That fungus among us may be the answer to uranium-polluted soils eventually being brought back into use.
Researchers at Dundee Unversity in the UK have determined that fungi can block uranium from finding its way into plants, animals or the water supply.
Scientists have found that what they call free-living and plant fungi can, “colonise depleted uranium surfaces and transform the metal into uranyl phosphate minerals”.
Following are the top international environmental news for during the week of April 13 - 20. See an archive of top international environmental news here.
Asia
Two “Extinct” Species Discovered
First there was Swinshoe’s softshell turtle, and then the Javan Elephant. Is this more commonplace than we might believe?
Frankly, no. Despite the occasional hubbub over an animal science has lost track of– say, the Coelacanth– we’ve witnessed something extraordinary. Swinshoe’s turtle was previously believed to be extinct in the wild, with only three remaining in captivity, and therefore every one of these 300-pound turtles is a critical find.
Continue reading: Environmental Graffiti. Hot in media: Stumble Upon.
Yesterday evening I went to hear a sobering talk in Berkeley by Five Colleges professor of Peace and World Security Studies, Michael Klare. Klare suggests in his newest book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, that we are now facing a new world order in which power transfers to net energy exporters (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kazakhstan) from net energy importers (e.g., the United States). He believes oil will peak between 2012 and 2015 at somewhere around 95-100 million barrels/day. Regardless of whether oil peaks then, he says supply will not be able to keep up with demand much longer.
From http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=76003
Klare points out that China will soon have the world’s largest fleet of automobiles - in decade or so - as they are following our model of auto-centric development. He had hoped that China would leapfrog oil to more sustainable mobility solutions but that is not happening.
It’s springtime in South Korea. Just a month ago the ground was covered in snow; today the hills are pink with cherry blossoms. Eager solar panels soak up the warm sunshine. On the mountain, wind turbines spin in the sweetly scented spring breeze. In the seaboard city of Gangneung, children’s delighted shrieks fill neighborhood parks.
Over the city, military jets cleave the sky.
The jets that weave all day long over Gangneung are a reminder that for the past 60 years Korea has been a country divided and at war with itself. Gangneung, with its windfarm, solar panels, and cherry blossoms, lies less than 100 miles (160 km) from the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, the world’s last remaining Cold War border.
This week, as springtime blooms, a series of events unfolded which threaten to destabilize the delicate balance between the North and the South.
Five years have gone by. The U.S. casualty toll is now 4,000. It is estimated that some 80,000 plus Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the war.
Photo Courtesy of Luke Plunkett @ Kotaku.com
There isn’t a body count for wildlife, native plants, or eco-systems that have been killed in the struggle.
War takes a priceless toll on everything natural. Yet, nature may be the last thing that nations go to [...]
The Vietnam-era poster that said, “War is not healthy for children and other living things,” had it right. Modern warfare can wreak environmental havoc like never before, according to the upcoming issue of World Watch magazine.
In the January/February 2008 issue, author Sarah DeWeerdt explores the unprecedented levels of environmental destruction caused by recent conflicts in
[...]
By Anthony J. Gerst
The war-torn and ravaged nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo is a rather confusing issue. A rapid-fired crash course on the subject brings up some interesting facts, however. This nation has basically been at war since 1998, and the result has been an estimated 3.5 million deaths. There are more residents classified as internally displaced persons (IDP’s) than established citizens. OK, that may be a stretch but not by much.
Oddly enough in the nomadic camps throughout this nation, we find citizens from the entire region, as the populations of these camps are composed of people from Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Sudan and of course the Republic of Congo. So what on earth is going on here, in a nation that recently saw an outbreak of Ebola deep in its jungle recesses? Well, to understand anything of the area is to understand what makes the Congo go around. This nation is home to a vast array of precious metals and resources: found here are reserves of cobalt, copper, uranium, timber, gold and silver to name but a few. It is the control over these resources that brings about the constant battles within the Congo. On any given day, from 6-10 different factions are battling for control. Within this number are local indigenous peoples who are simply trying to stay alive.
Terror and terrorism is alive and well here, as the battles are waged at the expense of anyone in the vicinity. The groups battling have no honor; they are simply armed groups of masquerading hired thugs. They instill fear in the populous with rape and rampage. According to the UN, 90,000 people were forced to flea their homes in September alone. The ongoing warfare has prevented 150,000 people from receiving food aid from the UN World Food Programme.
The real toy soldiers are children, and it is estimated that 250,000 children are exploited every day by paramilitary, guerrilla, and state-run military groups. Nine countries have been identified as using child soldiers, and eight of those countries receive US military assistance. How could this be?
It is obvious that being a child soldier is detrimental to children’s social and emotional development. It is bad enough to live in a [...]
Well, I apologize for being so political this week,but I can’t help it.
At a recent United Nations summit meeting there was special session focused on improving the lives of the world’s children. It was agreed that no authentic progress would be made until one fundamental question had been addressed: how do we get the people of one nation to actually care about the children of another nation?
[...]
Holy crap, did you know that your average U.S. soldier in Iraq uses 88 AA bateries during a five day mission!?! The U.S. Military blows through 2.4 million gallons of fuel every day in Iraq and Afghanistan and 2/3 of the stuff soldiers carry in combat is fuel.
All political issues aside, that is a terribly inefficient way to run an army. The military needs to get way more aggressive about embracing renewable energy. Soldiers, [...]
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