Ecology

How Mongolian hordes reduced the Earth’s carbon footprint

In the 1200s, Genghis Khan and the Mongolian army built an empire that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to central Europe, ruling over a fifth of all land on Earth and over 100 million people. And all that conquering reshaped the Earth, reducing carbon dioxide levels enough to offset a year’s worth of gasoline usage…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Feb 8

Tiny water flea has the biggest genome ever sequenced

The water flea species Daphnia pulex is barely more than a millimeter long, is completely translucent, has no clear divisions between their various body parts…and has the largest genome of any animal we’ve ever encountered. It has an incredible 31,000 genes in its genome, over 8,000 more than humans have. So what’s such a tiny…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Feb 6

Watch The Warriors of Qiugang, an Academy Award-nominated documentary about pollution in a Chinese village

The Warriors of Qiugang, a film up for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject), follows the residents of the 1900-person village of Quigang as they fight back against regional polluting factories. Watch it in full online. Quigang, which is in China’s Anhui province, has been plagued by the toxic air pollution and…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 26

The Pollinator Frock: a dress that feeds the bees

With global bee populations shrinking drastically, designer Karen Ingham’s decided our winged pollinating friends need all the help they can get. Enter the Pollinator Frock, a garment doused in a nectar-like solution that’s designed to help foraging bees. Here’s how Ingham describes the project: The Pollinator Frocks Project is a limited edition collection of clothing…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 23

Vegetables can survive in a vacuum longer than you can

Researchers found that radishes, lettuce and wheat can be exposed to vacuum conditions for half an hour with no ill effects. We salute the brave souls who sacrificed themselves for science . . . and ate space radishes. Space colonization has been a dream of humanity for many years. Despite Nasa budget cuts, a lost…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 14

Cricket-specific plague strikes

Three days ago our hopes were raised for a coming insect-based food supply for humans. Already, those hopes have been dashed. A cricket plague has hit North America, and it threatens to shut cricket farms down. What with every animal on earth deciding too keel over and die in mass quantities, it’s hard separating out…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 14

Do people know perfectly well what’s killing bees?

Many people don’t think that the collapse of bee populations is as big a mystery as it’s made out to be. An EPA memo, leaked last month, reveals that a commonly used pest-control chemical can disrupt bee colonies. This substance, sold in the USA as clothianidin, disrupts the nervous system of insects, and it’s been…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 6

This Is What 15,000 Gallons of Animal Fat Look Like

Gross, that’s how it looks. This is what happened on the Houston Ship Channel last Tuesday. It had to be closed because a failure in a storage tank holding 15,000 gallons of beef fat. No dinner for you tonight. [Buzzfeed]

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jan 6

Your morning bran muffin could power the nation

Sewage packs more of an energy punch than previously thought. The increase in potential energy could be enough to make sewage plants into energy plants. Green energy is sold to people as clean and wholesome. Power your home with the energy of the golden sun! Reinvigorate your home with the energy of the wind! Poop…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 6

Another consequence of environmental collapse: Bear maulings

Bear attacks are on the rise, and changes in the environment are to blame. There are three factors making it more likely that you’ll get a bear claw in the face. Yellowstone is known for its close encounters with bears. Local park bears have learned to break into cars, they’ve pushed their cubs into trees…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 5

Pirates of the Caribbean meets Greenpeace, starring Ewan McGregor!

An eco film? An eco film biopic? An eco film biopic that’s been a rotating door of potential leading men and that’s been in development since 1981? Ocean Warrior has to be good! Ewan McGregor has lent his star power to the film Ocean Warrior. Supposedly it includes incidents from the life of the Sea…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 3

See Adelie penguins being stealthily weighed – for science!

Scientists wanted to measure how much wild Adelie penguins are eating. Weighing each penguin before and after the trip was impossible, so the scientist engineered bridges with scales. First the scientists scouted out the paths that the penguins took to the ocean and cordoned them off, leaving only precarious paths between two rocks. Between those…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 30

R.I.P. Elisabeth Beresford, whose strange burrowing creatures taught British children to recycle

For generations of kids in Britain (and elsewhere) Elisabeth Beresford’s creations, the Wombles, were a palpable presence that you suspected were always burrowing just underfoot, waiting to put all our rubbish to good use. Beresford died last week, aged 84.

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Dec 30

Drink until you’re green

The Sierra Club provides evidence that they throw the best parties here, with an extensive list of (figuratively) green liquors. Arguably the most impressive is Flor de Cana rum, which uses sugar from a mill that generates 30 percent of Nicaragua’s electricity. There’s also a comment from the founder of the first carbon-neutral spirits company,…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 27

Find out what particles are hiding in the air all around you with this awesome map

The air is full of tiny liquid and solid particles, collectively known as aerosols. They’re created by dust storms, volcanic eruptions, human activity, and even the natural passing of the seasons. This amazing map reveals where the aerosols are. NASA put this map of aerosol distributions together using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 26

New map shows whether your region uses more carbon than it generates

Our dependence on plants shot up from 1995 to 2005, according to a new NASA study. Here’s a map that shows which regions use more carbon than they produce (red) and which regions produce more than they use (green). According to the new study from NASA, in 1995, humans required 20.3 percent of all the…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Dec 22

Alastair Reynolds’ next trilogy: An optimistic saga that takes place after climate change

Everybody wants more optimistic science fiction, but the near future is full of nightmare scenarios like global climate change. How do we get around that? Alastair Reynolds has one idea: a 22nd century saga set after the climate’s already changed. In a way, it’s not too different than what Gene Roddenberry did with Star Trek:…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Dec 6

Fight global warming or face the wrath of the dinosaurs

Three hundred million years ago there was a period of global warming. Two hundred million years ago, dinosaurs roamed the land, wreaking havok and spreading terror. Scientists think the two events were intimately linked. Around three hundred million years ago, the world was a very different place. North America and Europe had a firm grip…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Nov 30

In the future you will live in a tiny little house

If you’re lucky. The Weekly World News takes a tour of a designer’s 100 square foot home. By the end of the tour, you will want to live there. Jay Schafer isn’t just the owner of the Tumbleweed Tiny House company, he’s also a client. The Weekly World News pokes around his micro-house, and lets…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Nov 29

Terrifying spider not extinct in England after all

English readers will be horrified to know that the Rosser’s sac spider still lives amongst them. Thought to be extinct in England, the spider was recently spotted, alive, well, and probably plotting evil. For the most part, the extinction of species through destruction of habitat is a sad thing. Well-reasoned environmental papers, impassioned public pleas,…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Nov 22

How Mongolian hordes reduced the Earth’s carbon footprint

Tiny water flea has the biggest genome ever sequenced

Watch The Warriors of Qiugang, an Academy Award-nominated documentary about pollution in a Chinese village

The Pollinator Frock: a dress that feeds the bees

Vegetables can survive in a vacuum longer than you can

Cricket-specific plague strikes

Do people know perfectly well what’s killing bees?

This Is What 15,000 Gallons of Animal Fat Look Like

Your morning bran muffin could power the nation

Another consequence of environmental collapse: Bear maulings

Pirates of the Caribbean meets Greenpeace, starring Ewan McGregor!

See Adelie penguins being stealthily weighed – for science!

R.I.P. Elisabeth Beresford, whose strange burrowing creatures taught British children to recycle

Drink until you’re green

Find out what particles are hiding in the air all around you with this awesome map

New map shows whether your region uses more carbon than it generates

Alastair Reynolds’ next trilogy: An optimistic saga that takes place after climate change

Fight global warming or face the wrath of the dinosaurs

In the future you will live in a tiny little house

Terrifying spider not extinct in England after all

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