Tag: ecology

Heather Hansman: Who will clean up the 'billion-dollar mess' of abandoned US oilwells?

Jill Morrison has seen how the bust of oil and gas production can permanently scar a landscape. Near her land in north-east Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, where drilling started in 1889, more than 2,000 abandoned wells are seeping brine into the groundwater and leaking potent greenhouse gasses. The problem is getting worse. As the oil… Read More Heather Hansman: Who will clean up the 'billion-dollar mess' of abandoned US oilwells?

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Arctic ice loss forces polar bears to use four times as much energy to survive – study

Polar bears and narwhals are using up to four times as much energy to survive because of major ice loss in the Arctic, according to scientists. Once perfectly evolved for polar life, apex predators are struggling as their habitats shrink and unique adaptations become less suited to an increasingly ice-free Arctic, researchers say. The mammals are… Read More Arctic ice loss forces polar bears to use four times as much energy to survive – study

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‘Citizens can’t be jailed for disagreeing with state policies’: Top quotes from Disha Ravi’s bail order / Rajmohan Gandhi: Just Who Is Spoiling India's Image? A View From The US

NB: It comes as a relief for many Indians, not just that this innocent young woman has been granted bail, but that the judicial conscience is still alive, as evident in the appropriate remarks by this Additional Sessions Judge. What remains of deep concern is why and how our police has been allowed to get… Read More ‘Citizens can’t be jailed for disagreeing with state policies’: Top quotes from Disha Ravi’s bail order / Rajmohan Gandhi: Just Who Is Spoiling India's Image? A View From The US

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Roger Sollenberger: What caused the Texas disaster? Decades of Republican deregulation: "Laissez-faire run amok"

NB: Contemporary conservative thought has a tendency to equate all social control, or even the hint of such control, as ‘communism’. Hence the antipathy toward activists such as Greta Thunberg, who simply asked for urgent measures to control damage to the environment. Note this paragraph from the article below: “The fight against climate change in… Read More Roger Sollenberger: What caused the Texas disaster? Decades of Republican deregulation: "Laissez-faire run amok"

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Aseem Shrivastava: An Age gone blind // Mallika Bhanot – Char Dham Pariyojana: A High Risk Engineering Exercise

A strange fact has baffled naturalists recently. Rhododendrons and Himalayan daisies have been flowering in Ramgarh in the freezing winter of January, normally a snow-bound month of the Himalayan calendar. It has been one of the warmest winters in Uttarakhand. Ramgarh (at 2,100 metres) received half-a-dozen snowfalls during the winter of 2019-20. This season (and… Read More Aseem Shrivastava: An Age gone blind // Mallika Bhanot – Char Dham Pariyojana: A High Risk Engineering Exercise

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NORMAN MILLER: The forgotten foods that could excite our tastebuds

Just 12 plant species and five types of animal make up 75% of the world’s food. At least 30,000 of the 350,000 known plant species on our planet are edible, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. It is a woefully limited diet in the midst of such variety. Only 170 species of plant are cultivated for food on any significant… Read More NORMAN MILLER: The forgotten foods that could excite our tastebuds

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Peter Yeung: The country rejecting throwaway culture

Nearly two-thirds of Europeans would rather repair their products than buy new ones   The French capital hosts a dozen of these so-called “repair cafes” – free, monthly initiatives that allow local residents to fix household objects and electronics with the help and advice of enthusiastic volunteers. Pioneered by journalist Martine Postma in Amsterdam in 2009,… Read More Peter Yeung: The country rejecting throwaway culture

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Seagrass 'Neptune balls’ sieve millions of plastic particles from water, study finds

Underwater seagrass in coastal areas appear to trap plastic pollution in natural bundles of fibre known as “Neptune balls”, researchers have found. With no help from humans, the swaying plants – anchored to shallow seabeds – may collect nearly 900m plastic items in the Mediterranean alone every year, a study reported in the journal Scientific… Read More Seagrass 'Neptune balls’ sieve millions of plastic particles from water, study finds

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Isabelle Gerretsen: This company is making building tiles out of polluted air

India has the world’s worst air pollution. Home to 21 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, its toxic air kills more than one million people each year. That’s partly because the South Asian nation is the world’s second largest brick producer. Brick kilns — which account for 20% of black carbon emissions globally — make a significant contribution to its terrible air. Indian architect… Read More Isabelle Gerretsen: This company is making building tiles out of polluted air

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Matthew Taylor: Global food industry on course to drive rapid habitat loss // Laura Spinney: Time for some home truths about deforestation

The global food system is on course to drive rapid and widespread ecological damage with almost 90% of land animals likely to lose some of their habitat by 2050, research has found. A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability shows that unless the food industry is rapidly transformed, changing what people eat and how it is… Read More Matthew Taylor: Global food industry on course to drive rapid habitat loss // Laura Spinney: Time for some home truths about deforestation

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