Comprehensive study finds Fukushima nuclear disaster released more radioactive xenon than Chernobyl

By Geoff Brumfiel, with additional reporting by David Cyranoski and Rina Nozawa25 October 2011 The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study1 that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from […]

Sea levels will continue to rise for 500 years

October 19 (U. of Copenhagen) – Rising sea levels in the coming centuries is perhaps one of the most catastrophic consequences of rising temperatures. Massive economic costs, social consequences and forced migrations could result from global warming. But how frightening of times are we facing? Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute are part of a […]

Graph of the Day: U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq Invasion and Occupation, By State

Total killed in action, by state   Total killed in action per 100,000 state population What has been the cost to US forces of the war in Iraq? As Barack Obama announces the end of operations, we map the casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn so far. Click on a state to […]

New study shows no simultaneous warming of northern and southern hemispheres as a result of climate change for 20,000 years

By Ulrika Jönsson Belyazid 21 October 2011 A common argument against global warming is that the climate has always varied. Temperatures rise sometimes and this is perfectly natural is the usual line. However, Svante Björck, a climate researcher at Lund University in Sweden, has now shown that global warming, i.e., simultaneous warming events in the […]

Global warming ‘confirmed’ by independent study

By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News20 October 2011 The Earth’s surface really is getting warmer, a new analysis by a US scientific group set up in the wake of the “Climategate” affair has concluded. The Berkeley Earth Project has used new methods and some new data, but finds the same warming trend seen by […]

Graph of the Day: Radioactive Cesium in Metropolitan Tokyo Soil, August 2011

Tokyo Metropolitan Soil Testing Results(released 2011/8/8) Over 60,000 Bq/kg of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 detected in Tokyo! As our first work of our Nationwide Soil Testing Project, we tested soil samples from 132 areas in the Tokyo metropolitan area, including Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa, and Ibaraki. Our results show how much radioactive particles fell over the […]

U.S. rivers and streams saturated with carbon

Contact: David DeFusco, david.defusco@yale.edu, 203-436-484217 October 2011 New Haven, Connecticut – Rivers and streams in the United States are releasing enough carbon into the atmosphere to fuel 3.4 million car trips to the moon, according to Yale researchers in Nature Geoscience. Their findings could change the way scientists model the movement of carbon between land, […]

Far more bluefin tuna sold than reported caught – ‘Catch documentation system is plagued with fraud’

October 18, 2011 (AFP) – More than twice as many tonnes of Atlantic bluefin tuna were sold last year compared with official catch records for this threatened species, according to a report released on Tuesday. This “bluefin gap” occurred despite enhanced reporting and enforcement measures introduced in 2008 by the 48-member International Commission for the […]

Graph of the Day: Peak Employment: U.S. Civilian Participation Rate, 1948-2011

By Henry Blodget11 October 2011 The “Occupy Wall Street” protests are gaining momentum, having spread from a small park in New York to marches to other cities across the country. So far, the protests seem fueled by a collective sense that things in our economy are not fair or right.  But the protesters have not […]

Global warming: The high cost of inaction

By Jim Bouldin14 October 2011 In 2004 Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow published a paper in Science in which they argued that a pragmatic, but still difficult, way of stabilizing atmospheric CO2 levels over the long term was via the implementation of seven “stabilization wedges” over the next 50 years. The idea was very simple: […]

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