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Archive for November 25th, 2010
Climate change warming lakes
Posted by NASA: None Given on November 25th, 2010
NASA: In the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes, NASA researchers determined Earth's largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate change.
Researchers Philipp Schneider and Simon Hook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes worldwide.
They reported an average warming rate of 0.45 degrees Celsius (0.81 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, with some...
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100-million-year-old crocodile species discovered
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 25th, 2010
Associated Press: A new species of crocodile that lived 100 million years ago has been identified from a fossil found in Thailand, researchers said Thursday.
Komsorn Lauprasert, a scientist at Mahasarakham University, said the species had longer legs than modern-day crocodiles and probably fed on fish, based on the characteristics of its teeth.
"They were living on land and could run very fast," said Komsorn, who noticed the skull fossil in a museum in the summer of 2006. The 6-inch-long (15-centimeter-long)...
Climate change: Making a case for nutrition
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 25th, 2010
IRIN: In another four decades, higher average global temperatures will lead to water stress, causing food production and access to fall, which will drive an additional 24 million children into hunger, says a study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). *
This forewarning should move the world towards being forearmed, according to the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN), a forum comprising UN agencies, NGOs and academics, which has been running a campaign to influence negotiators...
Colombia Tests Forage Crops Against Climate Change
Posted by Inter Press Service: Constanza Vieira on November 25th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Colombia, with 24 million head of cattle, is showcasing two advances towards reducing the 13 percent of climate-changing gas emissions attributed to livestock production around the world.
The key words in this endeavour: brachialactone and Lotus uliginosus.
Brachialactone, a chemical compound discovered in this Andean country on the roots of the African Brachiaria humidicola, gives this grass species the ability to prevent nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, from being released into the...
New Livelihoods to Protect A River’s Life
Posted by Inter Press Service: Lova Rabary-Rakotondravony on November 25th, 2010
Inter Press Service: The Nosivolo River has the greatest concentration of freshwater fish species in Madagascar. Strengthening protection of the river's biodiversity has involved transforming the livelihoods of local people.
Species that were on the road to disappearing are now regaining strength thanks to strict regulations adopted - and enforced - by fishing communities to protect them.
The river, which tumbles spectacularly from its headwaters in mountains 1800 metres above sea level through cascades and over...
Front-Line City in Virginia Starts Tackling Rise in Sea
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 25th, 2010
New York Times: In this section of the Larchmont neighborhood, built in a sharp “u” around a bay off the Lafayette River, residents pay close attention to the lunar calendar, much as other suburbanites might attend to the daily flow of commuter traffic.
If the moon is going to be full the night before Hazel Peck needs her car, for example, she parks it on a parallel block, away from the river. The next morning, she walks through a neighbor’s backyard to avoid the two-to-three-foot-deep puddle that routinely accumulates...
Scientists desperately push to halt carbon emissions from peatlands
Posted by DTI News: None Given on November 25th, 2010
DTI News: Massive amounts of carbon are being released into the atmosphere as swathes of forests growing on peat swamps in Southeast Asia are being converted to palm oil plantations, new analysis has shown, prompting scientists to call for a special focus on them in the upcoming climate talks.
Peatlands cover about 3% of the earth’s land area, but store as much as one-third of all soil carbon. If that carbon is emitted into the atmosphere, it would be equal to about 75 years of burning fossil fuels at the...
2010 on course to be joint hottest year since 1850
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 25th, 2010
Guardian: This year is so far tied for the hottest year in a record dating back to 1850 in a new sign of a warming trend, the three major institutes which calculate global warming estimates told Reuters.
UN climate talks resume next week in Cancún, Mexico, where expectations are no longer for a comprehensive deal to slow warming, but smaller progress for example to curb deforestation, in a bid to agree a pact next year or later.
The previous conference in Copenhagen last year fell short of hopes, but...
NASA says Climate Change Warms Large Lakes on Earth
Posted by Trend: None Given on November 25th, 2010
Trend: According to a study published by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Wednesday, the largest lakes in the world have warmed over the last 25 years because of climate change.
The study by the researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena, California, found out that the lakes of the mid and high latitudes of the northern hemisphere have warmed, particularly in northern Europe and Russia.
The study came a week before the nations from different parts of...