Indian glaciers shrinking

A Reuter reports staes that the biggest glacier in Indian Kashmir, the Kolahoi glacier spread over just a little above 11 sq km (4.25 sq mile), has shrunk 2.63 sq km in the past three decades.

Climate change endangering species

A new study by University of Adelaide and Macquarie University (Australia) scientists has shown that populations of endangered species are unlikely to persist in the face of global climate change and habitat loss unless they number around 5,000 mature individuals or more.A long-standing idea in species restoration programs is the '50/500' rule. This states that at least 50 adults are required to avoid the damaging effects of inbreeding, and 500 to avoid extinctions due to the inability to evolve to cope with environmental change.

Ireland bans GM food

The Irish Government will ban the cultivation of all GM crops and introduce a voluntary GM-free label for food - including meat, poultry, eggs, fish, crustaceans, and dairy produce made without the use of GM animal feed, reports ENN.In the USA, to which Ireland exports vast quantities of dairy produce leading food manufacturers, retailers, processors, distributors, farmers, seed breeders and consumers have set up joint venture called the Non-GMO Project, which already provides GM-free labels for over 1,000 food products by individual manufacturers in addition to thousands of GM-free private retail brands.

Carbon capture and storage by thermal power plants

A report published in Scientific American states that over the next five years at least half a million tons of carbon dioxide will be injected into rock deep underneath the Mountaineer power plant near New Haven, West Virginia. That is less than 0.00001 percent of global emissions of the greenhouse gas and less than 2 percent of the plant’s own CO₂ output.However, the sequestration marks the first commercial demonstration of the only available technological fix for the carbon problem of coal-fired power plants.Coal accounts for roughly 50 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S.The top emitters of global warming pollution—China and the U.S.—burn nearly four billion tons of the dirty black rock a year.As a result, everyone from coal companies to environmental groups have identified carbon capture and storage, or CCS, as critical in enabling significant and rapid cuts in greenhouse gases.

Fungus ruled the planet

250 million years ago, life on Earth was nearly nonexistent due to a mass extinction.

In their place fungus ruled the land, according to a scientific study, reports ENN, and feasted on defunct wood, spreading decay.

The finding offers evidence against an alternative theory that rampant algae fed off the dead forests and puts to rest an old idea that an asteroid impact may have had a hand in the massive destruction.

If the fossils had turned out to be algae, it would've suggested a soggy, swampy world dominated by gradual changes in climate and the environment.