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Ancient Lake Vostok

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:19:28 +0000

After 20 years of drilling, a team of Russian researchers is close to breaching the prehistoric Lake Vostok, which has been trapped deep beneath thick ice layers (2 miles thick) in Antarctica for the last 14 million years. Lake Vostok is actually the third largest lake in the world, measured by the amount of water it holds. In the early 1990s, the Russians re-created a history of the Earth’s atmosphere throughout the past 400,000 years — a record of our planet’s air during the past four ice ages. The lakes are rich in oxygen (making them oligotrophic), with levels of the element some 50 times higher than what would be found in your typical freshwater lake. The high gas concentration is thought to be because of the enormous weight and pressure of the continental ice cap.

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Ancient Lake Vostok

UPS Foundation Donates $6M To Champion Diversity

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:35:16 +0000

It’s good news for the human environment. The UPS Foundation today announced almost 120 grants totaling more than $6 million to non-profit organizations around the world that champion diversity and support diverse communities. For more than 60 years, UPS’s philanthropic arm has funded organizations that support under-served and under-represented members of society. This year’s grants will support a wide range of programs, including those for wounded veterans, the hearing and visually-impaired, women and girls and culturally distinct populations.

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UPS Foundation Donates $6M To Champion Diversity

Do Pollutants Cause Breast Cancer?

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:30:27 +0000

Breast cancer is partly caused by toxic chemicals in the environment, according to a recent study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). These pollutants are surprisingly common, and most women are exposed to them from a variety of sources. Carcinogenic pollutants come from radiation and from consumer products. They are in household cleaning products, microwaves, cosmetics, hairsprays, and refrigerators. These chemicals seep into water as runoff from landfills, affect people as well as animals, and have been shown to cause breast cancer in women. The Breast Cancer Action Foundation believes that the environmental factor has been overlooked in research, and that its influence has been grossly underestimated.

Energy Conservation in Our Artificial Habitats

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:44:58 +0000

The outside world may be unforgiving, but science and technology has made comfortable artificial environments with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC). HVAC has made it possible for us to live almost anywhere on the planet. Las Vegas was once a barren desert, but is now teeming with people, lights, and imported water.

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Energy Conservation in Our Artificial Habitats

Better Place Puts 100 Electric Cars on Israeli Roads

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:51:27 +0000

After more than four years in the making, media reports and hype, visits to the Better Place Education and Test Drive Center and final delivery prices, Better Place Renault Fluence ZE electric cars are finally on their way to purchasers in Israel. In a high profile ceremony on Sunday, January 22, which we were invited to but could not make because of the rain, Better Place launched its first 100 cars sent off to customers from the Better Place Israel headquarters near Tel Aviv. The cars, all Renault Fluences that had been specially built for running exclusively on electricity were sent off in a ceremony that included Shai Agassi, Better Place USA CEO, Idan Ofer Chairman of the Board, and Moshe Kaplansky, CEO for Better Place Israel.

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Better Place Puts 100 Electric Cars on Israeli Roads

Arsenic cancer risk still high decades later in Chile

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:43:00 +0000

People exposed to very high levels of arsenic in Chilean drinking water back in the 1950s and 60s are still showing a higher-than-normal risk of bladder cancer — years after the arsenic problem was brought under control, a new study shows. The findings are not surprising, researchers say, since the cancer would take decades to emerge. But the results underscore the importance of continuing to screen high-risk people for bladder cancer, according to lead researcher Dr. Fernando Coz, a professor of urology at the Universidad de Los Andes in Santiago de Chile. The study, reported in the Journal of Urology, focused on people in the Antofagasta region of Chile. In the 1950s and 60s, drinking water in the region became contaminated with high levels of arsenic. Arsenic is semi-metallic element found in rock, soil, water and air. It is also released into the environment through industrial activities, and can be found in products like paints, dyes and fertilizers. High exposure has been linked to several cancers, including tumors of the bladder, liver and lungs.

