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| U of Minnesota study: Destroying native ecosystems for biofuel crops worsens global warming |
| Findings have major implications for climate change policy
Turning native ecosystems into “farms” for biofuel crops causes major carbon emissions that worsen the global warming that biofuels are meant to mitigate, according to a new study by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy. |
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| SPECIALLY DESIGNED SOILS COULD HELP COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE |
| Could part of the answer to saving the Earth from global warming lie in the earth beneath our feet?
A team from Newcastle University aims to design soils that can remove carbon from the atmosphere, permanently and cost-effectively. This has never previously been attempted anywhere in the world. The research is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. |
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| CLEAN-VEHICLE RESEARCH INITIATIVE MAKING PROGRESS. MIDCOURSE SHIFT IN STRATEGIC PLAN NEEDED. |
| A public-private effort to develop technologies for more fuel-efficient automobiles and to investigate the feasibility of hydrogen-based vehicles has made significant progress in most research areas, says a new report from the National Research Council. While several barriers hinder the program from achieving its full objectives, the potential benefits -- reducing dependence on imported oil and minimizing harmful environmental effects -- justify the cost of the research. A strategic reassessment of the overall program plan that accounts for new national and changed research priorities also should be developed, said the committee that wrote the report. |
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| COMPOUND REMOVES RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL FROM POWER PLANT WASTE. LAYERED SULFIDES BOND TO STRONTIUM 90, OTHER RADIOACTIVE IONS. |
| Strontium 90 is a common radioactive by-product of fission in nuclear power plants. When extracted from the reactor along with other isotopes, a mixture is created made up of the radioactive material and inert ions like sodium and calcium. |
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| Scientists Find Good News About Methane Bubbling Up From the Ocean Floor Near Santa Barbara |
| Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted in great quantities as bubbles from seeps on the ocean floor near Santa Barbara. About half of these bubbles dissolve into the ocean, but the fate of this dissolved methane remains uncertain. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered that only one percent of this dissolved methane escapes into the air – good news for the Earth's atmosphere. |
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| FIRST FUEL-CELL CARS IN CANADA HIT B.C. STREETS |
| Five fuel-cell cars powered by hydrogen instead of gasoline were delivered by Dr. Gerhard Schmidt, Vice-President, Research and Advanced Engineering, Ford Motor Company, and Joe Hinrichs, President and CEO of Ford of Canada, to the Vancouver Fuel Cell Vehicle Program (VFCVP) today, moving Canada closer to a cleaner-energy future. |
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| DON'T LET GRASS GROW UNDER YOUR FEET -- BURN IT AS ECONOMICAL, ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY BIOFUEL, CORNELL EXPERT URGES |
| Grow grass, not for fun but for fuel. Burning grass for energy has been a well-accepted technology in Europe for decades. But not in the United States.
Yet burning grass pellets as a biofuel is economical, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and sustainable, says a Cornell University forage crop expert. |
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| ANTIBIOTICS FLUSHED INTO WATERWAYS |
| Antibiotics are making their way into Australian waterways and could pose a threat to human health and the environment, say researchers. |
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| CICADA INVASION FEEDS FORESTS |
| A huge troop of cicadas known as Brood X emerges in the eastern United States every 17 years, covering streets, cars and buildings with a crunchy coating of insects. Although they aren't welcome in the cities, the nutrients from the Magicicada carcasses provide a valuable boost to forest ecosystems, says a California ecologist. |
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| LOW LEVELS OF BENZENE DAMAGE HEALTH |
| A study of Chinese factory workers has shown that exposure to the chemical benzene destroys several types of blood cell. The effects are seen even at levels below the current US legal exposure limit of 1 part per million. |
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| BAMBOO UNDER EXTINCTION THREAT |
| It’s bad news for pandas. Up to half of the world's 1,200 woody bamboo species are in danger of extinction, a UN report has revealed. Urgent action is needed to protect the plants and the species that depend on them, the study’s authors conclude. |
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| AIR-FRESHENERS CAUSE A STINK |
| A potentially harmful smog can form inside homes through reactions between air-fresheners and ozone, say researchers at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The reactions generate formaldehyde, classed as a probable carcinogen, and related compounds that many experts believe are responsible for respiratory problems. |
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| CARBON DIOXIDE LEVELS BLOW SKY HIGH |
