Sep 30 2011

Exercise and Arthritis

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Adding another incentive to exercise, scientists at Duke University Medical Center have found that physical activity improves arthritis symptoms - even among obese mice that continue to eat a high-fat diet. The insight suggests that excess weight alone isn't what causes the aches and pains of osteoarthritis, despite the long-held notion that carrying extra pounds strains the joints and leads to the inflammatory condition
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Sep 30 2011

Safe Pathways for Amphibians

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As the world , much less the climate, changes, species must change and move too. A species ability to overcome adversity goes beyond Darwin’s survival of the fittest. In a new study based on simulations examining species and their projected range, researchers at Brown University argue that whether an animal can make it to a final, climate-friendly destination isn't a simple matter of being able to travel a long way. It’s the extent to which the creatures can withstand rapid fluctuations in climate along the way that will determine whether they complete the journey. In a paper in Ecology Letters, Regan Early and Dov Sax examined the projected climate paths of 15 amphibians in the western United States to the year 2100. Using well-known climate forecasting models to extrapolate decades-long changes for specific locations, the researchers determined that more than half of the species would become extinct or endangered. The reason, they find, is that the climate undergoes swings in temperature that can trap species at different points in their travels. It’s the severity or duration of those climate swings, coupled with the given creature’s persistence, that determines their fate.
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Sep 30 2011

Study: China to Surpass US Per Capita Emissions by 2017

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The biggest polluters in the world are known to be the United States of America and China. In 2007, China overtook the United States for the dubious role of world's greatest carbon emitter. However, because the United States is so much wealthier per capita than the People's Republic, individual US citizens could claim that they burned more fossil fuels. According to a new study, this won't last for long. At their current pace, by 2017, the average Chinese citizen will surpass the US citizen as the world's greatest polluter.
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Sep 30 2011

The Amazing Decline of Deaths From Extreme Weather

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With climate change, the world is generally getting warmer –- but not in a slow and straight line. Instead, many models show that weather is simply becoming more unpredictable and possibly more volatile, with more severe storms, more severe droughts and more peaks in all kinds of weather extremes. All of that volatility raises its own fears. With more extreme weather events, are we getting set up for a rise in related injuries and deaths? A new study offers some comforting news.
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Sep 30 2011

Deepwater oil spill likely to hurt fish populations over decades

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Oil pollution doesn't have to kill fish to have a long-term impact, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Researchers found that Gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) that had been exposed to very low to non-detectable levels of oil contamination from the Deepwater oil spill last year, still showed developmental problems that are likely to impact fish populations for decades to come.
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Sep 30 2011

New Zealand adjusts its CO2 trading program to address market distortions

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New Zealand is looking to exclude the use of U.N. offsets from industrial gas projects in its emissions trading scheme from as soon as 2012, as these offsets threaten to distort the market, the government said on Friday. Climate change minister Nick Smith said he wanted to maintain the integrity of the emissions trading scheme, which is why the government is considering banning offsets from the potent greenhouse gas hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) and nitrous oxide credits. "The high value for destroying these gases creates perverse incentives in developing countries to manufacture more of them bringing into question the environmental gains," Smith said in a statement. The New Zealand scheme allows polluters and traders to import U.N. offsets called Certified Emission Reductions from clean energy projects in poorer nations. The CERs can help polluters meet their emissions reduction obligations. But about two-thirds of the nearly 745 million CERs issued to date have come from projects that destroy HFC-23 and nitrous oxide, leading to criticism that the owners of these projects, mainly in China and India, are enjoying massive windfall profits.
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Sep 29 2011

Afghanistan Mineral Potential

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Mineral deposits can create jobs, industry, wealth and potentially pollution. It could help stabilize a war torn country such as Afghanistan. Working with the Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), members of the USGS Minerals Project assessed fuel- and non-fuel mineral resources of Afghanistan from October 2009 to September 2011 with the goal of identifying particular deposits that could be relatively easily developed.The team identified key Areas of Interest (AOI)—and subareas within them—that fit these criteria. The AOIs contain mineral reserves or resources that have been well-documented through sampling in trenches, drill holes, and/or underground workings. Most are accessible by existing roads. So to develop or not to develop.
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Sep 23 2011

An Efficient Solar Harvest

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Solar power could be harvested more efficiently and transported over longer distances using tiny molecular circuits based on quantum mechanics, according to research inspired by new insights into natural photosynthesis. Incorporating the latest research into how plants, algae and some bacteria use quantum mechanics to optimize energy production via photosynthesis, UCL scientists have set out how to design molecular circuitry that is 10 times smaller than the thinnest electrical wire in computer processors. Published in Nature Chemistry, the report discusses how tiny molecular energy grids could capture, direct, regulate and amplify raw solar energy.
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Sep 23 2011

Coral Reefs likely to disappear by the end of the century

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Coral reefs will be gone by the end of the century, according to a top UN Scientist. This would give coral reefs the dubious accolade of being the first entire ecosystem to have been destroyed by human activity. In the recently published book 'Our Dying Planet', Professor Peter Sale writes that coral reef ecosystems are very likely to disappear by the end of this century, in what would be "a new first for mankind – the 'extinction' of an entire ecosystem". Sale, who leads a team at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, reports that the decline in coral reefs is mainly due to climate change and ocean acidification. Other activities, including overfishing, pollution and coastal development, have also had a devastating impact on the world’s coral reefs. "We're creating a situation where the organisms that make coral reefs are becoming so compromised by what we're doing that many of them are going to be extinct, and the others are going to be very, very rare," says Sale.
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Sep 23 2011

Hilary becomes Category 4 hurricane, Mexican coast on alert

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Hilary, a small but powerful storm, strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane late on Thursday as its core continued to move parallel to the southwest Pacific coast of Mexico. The storm was 85 miles southwest of the popular resort of Acapulco, packing maximum sustained winds of 135 miles per hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. "Some additional strengthening is possible on Friday. There will be some fluctuations in intensity during the next day or so," forecasters added. Hilary, now on the fourth rung of a five-step severity scale, is the seventh hurricane of the Pacific season. None has caused major damage so far.
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