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While many are used to thinking of ants as pests (especially during the summertime), new research published in British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology says not so fast. Ants are actually pest controllers. They’re efficient, sustainable and safe, and these little guys are making a big impact on our planet.

Already 60% of seabird species have plastic in their guts, often as much as 8% of their body weight. And with ocean plastic increasing exponentially, that figure will rise to 99% by 2050, threatening some birds' survival. Unless we act.

A ambos lados del estrecho de Bering, el hielo marino del verano ha vuelto a caer a un nivel que está llevando a miles de morsas a las playas costeras.  Fotos tomadas en Ryrkaypiy, Chukotka, Rusia, muestran un estimado de 5,000 morsas en ese lugar, mientras que a través del estrecho en los Estados Unidos, miles más se observaron cerca del pueblo de Point Lay, Alaska. 

Conforme una gota de agua cae a través de la atmósfera puede atraer de decenas a cientos de diminutas partículas de aerosol a su superficie antes de llegar al suelo. El proceso por el cual las gotitas y aerosoles se atraen es la coagulación, un fenómeno natural que puede actuar para limpiar el aire de contaminantes como el hollín, sulfatos y partículas orgánicas.

Since the 1990s, scientists and policymakers have proposed limiting Earth’s average global surface temperature to 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, thereby averting the most serious effects of global warming, such as severe droughts and coastal flooding. But until recently, they lacked a comprehensive estimate of the likely social and economic benefits — from lives saved to economies preserved — that would result from greenhouse gas emissions reduction policies designed to achieve the 2 C goal.

Now, a team of researchers from the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change has published a study in Climatic Change that provides scenarios that climate scientists can use to estimate such benefits. The study projects greenhouse gas emissions levels and changes in precipitation, ocean acidity, sea level rise and other climate impacts throughout the 21st century resulting from different global greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation scenarios. The scenarios include a business-as-usual future and one aimed at achieving significant GHG emission reductions limiting global warming since pre-industrial times to 2 C. Research groups convened by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have already begun using the MIT projections to evaluate the benefits of a 2 C emissions reduction scenario for agriculture, water, health, and other global concerns.