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It is amazing the sorts of things that you can recycle these days. It seems like lots of different packaging s now recyclable, even though it is not always easy to find a local facility for recycling them. However, it is great that more and more things are able to be recycled, I even heard recently about X-Ray Film Recycling which is not only another great new recycling facility but can raise money for radiology reading rooms because there are companies which will buy film from places such as orthopedic pacs. It is great that these things are happening and that we should be able to get hold of lots more recycled products soon, which is fantastic.

It means that we will not be producing so much waste and we will not have so many problems with thinking about how to get rid of our rubbish. Trying to find room for landfill will get harder and harder if we keep consuming more and throwing away a lot more rubbish and so by recycling it we can avoid this problem. It means that as our children grow up, they will not have the problem of being swamped with rubbish and hopefully they will be able to find even better ways of reusing and recycling than we have.

Massive floods deep below Antarctica’s surface are accelerating the flow of glaciers into the ocean, a study has found, adding to the growing concern about the pace at which glaciers are melting into the seas.

The study, published online in the journal ‘Nature Geoscience’, found that a hidden network of glacial lakes far below the Antarctic surface regulates the motion of the continent’s ice rivers. When the subglacial lakes overflow, the ice above accelerates towards the ocean.

By tracking both the ocean-bound movement of East Antarctica’s Byrd glacier and the events in two lakes that lie beneath it, a team of scientists led by Leigh Stearns of the University of Maine showed that the glacier sped up between late 2005 and mid-2007 precisely when ice-penetrating radar imagery from satellites showed that both lakes were overflowing.

Conversely, the movement of the glacier slowed when the flood ceased and the lakes began to refill.

“Our findings provide direct evidence that an active lake drainage system can cause large and rapid changes in glacier dynamics,” the researchers concluded.

Now, for the first time, the US study has provided evidence that sub-surface floods can indeed act like a “turbo lubricant” for glaciers.

“It’s like putting in a squirt of oil,” Andy Smith of the British Antarctic Survey, was quoted as saying by New Scientist. “The water lubricates the base of the glacier,” he said.

The exact reason for flooding is not known, but researchers watching the movement of ice in satellite images have noticed that the ice appeared to “breathe” in some places, apparently linked to the ebb and flow of water underneath. Lead researcher Stearns said when the hollows overflow, a flood of water spreads beneath Byrd Glacier. “The extra water overwhelms the subglacial drainage system. It can’t escape fast enough, so spreads out beneath the glacier bed and reduces the friction between the ice and the rock, allowing the glacier to slide faster,” Stearns stressed.

Scientists believe that the pace of the movement of these huge bodies of ice into the ocean help determine the speed at which sea levels rise. Huge increases (measured in tens of centimetres and inches) could wreak disaster for millions of people living in low-lying areas around the world.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned last year that thermal expansion will push sea levels up 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches) by 2100, enough to wipe out several small island nations and severely disrupt low-lying mega deltas in Asia and Africa.

Smith said that similar events have been seen in Greenland, but since the lakes there lie at the surface of the ice, the mechanism must be different. Temperatures in Greenland vary more than they do in Antarctica, where the summers are not warm enough to generate significant melt ponds at the surface.

“In Antarctica, it appears that the ice at the very bottom of the glacier melts slowly and accumulates in hollows in the rock,” said Smith.

He stressed the temperature at the bottom of the ice sheet stays very close to melting point — geothermal energy and friction warm it slightly and the kilometres of ice insulate the area keeping it at a relatively stable temperature.

Greenpeace Japan has said the focus of its anti-whaling campaign is shifting from active protesting to dialogue, stating that it will not be sending a ship to the Antarctic Sea this season.

The move not only marks a departure for the conservation group as it has sent such a ship for the past three years but also comes on the heels of the prosecution of two Greenpeace activists over a whale meat-related scandal.

“The main reason we’ve decided not to send a ship is that we are seeing positive changes in Japan, with more people opposing whaling in the Southern Ocean,” Greenpeace campaigner Frode Pleym told a press conference in Tokyo on Friday.

The group also said it has documented enough evidence of Japan’s whaling activities over the years as it sent ships to the ocean a total of nine times. “We’ve thus decided to focus our activities in Tokyo,” where Japan’s whaling policies are made, said Wakao Hanaoka of Greenpeace Japan.

The group will seek to reach the Japanese public through dialogue and lobbying in the Diet and elsewhere in order to achieve an end to whaling by the Japanese government, it said.

