Invasive waterways species spread due to climate change
Belfast, UK (SPX) Mar 31, 2014 -
One of the most serious threats to global biodiversity and the leisure and tourism industries is set to increase with climate change according to new research by Queen's University Belfast.
Researchers at Queen's have found that certain invasive weeds, which have previously been killed off by low winter temperatures, are set to thrive as global temperatures increase.
The team based a ...
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Seasonal Arctic summer ice extent still hard to forecast
Boulder CO (SPX) Mar 31, 2014 -
Will next year's summer Arctic ice extent be high or low? Can ship captains plan on navigating the famed Northwest Passage-a direct shipping route from Europe to Asia across the Arctic Ocean-to save on time and fuel? A new study says year-to-year forecasts of the Arctic's summer ice extent are not yet reliable.
Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), University College ...
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Rebel China village re-elects protest leader in sombre vote
Wukan, China (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
Voters in a Chinese village which rebelled against communist officials to hold landmark democratic elections re-elected the man who led the protests on Monday, as residents raised fears for the vote's integrity.
Wukan, in south China's Guangdong province, grabbed headlines worldwide in 2011 when locals staged huge protests and drove out Communist Party officials they accused of illegal land ...
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Did microbes cause mass extinction?
Washington (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
Volcanoes and asteroids are sometimes blamed for wiping out nearly all life on Earth 252 million years ago, but US research Monday suggested a more small-time criminal: microbes.
These microbes, known as Methanosarcina, bloomed in the ocean on a massive and sudden scale, spewing methane into the atmosphere and causing dramatic changes in the chemistry of the oceans and the Earth's climate, a ...
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'Mama Kanga': Nigeria's 'well woman'
Igbogbo, Nigeria (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
Fortified by a faith in God and a Guinness stout - or a tot of something stronger - Ololade Rabiu reckons she must have dug hundreds of wells in her time.
But the 46-year-old mother of six is a rarity in Nigeria, where forging deep into the red earth to find precious drinking water has historically been a male preserve.
"I am extremely happy that I am the only woman so far in this pr ...
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Liberia confirms spread of 'unprecedented' Ebola epidemic
Conakry (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
Aid organisation Doctors Without Borders said Monday an Ebola outbreak suspected of killing dozens in Guinea was an "unprecedented epidemic" as Liberia confirmed its first cases of the deadly contagion.
Guinea's health ministry this year has reported 122 "suspicious cases" of viral haemorrhagic fever, including 78 deaths, with 22 of the samples taken from patients testing positive for the hi ...
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16 killed in China storms
Beijing (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
At least 16 people were killed in rain and hailstorms that triggered flooding and landslides in southern China, officials said Monday.
The severe weather, which began last Friday, has affected seven provinces and municipalities, China's ministry of civil affairs said in a statement, leaving 16 people dead and two missing.
The storms are the first round of heavy rainfall this spring, the ...
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Calls for action as world faces fork in climate road
Paris (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
A stark warning by UN scientists of menacing climate change prompted demands Monday for urgent action to curb greenhouse-gas emissions even as a global pact remained elusive.
Scientists, politicians, envoys and green groups united in calls for faster, more drastic action to avoid the worst-case scenarios of conflict, drought and massive displacement highlighted in the expert report.
"The ...
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Surprise snowstorm traps thousands of Iranians
Tehran (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
Thousands of travellers, many of them visiting family during the Iranian new year holidays, have been rescued after being trapped by unexpected snowstorms in north Iran, a report said Monday.
"Since yesterday (Sunday), teams have rescued around 14,000 travellers caught in the heavy snow," Red Crescent spokesman Hossein Derakhshan told the official IRNA news agency.
"Some 32 people were h ...
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Top UN court orders Japan to end Antarctic whale hunt
The Hague (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
The United Nations' top court on Monday ordered Japan to end its annual Antarctic whale hunt, saying in a landmark ruling that the programme was a commercial activity disguised as science.
Tokyo said it would honour the ruling shortly after it was handed down at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ), but did not rule out the possibility of future whaling programmes.
"Japan ...
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US landslide death toll rises to 21
Arlington, United States (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
The confirmed death toll from a huge US landslide rose from 18 to 21 on Sunday, while four more bodies were located but not counted in the official tally, authorities said.
Thirty people remain missing after a rain-soaked wall of mud, trees and debris crashed down onto the edge of the town of Oso, in Washington state, on March 22.
A few survivors were found immediately after the mudslide ...
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Climate change boosts conflict risk, floods, hunger: UN
Yokohama, Japan (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
Soaring carbon emissions will amplify the risk of conflict, hunger, floods and mass migration this century, the UN's expert panel said Monday in a landmark report on the impact of climate change.
Left unchecked, greenhouse gas emissions may cost trillions of dollars in damage to property and ecosystems, and in bills for shoring up climate defences, it said, adding the impact would increase w ...
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Malaysia PM to visit Perth as jet-search window narrowsw/ll
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak will visit Australia to witness the race-against-time bid to locate a crash site for flight MH370, his government said Monday as a ship equipped to pinpoint its "black box" prepared to steam to the search area.
