Biology
Breach
November 1, 2011, from New York Times
Sandblasting new blue jeans to make them look "distressed" killed a number of young Turkish textile workers before the practice was outlawed, a new study has found.
The study, published in Chest, a medical journal for lung specialists, was done by doctors at a hospital for thoracic diseases in Istanbul.
They followed 32 male textile workers who came to their hospital with breathing problems between 2001 and 2009. That year, after news reports of a "silicosis epidemic,” Turkish health authorities banned sandblasting denim.
November 1, 2011, from Huffington Post
According to Infobae.com, a Spanish-language news site, the lake where the three-eyed fish was caught is a reservoir where hot water from the nuclear facility is pumped.
Now, the appearance of a three-eyed fish has the locals worried, especially because there has never been such a sighting before.
Residents who live near the reactor are worried the third eye is a mutation caused by exposure to water from the nuclear plant, which is why Zmutt and crew plan to have it tested rather than eat it themselves, before having it preserved.
November 1, 2009, from Greenpeace, via Mongabay
A new study by Greenpeace has found high volumes of heavy metals and organic chemicals in China's Pearl River, which provides drinking water for 47 million people.
In June 2009, Greenpeace took 25 samples from manufacturing facilities' discharge points into the river. They found heavy metals like beryllium, a known carcinogen; manganese which has been linked to brain damage; alkyl phenols which disrupts hormones; and a number of hazardous organic chemicals.... While many of the hazardous pollutants found in the river are not regulated by China, samples from the discharge sites of Kingboard Fogang facility contained beryllium at 25 times the levels allowed by local Chinese regulation, while samples from Wing Fung Printed Circuit Board Ltd. contained 12 times the level of allowed copper. Both companies produce printed circuit boards for the global market.
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Climate
Chaos
November 1, 2012, from PhysOrg
As much as 44 billion tons of nitrogen and 850 billion tons of carbon stored in arctic permafrost, or frozen ground, could be released into the environment as the region begins to thaw over the next century as a result of a warmer planet according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey. This nitrogen and carbon are likely to impact ecosystems, the atmosphere, and water resources including rivers and lakes. For context, this is roughly the amount of carbon stored in the atmosphere today....
"While the permafrost of the polar latitudes may seem distant and disconnected from the daily activities of most of us, its potential to alter the planet's habitability when destabilized is very real."
November 1, 2011, from Associated Press
For a world already weary of weather catastrophes, the latest warning from top climate scientists paints a grim future: More floods, more heat waves, more droughts and greater costs to deal with them.
A draft summary of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press says the extremes caused by global warming could eventually grow so severe that some locations become "increasingly marginal as places to live."
November 1, 2011, from Live Science
The world population has hit a whopping 7 billion, and researchers suggest it could reach 10 billion within the next century. On the one hand, this means we're a great success -- after all, the goal of any species is to expand and conquer. But, on the other hand, all that expansion means more mouths to feed, which requires more space and energy, which increases the demand on resources and the environment, perhaps too large a demand for Earth to support.
So Life's Little Mysteries asks: How can we curb this growth? Should there be a global one-child policy, like the one enforced in China?
November 1, 2009, from Times Online (UK)
The effects of a critical greenhouse gas on global warming have been significantly underestimated, according to research suggesting that emissions controls and climate models may need to be revised
Methane's impact on global temperatures is about a third higher than generally thought because previous estimates have not accounted for its interaction with airborne particles called aerosols, NASA scientists found.
When this indirect effect of the potent greenhouse gas is included one tonne of methane has about 33 times as much effect on the climate over 100 years as a tonne of carbon dioxide, rather than 25 times as in standard estimates.
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Resource
Depletion
November 1, 2009, from New York Times
Even as drought kills off Yemen's crops, farmers in villages like this one are turning increasingly to a thirsty plant called qat, the leaves of which are chewed every day by most Yemeni men (and some women) for their mild narcotic effect. The farmers have little choice: qat is the only way to make a profit.... Meanwhile, the market price of water has quadrupled in the past four years, pushing more and more people to drill illegally into rapidly receding aquifers.
"It is a collapse with social, economic and environmental aspects," said Abdul Rahman al-Eryani, Yemen's minister of water and environment. "We are reaching a point where we don't even know if the interventions we are proposing will save the situation."
Meanwhile, the water wells are running dry, and deep, ominous cracks have begun opening in the parched earth, some of them hundreds of yards long.
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Recovery
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