American researchers have found that the US health sector is responsible for nearly a tenth of the country’s carbon emissions – almost three times the amount of carbon that the airline industry pumps out. Despite this disparity, the health care sector hardly ever gets flack for it’s less-than-green credentials whilst the airline industry seems to have more than it’s fair share of criticism.

The carbon emissions from health care are from many different areas – including scientific research, hospitals, and the production and distribution of pharmaceuticals. In total, the American health care system is said to churn out eight percent of the country’s carbon emissions, compared to three percent for the aviation industry and two percent for IT.

The airline industry is already looking into greener measures including more fuel efficient air craft, carbon penalties, and more efficient and greener fuels. Perhaps health care companies now also need to look at their green credentials more carefully and follow the lead of the aviation industry by investigating and investing in more environmentally friendly options for the future.

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The Waste and Resource Action Programme (Wrap) have said that ending the current obsession with owning material goods could help reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

The idea is this: rather than buying expensive clothes and accessories that are only used a couple of times before being thrown away, people should hire expensive items such as shoes, dresses and suits instead.

This green idea doesn’t just extend to clothes either – Wrap believe that instead of buying high-end electronics such as plasma TVs, games consoles and TVs which often get replaced every few years as new technology and gadgets are brought out, we should revert back to the 1960s style rental shops and rent all our electronic equipment instead of buying.

By switching away from buying expensive items to renting them, this is supposed to help stop perfectly good items from being thrown away whilst they are still able to be used. This will then help stop unnecessary manufacturing and this in turn will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions thus helping the UK meet climate change targets.

As well as helping the environment, this idea would have the positive side effects of saving money – no need to buy expensive items that you will only use once when hiring the item for the occasion will be much cheaper – and also helping stop your house being cluttered up.

If everyone in the UK started to rent high end items instead of buying them, it is anticipated that a fifth of spending on new goods would be converted to renting; Better use of resources could then deliver around 1- percent of the CO2 reduction that UK is aiming for by 2020, a saving of around 13 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

Wrap denies that the move would harm the UK’s employment figures as most of the UK’s goods are made overseas anyway and any job losses in the manufacturing industry would be balanced out by new jobs created in the rental industry.

The watchdog are also calling for people to modify their diet to help the climate. By reducing the amount of dairy and meat products that households eat, this small change would reduce the amount of carbon emissions from livestock and therefore help stop climate change.

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The seaweed has grown rapidly thanks to the weather over the past two months – June was hot with July being quite rainy, and this has allowed the algae to grow up to 8 inches thick in places.

France has also seen a large number of algae blooms on their coast line and this has potentially caused health issues as rotting seaweed above the high tide mark can release potentially deadly toxic gases.

The Environment Agency have been quick to point out that England’s algae problem will not cause health problems for humans. Tides twice a day will mean that the algae won’t have enough time to dry out and bake and therefore will be aunable to release toxic gas. However if anyone in the area does start to smell a rotting egg odour as this would indicate that the algae has started to release poisonous gas.

Part of the reason for the prevalence of the weeds is farming run-off and sewage works. The algae thrives on nutrients released from sewage works and the nitrate-rich fetilisers which run into waterways during periods of heavy rainfall.

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The new findings are a cause for concern for certain regions in America which use a sewage overflow system. Under normal circumstances, storm run-off is mixed with a lightly treated wastewater before being delivered to a sewage treatment plant. However when there is a huge storm, the contents of the pipes bypass the facility and flow direct into rivers and lakes. This system is used in several areas, mainly in older cities in the northeast and midwest of America.

The researchers compared mosquitos which grew in tanks holding polluted water versus those in tanks with clean water. The results found that mosquitoes in the polluted water tanks hatched from their eggs more quickly and were more likely to survive than those in the clean water.

Polluted water and sewage often contains ammonia phosphates and these feed bacteria and micro-organisms which mosquitos feed on. Fish tend not to be able to live in polluted waters therefore the mosquitos have fewer predators.

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Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research analysed satellite images of the Amazon and discovered that in June, 578 square kilometres (223 square miles) of Amazonian woodland was either burnt or cut down. The figures are four times those seen in May causing concern as the Amazon is seen by many as one of the largest areas that help buffer against the global warming.

Over the past year, the satellite images have shown that more than 4,700 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest has been cut down on burnt.

Much of the rainforest destruction is around the states of Paro and Mato Grosso. These two Brazilian states have many ranchers and farmers in them who regularly encroach on the surrounding trees and rainforest.

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Alligators in the area used to be at the top of the local food chain however in the apst 17 years, Burmese pythons are starting to gain a foothold and are challenging the alligators for top spot in the food chain.

American exotic pet laws are fairly lax and as a result, exotic pets are popular across the country. Many exotic pets are bought when they are babies, however they can quickly outgrow their homes. Burmese pythons in particular can grow more than a foot a month. Since 2004, over 140,000 pythons have been imported into America. A baby python can be bought for as little as $20 from pet stores. It is estimated that around 100,000 pythons now live in the swamps and forests around Florida alone.

