The inclusion of fiber in the diet has been linked to a variety of health perks for decades. The body needs this essential nutrient to keep digestion running smoothly and maintain steady blood sugar levels.&nbsp;



Most experts recommend at least 25 grams per day for women and 38 grams for men, yet many adults in the United States barely reach half that goal. But there is more to this story than a happy belly or balanced glucose.&nbsp;



A recent study in Nature Metabolism shows that fiber may also leave a mark on our genes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-fiber-still-matters">Why fiber still matters</h2>



Fiber comes in many forms, from the crunchy stems of leafy greens to the chewy shells of beans and nuts. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/want-to-lose-weight-try-eating-more-protein-and-fiber/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dietary fiber</a> travels to the large intestine, where friendly bacteria feast on it.&nbsp;



This feast produces short-chain fatty acids, including propionate and butyrate, which have gained attention recently for their effects on gut health.



Researchers have been eager to see whether these acids from fibers impact genes beyond basic energy production.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fiber-gut-and-fatty-acids">Fiber, gut, and fatty acids</h2>



The science behind short-chain fatty acids and genes has intrigued experts for years, and now <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/michael-snyder" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Michael Snyder</a>, Stanford B. Ascherman Professor of Genetics at <a href="https://www.stanford.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stanford University</a>, has shed more light on it through this project. 



His team traced the biological footprints of propionate and butyrate in both <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fiber-rich-diets-reduce-antimicrobial-resistance-in-the-gut/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">normal cells</a> and cancer cells. 



The aim was to see how these acids might switch genes on or off in ways that influence the growth and survival of cells.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-fiber-impacts-genes-nbsp">How fiber impacts genes&nbsp;</h2>



Short-chain fatty acids are generated when gut microbes break down fiber. They move into the bloodstream and can reach different tissues.&nbsp;



The study found that propionate and butyrate attach to certain sites on histones - which are proteins that act like spools for DNA - causing direct modifications on genes related to cell division and cell death.



“We found a direct link between eating fiber and modulation of gene function that has anti-cancer effects,” said Snyder.



Instead of simply describing fiber’s link to good health, the researchers pinpointed the exact molecular changes behind those benefits.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-preventing-uncontrolled-cell-growth">Preventing uncontrolled cell growth</h2>



Cancer often begins when cells lose their usual checks and balances. Normal cells are expected to grow, specialize, and sometimes self-destruct if there’s a problem.&nbsp;



When those processes go haywire, mutated cells can survive too long or multiply too fast. The study uncovered how certain chemical markers on genes for cell regulation might switch in a protective way when these short-chain fatty acids are around.



It is generally the case that people’s diets are very poor in fiber. Adjusting meal plans to include foods like beans, nuts, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/certain-vegetables-protect-us-from-illness-by-strengthening-the-lung-barrier/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cruciferous vegetables</a>, or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eating-one-avocado-each-day-can-add-years-to-your-life/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">avocados</a> may promote the production of more of these acids, potentially offering some defense against abnormal cell growth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-gut-and-genes-might-need-more-fiber">Why gut and genes might need more fiber</h2>



A diet that skimps on fiber starves the microbes that produce these beneficial fatty acids. Low levels can reduce the supply of butyrate and propionate.



That could leave you short on important chemical signals that appear to help keep unwanted cellular behavior under control.&nbsp;



According to the <a href="https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/carbohydrates/fiber/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health</a>, most Americans only consume around 15 grams of fiber daily, which falls short of <a href="https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/carbohydrates/fiber/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recommended amounts</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cancer-risk-and-fiber-s-gene-protective-role">Cancer risk and fiber’s gene-protective role</h2>



Colon cancer is a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-cooking-oils-in-your-diet-may-be-linked-to-cancer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">concern for many adults</a>. The <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">American Cancer Society</a> estimates that about 1 in 23 men and 1 in 25 women will be diagnosed with colon cancer at some point in their lifetime. 



This new study provides a window into how the byproducts of fiber breakdown might influence gene behavior in the colon, and possibly other tissues, in a helpful way.



“By identifying the gene targets of these important molecules we can understand how fiber exerts its beneficial effects,” said Snyder.&nbsp;



Although more work is needed to confirm how each type of fiber interacts with the gut and the rest of the body, this adds to growing evidence that diet and cancer risk are tightly woven together.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-connection-between-diet-gut-and-genes">Connection between diet, gut, and genes</h2>



The research highlights the importance of diet as a modulator of genetic signals. 



It also emphasizes potential opportunities for personalized strategies that combine better eating habits with therapies aimed at correcting harmful gene activity.&nbsp;



Many clinicians see fiber as a key feature of a balanced diet, and these findings may prompt more specific guidelines on how much and which types of fiber are most valuable for long-term health.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-foods-can-boost-fiber-intake">What foods can boost fiber intake?</h2>



Whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes remain <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ketogenic-diet-may-help-the-body-kill-cancer-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">top options</a> for boosting your daily fiber count. Vegetables like Brussels sprouts and broccoli, as well as fruits such as raspberries, also offer generous amounts.&nbsp;



Even small shifts like opting for a whole-wheat tortilla instead of a white-flour tortilla can push your numbers up. 



For individuals who struggle to reach recommended targets, talking with a healthcare provider or a registered dietitian can point the way to practical changes that nourish both you and your gut bacteria.



People sometimes balk at the thought of adding more plant-based foods to their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/which-dietary-changes-are-best-for-cancer-prevention/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diet</a>. But a gradual introduction may help your gut adjust without uncomfortable bloating or gas.&nbsp;



Your digestive system, along with your genes, could benefit from these simple swaps, especially as ongoing research on fiber clarifies the links between short-chain fatty acids and various cellular pathways.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-of-health-research">Future of health research</h2>



All signs suggest that fiber is more than just a helper for digestion. These insights about short-chain fatty acids may prompt further collaboration between nutrition science and genetics.&nbsp;



By paying attention to what our microbes need, we may discover fresh paths to protect our cells from harm. The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-024-01191-9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Metabolism</a>.



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Eating enough fiber prevents cancer in a surprising way

The inclusion of fiber in the diet has been linked to a variety of health perks for decades. The body needs this essential nutrient to keep digestion running smoothly and maintain steady blood sugar levels.&nbsp; Most experts recommend at least 25 grams per day for women and 38 grams for men, yet many adults in the United States barely reach half that goal. But there is more to this story than a happy belly or balanced glucose.&nbsp; A recent study in Nature Metabolism shows that fiber may...

