Apr 30 2014

Dissolving shells on the West Coast

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Evidence now indicates that acidity of West Coast continental shelf waters is dissolving the shells of tiny free-swimming marine snails, called pteropods, the major food source for pink salmon, mackerel and herring. Funded by NOAA, the study estimates the percentage of pteropods in this region with dissolving shells due to ocean acidification has doubled in the nearshore habitat since the pre-industrial era and is on track to triple by 2050 when coastal waters become 70 percent more corrosive than in the pre-industrial era due to human-caused ocean acidification.
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Apr 28 2014

Ethanol: Worse Than Conventional Fuel?

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Ethanol was pitched as the new hope for alternative fuels in America, but what if it’s actually worse than conventional gasoline? That’s exactly what a new government-funded study is saying in an analysis of cellulostic ethanol — fuel made from byproducts like the leftovers from growing corn.
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Apr 28 2014

Glyphosate found in breast milk

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A pilot study of American mothers' milk has found levels of the herbicide glyphosate around 1,000 times higher than allowed in European drinking water. Campaigners are demanding a ban on the use of glyphosate on food crops. In the first ever testing on glyphosate herbicide in the breast milk of American women, Moms Across America and Sustainable Pulse have found 'high' levels in three out of the ten samples tested.
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Apr 28 2014

California Drought

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The current drought hitting California makes the nightly news in many of the state's major markets — and for good reason. It's the worst drought California has seen for 15 years. The entire state is officially in drought, according to the April 22 edition of the U.S. Drought Monitor. Every area in California is suffering from "moderate" to "exceptional" drought, and most of the state is either in "extreme" or "exceptional" states of drought — the most severe levels.
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Apr 27 2014

France moving away from Nuclear power

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France may be the world's most nuclear energy dependent country, but times are changing as the country looks to increase the amount of wind–sourced electricity in its power mix. When French President François Hollande took the reins of power in 2012 he pledged to reduce the country's nuclear dependency from 75% to 50% by 2025.
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Apr 26 2014

Illegal Fishing still a big problem in the US

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When people talk about illegal trafficking in wildlife, the glistening merchandise laid out on crushed ice in the supermarket seafood counter — from salmon to king crab — probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But 90 percent of U.S. seafood is imported, and according to a new study in the journal Marine Policy, as much as a third of that is caught illegally or without proper documentation. The technical term is IUU fishing, for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. But such improbable allies as members of the U.S. Senate now refer to it as "pirate fishing." And it ensnares seafood companies, supermarkets, and consumers alike in a trade that is arguably as problematic as trafficking in elephant tusks, rhino horns, and tiger bones.
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Apr 25 2014

Congo rainforest losing its greenness, finds NASA

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The Congo, the world's second largest rainforest, is losing its greenness, finds a new study published in Nature. The research, based on analysis of NASA satellite data, reveals the impact of long-term drought that has affected the region in 2000. The study may help scientists forecast the Congo rainforest's future outlook.
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Apr 25 2014

Who came first: the farmer or the hunter-gatherer?

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This is the question being asked by researchers from Uppsala and Stockholm Universities. And now with a genomic analysis of eleven Stone Age human remains from Scandinavia the researchers have concluded that the Stone Age farmers assimilated local hunter-gatherers who were historically lower in numbers than the farmers. There has been much debate as to when the transition between hunting-gathering and farming began. Now with DNA science being used on human material, scientists have a whole new way to learn about this sliver of time.
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Apr 25 2014

World On Track for Hefty Temperature Increase This Century

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If the world continues down its current carbon-spewing course, global temperatures will hit a staggering 4.8 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by the end of the century, with potentially disastrous consequences for humanity, ecosystems and sustainable development, according to a new report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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Apr 24 2014

After Widespread Deforestation, China Bans Commercial Logging in Northern Forests

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Forestry authorities in China have stopped commercial logging in the nation's largest forest area, marking an end to more than a half-century of intensive deforestation that removed an estimated 600 million cubic meters (21 billion cubic feet) of timber. The logging shutdown was enacted in large part to protect soil and water quality of greater China, which are significantly affected by forest loss in the mountainous region.
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