Just as we had gotten over rejoicing at the reports that the ozone hole above the Antarctic was apparently healing, we have some bad news. It turns out that a massive hole has opened up in the ozone layer above the Arctic. The reason this time around seems to beContinue Reading
The ozone layer above Antarctica has recovered so much, it’s actually stopped many worrying changes in the Southern Hemisphere’s atmosphere. A new study suggests the Montreal Protocol – the 1987 agreement to stop producing ozone depleting substances (ODSs) – could be responsible for pausing, or even reversing, some troubling changesContinue Reading
According to scientists at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, February 2020 has been ranked as the second-hottest February in the 141-year global climate record. The meteorological winter hardly made an appearance in large parts of the Northern Hemisphere this year, as both Europe and Asia recorded their warmest wintersContinue Reading
The Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica is a dark and forbidding place where winds often exceed 80 miles per hour and towering waves as high as a 5-story building. Life expectancy in the frigid waters at the bottom of the world is about 7 minutes in a survival suit, 30Continue Reading
Remote islands without large populations are the most effective indicator of the amount of plastic debris floating in the oceans. On the beaches of the tiny Cocos (Keeling) Islands, population 600, marine scientists found 977,000 shoes and 373,000 toothbrushes. A comprehensive survey of debris on the islands – among theContinue Reading
A 2014 study looked by the union of concerned scientists looked at 52 sea level indicators in communities across the US. It found tidal flooding will dramatically increase in many East and Gulf Coast locations, based on a conservative estimate of predicted sea level increases based on current data. ByContinue Reading
A group of researchers has developed a new strategy that promises to help expand the scope for production of bioplastics. In recent years, scientists and industry have focused on developing bioplastics as a replacement for synthetic ones to help protect the environment. However, bio-polymers produced from materials like starch haveContinue Reading
A new kind of toilet using bacteria to break down human excreta has been deployed in Indian trains over four years to 2017, at a cost of Rs 1,305 crore, but this toilet is no better than a septic tank, the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has concluded after aContinue Reading