Microbes Serve As Markers For Environmental Contamination. ENIGMA study shows natural bacterial communities as effective geochemical biosensors

First there were canaries in coal mines, now there are microbes at nuclear waste sites, oil spills and other environmental contamination. A multi-institutional team of more than 30 scientists has found that statistical analysis of DNA from natural microbial communities can be used to accurately identify environmental contaminants and serve as quantitative geochemical biosensors. This study was sponsored by ENIGMA, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science "Scientific Focus Area Program" based at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

"Changes induced in the natural microbial community structure by contaminants lasts long after the contaminants themselves have become undetectable," says Terry Hazen, an internationally recognized authority on microbial ecology who led the research. "This means the DNA of these microbial communities can be used as a forensic tool for measuring anthropogenic effects on the environment."

Hazen, who holds joint appointments with DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, is the corresponding author of a paper detailing the results of this ENIGMA study in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The paper is titled "Natural Bacterial Communities Serve as Quantitative Geochemical Biosensors." For a complete list of authors go here.

For this study, the ENIGMA collaborators identified the most independent and interesting groundwater well clusters from 25 years of monitoring data collected at the Bear Creek watershed in Oak Ridge. This watershed was a crucial site for the early development of nuclear weapons under the Manhattan Project and harbors spectacular geochemical gradients. The collaborators then collected a large number of microbial DNA samples from the identified wells in combination with 28 other physical/chemical characteristics.

"The wells we sampled typically contain a high number of particulates in the groundwater, thus causing the filters we collected DNA on to clog easily," says Andrea Rocha, a post-doctoral associate in Hazen's research group, who spent three months collecting samples from the watershed. "We had to change our filters each time they clogged until we obtained our required four liters of groundwater. Sometimes this meant changing filters five to six times for one well."

Analysis of the DNA data from the collected groundwater samples was carried out via a technique called "supervised machine-learning," which the ENIGMA team applied to high-throughput DNA sequencing data.

"Because microbial communities continuously sense and respond to their environments, they form a ubiquitous environmental surveillance network that can be inexpensively digitized through DNA sequencing," Hazen says. "Our idea was to determine whether and how information encoded in bacterial communities might be tapped to quantitatively characterize the environment."

While previous research demonstrated that specific proteins or whole bacterial cells could be used as biosensors to translate environmental signals into machine-readable data, the focus of the ENIGMA study was on the integration of information gathered from native bacterial communities containing billions of cells and encompassing thousands of taxonomic groups.

With just the sequencing data from the 16S rRNA gene alone, the ENIGMA team was able to quantitatively produce "a rich catalogue of 26 geochemical features" from 93 groundwater wells with highly differing geochemistry characteristics. These features were then used to predict contamination. The accuracy for predicting uranium contamination of the groundwater was about 88-percent, and the accuracy for predicting nitrate contamination was about 73-percent.

"Our work shows that knowing what bacteria are present allows us to infer something about the current or past chemistry of a site," says Eric Alm, an MIT microbiologist and one of the principal investigators on this project. "The next big challenge will be to understand why different bacteria are associated with different environmental conditions."

As human populations continue to grow and the industrialization of developing nations continues to expand, the impact of human activity on the environment is only going to intensify. Measuring the causes and consequences of these impacts is a challenge that science must meet. The ENIGMA project demonstrates one path towards meeting this objective.

"It takes an integrated team to tackle a large problem like this," says Paul Adams, the SFA Laboratory Research Manager for ENIGMA. "The work with these natural microbial communities highlights what can be achieved through interdisciplinary research that harnesses ENIGMA's scientific expertise in field sampling, high throughput sequencing, and computational analysis."

---

<a href="http://www.lbl.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory</a>

Microbes Serve As Markers For Environmental Contamination

Microbes Serve As Markers For Environmental Contamination. ENIGMA study shows...

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response

Deep-water drilling is set to resume near the site of the catastrophic BP oil spill blowout that killed 11 workers and caused the nation's largest offshore oil spill five years ago off the coast of Louisiana.
A Louisiana-based oil company, LLOG Exploration Offshore LLC, plans to drill into the Macondo reservoir, according to federal records reviewed by The Associated Press.
Harper's Magazine first reported the drilling plans late Tuesday.
LLOG's permit to drill a new well near BP's site was approved April 13 by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, an agency overseeing offshore oil and gas drilling operations. The company's exploration plan was approved last October following an environmental review by a sister agency, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
The company, a privately owned firm based in Covington, Louisiana, will be looking to extract oil and gas deep under the Gulf of Mexico's seafloor, an undertaking that proved catastrophic for BP.
"Our commitment is to not allow such an event to occur again," said Rick Fowler, the vice president for deep-water projects at LLOG. "LLOG staff keeps the memory of what happened ... fresh in our minds throughout our operations, both planning and execution."
On April 20, 2010, a drilling rig owned by Transocean Ltd. and hired by BP to drill into the Macondo field experienced a series of problems that led to a massive blowout. Investigators later faulted BP and its contractors for fatal missteps.
The drilling rig, in waters about 45 miles off the Louisiana coast, was engulfed in flames. Eleven workers were killed, 17 were seriously injured and more than 100 had to be evacuated.
BP, its contractors and federal regulators struggled to contain the blowout and kill the out-of-control well over the course of the next 87 days. In all, the federal government calculated that about 172 million gallons spilled into the Gulf. BP put the number much lower, closer to 100 million gallons.
Richard Charter, a senior fellow with the Ocean Foundation and a longtime industry watchdog, said it would be cause for concern if a small company resumed drilling in the reservoir, which is located in a geographical area of the Gulf known as the Mississippi Canyon. The area, rich in oil and gas, is divided up into blocks used for drilling. BP's Macondo well was located in Mississippi Canyon Block 252.
Charter said drilling into that reservoir has proved very dangerous and highly technical, and raises questions about whether a company like LLOG has the financial means to respond to a blowout similar to BP's.
"BP had deep pockets," he said. "You don't want someone not particularly qualified and not fully amortized to be tangling with this particular dragon." He added: "When a company can't pay when something goes wrong, generally it's the public that pays."
Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane University Energy Institute in New Orleans, dismissed those concerns. He called LLOG "an extremely well-financed and well-organized" company. He said it had an excellent reputation and was known for its veteran staff. Deep-water Drilling Set To Resume Near Site Of BP <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fruit-eating-mammals-fertilize-the-soil-in-tropical-forests/">Oil</a> Spill
"If I were to pick anyone to go into that field after so many problems, I would pick LLOG," Smith said. "They have demonstrated their ability to drill in the area."
Since 2010, LLOG has drilled eight wells in the Mississippi Canyon area in "analogous reservoirs at similar depths and pressures," Fowler, the LLOG vice president, said. The company has drilled more than 50 wells in the Gulf since 2002, he said.
He said the company has studied the investigations into the Macondo disaster and "ensured the lessons from those reports are accounted for in our design and well procedures."
In 2014, regulators approved splitting up Mississippi Canyon Block 252. BP still owns 270 acres of the block around its disastrous Macondo well and the area where the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon and other heavy equipment lie on the seafloor. LLOG owns the block's other 5,490 acres.
BP spokesman Brett Clanton said the area owned by BP is an "exclusion zone" where oil and gas operations are off-limits both "out of respect for the victims" and to allow BP "to perform any response activities related to the accident."
John Filostrat, a spokesman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said LLOG would be the first company to attempt to tap the oil and gas reserves that BP had been seeking. He said regulators did extensive reviews of the company's drilling plans.
The exploration plan calls for drilling into Block 252 from an adjacent block by June, federal records show. The drilling will be done by the Sevan Louisiana, a semisubmersible drilling rig owned by Sevan Drilling ASA, an international drilling company based in Oslo, Norway.
LLOG's drilling plans estimate that an uncontrolled blowout from its well could cause 20,500 barrels of oil to be released each day for a total of 109 days, or the time it would take to drill a secondary well to cut off the flow.
In the event of a blowout, the company's plans call for the use of blowout preventers, containment systems and drilling a relief well to contain a spill - measures that BP relied on to tame its well.
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Deep-water Drilling Set To Resume Near Site Of BP Oil Spill

