U.S. leases federal offshore area to Florida Atlantic University to test ocean energy
Washington (UPI) Jun 4, 2013 -
The U.S. government announced plans to work with Florida Atlantic University to test a system to get energy from ocean currents, the first of its kind.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a lease to the university to test a turbine system driven by ocean currents.
"This is the first time a lease has been issued to test ocean current energy equipment in federal waters," a ...
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Ukraine: The Real Energy Crisis Starts in June
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Kiev is feeling emboldened by the successful election of a new Ukrainian president and a bloody surge against separatists in the east, but in just a few days, Russia says it will twist the gas spigot, and there's very little Kiev can do to stop that.
On June 3, Russia plans to reduce the gas supply to Ukraine - and hence, to Europe - if Kiev has failed to pay in advance for next month's ga ...
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Carbon plan still leaves US short of UN pledge: study
Bonn , Germany (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
President Barack Obama's plan to cut the carbon emissions of US power plants by up to 30 percent will leave America far short of its current pledges at UN climate talks, a study said Wednesday.
The United States promised in 2010 to reduce greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.
It has also set a 2050 target to further curb emissions by 83 percent compared to the 2005 ben ...
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Wyoming site could store 300 years worth of carbon emissions
Washington (UPI) Jun 4, 2013 -
A geological feature in Wyoming could store the equivalent of more than 200 years of emissions from state power plants, the U.S. Department of Energy said.
A study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy found the Rock Springs Uplift, a rock formation, has the geological characteristics for carbon storage.
Scientists at the University of Wyoming led the project team that found ...
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Activists urge Singapore casino resort to free dolphins
Singapore (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
Singapore animal-rights activists on Wednesday repeated calls for a casino resort to release dolphins from a marine life park after four of them died in captivity.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said in a statement that a bottlenose dolphin named Sharmila died on May 11 at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), which originally acquired 27 dolphins for its marine park. ...
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'Extinct' bat found in Papua New Guinea
Sydney (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
A big-eared bat which was thought to be extinct has been found in a forest in Papua New Guinea, highlighting the unique biodiversity of the developing nation, researchers said Wednesday.
Until the find the bat, or Pharotis imogene, had not been seen in 120 years.
"The species was presumed extinct," University of Queensland researcher Luke Leung said.
Two University of Queensland stud ...
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H.K. rallies for Tiananmen 25th anniversary as Beijing clamps down
Beijing (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
China on Wednesday imposed smothering security in central Beijing on the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, as tens of thousands gathered in Hong Kong for potentially the biggest commemoration yet seen in honour of the student protesters killed in 1989.
The White House called for China's Communist authorities to account for those killed, detained or missing in connection wit ...
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The 'Sherlock Holmes' of Himalayan mountaineering
Kathmandu (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
When a deadly avalanche hit Mount Everest last April, reporters made a beeline for 90-year-old Elizabeth Hawley, the woman Edmund Hillary once called "the Sherlock Holmes of the mountaineering world".
The ice avalanche struck a group of Nepalese guides early on April 18. By 1 pm, nine people had been killed and the toll would eventually rise to 16, making it the worst disaster in the mountai ...
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Tropical storm Boris downgraded, still packing heavy rain
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
A storm named Boris that is lingering off Mexico's west coast was downgraded to a tropical depression on Wednesday, but is still packing heavy rains that could cause deadly flash floods and mudslides.
The warning from the US National Hurricane Center said Boris could dump as much as 20 inches (50 cm) of rain in some parts of the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca.
Boris was expected to make la ...
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Tehran warned of new sandstorm as death toll hits five
Tehran (AFP) June 03, 2014 -
Iranian authorities warned on Tuesday of harsh weather conditions across the country, a day after a freak sandstorm with record winds killed five people in Tehran.
The warning of possible floods and drastic temperature drops, particularly in the northern parts of the country, in the next few days came after Monday's deadly sandstorm that forced thousands in the capital to run for cover in ru ...
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Manitoba stops zebra mussel invasion with fertilizer
Ottawa (AFP) June 03, 2014 -
Canadian conservation authorities on Tuesday celebrated a succesful test using liquid fertilizer to kill invasive Zebra mussels in a lakefront harbor in the western province of Manitoba.
"The treatment process came to a successful end at Winnipeg Beach Harbour on Monday with all... mussels pulled from the harbor confirmed dead after day nine of the estimated 10 day treatment process," Manito ...
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Koala shows it's cool to be a tree hugger
Paris (AFP) June 03, 2014 -
Australia's cuddly koala rarely drinks water and doesn't have any sweat glands, long leaving scientists to wonder how it cools off in a heatwave.
On Wednesday, zoologists announced they had uncovered the iconic mammal's secret - hugging trees, whose trunks can be several degrees cooler than the surroundings.
Koalas have high mortality rates in heatwaves. Unable to sweat, they use pantin ...
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Spider venom may save the bees: study
Paris (AFP) June 03, 2014 -
Venom from one of the world's most poisonous spiders may help save the world's honeybees, providing a biopesticide that kills pests but spares the precious pollinators, a study said Wednesday.