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Arsenic cancer risk still high decades later in Chile

Finding Nature’s Speed Limit

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:41:18 +0000

The speed of light is considered to be the limit at which no object can go faster. But here on Earth, nature has its own speed limit which affects its fastest creatures every day. The speed at which an animal can go, and human aircraft for that matter, is directly dependent upon how far that animal can see. Using complex mathematical equations, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have effectively quantified nature’s speed limit. They found that given a certain density of obstacles, there exists a speed at which a bird can reasonably fly without collision.

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Finding Nature’s Speed Limit

Permafrost

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:02:22 +0000

In geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water (0 °C or 32 °F) for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground material. A pioneering airborne electromagnetic survey in the Yukon Flats near Fort Yukon, Alaska, by the U.S. Geological Survey has yielded unprecedented images of the presence and absence of permafrost to depths of roughly 328 feet. The airborne survey captured images of permafrost over a substantially larger area, and with greater data density, than has been previously achieved using sparse boreholes and ground-based geophysics.

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Permafrost

Acid Rain Change

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:06:06 +0000

Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids. Measurable improvements in air quality and visibility, human health, and water quality in many acid-sensitive lakes and streams, have been achieved through emissions reductions from electric generating power plants and resulting decreases in acid rain. These are some of the key findings in a report to Congress by the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, a cooperative federal program

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Acid Rain Change

Working in an office can damage your health, new study warns

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:23:08 +0000

In a first-of-its-kind study, scientists are reporting that the indoor air in offices is an important source of worker exposure to potentially toxic substances released by carpeting, furniture, paint and other items. Their report, which documents a link between levels of these so-called polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in office air and in the blood of workers, appears in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.

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Working in an office can damage your health, new study warns

Cruise Ship Environmental Issues

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:29:46 +0000

When one thinks of cruise ships, one thinks of grand luxury, solitude, safety, and big. The January 13 capsizing of the Concordia off the coast of Italy, in which at least 11 people died, caught the world — including the cruise ship industry and its passengers — off guard and is shining a spotlight on cruise ship safety and environmental issues. The cruise ship hit a reef and nearly hit their fuel tanks. There was also concern over how the passengers were evacuated in this disaster. Beyond that there are other environmental concerns such as cruise ships air emissions and sanitary waste discharges.

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Cruise Ship Environmental Issues

NASA GISS Identifies 14 Air Pollution Control Measures to Slow Global Warming, Improve Health and Increase Crop Yields

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:19:39 +0000

Fourteen air pollution control measures, if implemented today, could not only slow the pace of global warming, according to an intensive study by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), but also improve health and boost agricultural productivity. All regions of the world would benefit as a result, NASA found, but the biggest health and agricultural gains would be realized in Asia and the Middle East as a result of greenhouse (GHG) emissions reductions.

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NASA GISS Identifies 14 Air Pollution Control Measures to Slow Global Warming, Improve Health and Increase Crop Yields

Fish Brains and Carbon Dioxide

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:52:24 +0000

Carbon dioxide has many different effects depending on how one is exposed to it. Still no one had suspected a link to brains and neural connections until now. The Australian Research Council’s Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said it had been testing the performance of baby coral fish in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO2 for several years. “And it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival,” said Phillip Munday, a professor who reported the findings. Specific effects seem to be disturbances to hearing, smelling and predator evasion.

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Fish Brains and Carbon Dioxide

Sumatran rhinos find each other

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:52:22 +0000

Puntung is a Sumatran rhino, one of roughly two hundred left in the world. Captured in a Borneo forest on Christmas Day, she is the latest addition to Malaysia’s Borneo Rhino Sanctuary — and experts say she may also be one of the last hopes for a species on the brink of extinction. Veterinarians want to introduce Puntung to Tam, a 20-year-old male Sumatran rhinoceros in the enclosure next door, in the hopes that they will breed — although this cannot take place for a number of months yet, until Puntung is deemed ready. Estimated to be 10 to 12 years old, she was airlifted to the sanctuary in the Tabin Forest Reserve after her capture, and has since been adjusting to her new home, eating more than 60 kg (132 lb) of leaves each day. “She doesn’t look stressed, she’s eating well … but the stress (of a new environment) is enough to offset her cycle, her normal cycle,” said Zainal Zahari Zainuddin, a veterinarian with the Borneo Rhino Alliance. “So she may not have a cycle now. That’s why we’re monitoring her.” Captive breeding is now regarded as the only way to boost the population of the two-horned Sumatran rhino, which at 500 to 600 kg (1,100 to 1,322 lb) and 1.3 metres tall (4.3 feet) is the world’s smallest rhinoceros.