Deep-water drilling is set to resume near the site of...

Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health. Study: Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health. People living or working near active natural gas wells may be exposed to certain pollutants at higher levels than the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for lifetime exposure, according to scientists from <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=oregon+state&amp;cvid=33a6fe4dc66d470a89328b0c426517f1&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Oregon State</a> University and the University of Cincinnati.

The researchers found that fracking - a technique for releasing natural gas from below-ground rock formations - emits pollutants known as PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), including some that are linked with increased risk of cancer and respiratory ailments.

"Air pollution from fracking operations may pose an under-recognized health hazard to people living near them," said the study's coauthor Kim Anderson, an environmental chemist with OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences. Study: Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health

The study, which appears in the journal Environmental Science &amp; Technology's online edition, is part of a larger project co-led by the University of Cincinnati's Erin Haynes, OSU's Anderson, her graduate student Blair Paulik and Laurel Kincl, director of OSU's Environmental Health Science Center.

[caption id="attachment_1334347" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2012/11/Pennsylvania-Has-Become-Home-Of-Experimental-Fracking.png"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1334347" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2012/11/Pennsylvania-Has-Become-Home-Of-Experimental-Fracking-150x150.png" alt="Credit: NSF" width="150" height="150" /></a> Credit: NSF[/caption]

Anderson and her colleagues collected air samples from sites near active natural gas wells in Carroll County, <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=ohio&amp;cvid=d6052caeb30141beb41677c9b154d725&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Ohio</a>, over a three-week period last February. Carroll County sits on top of the Utica formation, a deep oil- and gas-rich reef of subterranean shale. The rural county is a hotspot of natural gas prospecting, with more than one active well site per square mile.

The study got its start when a group of citizens approached Haynes, who is a public health expert, wanting to know more about health risks from natural gas extraction.

Haynes got in touch with Anderson and Kincl, and together they designed the study to include citizen participation. They placed air samplers on the properties of 23 volunteers living or working at sites ranging from right next to a gas well to a little more than three miles away.

The samplers are aluminum T-shaped boxes containing specially treated polyethylene ribbons that absorb contaminants in a similar manner to <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/animals-have-a-biological-switch-that-prepares-them-for-seasonal-changes/">biological</a> cells. Volunteers were trained in proper handling of samplers and documenting of data.

After the study period, the volunteers packaged the samplers in airtight bags, labeled them and mailed them back to Anderson's lab at OSU.

The samplers picked up high levels of PAHs across the study area. Levels were highest closest to the wells and decreased by about 30 percent with distance.

Even the lowest levels - detected on sites more than a mile away from a well - were higher than previous researchers had found in downtown <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/chicago-named-wild-onion/">Chicago</a> and near a Belgian oil refinery. They were about 10 times higher than in a rural Michigan area with no natural gas wells.

By looking at the ratios of individual PAHs detected by the samplers, Anderson and her team were able to discern whether they came directly from the earth - a "petrogenic" source - or from "pyrogenic" sources like the burning of fossil fuels. The proportion of petrogenic PAHs in the mix was highest nearer the wells and decreased with distance.

The team also accounted for the influences of wood smoke and vehicle exhaust, common sources of airborne pyrogenic PAHs. Wood smoke was consistent across the sampling area, supporting the conclusion that the gas wells were contributing to the higher PAH levels.

The researchers then used a standard calculation to determine the additional cancer risk posed by airborne contaminants over a range of scenarios. For the worst-case scenario (exposure 24 hours a day over 25 years), they found that a person anywhere in the study area would be exposed at a risk level exceeding the threshold of what the EPA deems acceptable.

The highest-risk areas were those nearest the wells, Anderson said. Areas more than a mile away posed about 30 percent less risk.

Anderson cautioned that these numbers are worst-case estimates and can't predict the risk to any particular individual. "Actual risk would depend heavily on exposure time, exposure frequency and proximity to a natural gas well," she said.

"We made these calculations to put our findings in context with other, similar risk assessments and to compare the levels we found with the EPA's acceptable risk level."

The study has other caveats, Anderson said, the main one being the small number of non-random samples used. In addition, findings aren't necessarily applicable to other gas-producing areas, because PAH emissions are influenced by extraction techniques and by underlying geology.

---

<a href="http://www.orst.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oregon State University</a>

Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health

Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health. Study: Fracking Harms...

