ENVIRONMENT – Page 4

The IPCC Report Essential Reads — There’s Still Reason For Optimism But Climate Damage Is Worsening Faster Than Expected

12Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

The IPCC Report Essential Reads — There’s Still Reason For Optimism But Climate Damage Is Worsening Faster Than Expected

Climate damage is worsening faster than expected, but there’s still reason for optimism – 4 essential reads on the IPCC report. Reading the latest international climate report can feel overwhelming. It describes how rising temperatures caused by increasing greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are having rapid, widespread effects on the weather, climate and ecosystems in every region of the planet, and it says the risks are escalating faster than scientists expected. Global temperatures are now 1.1 degree Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than at the start of the industrial era. Heat waves, storms, fires and floods are harming humans and ecosystems. Hundreds of species have disappeared from regions as temperatures rise, and climate change is causing irreversible changes to se...

Snakes And The Benefits In Our Daily Life

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Snakes And The Benefits In Our Daily Life

In countries like India, Snakes are worshipped as Gods. The benefits of snakes to the environment have been understood by many countries. For example, in nations where grains are harvested, certain snakes such as rat snake are released in the farms to control rodents and rats which cause destruction. It must also be noted that not all snakes eat only rats but some also eat birds, snails, eggs, frogs, toads, lizards and one of the main enemy of the farmer - the grasshopper. According to surveys conducted by biologists, a healthy number of snakes in an environment are important for a balanced eco-system. For example, a toad or frog will eat an insect capable of causing destruction to grain, the frog will be eaten by a rat snake, and the rat snake in turn by a cobra. Although snakes are ofte...

By Speeding Up The Time When Trees Leaf Out Above Them Climate Change Threatens Spring Wildflowers

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

By Speeding Up The Time When Trees Leaf Out Above Them Climate Change Threatens Spring Wildflowers

Climate change threatens spring wildflowers by speeding up the time when trees leaf out above them. For short-lived spring wildflowers such as wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia) and Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), timing is everything. These fleeting plants, known as ephemerals, grow in temperate forests around the world, leafing out and flowering early in spring before the trees towering above them leaf out. Emerge too early, and it will still be winter; emerge too late, and it will be too shady under the forest canopy for essential photosynthesis to happen. Native wildflowers, such as these Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) that bloom early in spring are losing access to sunlight as trees leaf out earlier. Katja Schulz/Flickr, CC BY Over their evolutionary history, t...

An Environmental Engineer Assesses The Long-Term Risks Of The Ohio Chemical Train Derailment

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

An Environmental Engineer Assesses The Long-Term Risks Of The Ohio Chemical Train Derailment

How dangerous was the Ohio chemical train derailment? An environmental engineer assesses the long-term risks. Headaches and lingering chemical smells from a fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have left residents worried about their air and water – and misinformation on social media hasn’t helped. State officials offered more details of the cleanup process and a timeline of the environmental disaster during a news conference on Feb. 14, 2023. Nearly a dozen cars carrying chemicals, including vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, derailed on the evening of Feb. 3, and fire from the site sent up acrid black smoke. Officials said they had tested over 400 nearby homes for contamination and were tracking a plume of spilled chemicals that had killed 3,500 fish in streams and reached the Ohio...

The Mystery Of The ‘Worldwide Hum’ Or, Simply, The “Hum”

30Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

The Mystery Of The ‘Worldwide Hum’ Or, Simply, The “Hum”

In the spring of 2012, when I was living near the coastal village of Sechelt, on British Columbia’s picturesque Sunshine Coast, I began hearing a humming sound, which I thought were float planes. The noise usually started later at night, between 10 and 11 p.m. My first clue that something unusual was happening came with the realization that the sound didn’t fade away, like plane noises typically do. And the slightest ambient noise – exhaling audibly, even turning my head quickly – caused it to momentarily stop. One night after the sound started I stepped outside the house. Nothing. I was the only person in the house who could hear it; my family said they didn’t know what I was talking about. Naturally, I assumed something in the house was the culprit, and I searched for the source in va...

