The development of a big brain in humans and its connection to social bonding has been a hot topic of debate, and secrets found in fossil teeth may hold the answers.



Researchers have been studying the fossilized teeth of an early Homo from Georgia, dating back approximately 1.77 million years. The research was made possible by the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France.



The findings suggest that despite having a small brain and reaching adulthood at a similar pace to great apes, these early humans had a prolonged childhood. 



This could mean that the large brain of modern humans resulted from an extended childhood along with cultural transmission across generations instead of vice versa.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-long-childhood-big-brains">Long childhood, big brains</h2>



A team of researchers - including specialists from Switzerland's <a href="https://www.uzh.ch/en.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Zurich</a>, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and Georgia's National Museum - have challenged the theory that modern humans' extended childhood is directly linked to their large brains.



The team analyzed dental development in an early Homo that was almost an adult. The results suggest that though these early humans reached adulthood at a similar age as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/buronius-manfredschmidi-tiny-great-ape-species-lived-11-million-years-ago/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">great apes</a>, their tooth development followed a longer timeline similar to modern humans.



This proposes the distinct possibility of a longer dependency on adults and an elongated childhood for these early humans.



Remarkably, the brain size of these early Homo specimens was only marginally larger than that of a chimpanzee. This made the researchers question the link between the prolonged development and cultural transmission across generations.



An extended childhood within a three-generation context might have allowed the immature members of the group to effectively assimilate growing amounts of knowledge. 



Eventually, this led to the development of larger brains and longer life spans, traits characteristic of modern humans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dental-development-in-early-homo">Dental development in early Homo</h2>



An enduring assumption has been that humans' extended growth period is a consequence of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-brain-sizes-are-growing-possibly-lowering-dementia-risk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">increased brain volume</a> since a larger organ requires more energy resources to grow. But analysis of the fossil's dental growth has caused researchers to question this hypothesis.



The research team used synchrotron imaging to study the dental development of a near-adult fossil of early Homo from the Dmanisi site in Georgia, dated to around 1.77 million years ago. 



<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="CWxiqQg039-4024544-12187" type="single"]</div>



“Childhood and cognition do not fossilize, so we have to rely on indirect information. Teeth are ideal because they fossilize well and produce daily rings, in the same way that trees produce annual rings, which record their development,” noted study first author Christoph Zollikofer from the University of Zurich.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-unexpected-findings-and-a-new-perspective">Unexpected findings and a new perspective</h2>



“Dental development is strongly correlated with the development of the rest of the body, including brain development," explained study co-author Paul Tafforeau, scientist at the ESRF.



"Access to the details of a <a href="https://www.earth.com/search-results/?search=fossil%20hominid&amp;start=0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fossil</a> hominid's dental growth therefore provides a great deal of information about its general growth."



After almost two decades of research beginning in 2005, the initial results startled researchers. 



“We expected to find either dental development typical of early hominids, close to that of the great apes, or dental development close to that of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/neanderthal-genes-still-influence-modern-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modern humans</a>," said Tafforeau.



"When we obtained the first results, we couldn’t believe what we saw, because it was something different that implied faster molar crown growth than in any other fossil hominin or living great ape."



In the following years, the team conducted five series of experiments and completed four full analyses, employing various methods as dental synchrotron imaging technology advanced.



As the consistent results suggested significant implications for the "big brain - long childhood" hypothesis, the scientists needed to think creatively to interpret this fossil's findings.



“It's been a slow maturation, both technically and intellectually, to finally arrive at the hypothesis we are publishing today,” said Tafforeau.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-longer-childhood-evolution-s-early-experiment">Longer childhood: Evolution's early experiment?</h2>



The dental development of the studied fossil suggested that milk teeth were used longer than in great apes, implying that early Homo children were dependent on adult care for a longer duration.



This could be the first experiment evolution took towards a prolonged childhood. Despite having brains only slightly larger than australopithecines or great apes, early Homo are believed to have lived longer.



The survival of a very old individual with no teeth for several years indicates that the group sufficiently cared for him. This alludes to a three-generation structure, a key aspect of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-started-cumulative-culture-around-600000-years-ago/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cultural transmission in humans</a>.



The new hypothesis begins with children's growth slowing down as cultural transmission increased. 



The accumulation of information from older to younger individuals had an advantageous effect on resource utilization and the development of complex behaviors, thus favoring a longer childhood. 



Once this mechanism was established, natural selection acted on cultural transmission, not just biological traits. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-brains-and-delayed-adulthood">Big brains and delayed adulthood</h2>



As the volume of transferrable information grew, evolution supported a larger brain and delayed adulthood, enabling a longer learning period in childhood and time to grow a bigger brain despite limited food resources.



The large brain of modern humans could be attributed to an extended childhood and a three-generation structure encouraging bio-cultural evolution. These mechanisms may have led to increased brain size, delayed adulthood, and longer lifespan. 



The study of this exceptional fossil could motivate researchers to rethink the evolutionary mechanisms that led to Homo sapiens.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08205-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



Image &amp; Video Credit: ESRF/Paul Tafforeau, Vincent Beyrand



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How did humans get big brains? Fossil teeth reveal new clues

The development of a big brain in humans and its connection to social bonding has been a hot topic of debate, and secrets found in fossil teeth may hold the answers. Researchers have been studying the fossilized teeth of an early Homo from Georgia, dating back approximately 1.77 million years. The research was made possible by the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France. The findings suggest that despite having a small brain and reaching adulthood at a similar pace to great apes, these early humans had a prolonged...

