Drought deforestation war and climate change have all been suggested as potential causes of this. However it is important to note that other Maya cities such as that of Chichã n Itzã¡
or Earth (the visible domain of the Maya people) kan or the sky above (the invisible realm of celestial deities) and xibalba or the watery underworld below (the invisible realm of the underworld deities) Sharer wrote.
and death day and night sky and earth Sharer writes noting that oeas lord of the celestial realm Itzamnaaj was the Milky way
Other Maya deities included the sun god K inich Ajaw the rain and storm god Chaak and the lightning deity K awiil among many others.
Additionally by oerecording the movements of the sky deities (sun moon planets and stars) they developed accurate calendars that could be used for prophecy Sharer wrote. oewith long-term records the Maya were able to predict planetary cycles the phases
and Venus even eclipses he said. oethis knowledge was used to determine when these deities would be in favorable positions for a variety of activities such as holding ceremonies inaugurating kings starting trading expeditions or conducting wars.
In 2011 Modern Meadow took up the challenge setting out to make ecological and economical leather and meat from bioprinters.
One of my earliest memories as a little boy was climbing the neighbor's apple tree.
But just one kick with your boots and you can dislodge an entire ecosystem and send it crashing down to the ground.
Every time there is a big flood--usually once a decade--the mercury in the sediment moves farther down into the valley.
massive mudslides filled whole valleys. Mercury was added to the sluices to form an amalgam with the gold that settled to the bottom.
and the mercury gets into the environment and stays there for a long time. This story was provided by Inside Science News Service.
Under certain chemical conditions gold solubility can be forced said Chris Anderson an environmental geochemist and gold phytomining expert at Massey University in New zealand.
and copper common pollutants found in mine waste that can pose a risk to humans and the environment.
However some scientists say the environmental risks associated with growing gold itself may be too high.
The process itself could create environmental problems said J. Scott Angle an agronomist at the University of Georgia. Followâ Livescience@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.
or if the wind simply blew gold dust there from other sites. Now one group has discovered the first evidence in nature of gold particles located within living tissue from trees.
Researchers exposed the gel to an artificially dry environment and listened for the noises that occurred as air bubbles built up similar to
This Q&a was adapted from a talk and subsequent interview with Ahmed at the U s. Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research center in Sacramento on Jan 22.
a huge fan of what the CSIRO does in many areas and particularly on climate change and yes but
First delaying action allows natural carbon-dioxide (CO2) feedback loops climate-altering processes that accelerate as more CO2 enters the atmosphere to gather strength.
Depending on the leakage rate moving from coal to natural gas could fail to provide any climate benefits for 50 or even 100 years.
Scientist and lead Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change author Keywan Raihi and colleagues found that delaying action just seven years from 2013 to 2020 as agreed at the 2012 Doha U n. climate
and for the environment if nations begin strong measures to reduce emissions today. The views expressed are those of the author
The high concentration of deer in a small space saturates the soils with nitrogen from pee according to a study published online in the journal Ecology.
Herbivores like deer interact with the ecosystem in two ways. One is by eating plants
and the other is by excreting nutrients said Bryan Murray an ecologist and doctoral student at Michigan Tech University.
and hemlock can be competed out by other species in really high nitrogen environments. Slow-growing hemlocks prefer low-nitrogen soil
and other ecosystem changes that reduced their numbers to 1 percent of pre-settlement populations in some parts of Michigan Murray said.
Op-Ed Jake Weltzin is an ecologist with the U s. Geological Surveyand executive director of the USA National Phenology Network.
longer days sunnier skies the breeze turning from frigid to pleasant. Like it was for
I m also contributing to an understanding of global climate changes oein my own backyard.
and ranchers are an important indicator of not only an early spring but also of the larger climate-change driver.
The pests threaten to become a bigger problem as climate change drives temperatures up researchers warn.
And if climate change causes temperatures to rise in forests as we expect we may see scale insects becoming a much bigger problem for ecosystem health.
or acclimated to the higher temperatures in urban environments study researcher Emily Meineke a doctoral student at NC State said in the statement.