| An increase in global greenhouse gas emissions over the past two years, due almost entirely to the burning of fossil fuels, has been reported by Australian researchers. |
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| AMAZON RAINFOREST DRUNK ON CARBON DIOXIDE |
| Strange things are happening in lush Amazonian rainforests and rising levels of carbon dioxide could be the cause, scientists announced today. |
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| CLIMATE CHANGE COULD RELEASE OLD CARBON LOCKED IN ARCTIC SOILS, RESEARCHERS SAY. |
| The Arctic Ocean receives about ten percent of Earth's river water and with it some 25 teragrams [28 million tons] per year of dissolved organic carbon that had been held in far northern bogs and other soils. Scientists had not known the age of the carbon that reaches the ocean: was it recently derived from contemporary plant material, or had it been locked in soils for hundreds or thousands of years and therefore not part of Earth's recent carbon cycle? |
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| ASIA'S BEAR-SIZED CATFISH ARE DISAPPEARING |
| One of the world's largest freshwater fish, an Asian catfish as big as a bear, may disappear in the near future, warns a UC Davis conservation biologist from his research base in Cambodia. |
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| CONSERVING FISH MAY BACKFIRE ON BIRDS |
| A proposal to suddenly stop fishing cod in the North Sea to give dwindling fish stocks a chance to replenish has been questioned by international research. |
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| PACIFIC LEATHERBACK TURTLE COULD GO EXTINCT IN 10 YEARS |
| Scientists at international conference release strategy to save them. The leatherback turtle, a gentle giant weighing close to a ton (907 kg) and measuring eight feet (2.4 meters) in length, may be extinct within a decade in the Pacific Ocean. |
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| KANGAROOS TURN UP NOSES AT GUM LEAVES |
| Kangaroos are fussy eaters. They won't eat gum leaves or anything that grows near them because they don't like the smell, Australian research has found. |
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| GREAT BARRIER REEF DOOMED BY 2050, STUDY |
| The brightly-coloured corals that make Australia's Great Barrier Reef will be largely dead by 2050 because of rising sea temperatures, according to a new report. |
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| PLANT PATHOLOGISTS: RUST DISEASE IMPACTING ORNAMENTAL PLANT PRODUCTION |
| An increase in the spread of rust diseases could have devastating results on the fast-growing ornamental crop industry, say pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS). |
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| GOAL OF OCEAN 'IRON FERTILIZATION' SAID STILL UNPROVED |
| After a decade of small-scale testing, researchers are still uncertain whether seeding ocean waters with tanker loads of iron particles could alleviate global warming, said a Duke University scientist involved in the studies. |
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| U.S. PUSH FOR DIESEL POSES RISK TO PUBLIC HEALTH, SCIENTISTS SAY. |
| Diesel fuel is now at the center of a delicate balancing act between smog production and global warming. Some lawmakers and car manufacturers advocate widespread diesel use in passenger vehicles as a strategy for reducing the production of so-called ''greenhouse gases'' thought to cause global warming. But according to a new study, replacing gasoline vehicles in the United States with diesel vehicles - equipped even with the most modern pollution controls - may increase smog production over most of the country. |
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| DECLINING SHARKS |
| The transformation of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems by humans is well known, but only recently have the impacts of anthropogenic forces in the open ocean been recognized. In particular, intense exploitation by industrial fisheries is rapidly changing oceanic ecosystems by drastically reducing populations of many marine species. For most oceanic species we lack a historical perspective. |
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| SMOG-GOBBLING PAINT CLEANS CITY AIR |
| European scientists have devised a paint that soaks up nitrogen oxide gases emitted by vehicle exhausts, a pollution source that can cause smog and respiratory problems. |
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| CITIES BUILT ON FERTILE LANDS |
| While cities provide vital habitat for human beings to thrive, it appears U.S. cities have been built on the most fertile soils, lessening contributions of these lands to Earth's food web and human agriculture, according to a study by NASA researchers and others. |
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| ‘BACTERIA POWER’ USED TO REDUCE WASTE |
| Australian scientists are creating a range of bacteria-based products, which can clean up toxic dumps and convert waste into usable material, to tap into a $5 billion a year global environmental biotechnologies industry. |
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| WIDESPREAD HYBRIDS RENEW GM CROP CONCERN |
| A national U.K. study, which has for the first time quantified how much hybridisation can occur between oilseed rape (canola) and related wild weeds, has reignited debate over the risks posed by GM crops. |
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| BENDS MAY BE CULPRIT IN WHALE STRANDINGS |
| Gas filled bubbles discovered in the damaged tissues of stranded whales provide new evidence that military sonar can give whales the bends.
