As the world’s economies continue to dig themselves out of the “Great Recession of ’08“, some are now looking to a rising stock market, a sputtering of new jobs, and … [Read full article]
Tag: ecosystem services
Global Drought Predicted by Century's End – "Unprecedented Consequences"
By the 2030’s, more and more regions across our planet will be entering drought conditions, according to a recently published study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at … [Read full article]
River Ruin – 80% of World's People Face Water Insecurity
In a first-ever “world-wide synthesis”, an international team of scientists has analyzed data on 23 “drivers of environmental stress” that impact the health and quality of the world’s major rivers. … [Read full article]
'Woody' Biomass Breakthrough: Fungus is the Key
The resurgent interest in alternative fuels has propelled interest in using biomass “feedstocks” as an energy source for liquid fuel and bio-electricity generation. But bio-fuel (and other ‘commodity chemicals’) derived from biomass faces one big technical challenge: how to separate the useful constituents of cellulose-based biomass (i.e., its its six-carbon, building block sugars) from the not so useful ones (such as lignin and hemicellulose)? REcetn research has confirmed that the key to biomass conversion to fuel is a fungus with the less-than-appealing name of brown rot fungus.
'Bar Code of Life' Project Gears Up for Global Test Run
Genetic barcoding is a technique that involves identifying segments of animal DNA (genomes) that are unique to each species. These unique genetic sequences are preserved in a database (the iBOL library) that anyone can access for free.
World's Biodiversity Loss Not Slowing, Major Analysis Finds [Video]
Although there has been some local, positive improvements in stemming or reversing biodiversity loss (primarily in protected areas), globally, the findings in this aggregate analysis show that the rate of increase in biodiversity loss is stable.
Millennium Group Seeks to Alter Behavior & Halt Global Collapse
“To lead decent lives, at least two billion people are in dire need of more consumption, but extending American consumption patterns to even today’s 6.8 billion people is not only unsustainable but likely a biophysical impossibility.” — Paul R. Ehrlich, Stanford University