When do we get to officially call the "green revolution" an environmental nightmare?
More genetically engineered crops means less pesticides are needed, right? That's what the big agricultural biotech companies, like Monsanto, promised. But, a report proves they're wrong. Really wrong.
First, the report was funded by a coalition of non-governmental organizations including the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Center for Food Safety, the Cornerstone Campaign, Californians for GE-Free Agriculture, Greenpeace International and Rural Advancement Fund International USA.
They found that GE corn, soybean, and cotton crops have increased the use of weed-killing herbicides in the U.S. by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008. Why? Because the idea behind many of the big GE crops is to make them resistant to herbicides, for instance Roundup Ready Soybeans won't be killed if you spray the herbicide Roundup on them. Roundup instead is suppose to kill the weeds around the plant. But, crafty little nature has outsmarted biotech again and now we've got weeds that have become resistant as well. Woops.
Earth Changes
New Yorkers have just a few more days to petition Governor Patterson before permits for natural gas drilling utilizing a method called hydraulic fracturing will be issued in New York State. If drilling takes effect, New York's beautiful, pristine landscapes will soon be reduced to wastelands similar to these in Pennsyvania shown in this video
Dimock, Pennsylvania - Victoria Switzer dreamed of a peaceful retirement in these Appalachian hills. Instead, she is coping with a big problem after a nearby natural gas well contaminated her family's drinking water with high levels of methane.
Dimock, Pennsylvania - Victoria Switzer dreamed of a peaceful retirement in these Appalachian hills. Instead, she is coping with a big problem after a nearby natural gas well contaminated her family's drinking water with high levels of methane.
A polar bear with a cub it has killed and partly eaten
But cannibalism among the species is a natural occurrence, says one expert, disputing what is just the latest story to put the polar bear in the debate over man-made global warming.
"Both Inuit and scientific knowledge show that cannibalism in polar bears happens, and it probably always has," said Steve Pinksen, director of policy and legislation for Nunavut's Department of Environment.
© Mike Groll//AP Photo
A pedestrian walks on a snow-covered street during the area's first winter storm in Albany, N.Y.
A pedestrian walks on a snow-covered street during the area's first winter storm in Albany, N.Y.
It's a mess. A fierce winter storm slogged eastward across the U.S. today, bringing a foot of snow to the Midwest, pelting rain to the eastern seaboard, 50 mph winds, slippery road conditions and hundreds of school closings.
The National Centers for Environmental Prediction called it a "significant winter storm" -- never mind that the winter solstice is still 12 days away. Over the last three days, it said, there have been 17 inches of snow in Madison, Wisc., and 15 inches in Winterset, Iowa.
In Omaha, Neb., a 28-year-old woman was reportedly killed overnight when a pickup truck, plowing out of the parking lot of an apartment complex, accidentally backed over her.
Honolulu - Extremely high waves on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Maui have attracted thousands of surfers and onlookers, clogging traffic in the area, observers say.
Surf lovers jammed Oahu's Kamehameha Highway and packed every inch of the North Shore beach Monday as waves as high as 40 feet pounded the shore, while massive, 50-foot waves were predicted for Tuesday, Hawaii Magazine reported.
The magazine said this winter's first round of swells was already being considered the best in many years, perhaps decades. It reported that at Maui's north shore Peahi Beach -- also known as "Jaws" for its big winter waves -- surfers were citing swells of up to 50 feet from crest to trough.
© UPI Photo/Pierre Tostee/ASP Tostee
Spectators watch massive waves crash at the venue for the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters at the Banzai pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii on December 13, 2004.. The contest was placed on hold due to stormy surf conditions which rocked the North Shore. The Rip Curl Pipeline Masters is the final event for the men on the 2004 Fosters ASP World Championship Tour and features the top 45 surfers and three wild card entrants. .
Spectators watch massive waves crash at the venue for the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters at the Banzai pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii on December 13, 2004.. The contest was placed on hold due to stormy surf conditions which rocked the North Shore. The Rip Curl Pipeline Masters is the final event for the men on the 2004 Fosters ASP World Championship Tour and features the top 45 surfers and three wild card entrants. .