An international team of scientists led by Dr P. D. Jepson of the Zoological Society of London report their findings in today’s issue of the journal Nature. |
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| WHALING MAY HAVE DECIMATED SEALS, SEA LIONS |
| Crashes in seal, sea lion and sea otter populations in some parts of the world may have occurred because intense commercial whaling forced killer whales to turn to new prey for food, a new U.S. study suggests. |
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| BURNING OIL CLOUD ABOVE NORTHERN IRAQ |
| A burning oil pipeline in northern Iraq produced an immense cloud of black smoke stretching across thousands of square kilometres, as seen in this image acquired by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer.
The smoke cloud is visible in the centre of this image of the alluvial plain occupied by the valley of the river Tigris (flowing from the top centre of the image) and the Euphrates (flowing from the top left corner). |
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| OCEAN PLANT LIFE SLOWS DOWN AND ABSORBS LESS CARBON |
| Plant life in the world's oceans has become less productive since the early 1980s, absorbing less carbon, which may in turn impact the Earth's carbon cycle, according to a study that combines NASA satellite data with NOAA surface observations of marine plants. |
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| HUNGARY'S SHRINKING LAKE FUELS CLIMATE FEARS |
| Lake Balaton, central Europe's biggest freshwater lake and one of Hungary's biggest tourist attractions, is shrinking - prompting warnings of an ecological and economic catastrophe that may be linked to global warming. |
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| MYSTERY CANCER WIPING OUT TASMANIAN DEVILS |
| A mysterious cancer is killing Australia's Tasmanian devils, whose spine-chilling screeches, dark colour and reputed bad temper prompted early settlers to give them their chilling name. |
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| PORTRAIT OF A DOOMED SEA |
| Earth’s youngest desert is shown in this July MERIS satellite image of the Aral Sea in Central Asia. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, over the last 40 years the Aral Sea has evaporated back to half its original surface area and a quarter its initial volume, leaving a 40,000 square kilometre zone of dry white-coloured salt terrain now called the Aralkum Desert. |
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| GLOBAL WARMING A 'WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION' |
| Global climate change induced by humans is a 'weapon of mass destruction' at least as dangerous as nuclear, chemical or biological arms, a leading climate scientist has said. |
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| TOO MUCH WATER DURING EXERCISE CAN KILL |
| Drinking too much fluid when exercising vigorously - often recommended in training - can actually kill you, sports medicine experts have warned. |
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| MORE RACCOONS MAY MEAN FEWER SONGBIRDS |
| Songbirds are in trouble throughout the eastern U.S. and new research suggests that raccoons are a major part of the problem. Raccoons love eggs, and the study shows that populations of birds with accessible nests have been dropping since raccoon populations began rising in the early 1980s in Illinois. |
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| FRIED FOOD CAN MUTATE YOUR GENES, STUDY FINDS |
| Acrylamides, cancer-causing agents recently found in some fried and baked foods, can damage the DNA by causing a spectrum of mutations, researchers have reported. |
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| ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY HAS DECLINED - BUT WHY? |
| The amount of gaseous mercury in the atmosphere has dropped sharply from its peak in the 1980s and has remained relatively constant since the mid 1990s. This welcome decline may result from control measures undertaken in western Europe and North America, but scientists who have just concluded a study of atmospheric mercury say they cannot reconcile the amounts actually found with current understanding of natural and manmade sources of the element. |
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| ANTHROPOLOGIST PREDICTS MAJOR THREAT TO SPECIES WITHIN 50 YEARS |
| If the world’s human population continues to rise at its current rate, the planet will increase the numbers of threatened species at least 7 percent worldwide in the next 20 years and twice that many by the year 2050. |
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| SINKING ATOLLS TRIGGER PAPUAN EVACUATION PLANS |
| Papua New Guinean authorities are trying to convince thousands of Polynesians to abandon their homes on two atolls that appear to be sinking into the Pacific Ocean. |
