Tag: Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Science

1 India’s ‘miracle’ biofuel crop: too good to be true?

by Yasmeen Mohiuddin, AFP

Tue Jan 26, 10:50 pm ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) – To its fans, jatropha is a miracle crop, an eco-friendly answer to India’s growing energy needs, but some experts are starting to question whether the wonder-shrub is too good to be true.

The seeds of the wild plant, which grows abundantly across India, produce non-edible oil that can be blended with diesel, to make the biofuel that is part of government efforts to cut carbon emissions and combat climate change.

That, combined with the shrub’s much vaunted ability to flourish on poorly irrigated land, should make it the perfect crop for wasteland in the drought-prone nation.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Science

1 Giant, leaping Asian carp threaten US Great Lakes

by Mira Oberman, AFP

Tue Jan 19, 7:32 pm ET

CHICAGO (AFP) – Huge Asian carp, which act like “aquatic vacuum cleaners” and leap into the air when spooked by motorboats, may have invaded the US Great Lakes despite a massive effort to block them, officials said Tuesday.

Researchers analyzing water samples have discovered fragments of Asian carp DNA in Lake Michigan, although there is still no evidence that that fast-breeding fish have breached electric barriers set up along Chicago-area waterways.

“Clearly this is not good news,” said Major General John Peabody, commanding general of the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Great Lakes and Ohio River division.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Science

1 Namibia’s landmark trees dying from climate change

by Brigitte Weidlich, AFP

Tue Jan 5, 11:01 pm ET

WINDHOEK (AFP) – An old man gently touches the trunk of the huge quiver tree with a worried look on his wrinkled face, as he points at several dead branches lying on Namibia’s rugged terrain.

“When I was a boy, my grandfather made my first quiver from a branch of this old tree about seventy years ago, but I fear the tree is dying — too many dead branches. Things changed over the past few years, and these trees just die,” he tells AFP.

Aaron Kairabeb works on a farm 200 kilometres (125 miles) southeast of Namibia’s capital Windhoek, where tourists go on scenic hikes and also view a cluster of the giant aloe trees that can live for more than 300 years.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

35 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Science

1 Developing nations furious over Danish climate text

AFP

1 hr 49 mins ago

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – A leaked Danish proposal triggered outrage at Copenhagen climate talks, with developing nations condemning a draft deal that they argued would consign most of the world’s poor to permanent penury.

The “draft political agreement” circulated informally by the host government exposed the deep faultlines besetting a 192-nation conference aimed at averting the potential planetary catastrophe of global warming.

The cost of failure in Copenhagen was underlined by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, which said the current decade was shaping up to be the hottest since accurate records began in 1850.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

23 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Science

1 Antarctic melt to feed global sea rise

by Marlowe Hood, AFP

Tue Dec 1, 8:15 am ET

PARIS (AFP) – Quickening ice loss in West Antarctica will likely contribute heavily to a projected sea level rise of up to 1.4 metres (4.5 feet) by 2100, according to a major scientific report released on Tuesday.

Scientists long held that most of Antarctica’s continent-sized ice sheet was highly resistant to global warming, and that the more vulnerable West Antarctic ice block would remain intact for thousands of years to come.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — whose 2007 report is the scientific benchmark for the UN December 7-18 Copenhagen climate summit — did not even factor melting ice sheets into its forecasts for rising seas.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

36 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Obama, Singh boost hopes of climate deal

AFP

2 hrs 24 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama sought to boost hopes of a landmark deal at the Copenhagen climate summit, as a new report showed the crisis facing the planet is deeper than previously thought.

Obama, hosting India’s leader at the White House a week after visiting top global polluter China, said recent progress meant the world was “one step closer to a successful outcome in Copenhagen.”

Countries must “reach a strong operational agreement that will confront the threat of climate change while serving as a stepping-stone to a legally binding treaty,” he told a press conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

31 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Science

1 Last chance prep talks wrap up ahead of Copenhagen

by Slim Allagui, AFP

Tue Nov 17, 2:06 pm ET

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – Environment ministers from 44 key countries on Tuesday wrapped up closed-door talks aimed at laying the groundwork for a political agreement at next month’s UN conference on global warming.

Danish Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard described the meeting as “very constructive.”

Delegations included major greenhouse gas emitters, including China, the United States, India and Brazil, as well as several island nations and African states that are among the poorest in the world and most vulnerable to climate change.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

33 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Science

1 Kerry vows US climate outline for Copenhagen

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Tue Nov 10, 9:03 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Senator John Kerry has pledged to complete a framework of an elusive US climate change deal in time for next month’s high-stakes summit in Copenhagen, vowing not to let the world down.

President Barack Obama’s election returned the United States to active global efforts to fight climate change, but a year later Congress has yet to make good on promises to set the first-ever US caps on carbon emissions.

After a lobbying mission in the US Capitol by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Kerry said Tuesday the Senate, while unlikely to complete legislation, would give US negotiators an outline before the December 7-18 talks in the Danish capital.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

27 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Science

1 Obama urges action as Europe ups pressure on US

by Michael Mathes, AFP

1 hr 1 min ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama stood shoulder to shoulder with Europe pressing to “redouble” efforts to combat global warming, but opponents in Congress made clear there would be no smooth path to a climate deal.

Fresh from a White House meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also made a heart-felt plea for a climate protocol in a speech to US lawmakers, Obama held talks with European Union leaders to assure them his administration supported a new treaty at next month’s summit in Copenhagen.

At a EU-US summit here, which continues Wednesday with talks with US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Europeans pressed Washington to take action on climate change ahead of December’s climate summit, warning that not enough had been done.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

From Yahoo News Science

1 Climate differences set to weigh on EU summit

by Christian Spillmann, AFP

Tue Oct 27, 12:14 pm ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The very real risk of failure on climate change is worrying EU leaders ahead of a summit starting Thursday, amid deep differences over how to help poor nations fight global warming.

Financial aid from the 27 country EU and other rich, but major polluting countries, to help developing nations confront the challenge of global warming has become a key issue, six weeks before the world climate summit in Denmark.

“We need to find a solution on financing, the internal burden-sharing,” Sweden’s European Affairs Minister Cecilia Malmstroem said Monday. “We need to do that very soon. I think our children cannot wait for us to get the figures right.”

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Science

1 Fight over future of Kashmir’s iconic Dal Lake

by Izhar Wani, AFP

36 mins ago

SRINAGAR (AFP) – “I live here and I will die here,” insists Safder Hussain, one of thousands of farmers defying relocation from Kashmir’s famed Dal Lake which is slowly choking to death on sewage, silt and weeds.

The iconic mountain-ringed oasis that has seduced generations of visitors has shrunk to half its original size in the past two decades — and the government has pointed a finger of blame at Hussain and 90,000 other lake dwellers.

For years they have eked out a tough but decent living, growing vegetables and fruit on floating “fields” made of reeds and composted weeds.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Science

1 Encyclopedia of Life grows; clues on ageing, pests

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters

Sun Aug 23, 10:11 am ET

OSLO (Reuters) – An online encyclopedia aiming to describe every type of animal and plant on the planet has reached 170,000 entries and is helping research into aging, climate change and even the spread of insect pests.

The “Encyclopedia of Life” (http://www.eol.org), a project likely to cost $100 million launched in 2007, says it wants to describe all the 1.8 million known species from apples to zebras within a decade.

“We’re picking up speed,” James Edwards, EOL Executive Director based at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, said Sunday of the 170,000 entries with content in a common format vetted by experts. A year ago, it had 30,000 entries.

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