ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News
Termites create sustainable monoculture fungus farming
Food production of modern human societies is mostly based on large-scale monoculture crops, but it now appears that advanced insect societies have the same practice. Our societies took just ten thousand years of (mainly cultural) evolution to adopt this habit and we are far from convinced that it is sustainable. Farming ants and termites had tens of millions of years to evolve their fungus farm...
Toward home-brewed electricity with 'personalized solar energy'
New scientific discoveries are moving society toward the era of "personalized solar energy," in which the focus of electricity production shifts from huge central generating stations to individuals in their own homes and communities.
Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica
A new study of Antarctica's past climate reveals that temperatures during the warm periods between ice ages (interglacials) may have been higher than previously thought. The latest analysis of ice core records suggests that Antarctic temperatures may have been up to 6°C warmer than the present day.
Emissions increase despite financial crisis
Fossil carbon dioxide emissions increased by 40 percent from 1990 to 2008, according to new findings. Coal has bypassed oil as the largest source of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions.
Hidden threat: Elevated pollution levels near regional airports
Scientists are reporting evidence that air pollution -- a well-recognized problem at major airports -- may pose an important but largely overlooked health concern for people living near smaller regional airports. Those airports are becoming an increasingly important component of global air transport systems. The study, one of only a handful to examine airborne pollutants near regional airports,...
Optical properties of the Antarctic system and new radiation information
In a new study, measurements were made during three Austral summers to study the optical properties of the Antarctic system and to produce radiation information for additional modeling studies. The system has an important part in the global climate due to its size, its high latitude location and the negative radiation balance of its large ice sheets.
Frog legs trade may facilitate spread of pathogens
Most countries throughout the world participate in the $40-million-per-year culinary trade of frog legs in some way, with 75 percent of frog legs consumed in France, Belgium and the United States. Scientists have found that this trade is a potential carrier of pathogens deadly to amphibians.
Why Israeli rodents are more cautious than Jordanian ones
Rodent, reptile and ant lion species behave differently on either side of the Israel-Jordan border. Researchers found that Israeli gerbils are more cautious than their Jordanian friends, and the funnel-digging ant lion population in Israel is unmistakably larger than in Jordan.
Braking news: Particles from car brakes harm lung cells
Real-life particles released by car brake pads can harm lung cells in vitro. Researchers found that heavy braking, as in an emergency stop, caused the most damage, but normal breaking and even close proximity to a disengaged brake resulted in potentially dangerous cellular stress.
Spotting evidence of directed percolation
Convincing experimental evidence has finally been found for directed percolation, a phenomenon that turns up in computer models of the ways diseases spread through a population or how water soaks through loose soil.
Earth Day April 22, 2009 (image from Earthday website)
Video Clip - Reducing the Information and Communications Technology Carbon Footprint
Un Declares 6 November: International Day For Preventing The Exploitation of the Environment In War And Armed Conflict.