Theoretically that adaptation would also allow them to take advantage of warmer temperatures that may result from climate change.
Rising numbers of scale insects in cities could spell trouble for city trees which can provide some environmental benefits like cooling through shade and carbon sequestration.
These cycles could affect models of climate change the scientists say. It had never been shown that the circadian rhythm of the leaf affected the whole tree said study researcher Rubã n DÃ az Sierra a physicist at the National University of Distance Education in Spain.
forests will respond to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate. These chambers enable researchers to control the air temperature humidity
when the environment stays mostly constant throughout the evening with nights that saw dramatic changes in temperature and humidity.
Because the environment wasn't changing the increase can only be explained by the biological clock said study researcher VÃ ctor Resco de Dios of the University of Western Sydney in Australia.
The findings carry important implications for models of climate change. Right now the models don't take into account the time of the day DÃ az Sierra said adding that
if the time of day affects trees'carbon-dioxide consumption it would alter models of how climate change will affect ecosystems.
But when it comes to the benefits of omega-3s that may be just the tip of the iceberg!
The two most potent omega-3 fatty acids are known as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA. They're usually found in a 50:50 or 60:40 ratio in fish.
Your genetics and environment play large roles in responsiveness to omega-3s. And while studies are very promising for a wide range of illnesses the optimal amount of omega-3
Due to environmental pollutants found in fish experts recommend women of childbearing age keep fish intake to no more than 12 ounces per week.
The body has to convert ALA into DHA and EPA which means vegetable sources are less potent than fish oil.
Tallmadge's most recent Op-Ed was GMOS Are a Grand Experiment on Health Environment
The primeval underwater forest long buried under the sediments at the bottom of the Gulf of mexico was uncovered probably by Hurricane Katrina
Primeval forest The grove of 50000-year-old bald cypress trees was preserved beneath ocean sediments off the coast of Alabama until Hurricane Katrina swept those sediments away.
Scientists believe the grove of thousand-year-old trees could reveal millennia of the Gulf of mexico's climate history.
That can make climate analysis and dating from tree rings impossible after several years he said.
and could be uncovered by the next big hurricane Raines said. It could just as easily become bigger over time Raines said.
But another big storm could just as easily bury the forest once again Leavitt said. The primeval forest is one of the country's great national treasures Raines added.
Densely populated cities with mixed-use neighborhoods are more walkable. Nearby access to goods and services means more trips are within walking distance.
The AWFÂ and other environmental organizations like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are also calling for the United states to go even further
New Map Details Global Deforestation A new global map of deforestation reveals that 888000 square miles (2. 3 million square kilometers) of forest has vanished since 2000.
Mapping deforestation The map covers the time frame from 2000 to 2012 and includes both forest losses and forest gains.
For example Brazil's efforts to slow deforestation have paid off with about 500 square miles (1300 square km) less loss each year.
But the rest of the tropics more than made up for Brazil's improvements with rapidly increasing losses.
Indonesia saw the fastest increases in deforestation. Before 2003 the country lost less than 4000 square miles (10000 square km) per year.
Humans are the main driver of deforestation through logging and clear-cutting Hansen told Livescience.
Storm damage also harms forests. 7 Ways the Earth Changes in the Blink of an Eye We see a lot of blowdowns
because forest dwellers eat a more diverse diet than people in other environments do. Â In the North american West damage from fire logging and infection by the devastating mountain pine beetle is evident.
A windstorm in 2009 shows up as leveled trees in southwestern France. In southern Sweden an extratropical cyclone flattened forests in 2005.
Still 32 percent of global loss occurred in the tropics with half of that amount attributable to South american countries the researchers found.
The data reveal that some areas that are protected supposedly really aren't Hansen said. Clear-cutting appears even inside national-park boundaries in some countries.
and storing climate-warming carbon and differentiate it from secondary forests which may provide tree cover but without the original ecosystems.
The team also plans to continue to update the map annually and hopes to be able to raise the deforestation alarm even more frequently in the future.
We want to get in real-time mode Hansen said. Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+.