New Texas Law Bans Cities From Banning Fracking. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law a prohibition on cities and towns imposing local ordinances preventing fracking and other potentially environmentally harmful oil and natural<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/giant-animals-vanished-from-madagascar-after-humans-arrived/"> gas</a> activities.
The much-watched measure sailed through the GOP-controlled Legislature after voters in Denton, a university town near <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=dallas&amp;cvid=1de2205b39ba4fadbb0f19e5cdc97278&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Dallas</a>, banned hydraulic fracturing locally in November.
The new law limits not only the Denton ban but other actions communities could take limiting energy industry activities. It was backed by oil and gas concerns. New <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=texas&amp;cvid=73d7c3aa22734886947fb3e2a71a9626&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Texas</a> Law Bans Cities From Banning Fracking
Abbott said Monday he was protecting private property rights from the "heavy hand of local regulation."
He saw no contradiction in new state regulations superseding local voters' will, saying he believes "individuals have a much better idea how to run their own lives than do a bunch of government officials." Without an act of Congress, the President could not issue an outright ban on fracking across the US. There are, however, a number of regulatory and executive actions an administration could take to prevent or shrink the use of fracking technology, particularly on federal land.
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New Texas Law Bans Cities From Banning

New Texas Law Bans Cities From Banning Fracking. Republican Texas...

New Texas Law Bans Cities From Banning Fracking. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law a prohibition on cities and towns imposing local ordinances preventing <a href="https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&amp;ccid=eAPN9YEZ&amp;id=11B9B035B9AC85DFD1FC8AA4363D588103F4C417&amp;thid=OIP.eAPN9YEZ-5O7v1jV1nZ_OAHaFO&amp;mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR7803cdf58119fb93bbbf58d5d6767f38%3frik%3dF8T0A4FYPTakig%26riu%3dhttp%253a%252f%252fmarketbusinessnews.com%252fwp-content%252fuploads%252f2017%252f04%252fImpact-of-Air-Pollution-on-Human-Health.jpg%26ehk%3dq8n1kIt%252fLPbpAYtoQWGNOnURL4zPyjHXLAPrmSa6n6s%253d%26risl%3d%26pid%3dImgRaw&amp;exph=661&amp;expw=937&amp;q=Fracking+Harms+Air+Quality+And+Human+Health&amp;simid=608002520309366936&amp;ck=2DF15059B364C2EB7DF91F4B5D75B791&amp;selectedIndex=2&amp;FORM=IRPRST&amp;ajaxhist=0">fracking</a> and other potentially environmentally harmful oil and natural gas activities.
The much-watched measure sailed through the GOP-controlled Legislature after voters in Denton, a university town near Dallas, banned hydraulic fracturing locally in November.
The new law limits not only the Denton ban but other actions communities could take limiting energy industry activities. It was backed by <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fruit-eating-mammals-fertilize-the-soil-in-tropical-forests/">oil</a> and gas concerns. New Texas Law Bans Cities From Banning Fracking
Abbott said Monday he was protecting private property rights from the "heavy hand of local regulation."
He saw no contradiction in new state regulations superseding local voters' will, saying he believes "individuals have a much better idea how to run their own lives than do a bunch of government officials."Hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking, fracing, hydrofracking, fraccing, frac'ing, and hydrofracturing, is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "fracking fluid" (primarily water, containing sand or other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents) into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep-rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely. When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants (either sand or aluminium oxide) hold the fractures open.
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Pouring Water Into Glass On Blue Background

California Expands Efforts To Protect Drinking Water. California regulators on Monday expanded their list of thousands of state-permitted <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=oil&amp;cvid=5c0910e0a09347979e3b50cffc334168&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">oil</a> and gas wells where below-ground injections may be contaminating drinking-water reserves.
State water officials already have acknowledged that improperly permitted oilfield operations have contaminated underground aquifers that are federally protected because they hold current or potential sources of drinking water.
An ongoing state review ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has yet to break that down into whether any <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/oroville-dam-californian-catastrophe/">Californian</a> is drinking contaminated water as a result of the improperly authorized oilfield operations, a state water official said.
"We don't really know yet," and the answer "is not going to be tomorrow," John Borkovich, chief of the state water board's groundwater monitoring section, told reporters. "There's a lot of data to collect."
The review by state oil and gas regulators identified in 2014 more than 2,500 oilfield wells that were injecting brine and other production and waste fluids into the federally protected water aquifers. State regulators this year and last ordered oil companies to shut 23 central California oilfield injection wells - 22 in Kern County and one in Tulare County - that officials said posed the biggest potential threat to nearby public water wells.
On Monday, regulators released a state letter sent Friday to the U.S. EPA identifying an additional 30 oilfield injection sites as high-priority potential risks to nearby water wells. State officials told reporters they believed many or all of the threatened water wells were not currently being used for drinking water or irrigation, however.
Unlike in the previous 23 oilfield operations closed by emergency state orders, regulators will wait for the oil companies in charge of those 30 drilling sites to completely assess the threat to local water wells before officials decide whether to shut those immediately as well.
For the first time, state regulators also disclosed that regulators have allowed 3,604 oil-industry wells to carry out cyclic-steam injection - a production method that repeatedly injects steam underground at high pressure -outside the approved boundaries of oilfields.
Environmental groups and some state lawmakers contend those cyclic-steam injection wells are illegal. In an email, Steven Bohlen, state oil and gas supervisor, said it was doubtful those 3,604 wells would raise any additional concerns about groundwater because they were injecting into underground areas that already contained hydrocarbon.
Bohlen added that "a higher level of scrutiny on such wells may be called for in the future."
Federal officials have approved a state timeline that would stop all oilfield injection into federally protected water aquifers in California by February 2017.
"We are making good progress in addressing concerns about water quality that we all share," said Bohlen.
Some environmental organizations want the state to stop all oilfield injection into federally protected water aquifers immediately.
"I think it's remarkable that the extent of this crisis just keeps growing and yet state officials are doing essentially nothing to address it," said Kassie Siegel, senior counsel at the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity. "The commonsense first step is to stop the ongoing damage."
California is the country's third-biggest petroleum-producing state. Injection wells are involved in up to 85 percent of the state's production, the oil industry says.
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California Expands Efforts To Protect Drinking Water

California Expands Efforts To Protect Drinking Water. California regulators on...

