Environment

Dr Mario Caccamo of the Genome Analysis Centre said: "Speed is important to the research so that all those studying the epidemic can start to look for clues to tackle it." And they do mean everyone. All the data is being put on a crowd sourcing website OpenAshDieBack to enable experts from around the world to help identify genes that might be connected to the trees' ability to withstand the fungus. These genes could then be part of a breeding programme for resistant trees. - Halil from Bookmarklet

After half an hour on hands and knees in the leaf litter and some identification first by magnifying glass and then by genetic analyser, that all changed. Paul Beales said: "We've just got the sporing stage of this particular fungus picked up from the ground which has never been found in the UK before. "This is a first. It's here to stay." If that is true, breeding a tree which can survive alongside it is more crucial than ever. - Halil

Naked Energy is Renewable Energy Company in Cairns, Australia. We specialize in Grid Connect Solar, Biomass, Off Grid Solar, Solar Hot Water, LED Lighting. - nakedenergy

http://www.theenvironmentmagazine.com/news... - nakedenergy

Great information about renewable energy resources............... - nakedenergy

"Fungus is, almost universally, not a good thing to have in your walls or personal belongings. And normally, selling certain strains could lead to federal charges. But a company called Ecovative is violating both of those rules, creating packaging and building materials from fungus—and they’re being lauded as visionaries for it. Ecovative was founded by Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, who started experimenting with fungus as part of a school project. Today, they employ 35 people and maintain a massive facility in upstate New York, where they farm mycelium, the root-like threads that form the basis for fungus. Mycelium is like a glue: it latches onto whatever it finds around it—usually, low-value organic matter like plant stalks or cotton hulls—to create a super-dense network of threads. Ecovative grows it in dark cartons for five to seven days, after which they use extreme heat to stop it from blossoming spores. “Spores come from the fruiting body or mushroom,” explains Ecovative’s Sam... more... - Bluesun 2600 from Bookmarklet

"An hour above high camp on the Southeast Ridge of Everest, Panuru Sherpa and I passed the first body. The dead climber was on his side, as if napping in the snow, his head half covered by the hood of his parka, goose down blowing from holes torn in his insulated pants. Ten minutes later we stepped around another body, her torso shrouded in a Canadian flag, an abandoned oxygen bottle holding down the flapping fabric. Trudging nose to butt up the ropes that had been fixed to the steep slope, Panuru and I were wedged between strangers above us and below us. The day before, at Camp III, our team had been part of a small group. But when we woke up this morning, we were stunned to see an endless line of climbers passing near our tents." - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

amazing feel :) - nakedenergy

"Imagine a lake that's never been affected by climate change or any other man-made influences. Australian scientists say they have found just that—a remote lake whose crystal-clear waters seem to be in the same chemical state as they were about 7,500 years ago. "It's like God's bathtub," Dr. Cameron Barr told the Australian Associated Press of the body of water now named Blue Lake. "It is beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful."" - Shevonne from Bookmarklet

Quick! Let's get in there and mess it up so that there isn't anything on this planet we haven't jacked with! - Hookuh Tinypants

есть ли жизнь на Марсе, нет ли шин на Марсе - наука всё молчит в тряпочку академичности своей.... http://fotki.yandex.ru/users... - Pashenko Ecolog

"Locals had long reported seeing bizarre pink slugs after rainfall in the area, but it was only very recently that taxonomists confirmed the slugs, Triboniophorus aff. graeffei, as well as several of the snail species - which prey on other vegetarian land snails - were unique to the mountaintop." - Shevonne from Bookmarklet

OH - mohammadk

"May 23rd, is World Turtle Day. It is a day of celebrating the many unique and ancient species of turtles and tortoises around the world, and bringing awareness to their need for protection. Of the 207 species of turtle and tortoise alive today, 129 of them are listed by IUCN as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. That's an incredibly 62% of species! The species listed here are only a few of the many critically endangered turtle and tortoise species. They illustrate that though these species wear a suit of armor, they are incredible fragile and in need of protection by humans, from humans." - Shevonne from Bookmarklet

"Twice a day, seven days a week, a tractor trailer carrying 8,000 gallons of watery, cloudy slop rolls past the bucolic countryside, finally arriving at Neil Rejman’s dairy farm in upstate New York. The trucks are coming from the Chobani plant two hours east of Rejman’s Sunnyside Farms, and they’re hauling a distinctive byproduct of the Greek yogurt making process—acid whey. For every three or four ounces of milk, Chobani and other companies can produce only one ounce of creamy Greek yogurt. The rest becomes acid whey. It’s a thin, runny waste product that can’t simply be dumped. Not only would that be illegal, but whey decomposition is toxic to the natural environment, robbing oxygen from streams and rivers. That could turn a waterway into what one expert calls a “dead sea,” destroying aquatic life over potentially large areas. Spills of cheese whey, a cousin of Greek yogurt whey, have killed tens of thousands of fish around the country in recent years. The scale of the problem—or... more... - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

I wonder if that would work as well with acid whey as with cheese whey. - John (bird whisperer)