Environmental psychologists have known long that encounters with the natural world are good for us. But nature can now also be found in our virtual lives in the photos we share online the games we play even the words we use.
They are linked also to biophilic design an architectural practice championed by social ecologist Stephen Kellert.
Biophilic design connects buildings to the natural world to create environments where people feel and perform better.
It might seem unlikely that the digital world can provide similar kinds of healing environments.
In 2008 cognitive neuroscientist Marc Berman reported that walking round a park produced more beneficial effects than walking in an urban environment.
Psychologist Deltcho Valtchanov wanted to try the same test in virtual environments so he set up three virtual reality spaces:
#Warm Water Under Antarctic Glacier Spurs Rapid Melting A two-month-long expedition to one of the most remote sites on the planet the sprawling Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica
has revealed that currents of warm water beneath the glacier are melting the ice at a staggering rate of about 2. 4 inches (6 centimeters) per day.
An international team of researchers journeyed to the southernmost continent to study the Pine Island Glacier which is the longest and fastest-changing glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Since warm seawater flows beneath the ice shelf (the part of the glacier that floats on the ocean) scientists have known that the Pine Island Glacier was melting from below.
Now using sensors deployed across the 31-mile-long (50-km-long) glacier the researchers have gauged the rate of glacial melt beneath the solid ice.
Stunning Photos of Antarctic Ice The results demonstrate the crucial need to better understand melting processes underneath massive glaciers including how this undersea process will affect global sea-level rise in the future.
Glacial plug The Pine Island Glacier currently acts as a plug that holds back the immense West Antarctic Ice Sheet whose melting ice contributes to rising sea levels.
If the glacier's seaward flow speeds up there could be global consequences. As glaciers melt the water flows down slopes
and empties into the ocean causing sea levels to rise. Warming oceans also cause sea levels to go up
As the Pine Island Glacier makes its seaward retreat it also develops and drops icebergs as part of a natural cycle.
In early July a huge iceberg measuring about 278 square miles (720 square kilometers) broke off from the Pine Island Glacier
and floated freely into the Amundsen Sea. Modeling melt To see how much the Pine Island Glacier was melting Holland
and his colleagues installed sensors inside holes drilled 1640 feet (500 m) through the solid ice at various points across the glacier.
The instruments measured ocean temperatures salinity (or salt content) and the movement of warm-water currents that carve channels through the ice shelf and flow underneath it.
The data published online today (Sept. 12) in the journal Science will help scientists piece together how the Pine Island Glacier is changing
and will help them build more accurate models of glacier melt. What we have brought to the table are detailed measurements of the melt rates that will allow simple physical models of the melting processes to be plugged into computer models of the coupled ocean/glacier system Tim Stanton a research professor at the Naval
Postgraduate School said in a statement. These improved models are critical to our ability to predict future changes in the ice shelf
and glacier-melt rates of the potentially unstable Western Antarctic Ice Sheet in response to changing ocean forces.
#Warmer Spring Brings Troubling Consequences Todd Sanford a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists contributed this article to Livescience's Expert Voices:
and finally put the snow shovel back in the shed. Although winter lingered in some parts of the country this year spring is already heating up
I recently worked with three scientists who are studying the effects of warmer springs on snow cover biological systems
Snow cover on the decline Snow pack which builds over the winter begins melting in the spring
However warmer temperatures are leading to a decline in snow cover (a measure of how much land is covered by snow.
Last May the Northern hemisphere experienced its second-lowest snow-cover extent on record said David Robinson the director of the Global Snow Lab at Rutgers University.
Over the past two decades spring snow cover has remained atâ relatively low levelsâ while snow cover in June has beenâ lower over the past five yearsâ than at any time
since satellite observations began in 1967. Water managers were also warily eyeing snow pack in California and Colorado this year.
Most sites where scientists have collected snowpack data haveâ shown declinesâ over the past 50 years.
According to the federal National Climate Assessment draft ongoing climate change is expected to lead to declines in snow water equivalent a measure of snow pack in the U s. Southwest.
