Environment news

Climate 'Tipping Points' May Arrive Without Warning, Says Top Forecaster

Space & Earth / Environment

13 hours ago | 3 / 5 (8) | 9 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new University of California, Davis, study by a top ecological forecaster says it is harder than experts thought to predict when sudden shifts in Earth's natural systems will occur -- a worrisome finding ...

38 percent of world's surface in danger of desertification

Space & Earth / Environment

10 hours ago | 2.3 / 5 (3) | 5

A team of Spanish researchers has measured the degradation of the planet's soil using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a scientific methodology that analyses the environmental impact of human activities, and ...

URI researcher calls for global effort to monitor marine pollutants

Space & Earth / Environment

14 hours ago | 3 / 5 (2) | 1

A University of Rhode Island researcher who studies chemical pollutants in the marine environment has called on colleagues around the world to establish a global monitoring network to verify that the chemicals banned by the ...

Whalers, activists clash again off Antarctica

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 07, 2010 | 4.8 / 5 (5) | 11

(AP) -- Anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in icy Antarctic waters in the second major clash this year in increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists ...

Urban growth, farm exports drive tropical deforestation

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 07, 2010 | 5 / 5 (1) | 1

The biggest causes of deforestation in tropical countries are population growth in cities and agricultural exports, a finding that should shape decisions on preventing forest loss, experts said Sunday.

Netherlands adds to UN climate report controversy

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 05, 2010 | 4.5 / 5 (10) | 22

The Netherlands has asked the UN climate change panel to explain an inaccurate claim in a landmark 2007 report that more than half the country was below sea level, the Dutch government said Friday.

Oceans reveal further impacts of climate change, says UAB expert

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 04, 2010 | 3.5 / 5 (11) | 12

The increasing acidity of the world's oceans - and that acidity's growing threat to marine species - are definitive proof that the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is causing climate change is also negatively ...

Penn State clears climate researcher on 3 charges; 1 still pending

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 04, 2010 | 2.4 / 5 (10) | 4

A Pennsylvania State University committee Wednesday cleared climate researcher Michael Mann of professional-misconduct charges but said it would further investigate whether the scientist "deviated from accepted practices."

According to new survey, Americans support strong climate, energy policies

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 04, 2010 | 2.8 / 5 (8) | 5

Despite a sharp drop in public concern over global warming, Americans—regardless of political affiliation—support the passage of federal climate and energy policies, according to the results of a national survey released ...

Michigan renews push to close Chicago ship locks

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 04, 2010 | not rated yet | 0

(AP) -- Michigan wants the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its refusal to close Chicago-area shipping locks in hopes of keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

Enlisting a drug discovery technique in the battle against global warming

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 03, 2010 | 2.2 / 5 (5) | 5

Scientists in Texas are reporting that a technique used in the search for new drugs could also be used in the quest to discover new, environmentally friendly materials for fighting global warming. Such materials ...

Greenhouse surprise for red meat

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 03, 2010 | 2.3 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Beef produced in feedlots has a smaller carbon footprint than meat raised exclusively on pastures, according to the surprise results of a new study.

Storm runoff and sewage treatment outflow contaminated with household pesticides

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 02, 2010 | 3.4 / 5 (5) | 2 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Pyrethroids, among the most widely-used home pesticides, are winding up in California rivers at levels toxic to some stream-dwellers, possibly endangering the food supply of fish and other ...

Ecologists discover forests are growing faster

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 01, 2010 | 4.7 / 5 (28) | 19 |

Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study to be published the week of Feb. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that f ...

Plantations can provide the same ecosystem services as natural forests

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 01, 2010 | not rated yet | 0

Not all plantations need to be the biological deserts that have come to characterize large-scale, industrial plantations. According to scientists in a paper out in February's issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and th ...

Glacier-melting debate highlights importance of satellites

Space & Earth / Environment

Feb 01, 2010 | 4.2 / 5 (6) | 27

The intense public debate on how rapidly the Himalayan glaciers are retreating highlights the necessity for the constant monitoring of glaciers worldwide by satellites.

UN climate panel based claims on student essay: report

Space & Earth / Environment

Jan 31, 2010 | 3.6 / 5 (9) | 26

The UN climate change panel based claims about ice disappearing from the world's mountain peaks on a student essay and an article in a mountaineering magazine, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

Coral in Florida Keys suffers lethal hit from cold

Space & Earth / Environment

Jan 30, 2010 | 4.9 / 5 (15) | 8

Bitter cold this month may have wiped out many of the shallow water corals in the Keys.