Posts

As the impact of our species on the natural world intensifies, so does the knowledge of our dependency on it: from crop-pollinating critters and wild fish populations that nourish millions, to ecosystems that inhale carbon emissions and filter air and water. These connections have bolstered a legal argument around the importance of a healthy environment—that is, intact ecosystems and animal and plant populations, as well as a stable climate. To John Knox, an expert on international environmental law and human rights law at Wake Forest University, a healthy environment is as important to human life as freedom of expression, health, work, education and other rights generally accepted under international human rights law....

Energy security and climate change present massive threats to global security, military planners say, with connections and consequences spanning the world. Some scientists have linked the Arab Spring uprisings to high food prices caused by the failed Russian wheat crop in 2010, a result of an unparalleled heat wave. The predicted effects of climate change are also expected to hit developing nations particularly hard, raising the importance of supporting humanitarian response efforts and infrastructure improvements....

Developing countries set the highest bar possible yesterday for the U.N. climate change talks, demanding that wealthy countries ante up with new carbon emission targets yet warning them to expect no binding commitments from others in return. Meeting in Durban, South Africa, diplomats from 194 countries opened two weeks of negotiations aimed at lowering the amount of greenhouse gases entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Developing countries made clear that the best way to accomplish that is for countries to work within the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 treaty that is in danger of falling apart....

When the eastern flank of a Cape Verde volcano splashed into the sea some 73,000 years ago, it generated an enormous wave that rose to 170 metres of height before it crashed into a nearby island, geophysicists have discovered. The mega-tsunami, reported on 2 October in Science Advances, is one of the largest in the geological record. These kinds of apocalyptic events could happen again, although it is impossible to say when or where, says Ricardo Ramalho, a geophysicist at the University of Bristol, UK, and a co-author of the Cape Verde study....

Hot on the heels of detecting the two highest-energy neutrinos ever observed, scientists working with a mammoth particle detector buried in ice near the South Pole unveiled preliminary data showing that they also registered the signal of 26 additional high-energy neutrinos. The newfound neutrinos are somewhat less energetic than the two record-setters but nonetheless appear to carry more energy than would be expected if created by cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere—a prodigious source of neutrinos raining down on Earth....

The main causes of low back pain include muscle strain, herniated disks, arthritis, and more. You can treat low back pain with ice/heat, stretching, a back brace, and more. Keep reading to hear the main causes and treatments. Last episode, we tagged along with Lori, a 46-year-old bakery owner who went to see her doctor for three days of low back pain. We learned what types of questions doctors want to know when evaluating low back pain, we reviewed the anatomy of the lower back spine, and the more worrisome signs/symptoms that require immediate attention....

Reports this week from the front lines of the Sand Fire in Southern California painted the scene as apocalyptic. The drought-fueled blaze was explosive, fast-moving and devastating, burning through 38,000 acres in the Santa Clarita Valley and forcing the evacuation of more than 10,000 homes. If the state’s wildfire season holds true to forecasts, the Sand Fire will be one of many catastrophic wildfires to scorch drought-stricken forests and shrublands across California this year....

Large financial institutions and major business sectors have long ignored, underestimated or even hid some of the major risks they face from climate change. These actions can put investments and economic stability at risk. Misrepresentations or miscalculations of business practices’ environmental soundness, often called greenwashing, and fossil-fuel-industry subsidies are two examples of how climate costs can be obscured. But such techniques might soon face a reckoning, a revamping or even a coordinated dismantling in the U....

The United Nations’ climate talks kick off today in Madrid under something of a cloud. Two global organizations released dire warnings last week that greenhouse gases are rising with no end in sight. In spite of that, the world’s largest historic emitter, the United States, is leaving the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether a climate pact that relies on voluntary national commitments — as the deal of nearly 200 countries reached outside Paris in 2015 is designed to do — can deliver the needed results....

Hardly anyone has made it through the pandemic with their work life unchanged. Millions of people have lost jobs, been placed on furlough or switched to working from home. Essential workers have continued in place but often with major changes to their workloads, including additional safety procedures and an awareness of infectious disease as a new workplace hazard. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment dropped by 20.5 million people in the U....

