The Guardian
Talking beluga whale named Noc is revealed
A Beluga whale named Noc learned to warble in a human voice that was so convincing it fooled a diver into thinking someone was shouting at him to get out of the water, US researchers have revealed.
Continue reading...How will climate change affect food production?
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Food is one of society's key sensitivities to climate. A year of not enough or too much rainfall, a hot spell or cold snap at the wrong time, or extremes, like flooding and storms, can have a significant effect on local crop yields and livestock production. While modern farming technologies and techniques have helped to reduce this vulnerability and boost production, the impact of recent droughts in the USA, China and Russia on global cereal production highlight a glaring potential future vulnerability.
There is some evidence that climate change is already having a measurable affect on the quality and quantity of food produced globally. But this is small when compared with the significant increase in global food production that has been achieved over the past few decades. Isolating the influence of climatic change from all the other trends is difficult, but one recent Stanford University study found that increases in global production of maize and wheat since 1980 would have been about 5% higher were it not for climate change.
Continue reading...Arctic sea ice melt 'may bring harsh winter to Europe'
The record loss of Arctic sea ice this summer may mean a cold winter for the UK and northern Europe. The region has been prone to bad winters after summers with very low sea ice, such as 2011 and 2007, said Jennifer Francis, a researcher at Rutgers University.
"We can't make predictions yet … [but] I wouldn't be surprised to see wild extremes this winter," Francis told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Scottish fish farmers use record amounts of parasite pesticides
Scottish fish farmers have been forced to use record amounts of highly toxic pesticides to combat underwater parasites that prey on salmon, raising fears of significant damage to the marine environment.
Data released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) shows a 110% increase in the use of chemicals to treat sea lice in the past four years, mainly because the parasite is becoming resistant to treatment. During that same period, however, salmon production has increased only by 22%, to 158,000 tonnes.
Continue reading...Yangtze finless porpoise: China's national treasure disappearing fast
It's been an hour and the group of volunteers aboard the rickety fishing boat are still yet to spot a Yangtze finless porpoise, known as jiangzhu or "river pig". Thirty years ago, when they numbered 2,000, the mammals could be seen from the shore here dancing on Dongting Lake in the sludge-coloured waves. Now there are about 85 jiangzhu here. As Xu Yaping, the patrol's chief, peers through the haze, and coal barges and dredgers churn the lake, the chance of encountering this ancient creature seems remote.
The jiangzhu's survival is not guaranteed. Since the official extinction of the baiji, a river dolphin, in 2007, the porpoise is the only cetacean inhabiting the Yangtze River and two connecting freshwater lakes, Dongting and Poyang, China's largest. It's estimated there are around 1,200 jiangzhu living in the wild – two-thirds less than a decade earlier. The species is decreasing at a rate of 6.4% a year, making it rarer than China's national treasure, the giant panda.
Continue reading...'Vast reservoir' of methane locked beneath Antarctic ice sheet
A vast reservoir of the potent greenhouse gas methane may be locked beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, a study suggests.
Scientists say the gas could be released into the atmosphere if enough of the ice melts away, adding to global warming.
Continue reading...Argentinian politicians unveil plan to shoot seagulls that attack whales
Saving the whales is something Argentinians take so seriously that authorities in Patagonia have launched a 100-day plan to shoot seagulls that have learned to attack the big mammals as they surface to breathe.
Environmentalists say the plan is misguided. They say humans are the real problem, creating so much garbage that the gull population has exploded.
Continue reading...Track cycling for the first time: 'frightening but instantly addictive' | Trevor Ward
The first thing that strikes me as I emerge from the tunnel into the middle of Manchester velodrome is the banked sections of curved track at either end of the arena.
They tower over me, pitched at a frighteningly steep angle of 42 degrees. A lone rider glides past above me. It looks like a fairground Wall of Death ride.
Continue reading...Burmese python caught in Florida is largest ever recorded – video
Anglers vs 'the Black Death': cormorants have the edge in battle of the riverbanks
Walk the four-mile stretch of the river Lea from Hackney Wick up to Tottenham Hale, and it is easy to forget that you are in London's East End. It may be August but tangles of wild flowers can still be seen in the river's surrounding fields. On the river, moorhens attend to chicks marooned on islands assiduously constructed out of twigs.
