Environment

Bee Colonies In 2014 Increase Another 4 Percent

The National Agricultural Statistics Service  of the United States Department of Agriculture has released its honey report for 2014 and found it's boom times for bees. Hives increased again, another 4 percent, up to a whopping 2.74 million colonies, ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Mar 23 2015 - 5:05pm

Is Bio-Based Insulation Ready For Prime Time?

The country of France recently sided with environmental donors and mandated that new buildings must have solar panels or plants on the roof. Though the science is unclear, the belief is that this will naturally cool buildings or, in the case of planets, re ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 22 2015 - 12:32pm

Methyl Bromide And Strawberries: Why Everyone Still Uses A 'Banned' Pesticide

There was an article on the ABC site this morning which gave us this alarming headline “ Pesticide banned worldwide still used to grow 70pc of Australian strawberries ”. Shocking! Except, well, there were a few teeny tiny but important details missing. Li ...

Article - The Conversation - Mar 30 2015 - 11:10am

Nitrogen Fertilizers Not Recommended For Radiata Pine Plantations

A new study has recommended against using nitrogen to fertilize radiata pine plantations after analysis of more than 1,500 soil samples gathered in timber woodlands in Bizkaia and the north of Araba-Álava in recent years.  Fertilizing using phosphorus is r ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 31 2015 - 7:30am

Plowing Prairies For Grains: Biofuel Crops Replace Grasslands Nationwide

Clearing grasslands to make way for biofuels may seem counterproductive, but University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers show in a study today (April 2, 2015) that crops, including the corn and soy commonly used for biofuels, expanded onto 7 million acres ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 7 2015 - 11:41pm

Natural GMO: Rice Borrows Stronger Defense From Other Plants

Rice is well-equipped with an effective immune system that enables it to detect and fend off disease-causing microbes but sometimes nature needs a hand. A new study shows that rice immunity gets boosted when the plant receives a receptor protein from a com ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 3 2015 - 11:45am

Micro-Climate: Deforestation Blamed For Changes In Local Climate And Food Production

Deforestation could impact global food production by triggering changes in local climate, according to research on albedo (the amount of the sun's radiation reflected from Earth's surface) and evapotranspiration (the transport of water into the ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 4 2015 - 11:03am

California Government Is The Big Water Management Problem

It is raining in California as I write this but most of it will do little good. The rain is going to go to a gutter and the gutter will go to a stream and that will go to an ocean. Yes, much of the fresh water that California has runs into the Pacific Ocea ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Apr 7 2015 - 10:45pm

Climate Change May Accelerate Carbon Loss From Soils

Soil is considered e a semi-permanent storehouse for ancient carbon but it may instead be releasing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere faster than thought, which means that the carbon bomb not happening in one study could be happening in this other one publ ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 10 2015 - 9:28am

Big 6? Capitanian Extinction Gets New Evidence

Since the Cambrian Explosion, ecosystems have suffered repeated mass extinctions, 5 of which wiped out half of all species: The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction, the Triassic–Jurassic extinction, the Permian–Triassic extinction, the Late Devonian extinction ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 16 2015 - 8:30am