http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14796579
A new bacteria, named Geobacter found that could have dramatic effects on the amounts of Uranium in our Earth, but for a good reason. Uranium is well known to be found naturally in the Earth, but often is not harmful due to its location lower in the ground. Due to excessive mining, Uranium is becoming more and more present in everyday lives. Since it is incredibly radioactive and can easily be strong enough to be lethal. The Geobacter, however, was found to reduce the amount of Uranium in the Earth. Using filaments that are all four nano-meters across each, producing a very large total surface area, the dissolved Uranium is precipitated outside of the bacteria. This process allows the now less soluble bacteria to be removed by sediments much easier than previously. These bacteria can be placed in places such as Chernobyl and can help to make its Uranium concentration decrease drastically. Now that three times as much Uranium can be collected, the Earth can start to recover from some of our human-induced harms, which very rarely occurs for us.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Lack of Water in India Causes Conflict
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/12/india-water-supply-bhopal
The article speaks much about the lack of water in India. People were killed for retrieving water out of greed from other people. Because of the lack of rain over the past years, many people have been in even more of a need for water than previous years. Draining of lakes had occurred in order to supply water, but many lakes have lost drastic amounts of water, which is terrible for the ecosystem. In one city, Bhopal, about 100,000 people rely on water tankers alone to supply their water, and they ravage through crowds in order to retrieve their water as soon as possible. Some climb onto the tanks in order to get to it themselves. With a rapidly increasing population in India, and a severe lack of water, things don't appear too bright in the future. In order to reach water, some people had to travel about 2 kilometers to reach their nearest water supply. Some experts believe this issue to be an indicator of what is to possible for a global scale. If we continue to abuse our few freshwater sources, we are sure to create our own ruin and destroy our chances at having sustainable water resources in our future.
The article speaks much about the lack of water in India. People were killed for retrieving water out of greed from other people. Because of the lack of rain over the past years, many people have been in even more of a need for water than previous years. Draining of lakes had occurred in order to supply water, but many lakes have lost drastic amounts of water, which is terrible for the ecosystem. In one city, Bhopal, about 100,000 people rely on water tankers alone to supply their water, and they ravage through crowds in order to retrieve their water as soon as possible. Some climb onto the tanks in order to get to it themselves. With a rapidly increasing population in India, and a severe lack of water, things don't appear too bright in the future. In order to reach water, some people had to travel about 2 kilometers to reach their nearest water supply. Some experts believe this issue to be an indicator of what is to possible for a global scale. If we continue to abuse our few freshwater sources, we are sure to create our own ruin and destroy our chances at having sustainable water resources in our future.
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