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| MYSTERY VIRUS PUSHING INDIAN VULTURES TO EXTINCTION |
| Vultures were almost as common as sparrows in India. But the arrival of a mystery virus a decade ago has wiped out 95% of the species, and some scientists believe the gawky birds are on the brink of extinction. |
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| NATURE COVER STORY - ONLY 10% OF ALL LARGE FISH ARE LEFT IN GLOBAL OCEAN |
| The cover story of the May 15th issue of the international journal Nature reveals that we have only 10% of all large fish-- both open ocean species including tuna, swordfish, marlin and the large groundfish such as cod, halibut, skates and flounder-- left in the sea. Most strikingly, the study shows that industrial fisheries take only ten to fifteen years to grind any new fish community they encounter to one tenth of what it was before. |
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| CAMERA HELPS TRACK WHALE SHARK'S HABITS |
| A camera is to be fitted to a whale shark off the Western Australian coast to track the species' breeding ground. Scientists say the sharks are under threat because they are a delicacy in other parts of the world. |
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| SUNLIGHT CONVERTS COMMON ANTI-BACTERIAL AGENT TO DIOXIN |
| Sunlight can convert triclosan, a common disinfectant used in anti-bacterial soaps, into a form of dioxin, and this process may produce some of the dioxin found in the environment, according to research at the University of Minnesota. The researchers said that although the dioxin was a relatively benign form, treating wastewater with chlorine could possibly lead to the production of a much more toxic species of dioxin. The study is in press in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry. |
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| HALF THE WORLD FACING WATER SHORTAGES BY 2025 |
| Half the world's population will not have enough water by 2025 unless governments lift their development and investment priorities, a senior official of the World Water Council said. |
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| CRASH IN MALE SAIGA ANTELOPE NUMBERS DRIVES SPECIES CLOSER TO EXTINCTION |
| Scientists researching the population numbers of saiga antelope in Russia have found that in the case of the male, there may be a deadly truth in the old boast, 'So many women, so little time.' |
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| LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLES CAREENING TOWARDS EXTINCTION. SCIENTISTS CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION TO SAVE GIANT. |
| Today, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting (AAAS) scientists made an impassioned appeal for international cooperation to save leatherback sea turtles from extinction. |
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| OZONE MAY PROVIDE ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE PROTECTION FOR GRAINS |
| Taking a clue from air purification systems used in surgical suites, Purdue University researchers have discovered that ozone can eliminate insects in grain storage facilities without harming food quality or the environment. |
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| TRAMS MORE DAMAGING TO THE ENVIRONMENT THAN CARS |
| Trams are the least 'green' form of transport, and even trains produce only slightly less greenhouse gases than cars, an Australian study has found. |
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| POLAR BEAR HEADED FOR EXTINCTION, SAYS UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA SCIENTIST |
| Unless the pace of global warming is abated, polar bears could disappear within 100 years, says a University of Alberta expert in Arctic ecosystems. |
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| GLOBAL ANALYSIS FINDS NEARLY HALF THE EARTH IS STILL WILDERNESS |
| According to the most comprehensive global analysis ever conducted, wilderness areas still cover close to half the Earth's land, but contain only a tiny percentage of the world's population. More than 200 international scientists contributed to the analysis, which will be published in the book, Wilderness: Earth's Last Wild Places, (University of Chicago Press, 2003). |
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| THE ARCTIC PERENNIAL SEA ICE COULD BE GONE BY END OF THE CENTURY |
| A NASA study finds that perennial sea ice in the Arctic is melting faster than previously thought--at a rate of 9 percent per decade. If these melting rates continue for a few more decades, the perennial sea ice will likely disappear entirely within this century, due to rising temperatures and interactions between ice, ocean and the atmosphere that accelerate the melting process. |
