| Climate Forecasts for All [Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.] Global warming could transform large swaths of Africa: shifting rains, spreading malaria and other insect borne diseases, even changing the size of the Sahara Desert. [More] rss.sciam.com |
What to Do About Endocrine Disruptors? A Q&A with Linda Birnbaum Nearly a year ago, toxicologist Linda Birnbaum was named director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program. She sat down with Environmental Health News journalist Jane Kay in San Francisco on Wednesday to answer questions about the environmental health risks we face today. [More] rss.sciam.com |
How to Reform the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Himalayan glaciers to disappear by 2035. Nuclear power plants cheaper than fossil fuel–fired ones. A chairman who might have financial conflicts of interest (and an interest in penning a racy, loosely autobiographical romance novel ). These are some of the mistakes currently argued to have been made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)--a panel of more than 2,500 volunteer scientists and other experts from 154 countries tasked with assessing climate change. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Oil spill threatens endangered species at a critical time The true impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico won't be known for weeks--if not months or years--but already the spreading oil presents a danger to the region's threatened and endangered species.One of the first species to face risk could be the brown pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis ), which has just entered its breeding season on Louisiana's coastal islands, including the Chandeleur Islands, which the oil reached over the weekend. The brown pelican was just removed from the endangered species list last year. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Crude Alternatives: Energy Industry Heavyweights Debate Fuels of the Future A truth that floated to the surface during the BP energy company's Deepwater disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, along with hundreds of millions of liters of oil, is that the world does not have a ready replacement for conventional forms of fuel such as crude oil and likely will not have one for some time, particularly as demand for energy grows worldwide. Cleaner energy alternatives, including natural gas, wind, solar, nuclear and biofuel, have gained ground on greenhouse gas–producing oil (as well as coal), but there is still a long way to go before these inexpensive, efficient fuel sources can be phased out, according to a keynote panel assembled recently at Technology Review 's Emerging Technologies (EmTech) conference in Cambridge, Mass. ( Technology Review is published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the conference is held.) [More] Technology Review - Gulf of Mexico - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Energy - Biofuel rss.sciam.com |