Incredible shrinking ants.
Warmer temperatures and lack of water are causing plants and animals to shrink, researchers said on Monday, warning it could have profound implications for food production in years ahead.
Continue reading… “Climate change causing plants and insects to shrink”
Paris is innovating again.
When Paris’ now famous bike share system Velib’ in 2007, it was a pioneer in the field. Now similar programs are popping up in major cities all over the world, and Paris is looking to break the mold again. This week the City launched Autolib’ – a car sharing system that works the same way…
Continue reading… “Paris launches a vehicle sharing program with 3,000 electric cars”
The world temperature should have risen more than it did but where was the heat going?
The mystery of Earth’s missing heat may have been solved: it could lurk deep in oceans, temporarily masking the climate-warming effects of greenhouse gas emissions, researchers reported on Sunday.
Continue reading… “Earth’s ‘missing’ heat may be hiding deep in oceans”
Vibrios bacteria can cause food poisoning, gastroenteritis, septicemia and cholera
Warming of the world’s oceans could harm human health and cost millions, say scientists.
Continue reading… “Harmful bacteria spreading in warming oceans, scientists find”
Manhattan at sunset.
The explosive growth of cities worldwide over the next two decades poses significant risks to people and the global environment, according to a meta-analysis published August 19 in PLoS ONE.
Researchers from Yale, Arizona State, Texas A&M and Stanford predict that by 2030 urban areas will expand by 590,000 square miles — nearly the size of Mongolia — to accommodate the needs of 1.47 billion more people living in urban areas…
Continue reading… “Growth of cities endangers global environment”
Would you believe this could be the new look of solar power?
7th grader Aidan Dwyer was walking in the woods during the winter, and looking up, he noticed something about the bare branches above him. They didn’t appear to be growing randomly. So he took some measurements of the angles of the branches, crunched some numbers, and wouldn’t you know it, he found that the ubiquitous Fibonacci Sequence was behind it all. He suspected there was a reason behind this. That trees were using this pattern to gather more light.
So he did an experiment. Using the same number of solar cells, he built two working models. One was a traditional, flat array will all of the panels on a single plane. The other used the Fibonacci Sequence to create the same spiraled pattern he observed in the trees. The results? The little man himself reports…
Continue reading… “Genius 13-Year-Old has a solar power breakthrough”
July was REALLY hot in a lot of places.
With July just behind us the National Weather Service confirms what you probably already knew: It was really seriously totally sweatily hot over the majority of the United States. In fact there were 2,676 tied or broken heat records across the nation, doubling last year’s stats. All told about 60 people died from the heat last month…
Continue reading… “July 2011 Heat Records Double Those Of Last Year”
The red indicates weather stations where U.S. Daily Highest Min Temperature Records were set on July 21, 2011
The 21st of July, it was hotter than hell across much of the Eastern US. Nights, which tend to have the daily minimum, were especially unpleasant. Out of 5,569 daily minimums recorded on the 21st, 188 broke previous records and another 138 tied them (exceeding or equaling, respectively, the previous record for daily minimum temperature)…
Continue reading… “From hot nights To dusty days – broken weather records are the new normal”
If sea levels rose to where they were during the Last Interglacial Period, large parts of the Gulf of Mexico would be under water (red areas),
Melting ice sheets contributed much more to rising sea levels than thermal expansion of warming ocean waters during the Last Interglacial Period, a UA-led team of researchers has found. The results further suggest that ocean levels continue to rise long after warming of the atmosphere has leveled off.
Continue reading… “Is it too late to turn the tides on rising sea levels?”
Harvesting the wind in water.
The French government of Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a €10 billion ($14.26 billion) tender to build about 1,200 wind turbines in 5 different offshore wind farms. The goal is to diversify France’s energy generation (they are very reliant on nuclear, which accounts for about 80% of their electricity generation) with renewable sources and to have 23% of France’s energy come from renewable sources by 2020. The wind farms will be located off France’s coast on the North and West and should produce about 3.5% of the country’s electricity according to government authorities. The farms should come online between 2015-2020…
The Earth had been ‘slimming down’ by just under a millimetre a year following the Ice Age, but global warming is reversing this process.
Is global warming to blame for the Earth putting on ‘weight’ around its ‘midriff’? According to scientists, melting ice in Antarctica and Greenland due to global warming is adding volume to the oceans and this extra water is being pulled towards the Equator, adding to the girth at the widest part of our planet.
Continue reading… “Melting ice at the North and South Poles is adding to the Earth’s girth”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.
