Category: Environment

A diet that includes about two cooked ounces a day of eggs and meat might be friendlier to the environment than strict vegetarianism.

A low-fat vegetarian diet is very efficient in terms of how much land is needed to support it. But adding some dairy products and a limited amount of meat may actually increase this efficiency, Cornell researchers suggest.

Genetically engineered Bt corn byproducts are showing up in streams where they threaten aquatic insects related to the pests targeted by a toxin in Bt corn.

A study by an Indiana University environmental science professor and several colleagues suggests a widely planted variety of genetically engineered corn has the potential to harm aquatic ecosystems. The study is being published online this week by the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

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Northern Indiana stream, one of several where study was conducted.

While summer daytime highs in Ohio have remained fairly constant, summer lows have risen about three degrees since the 1960s, as a direct result of global warming.

Summer nights in Ohio aren't cooling off as much as they used to -- and it's likely a sign of climatic warming across the state, researchers say.

These species, among the first to be listed on the Endangered Species list, were recently removed. Scott McRobert, a professor of bioogy, isn't sure that's a good thing.

2007 has been a big year for removal of protected animals from the endangered species list. Three species native to North America that were among the first to be listed after the passage of the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 have been recovered and no longer need protection. In February, Canis lupus was delisted in certain areas of its range; in March, Ursus arctos horribilis was delisted; in July, Haliaeetus leucocephalus was delisted, making headlines.

Latin names notwithstanding, these animals are familiar to most Americans for their contributions to our collective folklore, native mythology, tall-tales and national identity: they are the gray wolf, Yellowstone grizzly bear and the American bald eagle.

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Scott McRobert Ph.D

An enormous red spinel crystal weighing over 52 kgs may be the largest red spinel ever unearthed. A significant number of stones ranging in weights between 5 and 30 carats have already been faceted and sold for several million dollars.

Mined at depth of 10 meters in a farmer's field in Mahenge, Tanzania, the pyramid shaped crystal weighing over 52kgs was discovered by a group of miners in the alluvial deposit.

During the last two winters, perennial artic ice shrunk by an area the sixe of Texas and California combined, with thick ice confined to the Arctic Ocean north of Canada.

A new NASA-led study found a 23-percent loss in the extent of the Arctic's thick, year-round sea ice cover during the past two winters. This drastic reduction of perennial winter sea ice is the primary cause of this summer's fastest-ever sea ice retreat on record and subsequent smallest-ever extent of total Arctic coverage.

According to Gore, the profit motive may do more to aid to call to stop global warming than government edicts, rules and regulations.

Al Gore, the former vice president of the United States and leading environmental campaigner, says that market forces will play the pre-eminent role in the fight to combat climate change in an exclusive interview published by Euromoney.

“Bay could become paradise lost for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation,” says Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.

A new report on the impact of global warming on the Chesapeake Bay calls for a major shift in how land is managed in the bay to protect the nation’s most prized hunting and fishing grounds.

According to some Native American traditions, an albino animal represents the spirit of its species and is therefore sacred. This albino ratfish died while trying to escape its human captors to return to Puget Sound.

A ghostly, mutant ratfish caught off Whidbey Island in Washington state is the only completely albino fish ever seen by both the curator of the University of Washington's 7.2 million-specimen fish collection and a fish and wildlife biologist with more than 20 years of sampling fish in Puget Sound.

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Post doctoral researcher Sandra Stetter, and graduate students Brock Grubb,
Jon Reum and Aaron Galloway work on deck during an expedition sampling
fish to learn how the food web in Hood Canal may change when waters
become oxygen starved, something that has been occurring in the fall in
recent years. An albino ratfish was caught during work off Whidbey Island,
a site needed for comparison with Hood Canal waters.

This summer, artic researchers recorded tempetures of 70 degrees in areas with July temperatures that normally average 40 degrees.

Unprecedented warm temperatures in the High Arctic this past summer were so extreme that researchers with a Queen’s-led climate change project have begun revising their forecasts.