Widespread Occurrence Of Intersex Bass Found In U.S. Rivers

USGS researcher examining bass for abnormalities in the field. (Credit: Jo Ellen Hinck / U.S. Geological Survey)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2009) — Intersex in smallmouth and largemouth basses is widespread in numerous river basins throughout the United States is the major finding of the most comprehensive and large-scale evaluation of the condition, according to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research published online in Aquatic Toxicology.

Read more ....

Houseplants Make Air Healthier

Houseplants were placed into experimental chambers in a greenhouse equipped with a charcoal filtration air supply system to measure ozone depletion rates. Credit: Dennis Decoteau.

From Live Science:

Houseplants can neutralize harmful ozone, making indoor air cleaner, according to a new study.

Ozone, which is the main component of smog, forms when high-energy light, such as the ultraviolet light from the sun, breaks oxygen bonds, ultimately resulting in O3, three atoms of oxygen joining together. When formed higher up in the atmosphere, the ozone layer protects us from harmful UV rays. Ground-level ozone is not so pleasant.

Read more ....

Coldest, Driest, Calmest Place On Earth Found

From Live Science:

The search for the best observatory site in the world has lead to the discovery of what is thought to be the coldest, driest, calmest place on Earth — a place where no human is thought to have ever set foot.

To search for the perfect site to take pictures of the heavens, a U.S.-Australian research team combined data from satellites, ground stations and climate models in a study to assess the many factors that affect astronomy — cloud cover, temperature, sky-brightness, water vapor, wind speeds and atmospheric turbulence.

Read more ....

Four Years Later, New Orleans' Green Makeover

A house under construction in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans in the "Make It Right" program is designed to be extremely eco-friendly. Charlie Varley / Sipa

From Time Magazine:

After Hurricane Katrina flattened New Orleans exactly four years ago, on Aug. 29, 2005, the city emerged as an inadvertent symbol of global warming, the first American victim of climate change. Over 200,000 homes were destroyed during the Category 5 hurricane. But in the years since, the Crescent City has quietly embraced a new and unexpected role as a laboratory for green building. Sustainable development groups that range from the international nonprofit Global Green to earth-friendly celebrities like Brad Pitt descended on New Orleans, determined not just to build the city back, but to build it back green. "It's going to come back," says Matt Petersen, the president of Global Green USA. "But we want to build it better than it was before."

Read more ....

Laughing Gas Is Biggest Threat To Ozone

From The Telegraph:

It's no joke - laughing gas is now the biggest threat to the Earth's ozone layer, scientists have said.

Nitrous oxide, better known as the dental anaesthetic "laughing gas", has replaced CFCs as the most potent destroyer of ozone in the upper atmosphere, a study has shown.

Unlike CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), once extensively used in refrigerators, emissions of the gas are not limited by any international agreement.

Read more ....

World's Last Great Forest Under Threat: New Study

Canadian evergreen forest. (Credit: iStockphoto/Stacey Newman)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2009) — The world's last remaining "pristine" forest -- the boreal forest across large stretches of Russia, Canada and other northern countries -- is under increasing threat, a team of international researchers has found.

The researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia, Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada and the National University of Singapore have called for the urgent preservation of existing boreal forests in order to secure biodiversity and prevent the loss of this major global carbon sink.

Read more ....

Northwest Fears That Invasive Mussels Are Headed Its Way

(Click Image to Enlarge)

From McClatchy News:

WASHINGTON — Highly invasive mussels are lurking on the Northwest's doorstep, threatening to gum up the dams that produce the region's cheap electricity, clog drinking water and irrigation systems, jeopardize aquatic ecosystems and upset efforts to revive such endangered species as salmon.

Despite efforts to stop them, the arrival of zebra and quagga mussels may be inevitable.

Read more ....

Pollution Reduces Rain Vital To Crops

From Live Science:

Air pollution in China has cut the amount of light rainfall by 23 percent over the past 50 years, a new study finds.

The cause: Particles in air pollution cause smaller drops of water to form, and smaller drops have a harder time making rain clouds.

The result: Bad air could hamper the country's ability to grow food.