Arctic Oil Drilling Preparations Continue Despite Protests. Neither a protest by hundreds of demonstrators nor a permit violation notice from the city will halt Royal Dutch Shell's use of a Seattle seaport terminal as it prepares for exploratory oil drilling in the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=arctic+ocean&amp;cvid=d6543451de434e0ea018823d85e01f28&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Arctic Ocean</a>, spokesmen say.
The violation notice issued Monday by the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/wildfire-smoke-seattle-air-dangerous/">Seattle</a> Department of Planning and Development said use of Terminal 5 by a massive floating drill rig was in violation of the site's permitted use as a cargo terminal. The 400-foot Polar Pioneer and its support tug Aiviq must be removed from the terminal or Shell's host, Foss Maritime, must obtain an appropriate permit, the city indicated. Arctic Oil Drilling Preparations Continue Despite Protests
Possible fines start at $150 per day and can rise to $500 per day. The notice said the violation must be corrected by June 4. The companies can appeal and-or request extensions.
"It remains our view that the terms agreed upon by Shell, Foss and the Port of Seattle for use of Terminal 5 are valid, and it's our intention to continue loading-out our drilling rigs in preparation for exploratory drilling offshore Alaska," Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said.
"Terminal 5 is permitted to tie up ships while they are being loaded and unloaded," Foss Maritime spokesman Paul Queary said. "That is exactly what Foss is doing there."
Queary noted that both Foss and the Port of Seattle are appealing an earlier determination by the city that the use of Terminal 5 was not permitted. Monday's violation notice followed that determination.
Earlier Monday, protesters spent several hours blocking entrances to the terminal where the rig will be loaded before heading to waters off Alaska this summer.
Holding banners and flags, demonstrators marched across a bridge to Terminal 5, temporarily closing the road during Monday morning's commute. Once at the terminal, they spread out across the entrances and rallied, danced and spoke for several hours before leaving the site in the early afternoon.
Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant was among the speakers. She said political leaders had failed to deal with climate change and called for "an escalating series of mass nonviolent civil disobedience until this madness is stopped," The Seattle Times reported.
Organizers had prepared to engage in civil disobedience to stop work on the drill rig, but Seattle police said Monday afternoon that no one had been arrested and the demonstration remained peaceful. A few dozen officers followed the march on foot and bicycle and kept watch at the terminal.
"I'm not planning to get arrested," protester Jennifer Jones told The Times. "It would be very inconvenient to get arrested in Washington state. We're from Portland."
The mass demonstration was the latest protest of the Polar Pioneer's arrival in Seattle. Protesters greeted the rig Thursday, and then hundreds of activists in kayaks and other vessels turned out Saturday for a protest dubbed the "Paddle in Seattle."
Smith said in an email Monday that the "activities of the day were anticipated and did not stop crews from accomplishing meaningful work in preparation for exploration offshore Alaska this summer."
There were minimal operations at Terminal 5, "so there's not much to block," Port of Seattle spokesman Peter McGraw said. The operator of Terminal 18, a major hub of port activity where the march began, closed those gates in anticipation of the demonstration, he said.
Officials have been urging people to exercise their First Amendment rights safely, and "that's what we've been seeing so far," McGraw said.
The activists say they are concerned about the risk of an oil spill in the remote Arctic waters and the effects that tapping new frontiers of oil and gas reserves will have on global warming. Officials in Alaska have touted the economic benefits that drilling could bring there and to the Pacific Northwest.
On Monday, protesters of all ages sang, rapped and danced at the vehicle gate of Terminal 5. They chanted and held signs saying "Climate Justice For All" and "You Shell Not Pass."
Lisa Marcus, 58, a musician who participated in Saturday's protest, turned up with her "Love the planet" sign for another day of activism Monday.
"We've got to wake up" to the dangers of human-caused climate change, she said, ticking off a list of environmental problems that the world is facing. "Shell is trying to make it worse, and that's not acceptable."
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Arctic Oil Drilling Preparations Continue Despite Protests

Arctic Oil Drilling Preparations Continue Despite Protests. Neither a protest...

