Latest Environmental Research Stories

Female university students get drunk – on purpose – quicker than their male counterparts, and live a more sedentary life than they do, according to a study by the University of Vigo. Results show that 56.1% of female students are considered binge drinkers, as opposed to 41.3% of males. Researchers from the HealthyFit group at the University of Vigo have studied university students' lifestyles; their analysis, which includes alcohol and illegal drug consumption habits, sport and food,...

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research investigates the relationship between environmental influences and stem cell development for the first time Environmental contaminants, such as smoking, are harmful to the human organism in relation to the occurrence of allergies. This is known. Until now, researchers had never investigated whether and to what extent environmental contaminants also affect allergy-relevant stem cells. For the first time a team at the Helmholtz Centre for...

Troubling Parallels Seen: The "U.S. Has the Same Colluding System Between Industry, Regulators and Government" WASHINGTON, July 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The same underlying "man-made" problems that contribute significantly to the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan are in place in the United States and require preventative actions that go far beyond the limited steps taken far by the U.S. industry and its regulators, according to five groups commenting today on the...

Scientists raise concerns on the future sustainability of rice ecosystems in South East Asia - Threats are caused by global change but also by human mistakes and political neglect During a meeting in Banaue, The Philippines, scientists from 21 research institutions from Germany, Vietnam, The Philippines, Thailand, UK, Bulgaria and Spain raised several concerns on the future of the rice ecosystems in South East Asia. The meeting was organized within the framework of the international...

Ecologists show for the first time threshold values for natural wildfires Large forest regions in Canada are apparently about to experience rapid change. Based on models, scientists can now show that there are threshold values for wildfires just like there are for epidemics. Large areas of Canada are apparently approaching this threshold value and may in future exceed it due to climate change. As a result both the area burnt down annually and the average size of the fires would increase,...

  Good quality status of water bodies required in EU by 2015 unlikely to be attained, reveals study The good chemical and ecological status of water bodies as defined by the EU Water Framework Directive is unlikely to be attained in Germany by 2015. This is the conclusion of a study in which data from the four largest rivers in northern Germany - the Elbe, Weser, Aller and Ems - were analyzed over ten years. The study was carried out by the University of Koblenz-Landau, the Helmholtz...

AMSTERDAM, March 9, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- - New Journal Provides Solutions to Regional Environmental Issues of Global Significance Elsevier, the world leading publisher of scientific information products and services, and SCOPE, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment, today formalized their collaboration to publish the new journal Environmental Development, to be launched in the final quarter of 2011. This publication, supported by UNESCO and the...

NRC's Assumptions About the Impacts of Waste Disposal are Obsolete - An Environmental Impact Statement is Needed to Comply With Federal Law, Groups Say WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Less than a week after three states went to court to dispute the safety issues of storing nuclear waste on site at reactor sites, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) faces two major new legal challenges to the agency's 2010 findings that used nuclear reactor fuel and high-level...

So-Called "Clean Energy Standard" Highlighted in Obama State of the Union Speech, But Huge Health, Environmental Costs Associated With Nuclear, Coal WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- If Congress and the White House intend to move forward with a "clean energy standard" (CES), it will be a huge contradiction to include nuclear reactors and coal-fired power plants, according to three experts. In the wake of President Obama's State of the Union address embracing CES, the...

Fact Sheet Explores Cost, Safety and Waste Issues Glossed Over by Industry WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The same industry that promised that nuclear power would be "too cheap to meter" is now touting another supposed cure-all for America's power needs: the small modular reactor (SMR). The only problem is that SMRs are not only unlikely live up to the hype, but may well aggravate cost, safety, and environmental problems, according to a new fact sheet prepared by the...