Ships and planes from seven nations scanned a vast zone far off western Australia for yet another day, but the hunt for debris that would prove the ...
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Chinese chemical plant protest turns violent
Beijing (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
A protest over a proposed chemical plant in a Chinese city turned violent at the weekend, officials said Monday, but added order had been restored and no-one had died.
Pictures posted on Chinese social media purported to show bloodied participants and police in riot gear in Maoming in the southern province of Guangdong.
One image on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, showed a ...
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Research suggests autumn is ending later in the northern hemisphere
Southampton UK (SPX) Apr 01, 2014 -
A study by the University of Southampton suggests that on average the end of Autumn is taking place later in the year and Spring is starting slightly earlier.
A team of researchers examined satellite imagery covering the northern hemisphere over a 25 year period (1982 - 2006), and looked for any seasonal changes in vegetation by making a measure of its 'greenness'. They examined in detail, ...
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Great earthquakes, water under pressure, high risk
Potsdam, Germany (SPX) Apr 01, 2014 -
The largest earthquakes occur where oceanic plates move beneath continents. Obviously, water trapped in the boundary between both plates has a dominant influence on the earthquake rupture process.
Analyzing the great Chile earthquake of February, 27th, 2010, a group of scientists from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and from Liverpool University found that the water pressure ...
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Ancient African Cattle First Domesticated in Middle East
Columbia NY (SPX) Apr 01, 2014 -
Geneticist and anthropologists previously suspected that ancient Africans domesticated cattle native to the African continent nearly 10,000 years ago. Now, a team of University of Missouri researchers has completed the genetic history of 134 cattle breeds from around the world.
In the process of completing this history, they found that ancient domesticated African cattle originated in the ...
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Food insecurity a growing challenge in Canada's northern and remote Aboriginal communities
Ottawa, Canada (SPX) Apr 01, 2014 -
A new expert panel report on food security in Northern Canada, has found that food insecurity among northern Aboriginal peoples requires urgent attention in order to mitigate impacts on health and well-being. Aboriginal Food Security in Northern Canada: An Assessment of the State of Knowledge, released by the Council of Canadian Academies, addresses the diversity of experience that northern Firs ...
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Research Clarifies Health Costs of Air Pollution from Agriculture
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 01, 2014 -
Ammonia pollution from agricultural sources poses larger health costs than previously estimated, according to NASA-funded research.
Harvard University researchers Fabien Paulot and Daniel Jacob used computer models including a NASA model of chemical reactions in the atmosphere to better represent how ammonia interacts in the atmosphere to form harmful particulate matter. The improved simul ...
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Monitoring air quality takes next step
Paris (ESA) Apr 01, 2014 -
With air pollution linked to millions of deaths around the world, it has never been more important to monitor the air we breathe. And this week marks a significant step forward as a deal is secured to build a crucial space sensor for tracking the world's air quality.
The 144 million euro contract for the Sentinel-5 instrument of Europe's Copernicus programme was formally signed today with ...
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Kohler and CalTech Solar-Powered Toilet Heads to India Toilet Fair
Kohler WI (SPX) Apr 01, 2014 -
In conjunction with World Water Day, Kohler Co. and Caltech embrace the next milestone of a more than two-year collaborative journey in the development of a photovoltaic toilet as part of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
This next stage of the project takes the team and its two toilet units from Pasadena, California to Delhi, India for the ...
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Xi visit sets 'landmark' in EU-China ties
Brussels (AFP) March 31, 2014 -
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, on the last leg of a maiden tour of Europe, on Monday made a ground-breaking visit to European Union headquarters underlining China's bid to firm up bilateral ties.
"This first visit by a Chinese president to the EU was a historic landmark in EU-China relations," a joint EU-China statement said. "Both sides... welcomed the significant strengthening of bilateral tie ...
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Canada ties energy security to stewardship
Washington DC (UPI) Mar 30, 2014 -
Canadian Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford said from Alberta that Canada's economic future depends on responsible resource development.
Rickford met his counterpart in Alberta, Diana McQueen, to discuss the task ahead for Canada's energy and economic future.
"Minister McQueen and I met and agreed that Canada's economic future depends on developing our natural resources res ...
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Wuxi Suntech Calls for an End to the US-China Solar Trade Disputes
Wuxi, China (SPX) Apr 01, 2014 -
In a call to unite a financially battered industry, Eric Luo, the CEO of Wuxi Suntech, warned that unless the trade issues between the U.S. and China are resolved, the PV Industry would dramatically shrink.
"The real danger we're facing as an industry is not if a Chinese or American company goes bankrupt but if the entire industry value chain collapses. China can manufacture high-end panel ...
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Aussie energy contractor Clough expands in Scotland
Washington DC (UPI) Mar 30, 2014 -
A decision from Australian energy contractor Clough to invest in Scotland is a testament of the country's industry leadership, the government said Monday.
Scottish First Deputy Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Clough was setting up an office in Glasgow to service energy markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
"This is a testament to the quality and skills of the local workfor ...
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