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Sumatran rhinos find each other

Atmospheric Particles causing more rain

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:24:24 +0000

A rise in the atmosphere of aerosols – miniscule particles which include soot, dust and sulphates – has led to more rainfall in certain parts of the world and could provide vital clues for future climate predictions, a scientific study shows. A deeper understanding of rainfall patterns would aid scientists’ ability to predict changing trends in the climate. Aerosols can be produced from burning coal or gas, industrial and agricultural processes or by the burning of forests. As well as being harmful for human health, they are blamed for causing air pollution such as smog and smoke. “For a range of conditions, increases in aerosol abundance are associated with the local intensification of rain rates,” said the study published in Nature Geoscience by scientists from Israel’s Weizmann Institute, NASA, and other institutions.

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Atmospheric Particles causing more rain

Jobs for the Poor? Save the Wild for $1 a Day

admin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:50:41 +0000

The best things in life aren’t really free. Fresh air, clean water, and bountiful crops all depend on healthy ecosystems. But research published in BioScience pointed out that the communities which steward those environmental resources often do not receive payment for their services.

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Jobs for the Poor? Save the Wild for $1 a Day

Increase Gas Mileage by Preventing Friction Loss

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:22:00 +0000

A joint study from the VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland and America’s Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has concluded that at least one third of a car’s fuel consumption is used in overcoming friction. Friction loss has a direct impact on both fuel consumption and as a result, air emissions. However, there is available technology and technology under development that will make it possible to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by 18 percent within a decade. Within 25 years, the researchers estimate fuel consumption can be reduced by over 60 percent.

What environmental policy could we expect from President Colbert?

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:40:35 +0000

by Jess Zimmerman. Stephen Colbert has officially thrown his hat in the ring for definitely possibly considering a run for president. He's already out-polling Jon Huntsman ! So what kind of environmental policy platform could we expect from a President Colbert? Well, for starters, no more EPA! Everyone knows pollution is a job-creator . Reverse the incandescent light bulb ban !

Scientist blames James Bond for lack of nuclear support

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:55:10 +0000

by Sarah Laskow. Anti-nuclear campaigners, why do you dislike nuclear power? Is it because of the risk of massive meltdowns? The unsolved issue of what to do with waste? The lack of realistic evacuation plans? Or is it the influence of a James Bond movie you probably watched at least a couple times as a bored child — Dr. No ? David Phillips, president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said recently that Dr. No's nuclear-powered island lair helped drive the “entirely negative” view people have of the industry. Yup, that must be it. The world also irrationally hates on lasers, solar power, submarines, and aquifers — all of which Bond villains have depended on at some point in the British spy's long career.

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Scientist blames James Bond for lack of nuclear support

American beef consumption is at a 50-year low

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:25:59 +0000

by Jess Zimmerman. According to this graph from the Daily Livestock Report , we are way past Peak Beef . U.S. beef consumption has been dropping for the last 40 years, and projections put it back down at 1950s levels this year, which would mean we're eating less meat than at any time in the last 50 years. Americans are eating a lot less meat overall, but beef and to a lesser extent pork have seen the biggest reductions — which is cool, because cattle and pigs are the most resource-intensive livestock. Tom Laskawy speculates about the causes for the drop-off: What really struck me was how this latest news mirrors the trend in consumer attitudes on meat-eating uncovered by the food industry's own market research. It turns out that since 2007 there has also been a 12% drop in the number of consumers who report that they have “no problem” eating meat or dairy (a bare majority of respondents currently feel that way).

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American beef consumption is at a 50-year low