The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Sixty per cent of the world's ocean area is categorised as international waters and prone to exploitation. Yet the need to safeguard fragile ecosystems in areas beyond national jurisdictions was left unresolved at two international meetings
easy rabies cure: Tobacco plants have been genetically modified to produce proteins used to combat the rabies virus. Till now, the only way to fight the virus was to use antibodies derived from either horses or humans; but they are difficult to get. Researchers from the Thomas Jefferson University, USA, …
new mummies: Ancient Britons started mummifying their dead at the same time as the Egyptians. British archaeologist Mike Parker-Pearson has found four Bronze Age bodies showing signs of mummification in the remote Scottish isle of South Uist. The 3,000-year-old bodies are believed to be the first ever discovery of mummification …
It was an experiment that sought to clear the air, but by jeopardising marine life. No wonder it encountered severe turbulence in the form of protests by global environmental groups, and had to be summarily aborted. The project was based on the premise that dumping carbon dioxide (co2) in liquid …
the refreshing breath of sea air may do more than raise the spirits. The salty sea spray encourages rain that washes out dust and other pollutants, thereby cleaning the atmosphere. These are the findings of a new study conducted by researchers from Jerusalem-based Hebrew University. "We have discovered a process …
The Dead Sea could end up living up to its name in less than 50 years. The saltiest water body in the world may cease to exist if its surface level continues to recede at the present rate of one metre every year. In order to arrest this trend, Jordan …
Under siege • 38 per cent of Africa's coastal ecosystems are threatened by development-related activities. Population densities reach 500-1,000 inhabitants per square km along the Nile delta • Almost 25 per cent of Canada's and about 55 per cent of the USpopulations live in coastal areas. The US coastal population …
Global warming could be decreasing the availability of oxygen to marine organisms living in the intermediate depths of oceans. According to a study by Ralph F Keeling and Hernan E Garcia from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, USA, a dip in oxygen concentrations has been observed in …
Suriname's northwest district of Coronie is threatened by encroaching Atlantic waves that have created a saltwater swamp. Swampwaters are starting to eat into the main road through Totness, the district capital. It is the only paved road running east-west across the South American country, along the coastline where most of …
an ocean circulation system that brings cool water from ocean depths to the surface has been slowing down since the mid-1970s, causing a decrease of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere but an increase in sea surface temperatures along the Equator in the Pacific Ocean. This was discovered by scientists …
Antarctica seems to be melting and contributing to the slow rise of the ocean levels, scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) report. Using two sets of radar data from the European Remote Sensing Satellite, the scientists found that a large amount of …
the International Whaling Commission (iwc) has never faced such a threat to its very existence. The 53rd meeting of the iwc, held in London from July 23-27, is a definitive pointer to it. As its 43-member countries stood sharply polarised on the line of pro and anti-whaling, the meeting discussed …
An unusual, plant-like bacteria capable of a type of photosynthesis is available in far more numbers in the ocean than previously y assumed. The discovery adds a new component to the ocean's carbon cycle, which is a major contributor to the Earth's carbon cycle on which all life depends. The …
Human-made wetlands do not act as good water filters suggests report that connects a restored coastal marsh in California, USA, with the contamination of a nearby beach. Persistently high levels of faecal bacteria forced the temporary closure of Huntington Beach in southern California in 1999 and led to a hunt …
studying a half-metre-long stalagmite recovered from a now submerged cave in the Bahamas has shown that there were dramatic changes in the amount of radioactive carbon swirling around in the Earth's atmosphere during the last Ice Age. The changes were far greater than previously believed. The findings serve a warning …
Norwegian researchers believe that dumping carbon dioxide in the ocean could lock up the greenhouse gas for centuries. The natural process of carbon dioxide dissol-ving into the surface of the ocean can be hastened by injecting the gas into deep waters. Researchers from the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, …
greenhouse gas emissions have caused the world's oceans to heat up significantly over the last 50 years, according to two latest studies. The Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans have collectively warmed an average of 0.06
the sea squirt, a marine animal that looks like grapes, is being cultured to provide treatment for cancer. It contains ecteinascidin-743, the compound being tested as an anticancer agent. Besides other aquatic regions, the sea squirt is also found in the Indian Ocean. Its population is too small to meet …
scientists have imitated a key process that might have triggered the beginning and end of the ice ages and also could solve the present day problem of carbon emissions. An international team of scientists working on the Southern Ocean Iron Release Experiment ( soiree ) has "fertilised' a part of …