Under a higher-emissions scenario in which heat-trapping gas emissions continue to rise the assessment projects a 13 percent decline in Colorado snow water equivalent by midcentury
Species falling out of sync with the season Jake Weltzin an ecologist with the United states Geological Survey
Global Warming Brings Earlier Spring Flowers Additionally aâ study in the journalâ Ecology in September of last yearâ found that Broad-tailed hummingbirds which migrate northward from Central Americain the spring are becoming decoupled from their nectar resources
and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase to allergen production from plants Ziska co-authored a review of human-induced climate change and allergen exposure inâ the Journal of Allergy and Clinical
Such research has found that climate change is linked to longer and more intense allergen production from a number of tree species that flower in the spring including oak birch olive
At the same time ragweed pollen production has increased 60 to 90 percent as the climate has warmed. Worst Allergy Season Ever?
Setting the stage for more changes These are just a few of the many warning signs of climate change.
Climate change is here and we're seeing the consequences now. Decisions need to be made on how to manage these changes
Responding to climate change isn't just about reacting to what we're facing today but also about anticipating what we're likely to see decades down the road.
However as the warm weather has expanded northward into Maryland Pennsylvania and even southeastern New england so has the allergy threat.
What seems to have awakened the trees was the sudden warmth early last week followed by drenching rain in many areas.
Even though temperatures slipped back following the rain they have averaged about 10 degrees higher than the first week of the month.
The Best Ways to Beat Spring Allergies Consistent warmth is expected through this week along with occasional rainfall.
Even though rain temporarily removes some of the pollen from the air it promotes a new round of blossoming this time of the year.
Curiosity Rover Uncovers a Flood of Evidence LONDON Water water everywhere and some of it fit to drink.
what we interpret to be a habitable environment where water was good enough for us to drink Melissa Rice of the California Institute of technology in Pasadena said after a presentation on imaging results from Curiosity s workhorse Mastcam instrument.
We know that we had an initial habitable environment when these rocks formed and then sometime later we don't know
On earth that usually means that it happened because of wind or water. And we think that it was probably water.
and transported by wind so the only way we can produce these dunes is by water flow said presenter Sanjeev Gupta from Imperial College London a member of the Curiosity team.
which rises 3. 4 miles (5. 5 kilometers) into the Martian sky from Gale Crater's center.
and how they changed how environments evolved Gupta said. Another goal is to analyze rocks containing clay minerals at the foothills of Mount Sharp
because there are climate issues and social aspects that have to be included Scanlon told Livescience. Projections are so difficult because
Scanlon pointed out that the new study does not consider the impact of extreme weather such as droughts or floods.
which means if some farmers employ more efficient irrigation techniques they will also be pumping up salty deposits that are washed not adequately away by rainfall.
But they weren't growing in the tropics so obviously it's two different environmental characteristics Ryberg said.
Agricultural irrigation can contribute to downstream precipitation said study co-author Travis Andrews a doctoral candidate in earth and environmental sciences at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
The East Coast of the United states has seen wetter weather in the last 50 years compared to prior years with some regions such as the Catskills in New york getting about 1. 6 inches (4 centimeters) more rain in June
Most scientists attributed this wetter weather to the rise in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
That's because warmer air can hold more water vapor making it likelier that rain will result.
and its atmosphere that captured the effects of land use agriculture atmospheric conditions evaporation temperature wind patterns
and many other variables to look at how irrigation affected rainfall patterns. The team found that about half of the water fed to thirsty crops in the Western parts of the country evaporated into the atmosphere where air currents carried it to the Northeast.
On average about 0. 5 inches (1. 2 cm) of rain fell on the Northeast during June and a July as a result of the heavy irrigation the model found.
In August the prevailing winds shift and the extra water falls more on the southern Atlantic states.
As the water speed increased the bristles streamed out like hair blowing in a strong wind creating gaps where particles could slip through.
This is a fascinating study marine ecologist Ari Friedlaender of Duke university who was involved not in the study told Livescience in an email adding he was surprised  that the bowhead whale baleen functioned better at higher flow speeds than the humpback whale baleen.
