Tag archives for Europe
Arctic Experiencing More Than Just Melt
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on May 9, 2013 Carbon dioxide emissions are soaking into Arctic waters and affecting the chemistry of the ocean, a new report by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program shows. Increasing carbon dioxide emissions and freshwater runoff challenge the ocean’s ability to neutralize acidification—an imbalance caused by absorption of the greenhouse gas from the air. The study said the Arctic’s cold water makes it more vulnerable to…
Geography in the News: Auschwitz Remembered
Posted by Neal Lineback of Maps101.com and Maps.com on May 9, 2013 By Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner, Geography in the NewsTM and Maps.com Auschwitz Remembered As Ultra-Nationalists Target Minorities Once more, ultra-nationalist parties are becoming more involved in Europe’s politics. The world is watching, as news media focus on right wing parties that recently targeted minorities in Hungary. These events remind us of events in…
Posted by On our radar today: Predatory reef fish use sign language to communicate with fellow hunters, researchers have mapped the H7N9 avian flu outbreak’s current locations and its potential spread, and…
Posted by As Catholic cardinals prepare to convene on Tuesday for the conclave to pick the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, we’re highlighting parts of Inside the Vatican, a special that National Geographic Television produced for PBS during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, Benedict’s predecessor. The special’s crew was granted unusual access to the Vatican,…
A Wind Tax Credit, Indefinitely?
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on February 21, 2013 In last week’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for doubling research and development funding for renewable energy. A policy document released by the White House following the State of the Union proposes making the wind production tax credit—which was renewed in January for one year as part of the deal to avert the fiscal cliff—permanent. “To once…
Hurricane Resurfaces Forgotten Election Issue: Climate Change
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on November 1, 2012 As Hurricane Sandy made landfall this week, bringing blizzards to West Virginia and flooding to the northeast, some debated the storm’s connection to climate change. Scientists took to Twitter to share their opinions on how warming has made Sandy worse with Texas Tech University’s Katharine Hayhoe tweeting that sea level is 7 inches higher now compared to 100 years ago and about 15 percent of the…
Heated Discussion about Energy in Second Presidential Debate, but No Mention of Climate
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on October 18, 2012 Next to jobs and the economy, the National Journal reports, no other issue has dominated this year’s election as much as energy because it’s a proxy for many other things (subscription). “Energy has not been this big an issue in a presidential campaign since the tumultuous years of the 1970s,” when the Arab oil embargo raised gasoline prices and had…
Posted by 
The migration of globally endangered Egyptian vultures is under high-tech surveillance Eastern Turkey environmental organization KuzeyDoga celebrated September 1 International Vulture Awareness Day at Turkey’s first vulture restaurant in Igdir with another first for Turkey’s vultures. first vulture restaurantOn August 17, we started satellite-tracking globally endangered Egyptian vultures for the first time in Turkey, in collaboration with Turkey’s Ministry of Forestry…
Harnessing Sun, Wave Power for Energy
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on July 26, 2012 Oceans, which cover more than two-thirds of the planet, hold a large amount of energy. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates ocean wave and tidal currents have the potential to account for 15 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030. While technologies harnessing energy from tides and currents have been domestically discussed for decades, the…
Rio+20 Pushes on with Weak Text, Mixed Predictions
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University in Road to Rio+20 on June 21, 2012 
Delegates from around the world are meeting in Rio de Janeiro to discuss how to make the planet more sustainable, despite a rapidly growing population. The reprise of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit dubbed “Rio+20” has so far drawn mixed reactions: some call it an “opportunity”; others say it is another step on a long, complicated road to realizing a…
North Carolina Legislature Mulls Ban on Sea Level Rise Projections
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on June 7, 2012 The link between climate change and sea level rise, already well established, has been reinforced by recent studies. But sea level rise also made headlines in a more unusual way recently after some North Carolina legislators introduced a bill that would call into question some of the scientific projections related to sea level rise in the state. Specifically, their draft legislation would…
Posted by 
The Enduring Voices Project strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hotspots—the places on our planet with the most unique, poorly understood, or threatened indigenous languages—and documenting the languages and cultures within them. By K. David Harrison of the Enduring Voices Project During the past week the Enduring Voices team visited the Republic of…
U.S. Energy Department: Peak Travel Season Could Cost Drivers 6% More
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on April 12, 2012 Gasoline prices have edged off the pedal in recent days, but the Energy Information Administration this week released new data showing motorists will pay about a quarter more per gallon during peak travel season—April through September. Prices will top out at $4.01, on average, in May. The last time gasoline spiked to such levels was…
EPA Makes Historic Announcement: First Greenhouse Gas Rule for New Power Plants
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on March 29, 2012 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released long-awaited greenhouse gas rules for new power plants this week. Using the Clean Air Act, the agency standard would set the first national limits on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions new power plants can emit. The EPA proposed the rule after delaying it several times since July 2011. Power plants are the largest…
Posted by 
Comprehensive analysis of Basque genetic patterns has found that Basque genetic uniqueness predates the arrival of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula some 7,000 years ago, the Genographic Project announced today. “Through detailed DNA analysis of samples from the French and Spanish Basque regions, the Genographic team found that Basques share unique genetic patterns that distinguish them from…
In these times of tumultuous weather patterns and no certainty about the future stability of Earth’s climate as civilization has known it, it’s reassuring that a significant portion of the planet’s legacy of plant diversity has been stashed for safekeeping deep inside an Arctic mountain.
