteria in the water.
3. Transportation accounts for 28 percent of U.S. carbon emissions — how can we cut that in half by 2050? A new report says fuel efficiency standards won’t do much. Instead, we need to change drivers’ habits by cutting speed limits and imposing road fees. (Hat-tip: The Vine.)
4. Humans aren’t the only creatures coping with baldness. A new species of songbird, dubbed the “barefaced bulbul” because of its lack of feathers, was recently discovered in Laos.
5. Hurricane season begins tomorrow — what are we in store for this year? The Daily Green reviews the latest forecasts for hurricane season 2009.

(Image: Satellite images of ice sheets off the coast of Alaska, taken in 2006 and 2007, show the disappearing ice. Source: Public domain.)

A few weeks ago, Cool Green Science started following the progress of five whimbrels on their flights north to breeding grounds in central Canada. One female shorebird, Hope, amazed us all when she changed her flight direction and touched down in northwest Canada.

But now we have some disappointing news to share.

Due to a the record-breaking lateness of spring in the eastern Arctic, scientists now believe that four out of the five whimbrels failed at breeding this year or didn’t even make an attempt at nesting. In fact, one bird immediately headed back to Virginia, where he’d begun his journey north.

The eastern Arctic hasn’t witnessed a late spring like this one since 1983. Snow and ice has partially covered the breeding grounds of many shorebirds and waterfowl — as of mid-June, James Bay in central Canada had virtually 100 percent snow cover. Conditions at Churchill, Manitoba were even worse. Whimbrels have a very short breeding season — so when the area doesn’t thaw out, they simply miss their window to breed.

According to the Winnepeg Free Press: “Prolonged cold snowy conditions in the Hudson Bay are expected to obliterate the breeding season for migratory birds and most other species of wildlife this year.”

A later report from Erica Nol of Trent University, who studies shorebirds at Churchill and James Bay, notes that some shorebirds have started to nest — just very late. Overall nesting success should be below average, but if there are enough bare spots, it won’t be a complete bust for shorebirds.

Boxer and Hope are just two of the birds affected by the troublesome weather. After touching down in central Canada, Boxer immediately headed back to Box Tree Farm in Virginia, the exact location where he was captured and tagged earlier this spring.

After a brief staging stop with Boxer in central Canada, Hope unexpectedly continued her flight northwest. Unfortunately, she also didn’t find what she was looking for and is headed back east.

What does this all mean?

The good news first: whimbrels are fairly long-lived creatures and only have to produce one chick during their lifetime that lives to adulthood to maintain the population. So one failed breeding season isn’t going to wipe out our new friends.

However, if climate change and more frequent annual oscillations and late springs continue, the impacts will be devastating to the population of whimbrels and other migratory birds.

“Such major oscillations are part of a bumpy ride toward global warming,” says Thomas Karl of the National Climate Center. “For awhile, at least, this will be the shape of things to come.”

With that warning, scientists from the Conservancy and Center for Conservation Biology will continue their important research this summer by deploying four new whimbrels with satellite transmitters in early August as they make their way south for the winter.

Will these curious creatures bring up more surprises when they embark on the next leg of their journey? You can follow along on nature.org.

Maddy Breen is a marketing specialist with The Nature Conservancy based in Arlington, VA.

(Image: Boxer, the only male in the group of tagged whimbrels, shows off his satellite transmitter. Source: Barry Truitt/TNC)

Great — just how I like to start my Monday morning: With a miles-long blob of black goo. See video of this strange phenomenon above, and look below for more info (and some other and decidedly greener links) in this edition of Coolness:

1. A 12-15 mile long mass of heretofore unknown black algae has been spotted off the northern coast of Alaska, reports the Anchorage Daily News. “We have many scientific questions, but very few answers at this point,” one scientist told Bright Green Blog.
2. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tour of a green building in India turned into a heated debate about whether India should be forced to meet greenhouse gas emissions hard targets, reports The New York Times. Environmental Capital rounds up opinions that India’s position doesn’t make a lot of sense.
3. First Wal-Mart is demanding sustainability from its suppliers, now it and other big box retailers like Publix are switching to smart lighting systems and daylight harvesting to cut energy costs in their stores, says Green Inc.
4. Here’s another solution to keep bats from flying into wind turbines — outfit them with radar beams, says a new study reported on in Journal Watch Online. (Don’t ask why bats avoid radar — nobody knows.)
5. Florida has opened its first hunt of Burmese pythons, which are an invasive there, reports the Miami Herald. Count thus far: one python. “If there’s one out there,” says one of the hunters, “it’s too many for the environment.” (Hat tip: The Great Beyond.)

1. Could deer provide clues to the evolution of whales? It seems so. Scientists recently discovered two species of mouse deer in Asia that can swim, suggesting that all ruminants were once water-loving and providing further clues to the evolution of whales.
2. Scientists at the Royal Society in London, joined by Sir David Attenborough, warn that to save coral reefs from bleaching, we’ll need to start actively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
3. A network of polar bear specialists met at Copenhagen last week to review the latest data from the Arctic, and had sobering news to report: many populations of polar bears seem to be declining.
4. Wildlife rehabilitation centers in Indonesia are taking in more and more baby orangutans orphaned by the clearing of forests for palm oil plantations.
5. Ten newborn lynx have been found in Colorado, giving biologists hope that the species might recover after disappearing from the state entirely in the 1970s, due to habitat loss and purposeful killing.