What would happen if human goes extinct?

From the look of it, I don't think human extinction will happen quite yet because at the current stage, human population is just so huge!

Even if there is a massive natural disaster, or a big health epidemic disease, it is quite impossible to wipe out the whole human population entirely because we are very scattered around the world. We have humans in the cities, in the jungles, at the ice poles, at the dessert, living on the sea etc. We are almost every where!

But what would happen if we are all gone?

The Story Of Stuff & So Much More!

The Story Of Stuff is an interesting series about how we consumers are taught or encouraged by manufacturers and business people to buy things that we do not need and which would harm the environment.

In this series of the Story of Stuff, interesting videos on how several daily items which we commonly used, are being marketed by manufacturers and make us consumers keep buying them.

These are really good videos to watch to understand more on consumerism and how business are pushing non essential items to consumers but making consumers think that we need them.

A Monkey That Purrs

Over the course of four years—from 2010 to 2013— 441 new species were scientifically identified in the Amazon by WWF which includes a species of titi monkey that purrs like a cat.

The Caqueta titi monkey: This new species, Callicebus caquetensis, is one of about 20 species of titi monkey, which all live in the Amazon basin. The babies have an endearing trait, "When they feel very content they purr towards each other," explained scientist Thomas Defler.

Effects of Dams and Reservoirs On The Environment

Effects of Dams and Reservoirs On The Environment

First of all, what are dams and reservoirs?

Well according to Wikipedia:

"A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect water or for storage of water which can be evenly distributed between locations."

What is Evolution? Explaining through interesting YouTube videos!

What is Evolution? Explaining through interesting YouTube videos!

Evolution is a biological theory of how the current species of animals present at this time originate or changed in time from their ancestry form species many million years ago.

A very common example would be how did the ancestry form of apes changed and evolved to become humans.

In the internet, tons of articles are written about evolution, some are very simplistic articles while some could go on and on about other related theories and it can be a lot of materials to digest before you could grasp a good understanding of evolution.

However here, I will not dwell much on what evolution is, but rather share several YouTube videos which are very fun to watch and easy to understand and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did.

List of Popular Environmental Concerns

List of Popular Environmental Concerns

It is good to know that now more and more people are getting aware about environmental issues and even started acting upon it in their effort to save their beloved environment.

Many years ago, the top environmental concerns were only global warming and anything to do with carbon foot print, but now the public are more aware about other issues such as food safety, health safety and many more which are directly related to our surroundings and environment as well.

Here are the list of top environmental concerns of the public in 2012/2013.

Mysterious orange goo washing ashore in Alaska

A mysterious orange goo that washed ashore in an Alaska village last week and sparked pollution concerns turns out to be a mass of crustacean eggs or embryos, government scientists said on Monday.

Tests of a sample sent by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation produced the results, officials at a laboratory belonging to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Alaska Fisheries Service Center said.

"We now think these are some sort of small crustacean egg or embryo, with the lipid oil droplet in the middle causing the orange color," Jeep Rice, a lead scientist at the Juneau laboratory, said in a news release.
"So this is natural. It is not chemical pollution; it is not a man-made substance," Rice said.

Last week's appearance of the orange substance in the Alaska village of Kivalina initially baffled villagers and experts.

Increase in GM Crops, Resistant Weeds Lead to Dramatic Rise in Pesticide Use

The widespread use of genetically modified (GM) crops engineered to tolerate herbicides has led to a sharp increase in the use of agricultural chemicals in the U.S. This practice is creating herbicide-resistant "super weeds" and an increase in chemical residues in U.S. food, according to a new report released today by The Organic Center, the Union for Concerned Scientists, and the Center for Food Safety.

According to the report, entitled "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Thirteen Years," as more farmers have adopted variations of corn, soy beans, and cotton bred to tolerate weed killer in recent years, the use of herbicides has increased steadily, with herbicide use growing by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008, according to the report. Forty-six percent of that increase occurred during 2007 and 2008.

Pesticide Pathway

When soil moisture levels increase, pesticide losses to the atmosphere through volatilization also rise. In one long-term field study, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists found that herbicide volatilization consistently resulted in herbicide losses that exceed losses from field runoff. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) soil scientist Timothy Gish and ARS micrometeorologist John Prueger led the investigation, which looked at the field dynamics of atrazine and metolachlor, two herbicides commonly used in corn production. Both herbicides are known to contaminate surface and ground water, which was primarily thought to occur through surface runoff.

How to Help Save Our Earth

Earth is a really critical partial of the lives. Most of us wouldn’t consider of polluting the bodies, nonetheless we have been polluting the world by injustice and use too much of the full of health resources. As obliged people we should at slightest do what we can to assistance reduce, reuse, and recycle what we can as a initial step.

We have been not utterly to blame; we hereditary a soiled Earth, though we can do something to safeguard which the young kids can grow up in a cleaner, safer world than ourselves.

