On September 26, 1991, Jane Poynter and seven others embarked on a 2-year experiment in Biosphere 2, a three-acre, sealed environment in the Arizona desert designed to model the complex interactions involved in a self-sustaining ecosystem.
Like Earth — the original biosphere — Biosphere 2 was a materially closed system, dependent upon external systems only for [...]
Mountaintop mining, more commonly known as “mountaintop removal,” ranks among the ugliest and most violent examples of man’s disrespect for nature.
Most prevalent in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, mountaintop mining became widespread in the 1980s, and involves literally blasting up to 1,000 feet from the tops of mountains to expose the [...]
Among the major players in Earth’s carbon cycle are its oceans. Acting as a natural carbon sink, our oceans absorb nearly one-third of atmospheric carbon dioxide, creating the chemical equilibrium that fosters marine life as we’ve known it.
What happens when atmospheric carbon increases? The oceans try to absorb it. upsetting the equilibrium and increasing ocean [...]
Guest Post by Adam Downing
Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent, Forestry & Natural Resources
With the approach of Arbor Day, we should all have plans to plant a tree. To encourage you in this direction, I would like to recap some of the wonderful services trees offer.
(Note: If you do not have a yard or space to plant [...]
The melting of the polar ice caps has been capturing the attention of scientists and climatologists – in fact, people from all walks of life around the world – the past few years due to the dramatic changes taking place within them. The phenomenon affecting both ends of the Earth is considered an unquestionable harbinger [...]
Following up on Monday’s discussion of volcano monitoring, Mt. Redoubt and the “wisdom of storing 6 million gallons of crude near an active volcano” we begin with a story from the Anchorage Daily News, February 2 — a week after rumblings were detected but more than six week prior to the latest round of eruptions:
When [...]
A new Wildlife Phenology Program will enlist professional and citizen scientists across the country to monitor and record seasonal wildlife events to help managers understand and respond to climatic and other environmental changes.
The Wildlife Society (TWS) and the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) announced the program as the second phase in the USA-NPN’s monitoring efforts; [...]
Future increases in carbon dioxide (CO2) is the central consideration in a powerful conclusion of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that climate change is irreversible. “There’s no going back,” NOAA stated in a recent press release.
A pioneering study conducted by NOAA shows how changes in surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level are largely [...]
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources voices concern over declining moose population; Michigan’s Isle Royale declining population linked to increasingly hotter summer temperatures
As recently as 2003, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported that, “Wildlife managers have concerns over both of Minnesota’s moose populations” in the northwest and northeast portions of the state.
Antarctic worms, sea spiders, urchins and other marine creatures living in near-shore shallow habitats are regularly pounded by icebergs. New data suggests this environment along the Antarctic Peninsula is going to get hit more frequently. This is due to an increase in the number of icebergs scouring the seabed as a result of shrinking winter [...]
According to Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist and authority on waste management at the Natural Resources Defense Council, electronic hardware — or e-waste — is “the fastest-growing component of the municipal waste stream worldwide.”
Thanks to ongoing development of newer, faster, smaller and more capable devices, the computers, cell phones and other electronics that consumers crave and [...]
Lake Bogoria National Reserve, located in a volcanic, basin region of Kenya, is an amazing natural resource known for it’s countless hot springs and geysers — and huge flocks of stunningly beautiful, pink flamingos that at times can number in the millions.
Created in large part to protect the greater kudu, a woodland antelope found throughout [...]
