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  Washington DC (SPX) Feb 27, 2018 Nitrogen fertilizers (applied as nitrate, NO3-, or ammonium, NH4+) improve the amount of grain produced per acre, but nitrogen runoff and volatilization pollute the water and the air. Production of nitrogen fertilizers also uses fossil fuels. The major grain crops (such as rice and wheat) use only about 40% of the applied fertilizer - the rest is lost to the air, water, and soil microbes. Application of nitrogen fertilizers delays flowering, leaving crops vulnerable to late-season cold weather, wh ... read more |
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Berlin films journey into agribusiness wastelandsBerlin (AFP) Feb 24, 2018 From bulldozers ripping through virgin forests to planes spraying pesticides on village schools, documentary film-makers in Berlin are showing the high toll of modern industrial agriculture. ... more  
Combating sulphuric acid corrosion at wastewater plantsStyria, Austria (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 Wastewater systems are integral to infrastructure in every community. In an ideal world, they operate smoothly and are long-lasting. But biogenic transformation processes in sewage and water treatme ... more 
Chinese billionaire sees baguette goldmine in French fieldsThiel-Sur-Acolin, France (AFP) Feb 25, 2018 In the peaceful French village of Thiel-sur-Acolin, retired farmer Marc Bernardet is ambivalent about having a Chinese billionaire for a neighbour. ... more 
Crop-saving soil tests now at farmers' fingertipsPullman WA (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 Soil pathogen testing - critical to farming, but painstakingly slow and expensive - will soon be done accurately, quickly, inexpensively and onsite, thanks to research that Washington State Universi ... more |
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Reeling from earthquakes, Afghans fear coming winter
Typhoon flooding kills over 40, strands thousands in central Philippines Indonesia floods kill 15 Afghan govt says quake death toll rises to 27 Fierce mountain storms kill nine in Nepal Typhoon flooding kills 26, strands thousands in central Philippines Vietnam flood death toll hits 40 as Typhoon Kalmaegi looms Fierce mountain storms kill 9 in Nepal Indonesia rescuers search for 23 missing after floods Nepal avalanche kills seven |
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| Previous Issues | Feb 26 | Feb 23 | Feb 22 | Feb 21 | Feb 20 |
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Global grazing lands increasingly vulnerable to a changing climateMinneapolis MN (SPX) Feb 21, 2018 Some 800 million people around the world depend on livestock that graze on natural vegetation for their livelihoods and food security. In a good season, grasses and other plants flourish, supporting ... more
Farming crops with rocks to reduce CO2 and improve global food securitySheffield UK (SPX) Feb 21, 2018 Farming crops with crushed rocks could help to improve global food security and reduce the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere, a new study has found. The pioneering research by scientists a ... more 
Pesticide traces in three-quarters of French fruit: reportParis (AFP) Feb 20, 2018 Almost three- quarters of fruit and more than two-fifths of non-organic vegetables contain traces of pesticide in France, with grapes and celery the most affected, a report said Tuesday. ... more 
Cape Town now faces dry taps by July 9Cape Town (AFP) Feb 20, 2018 Residents of drought-stricken Cape Town received good news Tuesday when city officials said they now face losing piped water to their homes by July 9 - a month later than last forecast. ... more 
Giant London glasshouse to reopen with world's rarest plantsLondon (AFP) Feb 14, 2018 A gleaming monument to the ambition and creativity of its age, the world's largest Victorian glasshouse will once again welcome visitors to see some of the world's rarest plants following a lengthy facelift. ... more |
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 Growing crops with crushed rocks could reduce CO2 emissions  
Indonesians arrested for shooting an orangutan some 130 timesJakarta (AFP) Feb 19, 2018 Four Indonesian men have been arrested over the killing of an orangutan shot some 130 times with an air rifle, police said Monday, in the latest fatal attack on a critically endangered species. ... more  |
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India's top court steps in to help thirsty tech hubNew Delhi (AFP) Feb 16, 2018 India's water-starved tech hub Bangalore received a much-needed boost on Friday when the country's top court altered a river-sharing arrangement in its favour, ruling on a bitter dispute that dates back more than a century. ... more 
France to let wolf packs grow despite angry farmersParis (AFP) Feb 19, 2018 The French government announced Monday it will allow the wolf population to grow 40 percent despite pressure from farmers in mountain regions who are worried about their sheep flocks. ... more 
Myanmar farmers going against the grain with appsAye Ywar , Myanmar (AFP) Feb 18, 2018 A free app on farmer San San Hla's smartphone is her new weapon in the war against the dreaded stem borer moth that blighted her rice paddy in southern Myanmar for the last two years. ... more 
Cover crops in nitrogen's circle of lifeWashington DC (SPX) Feb 15, 2018 A circle of life-and nitrogen-is playing out in farms across the United States. And researchers are trying to get the timing right. Some cover crops, such as hairy vetch or cereal rye, are not ... more 
Intensive agriculture influences US regional summer climate, study findsBoston MA (SPX) Feb 15, 2018 Scientists agree that changes in land use such as deforestation, and not just greenhouse gas emissions, can play a significant role altering the world's climate systems. Now, a new study by research ... more |
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 Paris (ESA) Feb 23, 2018 
With the aim of making the best possible use of existing satellites, ESA and Canada have made a deal that turns Swarm into a four-satellite mission to shed even more light on space weather and features such as the aurora borealis.
