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  Washington DC (SPX) Sep 18, 2018 New evidence from the Maya city of Copan, in Honduras, reveals that ancient Mesoamericans routinely captured and traded wild animals for symbolic and ritual purposes, according to a study published September 12, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Nawa Sugiyama from George Mason University, Virginia, USA, and colleagues. Ancient Mesoamerican cultures used wild animals such as puma and jaguar for many purposes, including in symbolic displays of status and power, as subjects of ritual sacrif ... read more |
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Spanish farmers go nuts for almonds as global demand boomsSanta Cruz, Spain (AFP) Sept 16, 2018 Surging worldwide demand for almonds is pushing Spanish farmers to replace traditional wheat and sunflower fields with almond orchards, transforming the landscape in the south of the country. ... more 
High-yield farming costs the environment less than previously thoughtCambridge 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 foun ... 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 |
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Philippines commission to probe widening flood project scandal
Magnitude 7.4 quake strikes off Russian Far East, tsunami warning lifted Magnitude 7.4 quake strikes off Russian Far East, tsunami warning issued S.Sudan flooding displaces 100,000 in matter of weeks: UN Afghan deputy PM visits earthquake hit area Death toll from Indonesia flooding rises to 23 Death toll from Indonesia flash floods rises to 19 Deadly floods inundate Indonesia's Bali and Flores islands Surveillance camera captures tornado in eastern Australia Deadly floods inundate Indonesia's Bali and Flores |
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| Previous Issues | Sep 17 | Sep 14 | Sep 13 | Sep 12 | Sep 11 |
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Nitrous oxide emissions from rice farms are a cause for concern for global climateWashington DC (SPX) Sep 12, 2018 Intermittently flooded rice farms can emit 45 times more nitrous oxide as compared to the maximum from continuously flooded farms that predominantly emit methane, according to a new study published ... more 
Greenhouse gases from rice paddies may be 2x higher than thoughtTampa (AFP) Sept 10, 2018 The way some irrigated rice paddies are managed worldwide, with cycles of flooding followed by dry periods, may lead to twice the planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution as previously thought, researchers said Monday. ... more 
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 |
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 Urban vineyards: Parisians pick grapes for city vintages 
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  |
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France's ban on bee-killing pesticides begins SaturdayParis (AFP) Aug 30, 2018 A ban on five neonicotinoid pesticides enters into force in France on Saturday, placing the country at the forefront of a campaign against chemicals blamed for decimating critical populations of crop-pollinating bees. ... more 
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 
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 |
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 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 |
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 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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 San Francisco (AFP) Sept 14, 2018 
Proven masters at sustainably managing forests that protect against global warming, indigenous peoples got a place at the table, and some cash, at an international climate summit in San Francisco this week.
New "guiding principles" for collaboration endorsed by three dozen mostly tropical provinces and states across nine countries bolster indigenous rights to land, self-governance and financ ... more |
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 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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 Sapporo, Japan (SPX) Sep 11, 2018 
Scientists have developed a photoelectrode that can harvest 85 percent of visible light in a 30 nanometers-thin semiconductor layer between gold layers, converting light energy 11 times more efficiently than previous methods.
In the pursuit of realizing a sustainable society, there is an ever-increasing demand to develop revolutionary solar cells or artificial photosynthesis systems that u ... more |
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 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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 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 |
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 Beijing (AFP) Sept 13, 2018  A Chinese Protestant pastor is vowing to keep preaching to his flock despite the closure of his prominent underground church in Beijing, defying the government's intensifying pressure on religious groups.
Pastor Jin Mingri had given sermons at the Zion Church, one of the biggest unofficial congregations in the country, for the past decade until local officials shut it down on Sunday.
Its ... more |
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 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 |
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 Arcachon, France (AFP) Sept 17, 2018 
French researchers hoping to get an early warning on pollution in the ocean have found an unlikely ally in a mollusc more often destined for the dinner table.
Their findings reveal that much like canaries in a coal mine, oysters stationed near offshore oil platforms can detect minute amounts of hydrocarbons as each one constantly filters dozens of gallons of water every day.
That could a ... more |
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 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 |
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 Washington (UPI) Sep 14, 2018 
Scientists can now detect the presence of white sharks using environmental DNA, or eDNA. Environmental DNA describes DNA strands found in the environment, not collected directly from a species' body.
Increasingly, researchers are turning to genetic markers to identify the presence of species in the environment, but until now, scientists struggled to isolate an eDNA signature for white s ... more |
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 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 |
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 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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 London, UK (SPX) Sep 18, 2018 
The UK-built Solar Orbiter is preparing to leave the Airbus factory in Stevenage to travel to Germany for testing, ahead of its launch in 2020 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA.
The UK is at the heart of this European Space Agency (ESA) mission to uncover the secrets of our planet's star. Solar Orbiter will provide close-up views of the Sun's polar regions, tracking features such as sola ... more |
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 P�tzcuaro, Mexico (AFP) Sept 13, 2018 
Rolling up the sleeves of her immaculate white habit, Sister Ofelia Morales Francisco plunges her hands into an aquarium, grabs a large, slimy salamander and lifts it dripping into the air.
The nun is part of a team at a Dominican convent in Mexico that is fighting to save the Lake Patzcuaro salamander, a critically endangered species.
Revered as a god by the indigenous Purepecha people ... more |
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