#Pregnant Women May Lack Info on Household Toxins Pregnant women could be missing out on information about how environmental toxins may affect their unborn babies new research suggests.
although many considered counseling their patients about environmental health hazards to be important. OB/GYN's are very good at talking about tobacco
Women should be aware of the environmental toxins found in households Stotland said. For example chemicals called phthalates are found in air fresheners
The researchers noted that a 2011 study of more than 250 pregnant women found that all of them carried environmental chemicals in their bodies that could be passed onto the fetus.
and her colleagues surveyed 2500 obstetricians finding that 78 percent said they believed counseling their patients about chemicals in the environment could reduce harm to the baby.
However only 50 percent said they asked their patients about their environmental health history and about 7 percent said they had been trained to take
and interpret a patient's environmental health history. In a focus group with some of the obstetricians the doctors said they didn't discuss environmental toxins
because they felt they didn't have enough knowledge about such chemicals and didn't want to cause fear or anxiety in their patients.
Stotland said medical schools should include environmental toxin education in their curricula. But women can also take the initiative for themselves by thinking critically about objects in their environments that may appear harmless she said.
Household cleaners are one of the main toxins pregnant women can try to avoid Stotland said.
Other women not just those who are need pregnant to know about environmental chemicals too Conry said.
#Will Iconic Sequoias Fall to Climate Change? SACRAMENTO Calif. California's iconic trees the giant sequoias may sail through the state's current extreme drought.
But will giant sequoias still be around as California's climate shifts under the influence of global warming?
But climate models forecast even warmer and drier conditions by 2100 for California which could make the sequoias'mountain soil too parched for the world's biggest trees.
because they're really dependent on the snow melt in the Sierras said Anthony Ambrose a research scientist at the University of California Berkeley (UCB).
With less winter snow which sequoias rely on for much of their summer water supply both trees
The President Tree an enormous 3240-year-old tree in Sequoia National park slurps 2831 liters (748 gallons) of water every day during its growing season according to research presented here at the Ecological Society of America's annual
and Climate Change Initiative funded by the Save the Redwoods League in San francisco. From their preliminary results they found the leaves at the tops of these tall trees seem different than those at the bottom.
and branches pile up the ph is compared higher to soil beneath nearby sugar pines Stephen Hart an ecologist at the University of California Merced reported at the meeting.
Scientists are concerned also that climate change could bring a new danger to the giant sequoias via diseases.
It doesn't take moisture stress alone to kill a tree said Koren Nydick an ecologist at the Sequoia
which has killed tens of thousands of California oaks according to a study published in October 2013 in the journal Ecology.
when the California climate was drier. That leads us to ask if they were near extinction Nydick said.
#'Climate Smart'Agriculture Is Blossoming (Op-Ed) David Cleary Director of Agriculture at The Nature Conservancy contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices:
In a somber scene-setter for the climate summit in New york this week the World meteorological organization the United Nation's meteorological office released a report showing that world carbon emissions in 2013 reached a record high and atmospheric
Some hard questions face the international order which has spent much of that period in an interminable round of meetings meant to combat climate change.
Farmers have been managing weather since agriculture began but all the evidence suggests that climate change will now severely tax the world's ability to feed itself within a generation.
Grains for example can grow faster if temperatures are higher. But higher temperatures reduce the amount of time seeds have to mature
and mitigating climate change. Mitigation means reducing emissions directly linked to agriculture from the current level of roughly one quarter of all emissions.
That means reducing deforestation and habitat clearance using fertilizer more efficiently using tillage and crop rotation to sequester carbon in soil and so forth.
and plants that can resist climate stresses. Farmers have done much of this for millennia but now they have to do more
Climate Smart Agriculture. Nothing fixes a politician's attention more than the prospect of problems with food supply.
So while it has been difficult to get an agreement on climate change everyone agrees that making agriculture more resilient to climate change Climate Smart Agriculture!
September promises new announcements from governments businesses and organizations to expand climate smart agricultural practices.
Specifically we will see the launch of a new initiative the Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance at the UN Climate Summit.
While no new money is (yet) on the table for the Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance nor do we know how it will work who will be involved or even
Climate smart agriculture is a space that bears watching and perhaps even some guarded optimism is in order.
So now as the full implications of climate change on agriculture become clearer there is a lot of ground to make up.
