Fenómenos meteorológicos extremos y otros desastres naturales cobraron la vida de más de 2,700 personas y causaron alrededor de $42,000 millones de dólares en daños en todo el mundo en el primer semestre de 2014. Pero esto estuvo muy por debajo de la primera mitad del año pasado y del promedio de 10 años, de acuerdo con una nueva investigación de la aseguradora Munich Re.
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It’s not really the kind of "first" you want to be: The peculiar-looking but oddly beautiful scalloped hammerhead shark has just become the first shark species to be added to the US Endangered Species List.
Sphyrna lewini, as they're known, are coastal to semi-oceanic sharks with a number of extremely vulnerable subpopulations. The move to classify them as endangered is in response to lobbying from several animal welfare groups who hoped to secure additional protections for these amazing creatures before it's too late.
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London's urban heat island effect, which keeps night-time temperatures in the capital warmer than in surrounding rural areas, may have been underestimated by up to 45 per cent.
The heat can pose serious health risks, particularly for the elderly and very young.
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Have you ever wondered if the cute light rail systems some large cities are installing actually get people out of their cars and have a positive environmental impact?
For the first time, researchers have shown that installing light rail on an existing traffic corridor not only gets people out of their cars, but reduces congestion and air pollution.
In the study, planners at the University of Utah measured impacts of a new light rail line in Salt Lake City (University Line) on an existing major thoroughfare (400/500 South). Their analysis showed that traffic near the University has fallen to levels not seen since the 1980s, even as the number of students, faculty and staff at the U has increased, and the commercial district along the corridor has expanded.
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A study that involved fitting bumblebees with tiny radio frequency tags found long-term exposure to a neonicotinoid pesticide hampers bees' ability to forage for pollen. The research by Nigel Raine, a professor at the University of Guelph, and Richard Gill of Imperial College, London, shows how long-term pesticide exposure affects individual bees' day-to-day behaviour, including pollen collection and which flowers worker bees chose to visit.
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