To save the planet, first save elephants
Wiping out all of Africa’s elephants could accelerate Earth’s climate crisis by allowing 7% more damaging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, scientists say. But conserving forest elephants may reverse
Wiping out all of Africa’s elephants could accelerate Earth’s climate crisis by allowing 7% more damaging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, scientists say. But conserving forest elephants may reverse
In the UK, political debate over stem cells continues to focus on whether scientists should be allowed to create hybrid humananimal embryos. This futuristic research may eventually lead to rewarding discoveries about incur-able diseases - and emotive arguments by some religious groups trying to ban it should be resisted. At the same time, some scientists and patient advocates have been unable to resist hyping hybrid embryo research, by implying that it could produce cures in the near future. Sir Martin Evans, the stem cell pioneer and Nobel prizewinner, acknowledged that this week.
Two years ago, Eduardo Ferreira was studying the microbiology of cancer cells in S
Citizen scientists' record warming data , USA TODAY Project BudBurst, a national field campaign for "citizen scientists," is designed to help record how the planet is warming by tracking the dates that 60 plant species leaf and flower this spring and summer. Climate change is about more than endangered polar bears in the Arctic or melting ice sheets in the Antarctic. The flowers and plants in your own backyard or neighborhood park also may have a role in this global drama.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, here comes along James Hansen, head of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the world's most respected climate scientists (except in the White House), with an even more depressing assessment of how climate change will unravel over the coming decades - if, that is, we don't act fast to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Nobel Scientist Issues Warning On Global Warming US: April 7, 2008 MIAMI - The Nobel Prize-winning scientist who rang the first alarm bells over the ozone hole issued a warming about climate change on Saturday, saying there could be "almost irreversible consequences" if the Earth warmed 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees F) above what it ought to be.
Doomsday predictions are funny things. We are predisposed to pay attention to bad news, and the news industry thrives on disasters. Yet our fascination is fickle. If the warning is too scary or distressing, we attack the messenger as a doom-monger. Take the 1972 book The Limits to Growth, one of the first efforts to predict the future using computer models. It found that if trends in population, industrialisation, pollution, food production and resource depletion continued unchanged, resources would eventually run out. (Editorial)
"Agriculture can do more than just focus on production," says Bob Watson, director of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), the project that he hopes will change agriculture forever when the final draft of its report is published on 15 April. "Farming can help supply clean water, it can help to protect biodiversity, and it should be managed in a way that manages our soils sustainably," says Watson, who used to be head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was set up to take stock of our knowledge, technology and policy, and help find a way to feed the world without destroying it . With $12 million funding from the World Bank, UN Environment Programme, UN Food and Agriculture Organization and others, it has been a staggering enterprise, involving dialogue between farmers, industry, governments, non-governmental organisations and other civil society groups.
A potential new weapon in the battle against global warming - to remove carbon from the atmosphere by locking it up permanently in soil minerals - is being developed at Newcastle University in the UK. When plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis, they use some of the carbon to grow. But most is pumped through the roots into the earth around them and then escapes back into the atmosphere or groundwater.
A spring gale is lashing orthodox climate policy. This week, an article was published in Nature that should shake the certainty of anyone who assumes that the Kyoto protocol approach is the sensible way to go, and that signing the accord is a responsible step for the United States to take.