Environment

Scientists in New York are reporting development of a new biodegradable “nanohybrid” plastic that can be engineered to decompose much faster than existing plastics used in everything from soft drink bottles to medical implants. The study is scheduled for the Nov. issue of ACS’ Biomacromolecules. The plastic is a modified form of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a promising biodegradable plastic produced from bacteria that has been widely hailed as a “green” alternative to petroleum-based plastic for use in packaging, agricultural and biomedical applications. Although commercially available since…

Christmas trees are appearing in homes throughout the country and families prepare for the holiday season. But in this age when we are all asked to be aware of the impact we are having on the environment, is the right choice to purchase an artificial tree and use it year after year, or go in search of the perfect living tree to be the centerpiece of our holiday decorating? The answer may surprise you. Artificial trees do offer a long-term solution for your Christmas tree decorating needs. And I have to admit, the latest generation of “fake” trees don’t look that fake. They’ve come a long…

A new data analysis undertaken by Dr. Susan Page of the University of Leicester Department of Geography and colleagues involved in the EU-funded CARBOPEAT and RESTORPEAT projects shows conclusively that large amounts of carbon dioxide are released from peatland in Southeast Asia when it is converted from natural swamp forest to plantations of oil palm or pulpwood trees. This supports the findings of a recent Greenpeace report on the impact of growing oil palm on tropical peatlands and a feature article on palm oil and pulpwood plantations in this week’s New Scientist. According to Professor…

With predictions that more than 3 billion people will live in areas facing severe water shortages by the year 2025, the challenge is to find an environmentally benign way to remove salt from seawater. Global climate change, desertification, and over-population are already taking their toll on fresh water supplies. In coming years, fresh water could become a rare and expensive commodity. In the latest issue of International Journal of Nuclear Desalination, research results presented at the Trombay Symposium on Desalination and Water Reuse offer a new perspective on desalination and describe…

The Indonesian archipelago contains about 10% of the world’s tropical rainforest, which plays a critical role in regional watershed protection as well as in global efforts to conserve biodiversity and to sequester carbon. However, Indonesia currently experiences one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. Indonesia also supports the world’s largest population of Muslims, whose religion has a strong influence on their daily life. To combat deforestation, a new project led by Stuart Harrop and Matthew Linkie from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the…

In Bad For Carbon Offsets - Not All Trees Are The Same At Reducing Global Warming, scientists noted that planting new trees as an emotional panacea for greenhouse gas emissions - that means you, Burning Man Festival - didn't really do much good. Now the single largest assessment of the biodiversity conservation value of primary, secondary and plantation forests ever conducted in the humid tropics adds new weight to the debate. Working in the north-eastern Brazilian Amazon an international team of scientists funded by the UK Government’s Darwin Initiative reported their findings in the latest…

Agroforestry is the integration of trees and shrubs in agricultural areas, like farmland, to help protect the soil and in some cases to provide additional income. Reduced soil erosion, biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration are some of the major effects agroforestry systems have on the environment. Yet many of the areas crucial to world ecology are in developing countries where it is a difficult sell to discourage maximum utilization of available land for crops. In September, 130 researchers from 25 countries met at the 2nd International Symposium on Multistrata Agroforestry…

A new study suggests that a holistic approach is needed in assessing the potential environmental and health effects of toxic effluent from industry. The study is published in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution. Studies of industrial effluent toxicity usually focus on a single contaminant, such as an environmental or marine pollutant, a potential carcinogen, or a toxic heavy metal. However, according to Tatjana Tišler of the National Institute of Chemistry, in Ljubljana, and Jana Zagorc-Koncan of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, toxicity tests of effluent using…

Certain varieties of common fescue lawn grass come equipped with their own natural broad-spectrum herbicide that inhibits the growth of weeds and other plants around them. Cornell researchers have identified the herbicide as an amino acid called meta-tyrosine, or m-tyrosine, that these lawn grasses exude from their roots in large amounts. This amino acid is a close relative of para-tyrosine (p-tyrosine), one of the 20 common amino acids that form proteins. Reporting on the discovery in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, Frank Schroeder, the paper's senior author and an…

We are moving toward the end of 2007 and there are still people that question whether the planet is warming up and more specifically whether humans have anything to do with it. I have listened to and read some of the thinking of these people and it falls into several categories. First, and this is true, there are people, Republicans mostly, that cannot stand Al Gore – they still remember his self righteous sighing in 2000 - and are therefore tying the message with the messenger. Second, there are those that are natural contrarians, so they will naturally react negatively when every…