Environmental News Network

Ancient Elephants Followed the (Female) Leader

Ann Gibbons, Science AAAS — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:41:00 EST

When a herd of prehistoric elephants walked through mud in the Arabian Desert about 7 million years ago, its members unwittingly left their footprints—and clues about their social lives—behind. Those prints now reveal how the herd behaved: Just like modern elephants, mature males meandered on their own while the rest of the herd apparently followed a female leader.

Fires and deaths from deforestation linked

R Greenway, ENN — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:15:00 EST

A new study links smoke from the burning of wood waste from deforestation to deaths from the effects of breathing all that smoke. Worldwide, smoke from these fires (called landscape fires) contributed to an average of 339,000 deaths per year between 1997 and 2006, according to new research published in Environmental Health Perspectives and released today during the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia were the hardest hit by fire-smoke deaths, with an estimated annual average of 157,000 and 110,000 deaths, respectively, attributable to fire smoke exposure, said researcher Fay Johnston, who represented a global team at the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

Pretty Pleistocene Flower

Editor, ENN — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:05:00 EST

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2.6 million to 12,000 years ago that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciation. Not much has survived from that era except as fossils until now. Fruit seeds stored away by squirrels more than 30,000 years ago and found in Siberian permafrost have been regenerated into full flowering plants by scientists in Russia, a new study has revealed. The seeds of the herbaceous Silene stenophylla are far and away the oldest plant tissue to have been brought back to life, according to lead cryologists Svetlana Yashina and David Gilichinsky of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The Quiet Clean Mining Revolution

Guest Author — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:56:00 EST

Few industries have got the black eye, literally and metaphorically, of mining. After centuries of environmental effects ranging from toxic emissions to unsightly tailings ponds, acid mine drainage, massive energy consumption and other impacts, mining is slowly cleaning up its act. Why? Mostly because new clean technologies are increasing industrial efficiencies. They're lowering mining companies' power needs. And they're even helping reduce water requirements, and/or remediating the produced water and mines of years past that are now leaching toxins. And that's translating into cost savings for mining companies, which are being held increasingly accountable for their environmental impacts and are looking for ways to minimize the expenses of both the production phase of their operations, and reclamation (i.e. the mandated end-of-life cleanup expenses associated with mining in many jurisdictions, now). In other words, now that it's starting to be less expensive on net for mining companies to be clean, they're starting to move in that direction. Here's a look at some selected companies at the forefront of new, clean processes in mining today.

Republic of Congo Expands National Park to Protect Great Apes

David A Gabel, ENN — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:39:00 EST

The Nouabale-Ndoki National Park is a lush rainforest park within the equatorial nation of the Republic of Congo (ROC), not to be confused with the much larger Democratic Republic of Congo to the south and east. The ROC has followed through on its commitments to expand the NNNP by 8 percent, from about 1,500 square miles to about 1,630 square miles. The newly included area holds a unique ecosystem known as the Goualougo Triangle. The Goualougo is a very dense, swampy forest that is home to a nearly pristine and untouched great ape population that was first discovered in 1989 by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists.

National Defense and President Obama's 2013 Clean Energy Budget

Tina Casey — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:31:00 EST

As far as clean energy and green jobs go, President Obama's 2013 budget includes a Christmas-in-July package of initiatives that are designed to help pull the U.S. out of recession while transitioning the economy to cleaner, safer, more reliable and less price-spikey forms of energy. Those last two items – price and reliability of supply – are especially important to the Department of Defense, which will see its rate of growth slow dramatically under the new budget.

Even Sharks Make Friends

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:21:00 EST

Sharks have a reputation for being ruthless, solitary predators, but evidence is mounting that certain species enjoy complex social lives that include longstanding relationships and teamwork. A new study, published in the latest Animal Behaviour, documents how one population of blacktip reef sharks is actually organized into four communities and two subcommunities. The research shows for the first time that adults of a reef-associated shark species form stable, long-term social bonds.