Archive for the 'Environment' Category
Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant Leaking Tritium Into Biscayne Bay
March 9th, 2016Via: Miami Herald: A radioactive isotope linked to water from power plant cooling canals has been found in high levels in Biscayne Bay, confirming suspicions that Turkey Point’s aging canals are leaking into the nearby national park.
Fukushima Disaster Nearly Destroyed Japan, Government Nuclear Safety Adviser Majored in Economics
March 5th, 2016Most nuclear power plants in Japan remain offline. Via: NZ Herald: Japan’s prime minister at the time of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami has revealed the country came within a “paper-thin margin” of a nuclear disaster requiring the evacuation of 50 million people. In an interview to mark the fifth anniversary of the disaster, Naoto […]
Zika: Gene Drive
February 8th, 2016Via: MIT Technology Review: A controversial genetic technology able to wipe out the mosquito carrying the Zika virus will be available within months, scientists say. The technology, called a “gene drive,” was demonstrated only last year in yeast cells, fruit flies, and a species of mosquito that transmits malaria. It uses the gene-snipping technology CRISPR […]
More Babies Are Being Born with Organs Outside Their Bodies, and Experts Have No Idea Why
January 25th, 2016Related? Pesticides in Paradise: Hawaii’s Spike in Birth Defects Puts Focus on GM Crops: At a Starbucks just outside Honolulu, Sidney Johnson, a pediatric surgeon at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children who oversees all children born in Hawaii with major birth defects and operates on many, says he’s been thinking about pesticides […]
The Planet’s Fisheries Are In Even Worse Shape Than We Thought
January 20th, 2016Via: Huffington Post: The world’s oceans have been overfished far more than reported, according to a new study. The report, published in the journal Nature Communications, reanalyzed worldwide catch data and compared it to information that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations uses. Researchers found that from 1950 to 2010, up to […]
5 Countries Spew More Plastic Into the Oceans Than the Rest of the World Together
January 18th, 2016Via: GlobalPost: In a recent report, Ocean Conservancy claims that China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are spewing out as much as 60 percent of the plastic waste that enters the world’s seas. “At this rate, we would expect nearly one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish in our oceans by […]
Floating Dam Could Revolutionize Ocean Clean-Up
January 2nd, 2016Via: Quartz: In a few months, a giant floating dam—in the form of a 328-feet (100 meters) long barrier segment—will be set up in the North Sea, some miles off the coast of The Netherlands. Its ambition: to cleanse the world’s oceans of plastic trash forever. Plastic waste is a major threat to animals in […]
Beijing Red Alert for Smog
December 7th, 2015Via: BBC: Schools in Beijing are to close and outdoor construction to stop after the Chinese capital issued its first “red alert” over smog levels. The red alert is the highest possible, and has not been used in the city before, the state-run Xinhua news agency says. Authorities expect more than three consecutive days of […]
Airpocalypse Now: China Pollution Reaching Record Levels
November 28th, 2015Via: Guardian: In some areas of Shenyang, PM2.5 readings reportedly surpassed 1,400 micrograms per cubic metre, which is about 56 times the levels considered safe by the World Health Organisation. More: Beijing Residents Told to Stay Inside, Air Pollution 15X Safe Level
“Gene Drive” Mosquitoes
November 26th, 2015Via: Guardian: Hundreds of genetically modified mosquitoes that are incapable of spreading the malaria parasite to humans have been created in a laboratory as part of a radical approach to combating the disease. The move marks a major step towards the development of a powerful and controversial technology called a “gene drive” that aims to […]