The Sunniest States Are Lagging Behind On Solar Power Production.Residents of the Sunshine State are finding that harnessing Florida's abundant solar power is no simple task.
With its bounty of sunny days, Florida ranks third in the nation in rooftop solar energy potential but 13th in the amount of solar energy generated, according to industry estimates.
The industry views Florida as a sleeping giant that could rival California in solar potential, but renewable energy experts say the state lags behind because old laws favor utilities over private enterprise.
"The rules are set up so there isn't competition right now, and competition could be healthy," said James Fenton, director of the Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida.
This has made unlikely allies of groups like the Sierra Club and the tea party, who view the lack of consumer choice as harmful to the environment and an infringement on personal freedom. The groups are working on a 2016 ballot initiative that would change Florida's constitution to allow businesses other than utilities to sell solar power to consumers.
Utilities say solar, with 2 percent of the market, is growing slowly in Florida because energy costs are 30 percent lower than the national average, making it a bad financial choice.
They say Florida's energy mix - dominated by natural gas (62 percent), coal (21 percent) and nuclear (12 percent) - is cheaper than solar power generated from rooftop panels.
Florida is one of only four states that require solar energy be sold exclusively by utilities, banning sales from companies that install rooftop solar panels at little or no cost and then sell the energy generated to the property owner. The result is limited options for going solar and increased upfront financial commitment for consumers.
The state also taxes commercial property owners who install solar arrays, further hurting investment potential.
Scott McIntyre of Tampa-based Solar Energy Management, a panel installer, said the company has lost large projects from shopping centers and other commercial real estate owners. He said companies come to him wanting to build solar on their rooftops so they can sell energy to their tenants but drop the idea when they learn about the legal limits on electricity sales.
"We're trying to provide Floridians with solar power," McIntyre said. "But there are no incentives for commercial solar in Florida. None."
California and other successful solar states allow companies to lease rooftop solar arrays to homeowners and bill them monthly for the electricity created. This lets homeowners get into the market for little or no money down and pay as they go.
Florida also trails in other areas, like wind, because it has yet to pass laws mandating that utilities to create more renewable energy - a tactic used by 30 other states and Washington.
The utilities benefit from rules established generations ago that made them "regulated monopolies."
Florida Power and Light Co., the state's largest electric company with 4.7 million customers, has built three large-scale solar developments and is planning at least four more, including one at Daytona International Speedway. Florida's Duke Energy is also planning to build large solar power plants by 2024.
"Large-scale solar investment remains the most economical and fairest way to advance solar energy for our customers while keeping our rates low," FPL spokesman Mark Bubriski said in an email. "We also plan to triple our use of solar energy before the end of 2016."
Florida's utilities favor large-scale solar power plants as a way to stay financially viable in a changing energy market, said Fenton of the solar energy center.
For people who want to wean themselves off the utilities, few options are left. State utilities were mandated to offer rebates for a few years, but after the mandate ended, FPL chose not to offer them any longer.
Self-described "tree hugger" Cynthia Schaefer, a financial planner who lives near Miami, said the $34,000 solar panel project installed on her rooftop was not financially feasible. Still, her goal of reducing her environmental impact drove her to figure out how to make it work. In the end - and after two years of trying - she got an FPL rebate for $18,500, which shaved off more than half the upfront cost.
"It wouldn't have made financial sense to do it without the rebate," Schaefer said.
In the first month, the installation cut her electric bill by about $110 a month to $9.
FPL ended the rebates this year after the state program approved by regulators ended. The utility also said it believes they are unfair.
"It just doesn't make sense to provide customers a cash incentive - that's paid for by the rest of our customers," Bubriski said about the rooftop solar panel rebates.
FPL and Tampa Electric said they wouldn't comment on the initiative, which has about 100,000 of the 700,000 signatures needed to qualify for the 2016 election. A Duke spokesman said the company is studying it closely.
"If the initiative takes off, then the solar industry will take off," McIntyre said.
---
Follow Jason Dearen on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen</a>
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The Sunniest States Are Lagging Behind On Solar Power Production

The Sunniest States Are Lagging Behind On Solar Power Production.Residents...

France And Germany Commit To Global Climate Protection. France And Germany Commit To Global Climate Protection. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande confirmed their commitment to global climate protection Tuesday, gathering with others in Berlin to prepare for this year's U.N. Climate Change Conference.
Merkel and Hollande said in a joint statement that both countries "are firmly decided to take all efforts to reach an ambitious, comprehensive and binding U.N. climate agreement by the end of this year in Paris."
The preparatory talks in Berlin involve 35 countries. The <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=paris&amp;cvid=fad06b959f934720b0e85dcaabe0ea38&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Paris</a> summit in December aims to curb climate change and rising <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/the-window-to-avoid-dangerous-global-warming-is-narrowing/">global</a> temperatures, which scientists say are largely driven by carbon emissions.
The European two leaders said they "are committed to the goal of limiting global temperature increases at least to below 2°C compared with pre-industrial levels."
To achieve this goal, they said a fundamental shift of investment into low-carbon infrastructure and technologies is needed as well as climate-friendly land use.
They also said countries already threatened by "unavoidable risks and damage arising from climate change" need to be strengthened in their resilience.
Merkel has made climate protection one of the key goals of her political agenda, and Germany wants to focus on it at the G-7 summit next month in Bavaria. Under Merkel's lead, Germany began to phase out nuclear power after Japan's 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan and has since then invested heavily in renewable energy.
For some critics, those reforms do not go far enough.
Activists from Greenpeace and other environmental groups protested Tuesday in Berlin, placing a model of Paris' Eiffel Tower converted into a wind turbine in front of the city's Brandenburg Gate. They demanded a faster energy transition away from nuclear power and coal and toward the use of 100 percent renewable energies by 2050.
The German government plan is one of the world's most ambitious, calling for renewable energies, including wind and sun, to make up 40-45 percent of Germany's energy mix by 2025, compared with just under a quarter now, and 55-60 percent by 2035.
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France And Germany Commit To Global Climate Protection

France And Germany Commit To Global Climate Protection. France And...

Oil Spill Stains California Coastline, Cleanup Efforts Underway. Slicks of oil that spilled into California coastal waters from an onshore pipeline spanned a total of 9 miles Wednesday, and a company official said the line was operating at full capacity when it broke, suggesting much more oil escaped than initially estimated.
The oil that spilled Tuesday off southern Santa Barbara County formed two slicks, said Coast Guard Capt. Jennifer Williams, one of two federal response coordinators.
Before a morning flyover, the oil was estimated to span 4 miles of ocean.
The spill from a Plains All American Pipeline LP pipe was initially estimated at 21,000 gallons, but officials were not relying on that. <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/unhealthy-foods-spoil-the-benefits-of-a-mediterranean-diet/">Oil</a> Spill Stains California Coastline, Cleanup Efforts Underway
Company official Darren Palmer said Wednesday it remained unknown how much oil actually spilled.
But he said the pipeline was running at a rate of 2,000 barrels an hour - equivalent to 84,000 gallons.
The pipe was built in 1991 and underwent integrity testing a few weeks ago, he said.
Palmer said the company took responsibility for the spill and would pay for the cleanup.


