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Scientists find new kind of bacterial life in hidden Antarctic lake
Posted by Guardian: Ian Sample on March 8th, 2013
Guardian: An enormous lake that has lain buried under Antarctic ice for millions of years is home to a new kind of bacterial life, Russian scientists claim.
The researchers found evidence for the unidentified organism in water samples brought up from Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake on the Antarctic continent.
The Russian team found seven samples of the mystery species in water that had frozen on a drill head used to reach the lake that lies beneath an ice sheet more than two miles (3.5km) thick....
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Search for life begins in lake entombed under Antarctic ice
Posted by Guardian: Ian Sample on December 2nd, 2012
Guardian: British scientists flew into Antarctica last on Saturday night to begin an extraordinary search for life in a stretch of water the size of Lake Windermere buried under three kilometres of solid ice.
The researchers join a team of engineers who set up camp on the West Antarctic ice sheet, where the December sun shines night and day, and temperatures plunge far below freezing.
In the coming days, the team will use a sterile hot water drill to bore down to the subglacial Lake Ellsworth and retrieve...
Scientists have ‘limited knowledge’ of how climate change causes extinction
Posted by Guardian: Ian Sample on October 17th, 2012
Guardian: A major review into the impact of climate change on plants and animals has found that scientists have almost no idea how it drives various species to extinction.
Though some organisms struggle to cope physiologically with rising temperatures – a simple and direct result of climate change – there was scarce evidence this was the main climate-related threat to many species whose numbers were already falling.
More often, climate change took its toll on life through more complex and indirect routes,...
Cost of saving endangered species £50bn a year, say experts
Posted by Guardian: Ian Sample on October 11th, 2012
Guardian: Spending on conservation projects must rise by "an order of magnitude" if governments are to meet their pledges to manage protected areas and halt the spectacular rate of extinctions caused by human activity.
A stark assessment from an international collaboration of conservation groups and universities reveals the enormous shortfall in funds required to save species, and warns that costs are likely to increase, the longer action is delayed.
To reduce the risk of extinction for all threatened...
Tighten fracking regulations, scientists urge US officials
Posted by Guardian: Ian Sample on February 16th, 2012
Guardian: An influential group of scientists has urged US officials to step up their policing of shale gas operations and to consider stronger regulations to reduce environmental and health risks at the facilities.
The scientists called on regulators to revisit, and in many cases beef up, their guidelines to avoid surface spills at shale gas works, and to ensure the safe storage and disposal of toxic fluids used in controversial hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations.
Though some US states have...
Fukushima engineers hampered by lack of power in fight to cool reactors
Posted by Guardian: Ian Sample on March 28th, 2011
Guardian: The central problem behind almost every hurdle faced by the workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant has been – and remains – a lack of power supply. Since electricity was knocked out by the tsunami it has been impossible to run the pumps that cool the reactor cores and circulate water around storage pools used to keep spent fuel rods cold.
Last week engineers succeeded in connecting power to some of the reactors, but three remain in a dangerous and precarious state. The fuel rods inside reactors...
UK’s shifting population placing environment under intense strain
Posted by Guardian: Ian Sample on February 16th, 2011
Guardian: The UK's growing population, a rising number of older people and an increase in households with fewer people in them is putting the environment under intense strain, a report warned on Wednesday.
Shifts in the demographics of Britain have created "crunch points" in the south-east and other urban centres, with water supplies, air quality and waste management all suffering from the impact of greater demand and consumption.
The cost of fixing Britain's environmental problems will soar without...