Archive for the ‘Environment, global warming, etc. news’ Category
Deep-ocean researchers target tsunami zone near Japan
Rice’s Sawyer, colleagues search Nankai Trough for quake cluesRice University Earth scientist Dale Sawyer and colleagues last month reported the discovery of a strong variation in the tectonic stresses in a region of the Pacific Ocean notorious for generating devastating earthquakes and tsunamis in southeastern Japan.
The results came from an eight-week expedition by Sawyer and 15 scientists from six countries at the Nankai Trough, about 100 miles from Kobe, Japan, according to a press release by EurekAlert.
Using the new scientific drilling vessel “Chikyu,” the team drilled deep into a zone responsible for undersea earthquakes that have caused tsunamis and will likely cause more.
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College declared no-smoking zone
B D Evening College, a constituent unit of Magadh University (MU), recently declared the college campus a no-smoking zone. This decision was taken to maintain proper academic atmosphere on the campus as well as to enforce a strict discipline among the staff and students, college principal Subhash Prasad Sinha said.
The principal said that the college has already banned use of cellphones by students on the college campus. About 10 students have been penalised so far for bringing cellphones to classrooms. The college has fixed a sum of Rs 100 as fine for students bringing cellphones to the college campus, Sinha said, adding that a discipline committee has been formed to keep a close tab on the activities of students during the college hours.
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Giant rat found in ‘lost world’
A giant rodent five times the size of a common rat has been discovered in the mountainous jungles of New Guinea.
The 1.4kg Mallomys giant rat is one of two species of mammal thought to be new to science documented on an expedition to an area described as a “lost world”.
Conservationists also found a pygmy possum – one of the world’s smallest marsupials – on the trip to the remote north of Papua province, Indonesia.
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Carbon cuts a must to halt warming
(Reuters) – There is already enough carbon in Earth’s atmosphere to ensure that sea levels will rise several feet in coming decades and summertime ice will vanish from the North Pole, scientists warned on Thursday.
To mitigate global warming’s worst effects, including severe drought and flooding, people must not only cut current carbon emissions but also remove some carbon that has collected in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, they said.
“We’re a lot closer to climate tipping points than we thought we were,” said James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “If we are to have any chance in avoiding the points of no return, we’re going to have to make some changes.”
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Hong Kong chokes on pollution for second day
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong is shrouded in the worst air pollution of the year for the second day running on Saturday, with hills across Victoria harbor invisible despite a sunny dry weather.
Pollution monitoring station registered “very high” readings in several spots around the former British colony since Friday when the Environment Protection Department warned people with heart or lung problems to avoid outdoor activities.
Residents are increasingly worried over the rising number of smog-ridden days caused by the city’s coal-fired power stations, cars and trucks, and a booming manufacturing sector across the border in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
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Alert has been issued to residents of Orissa coast and Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a severe cyclonic storm took shape over south-east Bay of Bengal.
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The Orissa state government has asked residents of all coastal districts to remain alert. And the Union Home Ministry has issued an alert to residents of the Andaman and Nicobar islands for the next two days.
The storm, moving at a speed of 70 to 80 miles per hour lay over the southeast bay about 300 kilometers west of Port Blair on Tuesday.
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The U.N.’s top climate official warned policymakers and scientists trying to hammer out a landmark report on climate change that ignoring the urgency of global warming would be “criminally irresponsible.”
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Environmentalists and authors of the report expected tense discussions on what to include and leave out of the document, which is a synthesis of thousands of scientific papers. A summary of about 25 pages will be negotiated line-by-line this week, then adopted by consensus.
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MIAMI — When people began dumping used tires in the ocean 40 years ago to create artificial reefs, they gave little thought to the potential environmental cost, or to how difficult it would be to pick them up.
“It was one of those ideas that seemed good at the time,” said Jack Sobel, a senior scientist at The Ocean Conservancy, a Washington-based environmental group. “Now I think it’s pretty clear it was a bad idea.”
Source:Environmental News Netwok
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CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, July 9, 2007 (ENS) – In one of the first potential applications of synthetic biology, researchers are engineering viruses to attack and destroy the surface “biofilms” that harbor harmful bacteria in the body and on industrial and medical devices.
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University have already successfully demonstrated one such virus. They have what they call a “plug and play” library of “parts” and say that many more could be custom designed to target different species or strains of bacteria.
Synthetic biology is an emerging field that aims to design and build useful biomolecular systems. The research was reported in the July 3 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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ERIE, Pennsylvania, July 9, 2007 (ENS) – Teams participating in the 2007 Breast Cancer 3-Day Race have found an environmentally friendly way to raise money – they are recycling used printer cartridges and cell phones.
Breast Cancer 3-Day is a national event supporting breast cancer research and community outreach. The event takes place in 12 cities nationwide, beginning in Boston, August 3-5, and ending in San Diego, November 9-11.
Organizers ask participants to walk an average of 20 miles a day and to raise a minimum of $2,200. To help meet this goal, more than 60 groups have signed on with FundingFactory to collect used printer cartridges and cell phones – those that can be refurbished or resold are turned into the FundingFactory’s Recycling Program in exchange for cash.
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