Lake Agassiz: questions about its origin and disappearance
Lake Agassiz was an immense glacial lake located in the centre of North America (Manitoba mostly). Fed by glacial runoff at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined, and it held more water than contained by all lakes in the world today. At […]
Steve Jobs dead at 56
The co-founder and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs has died yesterday at the age of 56, according to the company website. On August 24, Jobs resigned from his post as CEO. He has been fighting pancreatic cancer since 2004. Jobs, born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955, has built the most valuable ...
Population has bigger effect than climate change on crop yields, study suggests
By Bernard Appiah, Science and Development Network Population pressure will be as significant a factor as climate change in reducing crop yields — and thus increasing food insecurity — in West Africa, according to a modeling study. The authors inserted different climate change, land use, and demographic change scenarios, into an internationally validated model to […]
Coffee: is the black stuff as green as it should be?
By George Blacksel, The Ecologist.org The world’s second most tradable commodity after oil; coffee growing and processing has proven itself to be a lucrative industry. The burgeoning coffee culture that sprang up over the last few decades has led to overwhelming success for handful of coffee franchises and a massive spike in supermarket sales. Of […]
Arctic ozone loss ‘unprecedented’ above Arctic
A NASA-led study has documented an unprecedented depletion of Earth’s protective ozone layer above the Arctic last winter and spring caused by an unusually prolonged period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere. The study, published online Sunday, Oct. 2, in the journal Nature, finds the amount of ozone destroyed in the Arctic in 2011 […]
Major rivers have enough water to sustain growing populations: report
By Yale Environment 360 A new study says the world’s major river systems contain more than enough water to meet global food production needs in the 21st century. Following a five-year study of 10 river basins, including the Nile. With global population expected to surpass 7 billion people this year, the staggering impact on an […]
The final frontier: the hunt for new worlds in space
There are many worlds out there and NASA has a lot of data that it has not reviewed in the depth that is needed to search every star for its worlds and the evidence there of. A project in which volunteers hunt online for new planets NASA may have missed is publishing its first results […]
Climate change set to increase ozone-related deaths over next 60 years, scientists warn
By Editor, Science Daily A new study, which is being presented at the European Respiratory Society’s Annual Congress in Amsterdam, predicts that Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal will see the biggest climate-induced increase in ozone-related deaths over the next 60 years. The research is part of the Climate-TRAP project and its health impact assessment lead […]
Global CO2 emissions reach all-time high, rising more than five per cent in 2010 to close out past 20 years
By Andrew Burger Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reached an all-time high in 2010, rising 45 per cent in the past 20 years. Rising rapidly between 1990 and 2010, global atmospheric CO2 levels totaled 33 billion metric tons last year, according to a report published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and PBL Netherlands […]
First radioactive rice found in Japan
Reuters, JAPAN Japan found the first case of rice with radioactive materials far exceeding a government-set level for a preliminary test of pre-harvested crop, requiring thorough inspection of the rice to be harvested from the region, the farm ministry said recently. The ministry said radioactive cesium of 500 becquerels per kg was found in a […]
