Environment news

• Hot spot at Hawaii? Not so fast

  18-08-2017 21:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  Through analysis of volcanic tracks, Rice University geophysicists have concluded that hot spots like those that formed the Hawaiian Islands aren’t moving as fast as recently thought.Hot spots are areas where magma pushes up from deep Earth to form volcanoes. New results from geophysicist Richard Gordon and his team confirm that groups of hot spots around the globe can be used to determine how fast tectonic plates move.Gordon, lead author Chengzu Wang and co-author Tuo Zhang developed
  
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• Destruction of small wetlands directly linked to algal blooms in Great Lakes

  18-08-2017 20:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Canada’s current wetland protection efforts have overlooked how the environment naturally protects fresh-water resources from agricultural fertilizer contaminants, researchers from the University of Waterloo have found.In a recent study, researchers at Waterloo’s Faculty of Science and Faculty of Engineering found that small wetlands have a more significant role to play than larger ones in preventing excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer from reaching waterbod
  
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• Slippery liquid surfaces confuse mussels to stop them from sticking to underwater structures

  18-08-2017 20:51 via feedproxy.google.com
  Non-toxic, lubricant-infused coatings deter mussels and prevent their attachment by disrupting their mechanosensory and adhesive systems.
  
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• Genome analysis with near-complete privacy possible

  18-08-2017 20:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  It is now possible to scour complete human genomes for the presence of disease-associated genes without revealing any genetic information not directly associated with the inquiry, say Stanford University researchers.This “genome cloaking” technique, devised by biologists, computer scientists and cryptographers at the university, ameliorates many concerns about genomic privacy and potential discrimination based on an individual’s genome sequence.
  
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• NASA Gets a Final Look at Hurricane Gert's Rainfall

  18-08-2017 20:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  Before Hurricane Gert became a post-tropical cyclone, NASA got a look at the rainfall occurring within the storm. After Gert became post-tropical NOAA’s GOES-East satellite captured an image as Gert was merging with another system.The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core observatory satellite provided rainfall information on Hurricane Gert on August 16, 2017 at 5:37 p.m. EDT (2137 UTC). At that time, Gert was a strong category two hurricane with maximum sustained winds of a
  
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• Climate Change and Habitat Conversion Combine to Homogenize Nature

  18-08-2017 20:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  Climate change and habitat conversion to agriculture are working together to homogenize nature, indicates a study in the journal Global Change Biology led by the University of California, Davis.In other words, the more things change, the more they are the same.While the individual impacts of climate change and habitat conversion on wildlife are well-recognized, little is known about how species respond to both stressors at once.
  
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• Study Reveals Evolutionary History of Imperiled Salmon Stocks

  18-08-2017 20:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  New technologies for analyzing DNA may transform how imperiled species are considered and managed for conservation protection, according to a study published today in the journal Science Advances and led by the University of California, Davis.These technologies can be applied to a wide range of species around the world — from mushrooms to walruses — but the study focuses on two iconic species of Pacific salmon: steelhead and chinook. While steelhead are a legendary sport fi
  
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• Tanzanian police believe wildlife activist may have been tracked by his killer

  18-08-2017 19:33 via theguardian.com
  A police insider has told the Guardian that the killers of Wayne Lotter may have been following him
  Police believe Wayne Lotter’s killer may have followed and targeted the conservationist when he was shot on Wednesday, according to inside sources.Lotter was stopped and then fatally shot while travelling by taxi from Dar es Salaam airport to a hotel. He had been working in Tanzania for many years, exposing and jailing wildlife poachers and traffickers, and he had received a number of death
  
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• Right kind of collaboration is key to solving environmental problems

  18-08-2017 18:43 via feedproxy.google.com
  The coming decade may determine whether humanity will set a course toward a more socially and ecologically sustainable society. A crucial part of this goal is to develop a better understanding of how cooperation can be improved and become more effective, both within and among private stakeholders and public institutions.“Collaborative governance is often highlighted as a solution to different environmental problems. For example, when small-scale fishermen agree to avoid overfishing or when
  
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• Researchers unlock cheesemaking secret

  18-08-2017 18:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers say their new knowledge on the inner workings of a bacterium has important implications for Australia’s billion dollar cheese industry.University of Queensland School of Agriculture and Food Sciences researcher Associate Professor Mark Turner said a discovery by a UQ, Columbia University and University of Washington research group had explained the regulation of an enzyme in the bacterium Lactococcus, which is used as a starter culture in cheese production.
  