#What 11 Billion People Mean for Climate Change Editor's note: Â By the end of this century Earth may be home to 11 billion people the United nations has estimated earlier than previously expected.
On the western coast of Alaska nestled against the Bering sea residents of the remote village of Newtok may soon become the country's first climate refugees.
With climate change rapidly altering human ecosystems around the globe Newtok may not be alone in its fight against warming temperatures melting ice and rising seas.
For the roughly 7. 2 billion people who live on Earth today the impacts of a changing climate may be taking different forms
and nations have failed to address the myriad challenges of climate change scientists say Earth's fragile ecosystem could be in serious jeopardy.
and cope with climate change? A recent United nations analysis of world population trends indicates global population growth shows no signs of slowing with current projections estimating a staggering 11 billion people could inhabit the planet by the year 2100
and worsen the effects of climate change. But within the scientific community a debate is brewing
Assessing the impact of population growth on climate change has been tricky. Most scientists agree that humans are to blame for most of the planet's warmingsince 1950 but precisely
because climate science is not to the point of being able to identify specific impacts or changes that have occurred so far as being caused directly by climate change said Amy Snover co-director of the Climate Impacts Group and a researcher at the Center for Science in the Earth System at the University of Washington in Seattle.
What we can do is look at the many things that have happened recently that are similar and
Furthermore scientists on both sides of the equation those who study demographics and those who study climate science do not necessarily agree on how
or even if population growth and climate change are connected. A growing debate Increasing the number of people on the planet does not in itself intensify climate change said David Satterthwaite a senior fellow studying climate change adaptation
and human settlements at the International Institute for Environment and Development in the United kingdom. Rather changes in consumption are the key drivers of global warming he explained.
Higher consumption is what drives anthropogenic climate change Satterthwaite told Livescience. The high-consumption lifestyles of the richest half-billion people scare me much more than the growth in population in low-income nations.
This is because developing nations where the U n. estimates most of the next century's surge in population will occur have much smaller carbon footprints than developed countries such as the United states Canada
and director of the Monash Sustainability Institute at Monash University in Melbourne Australia and a former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) an international body jointly established by the United nations Environment Programme
and the World meteorological organization to assess the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of climate change. Others say improvements in technology will yield better crop production
Population versus consumption To understand the potential environmental impacts it is important to consider both population growth
and trends in consumption said Robert Engelman president of the Worldwatch Institute an environment and sustainability think tank based in Washington D c. Some people will say one matters more than the other
But China's speedy industrialization has come at an environmental cost. Within 20 years China more than tripled its emissions of carbon dioxide from 2. 46 million tons of carbon dioxide in 1990 to 8. 29 million tons in 2010 according to United nations estimates.
Since 2000 China's energy-related greenhouse gas emissions have increased at an average rate of more than 10 percent each year according to the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
which is designed to identify scientifically sound economically rational and politically pragmatic post-2012 international policy architecture for global climate change.
But developing climate policies has been a challenging and an often fruitless process. Jerry Karnas the Center for Biological Diversity's population campaign director in Miami is all too familiar with these political pitfalls particularly in addressing the impact of population growth on climate change.
In 2008 Karnas was appointed to a statewide commission to help design a plan for Florida to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions to 80 percent of 1990 levels by the year 2050.
In regions of the world where vast population growth is projected such as Sub-saharan africa the issue of dwindling natural resources will likely be magnified. 5 Places Already Feeling the Effects of Climate Change Feeding a hungry planet
and more frequent droughts related to climate change render larger tracts of land unusable Griggs the Monash University climatologist said.
While the impact of population growth on climate change remains a topic of debate experts agree that finding ways to mitigate the effects of climate change will be critical for the sustainability of the planet.
For one nations need to address climate change issues now in order to make communities more resilient in the future said Declan Conway a professor of water resources
and climate change at the University of East Anglia in the United kingdom. This includes investing in renewable energy alternatives such as technologies to efficiently harness solar
Twenty years ago climate change wasn't seen as an issue at all but since then technology has improved rapidly Griggs said.
There's no question that we can deal with all of these climate change issues now if we want to.
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