Earth
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Earth
From Bad to Worse: Earth’s warming to accelerate
Global warming is real and will continue, and there's strong evidence that people are to blame, an international panel of scientists has concluded.
By Sid Perkins -
Earth
Corn, a new sensor of carbon dioxide
Scientists have developed a way to use corn plants to monitor and map human-generated emissions of carbon dioxide.
By Sid Perkins -
Agriculture
Ethanol Juggernaut Diverts Corn from Food to Fuel
Corn feeds the production of meat and dairy goods in the United States, so those products are likely to increase in price as ethanol fuel demands more of the country's corn supply.
By Janet Raloff -
Earth
Disaster’s Consequences: Hurricane’s legacy includes arsenic
Construction debris strewn across the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina contains a disturbing amount of arsenic that could contaminate groundwater if not properly managed.
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Earth
Gas tanks could guzzle half of U.S. corn yields
Strong expansion of the U.S. corn-to-ethanol industry, now under way, stands poised to divert much of the grain from food uses to transportation fuel.
By Janet Raloff -
Earth
Sudden Chill
Today's combination of nuclear proliferation, political instability, and urban demographics increases the likelihood that humankind could suffer a devastating nuclear winter.
By Sid Perkins -
Earth
Heating releases cookware chemicals
Nonstick coatings on fry pans and microwave-popcorn bags can, when heated, release traces of potentially toxic perfluorinated chemicals.
By Janet Raloff -
Earth
Aquatic Non-Scents
Many common pollutants appear to be jeopardizing the survival of fish and other aquatic species by blunting their sense of smell.
By Janet Raloff -
Earth
2006: Hottest year in U.S. history
Preliminary analyses of weather data gathered from more than 1,200 sites across the continental United States indicate that last year was the warmest on record.
By Sid Perkins -
Earth
Mercury pollution settles in hot spots
Certain areas of North America are particularly susceptible to environmental accumulation of mercury.
By Ben Harder -
Earth
Counterintuitive Toxicity
Toxicologists risk missing important health effects, both good and bad, if they don't begin regularly probing the impacts of very low doses of poisons.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Cloned Meat and Milk Are Safe, but They Won’t Hit Stores Soon
A Food and Drug Administration analysis concludes that food from cloned animals is safe, but the effort and expense involved in creating these animals means that products from them won't be in markets anytime soon.