Word: carbons
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...nations gathered for two weeks with the goal of hammering out an international environmental accord, and instead parliamentary stasis reigned. Late-night negotiating sessions went nowhere, powerful developing nations like China seemed determined to block any progress, and the U.S. itself - which still hasn't passed a carbon cap of its own - lacked much diplomatic leverage. As late as the evening of Dec. 16 - just two days before the Copenhagen summit was due to close - "it looked as though we were headed to failure," said Todd Stern, America's top climate envoy...
...carbon dioxide gets most of the attention when it comes to greenhouse gases, but it's not the only one that's warming the earth. Methane - a gas that is found in everything from landfills to cow stomachs - also plays a big role. Although global methane-emissions levels are much lower than CO2 emissions, pound for pound methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas; a ton of it has 23 times the warming effect of a ton of CO2. And methane, like CO2, is on the rise thanks to us: about 60% of global methane emissions come from man-made...
...Dubai is the crisis of unsustainable folly [Dec. 14]. It's amazing how eager our banks have been to pour money into a city-state sucking in vast amounts of energy and water to build and maintain a monstrous playground for the very rich. Heaven knows what its carbon footprint is. At its heart there is a sickness, with tales of dreadful working conditions for migrant laborers, who form a kind of permanent underclass. But what else can be expected of a place where the rich can party in their castles of sand while human rights for the poor...
...collision is only the latest kerfuffle in years of bitter clashes between activists and whalers, but it underscores how the annual whaling-activist conflict has escalated as both sides acquire new technology. The Ady Gil, a carbon-fiber ship worth about $1.5 million, has an uncanny resemblance to the Batmobile and holds the world record for circumnavigating the globe in only 61 days. Sea Shepherd was able to purchase the celebrated speedboat, previously called the Earthrace, after Hollywood businessman Ady Gil donated $1 million. Japan accuses its activist crew of shooting dangerous, high-powered lasers at its crews. Sea Shepherd...
...mechanisms is fairly simple. Darwin taught us that it takes many generations for a genome to evolve, but researchers have found that it takes only the addition of a methyl group to change an epigenome. A methyl group is a basic unit in organic chemistry: one carbon atom attached to three hydrogen atoms. When a methyl group attaches to a specific spot on a gene - a process called DNA methylation - it can change the gene's expression, turning it off or on, dampening it or making it louder. (See more about...