[caption id="attachment_2381769" align="alignleft" width="300"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/oil-spill-clean-up_AP.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2381769" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/oil-spill-clean-up_AP-300x201.jpg" alt="Clean up workers place shovels of oil-laden sand in bags while a larger group of workers begin clean up operations at Refugio State Beach, site of an oil spill, north of Goleta, Calif., Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant)" width="300" height="201" /></a> Clean up workers place shovels of oil-laden sand in bags while a larger group of workers begin clean up operations at Refugio State Beach, site of an oil spill, north of Goleta, Calif., Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant)[/caption]
Workers from an environmental cleanup company strapped on boots and gloves and picked up shovels and rakes Wednesday to tackle the gobs of goo stuck to sand and rocks along Refugio State Beach.
The rupture happened on the same stretch of coastline as a 1969 spill that was the largest ever in U.S. waters at the time and is credited with giving rise to the American environmental movement.
Members of the International Bird Rescue organization also were on hand Wednesday to clean any birds that become covered with oil, though none were immediately spotted in the calm seas that produced small waves.
Fan Yang, 26, of Indianapolis, stood on a bluff overlooking the beach, where the stench of petroleum was heavy.
"It smells like what they use to pave the roads," said Yang, who was hoping to find cleaner beaches in Santa Barbara. "I'm sad for the birds - if they lose their habitat."
The broken 24-inch pipeline spewed oil down a storm drain and into the Pacific Ocean for several hours Tuesday before it was shut off.
Authorities responding to reports of a foul smell near Refugio State Beach around noon found a half-mile slick in the ocean, county fire Capt. Dave Zaniboni said.
Plains All American Pipeline said in a statement it was making every effort to limit the environmental impact.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has closed fishing and shellfish harvesting for a mile east and west of the beach.
The area is home to offshore oil rigs, and small amounts of tar from natural seepage regularly show up on beaches. In 1969, several hundred thousand gallons spilled from a blowout on an oil platform and thousands of seabirds and many marine mammals were killed.
The oil industry brings risks, said Bob Deans, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"Santa Barbara learned that lesson over 40 years ago when offshore drilling led to disaster," he said in a statement.
The Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center said having the spill occur in a sensitive and treasured environment is devastating to watch. The group was concerned about whales that migrate through the area.
"Oil spills are part of the ugly cost of fossil fuel development, made even worse by aging domestic infrastructure," said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
It was unclear how long the cleanup would take and whether Refugio beach and other areas would be reopened in time for Memorial Day weekend.
<a id="fd43f9c3-f002-42ac-8e3a-461b1470d7d6" href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_OIL_SPILL?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2015-05-20-15-32-36#fd43f9c3-f002-42ac-8e3a-461b1470d7d6" rel="item-license">© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms">Terms of Use</a>.

Oil Spill Stains California Coastline, Cleanup Efforts Underway

Oil Spill Stains California Coastline, Cleanup Efforts Underway. Slicks of...

Obama Says Climate Change Poses National Security Threat. President Barack Obama has argued for action on climate change as a matter of health, environmental protection and international obligation. On Wednesday, he added national security.
Those who deny global warming are putting at risk the United States and the military sworn to defend it, he told cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Failure to act would be "dereliction of duty," their commander in chief said.
He said climate change and rising sea levels jeopardize the readiness of U.S. forces and threaten to aggravate social tensions and political instability around the globe.
The president's message to climate change skeptics was unequivocal: "Denying it or refusing to deal with it undermines our national security"
"Make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country," Obama said on a crisp, sunny morning at Cadet Memorial Field. "We need to act and we need to act now."
Seated before him were 218 white-uniformed graduates, pondering where military service will take them in life.
Obama drew a line from climate change to national security that had multiple strands:
-increased risk of natural disasters resulting in humanitarian crises, with the potential to increase refugee flows and worsen conflicts over food and water.
-aggravating conditions such as poverty, political instability and social tensions that can lead to terrorist activity and other violence.
-new threats to the U.S. economy from rising oceans that threaten thousands of miles of highways, roads, railways and energy facilities.
-new challenges for military bases and training areas from seas, drought and other conditions.
"Around Norfolk, high tides and storms increasingly flood parts of our Navy base and an air base," Obama said of military facilities in Virginia. "In Alaska, thawing permafrost is damaging military facilities. Out West, deeper droughts and longer wildfires could threaten training areas our troops depend on."
Preparing for and adapting to climate change won't be enough, he said. "The only way the world is going to prevent the worst effects of climate change is to slow down the warming of the planet."
He laid out his administration's steps to reduce carbon greenhouse gas emissions, including strict limits on emissions from vehicles and power plants. The government expects those emission reductions to provide the U.S. contribution to a global climate treaty that world leaders are expected to finalize in December. Obama said it doesn't take a scientist to know that climate change is happening.
The evidence is "indisputable," he said.
Without identifying the skeptics or those who resist action on climate change, Obama acknowledged the difficult terrain in Washington. "The politics will be tough, but there is no other way." He repeated: "This will be tough."
Obama's climate change agenda has drawn strong political opposition from the GOP-led Congress and faces a number of legal challenges. Many Republican lawmakers either have denied the science of climate change or have distanced themselves from it, saying they lack the expertise to issue an opinion.
Some of the 2016 GOP presidential candidates have rejected unilateral moves to address the issue, saying it could hurt the U.S. economy.
Obama had a determined and hopeful response to all of that, but one not likely to be fulfilled: "This cannot be subject to the usual politics and the usual rhetoric." Obama Says Climate Change Poses National Security Threat
His message was reinforced by Secretary of State John Kerry, just back from meetings in Asia. Kerry said in a statement that the idea of climate change as a national security issue "was a primary topic of discussion" throughout his conversations with Asian leaders.
Retired Rear Adm. David Titley, of the private Center for Climate and Security, said Obama's "rhetoric is all good," but he was waiting to see if the administration commits enough money to deal with the challenges the president identified.
Obama's appearance at the Coast Guard Academy was his second and last commencement address of the season after speaking earlier in May at a community college in South Dakota. The president traditionally delivers a commencement address every year to one of the service academies.
Later Wednesday, he was visiting Stamford, Connecticut, for a Democratic fundraiser at a private home. About 30 supporters were contributing up to $33,400 each.
---
Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
---
Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/nbenac" target="-blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.twitter.com/nbenac</a>
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Obama Says Climate Change Poses National Security Threat

Obama Says Climate Change Poses National Security Threat. President Barack...

