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High-yield farming costs the environment less than previously thought![]() Cambridge UK (SPX) Sep 17, 2018 Agriculture that appears to be more eco-friendly but uses more land may actually have greater environmental costs per unit of food than "high-yield" farming that uses less land, a new study has found. There is mounting evidence that the best way to meet rising food demand while conserving biodiversity is to wring as much food as sustainably possible from the land we do farm, so that more natural habitats can be "spared the plough". However, this involves intensive farming techniques thought ... read more |
Improving soil quality can slow global warmingBerkeley CA (SPX) Sep 14, 2018 Low-tech ways of improving soil quality on farms and rangelands worldwide could pull significant amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and slow the pace of climate change, according to a new Unive ... more
Farmers on the front lines of marine aquacultureSanta Barbara CA (SPX) Sep 13, 2018 Many of the world's future farmers will likely be farming oceans, as aquaculture - the cultivation of fish and other aquatic species - continues its expansion as the fastest growing food sector. New ... more
Drought, conflict and migration in KenyaSalt Lake City UT (SPX) Sep 13, 2018 As droughts worsen across the globe, more people who earn their living through farming and owning livestock are forced to leave their homes. Many academics and policymakers predict that the rise in ... more
Humans may have first grown grains for beer, not breadWashington (UPI) Sep 12, 2018 Researchers have discovered evidence of beer brewing dating to 13,000 years ago, several thousand years before the cultivation of grains in the Near East. ... more |
Philippines digs out from Typhoon Fung-wong as death toll climbs
Philippines digs out from Typhoon Fung-wong as death toll climbs to 18 Three Vietnam men survive 40 hours at sea after typhoon Typhoon Fung-wong floods Philippine towns, leaves 5 dead in its wake Typhoon Fung-wong leaves flooded Philippine towns in its wake Typhoon exposes centuries-old shipwreck off Vietnam port Weakening Typhoon Fung-wong exits Philippines after displacing 1.4 million Super Typhoon Fung-wong makes landfall in Philippines Over 1 million evacuate as deadly Super Typhoon Fung-wong nears Philippines Dam reservoir levels drop below 3% in Iran's second city: media |
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| Previous Issues | Sep 14 | Sep 13 | Sep 12 | Sep 11 | Sep 10 |
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Blue-green algae promises to help boost food crop yieldsCanberra, Australia (SPX) Sep 10, 2018 Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have engineered tiny carbon-capturing engines from blue-green algae into plants, in a breakthrough that promises to help boost the yields of im ... more
S.Africa's Cape Town eases water rationingCape Town (AFP) Sept 10, 2018 South Africa's second city Cape Town, battling its worst drought in 100 years, announced Monday that it would ease severe water rationing after significant rains in the region. ... more
'Hunger stones' tell Elbe's centuries-old tale of droughtDecin, Czech Republic (AFP) Sept 10, 2018 Once an ominous harbinger of hard times and even famine due to critically low water levels, a massive "hunger stone" embedded deep in the Elbe River has reappeared in the Czech Republic after Europe's long, dry summer. ... more
Urban vineyards: Parisians pick grapes for city vintagesParis (AFP) Sept 4, 2018 Grape pickers at the Clos des Morillons look like thousands of others at work in vineyards across France at this time of year. But behind them looms a high-rise housing estate and a short walk away is the noisy Paris ring road. ... more
Hong Kong dim sum favourite faces uncertain futureHong Kong (AFP) Sept 2, 2018 Impatient diners crowd around carts of steaming dim sum steered by fierce "trolley aunties" at Hong Kong's Lin Heung Tea House, one of the city's most famous restaurants, now fearing for its future. ... more |
![]() France's ban on bee-killing pesticides begins Saturday
Brazil court lifts ban on glyphosate weedkillerBrasilia (AFP) Sept 3, 2018 An appellate court on Monday lifted a court-ordered suspension of licenses in Brazil for products containing glyphosate, an industrial weedkiller in common use in Latin America's agricultural powerhouse. ... more |
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Angry French farmers sow Chinese-owned field in investor protestChatillon-Sur-Indre, France (AFP) Aug 30, 2018 Mounted on tractors and wielding flares, angry farmers came from all corners of France to say to Chinese investors: get off our land. ... more
Engineered sand removes contaminants from stormwaterWashington (UPI) Aug 30, 2018 Scientists have engineered mineral-coated sand to remove contaminants from storm water. In places where water resources are strained, engineered sand could transform storm water into a valuable asset. ... more
Global warming will make insects hungrier, eating up key crops: studyTampa (AFP) Aug 30, 2018 Researchers have found a new way that global warming is bad for the planet: more hungry bugs. ... more
Central California is sinking at an accelerated rateWashington (UPI) Aug 30, 2018 New research suggests Central California's San Joaquin Valley is once again sinking at an alarming rate, as groundwater is drained faster than it can be replenished. ... more
Epigenome of bread wheat mapped to piece together its genetic heritageNorwich UK (SPX) Aug 31, 2018 Globally, wheat, together with maize and rice, provides the most human nutrition. It can thrive in a whole range of different environments, even within a similar geographical region. Exploring ... more |
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ICESat-2 to measure movement, thickness of polar sea ice Washington (UPI) Sep 14, 2018
For climate scientists, the poles are ground zero. Around the North and South poles, climate change is happening faster and more dramatically.
To better understand how the entirety of Earth's climate will change as the planet warms, scientists need to resolve the many mysteries of polar climate change. NASA's newest ICE mission satellite, ICESat-2 - scheduled to launch into space on Sa ... more |
Lockheed Martin preps ground support for GPS 3 sats and M-Code ops Denver CO (SPX) Sep 13, 2018
Once the next-generation GPS III satellites begin launching later this year, a series of updates to the current ground control system from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) will help the U.S. Air Force gain early command and control of the new satellites for testing and operations.