168500629

Study: Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health. People living or working near active natural gas wells may be exposed to certain pollutants at higher levels than the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for lifetime exposure, according to scientists from <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/unequal-treatment-protestors/">Oregon</a> State University and the University of Cincinnati.

The researchers found that fracking - a technique for releasing natural gas from below-ground rock formations - emits pollutants known as PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), including some that are linked with increased risk of cancer and respiratory ailments.

"Air pollution from fracking operations may pose an under-recognized health hazard to people living near them," said the study's coauthor Kim Anderson, an environmental chemist with OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences.

The study, which appears in the journal Environmental Science &amp; Technology's online edition, is part of a larger project co-led by the University of Cincinnati's Erin Haynes, OSU's Anderson, her graduate student Blair Paulik and Laurel Kincl, director of OSU's Environmental Health Science Center.

[caption id="attachment_1334347" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2012/11/Pennsylvania-Has-Become-Home-Of-Experimental-Fracking.png"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1334347" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2012/11/Pennsylvania-Has-Become-Home-Of-Experimental-Fracking-150x150.png" alt="Credit: NSF" width="150" height="150" /></a> Credit: NSF[/caption]

Anderson and her colleagues collected air samples from sites near active natural gas wells in Carroll County, Ohio, over a three-week period last February. Carroll County sits on top of the Utica formation, a deep oil- and gas-rich reef of subterranean shale. The rural county is a hotspot of natural gas prospecting, with more than one active well site per square mile.

The study got its start when a group of citizens approached Haynes, who is a public health expert, wanting to know more about health risks from natural gas extraction.

Haynes got in touch with Anderson and Kincl, and together they designed the study to include citizen participation. They placed air samplers on the properties of 23 volunteers living or working at sites ranging from right next to a gas well to a little more than three miles away.

The samplers are aluminum T-shaped boxes containing specially treated polyethylene ribbons that absorb contaminants in a similar manner to biological cells. Volunteers were trained in proper handling of samplers and documenting of data.

After the study period, the volunteers packaged the samplers in airtight bags, labeled them and mailed them back to Anderson's lab at OSU.

The samplers picked up high levels of PAHs across the study area. Levels were highest closest to the wells and decreased by about 30 percent with distance.

Even the lowest levels - detected on sites more than a mile away from a well - were higher than previous researchers had found in downtown Chicago and near a Belgian oil refinery. They were about 10 times higher than in a rural Michigan area with no natural gas wells.

By looking at the ratios of individual PAHs detected by the samplers, Anderson and her team were able to discern whether they came directly from the earth - a "petrogenic" source - or from "pyrogenic" sources like the burning of fossil fuels. The proportion of petrogenic PAHs in the mix was highest nearer the wells and decreased with distance.

The team also accounted for the influences of wood smoke and vehicle exhaust, common sources of airborne pyrogenic PAHs. Wood smoke was consistent across the sampling area, supporting the conclusion that the gas wells were contributing to the higher PAH levels.

The researchers then used a standard calculation to determine the additional cancer risk posed by airborne contaminants over a range of scenarios. For the worst-case scenario (exposure 24 hours a day over 25 years), they found that a person anywhere in the study area would be exposed at a risk level exceeding the threshold of what the EPA deems acceptable.

The highest-risk areas were those nearest the wells, Anderson said. Areas more than a mile away posed about 30 percent less risk.

Anderson cautioned that these numbers are worst-case estimates and can't predict the risk to any particular individual. "Actual risk would depend heavily on exposure time, exposure frequency and proximity to a natural gas well," she said.

"We made these calculations to put our findings in context with other, similar risk assessments and to compare the levels we found with the EPA's acceptable risk level."

The study has other caveats, Anderson said, the main one being the small number of non-random samples used. In addition, findings aren't necessarily applicable to other gas-producing areas, because PAH emissions are influenced by extraction techniques and by underlying geology.

---

<a href="http://www.orst.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oregon State University</a>

Study: Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health

Study: Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health. People living...

Climate Change Helped Reduce Ozone Levels. Houston findings should hold for coastal regions around the world

Researchers at the University of Houston have determined that climate change - in the form of a stronger sea breeze, the result of warmer soil temperatures - contributed to the drop in ozone levels.

Robert Talbot, professor of atmospheric chemistry, said that also should be true for coastal regions globally.

The researchers describe their findings in a paper published this week in the journalAtmosphere. In addition to Talbot, they include first author Lei Liu, a doctoral student, and post-doctoral fellow Xin Lan.

The study relied upon ground-level ozone data collected over the past 23 years by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The meteorological data was collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climate Change Helped Reduce Ozone Levels

The researchers said they did not set out to find a connection between climate change and lower ozone levels - the number of days in which ozone levels exceeded federal standards varied from year to year but overall, dropped dramatically between 1990 and 2013. For example, in Aldine, one of four sites studied, the number of days during which ozone levels exceeded federal standards over an eight-hour period dropped to an average of 11 days per year during 2001-2013, down from 35 days per year during 1990-2000.

Talbot said the steep decline made him suspect something was happening beyond a city-led effort to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, one of the components of ozone.

Liu said they first ruled out other meteorological factors, including temperature, humidity and solar radiation. After they discovered the lower ozone readings coincided with days the southerly flow was strongest, they realized that climate change - in the form of warmer soil temperatures - had increased the southerly flow, she said.

"The frequency of southerly (air) flow has increased by a factor of ~2.5 over the period 1990-2013, likely suppressing O3 (ozone) photochemistry and leading to a 'cleaner' Houston environment," they wrote. "The sea breeze was enhanced greatly from 1990 to 2013 due to increasing land surface temperatures, increased pressure gradients, and slightly stronger on-shore winds. These patterns driven by climate change produce a strengthening of the sea breeze, which should be a general result at locations worldwide."

Industrial plants and vehicle exhaust mix with heat and sunlight to produce ground-level ozone, which can worsen asthma and other conditions. The city's rapid population growth - more people means more cars - and the refineries and petrochemical plants along the Houston Ship Channel are key factors in Houston's ground-level ozone.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1997 classified Houston as a "severe" nonattainment area due to ozone levels measured over an eight-hour period. By 2008, the city was classified as a "moderate" nonattainment area.