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| AFRICAN BEETLE THREATENS AUSTRALIAN BEES |
| A small African beetle with the potential to cripple the honey industry has been identified in Australia, scientists announced this week. |
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| NEW SOLAR THERMAL PROJECT - WHAT A GAS! |
| Australian scientists have combined solar energy and natural gas in a novel process capable of producing large-scale energy to power the country's future industrial and domestic needs. |
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| NEW LIGHT-WEIGHT ENGINE BLOCK |
| Australian researchers have developed a new magnesium alloy they say is a "frontrunner" in the race to make a new generation light-weight engine block. |
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| DESPITE LOWER CO2 EMISSIONS, DIESEL CARS MAY PROMOTE MORE GLOBAL WARMING THAN GASOLINE CARS |
| Laws that favor the use of diesel, rather than gasoline, engines in cars may actually encourage global warming, according to a new study. Although diesel cars obtain 25 to 35 percent better mileage and emit less carbon dioxide than similar gasoline cars, they can emit 25 to 400 times more mass of particulate black carbon and associated organic matter ("soot") per kilometer [mile]. The warming due to soot may more than offset the cooling due to reduced carbon dioxide emissions over several decades, according to Mark Z. Jacobson, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. |
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| CLEANING UP WATER WITH VIRUSES |
| Australian researchers have discovered naturally-occurring viruses play a key role in toxic blue-green algal blooms, raising the possibility of biological controls to keep water supplies clean. |
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| BIODEGRADABLE REINFORCED PLASTICS COULD REPLACE LANDFILLS WITH COMPOST HEAPS, CORNELL FIBER SCIENTIST BELIEVES. |
| Instead of landfills clogged with computer and car parts, packaging and a myriad of other plastic parts, a Cornell University fiber scientist has a better idea. In coming years, he says, many of these discarded items will be composted. |
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| WISCONSIN TEAM ENGINEERS HYDROGEN FROM BIOMASS |
| In the search for a nonpolluting energy source, hydrogen is often cited as a potential source of unlimited clean power. But hydrogen is only as clean as the process used to make it. Currently, most hydrogen is made from fossil fuels like natural gas using multi-step and high-temperature processes. |
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| THE CONTRAIL EFFECT |
| US researchers have calculated that the water vapour exhaust trails, or contrails, left by cruising jet planes have a small effect on daily temperatures. |
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| SATELLITES SEE BIG CHANGES SINCE 1980S IN KEY ELEMENT OF OCEAN'S FOOD CHAIN |
| Since the early 1980s, ocean phytoplankton concentrations that drive the marine food chain have declined substantially in many areas of open water in Northern oceans, according to a comparison of two datasets taken from satellites. At the same time, phytoplankton levels in open water areas near the equator have increased significantly. Since phytoplankton are especially concentrated in the North, the study found an overall annual decrease in phytoplankton globally. |
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| HYBRID BUSES OPERATE WITH LOWER EMISSIONS, GREATER FUEL EFFICIENCY |
| A recently released study by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concludes that hybrid buses operate with lower emissions and greater fuel efficiency than conventional diesel buses. |
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| SCIENTISTS FIND CAUSE OF DEAD CRABS, FISH OFF COAST. |
| An unusual combination of oceanic and atmospheric events may be to blame for a mysterious and sudden die-off of numerous crabs, fish and invertebrate animals off the central Oregon coast during the past two weeks. |
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| NEW STUDY SHEDS LIGHT ON FROG MALFORMATIONS |
| The emergence of mutant frogs with extra arms and legs may smack of a low-budget sci-fi script. But it is a reality, and a new study provides more evidence that ultraviolet radiation could be responsible. The findings are reported in three consecutive papers in the July 1 print issue of Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. |
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| THE BIOACOUSTICS RESEARCH PROGRAM PAGE OF BAJA WHALE SOUNDS. |
