The use of prescribed burns to manage western forests may help the United States reduce its carbon footprint.
Results of a new study find that such burns, often used by forest managers to reduce underbrush and protect bigger trees, release substantially less carbon dioxide emissions than wildfires of the same size.
It appears that prescribed burns can [...]
If It’s 3.14 it Must Be Pi Day
Here at Ecology Today, we’ve barely recovered from last year’s Square Root Day (3/3/09), but we won’t let that get in the way of extending an appropriately irrational “Happy Pi Day” to our dear, nerdy friends around the world. You know who you are.
(Those who aren’t pi lovers [...]
Classifying species as extinct is an inherently inexact science, particularly in cases where they exist in small populations or extremely remote areas.
Consider the once ubiquitous, Australian yellow-spotted bell frog, one of seven frog species thought to have been wiped out in the 1970s by an African fungus.
By happenstance, a colony of 100 was found in [...]
A little more than a year ago, Friday Night at the Movies featured a fascinating presentation by Janine Benyus on the topic of biomimicry — the art and science of drawing upon nature as inspiration to solve to design problems in a sustainable way.
This week’s Movie features three short videos about robots that borrow from [...]
Yesterday marked the opening of python season in South Florida – an attempt to curb the exploding population of invasive snake species that are wreaking havoc on the delicate ecosytem that is the Everglades. Or what’s left of it.
According to Florida’s Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee (FWC), Florida’s hot, wet, subtropical climate makes a [...]
Bringing Farming & Fresh Foods to Urban Neighborhoods
A fantastic story about Will Allen, from YesMagazine:
He was a high school All-American in basketball, played for the University of Miami, and played pro ball with the American Basketball Association in Europe. At a towering 6 feet 7 inches, with Schwarzenegger-size biceps, and chiseled features, Allen looks ready [...]
Chances are, you’ve heard of coral bleaching. You probably know that it’s a reaction to stress put upon coral by its environment, and that in severe cases, bleaching can be fatal. But do we know how bleaching occurs?
Actually, we do, and it’s a fascinating story of a symbiotic relationship between organisms. But before we get [...]
According to a summary of documents provided by its 27 members states, the European Union is poised to meet its 2020 target of deriving 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources.
Twenty-one nations expect to meet or exceed their goals, while only six expect to fall short; however, none of the six expects to miss [...]
Barely 24 hours after Chile was struck by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, reports of “looting” began airing on television news.
If you happened to be listening and not watching, you might have imagined hordes of lawless miscreants running through the streets with rolled-up carpets and flat-screen TVs. But if you were watching, what [...]
Unearthing a New History of Human Civilization
Klaus Schmidt, the German-born archeologist who first discovered the Gobekli Tepe temples in Turkey fifteen years ago, thinks they may be the first structures built by humans. Estimated to be a staggering 11,500 years old, the vast complex predates the Great Pyramid by 7,000 years and Stonehenge by 6,000 [...]
(8:30 AM EST) A massive, 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Chilean coast this morning at 3:34 local time, shaking residents from their beds, collapsing buildings, damaging highways and bridges, and triggering tsunami warnings across the Pacific basin.
The initial quake, one of the 10 most powerful ever recorded and the largest to hit Chile in nearly [...]
Sales of electronic products in countries like China and India and across continents such as Africa and Latin America are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years.
And, unless action is stepped up to properly collect and recycle materials, many developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the [...]
