Archive for the 'Environment' Category
Heaviest Snowfall in a Century Hits Moscow
February 6th, 2013Via: Moscow Times: The heaviest snowfall in a century brought Moscow and the surrounding region to a near standstill and left hundreds of people without power, officials said Tuesday. And with snowfall set to continue at least until the end of the week, the authorities are bracing for more chaos on the roads. “There hasn’t […]
China’s Filthy Air Prompts Mask Rush and Sale of Fresh Air in Cans
January 30th, 2013Via: ABC: For the fourth time this year, a murky haze has descended over north China, leaving residents of Beijing choking on toxic smog. China’s air hasn’t been this bad since 1954, according to the state-run People’s Daily newspaper. In a remarkable record of dirty air, 24 out of January’s first 29 days this year […]
Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: ‘The Continent’s Biggest Animal Sanctuary’
January 26th, 2013Via: Independent: Sergei Gaschak’s photography offers an unparalleled glimpse at animal life inside “the zone”, the area of Ukraine and Belarus that has been officially closed off to human habitation since the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe of 1986. Using camera traps to take photographs mechanically, as well as taking photographs personally, Gaschak has captured what few […]
Gallery: Snowpocalypse Russia: ‘Snow Tsunami’ Swallows Streets, Cars, Buildings
January 21st, 2013Via: Russia Today: Unrelenting snowfalls have caused unprecedented chaos in Russia. Over the past week, the country has seen scores of traffic accidents, flight delays and, in some cases, the complete isolation of some remote settlements and towns.
A Mysterious Patch Of Light Shows Up In The North Dakota Dark
January 17th, 2013Via: NPR: What we have here is an immense and startlingly new oil and gas field — nighttime evidence of an oil boom created by a technology called fracking. Those lights are rigs, hundreds of them, lit at night, or fiery flares of natural gas. One hundred fifty oil companies, big ones, little ones, wildcatters, […]
Air Pollution in Beijing Goes Off the Index
January 13th, 2013Via: AP: People refused to venture outdoors and buildings disappeared into Beijing’s murky skyline on Sunday as the capital’s air quality went off the index. The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said on its website that the density of PM2.5 particulates had surpassed 700 micrograms per cubic meter in many parts of the city. The […]
USDA: Drought Cut Corn Crop by About One-Fourth
January 12th, 2013Via: AP: For farmers like Earl Williams, last year couldn’t have started out better or ended much worse as a warm, sunny spring that let him plant early gave way to record heat and drought that devastated his corn. Williams ended up with about two-thirds of the crop he expected, and a U.S. Department of […]
Nuclear Security Helicopters Testing Radiation Levels Above DC Area
January 7th, 2013[???] Via: CBS: Helicopters have been conducting radiation tests above portions of the Washington, D.C. area using remote gamma radiation sensing technology. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has been flying the radiation missions since Dec. 27, 2012 and they will continue until next Friday, Jan. 11. The flights have been conducted during daylight only, […]
America’s Real Criminal Element: Lead
January 5th, 2013Via: Mother Jones: In 1994, Rick Nevin was a consultant working for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development on the costs and benefits of removing lead paint from old houses. This has been a topic of intense study because of the growing body of research linking lead exposure in small children with a […]
Caffeinated Seas Found off U.S. Pacific Northwest
January 5th, 2013Via: National Geographic: The Pacific Northwest may be the epicenter of U.S. coffee culture, and now a new study shows the region’s elevated caffeine levels don’t stop at the shoreline. The discovery of caffeine pollution in the Pacific Ocean off Oregon is further evidence that contaminants in human waste are entering natural water systems, with […]