| The very-low-frequency courtship songs of fin whales and blue whales are the most powerful and ubiquitous biological sounds in the oceans. But the artificial racket created by ships and other human sources could be interfering with whale reproduction and population recovery, marine scientists report in the latest edition (June 20, 2002) of the journal Nature. |
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| AMES LABORATORY RESEARCHERS DISCOVER SOLVENT-FREE ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. PROCESS USES MECHANICAL ENERGY TO CARRY OUT REACTIONS IN SOLID STATE. |
| When chemists want to combine two or more organic materials, ordinarily they use a solvent to carry out a reaction that results in the desired compound. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have found a way to combine organic materials in solid state without the use of solvents. This revolutionary solvent-free process means that environmentally harmful solvents, such as benzene, dichloromethane and others, could be removed from many of the chemical processes used to produce millions of consumer and industrial products. |
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| MICROBIOLOGY TEAM PROBES BACTERIUM'S SURPRISING SURVIVAL TACTICS |
| A team of microbiologists affiliated with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass) has uncovered the unusual survival strategies used by a common bacterium. The finding could have implications in cleaning up contaminants ranging from petroleum to uranium. |
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| GETTING POWER FROM THE MOON |
| If a physicist in Houston has his way you’ll be able to say good-bye to pollution-causing energy production from fossil fuels. In the April/May issue of The Industrial Physicist Dr. David Criswell suggests that the Earth could be getting all of the electricity it needs using solar cells – on the moon. |
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| COMPOSTING PLASTIC |
| An Australian development means there will be one less thing to feel guilty about when you indulge in biscuits or chocolate - you will be able to put the packaging in the compost. |
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| INSECT BITES ON PLANTS REDUCE PHOTOSYNTHESIS, IMAGING DEVICE SHOWS |
| When insects feed on plants, they get nourishment and the plant gets damaged. The amount of damage has taken on new light, thanks to a new photosynthesis-measuring device that illuminates and photographs never-before-seen injury extending far beyond an insect’s bite. |
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| EXPOSING INSECTS' SENSE OF SMELL |
| A key step in insects' sense of smell has been uncovered by researchers in Switzerland, the United States and Japan. The discovery could lead to insecticides that stop insects from communicating through chemical signals. |
|
| MIGRATING EELS GIVE CLUES TO POLLUTION |
| The unusual life cycle of the long-finned eel could turn out to be a valuable pollution monitoring tool, Australian researchers have found.
The ear bones of the eels, like those of other fish, show growth rings like those of a tree. Called 'otoliths', the bones can be analysed to indicate changes in the surrounding water going back in time. |
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| WIND-BORNE POLLUTANTS MAY TRAVEL THOUSANDS OF MILES |
| Air pollution is not just a local problem. In fact, research by geoscientists at Texas A&M University find that pollutants can travel thousands of miles, so the air you breathe may contain pollutants brought by the wind. |
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| RESEARCHERS IMPROVE THERMAL STABILITY OF FUEL CELL MATERIALS |
| Electrochemical energy is released when hydrogen combines with oxygen to produce water. Fuel cell technology can capture this energy to power cars, houses, and cell phones. Why aren't we using fuel cells? |
|
| BOOST TO SOLAR COMMERCIALISATION |
| Rooftop solar panels that produce electricity at a cost approaching that of coal could be available in as little as four years, says an Australian company. |
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| INEEL'S SUPER-HARD STEEL ONE OF THIS YEAR'S TOP 100 TECHNOLOGICAL ACHIEVEMENTS |
| Super Hard Steel forms a tough, low cost, wear and corrosion resistant coating that outperforms traditional high-performance coatings. Developed at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, this coating offers a wealth of possibilities for new industrial applications. |
|
| NEW SYSTEM DEVELOPED FOR REMOVING CONTAMINANTS FROM STORM RUN-OFF |
| During heavy rains, storm water runs across streets and highways, picking up oil, gasoline, soot and other contaminants and eventually depositing it in rivers, streams and bays. While a variety of methods have been used to remove the contaminants before they reach local waters, their effectiveness varies.
