| 100 Years Ago: Punch Cards and the Census SEPTEMBER 1959 RADIATION -- “What should the citizen conclude about ionizing radiation? Ionizing radiation has always been with us and will be for all foreseeable time. Our genetic system is probably well adjusted by natural selection to normal background radiation. Added radiation will increase the frequency of mutations; most of these will be harmful. Exposure to radiation in large amounts will increase malignant disease; small amounts may possibly do the same. In view of these potentially harmful effects every reasonable effort should be made to reduce the levels of ionizing radiation to which man is exposed to the lowest levels that can reasonably be attained. As to fallout from nuclear-weapons tests, the citizen will conclude that it contributes in a small way to world-wide levels of radiation. For this reason alone the tests should be discontinued. --George W. Beadle” [More] rss.sciam.com |
Intolerable Beauty: Plastic Garbage Kills the Albatross Each year thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway Atoll from starvation, toxicity and choking. The culprit: plastic trash accumulating across a vast area of ocean known as the Pacific Gyre . The nesting babies on the tiny, remote island are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the polluted water collecting what to them looks like food.Chris Jordan, a photographic artist and cultural activist, recently photographed the albatross’s fate. He says that in order for people to really become inspired about cleaning up the planet, sometimes we have to stop and grieve about what is being lost every day. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Sewer or Septic?: When It Comes to Sewage, Most People Prefer to Share the Burden Dear EarthTalk: What’s better for the local ecology, sewers or septic tanks? --T. H., Darien, CT [More] rss.sciam.com |
Do Green Investments Spur Growth or Emission Cuts? [More] rss.sciam.com |
Cost to save the world's tigers: $10,000 each per year (or just pennies a day!) Properly protecting the world's remaining 3,500 wild tigers from poachers, habitat fragmentation and other threats would cost just 42 percent more than is already spent on tiger conservation--an additional $35 million per year, or $10,000 per cat, according to a new study published September 14 in the journal PLoS Biology .The money would be used to secure 42 vital "source sites," which the paper defines as "sites that contain breeding populations of tigers and have the potential to seed the recovery of tigers across wider landscapes." Local governments, NGOs and other donors already spend $47 million per year protecting these sites. The study says fully protecting the sites would cost $82 million per year. [More] Poaching - Non-governmental organization - Public Library of Science - Conservation - Environment rss.sciam.com |