Paris (AFP) Nov 4, 2020 The discovery that coral-eating starfish are late risers and feed mostly at night could help slow the decline of the Great Barrier Reef and other shallow-water corals already ravaged by global warming, scientists reported Wednesday. Crown-of-thorns starfish suck the colour and life out of corals, a favourite food, but in a healthy ecosystem their numbers are held in check. When … Continue reading Scientists find chink in coral-eating starfish armour

Washington (AFP) Nov 5, 2020 The United States left the Paris accord on Wednesday, becoming the first country to ever withdraw from an international climate change pact, but Joe Biden vowed he would immediately return as president. With election results pointing to a likely defeat for Donald Trump in Tuesday’s election, Biden took on the tone of a president-elect and made clear that climate was … Continue reading US formally quits Paris agreement but Biden pledges return

Washington DC (SPX) Nov 05, 2020 Some people refer to the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau as the “third pole” because the region has the largest reserve of glacial snow and ice outside of the north and south poles. The glaciers, which are extremely sensitive to climate change and human influence, have been retreating over the past decade. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science and Technology Letters … Continue reading Brown carbon ‘tarballs’ detected in Himalayan atmosphere

Bilwi, Nicaragua (AFP) Nov 3, 2020 Eta smashed into Nicaragua’s northern Caribbean coast as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday, unleashing fierce winds that tore up trees, ripped roofs off dwellings and blocked roads. The hurricane, which intensified rapidly from a Category 1 storm on Monday over the warm waters of the Caribbean, hammered impoverished indigenous communities along the coast, already pummeled by high winds … Continue reading Furious Category Four hurricane Eta smashes into Nicaragua

Thuwal, Saudi Arabia (SPX) Nov 03, 2020 A printable ink with an unsurpassed conductivity and transparency tradeoff has been developed by a KAUST team for use in solar panels, and for the novel blocking of electromagnetic waves. Metals, such as copper and gold, generate little heat when a current flows through them. For this reason, these high-conductivity materials are used extensively in the electronics industry. … Continue reading Sheer protection from electromagnetic radiation

Glasgow (AFP) Nov 1, 2020 Katrina Cobain unwraps a parcel and removes its precious contents, slowly and delicately as if she were handling an ancient scroll of papyrus. But the items she places on the table of a makeshift studio in an old tobacco pipe factory in the east end of Glasgow are rather more mundane – plastic carrier bags. Yet, to many, they are … Continue reading Glasgow artist launches plastic bag museum

Washington DC (SPX) Nov 02, 2020 Persistent cold temperatures and strong circumpolar winds, also known as the polar vortex, supported the formation of a large and deep Antarctic ozone hole that should persist into November, NOAA and NASA scientists reported Friday. The annual Antarctic ozone hole reached its peak size at about 9.6 million square miles (24.8 million square kilometers), roughly three times the area … Continue reading Large, deep Antarctic Ozone Hole persisting into November

Bras?lia (AFP) Nov 2, 2020 A record high number of fires scorched Brazil’s Amazon and Pantanal wetlands last month, official data showed on Sunday, as deforestation and climate change wreaked havoc on some of the planet’s most valuable ecosystems. The Amazon rainforest has been described as the Earth’s “lungs” due to its role in producing almost 10 percent of the world’s oxygen. The Pantanal further … Continue reading Record fires ravage Brazil’s Amazon and Pantanal regions

Boston MA (SPX) Nov 02, 2020 In ecosystems around the globe, the danger of being a common or widespread species is the tendency to be overlooked by conservation efforts that prioritize rarity. In forests, the most common species can be essential to ecosystem structure and function, which crumble with the decline of these pivotal trees, known collectively as foundation species. In an effort to identify … Continue reading China’s most important trees are hiding in plain sight

Manila (AFP) Nov 1, 2020 At least 10 people were killed as Typhoon Goni pounded the Philippines Sunday, ripping off roofs, toppling power lines and causing flooding in the hardest-hit areas where hundreds of thousands had fled their homes. The strongest typhoon of the year also triggered deadly landslides that buried a number of houses in the southern part of the most populous island of … Continue reading Scores dead as Goni batters Philippines; Eta intensifies as Nicaragua issues warning