Earth
- Earth
The facts behind the frack
The gas, primarily methane, is cheap and relatively clean. Because America is brimful of the stuff, harvesting the fuel via fracking could provide the country jobs and reduce its dependence on foreign sources of energy.
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- Earth
Nanosized pollutants pose crop risks
Nanoparticles in exhaust and common consumer products can end up in soil and harm the growth and health of crops.
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- Earth
Antibacterial agent can weaken muscle
Triclosan impairs the power of the heart and other muscles in two species and at relatively low doses.
- Earth
Global groundwater use outpaces supply
Footprint measure reveals unsustainable use of the world’s aquifers.
- Earth
Extreme hot spells rising
Analyzing six decades of temperature records reveals inexorable warming and increasing episodes of extreme heat.
- Earth
Greenland enters melt mode
This year’s record-breaking island-wide thaw punctuates an ongoing warming trend.
- Animals
Epidemic of skin lesions reported in reef fish
A British-Australian research team has just found coral trout living on the south side of the Great Barrier Reef sporting dark skin raised, scablike, brown-black growths. Although the authors believe they’ve stumbled onto an epidemic of melanoma — a type of skin cancer — other experts have their doubts. Strong ones.
- Earth
Stronger storms may destroy ozone
Extra water vapor churned high into the atmosphere by climate change–fueled tempests could trigger destructive chemical reactions.
- Earth
External ills imperil tropical reserves
Impacts just outside park boundaries cause ecosystems within to decline.
- Earth
Night lights may foster depression
In animals, chronic dim light triggers brain changes that disappear with the return of nightlong darkness.
