Archive | February 2019

“Psychoterratica is the trauma caused by distance from nature”

Olive tree.

Disconnection from nature can be bad for our mental health. But there was no name for this particular malaise until 2000, when Australian sustainability professor Glenn Albrecht coined the term psychoterratica, creating the beginning of a vocabulary to discuss the relationship between mental health and environment.

“Rising pharmaceutical levels in water sources pose ecological problems”

https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2019/02/22/Rising-pharmaceutical-levels-in-water-sources-pose-ecological-problems/6901550843299/

Freshwater sources all over the planet continue to host greater and greater concentrations of pharmaceuticals, causing a variety of ecological problems.

“Britain’s Puffin Community Is Thriving”

Puffins.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-22/britain-s-puffin-community-is-thriving?srnd=premium-europe

While the seabird is suffering declines in most places elsewhere, the U.K. population is up 9% from last count and has gained from 25 years ago.

“Man-Made Climate Change Causes Its First Mammal Extinction”

Image result for bramble cay melomys

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-20/climate-change-causes-its-first-mammal-extinction

Climate change officially killed off its first mammalian species earlier this week, when Australia’s environment minister moved a small coast-dwelling rodent from the endangered to the extinct list.


“EU Negotiators Reach Agreement on First CO2 Caps for Trucks”

 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-19/eu-negotiators-reach-agreement-on-first-co2-caps-for-trucks-jsbaupw5?srnd=economics-vp

European Union negotiators agreed to impose caps on carbon dioxide from trucks for the first time, stepping up the fight against climate change with a challenge to manufacturers such as Daimler AG.

Representatives of EU governments and the European Parliament fixed a 30 percent CO2-reduction target for 2030 compared with 2019 levels. At a meeting that ended early Tuesday in Brussels, the officials also endorsed an interim emissions cut of 15 percent for 2025.You’ve reached your free article limit.

“Natural Gas Guru Who Corrected the CIA Says Russia and U.S. Pick the Wrong Fight”

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanks.

Link

The scientist who built the most prominent Cold War energy advisory said the U.S. and Russia should set aside their fight over natural gas markets and focus on slashing fossil fuel pollution more quickly.

Nebojsa Nakicenovic helped set the stage for the global gas boom five decades ago as part of an elite scientific team that fixed Central Intelligence Agency estimates “that were all wrong.” He combined the CIA’s views with secret Soviet data to provide the first full picture of the Earth’s plentiful methane reserves. But the window to tap those deposits is already almost closed, he said.You’v

“Great whites may have wiped out the biggest shark that ever lived”

Megalodon sharks could reach up to three times the size of the largest great white ever recorded.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/14/us/megalodon-extinct-earlier-scli-intl/index.html

The megalodon — also known as the biggest shark ever — became extinct a million years earlier than previously thought, due to competition from much smaller great white sharks, according to new research. The full paper is published in the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences.

“Rating riverside corridors — the ‘escape routes’ for animals under climate change”

Image result for escape route signs

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190208161447.htm

While riverside habitats are known to be important for species migrating under climate change, this is the first study to rank riparian areas as targets for restoration and conservation efforts.