Posts Tagged ‘environment’

Wildlife populations plunge almost 60 percent since 1970: WWF

By Alister Doyle | Reuters Worldwide populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles have plunged by almost 60 percent since 1970 as human activities overwhelm the environment, the WWF conservation group said on Thursday. An index compiled with data from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to measure the abundance of biodiversity was down 58 percent…

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Massive mangrove die-off on Gulf of Carpentaria worst in the world, says expert

By Michael Slezak | The Guardian | July 11, 2016 Climate change and El Niño have caused the worst mangrove die-off in recorded history, stretching along 700km of Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, an expert says. The mass die-off coincided with the world’s worst global coral bleaching event, as well as the worst bleaching event on the Great…

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Can Virtual Reality Emerge As a Tool for Conservation?

By Heather Millar | Yale Environment360 | June 27, 2016 Could virtual reality (VR) — immersive digital experiences that mimic reality — save the environment? Well, that may be a bit of a stretch. But researchers say that it could perhaps promote better understanding of nature and give people empathetic insight into environmental challenges. “Virtual reality can…

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Changing the Face of the Earth

By Dr. Colin Waters | LaboratoryNews | April 12, 2016 We have geo-engineered the Earth expertly for our own ends, but will humanity’s indelible stamp on the planet define an entire geological epoch? The term “Anthropocene” was coined by Paul Crutzen 16 years ago to mark the present as distinct from previous geological time. The term has…

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Is It Game Over for Coal?

By Emma Foehringer Merchant | New Republic | March 18, 2016 Last Friday, Oregon became the first state to ban coal outright, passing a bill that will phase out any electricity generated by coal by 2035. Several days earlier, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that 80 percent of last year’s retired electricity was coal-powered. In 2016, natural gas…

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The Anthropocene: Great Marketing, Wrong Product

By Brad Allenby | Slate | February 8, 2016 It was in 2011 that the Economist, a publication usually known for arcane speculation on geopolitics and economics, welcomed its readers to the Anthropocene and warned that humans had “changed the way the world works.” The drumbeat behind the concept has continued, recently receiving new momentum with the release in…

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In Search of a New Politics For a New Environmental Era

By Diane Toomey | Yale Environment 360 | January 20, 2016 That we live in a new epoch defined by humankind’s unprecedented influence on the natural world is becoming less a matter of debate than a starting point for future action. But now that the Anthropocene phenomenon has been identified and labeled, how do we act…

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Return of the Anthropocene Team

Strictly Docs | January 11, 2016 Director Jennifer Baichwal with producer/cinematographer Nick de Pencier and 
world-renowned photographer and co-director Edward Burtynsky are reuniting for a third time to make Anthropocene – a unique documentary looking at our current geologic time period. And why exactly is that worth investigating, you say? Well, for those familiar with the filmmakers’ works will…

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Humans Leave a Telltale Residue on Earth

By David Biello | Scientific American | January 7, 2016 Evidence for a new geologic epoch continues to accumulate, like layers of sediment that over time harden into strata. Although those who study the branch of geology known as stratigraphy—the study of those strata and their resolution into Earth’s vast geologic time scale—will continue to debate the idea of…

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A New Geological Epoch, the Anthropocene, Has Begun, Scientists Say

By Emily Chung | CBC News – Technology & Science | January 7, 2016 We’re living through one of the most extraordinary events in Earth’s history — the start of a new geological epoch, an international group of scientists says. Welcome to the Anthropocene, everyone. Geological epochs are long periods of time — typically lasting around two million…

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