It is the first such study to link pollution to altered climate that can directly affect agriculture.

Read more ....

India's Water Use 'Unsustainable'

Much of the water used in paddy fields is pumped from underground.

From The BBC:

Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages, according to results from Nasa's gravity satellites.

The Grace mission discovered that in the country's north-west - including Delhi - the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming.

The finding is published two days after an Indian government report warning of a potential water crisis.

That report noted that access to water was one of the main factors governing the pace of development in the world's second most populous nation.

Read more ....

Galapagos Face Ecological Disaster Due To Tourism: Study

File photo of a seal on the shores of San Cristobal island in the Galapagos. Mosquitoes brought into the Galapagos on tourist planes and boats threaten to wreak "ecological disaster" in the islands, central to Darwin's theory of evolution, a study said. (AFP/File)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

LONDON, (AFP) – Mosquitoes brought into the Galapagos on tourist planes and boats threaten to wreak "ecological disaster" in the islands, central to Darwin's theory of evolution, a study said Wednesday.

The insects can spread potentially lethal diseases in the archipelago off Ecuador's Pacific coast, used by Charles Darwin as the basis of his seminal work "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection".

"Few tourists realise the irony that their trip to Galapagos may actually increase the risk of an ecological disaster," said Simon Goodman of Leeds University, one of the study's co-authors.

Read more ....

The Long Legacy Of Peru's "Mine Of Death"

Image from Chemistry World blog

From Earth Magazine:

The Inca knew there was something sinister about the cinnabar they hauled out of the ground at Huancavelica in Peru hundreds of years ago. They called the mine the Mine of Death. Now, a new study has exposed a 3,500-year history of mercury pollution from the cinnabar mines, a much longer legacy than researchers had previously realized.

Read more ....

Previous Post: Mercury pollution from ancient Inca mines -- Chemistry World Blog

Climate Change Melting US Glaciers At Faster Rate, Study Finds

A composite image showing South Cascade glacier in Washington state (year 2000, left, 2006, right). A new study today found a sharp rise in the melt rate of three key American glaciers over the last 10-15 years. Photograph: USGS

From The Guardian:

US geological survey commissioned by Obama administration indicates a sharp rise in the melt rate of key American glaciers over the last 10-15 years.

Climate change is melting America's glaciers at the fastest rate in recorded history, exposing the country to higher risks of drought and rising sea levels, a US government study of glaciers said today.

The long-running study of three "benchmark" glaciers in Alaska and Washington state by the US geological survey (USGS) indicated a sharp rise in the melt rate over the last 10 or 15 years.

Read more ....

Ganges Delta: Gorgeous, Wild And Deadly

This Envisat image highlights the Ganges Delta, the world’s largest delta, in the south Asia area of Bangladesh (visible) and India. This image was created by combining three Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar acquisitions taken over the same area. The colours in the image result from variations in the surface that occurred between acquisitions. Credit: ESA

From Live Science:

Satellites have captured a snapshot of the Ganges delta, the world’s largest river delta and one of the most geographically turbulent spots in the world.

The interweaving network of streams that make up the Ganges Delta in South Asia is formed by the joining of three rivers – the Padma, Jamuna, and Meghna rivers. More than 100 million people (mostly Bangladeshi) call the delta home, relying mostly on rice, tea and other crops for subsistence. The region is also inhabited by around 1,000 endangered Bengal tigers.

Read more ....

Britain's Dirty Money: How theLloose Change In Our Pockets Is Costing The Earth

Escondida in Chile, the world's largest copper mine. A vast amount of water is being drained every day from what is already one of the driest places on earth. These mines are causing significant damage to the planet and its people. Yet the Government-owned Royal Mint continues to buy metal from them

From The Daily Mail:

This vast hole in the ground, visible from space, is the world's biggest copper mine. It supplies the Royal Mint, but is also responsible for inflicting shocking environmental damage and poisoning the local population...

Escondida in Chile, the world's largest copper mine. A vast amount of water is being drained every day from what is already one of the driest places on earth. These mines are causing significant damage to the planet and its people. Yet the Government-owned Royal Mint continues to buy metal from them

Read more ....

