tag > Nature
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The cheapest climate solution? Return half of the planet to nature, this scientist says
In September, the United Nations released a report indicting world leaders for failing to halt biodiversity collapse. Despite setting ambitious targets in 2010 to protect endangered ecosystems, we’ve lost a gut-wrenching 68% of species since 1970.
The solution is protecting habitat: specifically, 50.4% of the earth’s land, according to the team of scientists led by Eric Dinerstein, wildlife scientist and director of the research organization RESOLVE. That’s a major increase from the 15.1 percent of land area currently protected.
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Great Barrier Reef: Scientists find reef taller than Empire State Building
An enormous coral reef has been found at the northern tip of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the first such discovery in 120 years, scientists say. At 500m (1,640ft) high, the reef is taller than New York's Empire State Building and the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
#Comment: It's telling that humans reference human made structures to visualise the scale of a coral reef. Not that long ago, we would have used mountains or such as analogy.
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Daycares In Finland Built a 'Forest Floor,' and It Changed Children's Immune Systems
Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest's undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child's immune system, according to a small new experiment. When daycare workers in Finland rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth such as dwarf heather and blueberries, and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time. Compared to other city kids who play in standard urban daycares with yards of pavement, tile and gravel, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds at these greened-up daycare centers in Finland showed increased T-cells and other important immune markers in their blood within 28 days.
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When they germinated, people in Europe still lived in the Stone Age. Scientists are now arguing whether some tree species even completely negate the aging process.
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Western Bumblebee Population Drops Up To 93% Over the Last 20 Years
The western bumblebee is one of around 30 bumblebee species in the western U.S. and Canada. Now a federal review "unveils an alarming trend for the western bumblebee population, which has seen its numbers dwindle by as much as 93% in the last two decades".
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Turtles are not inside their shells. They are their shell. "Ghost in the shell" is a dumb notion.
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Almost a Dozen Earthquakes Recorded in Clusters Near Yellowstone Park in Just 24 Hours
An area near Yellowstone National Park has been struck by nearly a dozen earthquakes on Friday, according to the US Geological Survey. West Yellowstone in Montana reported around eleven earthquakes on Friday, with the strongest one measuring a magnitude of 3.1. The area has been hit by an additional 34 quakes in the past month, according to Idaho Statesman.
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The wind blows so consistently strong around Greenough, Western Australia, that unprotected trees grow horizontally.
