Page 151 - Environment

How fish adapt to climate change

Scientists have studied how fish adapt to rapid changes in the surrounding freshwater environment to understand how the marine life may respond to climate change. Freshwater biodiversity is rapidly declining worldwide, and nature-based solutions which increase the resilience of ecological communities are becoming increasingly important in helping communities prepare for the unavoidable effects of climate change. Researchers from Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia and Universidade de Lisboa in Portugal varied the water current and depth in a simulated river with obstacles, and found that fish were able to rapidly adapt to the changes when alone and also when in groups. "The findings suggest that cues initiated by obstacles in the flow can be detected by fish to find energetically-beneficial places in the flow even under extreme and rapid environmental change," said Jeffrey Tuhtan, a researchers at Tallinn University of Technology. The concept of observing fish in simulated ...

Plant-based fuels commercially viable: Study

Sustainable plant-based bio-jet fuels could provide a competitive alternative to conventional petroleum fuels if current development and scale-up initiatives continue to push ahead successfully, scientists say. With an estimated daily fuel demand of more than five million barrels per day, the global aviation sector is incredibly energy-intensive and almost entirely reliant on petroleum-based fuels. Unlike other energy sectors such as ground transportation or residential and commercial buildings, the aviation industry can't easily shift to renewable energy sources using existing technologies. The research, published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, provides promising evidence that optimising the biofuel production pipeline is well worth the effort. This involves taking carbohydrate-rich plant material and using genetically modified bacteria to digest the isolated sugars into energy-dense molecules that are then chemically converted into a fuel product. "It's challenging

Wild Edens: South Asia, a new feature documentary premieres in Mumbai

The premiere of a new documentary "Wild EdensFocusing on the flora and fauna in the one-of-a-kind natural habitats of India and Bangladesh the documentary was filmed in a number of remote locations, including the Western Ghats, varied landscape of Tamil Nadu and the Sunderban Delta.Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, the world's leading producer of safe and clean energy, is deeply concerned with the threats associated with global climate change."Along with our international partners, we take responsibility for resolving global environmental challenges and call upon the world community to wake up and do the right thing. As Mahatma Gandhi once famously said: be the change that you wish to see in the world", said Vadim Titov, Rosatom representative at the event."Through this well-made documentary, the world and my fellow Indians will be able to connect with my country's exotic mix of wild nature, rare animal life, unique wildlife sanctuaries and magnificent landscapes that are ...

Fight global problems together, UN to developing nations

Buenos Aires, March 20 (IANS/AKI) The world needs to harness the power of exchanges between countries in the Global South if it is to reduce poverty and malnutrition while rising to the challenges posed by population growth and climate change, the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development said on Wednesday.

Brazil gunmen shoot at convoy carrying nuclear fuel

Gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks carrying uranium fuel to a nuclear power plant near the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, police said.

Fiinovation impact assessment for dairy-based CSR intervention in Rajasthan

Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. (Fiinovation) has partnered with a rapidly growing multi-diversified conglomerate to assess the impact of its ongoing CSR intervention in Sikar and Dungarpur district, Rajasthan.The project focuses on improving dairy output and enhancing milk productivity in rural households. Under the project, Artificial Insemination (AI) services, veterinary care and treatment are provided through trained livestock assistants.The project is also building the capacity of dairy farmers in order to take up better cattle management practices. To help the farmers better their livestock management, services like 24/7 helpline, health camps and tools such as chaff cutters are provided under the project.The project has identified 240 Champion farmers from Dungarpur and 200 Champion farmers in Sikar district and is being projected as role models. These farmers are adopting new approaches to enhance milk productivity that include improved feed and fodder practices, ...

NASA probe finds water-bearing minerals on Bennu

A team of scientists from NASA have discovered the evidence of abundant water-bearing minerals on the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

Drought wipes popular Chilean lake from the map

The cows and horses would have come for the last blades of grass. Now their bones are scattered on the cracked earth, victims of drought that wiped Santiago's weekend playground Lake Aculeo from the map. Lake Aculeo's demise is so sudden and complete it seems as if someone had pulled a giant plug and let all the water out. So sudden was it that as recently as 2011 the 4.6 square-mile (12 square-kilometer) lagoon was a thriving weekend getaway for people from the Chilean capital an hour away. Thousands came here to swim, water-ski, sail or simply cool off in the long austral summer. They camped along its shores and lined up for tables at busy lakeside restaurants. Now, water and cooling summers on Lake Aculeo are a fast receding memory. "We have been suffering drought for 10 years, and now the lake has disappeared, with tourism, camping, business, everything," laments Marcos Contreras, a campsite employee. Wooden jetties now poke out grotesquely over the flat plain of the ...