For the study, researchers focused on data from four locations: Galveston, Clinton Drive near the Houston Ship Channel, Aldine and a site in Northwest Harris County. They also used data on background ozone levels collected from the roof of Moody Tower, a high-rise residence hall on the UH campus.

Background ozone levels have remained constant over the past seven years, they report, dropping just one part per billion. The average background level over that period was 30 parts per billion.

But the number of days in which ground-level ozone exceeded federal standards in one-hour and eight-hour measures dropped sharply at all four sites between 1990 and 2013. (Data for the Galveston site is available only back to 1997.)

In contrast, "the length of time per year Houston is under the influence of southerly flow has more than doubled from 1990 to 2013," the researchers wrote. " ... We propose that the increased flow of 'cleaner' air is diluting the dirty Houston air, lowering the mixing ratios of NOX, O3 and precursor hydrocarbons. It also would advect the polluted air away from Houston," leading to lower potential to produce ozone.

They compared land and sea temperatures over the 23-year period to determine how temperature differences impact southerly flow. Land temperatures increase faster than water temperatures on a daily time scale, Liu said. As the heated air over land rises, cooler air from the sea rushes in, dispersing both ozone and the chemical elements that contribute to ozone.

"We weren't looking at it from a climate change perspective at first," Talbot said. "Then once we saw it was the sea breeze, we knew it had to be climate."

---

<a href="http://www.uh.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Houston</a>

Climate Change Helped Reduce Ozone Levels

Climate Change Helped Reduce Ozone Levels. Houston findings should hold...

Columbians Have Mixed Emotions Over Anti-Coca Herbicide Ban. Manuel de Jesus Sanchez holds up a green poncho to protect his skin from the midday sun. The farmer says he was working in a rice paddy four years ago when a crop duster buzzed by, dumping large quantities of what everyone here refers to as "the poison."
From that moment Sanchez was exposed to the glyphosate-based herbicide used by Colombia to wipe out cocaine-producing crops, he says his skin broke out in a yellow rash. Now white blotches have spread across his body and his eyesight is dimming.
"I never went to a doctor because I know he'll prescribe creams and pills that I can't afford," said Sanchez. Unable to till his farm, he now squeaks by selling candy along the dirt streets where a handful of families live in wood and zinc-roofed shacks.
Tales of harmful health effects, everything from skin problems to miscarriages, abound in this hamlet on the edge of the remote Paramillo national park in northern Colombia. Tracing the health problems to glyphosate is impossible - too many years have passed with possible exposure to other pesticides, and most of the town's residents, many of them coca growers, are either too poor or afraid to travel the three hours by boat and car to the nearest hospital and prosecutor's office to investigate the causes.


[caption id="attachment_2381644" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/coca-leaves_spray_2big_ap.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2381644" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/coca-leaves_spray_2big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="A plane sprays coca fields in San Miguel, Colombia. " width="150" height="150" /></a> A plane sprays coca fields in San Miguel, Colombia.[/caption]
President Juan Manuel Santos last week decided to halt anti-coca herbicide fumigation in the wake of a report by a research arm of the World Health Organization classifying glyphosate as a probable carcinogen. The move is lending strength to injury claims by dozens of farmers here who consider themselves victims of the U.S.-led drug war in South America. But it's also raising concerns that cocaine production in Colombia could come roaring back after a bloody, decades-old war against the nation's cartels.
St. Louis-based Monsanto, which discovered glyphosate, told The Associated Press that it no longer supplies the Colombian government with weed killer. It and other manufacturers have strongly rejected WHO's March assessment, citing a 2012 ruling by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that glyphosate-based products are safe. They accuse critics of cherry-picking data and pushing an agenda.
In October 2013, in response to an Associated Press article on glyphosate use in farming in Argentina, Monsanto described the herbicide as "even less toxic than the repellent you put on your children's skin." It said the chemical had been misused in Argentina.
Colombia is the only country that destroys coca crops by air and the practice has long provoked hostility from political and environmental groups. Many observers see its suspension as Santos' political gift to rebels he has been trying for two years to lure into signing a peace deal. The insurgents depend on the narcotics trade for much of their funding and liken the spraying, which is carried out by U.S. contractors, to the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
U.S. officials deny any harm has been caused by the spraying and say there is more danger to people's health and the environment from the chemicals used to manufacture cocaine in clandestine labs. If glyphosate is so unsafe, then why is nobody considering a ban on its widespread use in agriculture, they argue.
"This is an argument among the deaf," said Myles Frechette, a U.S. ambassador to Colombia in the 1990s. "Those who argue it does damage will not be convinced by science."
On Thursday, Colombia's National Narcotics Council, which sets drug policy, is expected to approve Santos' call to phase out glyphosate by October in favor of slower-going manual eradication by army units in areas frequently dominated by rebels.
Residents of Crucito consider it a bittersweet victory. They are afraid of the arrival of combat troops and say they don't have any means of sustenance besides the roughly $1,000 they receive from drug traffickers for each kilogram of coca paste.
Currently the most visible presence of the state in the town, besides the twice-a-year fumigation campaigns, is an army checkpoint that restricts the flow of gasoline, food and other supplies to guerrillas and drug <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/scientists-use-decoys-to-track-sea-turtle-egg-traffickers/">traffickers</a> lurking in the jungle-covered mountains beyond.
"Our problems aren't resolved by ending fumigation," said Andres Herron, a community leader. "The government needs to give us an alternative to traditional crops that allows us to live. Growing yucca, plantains and yams doesn't even leave enough money to put food on the table."
Santos' opponents warn that Colombia could soon be swimming in coca, though just as many observers argue that the spraying of 4 million acres since the 1990s has done little to reduce cultivation of the leaf.
The latest survey by the U.S., released this month, shows that areas under coca cultivation in Colombia shot up 39 percent last year to 112,000 hectares (about 276,000 acres). The White House's drug czar attributed the boom in part to an increase in off-limits areas like Paramillo, one of the country's 59 national parks and conservation areas where spraying is banned.
But supporters of Santos' move say the health threat is too high a price for Colombians to pay to keep cocaine off the streets of the U.S. and Europe.
Research published last year by Daniel Mejia, an expert adviser to Santos on drug policy, found higher rates of skin problems and miscarriages in districts targeted by herbicides. It was based on a study of medical records from 2003 to 2007.
Omar Miranda, who in the absence of a doctor is the only resident in Crucito trained in first aid, said he counted 20 miscarriages last year in a town of roughly 75 families. He said there has also been an increase in birth defects.
Although Miranda has no evidence to back up his observation or eliminate other possible causes, it's not hard to find examples of illness. Columbians Have Mixed Emotions Over Anti-Coca Herbicide Ban
Five-year-old Joani Londono was born with a club foot and a missing leg. Her mother, Adevis Diaz, attributes the malformations to having eaten vegetables from her garden just after a fumigation plane flew by.
"A few days later my water broke and my baby was born at six months," Diaz said, watching over her four children as they play on their home's dirt floor. "If we continue in this land our lives will be at risk."
---
Jacobo Garcia on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/jacobogg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/jacobogg</a>
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Columbians Have Mixed Emotions Over Anti-Coca Herbicide Ban

Columbians Have Mixed Emotions Over Anti-Coca Herbicide Ban. Manuel de...