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• NOAA scientists get rare chance to study the effects of an eclipse on weather

  18-08-2017 18:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  It’s the most fundamental principle of meteorology - energy from the sun drives Earth’s weather.So what happens when the sun’s rays are blocked by an eclipse? And can modern forecasting tools accurately predict changes in the weather when the sun’s rays are partially or totally blocked?
  
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• The Power of Perovskite

  18-08-2017 17:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  Originally a mineral, the perovskite used in today’s technology is quite different from the rock found in the Earth mantle. A “perovskite structure” uses a different combination of atoms but keep the general 3-dimensional structure originally observed in the mineral, which possesses superb optoelectronic properties such as strong light absorption and facilitated charge transport. These advantages qualify the perovskite structure as particularly suited for the design of electron
  
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• Silver linings: the climate scientist who records cloud behaviour

  18-08-2017 16:26 via theguardian.com
  Clouds cool the planet by reflecting solar energy back to space and also trap heat and radiate it back to Earth. In a Yale Environment 360 interview, physicist Kate Marvel discusses the double-edged effect clouds have on rising temperaturesClouds perform an important function in cooling the planet as they reflect solar energy back into space. Yet clouds also intensify warming by trapping the planet’s heat and radiating it back to Earth. As fossil fuel emissions continue to warm the planet,
  
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• Government faces fresh criticism over Green Investment Bank sell-off

  18-08-2017 15:05 via theguardian.com
  Lib Dem leader Vince Cable questions UK’s commitment to environmental projects after GIB sale to Australian bank MacquarieThe government is facing renewed criticism after pushing through the “disastrous” sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to the Australian bank Macquarie, as fresh concerns are raised over its commitment to environmental projects.A consortium led by Macquarie agreed to buy the GIB, which was established in 2012 by the coalition government to fund green infr
  
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• Climate change will likely wreck their livelihoods – but they still don't buy the science

  18-08-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  The small Louisiana town of Cameron could be the first in the US to be fully submerged by rising sea levels – and yet locals, 90% of whom voted for Trump, still aren’t convinced about climate change
  In 50 years, the region near where I grew up, Cameron Parish in south-west Louisiana, will likely be no more. Or rather, it will exist, but it may be underwater, according to the newly published calculations of the Louisiana government. Coastal land loss is on the upswing, and with each h
  
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• We saved the whale. The same vision can save the planet | Susanna Rustin

  18-08-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Hope alone won’t halt climate change but Al Gore’s latest film highlights the role optimism can play“Hope is essential – despair is just another form of denial,” Al Gore said last week, in an interview to promote the sequel to his 2006 climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth. As well as the very bad news of Donald Trump’s science-denying presidency, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, which opens in the UK today, brings good news: the plummeting c
  
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• Rained-out festival has left the fields in chaos

  18-08-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Minninglow, Derbyshire The Y Not festival site is still a mess, but a walk along the High Peak Trail underlines the resilience of natureAt the top of Gratton Dale, turning into Mouldridge Lane, the familiar white-walled pasture had been transformed. Diggers and tractors swarmed across the fields, beeping frantically. Grass had been churned up everywhere, and serried ranks of portable loos leaned like wearied soldiers. I was baffled. Was this some sort of war re-enactment? Then I saw the word TON
  
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• BMC Ecology Image Competition 2017 – in pictures

  18-08-2017 06:00 via theguardian.com
  From elephant shrew to Tibetan antelope and the two towers of Antarctica, here are the best wildlife and nature photographs from this year’s competition Continue reading...
  
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• Murdered environment officer’s family says land-clearing law change would diminish his life

  18-08-2017 05:28 via theguardian.com
  Alison McKenzie, whose husband Glen Turner was killed by a farmer, is ‘horrified’ broadscale tree clearing could return in NSWThe widow of a New South Wales environment officer murdered over his role in overseeing tree-clearing laws has asked the state government to reconsider deregulation that would see “the value of his life diminished”.Alison McKenzie said her family was “horrified” that changes would allow a return to broadscale clearing that her husband G
  
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• Queensland conservationists call for river-mining ban to protect Great Barrier Reef

  18-08-2017 02:58 via theguardian.com
  State mines minister rejects two applications at reserves west of Cape Tribulation which campaigners say should set a precedent The “archaic” practice of mining rivers in north Queensland is making a mockery of Australia’s key policy to protect the Great Barrier Reef, wasting multimillion-dollar efforts to cut runoff pollution, its opponents say.“Instream” mining in Queensland, the only state still allowing the excavation of rivers for gold, tin and silver, is unlea
  
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• Total solar eclipse: Meet Sharon and Billy Hahs

  18-08-2017 00:27 via bbc.co.uk
  Now Sharon and Billy Hahs are preparing for one in their own backyard.
  
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