When the animals grow too large, some people release them into the wild. Pythons can grow up to 27ft long, weighing in at 30 stone. Pythons are also greedy and will usually eat whatever they are fed meaning they can weight stupendous amounts if they are overfed. Food bills for a large python can run into hundreds of pounds per month – pythons are usually fed on frozen or live rats, chickens and rabbits – and this is sometimes too expensive for some owners. Some pythons also escaped during Hurricane Andrew when houses were torn down and the snakes escaped.

There have already been several battles witnessed by rangers and tourists between alligators and pythons. One battle lasted over 24 hours with the python ending up victorious. Unforunately for the python, the alligator was too much to handle and the python’s sides ripped open.

Pythons kill by crushing prey in their coils. They are able to exert a force of several tonnes which shatters the bones in their prey. After a big kill, the snake’s heart will grow to produce more blood for digestion, extra stomach acid will be produced and the intestines will rearrange themselves. After eating a large kill, snakes can go for a long time without needing to eat again.

Unfortunately Florida has the perfect climate for these Burmese pythons and their increasing prescence is starting to upset the fragile ecosystem in the area. Rangers in the area have started hunting the snakes, either killing them or giving them to zoos however the snakes are still thought to be increasing in their numbers. Some experts believe that without drastic action, the snakes could become the most common and dangerous large predator in the US.

One toddler has already been strangled in recent weeks by a python and it is feared that attacks may start to increase as numbers increase. The fear is so great that there are calls for a widespread cull of wild Burmese pythons to be implemented – ironic given the snakes are endangered in the jungles of South-East Asia where they originated from.

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In May 2009, the big six supermarkets gave out 452 million plastic bags. This figure compares to May 2006 where 870 million plastic bags were used. This means that the number of plastic bags given out has been reduced by 48 percent.

The major change has been the switch to long-life plastic bags. Consumers have been encouraged to buy long-life reusable plastic bags for a couple of pence each and to bring these on their grocery shopping trips to use instead of the throwaway plastic bags.

Although the changes are good, some people are calling for charges on plastic carrier bags – a scheme which several other European countries already employ. Welsh Assembly environment minister Jane Davidson has pointed out that Wales uses 2 million plastic bags a month, equating to 24 million plastic bags a year. With plastic bags taking between 500 and 1,000 years to degrade in landfill, it means there is still plenty of room for improvement and she believes that the current voluntary approach needs a further push.

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At present, it is impossible to tell whether the receding parts of the Sahara are a short-term change – the changes could be down to rainfall – or whether it is part of a long-term shrinkage.

In an interview with the BBC, the Centre for Remote Sensing at Boston University explained the desert itself is not greening. However the desert does expand and shrink according the amount of energy it receives from the Sun. As the Earth heats up more evaporation will take place and this in turn will increase rainfall.

For the last few years, there has been a higher than average rainfall with greater variability in the amount of rain that has been falling than there was in the past however this may not be a long-term trend.

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Last summer, scientists noticed that the glacier’s tongue had a large crack across it, a crack which measured around 16km in length. The discovery was so concerning that researchers returned to the glacier’s ice tongue this year and have setup cameras and sensors around the glacier to monitor it’s progress and to get a really accurate picture of the breakup, if and when it happens.

Currently, the researchers believe that the ice tongue will break in the next few weeks. In the past week along, a piece of ice measuring 3 square kilometres in size has already broken away, and there are more than 10 cracks in the ice. If the ice tongue does break off completely, the 100 square kilometre section will turn into a 5 billion tonne mass of floating ice.

Having ice tongues break off is normally not a cause for concern – the end points of glaciers are in water and large pieces of ice will naturally break off each year. The ice that is lost through these breakups is balanced by snow that falls at the top end of the glacier. The Petermann ice tongue is causing concern because the ice piece that is being looked at is around half of the glacier’s average annual flow. The flow of ice has increased over the past few years and currently, researchers are unclear as to why this is happening.

One theory is that warmer ocean currents are warming up the ice from below. Combined with warmer temperatures in the air above the ice, it is melting more quickly and therefore causing an increase in the flow of ice.

The more ice that is lost from the glacier, the less resistance the remaining ice tongue will have. This means that the glacier may well flow more quickly and therefore contribute to a rising sea level.

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Yale University looked at 240 independent studies investigating the recovery rates of ecosystems and their recoveries after being damaged by both human and natural causes. The researchers looked at several key damage and recovery factors and evaluated how long it took each ecosystem to recover to their original state having suffered from damage. The research also looked whether there was a correlation between amount of damage done and how quickly the eco system recovered.

It appears that 83 studies demonstrated recovery for all variables, 90 demonstrated a mixture of recovered and non-recovered variables, 67 demonstrated no recovery for any variable, and 15 percent of all the ecosystems in the analysis are beyond recovery.

The average time for recovery was 20 years or less and it was found that of those that did recover, 56 years was the longest recovery period. Human damage such as logging or agricultural usage caused longer recovery times than natural damage such as hurricanes.

Forests had one of the longest recovery periods whereas aquatic systems had one of the quickest recovery times. This is possibly due to the fact that aquatic systems had a much higher turnover of species and organisms thus allowing the habitat to recover more quickly.

The research shows that if damage is halted before it reaches a critical stage, recovery is possible although it may take several years for the ecosystem to fully recover. However it should be noted that it is almost impossible to fully predict how an ecosystem will react as there are many different factors involved in regeneration that cannot be separated out for example changes in weather, climate or pollution levels.

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