Poisons used on illegal marijuana farms appear to be sickening and killing the fisher (pictured), a rare forest carnivore that makes its home in some of the most remote areas of California. Fishers are currently a candidate species for listing under the United States Endangered Species Act. The researchers, led by veterinary scientists from the […]
Examining indoor pollutant levels from gas and electric cookers, University of Sheffield (UK) researchers found that gas kitchens had pollutant concentrations “well above” the levels set by the government as its objective for outdoor air quality. The findings appear in the Journal of Indoor and Built Environment. The work is based on air quality measurements […]
Based on an evaluation of more than 1,000 previous studies, a new meta-review by an international group of 18 scientists suggests the Earth is perilously close to a tipping point where resource consumption, ecosystem degradation,climate change, biodiversity loss and population growth will trigger massive changes in the biosphere. “The last tipping point in Earth’s history […]
Is there disagreement over climate change because some people lack science literacy and numeracy? If the public knew more basic science and were better at technical reasoning, would public consensus match scientific consensus? A surprising new study in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests that the answer to both questions is no. The study, involving […]
When trees are felled to create solid wood products – such as lumber for housing – the wood retains most of its locked-up carbon, say scientists who suggest that previous climate models for carbon emissions from deforestation need revision. The new study, from the University of California, Davis, provides a deeper understanding of the complex […]
Scientists say they have uncovered the first evidence of a non-human species cultivating plants for use other than as food. The researchers, from the Universities of Exeter (UK), Postdam (Germany), Deakin and Queensland (Australia), report in the journal Current Biology how bowerbirds grow fruits to be used as decorations in their sexual displays. Native to […]
An intriguing analysis of fossil fuel trading and environmental policy shows that rather than attempting to limit consumption via pollution permits, taxation, and climate change treaties; buying coal, oil and other dirty fossil fuel deposits and then leaving them in the ground is a far more effective way to fight climate change. Study author Bard […]
Carbon dioxide emissions are acidifying the planet’s oceans at a rate 10 times faster than occurred in the lead up to past mass extinctions of marine organisms, say an international team of researchers. Their study, appearing in the journal Science, analyzed paleontological records over the past 300 million years and concluded that the chemistry of […]
New evidence put forward by Georgia Institute of Technology atmospheric scientists links increasingly heavy snowfalls in the Northern Hemisphere to declining summer ice cover in the Arctic. Records show that since the level of Arctic sea ice set a new record low in 2007, significantly above-normal winter snow cover has been seen in large parts […]
Penn State researchers have called into question the common practice of using tree rings to reconstruct past climate events, showing that tree rings are sometimes completely absent for very cold years. The new findings, presented in Nature Geoscience, are based on a comparison of tree ring temperature reconstructions and simulations of past temperature changes. “We […]
