Planet under Pressure
A major international conference ‘Planet under Pressure (PUP)’ is being held in London, United Kingdom, this week, 26–29 March 2012. The meeting is being attended by scientists, industry leaders and decision makers. It will show whether science can, not only diagnose our environmental crisis, but also provide effective solutions, says David Dickson, SciDev’s editor, the official organisation…
World Water Day – 22 March 2012
Water is essential for life and an important resource to virtually all economic activities, including food production, energy and industrial outputs. Clean water is an indispensable natural resource for a healthy life for humans and for freshwater ecosystems and, therefore, demands careful management. Water has been in the forefront this month with the 6th World…
This week is climate week – 12-18 March 2012
The Met Office 2012 global temperature forecast predicts that this year will be around 0.48 °C warmer than the long-term (1961-1990) global average of 14 °C, with a predicted range of between 0.34 °C and 0.62 °C. The middle of this range would put 2012 within the top ten warmest years in…
Pre-historic forest discovered buried under coal mine in China – Pompeii of the Permian period!
A reconstruction of the 300-million-year-old forest near Wuda, China. Image courtesy of Penn News The swamp forest was preserved by volcanic ash around 300 million years ago, near Wuda, Mongolia, and was discovered by scientists from China and the USA, who called it the “Pompeii of the Permian period” because like Pompeii the forest was…
Theft! A new threat to glaciers
Argentina passed a law back in September 2010 aiming at preserving their glaciers on the grounds that they are important as: "strategic hydrological resource for human consumption; for agricultural use; to recharge hydrographic basins; to protect biodiversity; a scientific information source; and a touristic attraction.” The law imposed a requirement for a prior evaluation of…
Come on in, the water’s lovely……
Among the full text records recently loaded to Environmental Impact is one which examined the water quality of spa waters at Polish health resorts. Specifically the paper [1] examined the composition of the healing waters. Iron seems to be an important component present in 37 of 160 waters tested from 39 health resorts. Fluoride is…
Phosphorus – essential nutrient, pollutant and limited resource
The world's phosphorus (P) reserves are almost peaking! Yet excess P is polluting our water resources! What is going on with the phosphorus cycle and what can be done about it?
Apps For Climate competition with World Bank cash prizes
Climate change is undeniably happening and it is expected to hit poorer and developing countries the hardest. It is well known now that its effects, such as higher temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels and more frequent weather-related disasters pose risks for agriculture, food and water supplies. All…
The environment in 2011 – the main extreme events!
Being one of the editors for the Cabi resource Environmental Impact and as 2011 comes to a close; I thought I should close the working year with a blog on what happened around the world with regard to environment. One thing that comes straight to mind is that 2011 saw a record rise in greenhouse…
COP17 the results – A step closer towards a legally-binding climate deal!
The high-level highly publicised UN climate change talks ended yesterday in Durban, South Africa. Most governmental and non-governmental organisations accept that climate change is inevitable and that we have to do something about it, i.e. have mitigation and adaptation measures in place. If the world ignore the changes and carry on with a business as…