The Final Days Of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf. A new NASA study finds the last remaining section of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf, which partially collapsed in 2002, is quickly weakening and is likely to disintegrate completely before the end of the decade.

A team led by Ala Khazendar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, found the remnant of the Larsen B Ice Shelf is flowing faster, becoming increasingly fragmented and developing large cracks. Two of its tributary glaciers also are flowing faster and thinning rapidly.

"These are warning signs that the remnant is disintegrating," Khazendar said. "Although it's fascinating scientifically to have a front-row seat to watch the ice shelf becoming unstable and breaking up, it's bad news for our planet. This ice shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years, and soon it will be gone."

[caption id="attachment_2381676" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/Larsen-B-Ice-Shelf_satellite_1big_nasa.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2381676" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/Larsen-B-Ice-Shelf_satellite_1big_nasa-150x150.jpg" alt="Disintegration of the Larsen B ice shelf. Credit: NASA" width="150" height="150" /></a> Disintegration of the Larsen B ice shelf. Credit: NASA[/caption]

Ice shelves are the gatekeepers for glaciers flowing from Antarctica toward the ocean. Without them, glacial ice enters the ocean faster and accelerates the pace of global sea level rise. This study, the first to look comprehensively at the health of the Larsen B remnant and the glaciers that flow into it, has been published online in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Khazendar's team used data on ice surface elevations and bedrock depths from instrumented aircraft participating in NASA's Operation IceBridge, a multiyear airborne survey campaign that provides unprecedented documentation annually of Antarctica's glaciers, ice shelves and ice sheets. Data on flow speeds came from spaceborne synthetic aperture radars operating since 1997.

Khazendar noted his estimate of the remnant's remaining life span was based on the likely scenario that a huge, widening rift that has formed near the ice shelf's grounding line will eventually crack all the way across. The free-floating remnant will shatter into hundreds of icebergs that will drift away, and the glaciers will rev up for their unhindered move to the sea.

Located on the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Larsen B remnant is about 625 square miles (1,600 square kilometers) in area and about 1,640 feet (500 meters) thick at its thickest point. Its three major tributary glaciers are fed by their own tributaries farther inland.

"What is really surprising about Larsen B is how quickly the changes are taking place," Khazendar said. "Change has been relentless."

The remnant's main tributary glaciers are named Leppard, Flask and Starbuck -- the latter two after characters in the novel Moby Dick. The glaciers' thicknesses and flow speeds changed only slightly in the first couple of years following the 2002 collapse, leading researchers to assume they remained stable. The new study revealed, however, that Leppard and Flask glaciers have thinned by 65-72 feet (20-22 meters) and accelerated considerably in the intervening years. The fastest-moving part of Flask Glacier had accelerated 36 percent by 2012 to a flow speed of 2,300 feet (700 meters) a year -- comparable to a car accelerating from 55 to 75 mph.

Flask's acceleration, while the remnant has been weakening, may be just a preview of what will happen when the remnant breaks up completely. After the 2002 Larsen B collapse, the glaciers behind the collapsed part of the shelf accelerated as much as eightfold -- comparable to a car accelerating from 55 to 440 mph.

The third and smallest glacier, Starbuck, has changed little. Starbuck's channel is narrow compared with those of the other glaciers, and the small glacier is strongly anchored to the bedrock, which, according to authors of the study, explains its comparative stability.

"This study of the Antarctic Peninsula glaciers provides insights about how ice shelves farther south, which hold much more land ice, will react to a warming climate," said JPL glaciologist Eric Rignot, a coauthor of the paper.

The research team included scientists from JPL; the University of California, Irvine; and the University Centre in Svalbard, Norway. The paper is online at:

<a href="http://go.nasa.gov/1bbpfsC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://go.nasa.gov/1bbpfsC</a>

NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.

For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit:

<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/earth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.nasa.gov/earth</a>

The Final Days Of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf

The Final Days Of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf. A...

Hazardous-Waste Incinerator In Ohio. A hazardous-waste incinerator in Ohio released dangerous toxins into the air over the past four years, exposing those nearby to chemicals that can cause cancer, miscarriages and early death, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The federal agency released a 20-page report and found that the Heritage Thermal Services Incinerator in East Liverpool in Columbiana County emitted gases that contained high levels of toxic chemicals 195 times from November 2010 to December 2014. The facility is on the Ohio River near the Pennsylvania and West Virginia borders.
The EPA said the toxins might have included dioxin, which can cause reproductive problems, skin disease and changes in hormone levels; cadmium, which can cause kidney disease and fetal malformations; chromium, which can cause cancer; and other toxic air pollutants that can cause neurological, respiratory and developmental problems.
The emissions occurred through both mechanical failures and operator errors, the report said.
"The question now, I think, that should be put to the agencies responsible for this facility is, `What are you going to do about it?' and `Why haven't you shut it down?'" said Alonzo Spencer, an East Liverpool resident and the president of Save Our County, an activist group that has lobbied to revoke the incinerator's operating permit.
"I think we deserve answers," he said.
Heritage could face fines or penalties for the violations. Company officials told The Columbus Dispatch they want to discuss the findings with the EPA but wouldn't say whether they agreed with the allegations.
Stewart Fletcher, Heritage vice president and general manager, said Thursday the incinerator continues to operate and the company has scheduled a June meeting with the EPA.
According to the company's website, Heritage can process up to 60,000 tons of hazardous waste each year and has about 180 employees. It drew international attention in the 1990s when residents and activists protested against its construction.
An EPA spokesman said the agency could not comment on a pending enforcement case.
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Hazardous-Waste Incinerator In Ohio

Hazardous-Waste Incinerator In Ohio. A hazardous-waste incinerator in Ohio released...

