Category Archives: Environment

First-of-Its-Kind Map Details the Height of the Globe’s Forests

WASHINGTON — Using satellite data, scientists have produced a first-of-its kind map that details the height of the world’s forests. Although there are other local- and regional-scale forest canopy maps, the new map is the first that spans the entire globe based on one uniform method.

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Global Model Confirms: Cool Roofs Can Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Mitigate Global Warming

Can light-colored rooftops and roads really curb carbon emissions and combat global climate change?  

The idea has been around for years, but now, a new study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that is the first to use a global model to study the question has found that implementing cool roofs and cool pavements in cities around the world can not only help cities stay cooler, they can also cool the world, with the potential of canceling the heating effect of up to two years of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.

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Whether Glaciers Float May Affect Sea-Level Rise

WASHINGTON — Glaciers that detach from the seafloor and begin floating create larger icebergs than glaciers that stay on the sea floor, researchers have found. Floating glaciers also produce icebergs more erratically.  

These new observations may help researchers better understand and predict iceberg production from glaciers and ice sheets, improving estimates of sea-level rise due to climate change.

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‘Sea Levels Rising in Parts of Indian Ocean’

*Greenhouse gases are playing a role in changes, say scientists*

Newly detected rising sea levels in parts of the Indian Ocean, including the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Java, appear to be at least partly a result of human-induced increases of atmospheric greenhouse gases, says a study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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The Long-Term Fate of the Oil Spill in the Atlantic

Honolulu, HI – The possible spread of the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig over the course of one year was studied in a series of computer simulations by a team of researchers from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

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World Market Nervous over BP’s Possible Collapse

The British Cabinet of Ministers gathered for a special meeting to discuss the future of one of the world’s largest oil companies in the world, British Petroleum, in connection with the liquidation of the consequences of the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Technological Advances and the Dangers of Nuclear Energy

The successive and increasingly frequent occurrences of environmental disasters caused by human activities deserves our utmost attention. Leading us to necessarily suspect that we should have credible and foolproof trials before accepting assertions regarding existing technologies. 

The most striking example is the disaster caused by the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil exploration platform by British Petroleum (BP) which happened last April 20, and which day after day has reached catastrophic proportions.

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