California regulators passed emergency efficiency standards for toilets, faucets and other water-using appliances yesterday, a move aimed at stemming water waste as the state’s historic drought grows worse. Starting in January 2016, retailers will not be allowed to sell showerheads, toilets, urinals, bathroom and kitchen faucets and other appliances that violate the new standards. Toilets can use no more than 1.28 gallons per flush, down from 1.6 gallons, and kitchen faucets will not be permitted to use more than 1....

SpaceX has earned a reputation for building and launching rockets faster than its competitors, in part by bucking the prolonged development cycles and periodic operational shutdowns that are typical in the aerospace industry. So it was a bit of a surprise when SpaceX’s chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell announced a potential looming interruption in the breakneck pace of the company’s launches. The reason: shortfalls of liquid oxygen caused by competing demands for it from hospitals treating COVID-19 patients....

Looking more like a baby salamander than anything else, a six-week-old human embryo has tiny paddles for hands, dark dots for eyes and on either side of its shallow mouth slit, half a dozen small bumps destined to form an ear. By nine weeks, these “hillocks” will migrate up the face as the jaw becomes more pronounced and start taking on the recognizable shell shape so handy for holding up eyeglasses....

Journalists and whistle-blowers have exposed some alarming moves by federal and state governments to restrict science research, education or communication. But the Silencing Science Tracker, updated continuously online, shows just how pervasive the attempts have been since the 2016 U.S. national elections. Tactics run the gamut from censorship and funding cuts to destroying data, twisting studies and removing scientists from advisory boards (main graphic). Some deeds have been “really outrageous,” says Romany Webb, a senior fellow at Columbia Law School, who runs the site....

Most if not all deforestation is ultimately driven by our consumption, so avoiding products and companies responsible for deforestation is the logical first step. While it may seem obvious, asking about the source of the wood you are using on your next home repair project—and rejecting it if it comes from the tropical rainforest—will help efforts to prevent deforestation. Mahogany, ipê and other tropical hardwoods should be avoided unless they are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, a non-profit which vets sustainably harvested timber operations around the world....

Arkin Rai, a seven-year-old child living in Singapore, draws dinosaurs with exquisite realism. At age three his dinosaurs were simple and schematic. A year and some months later, however, he created a complex drawing in which dinosaurs were layered one on top of the other, an image that bears an uncanny resemblance to a drawing of horses and a bull by the adult Pablo Picasso. In Arkin’s fanciful scene, the long, graceful neck of an Apatosaurus-like beast obscures the view of other dinosaurs....

His finalist year: 1987 His finalist project: Figuring out a way to keep submarines quiet What led to the project: Ian Patrick Sobieski grew up in Hampton Roads, Va., across the James River from the sprawling Norfolk Naval Base. His family lived on the water, and he used to love to watch the ships go by. Inspired by the Navy’s gray armadas and by Tom Clancy’s book The Hunt for Red October, Sobieski decided to look into how to make submarines quieter....

It was an audacious undertaking, even for one of the most storied American companies: With a single machine, IBM would tackle humanity’s most vexing diseases and revolutionize medicine. Breathlessly promoting its signature brand — Watson — IBM sought to capture the world’s imagination, and it quickly zeroed in on a high-profile target: cancer. But three years after IBM began selling Watson to recommend the best cancer treatments to doctors around the world, a STAT investigation has found that the supercomputer isn’t living up to the lofty expectations IBM created for it....

The evolution of terrestrial creatures from aquatic fish with fins may have begun with the need for a breath of fresh air. Animals with limbs, feet and toes—a group known as the tetrapods (literally, “four-footed”)—arose between 380 million and 375 million years ago. Scientists long believed that limbs evolved as an adaptation to life on terra firma. But recent discoveries have revealed that some of the key changes involved in the fin-to-limb transition occurred while the ancestors of tetrapods were still living in the water....

OSLO (Reuters) - Sweden’s top nuclear power generators have been forced to cut output because of exceptionally warm weather in Scandinavia, and their output could be reduced for over a week, their operators said on Wednesday. Oskarshamn, part of Germany’s E.ON and Forsmark, operated by Swedish utility Vattenfall have both cut output because warm sea water temperatures are limiting their ability to cool down. “For each degree above 23 decrees Celsius in the cooling water, each unit has to decrease power by 3 percent,” Forsmark said in a market message....