California Drought Affects State's Oldest Water Rights Holders.<a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=California&amp;cvid=67241fe5ee1942e8ab3b8c90f08f2f08&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS"> California</a> farmers holding water rights that date as far back as the Gold Rush are bracing for their first state-ordered conservation in decades, as a record drought prompts some of the deepest cuts yet in the country's most productive agricultural state.
After telling cities and towns to slash use by 25 percent and curtailing water deliveries to some farmers and others, state officials said Wednesday they would start mandatory cuts this week to the state's oldest rights holders, historically spared from water restrictions. California Drought Affects State's Oldest Water Rights Holders
Regulators said those first orders Friday will impact holders of century-old water rights in the watershed of the San Joaquin River, which runs from the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/sierra-nevada-mountains-taller/">Sierra Nevada</a> mountains to San Francisco Bay and is one of the main water sources for farms and communities.
Meanwhile, a second category of senior rights holders - farmers who hold longstanding claims to water because their land lies along the waterways of the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta - are making a surprise effort to stave off that kind of curtailment order.
They are offering to voluntarily reduce their water use by a quarter. Officials promised a decision Friday on that offer, which would yield on some of the most iron-clad water rights in California, as they try to chart a path forward for a state locked in its driest four-year period on record.
"For me, 25 percent I can handle," said Gino Celli, who farms 5,000 acres of tomatoes, alfalfa and corn in the delta. "Anything more than that, man, I'm done."
It is unclear whether the farmers' offer of voluntary cuts would go far enough to save waterways that are drying up around much of the state, following a winter of below-average rainfall and record-low snows in the Sierra Nevada.
Farmers use 80 percent of all water taken from the land in California. Senior water rights holders alone consume trillions of gallons of water a year, although the state doesn't know exactly how much water they use because of unreliable data collection.
Regulators don't have widespread remote sensors or meters to make sure water isn't diverted.
The cutback orders instead are enforced by honor system and complaints. Only a fifth of junior water rights holders already told to stop pumping from the San Joaquin watershed have confirmed they were complying, a water board official said Wednesday.
Agriculture experts say they expect only modest immediate impact on food prices from any cuts to the senior water-rights holders.
Farmers will likely use their limited water to grow valuable crops - like almonds - and less valuable crops - like alfalfa - will be grown outside of California, said Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis.
The mandatory cuts scheduled for Friday would be the first to the state's senior-water rights holders overall since the 1970s, and first to senior water-rights holders along the San Joaquin in memory.
"This is challenging. It's not about making everyone happy," said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the state Water Resources Control Board, told participants at a public hearing Wednesday on the drought. "It's about figuring out how to make terrible choices in the most fair and equitable way possible."
Board Director Tom Howard said that whatever he decides on the farmers' offer will apply beyond the river delta to the entire basin of the Sacramento River, which supplies most of the surface water in the food-producing Central Valley and the drinking water to homeowners as far south as San Diego.
That deal would not apply to hundreds of other right holders with claims to water before 1914, among few groups spared cutbacks in four years of record dry, until now.
California's water rights system - which Gov. Jerry Brown acknowledges as "somewhat archaic" - is built around the claims staked in the 19th century. Nearly 4,000 companies, farms and individuals are first in line to receive water because they made claims to water before 1914 or have property touching a waterway.
The ranks of senior water-rights holders include the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles and rural irrigation districts that supply thousands of farms.
Regulators haven't ordered those claimants to stop pumping since 1977, during the state's last major drought. That order applied only to dozens along a stretch of the Sacramento River, and the water board has since gained new power to punish those who illegally take water, including $10,000 daily penalties.
Delta farmer Rudy Mussi already has ordered tomato plants and prepared fields, and said he needs to know how often, or if, he can water them.
"Until the fine print is out, I don't know," Mussi said Wednesday about joining the farmers' offer of 25 percent cuts. "If I can make it work, hey, I'll do my darndest."
Brown has come under criticism for sparing farmers with senior water rights from the mandatory cutbacks. Increasing amounts of the state's irrigation water goes to specialty crops like almonds, whose growers are expanding production despite the drought.
Mandatory orders could put some farmers in the Delta east of San Francisco out of business, said John Herrick, manager of the South Delta Water Agency.
When the state cutback order comes, Herrick said, the farmers will immediately try to block it in court.
"That doesn't mean we'll win," Herrick said. "But that's what we'll do."
---
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California Drought Affects State's Oldest Water Rights Holders

California Drought Affects State's Oldest Water Rights Holders. California farmers...

Examining Climate Impacts of Natural Gas vs Diesel. Some major trucking companies are turning to natural gas to fuel their fleets -- and to earn "green" credit among customers. But celebrating lower emissions could be premature, according to an analysis in the ACS journal Environmental Science &amp; Technology. Researchers have found that converting heavy-duty trucks to run on natural <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/giant-animals-vanished-from-madagascar-after-humans-arrived/">gas</a> could lead to negative climate impacts if steps are not taken to improve engine efficiency and reduce methane emissions from the fuel's supply chain. Examining Climate Impacts of Natural Gas vs Diesel

Burning natural gas emits less carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere than other fossil fuels, but the process of getting natural gas out of the ground and delivering it through pipelines releases methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. So, Jonathan Camuzeaux and colleagues wanted to investigate the climate impacts of switching to natural gas in different types of heavy-duty trucks.

