MNN Daily Briefing: Dolphin Diplomacy

Good morning! And welcome to the Daily Briefing for the weekend of June 12. To stay on top of Earth-friendly news all day, visit us at Mother Nature Network. BP PHONE HOME: Saturday's U.S.-U.K. World Cup soccer match isn't the only trans-Atlantic grudge match playing out this weekend. As Americans' anger over the Gulf oil spill grows, it has begun stirring a backlash in Britain, the birthplace and home base of the multinational company once known as "British Petroleum." Many indignant Britons are suddenly struggling to keep their upper lips stiff, fuming over what they see as mean-spirited U.S. critiques of BP, a major British taxpayer and pension-fund contributor. London Mayor Boris Johnson said Thursday he was concerned about "anti-British rhetoric" and "name-calling" from U.S. politicians, warning that "it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great British company is being continually beaten up on the airwaves." Such defensiveness is largely a response to growing pressure on BP from the Obama administration, which is pushing the company to repay oil-rig workers' lost wages on top of cleanup costs, and is also conducting a criminal investigation into what caused the spill. BP's market value has plunged at least 50 percent since the spill began, and the escalating outrage has even raised questions of whether the company should withhold stock dividends until the scope of devastation is better understood. Americans may find it appropriate for BP to avoid paying billions to shareholders while people and animals suffer throughout the Gulf Coast, but the idea still irks people like George Osborne, the U.K.'s finance minister, who says it's important to remember "the economic value BP brings to people in Britain and America." Osborne and other BP apologists, however, have been much quieter about the importance of another great asset that's in even worse shape than BP - the Gulf of Mexico. (Sources: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters) DOLPHIN DIPLOMACY: It may not help them survive the Gulf oil spill, but a new study has discovered that bottlenose dolphins are apparently master diplomats, capable of defusing fights with a few subtle clicks and squeaks. Marine biologists have long believed these mammals mainly rely on whistling to communicate, but Italian researchers based at Sardinia's Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute have now shown the importance of another, little-known tool in the dolphin vocabulary: "burst-pulsed sounds." On top of complementing dolphins' other vocalizations, which already help them navigate highly complex social communities, burst-pulsed sounds also serve a variety of other purposes, the researchers say, including putting upstarts in their place, submitting to dominant dolphins and even talking down would-be attackers. "Burst-pulsed sounds are used in the life of bottlenose dolphins to socialize and maintain their position in the social hierarchy in order to prevent physical conflict," says Bruno Diaz, the study's lead author, "and this also represents a significant energy saving." Dolphins' well-known tonal whistles allow them to stay in contact with each other over long distances and to coordinate hunting strategies, according to the study, while the more elaborate burst-pulsed sounds are mostly used "to avoid physical aggression in situations of high excitement, such as when they are competing for the same piece of food," Diaz says. Unfortunately for the Gulf of Mexico's large bottlenose population, though, the deadly and ever-expanding oil spill there probably won't listen to reason. (Source: ScienceDaily) CLIMATE CONTROL: The U.S. Senate may not be quite ready to pass a comprehensive climate-change bill this year, but it showed Thursday that it's at least not entirely opposed to curbing the emissions that fuel global warming. By a vote of 53-47, the Senate rejected a proposal challenging the Obama administration's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other large polluters. The proposal would have stripped the EPA of its power to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, a strategy the agency only began pursuing after the Senate failed to act last year on a climate bill passed by the House. As President Obama's broader climate agenda has stalled amid political hoopla over other issues like health care and immigration, Thursday's vote was seen by many as a senatorial referendum on whether climate-change legislation is even still on the table. "If ever there was a vote to find out whose side you are on, this is it," says Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Independent Connecticut Sen. Jospeh Lieberman predicts the vote will "increase momentum" to pass a climate bill this year, but opponents such as Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., are nonetheless finding a silver lining to the setback. Although the EPA challenge was shot down, Inhofe says the vote made clear that a majority of senators support either delaying or banning "the Obama EPA's job-killing global warming agenda." (Sources: AP, Boston Globe, USA Today)   Check out all of the news for the weekend. Quick Links: > Artisan rice? A 5th generation farmer in CA is growing what might be the best rice in the country > A neglected canal in Milan, Italy has been turned into an amazing bird haven. Looking forward to your visit, The team at Mother Nature Network ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                           Fan us at Facebook | Follow us at Twitter