Pleym was careful to note that the group is also eager to cultivate a different image among the Japanese public — not just as an anti-whaling campaigner but also as a crusader on such issues as food safety, genetically modified food and climate change.

“We would like to show the true face of Greenpeace. We are so much more also,” he said.

The endangered tigers are all set to have new home in the country with the government approving the take over of eight new forest areas under the flagship conservation programme Project Tiger.

“An allocation of Rs 32 crores has been estimated for tiger conservation in the new tiger reserves during the XIth five-year plan period,” a statement from the Environment Ministry said.

Udanti and Sita Nadi wildlife sanctuary to be spread over 1580 sq km area will be the largest among the new reserves. Anamalai-Parambikulam wildlife sanctuaries cover an area of 1410 sq km area spread over Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Satkosia wildlife sanctuary is spread over 988.30 sq km in Orissa, Kaziranga national park (916.67 sq km) in Assam, Achanakmar wildlife sanctuary (963.27 sq km) in Chattisgarh, Dandeli Wildlife sanctuary and Anshi national park (831.25 sq km) in Karnataka, Sanjay National Park and Sanjay Dubri wildlife sanctuary (831.25 sq km) in Madhya Pradesh and in Mudummalai wildlife sanctuary (321 sq km) in Tamil Nadu.

Last year, the government had approval the setting up of four tiger reserves– Sunabeda Tiger Reserve in Orissa, Shahyadri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, Pilibhit Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh and Ratapani Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.

There will be around 40 tiger reserves across the country set up with an aim to protect the endangered species whose numbers have declined to 1,400 according to an estimate by Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

The tiger couple in Rajasthan’s Sariska Park will have a new guest next month when a tigress will be flown in from neighbouring Ranthambore Tiger Reserve to give them company.

“The tiger couple reintroduced in July have acclimatised well to the surroundings, making several kills. They are together and we can hear them calling each other.

“Their movement pattern shows they might have mated. Now if everything goes well we hope to introduce a second tigress in Sariska on November 3,” Rajesh Gopal, member secretary of National Tiger Reserve Conservation told media.

The tigress proposed to be translocated to Sariska spread over 881 sq km is being identified.

“Tentatively we have identified two adult radio-collared tigresses, one of which will be ferried through chopper. But depending on the situation we might pick a non-radio collared tigress like last time,” Gopal said.

Exuding confidence, he said the process this time will be smoother and hassle free two cats were translocated on June 28 and July 4 with the whole operation hogging much limelight.

Gopal was hopeful that the weather would be favourable in early November with winter setting in unlike last time when the operation was carried out amid heavy downpour.

WII Director P R Sinha, senior scientist K Shankar, veterinarian Parag Nigam, Gopal and the Rajasthan Forest Department will carry out the operation with the aid of the Indian Air Force.

The beluga whales of Alaska’s Cook Inlet are endangered and require additional protection to survive, the government declared on Friday, contradicting Governor Sarah Palin who has questioned whether the distinctive white whales are actually declining.

It was the Republican vice presidential candidate’s second environmental slap from Washington this year. She has asked federal courts to overturn an Interior Department decision declaring polar bears threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The government on Friday put a portion of the whales on the endangered list, rejecting Palin’s argument that it lacked scientific evidence to do so. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that a decade-long recovery program had failed to ensure the whales’ survival.

“In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are not recovering,” said James Balsiger, NOAA acting assistant administrator.

The decision means that before federal agencies can issue a variety of commercial permits, they must first consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine if there are potential harmful effects on the whales.

That has the potential to affect major Alaska projects including an expansion of the Port of Anchorage, additional offshore oil and gas drilling, a proposed USD 600 million bridge connecting Anchorage to Palin’s hometown of Wasilla and a massive coal mine 45 miles south of Anchorage.

The state does have serious concerns about the low population of beluga whales in Cook Inlet and has had those concerns for many years, Palin said in a statement. “However, we believe that this endangered listing is premature,” she said.

Palin in April successfully lobbied for a six-month delay in a listing decision until a count of the whales this summer could be included in deliberations. That count showed no increase over 2007 numbers — 375 whales, compared with a high of 653 in 1995.

Federal regulators and conservation groups said further delay would be harmful.

NOAA said Friday the Cook Inlet population declined by 50 percent between 1994 and 1998 and “is still not recovering” despite restrictions on the number of whales that Alaska’s native population can kill for subsistence. It said recovery has been hindered by development and a range of economic and industrial activities including those related to oil and gas exploration.