The many narrowboat owners who live on the Lea take advantage of the summer to repair their craft while rowers, urged on by their bicycle-riding coaches, guide single sculls through algae blooms and haughty swans. But something is missing from this English riverbank scene: anglers. There are almost none to be found, even on a sunny afternoon last Wednesday when throngs of fishing enthusiasts were out in force on London's canals.
Continue reading...Climategate detective: 'I'm deeply disappointed' we didn't catch hacker | Leo Hickman
On Wednesday, Norfolk Police announced that it was formally ending its two-and-a-half-year investigation into the theft of thousands of private emails stored on servers at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) – an event that has commonly come to be known as "Climategate".
Detective chief superintendent Julian Gregory, the senior investigating officer, said that due to the three-year statutory limitation placed on the investigation by the Computer Misuse Act 1990, he was closing the case now because there was no realistic chance of bringing a prosecution ahead of the third anniversary of the theft in November. He did say, though, that the "the data breach was the result of a sophisticated and carefully orchestrated attack" and that there was no evidence to suggest that anyone working at or associated with UEA was involved in the crime".
Continue reading...Geoengineering projects around the world - map
• US geoengineers to spray sun-reflecting chemicals from balloon Continue reading...
US geoengineers to spray sun-reflecting chemicals from balloon
Two Harvard engineers are to spray sun-reflecting chemical particles into the atmosphere to artificially cool the planet, using a balloon flying 80,000 feet over Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
The field experiment in solar geoengineering aims to ultimately create a technology to replicate the observed effects of volcanoes that spew sulphates into the stratosphere, using sulphate aerosols to bounce sunlight back to space and decrease the temperature of the Earth.
Continue reading...Satellite eye on Earth: June 2012 – in pictures
• More Satellite eye pictures: The moon's shadow during an eclipse in May and a tectonic spectacle in Africa in April Continue reading...
The 'charity' bike ride where no money goes to charity | Trevor Ward
Riders signing up for Britain's newest and most expensive charity cycling sportive could be forgiven for thinking that part of their entry fee goes direct to a good cause.
After all, the official title of the event is the Marie Curie Cancer Care Etape Pennines.
Continue reading...British veal poised for an 'ethical' comeback
As far as reputation goes, it's up there with foie gras and shark's fin. But a decade after furious protests on the streets of Britain brought a ban on both the controversial live export of calves and on the rearing-in-crates system – veal is back.
British rose veal has already won the ethical stamp of approval from the RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) but it remains a niche market in the UK, just 0.1% of the meat we consume each year.
Continue reading...Scottish trawlerman has £1m seized for role in fisheries scandal
A Scottish trawler skipper has had £1m seized by the courts after pleading guilty to a major role in one of Europe's largest illegal fisheries scandals.
Ian Buchan, 55, from Peterhead, was given the £1m confiscation order after he admitted illegally landing and then selling nearly £4.5m worth of mackerel in a highly sophisticated "black landing" scam to evade European fishing quotas.
Continue reading...Household chemicals' 'cocktail effect' raises cancer concerns for watchdog
Common chemicals found in household products, cosmetics and medicines may be causing cancers, fertility problems and other illnesses including diabetes and obesity, according to a study.
Europe's environmental watchdog, the European Environment Agency, has warned that products containing endocrine disrupting chemicals should be treated with caution until their true effects are better known. However, it stopped short of recommending a ban of any specific products. A few such chemicals have already been banned, but many are still in widespread use.
Continue reading...Heartland Institute compares belief in global warming to mass murder | Leo Hickman
It really is hard to know where to begin with this one. But let's start with: "What on earth were they thinking?"
The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based rightwing thinktank notorious for promoting climate scepticism, has launched quite possibly one of the most ill-judged poster campaigns in the history of ill-judged poster campaigns.
Continue reading...Nuclear power is only solution to climate change, says Jeffrey Sachs
Combating climate change will require an expansion of nuclear power, respected economist Jeffrey Sachs said on Thursday, in remarks that are likely to dismay some sections of the environmental movement.
Prof Sachs said atomic energy was needed because it provided a low-carbon source of power, while renewable energy was not making up enough of the world's energy mix and new technologies such as carbon capture and storage were not progressing fast enough.
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