Global warming: The changing face of the Arctic

By Nicole Mortillaro      9 December 2013 TORONTO (Global News) – Autumns are now longer and warmer than they once were in the Arctic, and the first cases of sunburn were reported to researchers by Inuit in Tuktoyaktuk, according to a study on the effects of climate change on the Inuit culture. In the same study, […]

Ancestors’ exposure to DDT may contribute to obesity, study says

By Tony Barboza23 October 2013 (Los Angeles Times) – Exposure to the pesticide DDT could be playing a role in high rates of obesity three generations later, a new study says. Scientists injected pregnant rats with DDT and found no change in their levels of obesity or their offspring. But by the third generation, more […]

U.S. Navy researchers predict summer Arctic ice might disappear by 2016, 84 years ahead of schedule

By David Schmalz27 November 2013 (Monterey County Weekly) – Tucked away on the third floor of the Naval Postgraduate School’s building of Engineering and Applied Sciences, a small team of researchers is leading an effort that will change the way the world thinks about the world. Their project is the Regional Arctic System Model (RASM), […]

Acid test: The world’s seas are becoming more acidic. How much that matters is not yet clear. But it might matter a lot.

23 November 2013 (The Economist) – Humans, being a terrestrial species, are pleased to call their home “Earth”. A more honest name might be “Sea”, as more than seven-tenths of the planet’s surface is covered with salt water. Moreover, this water houses algae, bacteria (known as cyanobacteria) and plants that generate about half the oxygen […]

First comprehensive Gulf oil spill study reveals extensive damage in shoreline, deepwater habitats

By  Mark Schleifstein6 December 2013 (The Times-Picayune) – The extensive damage caused by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the ensuing cleanup efforts to natural resources along the shoreline and in deepwater habitats of the Gulf of Mexico were outlined for the first time Friday (Dec. 6) in a comprehensive environmental assessment. The assessment, […]

Mass starvation of Australia sea birds as 25,000 wash up dead on Sunshine Coast – Up to five million birds may have died, unable to find baitfish to eat

By Bill Hoffman28 November 2013 (Sunshine Coast Daily) – Lindsay Dines has been watching dead mutton birds wash in at Teewah for more than a month. He knows death is part of their migratory fate. Their long, figure eight of the Pacific that starts in Tasmania, touches the northern hemisphere Aleutian Islands, and then California […]

Scientists observe lowest-ever spring plankton bloom in Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem

By Doug Fraser25 November 2013 WOODS HOLE (Cape Cod Times) – A marine ecosystem expert is warning that the effect of changes in water temperature and plankton blooms may have ripple effects up the food chain. “We believe that the changes in the timing of warming events have affected plant and animal reproduction,” wrote oceanographer […]

Plague of cicadas in Provence, caused by global warming, could destroy lavender fields in 20 years

By Kim Willsher25 November 2013 PARIS (theguardian.com) – Deep below the once purple but now wintering and dormant fields of Provençal lavender, something is rotten. It will not make itself known until spring and summer, when the cicadas – another symbol of this picturesque region of southern France – are ready to emerge from the […]

Only half of prescription drugs removed by sewage treatment – Drugs found in Lake Michigan, miles from sewage outfalls

By Brian Bienkowski and Environmental Health News22 Novenber 2013 Only about half of the prescription drugs and other newly emerging contaminants in sewage are removed by treatment plants. That’s the finding of a new report by the International Joint Commission, a consortium of officials from the United States and Canada who study the Great Lakes. […]

Graph of the Day: Forest fires near Yakutsk, Russia, 2000-2012

By Brad Plumer14 November 2013 (Washington Post) – From a new study in the journal Science: the first effort to quantify in detail how forests are changing and disappearing over the past decade. The research team, led by the University of Maryland, used Landsat satellite images and Google’s Earth Engine to assemble detailed new maps. […]

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