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The Encyclical due to be published today by Pope Francis represents a profound religious and philosophical challenge to the mainstream narratives of our times, writes Steffen Böhm, and a major confrontation with the great corporate, economic and political powers, as it spells out the potential of a new world order rooted in love, compassion, and care for the natural world.

Improving the lives of slum dwellers and addressing climate change is, for Pope Francis, one and the same thing. Both require tackling the structural, root causes of inequality, injustice, poverty and environmental degradation.

​The old tales may be true: There is brimstone in the underworld, and lots of it. Brimstone, the biblical name for sulfur, is often found near hot springs and volcanic fissures on Earth’s surface (above). But scientists studying the formation of Earth’s core have shown that the lightweight nonmetal might also be present there in vast quantities, answering a question that has long troubled earth scientists: How could Earth’s core—predominantly made of the heavy elements iron and nickel—appear as light as it does when analyzed using seismic waves? 

Researchers report online today and in the July issue of Geochemical Perspectives Letters that the answer may be sulfur trapped deep within Earth. To come up with their results, the team compared the proportions of copper isotopes in ancient meteorites—the presumed building blocks of our planet—with the proportions of copper isotopes in rocks originating from the mantle—the deep layer of viscous rock beneath Earth’s crust.

The US has more oil spills than we thought and the number doubled after production increased six years ago. Richard Stover, PhD, and the Center for Biological Diversity counted nearly 8,000 significant incidents, between 1986 and 2014, in records of the pipeline safety administration. By “significant” they mean causing injury, death, damages exceeding $50,000 in value, a loss of 5 barrels of highly volatile substances, 50 barrels of other liquids or there was an explosion. There have been more than 500 human deaths and 2,300 injuries through-out that period. The number of plant and animal casualties is much higher.

La gestión de residuos paulatinamente se va a convertir en una de las principales preocupaciones para la mayoría de las empresas debido a la implementación de cambios en las leyes y en los reglamentos, por lo que se exige un mayor control sobre la separación, traslado y disposición final, además de determinar si se trata de un residuo sólido urbano, residuo de manejo especial o residuo peligroso, pues cada uno de estos tiene una legislación y reglamentos muy claros para su manejo, lo cual aumenta los costos de eliminación de residuos, y es aquí cuando vienen los ahorros.

Normalmente se piensa que al camión de basura o la empresa de recolección de residuos se lleva la “basura” y le damos $100 o $200 por semana, pero cuando uno comienza a estudiar la facturación de las empresas que se llevan nuestra “basura” podemos comenzar a ver que es una renta semanal que poco a poco va creciendo y si no se le controla, en breve será un monstruo difícil de manejar al interior y al exterior de la empresa, por eso el establecer una estrategia de minimización y manejo adecuado de residuos es vital, hablando económicamente porque nos ahorraremos mucho dinero, pero también en el aspecto de cultura ambiental empresarial porque es una excelente oportunidad para comprometer a los empleados en una visión de conjunto.

En este punto es importante aclarar dos ideas que mucha gente utiliza como sinónimos, la palabra “basura” y “residuos”.  Primero, se definirá la basura como...

Visitation at U.S. National Parks may potentially increase with increasing temperature in temperate areas, but may decrease with temperatures rising over 80 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a study using future climate and visitation modeling scenarios published June 17 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Nicholas Fisichelli and colleagues from U.S. National Park Service.