The launch of the Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance is a sign that at least some important players realize that society can't afford to jeopardize future food production abilities
Bacteria in any food product must to be able to survive in the hostile environment of the gastrointestinal tract
of ball lightning in China is now shedding light on the phenomenon's mysterious origins researchers say.</
Ball lightning typically appears during thunderstorms and usually hovers near the ground drifting over the Earth at a few miles per hour
<a href=http://www. livescience. com/42732-ball-lightning-video. html target=blank>Strange Ball Lightning Caught on High-speed Video</a p><p></p
><p>Polar bears have shifted to a diet of more land-based food in response to climate change
</p><p>The results suggest that polar bears at least in the western Hudson bay area may be slightly more flexible in the face of climate change than previously thought.</
when the waves and weather align. When the forecast looks good surfers have just 48-hours to make it to the competition.</
#Being for#GM doesn t mean that one is against the environment or health and in the pockets of agribusiness as many anti-GMO websites will make you believe.
whose book Silent Spring kick-started the American environmental movement and gave rise to the U s. Environmental protection agency.
Then there's Jane Goodall the renowned British primatologist and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute
and plant trees with the combined goals of preventing erosion storing rainwater and providing food and firewood to local people.
Maathai's writings and activism on poverty sustainable livelihoods climate change corruption and HIV/AIDS (and the connections she has made among these topics) drew the ire of powerful people.
She has left a legacy of conservation inspiration and empowerment to the people of Kenya and greater Africa through GBM the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies and the Pan-African Green Belt Network.
As a geography teacher she was concerned about climate change and wanted to conserve Uganda's forests
As New york times writers Nick Kristoff and Sheryl Wudunn have said the world neglects Half the Sky at its own risk.
because scientists don't know how the results from the lab will carry over to complex environments such as a pig's digestive system.#
Additionally when life-threatening weather conditions develop they are unable to fly away to safety and instead starve succumbing to injuries or freezing to death.
when neighbors are said sick Chamovitz. It gives off a chemical so the plant defends itself.
Plants grow through the environment Gilroy said. Due to some clever mechanisms a few notable species buck the rule of the slow-moving plant.
Earth's Plant life from Space in Photos Hunt added that these changes in vegetation do not coincide with any known period of climate change
and had a harder time adapting to changes in their environment. Aside from animal welfare concerns the new findings suggest that dairy farmers have long been overlooking the brain development of their cows by depriving them of social interaction in their early weeks.#
#For cows he said it means we re not keeping these animals in an environment that allows them to be
which humans and animals interact with their environments. Where we see the world primarily through sight
They are sensing things in the environment that we can't sense. Follow Agata Blaszczak-Boxe on Twitter.
West Antarctica's Glaciers Speeding Up Six big glaciers in West Antarctica are flowing much faster than 40 years ago a new study finds.
and the acceleration of these glaciers he told Live Science. A grounding line is the location where the glacier leaves bedrock and meets the ocean.
From satellite observations such as Landsat images and radar interferometry Mouginot and his co-authors tracked the speed of West Antarctica's six largest glaciers.
The biggest of the half dozen are Pine Island Glacier known for cleaving massive icebergs and its neighbor Thwaites Glacier.
The other four are Haynes Smith Pope and Kohler glaciers. Video: Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier Is Rifting Ice from the six glaciers accounts for almost 10 percent of the world s sea-level rise per year.
Researchers worry the collapse of West Antarctica's glaciers would hasten sea-level rise. The collapse refers to an unstoppable self-sustaining retreat that would drop millions of tons of ice into the sea.
The amount of ice draining from the six glaciers increased by 77 percent between 1973 to 2013 the study found.
However the race to the sea is happening at different rates. Recently the fast-flowing Pine Island Glacier stabilized slowing down starting in 2009.
The slowdown was only at the ice shelf where the glacier meets the sea. Further inland the glacier is still accelerating.
But Pine Island Glacier's sluggishness was matched by an increase at Thwaites Glacier starting in 2006 the researchers found.
For the first time since measurements began in 1973 Thwaites starting accelerating. Thwaites quickened its pace by 0. 5 miles (0. 8 kilometers) per year between 2006 and 2013 the study found.
To see Thwaites this monster glacier start accelerating in 2006 means we could see even more change in the near future that could affect sea level Mouginot said.
The acceleration extends far inland for both Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier he said.
