Environment

U.S. unprepared for severe solar storms
Mankind’s vulnerability to disruptions caused by severe solar storms has increased as a result of the increasing dependence of human societies on technology and electricity; a storm on the scale of the 1859 Carrington Event could damage the U.S. electrical grid to such an extent that vast regions of the country could be without power for weeks, perhaps months.
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Researchers find ways to reduce cattle flatulence
University of Alberta researchers developed a formula to reduce methane gas in cattle
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Google rents goats for lawn maintenance
Only in California: A Silicon Valley company has 800 goats it rents out for lawn maintenance and brush and weed control; Google rents 200 of the goats for its expansive Mountain View campus; goats come with a professional herder and a border collie
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Studying U.K.'s transportation system's resilience
The U.K. government funds a four-year study to examine whether the U.K. transportation system is resilient enough to withstand climate changes
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Space-based solar power coming to California
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), California’s largest utility company, will purchase from Solaren 200 megawatts of electricity when Solaren’s system is in place, which is expected to be 2016
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Using a long tether to deflect threatening asteroids
An asteroid-tether-ballast system could effectively alter the motion of an asteroid to ensure it missed hitting Earth; the tether, though, is on the long side: between 1,000 kilometers to 100,000 kilometers
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Aussies inaugurate carbon capture institute
Australia is the world’s fourth largest producer of hard coal, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says that Australia has a national and shared global responsibility to establish the workability of carbon capture and storage technology at a commercial scale
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Study: Catastrophic rise in sea levels "distinct possibility" this century
New study — based on fluctuations in sea levels the last time Earth was between ice ages, as it is now — shows that oceans rose some three meters in only decades due to collapsing ice sheets
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Protection from terrorism affects far reaches of Montana
When you think of terrorism and preparations for terrorist attacks, you think of big cities; the remote precincts of Montana, however, are not exempt; the local inhabitants, who foot the bill for local homeland security, want to know whether rural dams are really terrorist targets
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New curved laser beams may be used to lessen threats of thunderclouds
U.S. physicists have created the first curved laser beams; the laser’s plasma channels could be used to control lightning strikes by firing laser pulses into thunderclouds
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New concept for New York, New Jersey storm barriers
With worries about rising sea level and more intense storm, British engineering firm Harlow offers a new concept for protecting New York City and parts of the new Jersey coast against storm surges
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Mathematicians provide new insight into tsunamis
The number and height of the tsunami waves hitting the shoreline depends critically on the shape of the initial surface wave in deep water; from this it is possible to work out whether a “trough” or a “peak” is the leading wave
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New ideas for deflecting Earth-threatening asteroids
As scientists use better equipment to make more accurate observations of space, they find more Earth-threatening objects loitering in Near Earth Orbit; a debate is growing as to the best method to deal with this threat
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New Madrid fault system may be shutting down
Researchers find that the New Madrid fault system, which includes parts of Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Kentucky, is shutting down; major earthquake in the region may be avoided
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New York City is especially vulnerable to rise in sea level
Although low-lying Florida and Western Europe are often considered the most vulnerable to sea level changes, the northeast U.S. coast is particularly vulnerable because the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is susceptible to global warming
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