US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles. Beset by power plant closures, growing regulatory scrutiny and proposed changes in how they pay royalties, coal mines are facing a new obstacle - a review of how coal extracted and burned will impact the air and global warming.
Under a series of rulings by U.S. judges in Denver over the last year, federal agencies that approve mining projects have been told to take into account coal's indirect environmental impact along with traditional concerns about mine dust and equipment emissions.
The immediate effects of the rulings appear limited to a single mine in northwestern Colorado that could lose its permit if a new environmental review isn't completed within four months. But industry representatives fear the rulings, if allowed to stand, could set an example for other judges to follow and eventually threaten the mines that make up the backbone of an industry already facing uncertainty.
Two of the rulings involving Colorado mines, from U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, say greenhouse gas emissions need to be considered in environmental reviews. A similar case threatens to block production at another mine, in the coal-rich Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming. Another federal judge also recently ruled that a mine on the Navajo Nation must consider the effects of burning coal before expanding.
The agency at issue in the two most recent cases, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, is part of the Interior Department and regulates the environmental effects of mining across the country. Office spokesman Chris Holmes said the agency is still reviewing the rulings and hasn't decided what do to next. But fighting them would put the Obama administration in an awkward position because of its efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas.
The cases focused on coal from federal leases, which account for about 40 percent of U.S. production, but could open the door to similar legal challenges across the industry.
In his most recent decision, issued May 8, Jackson said the surface mining office must redo an environmental review for a coal mining project that's been underway for nearly a decade in northwestern Colorado or he would yank the mine's permit. The Colowyo Mine says losing the permit would lead to job losses for some of its 220 miners.
Colowyo is one of two mines that provide most coal for Colorado's Craig Station power plant, which generates about 8 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, according to federal emissions data.
Jackson, an Obama appointee, said if the government "can predict how much coal will be produced, it can likewise attempt to predict the environmental effects of its combustion."
Coal industry representatives said mines already face delays in permitting and adding more review would make matters worse. Colorado Mining Association President Stuart Sanderson said calculating a mine's contribution to global warming is meaningless because it's dwarfed by unregulated emissions in the developing world.
"It's pushing the envelope of regulation that is not in the nation's interests," Sanderson said of the rulings.
But legal experts say the rulings reflect an emerging trend of linking fossil fuel extraction to climate change.
"The agencies could continue to act just as they have been, but the cost of what they're doing will be more public and clear," said Justin Pidot, an assistant professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law.
While he doesn't think the Colowyo mine will be forced to close, Mark Squillace, director of the University of <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=colorado&amp;cvid=b9d5958107674495959982113eb91af4&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Colorado's</a> Natural Resources Law Center, said the more thorough reviews could lead the government to deny coal mining meant for export.US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles
"I think the government is going to have to give serious thought to whether they're going to allow that to go forward," he said.
Environmentalists say the rulings will help open up what they view as an industry-tilted process so the public can decide if burning coal is worth the cost.
"I think the more we learn and the more honest accounting we get from the federal government, the more we will decide we don't like it," said Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians, which sued to stop the mining in northwestern Colorado and also was part of lawsuits to block mine expansions in Somerset, Colorado, and Decker, <a href="http://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/montana-valley-and-foothill-grasslands/">Montana</a>. US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles
In the Somerset case, Jackson stopped the expansion of Arch Coal, Inc.'s West Elk mine last year partly because the Bureau of Land Management considered but rejected calculating the impact of future greenhouse emissions.
In April, another Denver federal judge, John Kane, ruled that the surface mining office must consider the effects of burning coal at a northwestern New Mexico power plant before allowing an expansion of the Navajo Nation's Navajo Mine. Environmentalists there were mostly concerned with mercury pollution impacting fish in the San Juan River.
The Navajo Nation company that owns the mine has appealed Kane's ruling. The government did not appeal the West Elk ruling.
In the Montana case, WildEarth Guardians and the Northern Plains Resource Council sued to block the mining of more than 117 million tons of coal, which would extend the life of Cloud Peak Energy's 280-worker Spring Creek mine by 13 years.
The environmental groups have asked U.S. District Judge Susan Watters to halt mining until its environmental impacts are more thoroughly vetted.
Cloud Peak and Montana Attorney General Tim Fox have entered the case on the side of the Interior Department, which wants it dismissed. In a notice to Watters' court filed Wednesday, attorneys for Wildearth Guardians were quick to point out their victory in Colorado in support of their arguments against Spring Creek.
----
Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.
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US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles

US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles. Beset by power plant...

Arctic Drill Ships

Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Activists opposed to drilling for oil in the Arctic plan to launch a flotilla of kayaks and other boats on <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/wildfire-smoke-seattle-air-dangerous/">Seattle's</a> Elliott Bay on Saturday, two days after the arrival of a towering oil rig that is the centerpiece of Shell's Arctic drilling fleet.
The "Paddle in Seattle" - a daylong, family friendly festival in a West Seattle park and an on-the-water protest by "Shell No" kayaktivists - aims to continue the message sent as the Polar Pioneer drilling rig arrived: "Stand up for the climate and say no to Shell's drilling plans."
"This weekend is another opportunity for the people to demand that their voices be heard," Alli Harvey, Alaska representative for the Sierra Club's Our Wild America campaign, said in a statement Friday. "Science is as clear as day when it comes to drilling in the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=arctic&amp;cvid=d1e3254b61324c84bc4ec61307943e4f&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Arctic</a>: the only safe place for these dirty fuels is in the ground." Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle
The gathering, hosted by a coalition of groups, is expected to draw thousands both on land and in the water. At the center of the paddle protest will be the "People's Platform," a 4,000-square-foot barge powered by renewable energy, said Jonathon Berman with the Sierra Club.