In 2016 and 2017, the Air Force placed Lockheed Martin under two contracts, called GPS III Contingency Operations ( ... more |
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Natural mechanism could lower emissions from tropical peatlands Durham NC (SPX) Sep 14, 2018
Scientists have long feared that as Earth warms, tropical peatlands - which store up to 10 percent of the planet's soil carbon - could dry out, decay and release vast pools of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, rapidly accelerating climate change.
A new international study headed by researchers at Florida State University and Duke University, reveals the outlook may not be as ... more |
Barriers and opportunities in renewable biofuels production Gothenburg, Sweden (SPX) Sep 12, 2018
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have identified two main challenges for renewable biofuel production from cheap sources. Firstly, lowering the cost of developing microbial cell factories, and secondly, establishing more efficient methods for hydrolysis of biomass to sugars for fermentation. Their study was recently published in the journal Nature Energy.
The study ... more |
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Golden sandwich could make the world more sustainable Sapporo, Japan (SPX) Sep 11, 2018 |
Wind Power: It is all about the distribution Freiburg, Germany (SPX) Sep 06, 2018
Wind power is an important pillar in Germany's energy policy turnaround: According to the German government, the resource should cover 65 percent of German electricity needs by 2030, along with solar, hydropower and biomass. In a recent study, Dr. Christopher Jung and Dr. Dirk Schindler from the University of Freiburg show that it will be possible to cover 40 percent of the current electricity c ... more |
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German police evict forest activists in anti-coal fight Kerpen, Germany (AFP) Sept 13, 2018
German activists living in treehouses to protect an ancient forest from being razed for a nearby coal mine on Thursday vowed to resist as police began evicting them, in a major escalation of the long-running environmental battle.
Hundreds of police officers descended on the area in the early morning, after local authorities ordered the Hambach Forest in western Germany to be cleared immediat ... more |
China shuts down prominent Christian church Beijing (AFP) Sept 10, 2018 Beijing officials have shut down one of China's largest "underground" Protestant churches for operating without a licence, the Communist government's latest move to ramp up control over religious worship.
Around 70 officials stormed into the Zion Church - housed on the third floor of a nondescript office building in the north of the capital - after its Sunday afternoon service, said church ... more |
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Machines will do more tasks than humans by 2025: WEF Paris (AFP) Sept 17, 2018 Robots will handle 52 percent of current work tasks by 2025, almost twice as many as now, a World Economic Forum (WEF) study said Monday.
The sharp increase could also see a net gain in "new roles" for humans, who will have to revamp skills to keep pace with the "seismic shift" in how we work with machines and computer programmes, the forum estimated.
"By 2025 more than half of all curre ... more |
Most EU countries miss air quality targets: report Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Sept 11, 2018
Most EU countries fail to meet the bloc's air quality standards and more than 1,000 Europeans die prematurely each day, ten times more than in road accidents, a watchdog said Tuesday.
The European Court of Auditors (ECA), the European Union body which scrutinises how the bloc spends its budget, said pollution's toll on health in Bulgaria and other eastern European countries was even worse th ... more |
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NASA assists in efforts to contain California wildfires Edwards AFB CA (SPX) Aug 28, 2018
An effort by multiple NASA centers to assist with the California wildfires included capturing satellite data of the smoke plumes and aircraft flights over burned areas to collect information for recovery planning.
The California Air National Guard asked the NASA Earth Science Disasters Program for support with the wildfires that have destroyed more than 410,000 acres and 11 disaster progra ... more |
Understanding deep-sea images with artificial intelligence Kiel, Germany (SPX) Sep 14, 2018
The evaluation of very large amounts of data is becoming increasingly relevant in ocean research. Diving robots or autonomous underwater vehicles, which carry out measurements independently in the deep sea, can now record large quantities of high-resolution images. To evaluate these images scientifically in a sustainable manner, a number of prerequisites have to be fulfilled in data acquisition, ... more |
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Perfect storms: hurricanes and typhoons Paris (AFP) Sept 13, 2018 As Hurricane Florence looms off the eastern United States and Typhoon Mangkhut threatens the Philippines, here are some facts about monster storms and what to expect as climate change supercharges our weather.
Hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons are different names for the same type of giant tropical storms that form in oceans near the Americas and Asia. ... more |
Resilient China is firewall in emerging currency crisis Paris (AFP) Sept 16, 2018
China is the last bulwark against a deep crisis in emerging economies going fully global, analysts say, although a prolonged trade war could sap Beijing's defences.
Emerging countries - loosely defined as having fast growing but volatile economies - have seen their currencies battered in recent weeks, plunging their finances into turmoil, and raising fears of global contagion.
But Chin ... more |
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NASA-funded Rocket to View Sun with X-Ray Vision Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 07, 2018
Without special instrumentation, the Sun looks calm and inert. But beneath that placid facade are countless miniature explosions called nanoflares.
These small but intense eruptions are born when magnetic field lines in the Sun's atmosphere tangle up and stretch until they break like a rubber band. The energy they release accelerates particles to near lightspeed and according to some scien ... more |
Gut bacteria's shocking secret: They produce electricity Berkeley CA (SPX) Sep 17, 2018
While bacteria that produce electricity have been found in exotic environments like mines and the bottoms of lakes, scientists have missed a source closer to home: the human gut.
University of California, Berkeley, scientists discovered that a common diarrhea-causing bacterium, Listeria monocytogenes, produces electricity using an entirely different technique from known electrogenic bacter ... more |
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