Environment news

Climate change puts ecosystems on the run, researchers say

Climate change puts ecosystems on the run, researchers say

Space & Earth / Environment

created 4 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Global warming is causing habitats to move across the landscape. Can the creatures living there keep up? If they can't, some species may die out, researchers say.


China defends role at Copenhagen

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 25, 2009 | popularity 2 / 5 (4) | comments 2

China has defended its role at this month's climate change talks in Copenhagen, saying Premier Wen Jiabao played a key part in sealing an accord, after critics blamed Beijing for blocking negotiations.


Skyscrapers in downtown Seoul are shrouded by yellow dust storms in 2006

S.Korea issues warning against 'yellow dust'

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 25, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

South Korea's weather service Friday issued a warning against airborne pollution known as "yellow dust", advising residents in western areas to avoid outdoor activities.


The Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude into the sea in 1989

Fuel spill at same Alaska reef as Exxon Valdez

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 25, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

A tugboat struck the same reef as the Exxon Valdez tanker 20 years ago, spilling diesel into Alaska's Prince William Sound and creating a three-mile-long slick, the US Coast Guard said on Friday.


Scientists map speed of climate change

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 23, 2009 | popularity 2.8 / 5 (28) | comments 29

New study finds that the average ecosystem will need to shift about a quarter mile per year to keep pace with global climate change.


Disproportionate effects of global warming and pollution on disadvantaged communities

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 2.7 / 5 (11) | comments 19

Global warming, pollution, and the environmental consequences of energy production impose a greater burden on low-income, disadvantaged communities, and strategies to prevent these inequities are urgently needed. A provocative ...


UN climate official warns of Indian energy 'crisis'

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 23, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (8) | comments 4

India's reliance on coal means the country is heading for an energy crisis unless it diversifies its sources of power, the chairman of the UN's top climate change panel predicted on Wednesday.


Housing growth near national parks may limit conservation value

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

The growth of housing near national parks, national forests and wilderness areas within the United States may limit the conservation value that these protected areas were designed to create in the first place, a new study ...


Ski Runs Are Not Created Equal

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Building a new ski run by bulldozing a mountainside rather than only cutting its shrubs and trees is far more damaging ecologically, yet might offer only a week's earlier start to the downhill season, says ...


The volume of garbage dumped in landfills every year in Japan has shrunk to roughly one third of 1990 levels

Japan mines toxic e-waste for precious materials

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Seeking to turn an environmental problem into an economic opportunity, high-tech companies in resource-poor Japan are mining mountains of toxic e-waste for precious materials.


EPA, Army Corps urged to consider separating Great Lakes, river basin

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

The once-radical idea of somehow plugging the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to stop the flow of unwanted species from spilling between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basin is quickly picking up political support.


Soil Microorganisms? Role Cited as a Missing Factor in Climate Change Equation

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Those seeking to understand and predict climate change can now use an additional tool to calculate carbon dioxide exchanges on land, according to a scientific journal article co-authored by a University of ...


A dolphin swims off the coast of Rangiroa

Oceans becoming noisier thanks to pollution -- report

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 20, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 4

The world's oceans are becoming noisier thanks to pollution, with potentially harmful effects for whales, dolphins and other marine life, US scientists said in a study published Sunday.


Buildings are engulfed in haze in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province

Climate scientists underwhelmed by Copenhagen Accord

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 20, 2009 | popularity 2.9 / 5 (16) | comments 14

Top climate scientists said Saturday that the eleventh-hour political deal hammered out at UN talks in Copenhagen falls perilously short of what is needed to stave off catastrophic global warming.


School classroom air may be more polluted with ultrafine particles than outdoor air

School classroom air may be more polluted with ultrafine particles than outdoor air

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

The air in some school classrooms may contain higher levels of extremely small particles of pollutants — easily inhaled deep into the lungs — than polluted outdoor air, scientists in Australia and Germany ...