Environment

Dawn: Energy experts believe that seaweed holds enormous potential as a biofuel alternative to coal and oil, and US-based scientists said Thursday they have unlocked the secret of turning its sugar into energy.

The team at the Berkeley, California-based Bio Architecture Lab engineered a form of E. coli bacteria that can digest the seaweed’s sugars into ethanol. – Reuters Photo

A newly engineered microbe can do the work by metabolizing all of the major sugars in brown seaweed, potentially making it a cost-competitive alternative to petroleum fuel, said the report in the US journal Science.

By Anthony Gucciardi, Contributor of Natural News

NaturalNews: Biotech giant Monsanto has been genetically modifying the world's food supply and subsequently breeding environmental devastation for years, but leaked documents now reveal that Monsanto has also deeply infiltrated the United States government. With leaked reports revealing how U.S. diplomats are actually working for Monsanto to push their agenda along with other key government officials, Monsanto's grasp on international politics has never been clearer.

By Charles Choi, LiveScience Contributor

Sticky underground leaves help a Brazilian plant to capture and digest worms, a hitherto unknown way for carnivorous plants to catch victims, scientists find.

The rare plant Philcoxia minensis is found in the tropical savannahs of Brazil, areas rich in biodiversity and highly in need of conservation. Although some of the plant's millimeter-wide leaves grow above ground as expected, strangely, most of its tiny, sticky leaves lie beneath the surface of the shallow white sands on which it grows.

The carnivorous plant, Philcoxia minensis resides in Serra do Cabral, Minas Gerais, Brazil (A), has some of its tiny leaves above ground (B), though most reside belowground (C & D) where they snag wormy snacks for the plant, helping the plant digest its meals.
CREDIT: Rafael Silva Oliveira, PNAS

Pakistan has decided to challenge in the international court of arbitration a decision of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to grant carbon credits to India on a controversial hydropower project without mandatory clearance of its trans-boundary environmental impact assessment.

Simultaneously, the water and power ministry has sought the opinion from the establishment division if Pakistan’s former commissioner for Indus Waters (PCIW) could be proceeded against after his retirement for not vigorously pursuing cases to stop India from construction of the controversial project and getting carbon credits from the UN forum, a senior official told Dawn on Sunday.

By Charles Elliott, Telegraph

Charles Elliott delves into the intriguing history of electro-horticulture.

Bolt from the blue: does lightning make crops grow quicker?

Ever since Benjamin Franklin got his knuckles burned when flying a kite in a thunderstorm, many scientists — and even more quacks — have been curious about the possibilities of what has been called electro-horticulture.

The rangeland experts devise effective guidelines for rangeland policies in Pakistan, Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) on Wednesday said.

He expressed these views while inaugurating the two workshops here on Wednesday. It is to be noted that International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is supporting the government in formulating its first ever-national policy on rangeland management. In this connection Regional Consultation Workshop on Pakistan Rangeland Policy was held in Islamabad from March 2 to 3, 2010. That workshop was jointly organised by Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Environment and Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) and was attended by members of the rangeland policy drafting group, and international consultants. In the workshop the participants refined the draft policy. The drafted policy was discussed in detail and many specific and insightful recommendations proposed.

Professor Wu Ning, Programme Manager, Ecosystem Services, ICIMOD, Dr Abdul Wahid Jasra, Team Leader, Range Resources Management, ICIMOD, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen and other attended the workshop.

By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth's land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major ecological community type -- such as forest, grassland or tundra -- toward another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study. 

By Bryan Nelson

Eerie phenomenon may be a blessing in disguise, as the hungry spiders have significantly reduced the mosquito population.

Even the elders in Pakistan's Sindh province admit they've never seen anything like it: whole trees encased in webs by millions of invading spiders. The mysterious phenomenon may be an unexpected result of the devastating floods that swept over Sindh in 2010, reports Wired.

According to scientists, the spiders likely collected in the trees after fleeing from the rising floodwaters. At their height, the floods covered as much as a fifth of the country and displaced as many as 20 million people.

Blogger and author Joe Linton makes a case for reusing your household water. He explains the dos and don'ts of a process that can save you money.

Among the Southern and Southwestern states, California was not alone in experiencing drought conditions from 2007 to 2009. And yet the average family uses about 500 gallons of water per day, according to the Los Angeles County Waterworks District. A significant portion of this often goes to watering lawns and ornamental plants.

Environmentalists have called for urgent action to save the last 400 argun palm trees, a rare desert palm tree highly valued by the ancient Egyptians

When empires rise and fall and plagues sweep over the land, people have traditionally cursed the stars. But perhaps they should blame the weather. A new analysis of European tree-ring samples suggests that mild summers may have been the key to the rise of the Roman Empire—and that prolonged droughts, cold snaps, and other climate changes might have played a part in historical upheavals, from the barbarian invasions that brought about Rome's collapse to the Black Death that wiped out much of medieval Europe.

Like humans, leaf-cutter ants recognise that older members of the group can still make a worthwhile contribution to society

They have a reputation for strength, organisation and teamwork.

But researchers have now discovered that a key secret to the success of ants is the insect's ability to identify the importance of age in the work place.

Prioritising: Leaf-cutter ants give the younger and more vigorous members of the colony the toughest job of cutting through the leaves they harvest

A study of Central American leaf-cutter ants has shown that the younger and more vigorous members of the colony are given the toughest job of cutting through the leaves they harvest.

By Colleen Jane Mcguire

Did you know that a North Carolina State University team has shown that water gel-based solar devices (called: "artificial leaves") can behave like solar cells to make electricity?

The analysis has been released on-line inside the Journal of Materials Chemistry by Dr. Orlin Velev, an Invista Professor of Chemical and Bio-molecular Engineering.

A decline in pollinating insects in India is resulting in reduced vegetable yields and could limit people's access to a nutritional diet, a study warns.

Indian researchers said there was a "clear indication" that pollinator abundance was linked to productivity.

The diversity of life that can be seen in environments ranging from the rainforests of the Amazon to the spring blooms of the Mohave Desert is awe-inspiring. But this diversity would not be possible if the ancestors of modern plants had just stayed in the water with their green algal cousins.

Moving onto dry land required major lifestyle changes to adapt to this new "hostile" environment, and in turn helped change global climate and atmospheric conditions to conditions we recognize today. By absorbing carbon while making food, and releasing oxygen, early plants shaped ecosystems into a more hospitable environment, paving the way for animals to make a parallel journey onto land.