Ice on Greenland is melting four times faster than it did just 16 years ago, a study reports. The melting, which is a result of the Earth's warming atmosphere and oceans, is happening much faster than
"Political appointees" in NASA's press office "marginalized, or mischaracterized" studies on global warming between 2004 and 2006, the space agency's inspector general said in a report released today. The IG called the deliberate distortions "inappropriate political interference," and "found no credible evidence suggesting that senior NASA or Administration officials directed the NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs to minimize information relating to climate change."
Surprising research suggests that childhood cancer is most common in the Northeast, results that even caught experts off guard. But some specialists say it could just reflect differences in reporting. The large government study is the first to find notable regional differences in pediatric cancer. Experts say it also provides important information to bolster smaller studies, confirming that cancer is rare in children, but also more common in older kids, especially among white boys.
Tobacco companies are targeting the half billion young people in the Asia Pacific region by linking smoking to glamorous and attractive lifestyles, the U.N. World Health Organization said Friday. In a statement marking World No Tobacco Day on Saturday, WHO said the tobacco industry is taking advantage of young people's vulnerability to advertising and influence.
Under pressure to help dispose some of the electronic waste it helped create, Best Buy is testing a free program that will offer consumers a convenient way to ensure millions of obsolescent TVs, old computers and other unwanted gadgets don't poison the nation's dumps. The trial, announced Monday, covers 117 Best Buy stores scattered across eight states that will collect a wide variety of electronic detritus at no charge, even if the Richfield, Minn.-based retailer didn't originally sell the merchandise. RELATED ARTICLE: Tech firms go green as e-waste mounts
If the devil is in the details, climate change negotiators are about to enter purgatory. On Monday, some 2,000 delegates from 162 countries and dozens of specialist agencies open a two-week conference, the first to get into the nuts and bolts of a new global warming agreement meant to take effect after 2012. The meeting builds on a landmark accord reached last December on the Indonesian island of Bali which, for the first time, held out the promise that the USA, China and India will join a coordinated effort to control carbon emissions blamed for the unnatural heating of the Earth.
More people are riding the nation's buses and trains, breaking records for the first quarter of the year. Transit operators expect the increase to be greater in the second quarter as gasoline prices soar. A report set for release today by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) shows trips on public transit January-March rose 3% over the same period last year to 2.6 billion rides. Light rails saw the biggest jump: 10% to 110 million trips. Early figures for April show ridership going even higher as gas hovers near $4 a gallon, says APTA president William Millar.
Chinese authorities had evacuated nearly 200,000 people by early Saturday and warned more than 1 million others to be ready to leave quickly as a lake formed by a devastating earthquake threatened to breach its dam. Hundreds of Chinese troops have been working around the clock to drain Tangjiashan lake in Sichuan province. The lake formed above Beichuan town in the Mianyang region when a hillside plunged into a river valley during the May 12 quake that killed more than 68,000 people.
Under a court order and four years late, the White House Thursday produced what it called a science-based "one-stop shop" of specific threats to the USA from man-made global warming. While the report has no new science in it, it pulls together different U.S. studies and localizes international reports into one comprehensive document required by law. The 271-page report is notable because it is something the Bush administration has fought in the past. Andrew Weaver, a Canadian climate scientist who was not involved in the effort called it "a litany of bad news in store for the U.S."
A storm bearing hail and possible tornadoes struck central Nebraska Thursday night, damaging businesses, derailing train cars, tearing down trees and disrupting power to thousands. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. Tornadoes were also reported in Kearney, about 60 miles west of Aurora, where 90 rail cars were blown off the tracks outside the city limits. There were reports of downed trees and power lines throughout Kearney, and reports of damage on the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus and at a county fairgrounds.
A scanning electron micrograph depicts staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Bacteria such as this and E coli were found in nearly half the babies who died of SIDS, British scientists found in their study. LONDON (AP)
