http://www.enn.com/spotlights http://www.enn.com/images/spotlight.gif http://www.enn.com/spotlights Environmental News Network - Spotlight en-us http://enn.com/news/feeds/spotlight2.xml http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/52012 Lakes Environmental Research announced today the issuance of patent number 9,605,212 B2 by the US Patent Office that covers a revolutionary oil sands recovery process.  The “Novel Ultra-Low Water Oil-Sands Recovery Process” (NUWORP) significantly reduces, with the potential to eliminate, three of the greatest barriers to wider adoption of oil sands production.   Mon, 31 Jul 2017 11:36:00 EST http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/52012 Lakes Environmental Software (ENN Parent Company) http://www.enn.com/climate/article/51929 Analysis of natural sparkling mineral water has given scientists valuable clues on how to locate hot water springs. Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:11:00 EST http://www.enn.com/climate/article/51929 The University of Edinburgh http://www.enn.com/sustainability/article/51899 We've all heard of ways to reduce our carbon footprint: biking to work, eating less meat, recycling.But there's another way to help the climate. A recent study from Lund University in Sweden shows that the biggest way to reduce climate change is to have fewer children."I knew this was a sensitive topic to bring up," says study co-author Kimberly Nicholas on NPR's Morning Edition. "Certainly it's not my place as a scientist to dictate choices for other people. But I do think it is my place to do the analysis and report it fairly."The study concludes that four high-impact ways to reduce CO2 gas emissions include having fewer children, living without a car, avoiding airplane travel and eating a vegetarian diet. Wed, 19 Jul 2017 19:01:00 EST http://www.enn.com/sustainability/article/51899 Tori Whitley, NPR http://www.enn.com/Spanish/article/51672 En septiembre de 2011, después de 20 años de planificación, se inició la desmantelación de las represas Elwha y Glines en el río Elwha, en el noroeste del estado de Washington. En aquel momento, era el proyecto más grande de remoción de presas en la historia de los Estados Unidos, y tomó casi tres años para que ambas barreras fueran desmanteladas y para que el río volviera a fluir libremente.A lo largo de sus casi cien años de vida, las dos represas recolectaron más de 24 millones de metros cúbicos de sedimento detrás de ellos, lo suficiente para llenar el estadio de los halcones Marinos de Seattle ocho veces. Y desde su remoción, el Elwha ha recuperado el sedimento atrapado y lo ha distribuido río abajo, haciendo que el ecosistema ribereño sea reconstruido y transformado. Se han llevado a la costa grandes cantidades de limo, arena y grava, resucitando un ecosistema de humedales largamente privado de sedimentos. Thu, 29 Jun 2017 07:13:00 EST http://www.enn.com/Spanish/article/51672 Jim Robbins, YaleEnvironment360 http://www.enn.com/sustainability/article/51570 Vast amounts of river-borne sediment are trapped behind the world’s large dams, depriving areas downstream of material that is badly needed to build up the marshes and wetlands that act as a buffer against rising seas.In September 2011, after 20 years of planning, workers began dismantling the Elwha and Glines dams on the Elwha River in northwestern Washington state. At the time, it was the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, and it took nearly three years for both barriers to be dismantled and for the river to once again flow freely. Over the course of their nearly century-long lives, the two dams collected more than 24 million cubic yards of sediment behind them, enough to fill the Seattle Seahawks football stadium eight times. And since their removal, the Elwha has taken back the trapped sediment and distributed it downstream, causing the riverine ecosystem to be rebuilt and transformed. Massive quantities of silt, sand, and gravel have been carried to the coast, resurrecting a wetlands ecosystem long deprived of sediment. Tue, 20 Jun 2017 06:44:00 EST http://www.enn.com/sustainability/article/51570 Jim Robbins, YaleEnvironment360 http://www.enn.com/climate/article/51531 Large-scale melting of snow and ice on Antarctica’s massive Ross Ice Shelf, brought about by an unusually warm stretch of weather in the summer of 2016, is one of the first documented cases of widespread surface melting of the Ross Ice Shelf and other regions of West Antarctica, according to a new study. Thu, 15 Jun 2017 12:40:00 EST http://www.enn.com/climate/article/51531 Yale Environment 360 http://www.enn.com/sustainability/article/51396 Poaching, illegal fishing and deforestation are threatening more than quarter of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, according to a report by the WWF  (World Wide Fund for Nature) — and the consequences are not just environmental.The report states that 18 out of the 50 threatened sites are in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama and Peru. It also says the number could be higher because the illegal extraction of species in the region — a business with annual profits of almost US$ 2 billion — is not as well studied as it is in Africa or Asia. Wed, 31 May 2017 07:14:00 EST http://www.enn.com/sustainability/article/51396 Emiliano Rodriguez Mega