"Ten years ago I was building a green home. It had passive solar features, was built out of structural insulated panels, sent all the greywater out to the back yard to water fruit trees, and was going to be super energy efficient. One feature above all others, though, captured people’s attention when I described the house to them — the composting toilet. The first reaction of many of them was: “Ooh. Won’t that stink?”" - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"How do you feed 9 and half billion people without destroying the planet? According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, part of the answer lies with crickets, maggots, bees, and grasshoppers: edible animals that have been overlooked by much of the world, but could become increasingly important as alternatives to meat and animal feed. Insects may have a high yuck factor, but many species have terrific credentials as food producers. They’re high in protein, low in harmful fat, and full of minerals like omega-3. They’re efficient: a cricket produces a pound of food for every two pounds of feed (compared to a cow that needs eight pounds of feed). And, they feed on human and animal waste, produce minimal greenhouse gas, and need far less water and land than other livestock." - Shevonne from Bookmarklet

skip the bees, they're in trouble. - Joe Silence

Between bugs and fake extruded meat I can hardly make up my mind. - Todd Hoff

"It happens about once a month here, on the barren foothills of one of America's green-energy boomtowns: A soaring golden eagle slams into a wind farm's spinning turbine and falls, mangled and lifeless, to the ground." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Meanwhile, the Obama administration has proposed a rule that would give wind-energy companies potentially decades of shelter from prosecution for killing eagles. The regulation is currently under review at the White House. The proposal, made at the urging of the wind-energy industry, would allow companies to apply for 30-year permits to kill a set number of bald or golden eagles. Previously, companies were only eligible for five-year permits." - imabonehead

"When it comes to the fate of the 350 residents of Newtok, Alaska, the Guardian pulls no punches: "Exile is inevitable," it writes. That's because their coastal village, located some 480 miles west of Anchorage, is in the process of being washed into the Bering Sea." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

Around 10,000 years ago wheat evolved from goat grass and other primitive grains. The scientists used cross-pollination and seed embryo transfer technology to transfer some of the resilience of the ancient ancestor of wheat into modern British varieties. The process required no genetic modification of the crops. - Halil from Bookmarklet

Cross pollination is one thing, (seed) embryonic transference of genetic material is essentially GM, as Victor says, it's semantics and they are trying to come across as a non-GM food. If there was no genuine GM or any kind of fiddling, why even mention that it's not GM in the first place as it should be clear from the experimental methods used! Also, they say the tests need to be... more... - Halil

"An odd set of corporate, municipal and grassroots bedfellows has coalesced in Northwest Arkansas around opposition to a proposed Southwestern Electric Power Co. power-line project that critics say could encroach on some of the most scenic places in the Ozarks. The proposed project would push through a 150-foot-wide cleared right-of-way studded with 150-foot-tall electrical transmission towers. One route for the project would bring the power lines within 1,000 feet of the iconic Thorncrown Chapel in the woods near Eureka Springs." - Bluesun 2600 from Bookmarklet

Extra news: China pollution linked to rising cancer rates: About 3.5 million people are diagnosed with cancer yearly, China’s death rate from cancer is far higher — about 2.5 million people yearly http://www.todayonline.com/chinain... - Halil from Bookmarklet

It's getting scary, UK went through this with their yellow fog years in the 1950's, the death rates were swept under the carpet, which was easier back then, but this can't be ignored. I wonder what the migration rate is and if it's linked to the bad pollution? ~ London 1952 smog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environ... resulting in 13,000 early deaths each year in the UK and 4,300 in London - Halil

"Scientists in China say they have pinpointed a likely source of a new strain of avian influenza (bird flu) that's killed 23 people in the country so far: chicken sold in the marketsof Zhejiang, China. In a study fast-tracked into online publication in the international medical journal the Lancet yesterday, 30 scientists from hospitals and universities around China took samples of the H7N9 virus strain from human patients and compared it to samples of viruses grown from chicken in a Zhejiang market and found that "viral isolate from the patient was closely similar to that from an epidemiologically linked market chicken." Yet the human version of the virus also seems to be a compilation of sorts: The scientists found that the H7 portion was similar to domestic ducks from Zhejiang, while the N9 portion more closely resembled viruses in wild birds in South Korea. "We are quite certain they very closely related and that the poultry is really giving the virus to humans," said microbiology... more... - Bluesun 2600 from Bookmarklet

"Maybe Charles Darwin didn't have to sail all the way to the Galapagos islands after all. While evolution is often thought of as playing out in the wilds of the natural world, as it turns out, urban environments are a major hotbed for species adaptations. Over centuries of development, cities have rewritten the rules of survival for the organisms that live there -- and researcher is beginning to prove that some critters are just learning to cope, they're actually undergoing genetic change. Baruch College scientist Jason Munshi-South has spent the last several years studying this phenomena of urban evolution in New York City -- particularly when it comes to the white-footed mouse." - Shevonne from Bookmarklet

"The Solar Foundation, which has been releasing reports for a few years on the state of the solar industry in the U.S., has just launched a very cool interactive map that breaks the stats down state by state. This allows us to see that there are only 80 solar jobs in Alaska (not too surprising), and over 43,000 in California. Add all 50 states together, and solar employs 119,000 people in the country, a growth of 13.2% in 2012. Another interesting way to gain perspective is to compare these solar jobs to the number of jobs created by other sectors. Looked at it this way, the Solar Foundation (using stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics) found that there were more solar energy workers in Texas than ranchers, that solar workers outnumber actors in California, and that across the whole 50 states, there are more solar workers than coal miners." - Bluesun 2600 from Bookmarklet

nuclear is sure way to get troublesome waste, forget it - A. T.