The researchers examined a range of assumptions for methane leakage and several different kinds of commercial, natural-gas truck engines. They calculated that switching heavy-duty truck fleets from diesel to natural gas could lead to worse climate impacts over the next 50 to 90 years than remaining with diesel due to methane's high potency as a greenhouse gas in the near term. But, they added, reducing methane losses from the supply chain and improving natural gas engine efficiency could make switching fuels climate-friendly.

---

Credit: <a href="http://www.acs.org">American Chemical Society</a>

Examining Climate Impacts of Natural Gas vs Diesel

Examining Climate Impacts of Natural Gas vs Diesel. Some major...

California Drought Affects State's Oldest Water Rights Holders. California farmers holding water rights that date as far back as the Gold Rush are bracing for their first state-ordered conservation in decades, as a record drought prompts some of the deepest cuts yet in the country's most productive agricultural state.
After telling cities and towns to slash use by 25 percent and curtailing water deliveries to some farmers and others, state officials said Wednesday they would start mandatory cuts this week to the state's oldest rights holders, historically spared from water restrictions.
Regulators said those first orders Friday will impact holders of century-old water rights in the watershed of the San Joaquin River, which runs from the Sierra Nevada mountains to San Francisco Bay and is one of the main water sources for farms and communities.
Meanwhile, a second category of senior rights holders - farmers who hold longstanding claims to water because their land lies along the waterways of the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta - are making a surprise effort to stave off that kind of curtailment order.
They are offering to voluntarily reduce their water use by a quarter. Officials promised a decision Friday on that offer, which would yield on some of the most iron-clad water rights in California, as they try to chart a path forward for a state locked in its driest four-year period on record.
"For me, 25 percent I can handle," said Gino Celli, who farms 5,000 acres of tomatoes, alfalfa and corn in the delta. "Anything more than that, man, I'm done."
It is unclear whether the farmers' offer of voluntary cuts would go far enough to save waterways that are drying up around much of the state, following a winter of below-average rainfall and record-low snows in the Sierra Nevada.
Farmers use 80 percent of all water taken from the land in California. Senior water rights holders alone consume trillions of gallons of water a year, although the state doesn't know exactly how much water they use because of unreliable data collection.
Regulators don't have widespread remote sensors or meters to make sure water isn't diverted.
The cutback orders instead are enforced by honor system and complaints. Only a fifth of junior water rights holders already told to stop pumping from the San Joaquin watershed have confirmed they were complying, a water board official said Wednesday.
Agriculture experts say they expect only modest immediate impact on food prices from any cuts to the senior water-rights holders.
Farmers will likely use their limited water to grow valuable crops - like almonds - and less valuable crops - like alfalfa - will be grown outside of California, said Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis.
The mandatory cuts scheduled for Friday would be the first to the state's senior-water rights holders overall since the 1970s, and first to senior water-rights holders along the San Joaquin in memory.
"This is challenging. It's not about making everyone happy," said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the state Water Resources Control Board, told participants at a public hearing Wednesday on the drought. "It's about figuring out how to make terrible choices in the most fair and equitable way possible."
Board Director Tom Howard said that whatever he decides on the farmers' offer will apply beyond the river delta to the entire basin of the Sacramento River, which supplies most of the surface water in the food-producing Central Valley and the drinking water to homeowners as far south as San Diego.
That deal would not apply to hundreds of other right holders with claims to water before 1914, among few groups spared cutbacks in four years of record dry, until now.
California's water rights system - which Gov. Jerry Brown acknowledges as "somewhat archaic" - is built around the claims staked in the 19th century. Nearly 4,000 companies, farms and individuals are first in line to receive water because they made claims to water before 1914 or have property touching a waterway.
The ranks of senior water-rights holders include the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles and rural irrigation districts that supply thousands of farms.
Regulators haven't ordered those claimants to stop pumping since 1977, during the state's last major drought. That order applied only to dozens along a stretch of the Sacramento River, and the water board has since gained new power to punish those who illegally take water, including $10,000 daily penalties.
Delta farmer Rudy Mussi already has ordered tomato plants and prepared fields, and said he needs to know how often, or if, he can water them.
"Until the fine print is out, I don't know," Mussi said Wednesday about joining the farmers' offer of 25 percent cuts. "If I can make it work, hey, I'll do my darndest."
Brown has come under criticism for sparing farmers with senior water rights from the mandatory cutbacks. Increasing amounts of the state's irrigation water goes to specialty crops like almonds, whose growers are expanding production despite the drought.
Mandatory orders could put some farmers in the Delta east of San Francisco out of business, said John Herrick, manager of the South Delta Water Agency.
When the state cutback order comes, Herrick said, the farmers will immediately try to block it in court.
"That doesn't mean we'll win," Herrick said. "But that's what we'll do."
---
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

