Rio de Janeiro Dirty games: Brazilian officials had conceded weeks prior that the disgustingly polluted Guanabara Bay wouldn’t be cleaned up in time for the 2016 Olympics, but said sailing events could still be held there. Some Olympic sailors had protested holding their events in the bay, saying they feared becoming sick from the contaminated water or ramming their […]
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Between fighting wildfires and rerouting the Iditarod, Alaska has had a tough time with climate change. But at least there’s one good outcome: local food. In Bethel, a town in southwestern Alaska, farmer Tim Meyers is taking advantage of rising temperatures to grow food in the previously inhospitable tundra. NPR reports: At the 15-acre organic farm, which has been operating for more […]
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Boyan Slat (born 27 July 1994) is a Dutch inventor, entrepreneur and aerospace engineering student who works on methods of cleaning plastic waste from the oceans. He designed a passive system for concentrating and catching plastic debris driven by ocean currents. This won a prize for Best Technical Design at Delft University of Technology and he has established a […]
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Polar bear numbers are expanding The Effects of Global Warming on Polar Bears has been quite significant. “A main Canadian power on polar bears, Mitch Taylor, said: ‘We’re seeing an increment in bears that is truly phenomenal, and in spots where we’re seeing an abatement in the populace it’s from chasing, not from environmental change.’” (Scotsman.com) Polar bears are found […]
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Scientists have recorded that the temperature of the oceans has been on the rise. The temperatures have been rising at a rate of 40% on average over what they previously predicted over the past five years. The year 2018 was warmer than the previous year and it’s still getting warmer. Heating of the ocean plays a big role in climate […]
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Japan decided to resume Antarctic whale hunt after a hiatus despite an IJC ruling, which prompted international outrage. The International Court of Justice ruled in March 2104 that Japan’s decades-old whale hunt in the Antarctic should stop, prompting Tokyo to cancel the bulk of its whaling for the 2014/2015 season. The order from the United Nations court was binding and […]
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Mysterious plumes of gas rising more than 150 miles above the surface of Mars have left scientists confounded. On two occasions in the spring of 2012, amateur astronomers spotted a cloud developing on the surface of the Red Planet. The plumes, which spanned about 600 miles in diameter and changed shape constantly, appeared within a few hours and remained […]
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Have you ever thought to yourself, “Can plants talk to each other?” Unsettling news for vegetarians: Plants may communicate with one another by making sounds at frequencies that humans can’t hear. British and Australian researchers have discovered that the roots of corn saplings emit a constant clicking sound. When a similar sound was played in a lab, they found that […]
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Despite no exposure to sunlight or fresh air for more than a million years, a lake located half a mile beneath the Antarctic ice sheet sustains an entire ecosystem, scientists have confirmed—raising the prospect that life might exist in similar environments elsewhere in the universe. Researchers had long suspected the existence of tiny life-forms living below the ice pack, and […]
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In polluted environments, diesel fumes may be reducing the availability of almost half the most common flower odors that bees use to find their food, research has found. The new findings suggest that toxic nitrous oxide (NOx) in diesel exhausts could be having an even greater effect on bees’ ability to smell out flowers than was previously thought. NOx is […]
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