Mar 31 2011

Erratics in Antarctica

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A team from the University of Leeds and Aberystwyth University has returned from the Antarctica with exciting new information on the behavior of the giant Antarctic Ice Sheet. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is of exceptional interest to geoscientists due to its size and location, which mean that it reacts quickly and dynamically to climate change. The team of four found that the ice sheet had expanded and then retreated across neighboring James Ross Island several times over the last 25,000 years. The findings are crucial for understanding the thickness and extent of the ice sheet through time, and so its past and future contributions to sea level rise.
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Mar 31 2011

Big Problems in the Malaysian Forests

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Nowhere is the problem of deforestation greater than in the tropical regions of the world. Specifically, Southeast Asia, which has vast tracts of primal rain forests, is at risk from excessive logging. Recently, governments in that region have come under pressure from environmentalists to conserve what forests they have left. Officials in the state of Sarawak, the Malaysian region of Borneo, have said that 70 percent of their forest cover has been preserved. However, after a review using Google Earth images, indications are that deforestation is much more widespread than is being claimed.
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Mar 31 2011

Senate delays vote on EPA climate regulation

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Voting has been temporarily postponed in the Senate on proposals to stop, delay or pare back the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation of greenhouse gases linked to climate change problems. Republican and some Democratic lawmakers are jockeying to kill or alter EPA regulatory authority that began taking effect in January on controlling carbon dioxide pollution blamed for global warming. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been aiming for votes early on Wednesday on the proposed EPA amendments, which individual senators are trying to attach to an unrelated small business jobs bill. But he now says he is aiming for sometime Thursday or Friday on the controversial measures, after some senators slowed down the process.
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Mar 30 2011

Court Gives Endangered Status Back to West Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel, Rules That Recovery Plans Must Be Followed

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WASHINGTON— A federal judge reinstated endangered status for the West Virginia northern flying squirrel late Friday, holding that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had violated the Endangered Species Act by not following its own recovery plan for the species in its decision to remove protection for the rare animal. The ruling — made in response to a 2009 lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of Blackwater, the Wilderness Society, Heartwood, the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition and WildSouth — has broad implications for all threatened and endangered species.
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Mar 30 2011

New land snail invading Singapore requires swift action

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An African land snail Limicolaria flammea has been discovered by researchers in six locations in Singapore, perhaps heralding a new invasion of alien land snails in Southeast Asia. Although snails may seem largely innocuous creatures, past invasions have resulted in agricultural and economic damage. The global invasion of the giant African land snail (Achatina fulica) has been called one of the world's top 100 worst alien species.
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Mar 30 2011

Earth Now a Windier World

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The world is getting breezier, according to a new study, which found a slow but steady increase in top wind speeds across the oceans over the last 23 years. Although global warming is a suspect, researchers can't say for sure whether climate change is behind the growing gusts.
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Mar 30 2011

What is Green?

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Green science or products can be loosely defined as the term for any application of science, knowledge or technology towards improving the relationship between human technology involvement and the impact this has on the environment and natural resources. It is a broad category, in that it can cover many different facets of technology and human development. With more and more environmentally conscious consumers trying to choose green products, American Chemical Society scientists reported today that the first reality check has revealed that the ingredients in those products may come from a surprising source –– petroleum, rather than natural plant-based sources.
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Mar 30 2011

Obama to set ambitious goal to curb U.S. oil imports

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President Barack Obama will set an ambitious goal on Wednesday to cut oil imports by a third over 10 years, focusing on energy security amid high gasoline prices that could stall the U.S. economic recovery. Obama will outline his strategy in a speech after spending days explaining U.S.-led military action in Libya, where fighting, accompanied by popular unrest elsewhere in the Arab world, has helped push gasoline prices toward $4 a gallon. The White House says this is a deliberate turn toward energy security by Obama and will be followed by other events to highlight his strategy. "He'll be laying out the goal ... that in a little over a decade from now we'll reduce the amount of oil we import from the rest of the world by about a third," a senior administration official told reporters.
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Mar 29 2011

The Greatest Light Show on Earth: Northern Lights on display on world’s stage

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Menominee Indians of Wisconsin believed them to be giant spirits of great hunters and fishermen. The Inuit of Alaska considered them incarnations of the seals, salmon and deer they hunted. The Romans named the Aurora Borealis after Aurora, the goddess of dawn. For centuries the Northern Lights have entranced civilizations with their beauty. That contiunes today as the AuroraMax project is giving people around the world the opportunity to see the lights live.
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Mar 29 2011

Finding Puts New Emphasis on the Benefits of Jogging

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Since the fitness revolution, physical activity has been promoted as an effective way to combat obesity and heart disease. Currently, walking is the number one recommended activity among both the young and old. However, new research from the University of Bristol has found that running and jogging are also important for building strong bones in children. It has also found that gentle exercise like walking has little effect on bone strength, even over a longer period. Walking offers little protection against the risk of osteoporosis later in life.
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