‘Vaccinating’ Frogs May Or May Not Protect Them Against A Pandemic – But It Does Provide Another Option For Conservation

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

‘Vaccinating’ Frogs May Or May Not Protect Them Against A Pandemic – But It Does Provide Another Option For Conservation

When the COVID-19 pandemic first emerged, many wildlife disease researchers like me were not too surprised. Some were intrigued it hadn’t happened sooner; after all, it is our job to observe, describe and study pandemic dynamics in animals. Amphibians, for example, have been undergoing a global panzootic – the animal version of a pandemic – for decades. In the late 1990s, researchers identified the amphibian chytrid fungus, which causes the often-lethal disease chytridiomycosis, as the probable culprit behind frog and salamander declines and extinctions from Australia to Central America and elsewhere that began 10, 20 or even 30 years before. Scientists have found this pathogen on every continent that amphibians inhabit, and the extensive global amphibian trade has likely spread highly l...

11Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

The Great Meteorite Mystery!

For the past fifty years, scientists who study meteorites have been attempting to solve a mystery concerning the origin of chondrules which are tiny millimeter-size glassy droplets of once-molten rock that meteoriticist Henry Sorby described as "drops of fiery rain" in 1877. These mysterious little droplets are seen in 85% of the meteorites that shower down upon our planet. Solving this great meteorite mystery is difficult, because chondrule formation has not been observed in modern times--the right conditions for their formation probably have not existed for over 4.5 billion years in our Solar System, when a primordial disk of dust and gas (called a protoplanetary disk) circled our newborn Sun. In July 2013, scientists suggested that they may have discovered the strange origin of these my...

Is Washington Listening? – Young Farmers Can Help The US Meet Its Climate Goals

3Apr

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ENVIRONMENT, POLITICS

Is Washington Listening? – Young Farmers Can Help The US Meet Its Climate Goals

A new survey shows that 86% of US farmers under 40 practice regenerative agriculture. But many — especially farmers of color — struggle to access land and capital. At Sanctuary Farms on Detroit’s East Side, Jøn Kent and a team of volunteers use cardboard and paper bags to starve invasive weedy plants instead of herbicides; they plant marigolds and lavender amid squash, melons, and collards instead of pesticides; and turn food scraps into lush, clean compost. He and his business partner, Parker Jean, wanted to grow fresh produce for their working-class community, which Kent describes as a “food desert.” They also wanted to make sure their farming practices didn’t contribute to the area’s water pollution crisis. “In Michigan, we have been left with polluted waters in Black neighborhoods fr...

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

Climate Change And The Pressure On Bees

The extreme weather that has battered much of the U.S. in 2022 doesn’t just affect humans. Heat waves, wildfires, droughts and storms also threaten many wild species – including some that already face other stresses. I’ve been researching bee health for over 10 years, with a focus on honey bees. In 2021, I began hearing for the first time from beekeepers about how extreme drought and rainfall were affecting bee colony health. Drought conditions in the western U.S. in 2021 dried up bee forage – the floral nectar and pollen that bees need to produce honey and stay healthy. And extreme rain in the Northeast limited the hours that bees could fly for forage. In both cases, managed colonies – hives that humans keep for honey production or commercial pollination – were starving. Beekeepers had...

A City’s Best Source Of Climate Change Data Are It’s Residents

5Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

A City’s Best Source Of Climate Change Data Are It’s Residents

Cities across the U.S. are looking to citizen science for data on heat waves and other climate impacts. On very hot days, Victor Sanchez makes sure to leave his home in the afternoon. “The sun just pours in,” he said of his top-floor, west-facing apartment in Harlem, where he has two fans but no air conditioner. Sanchez usually finds a shaded bench in nearby Morningside Park, sees a film, or rides his bike to the beach, returning home after the relentless sun has begun to set. “It’s just dangerous to stay inside,” he said. In 2016, Sanchez, who is 67 and works in public media, helped scientists quantify just how dangerous it is to stay inside during a heat wave. That summer, he and 29 of his neighbors placed sensors in their apartments to collect temperature and humidity data as part of...