Climate change may bring acidic oceans full of jellyfish
One often-neglected result of climate change is ocean acidification. If this process continues, we may start to see fewer fish and more jellyfish.
- Since the beginning of the industrial era, humanity has been pumping out unprecedented levels of CO2 into the atmosphere.
- A significant portion of this CO2 is sucked back into the ocean, where it reacts with water to produce carbonic acid.
- Most species fair poorly in the newly acidic ocean. Jellyfish, however, seem to resist ocean acidification more than others.
Why the ocean you know and love won’t exist in 50 years
Can sensitive coral reefs survive another human generation?
- Coral reefs may not be able to survive another human decade because of the environmental stress we have placed on them, says author David Wallace-Wells. He posits that without meaningful changes to policies, the trend of them dying out, even in light of recent advances, will continue.
- The World Wildlife Fund says that 60 percent of all vertebrate mammals have died since just 1970. On top of this, recent studies suggest that insect populations may have fallen by as much as 75 percent over the last few decades.
- If it were not for our oceans, the planet would probably be already several degrees warmer than it is today due to the emissions we've expelled into the atmosphere.
Horseshoe crabs are drained for their blue blood. That practice will soon be over.
The blood of horseshoe crabs is harvested on a massive scale in order to retrieve a cell critical to medical research. However, recent innovations might make this practice obsolete.
- Horseshoe crabs' blue blood is so valuable that a quart of it can be sold for $15,000.
- This is because it contains a molecule that is crucial to the medical research community.
- Today, however, new innovations have resulted in a synthetic substitute that may end the practice of farming horseshoe crabs for their blood.
‘Micro snails’ we scraped from sidewalk cracks help unlock details of ancient Earth’s biological evolution
Scientists discovered microbes that have lived on Earth for millions of years.
Every step you take, you're likely walking on a world of unseen and undescribed microbial diversity. And you don't need to head out into nature to find these usually unnoticed microscopic organisms.
Disney builds massive solar facility to cut emissions in half by 2020
Disney, one of world's largest entertainment companies, doubles down on its environmental plan.
- Disney is taking the lead in reducing greenhouse emissions at its facilities.
- The company built a giant solar panel installation to power its Florida resort.
- Disney plans to cut emissions by 50 percent by the year 2020.
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