Bee populations, both wild and captive, are in decline in Europe, the Americas and Asia for reasons scientists are struggling to understand, with industrial pesticides among the suspected culprits. ...
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Half of world's forest species at risk: UN
Rome (AFP) June 03, 2014 -
Half of the world's forest species are at risk from climate change and farming, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, as it called for "urgent action" to manage them better.
In its first global study of forest genetic resources, the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said woodland was shrinking fastest in Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria.
"Forests provide food, goods and servic ...
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EU greenhouse emissions fall more than expected: new data
Copenhagen (AFP) June 03, 2014 -
The European Union's greenhouse-gas emissions fell more in 2012 than previously estimated, according to new data released on Tuesday.
By the end of 2012, the EU had reduced its output of heat-trapping greenhouse gases by more than 19 percent compared to 1990 levels, rather than the 18 percent announced in a preliminary reading in October last year.
Emissions fell "largely due to reducti ...
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H.K. rallies for Tiananmen anniversary as Beijing clamps down
Hong Kong (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
Tens of thousands gathered in Hong Kong Wednesday to remember the dead on the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the only major commemoration in China as authorities clamped tight security on Beijing.
The White House called for China's Communist authorities to account for those killed, detained or missing in connection with the June 1989 assault, still a taboo topic for a na ...
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Dalai Lama in democracy call ahead of Tibet autonomy push
Dharamsala, India (AFP) June 05, 2014 -
The Dalai Lama has called for democracy in China and offered prayers for victims of the Tiananmen crackdown ahead of the launch Thursday of a new campaign for autonomy in his Tibetan homeland.
Rattled by a wave of self-immolations that have highlighted the sense of desperation among Tibetans, the Nobel prize-winner and other exiled leaders are renewing their push for a "Middle Way" of peacef ...
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Paleontologists dig up remains of ancient giant crocodile
Cerrejon, Colombia (UPI) Jun 4, 2013 -
Even Happy Gilmore wouldn't stand a chance against Balrog, the ancient croc named for the Mines of Moria monster in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Perhaps no one would stand a chance against the ancient 16-foot, 900-pound croc, whose remains were discovered in an open-pit coal mine - one of the world's largest - in Cerrejon, Colombia.
Balrog - or more scientifically, Anthracosuchus bal ...
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Harsh space weather may doom potential life on red-dwarf planets
Boston (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Life in the universe might be even rarer than we thought. Recently, astronomers looking for potentially habitable worlds have targeted red dwarf stars because they are the most common type of star, comprising 80 percent of the stars in the universe. But a new study shows that harsh space weather might strip the atmosphere of any rocky planet orbiting in a red dwarf's habitable zone.
"A red ...
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Less than 5 percent of Chinese cities meeting air quality standards
Beijing (UPI) Jun 4, 2013 -
Less than 5 percent of the major Chinese cities subject to air quality monitoring have met national standards, the government said Wednesday.
Li Ganjie, vice minister for environmental protection, said only 3 of the 74 major cities subject to air quality monitoring met national quality standards set in 2013, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Beijing in May announced new s ...
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Weakened storm Boris still packing heavy rains, mudslide risk
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
Boris, now a tropical depression after losing some of its punch, nevertheless was potent enough to prompt evacuations of thousands of inhabitants Wednesday along Mexico's Pacific coast.
The season's second named storm - downgraded overnight from a tropical storm - Boris brought "extraordinarily" heavy rains that led disaster officials to evacuate some 16,000 people.
On his Twitter acco ...
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Galaxy possibly teeming with 100 million life-sustaining planets
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jun 03, 2014 -
Forget close encounters of a third kind. Imagine galactic encounters with millions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy, each of them overflowing with complex life forms. A new study says it's a possibility.
Although researchers are nearly unanimous in the belief that some other life forms exist in the great expanse of outer space, the worlds that any intelligent life forms inhabit are proba ...
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Satellites improving lives in rural Africa
Paris (ESA) Jun 03, 2014 -
An ESA-supported project is showing how satcoms can help farmers, voters and educators in rural Africa. The three elements of the Sway4edu project are helping to run elections, educate teachers and improve radio programming. Satellite terminals provide Internet connectivity, with solar panels and batteries (where needed), laptops, tablets, a projector with screen, and loudspeakers.
Sway4ed ...
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Oceans worth up to $222 bln annually in CO2 capture
Bonn (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
By absorbing carbon emissions from the atmosphere, the seas avert climate damage worth up to $222 billion (163 billion euros) every year, according to an estimate released on Thursday.
Fish catches are worth another $16 billion annually, according to the report by a non-governmental watchdog, the Global Ocean Commission, which hopes that by setting an economic price on the value of internati ...
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Physicist builds useful light source from harmonic generation
Manhattan KS (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
A Kansas State University physicist's proposal may lead to a new way of creating tabletop light sources in the laboratory. Cheng Jin, research associate in physics; Chii-Dong Lin, university distinguished professor of physics; and collaborators are developing a way to greatly enhance the generation of high-order harmonics to create powerful small tabletop light sources that are important to scie ...
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