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Two-thirds of the world’s population doesn’t have reliable access to fresh water
Posted by Mongabay: Mike Gaworecki on February 15th, 2016
Mongabay: New research paints a sobering picture about the water crisis looming over our heads. Previous studies have estimated anywhere from 1.7 and 3.1 billion people are already living with severe water shortages. But those studies underestimated the extent of water scarcity, according to researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, who published their findings in the journal Science Advances last week. The researchers say their results show that two-thirds of the global population — some...
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California declares state of emergency after methane gas leak forces thousands from homes
Posted by Mongabay: Mike Gaworecki on January 9th, 2016
Mongabay: An ongoing methane gas leak at a facility in Southern California — what’s been called “the nation’s biggest environmental disaster since the BP oil spill” — has officially been declared an emergency by Governor Jerry Brown. Natural gas, or methane, first started leaking from Southern California Gas Co.’s Aliso Canyon storage facility on October 23 last year. Some 2,300 homes have been evacuated in nearby Porter Ranch, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, after residents began experiencing nosebleeds,...
Several new species of clawed frog discovered in sub-Saharan Africa
Posted by Mongabay: Mike Gaworecki on December 19th, 2015
Mongabay: African clawed frogs are characterized by their flat bodies and vocal organs which can produce sound underwater, as well as the claws on their first three toes that give them their name.
Despite being commonly used as a study subject by developmental biologists, researchers say we're still learning quite a bit about the species.
Researchers from Canada's McMaster University say they’ve discovered a wealth of new information on the frog’s evolution using new techniques for analyzing DNA.
There...
There have been more than 11,000 fires in just one region of the Brazilian Amazon this year
Posted by Mongabay: Mike Gaworecki on November 5th, 2015
Mongabay: On October 4, 2015, satellite images revealed that there were over 900 fires burning in the Brazilian Amazon. That figure was reported by Brazil’s Institute for Space Research, known as INPE, which said that the region most affected by the fires was the northern state of Amazonas. Some 11,114 forest fires have already been observed in Amazonas this year, a 47 percent increase over the same period last year, according to INPE. Amazonas is not alone in dealing with increased incidence of forest fires....
Changing California forests may help us prepare for the future
Posted by Mongabay: Mike Gaworecki on January 21st, 2015
Mongabay: A new study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examines how California’s forests have changed since the 1930s--and, according to its authors, can help us understand how forests will respond to the changing global climate in the future.
Entitled “Twentieth-century shifts in forest structure in California: Denser forests, smaller trees, and increased dominance of oaks,” the study looked at tree abundance and size across the state of California and in several different...
Impacts of deforestation on Amazonian river ecosystems could be far-reaching
Posted by Mongabay: Mike Gaworecki on December 18th, 2014
Mongabay: Vast areas of the Amazon forest are being destroyed for agricultural uses, mainly industrial-scale soybean crops, and turned into pasture land for livestock. The riparian forests surrounding streams have not been exempt from this trend. And though headwater streams in the Brazilian Amazon are valuable aquatic ecosystems, little research has been done to determine how deforestation is impacting the streams’ environmental integrity and ability to function as natural habitats.
That is, until now....