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Unsustainable population rise is unstoppable, scientists warn
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on October 28th, 2014
Blue and Green: Not even a global one-child policy or a devastating third world war would reduce the human population to sustainable levels, a study has found.
The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concludes that population controls or a global disaster cannot stop the global population reaching 10 billion or more by 2100.
A conflict on the scale of the first two world wars would barely register a blip on the population trajectory, while restrictions on the numbers of...
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Fracking boom will increase global carbon emissions, scientists warn
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on October 16th, 2014
Blue and Green: A global fracking boom will not help prevent climate change, as cheap shale gas would displace cleaner renewable energy and actually increase carbon emissions, according to a new study.
Because the burning of shale gas, extracted through the controversial process of fracking, releases around 50% less carbon than conventional fossil fuels such as coal, proponents have suggested it could act as a “bridge fuel”.
While investment in renewables is scaled up to meet demand, shale gas could fill in...
One in 40 living in areas likely to be underwater by 2100
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on September 26th, 2014
Blue and Green: Some 147 to 216 million people are currently living on land that will be below sea level or regular flood levels by 2100 if climate change continues unabated, a new analysis has warned.
The study, lead by Climate Central, identified the countries most at risk from rising sea levels if climate change is not curbed and if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate.
This would melt ice sheets and glaciers around the world, topping up the seas, while thermal expansion – which causes...
British winters becoming more extreme, scientists warn
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on September 10th, 2014
Blue and Green: British winters are becoming more extreme, with unpredictable swings between very mild, stormy winters and very cold, snowy ones becoming more likely, a new study has warned.
Surveying seasonal records dating back to 1899, experts from the Met Office, the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Sheffield found that seven of the 10 most extreme winters came in the last decade.
“If this trend continues, we can expect more volatile UK winter weather in decades to come,” said Prof...
Extinction rate increased 1000 times during human era
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on September 3rd, 2014
Blue and Green: The extinction rate of species around the world is now 1,000 times higher than it was before humans arrived on the scene, a new study has found.
The shocking report, published in the journal Conservation Biology, estimates the pre-human extinction to be 10 times lower than scientists previously thought, making mankind’s devastating impact all the more pronounced.
"We`ve known for 20 years that current rates of species extinctions are exceptionally high," said co-author Stuart Pimm, of Duke...
United Kingdom: Activists launch national protests against fracking
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on August 18th, 2014
Blue and Green: Activists have superglued themselves to the doors at the entrance of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) building in London, in a protest against fracking.
The action was timed to coincide with a number of protests across the country, including the occupation of fracking firm Cuadrilla’s northern headquarters near Blackpool.
Campaigners have hung a banner from a bridge at Salford Media City, while others have staged a "die-in" protest at the Blackpool branch of HSBC,...
Invertebrate species have declined 45% in 40 years, study finds
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on July 27th, 2014
Blue and Green: opulations of invertebrates such as insects, spiders and worms – many of which are essential to the health of ecosystems – have fallen by 45% on average over the past 40 years, according to a new study. The paper, published in the journal Science, reports that invertebrate numbers have plummeted while the human population has boomed and suggests that humans are to blame. In the UK, for example, the numbers of bees, butterflies and beetles have declined by 30% to 60% since the 1970s. The authors...
Water becoming ‘a tool of conflict’ in Syria and Iraq
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on July 3rd, 2014
Blue and Green: The fate of the conflicts in Iraq and Syria could be decided by one of the world’s most important resources – water – security experts have said.
The two countries, like much of the Middle East, frequently suffer from water shortages. Scientists fear that climate change will cause ever more severe droughts, which could exacerbate tensions and conflict in the region.
Speaking to the Guardian, Michael Stephen, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank in Qatar, explained...
Ancient Chinese anti-flooding efforts blamed for deadly Yellow river flooding
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on June 20th, 2014
Blue and Green: A combination of human-caused environmental degradation and efforts to control the great Yellow river in China, made almost 3,000 years ago, may be responsible for flooding that killed millions and led to the fall of an empire, according to new research.
In what could be considered a grim lesson from history of the importance of responsible land use, archeologists in China have found evidence that societies changed their environments much earlier than previously believed.
"Human intervention...
Vast ice structures discovered beneath Greenland ice sheet
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on June 16th, 2014
Blue and Green: Far beneath the flat, tranquil surface of northern Greenland’s ice sheet, scientists have discovered vast ice structures as tall as skyscrapers and as wide as the island of Manhattan.
The formations are caused when ice at the base of the glacier melts and refreezes over hundreds of years, in a process that may be quickening the glaciers’ slide into the sea.
Using radar from airborne surveys, researchers found that the structures, which cover about a tenth of northern Greenland, are made not...