Thomas Boving, assistant professor of geosciences at the University of Rhode Island, may have just solved the problem by using a cheap and readily available material: shredded aspen wood. |
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| UF SCIENTISTS SAY GLOBAL WARMING COULD SPREAD MOSQUITO |
| Vanishing coastlines may not be the only peril in a global-warming world; disease-carrying Asian tiger mosquitoes may find the hotter temperatures to their liking and may show up in places they've never been seen before, according to new research published this week. |
|
| WATCH GLOBAL WARMING HAPPEN IN REAL TIME - ON MARS |
| Though there has been a fair amount of evidence that the Earth’s atmosphere is undergoing global warming, the process is slow enough that there are plenty of skeptics, including some very influential people, who argue that it may not be happening at all. |
|
| WORLD LAND DATABASE CHARTS A TROUBLING COURSE |
| Over the past 300 years, in an ever-accelerating process, humans have reshaped the terrestrial surface of the Earth. In doing so, humanity has scripted a scenario of global environmental change with impacts that promise to be at least as severe as global climate change, scientists reported here today, July 11. |
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| FIREWORKS RELEASE THE POLLUTANT OZONE. A CAUSE FOR CONCERN? |
| The spectacular fireworks that mark public events like the Olympics and the new millenium, leave a nasty afterglow of the air pollutant ozone according to new research. |
|
| ENGINEERING PROFESSOR DISCOVERS A CATALYTIC PROCESS THAT COULD SAVE MILLIONS FOR PAPER MILLS |
| A catalytic process that could help paper mills save millions of dollars a year by converting a polluting by-product into formaldehyde, a useful product, has been discovered and patented by an engineering professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. |
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| ENGINEERS AND FARMERS UNITE TO MANUFACTURE EASY-DECOMPOSING PLASTIC PARTS FOR VEHICLES FROM AN AGRICULTURAL BIOCULTURE |
| Researchers from Worvick Univesity in collaboration with a group of farmers have started to grow a plant which is designed for manufacture of plastic parts for vehicles and which, having entered the ground, is decayed by microorganisms. |
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| ORANG-OUTANG POPULATION MIGHT BECOME EXTINCT IN THE 10 YEARS TO COME |
| Orang-outang, the only big man-like monkey living in Asia, might become extinct in the next 10 years if people don’t stop the deforestation and offending hunting in monkeys’ natural habitat. For the time being, numerous chronic illnesses of monkeys are registered throughout an area inhabited by orang-outangs. |
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| EXHAUST GAS IS A CHIEF REASON OF GLOBAL WARMING |
| Climatologists have managed to find a chief reason of a global temperature growth – that’s exhaust gases released by modern fuel-firing technique (vehicles, building technique, aviation and spacecraft), which cover window blocks of apartment buildings with a black dust and color white snow in black. According to a new study, smoke of released exhaust gases is likely to be the second large contributor to the global warming, following the CO2 emissions released into atmosphere by plants. Exhaust gases can be responsible for 15-20% of all greenhouse gas emissions assisting in the climate change. Automobile emissions, consisting of carbon monoxide (CO) and methane, are the main contributor raising the most significant ecological issues worldwide.
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| FERN IS CAPABLE TO ABSORB ARSENIC FROM SOIL |
| A fern, one of the most important plants growing on the earth, might assist in resolving the issue of the healthy environment creation of which modern people deeply concern. Scientists from Florida have found a fern absorbing arsenic from a soil. This is the first plant which is inclined to the “hyper-accumulation” of arsenic, a carcinogenic substance in nature. Ferns can suck in this heavy metal, frequently used as a herbicide, thus treating the lands people have polluted in doing their businesses. |
|
| LEAD BULLETS FORM A MINERAL SALT-BASED CAPSULE DURING A SHOT AND THUS DO NOT CORRODE IN THE GROUND |
| Recent researches show that even though a metal contained in a lead bullet rapidly corrodes in the environment, a lead is become clamped by a corrosion products capsule and therefore remains unprocessed. |
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| THE PROCESS OF THE FAUNA DEGRADATION HAS ALREADY STARTED WITH THE ARCTIC AREAS OF RUSSIA’S FAR EAST AND ALASKA |
| The Aleutians and Eskimos, catching fish in the Bering Sea over thousands of years, began noticing the first signs of dramatic changes in the nature. Population of sea lions has shrunk: only few sea lions, enjoying themselves in the waters of a basin stretching between Russia and Alaska, managed to survive. |
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Ecology