Pine Island Glacier's acceleration reached up to 155 miles (230 km) inland from where it meets the ocean.
Mouginot said warmer ocean waters contributed to the speed up. The huge ice streams flowing from West Antarctica are held back by floating ice shelves that act like dams.
Several recent studies have suggested that warmer ocean water near Antarctica is melting and thinning these ice shelves from below.
The thinner ice shelves offer less resistance making it easier for glaciers to bulldoze their way toward the sea.
This region is considered the potential leak point for Antarctica because of the low seabed. The only thing holding it in is said the ice shelf Robert Thomas a glaciologist at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island Va. who was involved not in the study.
Landslides launched tsunamis that swept away coastal villages before the shaking even ended. In Seward spilled oil slicked the water
When the earthquake-triggered tsunami hit minutes later the wave was blazing It was an eerie thing to see a huge tide of fire washing ashore survivor Gene Kirkpatrick told National geographic magazine in 1964.
and grow at mid-ocean ridges the long underwater volcanic chains that wind around the Earth like seams on a baseball.
In Anchorage wet silty soils liquefied and a massive landslide destroyed 75 homes in 1964.
Now known as Earthquake Park the Turnagain Heights landslide is where children and homes were swallowed in the fissured ground.
Terrible waves The earthquake also proved the link between subduction zone earthquakes and tsunamis. The movement of the seafloor during the earthquake shoves the sea giving it a big slap that translates into a massive tidal wave.
For an earthquake and tsunami larger than any in the past decade the death toll was remarkably low just 131 people.
Throughout the southeast the worst damage wasn't from ground shaking but from soil failure tsunamis and landslides.
The state had few residents and they lived in low-rise wood-frame buildings the most resistant to shaking. 11 Facts About The 1964 Alaska Earthquake Of the 119 deaths attributable to ocean waves about one-third were due to the open-ocean tsunami:
four at Newport Beach Ore.;12 at Crescent City Calif.;and about 21 in Alaska.
The most terrible damage was triggered from tsunamis by underwater landslides as thick piles of sediment slumped
The tsunami washed over them in a matter of seconds West said. In Seward the tsunami inundation zone where water destroyed the town
and docks was turned into a park and public campground. But new development has crept into the flood zone in recent years prompting debate over safety and tsunami hazards.
In the past 50 years Alaskans have endured scores of powerful earthquakes that would have devastated other states such as a magnitude 7. 9 earthquake in 2002 and a 7. 5 shaker in 2012.
Weather and ISON's dimness left me frustrated and I decided to seek better brighter game.
I stepped out of my pickup truck at my dark sky site in Algoma Wisc. I stood there staring at the amazing specter of Hyakutake's tail stretching across the entire darkening sky.
It was then that I asked myself How did we not see this coming? Our science is great
November 13 2013 promised clear but cold skies near my home in Jadwin Mo. when I would make my first attempt to see
The weather thus far had been typical November: cloudy rainy and cold. But that night held promise.
I had an opportunity like this a near naked-eye comet and clearing skies. It would be an early morning comet
I scanned the skies with binoculars until the moment I made first contact with comet Lovejoy.
Slewing my telescope (moving to aim at a point in the sky) I found the comet in a 2-inch-wide-angle eyepiece one that gave
The sky here is very dark and is the reason I live in the backwoods of Jadwin.
Third attempt November 30 2013 Due to poor weather conditions nearly two weeks had elapsed between my first and second attempt at documenting comet Lovejoy's passing.
and the wind can cause them to jiggle and vibrate and cause them problems in general more so than telescopes of other designs.
I tried to make my exposures that morning between the wind gusts. I would listen to the rustling of the pine trees:
when the wind would start to pick up and I would then end my exposure. Who needs a wind gauge
Poor weather had kept me indoors with the exception of chores around the farm. It was very cold as nighttime temperatures hovered around and below zero degrees.
if I had some clear skies. Clear and cold was the forecast for that night and
when a comet is in the sky. And this small spark of a meteor was apparently close to comet Lovejoy's tail.
The weather after that winter's night deteriorated rapidly into clouds and snow and those were to be my final hours spent with this beautiful comet.
so they can see a large amount of their surroundings without having to turn their head.