Tokyo unveils 'cherry blossom' Olympic torch

Organisers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Wednesday unveiled a cherry-blossom shaped torch for the Games as the city prepares for the famed flower season to begin in coming days. The top part of the torch is shaped in the traditional emblem of the sakura, or cherry blossom using the same cutting-edge technology as in production of Japan's bullet trains, the organisers said. The shiny rose-gold torch, which is 71 centimetres (28 inches) long and weighs 1.2 kilograms (2 pounds 10 ounces), uses aluminium construction waste from temporary housing built for victims of the 2011 quake and tsunami. "Cherry blossoms drawn by kids in the disaster-hit area (in Fukushima)... inspired me," designer Tokujin Yoshioka, whose works are known internationally, told reporters. Fukushima was chosen as the starting point for the Olympic torch relay. The passing of the flame is scheduled to start on March 26, 2020, and the torch will head south to the sub-tropical island of Okinawa -- the starting point for .

NTPC's Karsada plant in Varanasi achieves full generation capacity

State-owned power producer NTPC Tuesday said its 200 kilo watt (kW) waste-to-energy plant in Karsada has achieved full generation capacity. The plant is located in Karsada at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh (UP). "Karsada plant has been able to achieve full load generation. Set up with an installed capacity of 200 kW, the thermal gasification-based pilot scale 24 tonne per day waste to energy plant has achieved full generation capacity," NTPC said in a statement. The project, NTPC said, is in line with the government's Swachh Bharat Mission, promoting a healthy environment through proper waste utilisation. "The municipal solid waste supplied by the Varanasi Municipal Corporation is converted to electric power, thus ensuring scientific disposal of waste through a sustainable and environmentally friendly process," it said. The compost created as a by-product is also sold as organic fertilisers to the farmers, it added. NTPC has already signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Purvanchal ...

Floriculture in Himachal to get boost

Floriculture in Himachal Pradesh is to get a boost as the Dr Y.S. Parmar University and Forestry's research station has been designated as the 'lead centre of dahlia testing' in the country, the university said on Wednesday.

Evidence of water, particle plumes discovered on asteroid Bennu: NASA

A NASA spacecraft, that will return a sample of a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu to Earth in 2023, has discovered plumes erupting from the cosmic body's surface -- among a numerous other findings including evidence of water-bearing minerals. Bennu also revealed itself to be more rugged than expected, challenging the mission team to alter its flight and sample collection plans, due to the rough terrain. Bennu is the target of NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission, which began orbiting the asteroid on December 31 last year. Bennu, which is only slightly wider than the height of the Empire State Building, may contain unaltered material from the very beginning of our solar system. "The discovery of plumes is one of the biggest surprises of my scientific career," said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona in the US. "And the rugged terrain went against all of our ...

NASA probe makes new discoveries on asteroid Bennu

NASA's first asteroid-sampling mission OSIRIS-REx has observed particle plumes erupting from the surface of Bennu, an asteroid the size of the pyramid at Giza.

Evidence of water found on asteroid Bennu

Scientists have discovered evidence of abundant water-bearing minerals on the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Using early spectral data from NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft orbiting the asteroid, the team identified infrared properties similar to those in a type of meteorite called carbonaceous chondrites. "Scientists are interested in the composition of Bennu because similar objects may have seeded the Earth with water and organic materials," said Victoria Hamilton, a mission co-investigator from Southwest Research Institute in the US. "OSIRIS-REx data confirm previous ground-based observations pointing to aqueously altered, hydrated minerals on the surface of the asteroid," said Hamilton, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Typical planetary models show that around 4.6 billion years ago, the solar system formed from the gravitational collapse of a giant nebular cloud. The Sun, planets and other objects such as asteroids and comets formed as ...