Climate Researcher Lied to Get Documents, Triggering Ethics Debate
Posted by Mason Inman on February 23, 2012 A top climate researcher—Peter Gleick, head of the Pacific Institute—admitted he lied to obtain documents from the Heartland Institute, which he then leaked to media and revealed the organization’s plans to challenge the scientific consensus on climate change. Gleick resigned from the board of the National Center on Science Education, and stepped down as chairman of the American Geophysical Union’s…
Leaked Documents Describe Plan to Push Climate Change Denial in Schools
Posted by Mason Inman on February 16, 2012 Leaked documents purportedly from the nonprofit Heartland Institute include efforts to cast doubt on climate science. The site DeSmog Blog received the documents from an anonymous informant calling himself “Heartland Insider.” The Heartland Institute gave mixed responses to the documents, calling them both “stolen” and “fake,” but only specifically calling one document, titled “2012 Heartland…
Maldives President and Climate Advocate Forced at Gunpoint to Step Down
Posted by Mason Inman on February 9, 2012 Maldives leader Mohamed Nasheed, called the “world’s most environmentally outspoken president” because of his calls for drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions, was forced to resign—at gunpoint, he claimed. He had used stunts such as an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight his island nation’s vulnerability to sea-level rise. His resignation followed weeks of protests and was apparently motivated by internal politics unrelated to…
U.S. May Be ‘Saudi Arabia of Natural Gas,’ But Shale Gas Rush Is Slowing
Posted by Mason Inman on February 2, 2012 Following on last week’s State of the Union address that supported hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” in shale gas deposits, President Obama called the U.S. “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas” and unveiled a new proposal to provide tax breaks to boost the use of natural gas as a fuel for trucks. But the market has…
Posted by Amidst two meters of snow, world leaders from various sectors of society descended this past week on the Swiss resort town of Davos for the annual meeting of The World Economic Forum. Much has already been written about the history of the forum, and it has received adulation from writers such as Parag Khanna, as…
A country like Sweden can and ought to lead on issues like sustainable forestry. But is it doing so? Freelance photojournalist Erik Hoffner visited the Scandinavian country to find out.
As Eurozone Crisis Deepens, Fight to Save Emissions Trading Scheme Begins
Posted by Mason Inman on December 22, 2011 Prices in Europe’s carbon emissions trading scheme have collapsed this year, in part because there were too many allowances in the system starting off, threatening the future of the whole market. “Without intervention … Europe’s climate policy is over,” one analyst said. Some of Europe’s biggest energy and manufacturing firms also wrote a letter to the…
Durban Plan for Climate Treaty Greeted With Mixed Feelings
Posted by Leon Marshall of Environmental Journalist, News Watch South African Contributor on December 12, 2011 The COP17 round of climate negotiations in Durban has once again shown just how hard it is to devise a cohesive international response to this threatening phenomenon. It is for this reason that the conference’s agreement to sign up to an all-inclusive legal commitment to reduce carbon emissions has been hailed as a major breakthrough,…
Posted by Researchers looking for a missing masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci have been infected by what National Geographic photographer Dave Yoder calls the “Leonardo virus”—that fever to determine once and for all if one of his rare masterpieces (there are only some 15 authenticated Leonardo paintings in existence) remains behind a wall in the Florence City Hall.