The resulting connections will help farmers breed their animals more efficiently yielding healthier more productive goats that will adapt well to their respective environments
Yet precious hardwood trees have already been logged almost completely out from many countries across the tropics.
and increases the chances of complete deforestation. In Myanmar illegal logging also brings with it a raft of socioeconomic problems.
Besides the fact that logging in the tropics is rated as one of the most dangerous jobs there is in Myanmar an added danger of being shot in a timber-related conflict.
Such long-term investment is commendable but unlikely in a conflict-ridden poor country like Myanmar with unstable land tenure and an explosive political climate.
Instead of the desperately needed cash for healthcare education and environmental protection laundered rosewood money goes to corrupt officials and government cronies.
and businesses it appears to have a complete lack of interest in regulating the industry s environmental impact
But these grapes are perhaps not the best varieties for the region's climate. It's fascinating that grapes originally came from this general region
#British Storms Uncover WWII Bombs, Ancient Trees The unusually stormy weather in the United kingdom this winter has done more than caused flooding.
Winds and tides are also uncovering long-buried and sometimes deadly artifacts. The BBC reports that storms have uncovered unexploded WORLD WAR II bombs on beaches with the Royal Navy's Southern Dive Unit responding to an emergency call almost every day
since the weather became blustery in Mid-december. In that timeframe the unit has disposed of 244 ordinances compared with 108 in the same span of time in 2013.
Many of the ordinances are still live and grow more unstable with time. Some are German bombs
and others are shells from British military training. Meanwhile up North on the Isle of Man storms have scoured beaches
and revealed an ancient pine forest dating back 10000 years including pine cones according to another BBC report.
The remnants of the forest emerged after a storm washed away much of a beach near Bride Village on the island.
The pine forest isn't the only woodland the storms have revealed. At Pembrokeshire in Wales a previously-known ancient forest is exposed more than ever in living memory.
Livestock affect most of the world's biodiversity hotspots Jianguo Jack Liu a human-environment scientist at Michigan State said in a statement.
and therefore monopolize key resources needed to maintain the Earth's fragile ecosystems. The findings published in the Journal for Nature Conservation this week have made a difference however.
Several factors including predation by grizzly bears hunting access to winter habitats winters with freezing rain
or deep snow nutritional deficiencies and disease may be affecting recruitment survival and distribution the Arctic Report card reads.
Entire groups of 30-50 animals have died during spring floods storm surges and lake ice break up.
In this volcanic landscape erosion carved soft rock into thin spires known as fairy chimneys. Settlers also used this malleable stone to build cave dwellings and underground cities.
Next the team used climate models to investigate Mummy Lake's potential to store water.
That is soil would have clogged quickly the ditch after regular rainfall preventing the water from reaching Mummy Lake.
and wind from 1988 to 2010 to see if they could match a simulated pumice raft with the Havre floating island.
Currently nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers around the globe monitor the skies for airborne volcanic ash for the safety of air traffic.
Next year Jutzeler and his colleagues will use submersibles to explore the products of volcanic eruptions he said.
#The Navajo Nation s Shifting Sands of Climate Change The Front lines of Climate Change: Global warming is by definition global
but the impacts of climate change touch everyone on a local level. How each community responds depends on its unique mix of people and geography.
This story is part of a Climate Central series that looks at how communities are facing the challenges ahead.
and the Rio grande. But drought and climate change have been especially hard on the Navajo Nation the largest Native american tribe in the U s. with more than 170000 people living on the reservation in New mexico Arizona and Utah.
The Four Corners region where those states and Colorado meet at the edge of Navajoland is truly the front line of climate change.
The region like the rest of the Southwest is expected to see more intense heat waves as the climate warms.
and are likely to be the first to suffer in a changing climate. In Navajoland water is sparse
As with any region so large the weather varies almost as much as the landscape does.
and that land is becoming less viable for grazing livestock because of heat lack of rain and expanding sand dunes.
About 38 percent of Navajo residents lack electricity and running water which threatens lives during heat waves that scientists say could intensify in the coming years.
and sediment to streams and groundwater greatly affecting Navajos'drinking and irrigation water supplies in the future according to a new University of Colorado report published in May about climate change and adaptation on the Navajo Nation.
when winter snows were knee-deep water always ran in springs and arroyos and the rangeland among the canyons mesas and volcanic hills could support large herds of livestock a mainstay of the Navajo economy.
Even though scientists believe the Southwest has experienced historically similar droughts in the distant past not tied to climate change rising global temperatures threaten to make this one worse.
