Saturday, 18 May, 2013

Roads are the first insult to pristine natural areas — and a key to agricultural productivity in places where farming makes sense. Here’s a proposal to decide where roads make sense, and where they make mayhem.

Conservation and fracking will help United States reach energy independence by 2030. How will cheap natural gas affect renewable energy? How will a one-third increase in fossil fuel use affect greenhouse warming? Are we about to be locked into a 3.6ºC of global warming?

Using at least 20 sources of data, scientists have modeled releases of carbon dioxide from Indianapolis. The new view will help cities map reductions in greenhouse warming, and help people understand that the climate warming problem belongs to everybody.

Deforestation, fires, mining and agriculture outside a nature reserve can have as much impact as the same activities inside the reserve, says a new study. If a line on a map cannot protect nature, what can?

A chemical from plastics “looks” like estrogen to the body. If it makes female fish more likely to flirt with males of a different species, could endocrine disruptors cause cross-breeding, and a decline in native fish after invaders enter their rivers?

A high-pressure rock-buster caused natural gas production to explode. How does fracking work? What’s up with groundwater pollution?

The green revolution fed billions, but population keeps rising, water is short and the climate is changing. How will Africans feed themselves despite poor soil and widespread poverty? Could small projects that fit the environment and culture make farmers an engine of prosperity and a big source of food?

Was the epic 2011 heat wave in Texas due to global warming or natural variation?

The globe warms, and the Arctic starts to burn. If warming causes fires that release carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, will this accelerate further warming? A new study measures carbon releases from the largest tundra fire in North America.

Constant fire-fighting has made fire the remaining fires more intense, but controlled burns have their own hazards. Are we already seeing the effect of climate change on forest fires?

White nose syndrome has killed a million bats in the eastern U.S., and spread to Nova Scotia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Why is the fungus deadly here, but not in Europe? Can quarantines, anti-fungals or heated bat houses help our bats survive the onslaught?

Cholera can kill with record speed. The bacterium is easy to control — if wastewater and drinking water are treated. Haiti — chronically corrupt, painfully poor, and wasted by the January quake, is paradise for the cholera bug. How is cholera prevented, and what are the enduring gifts of this deadly bug?

Scientists propose 9 limits on human actions: Wrecking ozone, over-using fertilizer, killing species could block key “ecosystem services.” Are there natural limits to fresh water use and pollution?

Each hour, the ocean dissolves 1 million tons of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel. As the water grows more acidic, sound travels further. What will happen to marine mammals, which rely on an exquisite sense of hearing?

Rapid melting of Canadian ice sheet suggests that Greenland’s massive ice cap could melt and raise sea level much faster than predicted within a century.