Environment

Within Southern Florida, soil and water conditions indicate potential for leaching from the use of atrazine-based herbicides in corn crops. Scientists from USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and University of Florida conducted studies to evaluate the specific groundwater risk from atrazine use by focusing on a specific cover crop that seems to have the potential to greatly reduce that risk. The crop is called sunn hemp. It’s a tall, herbaceous annual that grows rapidly to a height of 6 to 7 feet. The region’s aquifer provides drinkable water for nearly all of the rapidly growing…

Ocean historians affiliated with the Census of Marine Life have painted the first detailed portrait of a burst of fishing from 1900 to 1950 that preceded the collapse of once abundant bluefin tuna populations off the coast of northern Europe. The chronicle of decimation of the bluefin tuna population in the North Atlantic is being published as other affiliated researchers release the latest results of modern electronic fish tagging efforts off Ireland and in the Gulf of Mexico, revealing remarkable migrations and life-cycle secrets of the declining species. Dusting off sales records, fishery…

Molly Brown of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and her colleagues have created a model using data from satellite remote sensing of crop growth and food prices. Brown conceived the idea while working with organizations in Niger, West Africa, that provide information regarding failed crops and help address local farmers' worries about feeding their families. Brown's new approach could improve the ability for government and humanitarian aid officials to plan and respond to drought-induced food price increases in Niger and elsewhere. Supply and demand largely dictate food…

Several groups are now developing standards for the voluntary carbon credit market to take some of the chaos and guesswork out of it for us poor consumers. The ones I've looked at look pretty decent, and cover the major issues so that they are a real net benefit for carbon emissions - the struggle will be making them so they're not too bureaucratic so the price of each carbon credit doesn't go up more than the market can bare. Time will tell.

In Central Siberia alone, fires have destroyed 38 000 km2 in the extreme fire year of 2003. In that year the smoke plumes were so huge that they caused air pollution as far as in the United States. An international team of scientists believes that Siberian fires are influenced by climate change. The study was led by the Professor Heiko Balzter of the Department of Geography at the University of Leicester. Professor Balzter said, “Last century a typical forest in Siberia had about 100 years after a fire to recover before it burned again. But new observations by Russian scientist Dr Kharuk have…

Phytase research is helping to clean up the waterways in Delaware. According to recent analyses by David Hansen, University of Delaware assistant professor of soil and environmental quality, there are now about 19 pounds of phosphorus in a ton of Delaware poultry litter compared to 25 to 30 pounds of phosphorus per ton of litter just five years ago. The 30-40 percent reduction is credited to phytase-modified diets and other nutrient management practices adopted by poultry farmers under Delaware's Nutrient Management Law of 1999. That reduction means that the phosphorus load to the environment…

There is so much green being bandied about that it’s practically impossible for us mere mortals to sort out the true green from the green wash. Some of the claims are indeed true, some are a pile of hocus pocus, and some are well, good in theory but too bloody bad because of unintended consequences. So in this, my new series about what’s green and what’s not, I am going to attempt to figure out just that. You and I can then vote green thumbs up, or alternatively, down. (See the thumb key at the end to see how to rate). In this my inaugural piece, I thought I’d go straight for the jugular,…

Wal-Mart is successful and success often comes with criticism, especially from activist groups, but when it comes to going green, even huge success stories like Wal-Mart need some guidance, so they've been getting help from eco-friendly organizations including Greenpeace, World Wildlife International and Conservation International as they develop a broad strategy to improve sustainability efforts. “We’re not looking for the same old answers,” said Nancy Nagle, director of development, “We’ve got to let go of some of our old, preconceived notions and look for input, not just for ourselves, but…

Highlighting the extreme weather conditions hitting Europe, space sensors aboard ESA’s Envisat satellite have detected the worst floodwaters to hit Britain for 60 years and deadly fires raging through southern Europe. Heavy rains caused the River Thames to burst its banks on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes in Britain’s university city of Oxford. The flooding across England and Wales has left tens of thousands without electricity and water. The Environment Agency still has three severe flood warnings in place – two on the Thames around Oxford and one on the Ock River…

Sounds like heresy, right? "Renewable and nuclear heresies" is the name of the paper written by Jesse Ausubel, Director, Program for the Human Environment for the Rockefeller University in New York. Ausubel was one of the main organizers of the first UN World Climate Conference in Geneva (1979) so he was an early proponent of getting the global warming issue on scientific and political agendas. Following that, he led the Climate Task of the Resources and Environment Program of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (1979-1981), an East-West think-tank created by the U.S.…