Environment

The release of sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere by power plants and agricultural activities--commonly referred to as acid rain--plays a minor role in making the ocean more acidic on a global scale, but the impact is greatly amplified in the shallower waters of the coastal oceans, according to new research. The most heavily affected areas tend to be downwind of power plants (particularly coal-fired plants) and predominantly on the eastern edges of North America, Europe, and south and east of Asia. Ocean acidification occurs when chemical compounds such as carbon dioxide, sulfur or…

As someone who fantasizes about shooting a paint gun at Hummers and other suburban attack vehicles to mark them as hazards to planetary health, I recently succumbed to the most scandalous vacation decision. My husband and I were to drive around the Southwest in an RV, dragging two motorcycles – bikes that aren’t even street legal, I might add, only meant for riding at high speed around a tarmac racetrack, burning up fossil fuels just for the hell of it. “How many miles does this RV do to the gallon?” I timidly asked the man who handed me the rental papers to sign. “Well, the manual says…

A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder indicates biologists trying to save Colorado's native greenback cutthroat trout from extinction over the past several decades through hatchery propagation and restocking efforts have, in most cases, inadvertently restored the wrong fish. According to a sophisticated DNA analysis, five of nine "relic" populations of what biologists believed to be greenback cutthroat trout living in isolated pockets of the state actually are Colorado River cutthroat trout, a closely related subspecies, said lead author Jessica Metcalf, a researcher in CU-…

A team of scientists from around the globe has determined that a drastic change in the climate of tropical Africa may have significantly driven early human evolution. Among the findings: A transition from a long period of time (about 135,000 to 75,000 years ago) that included several extreme droughts to a stable, wetter climate may have stimulated the expansion and migration of early human populations. The researchers studied lake cores from Lake Malawi, at the southern end of East Africa’s Rift Valley, and found that the megadroughts were some of tropical Africa’s driest periods in the last…

Weather conditions, including record summer temperatures and hot dry winds, have made parts of the Mediterranean, including Greece and southern Italy, a tinderbox, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said. Greece has experienced more wildfire activity this August than other European countries have over the last decade, according to data from ESA satellites. The country is currently battling an outbreak of blazes, which began last Thursday, that have spread across the country killing more than 60 people. The ATSR World Fire Atlas provides data approximately six hours after…

The historic collaboration between leading scientists and Evangelicals to protect the environment, spearheaded by the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) continues this week with a trip to Alaska. A group of five scientists and five evangelical leaders began traveling together on August 25th to observe first- hand the dramatic effects of climate change on local people and on the land, ocean, plants, and wildlife of the nation’s northernmost state. “The goal of our trip is to witness together what…

In the debate about the climate effects of carbon dioxide emissions from transportation it is assumed that fuel is the key source of pollution from vehicle traffic. “What you seldom think about is the huge amounts of brake linings and tires that are worn out in traffic and the fact that these products contain considerable amounts of metals,” says David Hjortenkrans, one of the scientists at The University of Kalmar in Sweden who performed a new study of the issue. Despite the fact that authorities have regulated the metal content of auto parts and the fact that the auto industry has made…

Hot spots across Southeastern Europe from 21 to 26 August have been detected with instruments aboard ESA satellites, which have been continuously surveying fires burning across the. Working like thermometers in the sky, the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) on ESA’s ERS-2 satellite and the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) on ESA’s Envisat satellite measure thermal infrared radiation to take the temperature of Earth's land surfaces. Haze of the smoke over Greece, covering in particular the area of Olympia. The image was acquired on 27 August 2007 by Envisat's Medium…

When soils are too acidic, aluminum that is locked up in clay minerals dissolves into the soil as toxic ions, making it hard for most plants to grow. Aluminum toxicity limits crop production in as much as half the world's arable land, mostly in developing countries. Now, Cornell researchers have cloned a novel aluminum-tolerant gene in sorghum and expect to have new genetically-engineered aluminum-tolerant sorghum lines by next year. Sorghum is an important food crop in Africa, Central America and South Asia and is the world's fifth most important cereal crop. The research provides…

Snakes are relatively new on the world scene, having been around for about 100 million years. Yet they currently comprise about half of all reptile species. This new kid on the evolutionary block's novel survival strategies could be used to determine the health of snake populations. “These animals take energy reduction to a whole new level,” said Marshall McCue, a graduate student in biological sciences in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. He reported his findings in the journal Zoology. While scientists knew that some snake species could survive for up to two years…