The co-dependence of mortality risk and poverty

The Indian Ocean tsunami, the Katrina hurricane catastrophe and the Pakistan earthquake in late 2005 bear disquieting similarities in their consequences on human populations. The tsunami took 300,000 lives with more than 100,000 still missing. Although many of the missing may well be displaced rather than casualties, the death toll will likely remain in excess of 300,000. Early images from the catastrophe would have lead one to bel

Linking mitigation to regional economic development

The unprecedented scale and complexity of the relief and reconstruction efforts following the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Island earthquake and Indian Ocean tsunami have motivated scientists, policy-makers, and development aid organizations to rethink the relationship between natural disaster mitigation and economic development. Two recent reports by the World Bank and the United Nations quantify the global exposure of populations and e

The environment encountered when the first people emigrated into the New World was variable and ever-changing, according to a Penn State geologist.

“The New World was not a nice quiet place when humans came,” says Dr. Russell Graham, associate professor of geology and director of the Earth & Mineral Sciences Museum.

Archaeologists agree that by 11,000 years ago, people were spread across North and South America, but evidence is building for an earlier entry into the Ne

Antarctic ice sheets

SYMPOSIUM TITLE: Vital Organs in the Earth System: What Is the Prognosis?
PRESENTATION TITLE: West Antarctic Ice Sheet: Waking the Sleeping Giant?
SYMPOSIUM DATE: 19 Feb 2006, 08.30-11.30 am
SYMPOSIUM ORGANISER: International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, IGBP

The contribution that key regions of the Antarctic ice sheet are making to global sea-level rise is a cause for concern according to Director of British Antarctic Survey (BAS),

We’re on the brink of the era of deep ocean mining, says a global pioneer in the study of sea floor mineral deposits. Dr. Steven Scott, a geologist at the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Canada says that advances in marine geology and deep ocean technology have combined to make it realistic to go more than two kilometres underwater for gold and other mineral treasures.

It’s a transformation that he says has evoked a knee-jerk reaction over the possible environmental impacts

A leading group of epidemiologists, veterinarians and ecologists report that humans are affecting the oceans in ways that are changing the dynamics of disease. Previously harmless pathogens are becoming killers when combined with contaminants; “good” parasites that invisibly control the balance of species in an ecosystem are disappearing; and changes in sea surface temperature can trigger cholera outbreaks thousands of miles away.

“Human activities are knocking things out of balance,” says

Diseases May be Early Warning Sign for Humans Say Scientists

St. Louis, MO (AAAS Annual Meeting, Press Conference: Saturday, Feb. 18th, 9 am Central Time) – Leading scientists, physicians, and veterinarians are uncovering new links between land-based pollution and diseases in marine mammals, with implications for human health.

“Marine mammals are providing early clues of our unseen impact on the sea,” says Paul Sandifer, Chief Scientist for the new Oceans and Human Health

According a worldwide analysis conducted by “Essential Science Indicators”, the GSF – Research Centre for Environment and Health ranks first among European research centres in the field air pollution when counting the number of cited publications from 1995 to 2005. On a worldwide range, the GSF ranks fifth from 3,052 institutions; is is the most frequently cited European research institution in the field of air pollution. The top positions are held by four American institutions.

Among th

Whether it’s monkeys and AIDS or mosquitoes and the West Nile Virus, we’re used to thinking of wildlife as reservoirs for emerging infectious human diseases. But a Canadian mathematical biologist says that it’s time that we turned the tables – as often as not, it’s humans that are making the wildlife sick, often to our own detriment.

It’s a 180-degree turn in perspective that Dr. Mark Lewis says is critical to our understanding of emerging infectious diseases of both wildlife and h

The race is on to buy up inexpensive land along coastlines for vacation homes and tourist hotels. But increased development can mean more nutrient rich runoff that threatens the very coral reefs attracting tourists in the first place. David Kline at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and colleagues find that bacteria on coral reefs grow out of control as the level of simple sugars in seawater increases.

“I set up a seawater system at the Smithsonian station in Bocas del

Red tide impacts increasing for endangered manatees and humans

According to statistics released in January 2006, the year 2005 was the second deadliest on record for Florida’s endangered manatee population. One of the leading causes of fatalities was the toxins produced by “red tide” blooms of the alga Karenia brevis, which appear to be growing increasingly common in Florida. A recently completed collaborative study now suggests a surprisingly tight connection between the ef

This image of Mt. Fuji is the first data to be acquired by Japan’s recently launched Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) on 24 January 2006. ESA is supporting ALOS as a ’Third Party Mission’, which means the Agency will utilise its multi-mission ground systems of existing national and industrial facilities and expertise to acquire, process and distribute data from the satellite to users.

Mt. Fuji – Japan’s highest mountain (3 776 metres) – is a volcano that has been

Researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering have captured the best images ever produced of “sprites” — mysterious flashes of light resembling giant undulating jellyfish that can occur above strong thunderstorms — using a high-speed camera that recorded thousands of video frames a second.

The researchers said their findings could lead to a better understanding of the physics and chemistry of this fleeting, still-unexplained lightning phenomenon. They recor

The majority of tiny marine plants weathered the abrupt climate changes that occurred in Earth’s past and bounced back, according to a Penn State geoscientist.

“Populations of plankton are pretty resilient,” says Dr. Timothy J. Bralower, head and professor of geoscience.

Bralower looked at cores of marine sediments related to thousands of years of deposition, to locate populations of these plankton during three periods of abrupt climate change. These abrupt changes wer

Large amounts of a chemical that boosts ozone production are being transported to North America from across the Pacific Ocean in May, according to a new report by researchers from Georgia Tech. These higher levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx), arriving in late spring, could be contributing to significant increases in ozone levels over North America. The research appeared in volume 33 of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

“It’s well-known that pollutants don’t always stay in

Fuel cells must be made more efficient if they are to provide a viable alternative to traditional energy sources, and the choice of materials is crucial to how efficient they are. New findings from scientists at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Uppsala University, and Linköping University are opening new ways of finding optimal materials for better fuel cells much more quickly.

Using methods of calculation from quantum mechanics, the researchers managed to find