[caption id="attachment_2381694" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/kayaktivists_3big_ap.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2381694" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/kayaktivists_3big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="Credit: AP" width="150" height="150" /></a> Credit: AP[/caption]
Just a quarter-mile away from the Seacrest Marine Park sits the 400-foot long, 300-foot tall Polar Pioneer, the first of two oil drilling rigs that Royal Dutch Shell plans to use this summer as it explores for oil off Alaska's northern coast. The second rig, the Noble Discoverer, arrived at the Port of Everett last week and is slated join the Polar Pioneer at the Port of Seattle's Terminal 5 at a later date. Everett port spokeswoman Lisa Lefeber said on Friday that they expect the Noble Discoverer to be there for two to three weeks.
The Arctic holds about 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of its oil, according to Shell's website.
"This amounts to around 400 billion barrels of oil equivalent, 10 times the total oil and gas produced in the North Sea to date," Shell's site says. "Developing Arctic resources could be essential to securing energy supplies for the future, but it will mean balancing economic, environmental and social challenges."
The activists see it differently, however.
The protesters say it's critical that they take a stand "against dirty fossil fuel projects" and want to put themselves on the front lines in the battle for Arctic oil.
---
Follow Martha Bellisle at <a href="https://twitter.com/marthabellisle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/marthabellisle</a>
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Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle

Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell...

Carbon Dioxide

Canada Plans To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 30 Percent. Canada announced Friday it plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 amid international efforts to create a new framework for addressing climate change.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government said it formally submitted its target to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ahead of the major climate change conference in Paris in December.
The U.S. has committed to a 26 percent to 28 percent cut by 2025 from 2005 levels. The EU has a target of 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Japan is proposing to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 26 percent by 2030. China, the world's largest emitter, has not officially filed its target yet, but China did set a target for the country's emissions to peak by 2030 in a joint climate announcement with the U.S. last November.
A new international framework replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol is to be discussed at the Paris conference. The anti-global warming treaty has been largely ineffective because only rich countries were required to limit their emissions. Poorer countries have been reluctant to make commitments in a new framework.
Harper pulled Canada out of the Kyoto <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/kyoto-protocol-report-card-100-percent-compliance/">Protocol</a> in 2011, saying the accord would not help solve the climate crisis. That dealt a blow to the treaty, which had not been formally renounced by any other country. The U.S. never signed up.
Canadian Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq said the new target is fair and ambitious and reflects the country's economic circumstances. Aglukkaq said they would introduce new regulations on methane emissions produced by the oil and gas industry as well as for natural gas-fired power generation and for the chemical and nitrogen fertilizer industries. There was no mention of new regulations for Alberta's oil sands industry, Canada's fastest growing source of emissions.
Canada might also buy international credits to meet its targets. Canada could get deductions from its counted emissions by investing in environmentally friendly projects in other countries.
Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the U.S.-based Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said when measured against current emissions, Canada's target is roughly comparable to the U.S. and the EU targets.
"Given that Canada pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol and that it is not on track to meet its 2020 target, Canada will have to work very hard to persuade the international community that it can deliver on its 2030 target," Diriniger said. "It would require significant effort beyond business as usual to deliver that reduction."
Environmentalists have long criticized <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/the-fall-rhapsody-in-ottawa/">Canada</a> as being an outlier on efforts to curb climate change. Harper has called Canada an emerging energy superpower and has avoided doing anything to get in the way of that.
Canada has the world's third-largest oil reserves, with more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production is expected to more than double by 2025. Only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have more reserves. But critics say the enormous amount of energy and water needed in the extraction process increases greenhouse gas emissions. Canada Plans To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 30 Percent
Under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, Canada vowed to cut emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, but Environment Canada reported last month that the country's greenhouse gas emissions rose between 2012 and 2013 to 726 megatons. It was the fourth consecutive annual increase.
"What hopefully Paris produces is institutionalized peer pressure to hold countries accountable for their promises," Diriniger said.
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Canada Plans To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 30 Percent

Canada Plans To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 30 Percent....

Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Activists opposed to drilling for oil in the Arctic plan to launch a flotilla of kayaks and other boats on Seattle's Elliott Bay on Saturday, two days after the arrival of a towering <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=oil&amp;cvid=9c5744b4cba241019858b74aee1d9bf4&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">oil</a> rig that is the centerpiece of Shell's Arctic drilling fleet.
The "Paddle in Seattle" - a daylong, family friendly festival in a West <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/wildfire-smoke-seattle-air-dangerous/">Seattle</a> park and an on-the-water protest by "Shell No" kayaktivists - aims to continue the message sent as the Polar Pioneer drilling rig arrived: "Stand up for the climate and say no to Shell's drilling plans." Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle
"This weekend is another opportunity for the people to demand that their voices be heard," Alli Harvey, Alaska representative for the Sierra Club's Our Wild <a href="http://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/perennial-vegetables-to-grow-in-north-america/">America</a> campaign, said in a statement Friday. "Science is as clear as day when it comes to drilling in the Arctic: the only safe place for these dirty fuels is in the ground."
The gathering, hosted by a coalition of groups, is expected to draw thousands both on land and in the water. At the center of the paddle protest will be the "People's Platform," a 4,000-square-foot barge powered by renewable energy, said Jonathon Berman with the Sierra Club.


[caption id="attachment_2381694" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/kayaktivists_3big_ap.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2381694" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/kayaktivists_3big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="Credit: AP" width="150" height="150" /></a> Credit: AP[/caption]
Just a quarter-mile away from the Seacrest Marine Park sits the 400-foot long, 300-foot tall Polar Pioneer, the first of two oil drilling rigs that Royal Dutch Shell plans to use this summer as it explores for oil off Alaska's northern coast. The second rig, the Noble Discoverer, arrived at the Port of Everett last week and is slated join the Polar Pioneer at the Port of Seattle's Terminal 5 at a later date. Everett port spokeswoman Lisa Lefeber said on Friday that they expect the Noble Discoverer to be there for two to three weeks.
The Arctic holds about 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of its oil, according to Shell's website.
"This amounts to around 400 billion barrels of oil equivalent, 10 times the total oil and gas produced in the North Sea to date," Shell's site says. "Developing Arctic resources could be essential to securing energy supplies for the future, but it will mean balancing economic, environmental and social challenges." Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle
The activists see it differently, however.
The protesters say it's critical that they take a stand "against dirty fossil fuel projects" and want to put themselves on the front lines in the battle for Arctic oil.
---
Follow Martha Bellisle at <a href="https://twitter.com/marthabellisle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/marthabellisle</a>
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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



---



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

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" 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.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;



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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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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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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



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Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" 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 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



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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



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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.

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

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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.

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



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The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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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

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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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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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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

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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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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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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



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.

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



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.

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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