The magazine said this winter's first round of swells was already being considered the best in many years, perhaps decades. It reported that at Maui's north shore Peahi Beach -- also known as "Jaws" for its big winter waves -- surfers were citing swells of up to 50 feet from crest to trough.
© Tui De Roy/Minden Pictures/FLPA
Female Laysan albatrosses on the Hawaiian island of Oahu pair off with other females.
Female Laysan albatrosses on the Hawaiian island of Oahu pair off with other females.
In the past few years, the ubiquity of such behaviour has become apparent. This summer evolutionary biologists Marlene Zuk and Nathan Bailey from the University of California, Riverside, published a paper on the subject that included examples from dozens of species ranging from dung flies and woodpeckers to bison and macaques.
That is just the beginning of the story. The burning question is why same-sex behaviour would evolve at all when it runs counter to evolutionary principles. But does it? In fact there are many good reasons for same-sex sexual behaviour. What's more, Zuk and Bailey suggest that in a species where it is common, it is an important driving force in evolution.
© Don Davis/NASA
Debris kicked up by a large asteroid rained back down on the Earth, heating up as it fell. But new research suggests that the first debris to re-enter the atmosphere shielded the surface from the heat of later infalling debris, preventing the world's forests from igniting
Debris kicked up by a large asteroid rained back down on the Earth, heating up as it fell. But new research suggests that the first debris to re-enter the atmosphere shielded the surface from the heat of later infalling debris, preventing the world's forests from igniting
The impact of a 10-kilometre asteroid is blamed for the extinction of the dinosaurs and most other species on the planet. Early computer models showed that more than half of the debris blasted into space by the impact would fall into the atmosphere within eight hours.
The models predicted the rain of shock-heated debris would radiate heat as intensely as an oven set to "broil" (260 °C) for at least 20 minutes, and perhaps a couple of hours. Intense heating for that long would heat wood to its ignition temperature, causing global wildfires.
© Reuters
As the world gathered in the Danish capital for the UN Climate Change Conference, more than 50 scientists, businessmen and lobby groups met to discuss the arguments against man made global warming.
Although the meeting was considerably smaller than the official gathering of 15,000 people meeting down the road, the organisers claimed it could change the course of negotiations.
With 20,000 delegates, advocates and journalists jetting to Copenhagen for planet Earth's last chance, the carbon footprint of the global warming summit will be the only impressive consequence of the climate-change meeting. Its organizers had hoped that it would produce binding caps on emissions, global taxation to redistribute trillions of dollars, and micromanagement of everyone's choices.
China, nimble at the politics of pretending that is characteristic of climate-change theater, promises only to reduce its "carbon intensity" -- carbon emissions per unit of production. So China's emissions will rise.
Barack Obama, understanding the histrionics required in climate-change debates, promises that U.S. emissions in 2050 will be 83 percent below 2005 levels. If so, 2050 emissions will equal those in 1910, when there were 92 million Americans. But there will be 420 million Americans in 2050, so Obama's promise means that per capita emissions then will be about what they were in 1875. That. Will. Not. Happen.
China, nimble at the politics of pretending that is characteristic of climate-change theater, promises only to reduce its "carbon intensity" -- carbon emissions per unit of production. So China's emissions will rise.
Barack Obama, understanding the histrionics required in climate-change debates, promises that U.S. emissions in 2050 will be 83 percent below 2005 levels. If so, 2050 emissions will equal those in 1910, when there were 92 million Americans. But there will be 420 million Americans in 2050, so Obama's promise means that per capita emissions then will be about what they were in 1875. That. Will. Not. Happen.
© AP Photo
Scotti Carver sweeps snow from the roof and windshield of his truck.
Scotti Carver sweeps snow from the roof and windshield of his truck.
Officials were warning residents in parts of the west and Midwest to stay close to home.
"Anybody traveling tomorrow morning is really taking a huge risk I would say - a risk of being stranded and not having anybody be able to help you for 6 or 12 hours, probably," Karl Jungbluth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Johnston, Iowa, said Tuesday.
The storm already blanketed much of the mountain west with snow and drenched Southern California with rain. In the Phoenix area, fierce wind brought down power lines, left four hospitals temporarily without power and created wide outages.
Comment: It is well documented that the polar bear population is increasing, not decreasing. So the increase in cannibalism among polar bears, if any, may be due to that rather than the non-existent global warming.