Recently added articles from Environment:
Rethinking energy options to address climate change.(EDITORIAL)
Oct 01, 2007; McGowan, Alan H. ... Hardly a day goes by without a new report, article, or broadcast on the importance of facing global climate change. As Diana Liverman points out in her review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Working Group I report beginning on page 28 of this ...
Unsustainable suburbia.(BYTES OF NOTE)(Table)
Oct 01, 2007; Clark, George E. ... One-half of the U.S. population lives in suburbia, and the proportion is growing--by comparison, 30 percent live in cities, and 20 percent live in rural areas (see Figure 1 on page 4; for other related demographic trends, see the full report, Census 2000 Special Reports: Demographic Trends ...
Dispersants: deadlier than oil?(SPECTRUM)
Oct 01, 2007 ... The environmental effects of oil spills were thought to be somewhat mitigated by the use of chemical dispersants, but these chemicals are more harmful to coral than the oil is, according to a study by Israeli scientists. The dispersants should not be used near coral reefs except in ...
Pushing rainfall to extremes.(SPECTRUM)
Oct 01, 2007 ... Global rainfall patterns are changing due to human influence, an international team of climate scientists have shown for the first time. Regions already facing extremes--drought or heavy rainfalls--could bear the brunt of even more exaggerated conditions in the future, say the ...
Managing runoff for cleaner watersheds.(SPECTRUM)
Oct 01, 2007 ... A new approach to managing storm-water runoff using decision analysis software may help clean up streams, lakes, and bays, say researchers at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). Funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the ...
Making more hydrogen for less.(SPECTRUM)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2007 ... New catalysts created at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory may create more, cheaper hydrogen for use in fuel cells. Most industrial hydrogen is created by "steam reforming," a process in which catalysts facilitate a reaction between steam and natural gas to ...
The cost of seabirds.(SPECTRUM)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2007 ... Seafarers and seabirds have had an uneasy relationship since long before Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ancient mariner weighed in on the matter of killing an albatross, but for the modern fishing industry, it is a quantifiable problem: accidental catches of seabirds have devastated some bird ...
Beef: it's what's polluting?(SPECTRUM)
Oct 01, 2007 ... Producing a few servings of beef can have significant environmental consequences, say agricultural researchers studying the Japanese beef industry. It may come as no surprise to anyone who has lived near a cattle farm that the industry involves a bit of gas emissions and has the potential ...
Astronauts and cosmonauts recently cleaned out the International Space Station, leaving two pieces of old equipment to orbit Earth for at least 300 days.(In Brief)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2007 ... Astronauts and cosmonauts recently cleaned out the International Space Station, leaving two pieces of old equipment to orbit Earth for at least 300 days. NASA is tracking the junk and expects the smaller piece, a 96-kilogram camera mounting, to disintegrate upon impact with the Earth's ...
Malaysia lost 22 percent of its shorebirds in 20 years, according to a report by the conservation organization Wetlands International.(In Brief)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2007 ... Malaysia lost 22 percent of its shorebirds in 20 years, according to a report by the conservation organization Wetlands International. The report cites the destruction of mangrove forests and mudflats as the development ...
Chinese officials announced plans to invest 2 trillion yuan (US$265 billion) in renewable energy by 2050.(In Brief)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2007 ... Chinese officials announced plans to invest 2 trillion yuan (US$265 billion) in renewable energy by 2050. Chen Deming, vice-chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, says 80 percent of the funds will come from businesses. The central government would fund 10 percent, ...
Fueling U.S. transportation: the hydrogen economy and its alternatives.(Table)
Oct 01, 2007; Heiman, Michael K. ... TRANSPORTATION is responsible for one-fourth of global greenhouse gas emissions and consumes 75 percent of world oil production. The U.S. transportation sector alone accounts for almost 10 percent of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. (1) Insofar as it is a carrier and a ...
From uncertain to unequivocal.(REPORT ON REPORTS)(Table)
Oct 01, 2007; Liverman, Diana ... The IPCC Working Group I Report: Climate Change 2007--The Physical Science Basis With the publication of the Fourth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this year marks some important shifts in our understanding of climate change and its ...
Defining precaution.(REPORT ON REPORTS)
Oct 01, 2007; Weiss, Charles ... UNESCO's World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Techonology Report: The Precautionary Principle The precautionary principle is frequently invoked as a basic principle of risk management and an essential guide to decisions on issues as varied as climate ...
Our Earth's Changing Land: an Encyclopedia of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change.(BOOKS OF NOTE)(Brief article)(Book review)
Oct 01, 2007; Hamann, Ralph ... OUR EARTH'S CHANGING LAND: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LAND-USE AND LAND-COVER CHANGE edited by Helmut Geist; Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2005; 792 pp., $225.00 hardback (ISBN 0-313-32704-1). As the debate on the role of encyclopedias in the Internet age rages on, Our ...
Science and Policy in Natural Resource Management: Understanding System Complexity.(BOOKS OF NOTE)(Book review)
Oct 01, 2007; Vaux, Henry J., Jr. ... SCIENCE AND POLICY IN NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: UNDERSTANDING SYSTEM COMPLEXITY by Helen Allison and Richard Hobbs; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2006; 240 pp., $95.00 cloth (ISBN 0-521-85883-6). This book is about the use of science, generated through ...