Lunch with a crunch - eco-friendly edible insects

Posted Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:36:28 GMT by Louise Murray

Scrap the beef, pork, and chicken from your diet if you want to improve your carbon footprint. Edible insects like mealworms, locusts and crickets produce a fraction of the greenhouse gases per kilo of protein than more conventional meals.

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Growth rings in deep sea corals reveal climate data

Posted Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:05:41 GMT by Louise Murray

Growth rings in fossil and living deep sea corals tell scientists about Atlantic Ocean currents and may provide clues to links between these and global warming. Like tree rings and ice cores, the annual growth rings in deep sea gorgonian corals can tell us about the past environment, and are a new and dependable source of data about the deep ocean. Dr Owen Sherwood, a biogeochemist and lead author of a new study spoke to Earth Times today

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Drilling for half a million years of history under the Dead Sea

Posted Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:13:36 GMT by Michael Evans

A project to drill under the Dead Sea that will hopefully reveal half a million years of the areas's geological and climatic history. There is little doubt in scientific minds that the world is getting warmer. This is particularly evident in the Middle East, but one important question is whether this is something new or whether it is part of some larger cyclical pattern.

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The effects of a colder Bering Sea on the feeding habits of pollock

Posted Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:56:01 GMT by Michael Evans

A three-year dip in Bering Sea temperature has caused a change in the distribution of the staple food of pollock. The Bering Sea is considered to be one of the world's most productive fisheries and its northern portions are the home of sea ducks, grey whales, bearded seals and walruses, but a 30-year warming trend has been bad news for those animals that are adapted to a cold-water environment, causing them to migrate further north.

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Burping cows depleting ozone layer, Irish study finds

Posted Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:00:47 GMT by Astrid Madsen

Burps, not farts, cause for methane production among cattle. Every cow, on average, produces 80kg to 100kg (CH4) of methane per year, a gas that has the nasty habit of depleting the ozone layer. The reason for this is enteric - in other words, it's related to digestion, but not in the way you might imagine.

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ICTs to help Africa cope with Climate change

Posted Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:11:16 GMT by Paromita Pain

In Africa, the effects of climate change are already being felt, primarily in the form of reduced rainfall and desertification. These effects could substantially alter farming, leading to food shortages. To mitigate such impacts of global warming, information and communication technologies (ICTs) may have an important role to play.

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Short-term weather extremes cause melting of Greenland Ice Sheet

Posted Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:01:16 GMT by Michael Evans

New research indicates that short-term weather extremes and not global warming are the cause of Greenland ice sheet melt. Roughly 80 per cent of Greenland's land surface is hidden under an ice sheet consisting of layers of compressed snow. It is accepted that approximately 100 billion tonnes of this ice are lost each year as the sheet progressively shrinks.

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Climate Talks Bring Progress in the Fight Against Global Warming

Posted Wed, 29 Dec 2010 07:39:00 GMT by Kirsten E. Silven

Although some progress was made this year at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, there is still much more to be done in the fight to protect the environment. The event was held in Cancun, Mexico, and although there were no giant leaps made, the members left feeling more confident that they can work together in the future and eventually come to a binding global agreement on climate change.

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Glaciers in meltdown

Posted Sun, 19 Dec 2010 08:43:00 GMT by Louise Murray

Glaciers are shrinking fastest in Alaska and Patagonia in South America states a new report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), thinning by 35 and 25 m since 1960. Almost half the world's population depends on rivers that originate in glaciers and snow.

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Secrets Under The Gulf

Posted Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:35:01 GMT by Michael Evans

Research suggests that climate change 7500 years ago created the (Persian) Gulf and flooded out an early civilisation. The Persian Gulf, or 'The Gulf' as it is now known, is relatively young in geological terms, being created around 8,000 years ago, probably as a result of some historic climate change causing the Indian Ocean to swallow up the whole area.

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Fire Disaster in Israel Blamed on Predicted Climate Change

Posted Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:33:02 GMT by Michael Evans

Researcher blames devastating Israeli forest fire on predicted climate change. December 2010 will be remembered in Israel as the month of the disastrous fire that swept through the beautiful Carmel Mountains near Haifa. As fire raged through the area, a national disaster was declared and there was an international call for assistance.

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New Monitoring System For Tasmania's Oceans

Posted Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:05:04 GMT by Emma McNeil

The rich waters of the oceans surrounding Tasmania are to be monitored by a new state-of-the-art system, including autonomous undersea robotic vehicles, as scientists work to gather more information about this remarkable aquatic region. The new system for monitoring and observing the waters around the island is coming from the new Australian Integrated Observing System.

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Living Buildings: Cladding buildings to help combat effects of climate change

Posted Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:37:00 GMT by Michael Evans

Research at the University of Greenwich and others is investigating the use of ethical synthetic biology to greate 'living' materials that can be used to clad buildings. University of Greenwich School of Architecture and Construction is poised to use ethical synthetic biology to create 'living' materials that could be used to clad buildings and help combat the effects of climate change.

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Northern Wildfires Threaten Runaway Climate Change

Posted Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:10:01 GMT by Michael Evans

A warmer climate is leading to an increase in forest fires in northern latitudes, which in turn is leading to an increase in the release of carbon currently trapped in tundra and permafrost. This is the first study to reveal that wild forest fires that are a regular feature of the 18.5 million hectares of Alaska's interior have become more severe in the last ten years.

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New UN Climate Law: Protection or otherwise?

Posted Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:55:00 GMT by Paromita Pain

A new UN climate law Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is being protesd by various environmental groups as being detrimental for the climate policies already in place. Groups like the Global Justice Ecological Programme say that the REDD is being pushed by powerful interests to allow continued pollution, since industrial countries can offset their emissions by paying poor countries with forests to plant trees to absorb the carbon.

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Japan is Leading the Emissions Reduction Race

Posted Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:25:00 GMT by Paromita Pain

Japan reports impressive gains in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the GLOBE International legislators group meeting in Mexico City midway through the Cancun climate summit though officially they dont want to be a part of the extension of the Kyoto Protocol after the first phase expires in 2012.

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