In orbit since 2013, ESA's three identical Swarm satellites have been returning a wealth of information about how our magnetic field is generated and how it prot ... more |
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 Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 12, 2018 
The Pentagon and Israel's Defense Ministry have launched 'Urban Navigation Challenge', a startup competition to create advanced 'counter-terror' navigation systems which don't use GPS. The project makes no mention of officially designated US "rivals" like Russia or China, but according to Russian experts, it would make no difference even if it did.
The project, officially dubbed the Combat ... more |
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 Boulder CO (SPX) Feb 27, 2018 
Drier summers and a decline in average snowpack over the past 40 years have severely hampered the establishment of two foundational tree species in subalpine regions of Colorado's Front Range, suggesting that climate warming is already taking a toll on forest health in some areas of the southern Rocky Mountains.
The findings, which were published in the journal Ecology, show that spruce an ... more |
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 Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 
The transition towards sustainable biobased chemical production is important for green growth, but productivity and yield of engineered cells frequently decrease in large industry-scale fermentation. This barrier to commercialization of more bioprocesses is largely ascribed to the physical inefficacies of large cubic-meter steel tanks.
Bioengineers have long debated whether it was realisti ... more |
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 Almeria, Spain (SPX) Feb 27, 2018 
International solar thermal energy researchers have successfully tested CONTISOL, a solar reactor that runs on air, able to make any solar fuel like hydrogen and to run day or night - because it uses concentrated solar power (CSP) which can include thermal energy storage.
The promise of solar fuels is that we could have zero carbon fuels like hydrogen without the climate-damaging carbon em ... more |
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 Washington (UPI) Feb 15, 2018 
Put to the test with high winds and strong seas, Norway's Statoil said a floating wind farm in Scottish waters shows promise for deepwater installations.
During its first three months in service, the company's Hywind Scotland floating wind farm, the first of its kind, was put to the test and performed better than expected. Hurricane Ophelia in October pummeled the wind farm with 80 mile ... more |
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 Washington (UPI) Feb 20, 2018 
Coal will no longer be used as an energy source for Michigan residents as more renewables come on stream in the decades ahead, a utility company said.
Public utility company Consumers Energy, which provides gas and electricity to about 60 percent of the state population, said it would no longer be using coal as a power source by 2040. By then, the company said it expects more than 40 pe ... more |
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 Beijing (AFP) Feb 22, 2018 
Chinese authorities have ruled out arson as the cause of a recent fire at Tibetan Buddhism's holiest temple, state media reported Thursday, adding an important Buddha statue had emerged "intact" from the blaze.
The report is the first official account of Saturday's fire at the more than 1,300-year-old Jokhang Temple, after authorities suppressed social media accounts of the incident, leadin ... more |
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 San Francisco (AFP) Feb 23, 2018  Google said Friday its digital assistant software would be available in more than 30 languages by the end of the years as it steps up its artificial intelligence efforts against Amazon and others.
Google Assistant, the artificial intelligence software which is available on its connected speakers, Android smartphones and other devices, will also include multilingual capacity "so families or i ... more |
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 Bangkok (AFP) Feb 22, 2018 
Environmental activists presented the Thai junta with an hourglass filled with dust on Thursday as part of a plea to tackle the hazardous levels of air pollution that have hung over the capital in recent weeks.
Bangkok, one of the world's top tourist destinations, has been shrouded in smog for nearly a month, with authorities reporting unhealthy concentrations of harmful microscopic particle ... more |
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 Pekanbaru, Indonesia (AFP) Feb 21, 2018 
Indonesia was battling a rash of forest fires Wednesday as it raised an alert over the blazes which occur every year and emit choking smog that can envelop neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
Fires have broken out in four provinces - South Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan - prompting them to declare "alert emergency" status, one notch below the most severe warning. ... more |
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 Washington (UPI) Feb 23, 2018 
No region will be immune to climate change, and new research suggests the Pacific Northwest is no exception.
To better predict how climate change will impact the northwest corner of the United States, scientists at Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service localized the predictions of 30 "general circulation" climate models.
General circulation models produce outputs at ... more |
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 Boston MA (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 
The arrangement of a city's streets and buildings plays a crucial role in the local urban heat island effect, which causes cities to be hotter than their surroundings, researchers have found. The new finding could provide city planners and officials with new ways to influence those effects.
Some cities, such as New York and Chicago, are laid out on a precise grid, like the atoms in a cryst ... more |
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 Washington (AFP) Feb 23, 2018  Donald Trump papered over superpower rivalries with China on Friday, saying relations had never been better but trade was a major problem.
"I don't think we've ever had a better relationship with China than we do right now," Trump said, using trademark hyperbole.
"Other than the fact that they've been killing us on trade for the last long period of time. Killing us."
Trump regularl ... more |
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 Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 26, 2018  A dramatic magnetic power struggle at the Sun's surface lies at the heart of solar eruptions, new research using NASA data shows. The work highlights the role of the Sun's magnetic landscape, or topology, in the development of solar eruptions that can trigger space weather events around Earth.
The scientists, led by Tahar Amari, an astrophysicist at the Center for Theoretical Physics at th ... more |
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 Paris (AFP) Feb 25, 2018 
A generation ago, the idea of a veteran international banker leading a global organisation charged with saving the planet's dwindling and besieged wildlife would have seemed far-fetched.
For some, it still does.
Even Pavan Sukhdev - recently appointed president of World Wildlife Fund International after a quarter century at ANZ Banking and Deutsche Bank, followed by a decade working wi ... more |
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