Archive for the ‘biodegradation’ Category

Hello Greenzoners, we’d like to share with you with another Eco News, this one’s concerning really interesting and important issue – Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.

garbage patch

What is this? It’s an accumulation of garbage, floating on the northern Pacific Ocean. It stretches to hundreds of miles and, if all this garbage would be gathered in one place, it would cover the surface almost as big as France.
It’s made of plastic, which is not biodegradable, so it flows forever. The garbage comes most of the times from beach (left unattended and then swept by waves), fishing boats and cargo ships.

Not only does it pollute the water, but also is dangerous to the underwater animals. Many sea species were found dead entangled in old fishing nets or poisoned by accidental swallowing plastic or steel leftovers. (more…)

Hello Greenzoners, as the future is becoming today, people are starting to exploit renewable sources of energy – new, amazing projects and designs are being created, to save the money on slowly depleting oil and to reduce the pollution of the environments.

Here are some very creative designs that presents modern constructions and homes depending on earth-based energy, such as geothermal energy.

Eco school (more…)

Good morning Greenzoners, and this is the new Eco News. 😉

As we know, the extremely important plant ability is to absorb carbon-dioxyde (CO2) and emit oxygen.  It’s especially necessary for us when the CO2 emission is so huge.
Intensified pollution and gas emissions not only increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, but also degrades the soil.  It was recently discovered that unfertile, polluted soils may reduce the plants’ CO2 absorbing ability. (more…)

Hi Greenzoners!

Irene hurricane 2011

It was recently discovered, that the New York City’s water supply is contaminated and may pose a serious threat to the health. As New York is one of the most populated city in United States, this may affect very many lives. (more…)

Recently, there were reported many deaths of dolphins in the area of Gulf of Mexico – especially of younger dolphins, not long after their births. Ecologists estimated that these deaths are rather unusual, as six time more dolphins died than normally.

Dolphins dead
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Sea otter is a specie of a mammal that lives on the coasts of northern and eastern Pacific Ocean. They belong to the weasel family, and are able to live on the land, but most of the time, they spend their lives in water.
Scientists recently discovered that sea otters have a great abilities that can help our environment. Because they feed on sea urchins, it keeps the kelp population balanced.  It helps reduce the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere, especially if there is starting to be  too much CO2, emitted by industrial areas, exhaust fumes and greenhouse gases. That means sea otters are able to prevent from global warming!

Sea otter
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Khimki forest – photos

September 15th, 2012

Going back to Khimki forest issue – here are some pictures, thanks to eyef, again 🙂

Khimki2
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Hello Greenzoners. This Eco News is thank to eyef, who brought us this information. 🙂

Khimki is a forest located near the city of Moscow, in Russia. Its size is 10 square kilometers, the trees that grow in this forest are rare species, and very old – many of them have several hundred years and are listed in Moscow’s Red Book – the document that contains the list of endangered species of plants and animals. The forest has a positive effect on the life of city’s inhabitants – it reduces the amount of the air pollution, by absorbing car exhaust fumes, and holds the noise from Sheremetyevo Airport. Khimki has been for many years under the protection of the state, and construction in that area was prohibited.

Khimki forest construction site
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As it was confirmed by scientists, deforestation reduces the amount of rain and can be a cause of drought – as says the research ran by team from the University of Leeds and the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
deforestation

According to their observations,  deforestation in a massive scale such as in Amazon region or Congo may reduce the amount of rain in such a degree, that it could lead to catastrophic consequences. Provided that the deforestation scale will be the same until 2050, there will be only one-fifth (21% to be exact) of rain during dry seasons. It may have harmful effect on places inhabited by humans, in areas that strongly depend on the rainfall. (more…)

Recently we spoke of fish adapting to changing climate, as well as coral reefs. Now about tropical species.
Those species, that used to live in warm, humid areas, like lizards or insects are ectotherms – animals that require heat from environment to prosper correctly. That makes them dependent of temperature, which means – changing  temperature would cause harm to them.

Ectotherm
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