Don’t ever let someone get divided with observant “what can we do, we am customarily a single person”. Each and each chairman can do a lot, and we can change others to do something as well.

What Will Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Mean for Barrier Islands?

ScienceDaily (June 16, 2011) — A new survey of barrier islands published earlier this spring offers the most thorough assessment to date of the thousands of small islands that hug the coasts of the world's landmasses. The study, led by Matthew Stutz of Meredith College, Raleigh, N.C., and Orrin Pilkey of Duke University, Durham, N.C., offers new insight into how the islands form and evolve over time -- and how they may fare as the climate changes and sea level rises.

The survey is based on a global collection of satellite images from Landsat 7 as well as information from topographic and navigational charts. The satellite images were captured in 2000, and processed by a private company as part of an effort funded by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Short Term Air Emissions and Their Effect on Global Warming

Fast action on certain pollutants such as black carbon, ground-level ozone and methane may help limit near term global temperature rise and significantly increase the chances of keeping temperature rise below 3.6 degrees F. Protecting the near-term climate is central to significantly cutting the risk of amplified global climate change linked with rapid and extensive loss of Arctic ice on both the land and at sea, said assessment authors.

The findings, released on June 15 in Bonn, Germany, during a meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been compiled by an international team of more than 50 researchers chaired by Drew Shindell of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The Weather

We all complain about the weather. It is a great topic of conversation. Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather is part of what life is about. However, everything has its price. New research indicates that routine weather events such as rain and cooler-than-average days can add up to an annual economic impact of as much as $485 billion in the United States based on 2011 data. Rain, snow, and hot or cold temperatures can all have economic impacts. The study, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), found that finance, manufacturing, agriculture, and every other sector of the economy is sensitive to changes in the weather. The impacts can be felt in every state.

Returning to the Caveman Diet

In today's age of highly processed food, packaged and shaped to look like animals, filled with ingredients we have never heard of, it is tempting to return to a diet from a much simpler time. A new fad that is catching on, known as the Paleolithic or "paleo" diet, aims to return people to a more "natural" way of eating. Before agriculture, people would eat lean meats, fruits, and vegetables, and they would avoid grains and processed foods. Is this what is really best for human consumption? According to a new book, the so-called caveman diet was abandoned for a reason, and the belief that it is superior is pure hokum.

Threatened Species: Dugong

Dugongs are marine mammals common in tropical coasts of East Africa, through south and southeast Asia all the way to Australia. Its body shape is similar to a pregnant lady which led to the idea of the presence of mermaids in the sea. But of course, that is not true. Dugong dugon belongs to the Sirenia order and it is the remaining species in the Dugongidae family. They are herbivorous animals, mainly focusing on specific seagrass species or marine algae if seagrass are scarce, so they are usually found grazing at the seagrass beds (Gales et al. 2003; Marsh et al. 1982). Having low birth rate and late sexual maturity, their population is vulnerable to disturbances (Hines et al. 2005). Large amount of energy is spent on raising their single offspring making them a good representative of consummate K-selectors (Pianka 1970). Little is known about this marine mammal because of their sensitive and shy character, most of the time avoiding places with human activities (Hutomo & Moosa 2005).

The New Generation of Environmentalist

I do not know if global warming is occuring but many scientist believe it is occuring. So far i have read quite some few scientific articles, and they usually connect their findings with global warming. This would include coral bleaching, introduction of new diseases, interruption of local ecosystems etc.

So maybe they believe it is happening because it is one of the possible explaination for their studies. I have friends who believe it is really happening and we must do something about it.

Are You A Water Waster Or A Water Saver?

To find out whether you're a water-sipper or a water-slurper, take the following quiz. Then scroll below to rate your own water footprint.

Answer the following questions to see where you rank on the water-conservation meter:

Carbon cycle and carbon sinks.

Imagine in the earth, the carbon atom is being reused for thousand of years to make up grass, then eaten by a cow becoming the cow's fat, then humans eat the cow, so that carbon becomes our fat, then we die so the carbon returns to the soil which becomes the nutrient to the grass and then eaten by a cow again.

That was an illustrated example of the carbon cycle in my opinion.

Why do people care so much about carbon anyways?

Economy Versus Environment.

I found an interesting article about the war between economics and environment and how it would affect the human population.

Ever since the global warming issue started to become big, there were explosions of ideas of creating bio fuels to solve a big part of global warming. Politicians and government begin to propose ways on how to produce bio fuels. Cutting down more trees to plant more plants which can be used as bio fuels or change the crops grown for consumption into crops for bio fuels.

Earth Day

Earth Day is a day when we humans are supposed to do something good for the Earth. In recent years, on Earth Day, the country would usually set a time or maybe this can occur internationally, and during this time, everyone will switch off their lights for an hour to reduce the usage of electricity. This will then reduce the energy used and thus reducing carbon emission to reduce global warming.