Groups rally to safeguard hundreds of imperiled species

Safeguarding 595 sites around the world would help stave off an imminent global extinction crisis, according to new research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Conducted by scientists working with the 52 member organizations of the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE –– www.zeroextinction.org), the study identifies 794 species threatened with imminent extinction, each of which is in

We are regularly confronted with genetically modified foods, be it in the news or on our plates. In what way are GM crops different from conventional crops? What is known about their possible risks for human health or the environment?

– Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report summarised by GreenFacts –

GreenFacts has faithfully summarised FAO’s “State of Food and Agriculture in 2003-2004” and published it in a reader-friendly Three-Level Structure of increasing detail at:

“Making Living Mountains”

The European Charter for Mountain Quality Food Products was launched on Wednesday 7 December under the protection of Joseph DAUL, Chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee of the European Parliament and in presence of Jacques BARROT, Commissioner for Transport and Vice-President of the European Commission.

The Charter was signed by 48 states, regions and organisations from 11 countries, among the signatories present at the Europe

For a mathematician, Joseph Biello spends a lot of time thinking about the weather. But the UC Davis assistant professor isn’t looking out the office window. He is using mathematical theory to build a model of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, a tropical weather pattern that influences drought and rainfall in the western U.S.

The Madden-Julian Oscillation was discovered in 1972 when researchers looked closely at meteorological data. It lasts 30 to 60 days and appears as cl

Glaciers, rivers and shifting tectonic plates have shaped mountains over millions of years, but earth scientists have struggled to understand the relative roles of these forces and the rates at which they work.

Now, using a new technique, researchers at the University of Michigan, California Institute of Technology and Occidental College have documented how fast glaciers eroded the spectacular mountain topography of the Coast Mountains of British Columbia.

Their work

Environmental damage in the Baltic can have negative effects on the important species bladderwrack (kelp) and thereby on the entire ecosystem. This in turn would have a severe economic impact on fishing. This is shown in a study presented by Mid Sweden University in Sweden.

Bladderwrack is one the few marine algae that can survive in the low salt content of the Baltic. It is counted as one of the ecologically most important species in the Baltic, where bladderwrack constitutes a ma

For the last time yesterday, the Russian high-altitude research aircraft Geophysica and the German Aerospace Centre’s (DLR) Falcon set off for tropical thunderclouds in Darwin (Australia). Over the last four weeks, the research aircraft undertook a total of nine joint measurement flights in the tropical atmosphere at the interface between the troposphere and stratosphere. Within the framework of the SCOUT-03 Project, they collected data which will be incorporated into the discussion on climate

Images show never-before-seen fault lines – plus cows, trees

Researchers have completed the most meticulous survey ever made of the San Andreas Fault, and they’ve found detailed features that nobody could have seen before.

Michael Bevis, Ohio Eminent Scholar in geodynamics and professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science at Ohio State University, unveiled the first images from the ambitious new survey Wednesday at the American Geophysic

Levels of ozone at extreme altitudes may add to the medical dangers faced by mountaineers

Not only is the air around the world’s highest mountains thin, but it’s thick with ozone, says a new study from University of Toronto researchers.

In fact, say the scientists, the ring of ozone that exists around the Tibetan plateau, which rises 4,000 metres above sea level and includes such famous peaks as Mount Everest and K2, is as concentrated as the ozone found in hea

Absent any climate policy, scientists have found a 70 percent chance of shutting down the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean over the next 200 years, with a 45 percent probability of this occurring in this century. The likelihood decreases with mitigation, but even the most rigorous immediate climate policy would still leave a 25 percent chance of a thermohaline collapse.

“This is a dangerous, human-induced climate change,” said Michael Schlesinger, a professo

While the rupture zones of recent major earthquakes are immune to similar-sized earthquakes for hundreds of years, they could be vulnerable to even bigger destructive temblors sooner than scientists suspect, according to analysis by University of Colorado seismologist Roger Bilham.

Bilham and his research colleagues explained that the magnitude 9.3 Indian Ocean earthquake of December 2004 showed scientists that a giant earthquake can rupture through a region with a recent histor

Scientists for years have been at a loss to explain unexpectedly high levels of mercury in fish swimming the rivers and streams of areas like eastern Oregon, far away from industrial sources of mercury pollution such as coal-fired power plants.

New University of Washington research suggests mercury can be carried long distances in the atmosphere, combining with other airborne chemicals as it travels. These compounds are much more water-soluble and therefore are more easily rem

New simulations of 21st-century climate show that human-produced changes in land cover could produce additional warming in the Amazon region comparable to that caused by greenhouse gases, while counteracting greenhouse warming by 25% to 50% in some midlatitude areas. The simulations from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) show the importance of including land cover in computer-model depictions of global change. The results will be published in the December 9 issue of Science.

Berkeley Lab Scientist Studies Possible Precursors in Micro-quakes

A geophysicist from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has identified possible seismic precursors to two recent California earthquakes, including the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that wreaked havoc throughout the Bay Area.

After sifting through seismic data from the two quakes, Valeri Korneev found a spike in the number of micro-earthquakes followed by a perio

After some 400 years of relative stability, Earth’s North Magnetic Pole has moved nearly 1,100 kilometers out into the Arctic Ocean during the last century and at its present rate could move from northern Canada to Siberia within the next half-century.

If that happens, Alaska may be in danger of losing one of its most stunning natural phenomena – the Northern Lights.

But the surprisingly rapid movement of the magnetic pole doesn’t necessarily mean that our plane

A vegetated rooftop recycling system has been developed that allows water to be used twice before it is flushed into the communal waste water system.

The Green Roof Water Recycling System (GROW) uses semi-aquatic plants to treat waste washing water, which can then be reused for activities such as flushing the toilet.

GROW is the brainchild of Chris Shirley-Smith, whose company Water Works UK is collaborating with Imperial College London and Cranfield University. The res