Russia-US' Venus space probe to be launched in 2027

A Russian-US joint interplanetary probe to Venus will be possibly launched in 2027, said a Russian scientist.

Maharashtra: 3 farmers dead after inhaling poisonous gas in water pipeline manhole

Three persons died on Tuesday after they inhaled poisonous gas in a manhole of a pipeline being used to draw water for their crops in Chikal area of Aurangabad, a corporation official said."Four persons entered the manhole to check the motors which were installed to transport water from there. Three of them died due to gas in the manhole. One person is missing and the authorities are looking for him. There is no other way to escape the manhole," Councillor Raju Shinde said.He said that following a court order, the corporation had asked the farmers a fortnight ago to remove the motors for transporting water to their fields."But they continue draw water by using motors," he told reporters.Shinde said the farmers have been transporting water for their crops from a drainage line of Sukhna river flowing through the Chikala area of Aurangabad.A brother of deceased Ashok Damle said, "Due to drought, water was being drawn from the drainage line. Water was not coming in the motors for the past

NASA says taking sample from asteroid harder than expected

After two years crossing the solar system, the NASA space probe Osiris-Rex arrived last December near the asteroid Bennu to complete its mission of collecting a sample -- but touching the rock will prove much harder than scientists had expected. The Osiris-Rex team said Tuesday that the surface of the asteroid, which measures 490 metres (1,600 feet) in diameter, was covered in stones and boulders. They had expected it to be smoother and easier for the probe to touch. "We go back to the drawing board and start thinking again," Dante Lauretta, the head of the mission, told a press conference. The team's observations also appeared in the Nature journal on Tuesday. The probe was designed to head for a flat area with a radius of 25 meters, but the images beamed back since December showed that there is no area that big which is free of boulders. As a result, the team will have to aim more tightly. "Now we're going to try to hit the centre of the bullseye," said project manager Richard ...

The powerful meteor that no one saw (except satellites)

At precisely 11:48 am on December 18, 2018, a large space rock heading straight for Earth at a speed of 19 miles per second exploded into a vast ball of fire as it entered the atmosphere, 15.9 miles above the Bering Sea. From below, the only witnesses to this fiery event may have been the fish that inhabit the frigid waters between Russia and Alaska, as no human eye caught sight of it. A meteor is the luminous phenomenon that results when an asteroid or other celestial body enters the Earth's atmosphere. It is commonly called a shooting star. If it does not fully vaporise and some part of it hits the Earth's surface, it is called a meteorite. One of the first researchers to detect the event was Peter Brown, a meteor scientist at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario. On March 8, he was poring over December data from the system used by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization to detect atmospheric explosions caused by nuclear tests. The ...

Zimbabwe says cyclone fatalities could surge to 300

The death toll in Zimbabwe from Tropical Cyclone Idai stands at around 100 but could rise to as much as 300, a minister has said. Local Government Minister July Moyo told reporters at a post-cabinet meeting Tuesday that the current toll was around 100. "The total number, we were told they could be 100, some are saying there could be 300. But we cannot confirm this situation," he said. "I understand there are bodies which are floating, some have floated all the way to Mozambique," said Moyo. At least 217 people are missing and 44 stranded, according to the information ministry. The worst-hit region was eastern Zimbabwe, especially the town of Chimanimani. The area was pounded by Tropical Cyclone which on Friday ripped into neighbouring Mozambique before wreaking havoc in southern Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Lion cub found dead in Gujarat's Gir forest

A lion cub was found dead near a farm in the Tulsishyam Range of the Gir Forest, said forest department officials Tuesday. The 3-month-old cub's carcass was found by forest staff on Monday night and primary investigation has revealed it may have been killed in a territorial fight among adult lions to establish dominance, said D T Vasavada, Chief Conservator of Forests, Junagadh Wildlife Circle. This is the second case this month of a cub getting killed in a territorial fight. Two weeks ago, two lion cubs were killed by a male lion during a territorial fight in the Visavadar range of Gir. Earlier last month, two lions, a lioness and a cub were found dead in and around the protected Gir forest, the only abode of Asiatic lions. As per the last census of 2015, it is home to 523 lions, though the state government recently said the figure now might be over 600.