We live in a very complex environment: we see complexity and dynamism and patterns of evidence in satellite photographs, and videos. You can even see it outside your window. It's endlessly complex, but somehow familiar. The patterns kind of repeat, but they never repeat exactly. It's a huge challenge to understand. The patterns that you see are there at all of the different … [Read more...]
First 5 International Hope Spots coming to SA
Dr Sylvia Earle will lead a Mission Blue Expedition to South Africa to launch the country's first five Hope Spots in December 2014. Sustainable Seas Trust and BirdLife South Africa are organizing the tour, in concert with a number of supporting organizations with a view to igniting public support for marine conservation. Dr Sylvia Earle, the architect of the Hope Spot … [Read more...]
Laying on hands for healing
Reiki is an environmentally friendly form of treatment because it does not use any tools except a practitioner's hands and therefore it does not create any waste. Reiki is the art of laying on of hands in order to heal and it originated in Japan. Tadao Yamaguchi, a Reiki teacher and environmental activist, made the following statement: "Reiki can improve the global … [Read more...]
Global warming moving plants to new habitats
By 2100, vegetation patterns will be shifting in almost half the land area of the planet, according to new research in the journal Global and Planetary Change. Song Feng of the University of Arkansas in the U.S. and colleagues in Nebraska, China and South Korea have taken a long cool look at what the projected patterns of warming are likely to do to the planet’s mosaic of … [Read more...]
Public not keen on climate engineering
As political apathy and inaction on climate change dims hopes of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, scientists are increasing exploring plan B – engineering the climate to avoid the worst of what is predicted to come if emissions can’t be curtailed. A Royal Society of London paper put the issue squarely in the spotlight in 2009 when it issued an influential paper that … [Read more...]
New book for tree lovers
There is a beautiful new South African tree book for both the scientifically and artistically minded to indulge in. “...(T)his book is a humble attempt to capture the beauty and power of trees for lovers, the lovers of the glory of the tree; from those who talk to trees to those who cannot name a single plant.” So reads the introduction to “South African Flowering Trees – A … [Read more...]
Denialists’ disdain for science a vital human rights issue
The public debate about climate change is an aberration. We do not have debates in newspapers about the validity of medical science, physics, aeronautics, geology or genetics. So what is different about climate science? Business Day's David le Page decided to get to the bottom of it. Two things, perhaps: its conclusions demand that most of us make significant adjustments to … [Read more...]
El Niño may make 2014 the world’s hottest year yet
New data show nearly even odds for El Niño conditions to develop next year, which could make 2014 the hottest year on record. El Niño is the name that climatologists give to warming of the surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Since the Pacific Ocean is so big, slight changes can drive weather patterns worldwide. In fact, the El Niño/La Niña cycle is the … [Read more...]
Biofuel Mimicry: learning from nature
Could the fungus-gardening activities of leafcutter ants teach humans how to produce sustainable biofuels? In a humid room at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW), large Tupperware boxes hold thick beds of gray fungi, pockmarked with holes and crawling with leafcutter ants. The boxes are home to colonies of two leafcutter species, Atta cephalotes and Acromyrmex … [Read more...]
Cape Flats home to 22 million birds
The Cape Flats, covered by about 2.7 million hectares of invasive species, including Australian acacias, is also home to about 22 million birds, an MSc student from Stellenbosch University found recently. Andrew Rogers, a postgraduate student in the Department of Botany and Zoology at SU, endured six months of fieldwork (often starting at sunrise) and a case of tick bite … [Read more...]
Climate change raising fire risk
Climate change is increasing the probability of extreme bushfire conditions, a report by Australia's leading climate change advisory body has found. The landmark study by the Climate Council - the independent organisation established after the Abbott government abolished the Climate Commission in September - warns of increasing days of extreme fire danger in future across … [Read more...]
Amazon at higher risk of tree loss
Researchers say the southern part of the Amazon rainforest is at a far higher risk of dieback than the models used in the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The research team, led by Professor Rong Fu of the University of Texas, say that this is because the forest is drying out much quicker than projected. If the damage is severe … [Read more...]
Beetle boots earn Wits professor an Ig Nobel Prize
A set of boots and caps for dung beetles has secured University of the Witwatersrand professor Marcus Byrne and his colleagues this year’s Ig Nobel Prize for biology and astronomy. The prizes are organised by the humour magazine Annals of Improbable Science, which says they are intended to recognise science that "first makes you laugh and then makes you think". They are … [Read more...]
