Environmental News Archive
According to the Department of Energy, there is enough spent nuclear waste in the United States to fill a football-field-sized hole 15 feet deep. From a plethora of proposals, scientists and politicians have selected on-site storage as the safest solution for the buildup. But it's a temporary solution. The waste will be fatal to humans and other animals for tens of thousands of years — yet the storage tombs are expected to last only a hundred years.
These scattered nuclear graveyards are emblematic of a failed U.S. nuclear energy policy — a policy that is rarely discussed even as regulators entertain proposals to build roughly 30 new nuclear power plants.
With No Long-Term Solution, Nuclear Pallbearers Bury Waste in America's Backyard
Carbon-neutral goal for Maldives
The Maldives will become carbon-neutral within a decade by switching completely to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, its leader has said.
Amazon could shrink by 85% due to climate change, scientists say
Global warming will wreck attempts to save the Amazon rainforest, according to a devastating new study which predicts that one-third of its trees will be killed by even modest temperature rises.
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'More bad news' on climate change
More bad news on climate change is expected as more than 2,000 climate scientists gather in Copenhagen.
The scientists are concerned that the 2007 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are already out of date. Their data suggests greater rises in sea levels this century.
We Are Breeding Ourselves to Extinction
We are experiencing an accelerated obliteration of the planet’s life-forms—an estimated 8,760 species die off per year—because, simply put, there are too many people. Most of these extinctions are the direct result of the expanding need for energy, housing, food and other resources.
Council of Canadians to Protest World Water Forum in Istanbul
The World Water Forum, which is organized and controlled by the World Water Council, will be held in Istanbul on March 16-22. The Council of Canadians will join a coalition of activists and hold counter events in Istanbul to protest the World Water Forum's stance on water privatization and to advocate water as a human right. While the World Water Forum has long touted the privatization of municipal water systems as a means of improving the welfare of communities in need, the reality is that water is being used to generate profit rather than to slake the world's growing thirst. The privatization of municipal water systems has caused conflicts around the world, and communities that have sold their water rights have faced limited access to water, higher tariffs, and poor water quality.
Scientists to issue stark warning over dramatic new sea level figures
Rising sea levels pose a far bigger eco threat than previously thought. This week's climate change conference in Copenhagen will sound an alarm over new floodings - enough to swamp Bangladesh, Florida, the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary.
"It is now clear that there are going to be massive flooding disasters around the globe," said Dr David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey. "Populations are shifting to the coast, which means that more and more people are going to be threatened by sea-level rises."
Carbon dioxide emissions could last millenniums, expert says
Until now, most discussion of climate change has been about what scientific evidence shows is likely to happen between now and 2100. However, scientific research shows that the carbon dioxide gas released from burning fossil fuels lasts in the atmosphere much longer than mere decades.
David Archer, a leading climate researcher who teaches at the University of Chicago, has written a new book that looks at carbon dioxide's "long tail" and what it means for changes on Earth in the future.
Indian experts find bacteria to beat global heat
In a major breakthrough that could help in the fight against global warming, a team of five Indian scientists from four institutes of the country have discovered a naturally occurring bacteria which converts carbon dioxide (CO2) into a compound found in limestone and chalk.
When used as an enzyme — biomolecules that speed up a chemical reaction — the bacteria has been found to transform CO2 into calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which can fetch minerals f economic value, said Dr Anjana Sharma from the biosciences department of RD University, Jabalpur, who was part of the Rs 98.6 lakh project sponsored by the department of biotechnology (DBT) under the Union science and technology ministry.
TVNL Comment: The problem with too much CO2 is that we have been poisoning the oceans. It is ocean plant life that consume CO2 and provide us with oxygen. If we don't stop killing the ocean we will not have enough oxygen to survive. That is the REAL problem.
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