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Four Billion People Suffer From Severe Water Scarcity World Wide
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on February 16th, 2016
Nature World News: Nearly 66 percent of the world's human population suffers from insufficient access to fresh water for at least one month out of the year. This estimate, which equates to about four billion people, is far greater than scientists thought.
Previously it was believed that that between 1.7 and 3.1 billion people lived with moderate to severe water scarcity for at least one month of year. However, in the latest study, led by Dr. Arjen Hoekstra of the Netherlands' University of Twente, researchers used...
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California Snowpack At Highest Point in Five Years
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on February 7th, 2016
Nature World News: California's Sierra Nevada snowpack has reached its highest point in five years, confirmed state water officials recently.
The officials from the Department of Water Resources also said that major reservoirs' storage has increased significantly since January 1, according to the DWR release.
The snowpack statewide has reached a point that is 114 percent of normal for this period of the year. That number reflects the amount of water contained in the snow, as a report on the public radio station...
Alaskan Yellow Cedar: Saving It, A New Report
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on January 25th, 2016
Nature World News: As less and less snow has fallen over the West Coast, yellow-cedar forests across Alaska have rapidly declined within the last century. The stately conifers grow up to 78 feet tall and are historically a major part of forests north of the top of California. A new report from the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station addresses the threat to them and outlines a climate adaptation strategy designed to help save the iconic trees.
"Our report assesses the past, current, and expected...
Snow Soaks Up Pollutants, Says New Study from Montreal
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on January 20th, 2016
Nature World News: Snow. Is it paying for our environmental sins?
That is, like all things next to roadways and in urban environments, snowflakes are picking up pollutants from the air in cities. But they're doing it in a particularly efficient way, like a pollution sink, says a recent study. In fact, those findings from snow-capital Montreal, Canada indicate that, while "snow ice cream" and downing a part of the potential snowman are both appealing, snow is not for eating.
That is, the study team found that...
Fracking, Water, and Our World
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 25th, 2015
Nature World News: Hydraulic fracturing receives much press and is taking place in many parts of the United States. Just a quick review: Fracking is a process of drilling into the earth, then injecting a high-pressure water mixture into the rock to release the gas inside. The water mixture includes sand and chemicals. The gas then flows to the well's head.
Several issues tend to be noted regarding fracking. These include its water use, the earthquake increase in a number of areas in which fracking has taken place,...
Marine Waste: Cleanser Release 100,000 Micro-Beads
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 3rd, 2015
Nature World News: We've heard about plastic "microbeads" from cosmetics and pastes getting into streams and the ocean. In June 2014, Illinois became the first state to begin the process of banning the tiny beads, and some legislators are asking for a federal ban in the U.S. Other countries are discussing the beads too, as a recent study by researchers at the U.K.'s Plymouth University shows. That study found that a single use of a bead-containing product--which include hand cleansers, soaps, toothpaste, shaving cream,...
Climate Change: Ice-Age Canada, Why It Melted
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 23rd, 2015
Nature World News: We are zooming in close to the last ice age, looking at the massive Laurentide ice sheet that covered Canada then, with new research from Oregon State University. What happened may provide ideas as to how Greenland and Antarctica's ice sheets may respond to a changing climate, scientists say.
Here's what happened first: the Laurentide ice sheet began calving icebergs, then abruptly shifted to a focus on melting on the continent, say Oregon State researchers, who were funded by the National Science...
England, Europe at Risk of Major Sea Level Rise
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 18th, 2015
Nature World News: According to the results published in the journal Climate Research, the seas around Scandinavia, England, the Netherlands and northern Germany will rise by up to about 1.5 meters (~5 feet) in this century.
"Even though the oceans are rising, they do not rise evenly across the globe. This is partly due to regional changes in the gravitational field and land uplift," researcher Aslak Grinsted, with the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, said in a statement.
Gravity over the...
Ancient Ice Sheet Collapse Triggered Strong Climate Change
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 12th, 2015
Nature World News: With climate change already impacting various parts of the world, scientists have started looking into Earth's past in order to better predict how it will affect our future. To add to growing evidence, a new study has found that ice sheet collapse 135 million years ago triggered events of strong global climate change.
The Cretaceous period, 145 to 66 million years ago, was one of the warmest times in Earth's history - though some say it was interrupted with a significant cold snap. During this...
Greenland’s Draining Lakes Won’t Worsen Sea Level Rise?
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 4th, 2015
Nature World News: Each summer, Greenland's ice sheet - measuring three times the size of Texas - begins to melt. Pockets of melting ice form hundreds of large, supraglacial lakes on the surface of the ice. Many of these lakes drain through cracks and crevasses in the ice sheet, called moulins, creating a liquid layer over which massive chunks of ice can slide. This natural conveyor belt can speed ice toward the coast, where it eventually falls off into the sea.
"It's essentially a check on the inner ice starting...