A 2013 technical report for the National Climate Assessment called the Southwest one of the most climate challenged#regions in North america and paints a complicated picture of climate change in the Four Corners region.
#Sadie Lister a volunteer coordinator for the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance in Indian Wells about an hour east of Flagstaff said Navajo children are taught about climate change in school
and the sheep they raise are important for ceremonies according to Margaret Hiza Redsteer lead author of the National Climate Assessment technical report's chapter on tribal vulnerability to climate change
and a U s. Geological Survey staff scientist who studies climate change on the Navajo Nation.#
One of climate change s markers is the spread of sand dunes. Redsteer s 2011 study on the Navajo Nation s sand dunes shows that in the southwestern corner of the reservation dunes are moving about 115 feet per year.#
When the wind kicks up it blows out across the areas downwind of that stream
#When rain does come often in more intense storms even more sediment flows downstream increasing the size of the dunes.
whose stories have helped her fill in gaps in available weather data which show that average snowfall across the Navajo Nation dropped from to about 11 inches by 2010 from about 31 inches in 1930 according to the UN case study.#
#oeevery tribal elder mentioned the lack of snowfall#Redsteer said. They describe winters where the snow was#chest high on horses.
The snowfall snows a significant decline over the 20th century and is still declining in recent years.#
#The elders memories have not been backed up by precise weather data because although 25 weather stations exist across the reservation their records are incomplete.#
#oemany stopped operating in the early 1980s so there are large areas of the reservation where we have no record of
what has happened weather-wise#Redsteer said. This makes it difficult to understand the impacts of climate change
unless there are people who have experienced the changes and remember them because they rely on favorable weather conditions to grow crops and raise livestock.#
#But memories can only go so far to fill in data gaps and efforts to obtain better weather monitoring stations are constrained by tight budgets
And that has an immediate effect on all the Navajo people who will have to adapt to a changing climate.#
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Original article on Climate Central s
#American's Visit to China's Forbidden city Revealed in Old Journal Newly analyzed artifacts and a 200-year-old journal reveal the remarkable tale of the first American citizen to enter China's Forbidden city and meet the emperor.
What makes the tree-ring patterns in a certain region look very similar in general is said climate the leader of the new study Dario Martin-Benito who is now a postdoctoral fellow at The swiss Federal Institute of technology (ETH) in Zurich.
Regional ring patterns arise from local rain levels and temperatures with wetter periods producing thicker rings
Last year in Waco Texas about three hours south of Wichita Falls an estimated 40000 Africanized honeybees attacked a local farmer who was mowing a neighbor's pasture with tractor ABC News reported.
#Rains Spurred by Climate Change Killing Penguin Chicks Penguin-chick mortality rates have increased in recent years off the coast of Argentina a trend scientists attribute to climate change
but that hypothermia was the leading cause of death during years with heavy rainstorms which became more prevalent throughout the study period a trend that is consistent with climate models projecting the effects of climate change in the region.
Facing extremes Young chicks between 9 and 23 days old were particularly vulnerable to hypothermia as they were too young to have fully grown their waterproof plumage
Extreme heat another component of climate change expected to worsen throughout the century also challenged chicks'temperature-regulation systems
David Ainley a senior wildlife ecologist at ecological consulting firm H. T. Harvey & Associates who studies Antarctic penguin colonies says that aside from giving Magellanic chicks the chills rain can also damage the burrows
Shallow burrows or no burrow at all those would be the ones that are affected most by rain.
Climate-change connection The team noted that not all rainstorms killed the chicks. Of the 233 storms that occurred over the course of the study period only 16 resulted in chick deaths.
Still the researchers pointed out that the types of heavy storms that did result in mortalities are projected to become more frequent with some climate models predicting an increase in extreme precipitation in the Southern hemisphere summer by 40 to 70 percent between 2076 and 2100 compared with that seen between 1951 and 1976.
Though the researchers only analyzed a single Magellanic colony in the study they expect that colonies of the same species elsewhere along the coasts of Chile
Wayne Trivelpiece an Antarctic penguin researcher with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric administration's Southwest Fisheries science Center based in La jolla Calif. agrees that climate change is a serious threat to these and other penguin populations around the world.
and said he has seen also a decline in populations that he feels comfortable attributing to the indirect effects of climate change.
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