One Quarter Of Giant Panda Habitat Lost In Sichuan Quake

From CNN:

(CNN) -- The earthquake in Sichuan, southwestern China, last May left around 69,000 people dead and 15 million people displaced. Now ecologists have assessed the earthquake's impact on biodiversity and the habitat for some of the last existing wild giant pandas.

According to the report published in "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment", 23 percent of the pandas' habitat in the study area was destroyed, and fragmentation of the remaining habitat could hinder panda reproduction.

Read more ....

Fertile Crescent 'Will Disappear This Century'

Photo: The Fertile Crescent is left dry as Turkish dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a trickle (Image: AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

From The New Scientist:

Is it the final curtain for the Fertile Crescent? This summer, as Turkish dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a trickle, farmers abandon their desiccated fields across Iraq and Syria, and efforts to revive the Mesopotamian marshes appear to be abandoned, climate modellers are warning that the current drought is likely to become permanent. The Mesopotamian cradle of civilisation seems to be returning to desert.

Read more ....

Containing The Sahara With Bacteria-Built Walls

From Popsci.com:

Bacteria that construct walls out of sand could save a third of the world's population from desertification

The Sahara, as well as other deserts around the world, is growing, in a process called desertification that ends up displacing people and crops. The situation has become drastic in a number of sub-Saharan countries. One suggestion from architect Magnus Larsson at the recent TED Global conference suggests constructing a massive wall, 3,700 miles long -- built from the sand itself. The trick would be to use bacterial labor to build it.

Read more ....

Why Raindrops Fall In Different Sizes

Fragmentation of a 5 millimeters in diameter drop falling by its own weight relative to an ascending stream of air. The overall sequence lasts for 60 milliseconds. This process is responsible for the formation of the raindrops which wet the ground. Credit: Emmanuel Villermaux

From Live Science:

The raindrops that patter onto roofs, sidewalks and umbrellas during a shower or storm fall in a wide range of sizes, as anyone who pays attention can see. The explanation for this variety turns out to be much simpler than scientists thought.

Experts have long thought that the size differences observed in natural raindrops was due to the same complex interactions of droplets that form raindrops in clouds. But a new study finds that the best explanation for the motley size assortment is that the raindrops released from the clouds break up into smaller drops as they fall.

Read more ....

Permafrost Could Be Climate's Ticking Time Bomb

Gregory Lehn , a Ph. D. student in the department of Earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern University on the left, and Matt Khosh, Ph.D. student in the department of marine sciences at the University of Texas, Austin on the right, talk with Jim McClelland, professor in the department of marine sciences at the University of Texas, Austin, a co-principal investigator on the project, in the center. Credit: Andrew D. Jacobson, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University

From Live Science:

The terrain of the North Slope of Alaska is not steep, but Andrew Jacobson still has difficulty as he hikes along the spongy tundra, which is riddled with rocks and masks multitudes of mosquitoes.

Jacobson, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern University, extracts soil and water samples in search of clues to one of global warming's biggest ticking time bombs: the melting of permafrost.

Permafrost, or frozen ground, covers approximately 20 to 25 percent of the land-surface area in the northern hemisphere, and is estimated to contain up to 1,600 gigatons of carbon, primarily in the form of organic matter. (One gigaton is equivalent to one billion tons.)

Read more ....

Made In China: The Monster Dust Cloud That Completed A Full Circle Of The Globe In Just Thirteen Days

Phenomenal: An enormous dust cyclone swirls over northeastern China

From The Daily Mail:

It was a natural phenomenon that would have tested the limits of even Mr Muscle.

Scientists in Japan have found that clouds generated by a massive dust storm in China's Taklimakan desert in 2007 completed more than one full circle around the planet in just 13 days.

And measuring around 1.9 miles vertically and up to 1,242 miles horizontally, the dust cloud - which formed in the northwestern region of Xinjiang - stayed in that formation the whole way.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1201213/Made-China-The-monster-dust-cloud-completed-circle-globe-just-thirteen-days.html#ixzz0LzeVp8N7

Read more ....