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Forest fires in Indonesia last year released 11.3 million tonnes of carbon per day, researchers have found. This figure exceeds the daily rate of 8.9 million tonnes of carbon emissions from the whole of the European Union, the study says.

The 2015 fires were the worst since 1997, when a strong El Niño also fanned widespread fires, says the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Fire is widely used in South-East Asia to clear vegetation and maintain land for the growing of crops, the paper explains. Last year, fires were exacerbated by extended drought associated with El Niño, releasing 857 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from September to October 2015, the authors say. This represents 97 per cent of the country’s annual carbon emissions.

A volcano erupting on a small island in the Sub Antarctic is depositing ash over one of the world’s largest penguin colonies.

Zavodovski Island is a small island in the South Sandwich archipelago and its volcano Mt Curry has been erupting since March 2016. The island is home to over one million chinstrap penguins – the largest colony for this species in the world.

París estaba a la vanguardia de los sistemas públicos de bicicleta de reparto, y ahora tiene esquemas de distribución de automóviles eléctricos y es algo así como un laboratorio para la movilidad. A partir de hoy los conductores con coches construidos antes de 1997 y las motocicletas construidas antes del 2000, ya no podrán conducir en la ciudad durante las horas del día de lunes a viernes.

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important food legume in the tropics. It is an inexpensive source of proteins and minerals for almost 400 million people, mainly from Africa and Latin America. It is generally cultivated by small farmers and subject to conditions limiting their productivity. Drought affects 60% of bean crops around the world and can cause from 10% in productivity losses to a total of 100% in some cases.

Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Bean Programme at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia have identified drought-resistant genotypes and the morpho-physiological characteristics related to this resistance. The experiments were conducted in Palmira, Colombia, from June to September in 2012 and 2013, and the results were recently published in Frontiers in Plant Science.

Los ingenieros de la Universidad Estatal de Oregón (OSU por sus siglas en inglés)han creado un nuevo paquete informático de modelado que la gente en cualquier parte del mundo podría utilizar para evaluar el potencial de una corriente de pequeña escala, energía hidroeléctrica de una "corriente de río", una opción para producir la electricidad que es de especial importancia en los países en desarrollo.