California Oil Spill Becoming Huge Disaster. More than 7,700 gallons of oil has been raked, skimmed and vacuumed from a spill that stretched across 9 miles of California coast, just a fraction of the sticky, stinking goo that escaped from a broken pipeline, officials said.
Up to 105,000 gallons may have leaked from the ruptured pipeline Tuesday, and up to 21,000 gallons reached the sea just north of Santa Barbara, according to estimates. The environmental impact still is being assessed, but so far there is no evidence of widespread harm to birds and sea life.
The early toll on wildlife from the California oil spill included two oil-covered pelicans, officials said. Biologists counted dead fish and crustaceans along sandy beaches and rocky shores.
The spill occurred along a long, rustic coast that forms the northern boundary of the Santa Barbara Channel, home to a rich array of sea life. Whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, sea otters and birds such as pelicans live along the channel between the mainland and the Channel Islands, five of which are a national park surrounded by waters declared a national marine sanctuary.
Workers in protective suits have shoveled black sludge off beaches, and boats towed booms into place to corral two oil slicks. The cleanup effort continued through the night and additional crew members and boats came out early Thursday, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Jonathan McCormick said.
They could get help from expected light winds and calm seas, said Dr. Sean Anderson, an environmental scientist at California State University, Channel Islands.
"When the water's choppy, the response gets complicated. But since the water's nice and flat, the oil sticks together and it's easier to spot and easier to pick up," he said.
Regulators and workers with Plains All American Pipeline LP, which runs the pipeline, aim to begin excavating the pipe Thursday to get their first look at the breach.
The company's chief executive visited the spill site Wednesday and apologized.
"We deeply, deeply regret that this incident has occurred at all," Chairman and CEO Greg L. Armstrong said at a news conference. "We apologize for the damage that it's done to the wildlife and to the environment."
Crude was flowing through the pipe at 54,600 gallons an hour during the leak, the company said. Company officials didn't say how long it leaked before it was discovered and shut down or discuss how fast the oil escaped.
Federal regulators from the Department of Transportation, which oversees oil pipeline safety, investigated the leak's cause, the pipe's condition and the potential violations.
The 24-inch pipe built in 1991 had no previous problems and was thoroughly inspected in 2012, according to the company. The pipe underwent similar tests about two weeks ago, though the results had not been analyzed yet.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the company accumulated 175 safety and maintenance infractions since 2006, according to federal records. The infractions involved pump failure, equipment malfunction, pipeline corrosion and operator error. The newspaper said a Plains Pipeline spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its regulatory record.
There was no estimate on the cost of the cleanup or how long it might take.
A combination of soiled beaches and the pungent stench of petroleum led officials to close popular campgrounds Refugio State Beach and El Capitan State Beach over the Memorial Day weekend.
Still, tourists pulled off the Pacific Coast Highway to eye the disaster from overlooking bluffs.
"It smells like what they use to pave the roads," said Fan Yang, of Indianapolis, who was hoping to find cleaner beaches in Santa Barbara, about 20 miles away. "I'm sad for the birds - if they lose their habitat."
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife closed fishing and shellfish harvesting for a mile east and west of Refugio beach and deployed booms to protect the nesting and foraging habitat of the snowy plover and the least tern, both endangered shore birds.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday night declared a state of emergency, a move that frees up additional state funding to help with the cleanup.
The coastline was the scene of a much larger spill in 1969 - the largest in U.S. waters at the time - that is credited with giving rise to the American environmental movement.
Environmental groups used the spill as a new opportunity to take a shot at fossil fuels and remind people of the area's notoriety with oil spills.
"Big Oil comes with big risks - from drilling to delivery," said Bob Deans, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Santa Barbara learned that lesson over 40 years ago when offshore drilling led to disaster."
Large offshore rigs still dot the horizon off the coast, pumping crude to shore and small amounts of tar from natural seepage regularly show up on beaches.
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

California Oil Spill Becoming Huge Disaster

California Oil Spill Becoming Huge Disaster. More than 7,700 gallons...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



---



By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



In 1968, Kainji Lake was created by the construction of the Kainji Dam. The Niger River, the third longest in Africa, enters the lake in the north.&nbsp;



According to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rivers-in-the-american-west-are-a-lifesaving-resource-for-birds/">ESA</a>, the creation of the lake submerged Foge Island and the town of Bussa and permanently flooded other riverine settlements, leaving around 50,000 people displaced.&nbsp;



Large parts of Foge Island are temporarily exposed during low water tides, and the land is often used by migrating fishermen. Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of Central Nigeria. 



Wild mammals occur at relatively low densities due to illegal hunting. Lake Kainji has suffered a dramatic decline as a fishery due to the high numbers of artisanal and subsistence fisherfolk using the lake. It has been suggested that a period of closure, together with controlled fishing rights may help improve fish stocks.



Kainji Lake National Park is the oldest of its kind in Nigeria. The park contains three distinct areas: a part of the Kainji Lake, the Borgu Game Reserve to the west of the lake, and the Zugurma Game Reserve to the southeast. The park is home to around 65 mammal species, 350 bird species, and 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. 



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



---



By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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How does salt makes things taste better?

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes why experts are studying zebrafish to gain a better understanding of how the immune system responds to injury. Zebrafish have the ability to repair and regenerate organs.



“Organ regeneration offers an exciting opportunity for studying the immune system and to inquire why some species can regenerate organs like the heart or missing limbs while others like humans cannot,” explained Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski.



Zebrafish sensory organ hair cells are an ideal system to investigate the pathways and cell types involved in regeneration since they are easily destroyed with antibiotics and begin regenerating within five hours. This enabled the researchers to identify the exact timing and genetic programs for each anti-inflammatory macrophage activation state.&nbsp;



“Our hypothesis is that human macrophages do not receive the proper chemical activation 'cocktail' to instruct pro-regenerative processes,” said Dr. Nicolas Denans. “Identifying the molecular recipe of macrophage activation in zebrafish may one day enable us to design regenerative immunotherapies in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The new evidence is a valuable resource for comparative studies on the genetic programs involved in macrophage-mediated repair and regeneration. In other words, different types of injuries may induce different kinds of inflammatory responses. We want to decipher whether this 'language' is universal or if there are a variety of dialects."



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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How the immune system responds to injury

[sendtonews key="0dEcERCq61-2283382-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Stowers...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...