The National Marine Fisheries Service “will identify habitat essential for the conservation of the Cook Inlet belugas in a separate rule-making within a year,” the agency said.

The federal decision pleased environmentalists.

“We can finally focus now not on whether the belugas are endangered, but what we can do to protect them,” said Brendan Cummings, an attorney for the Centre for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that petitioned for the listing.

Cook Inlet stretches 180 miles from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage. It is named for Capt James Cook, the British explorer who sailed into the inlet in 1778 on a quest to find the Northwest Passage.

Beluga whales feed on salmon and smaller fish. They can also eat crab, shrimp, squid and clams. During summers, the whales, which reach a length of up to 15 feet, often can be spotted from the highways leading away from Anchorage, gathered at river mouths, chasing salmon that have schooled before a run to spawning grounds.

Beluga whales’ natural enemies are killer whales, but something else has been keeping their numbers down in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.

Craig Matkin, an independent biologist who has worked in south central Alaska for 25 years, said the delay in the listing had held up a comprehensive research plan to find out why the population had not recovered after subsistence hunting was curtailed.

The concern is not just in numbers, he said, but in distribution. Whales in recent years have been staying in northern Cook Inlet near Anchorage.

“They’re just gone from these areas,” he said of his own home near in Homer, near the tip of the Kenai Peninsula and about 100 miles from Anchorage. “Why they aren’t coming down into this habitat is a question I’d like to answer.”

Future development won’t be helpful to the recovery, Cummings said, starting with the noise and pollution associated with industrialization of the inlet, which includes oil rigs off the Kenai Peninsula.

Global warming, changing ocean conditions and higher temperatures in salmon streams may be another factor, Cummings said.

The Port of Anchorage, helped by congressional earmarks secured by Sen Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, has embarked on a USD 500 million project to double the port’s size and replace its aging docks.

Environmental groups also have expressed concern about a planned coal mine 45 miles from Anchorage across Cook Inlet, where developers propose to mine 300 million metric tons of sub-bituminous coal, roughly equal to the energy of a billion barrels of oil, over 25 years. That would mean noise and boat traffic associated with building and operating a mine, a potential effect on salmon streams and more warming.

The Cook Inlet beluga whales are one of five populations in Alaska waters and the only one endangered. Other beluga populations off Alaska inhabit Bristol Bay, the eastern Bering Sea, the eastern Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea.

A bird that swooped over the waters covering what is now southeast England had wings that spanned five metres (16.25 feet) tip to tip and had bony teeth with which to grab its food, a study published on Friday said.

The extraordinary beast has been identified thanks to a well-preserved skull unearthed on the Isle of Sheppey, east of London. Named Dasornis emuinus, it has been dated to 50 million years ago.

Gerald Mayr of Germany’s Senckenberg Research Institute said Dasornis was “like an ocean-going goose, almost the size of a small plane.”

“By today’s standards, these were pretty bizarre animals, but perhaps the strangest thing about them is that they had sharp, tooth-like projections along the cutting edges of the beak,” he said.

Like all birds, Dasornis did not have real teeth, which are made of enamel and dentine.

Instead, it had bony “pseudo-teeth,” a feature unique to a group of now-extinct giant birds called Pelagornithids.

The spikes were handy for Dasornis, enabling it to snap up fish and squid while it swooped over the sea, suggests Mayr.

“With only an ordinary beak, these would have been difficult to keep hold of, and the pseudo-teeth evolved to prevent meals slipping away.”

The find is reported in a British journal, Palaeontology, published by the Palaeontological Association.

On Saturday night, international magazine giant, Cond and #233; Nast launched it’s men’s magazine GQ in India. The venue, Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai, was decked up in eclectic hues.

The place literally turned into a GQ city with nooks and corners screaming the brand. The first ones to arrive, as always, were the diplomats and officials of different countries.

Next came the fash frat in full attendance. Raghavendra Rathore, Akki Narula, Manish Malhotra, Narendra Kumar Ahmed, Suneet Varma, Rohit Bal, Rocky S, Carol Gracias and Indrani Dasgupta.

As expected, the last to show up was the Bollywood brigade. When asked what a men’s magazine must deliver, Narula said, “Tips on hygiene.

” Actor Upen Patel said, “The only must for a men’s magazine is hot and yummy girls.” Yuvraj Singh, who appears on the cover along with hotties Saif Ali Khan and Arjun Rampal said, “The first thing I look for is the section on gadgets, followed by fashion and other things.

” As Malhotra waited for friend Malaika (Arora Khan), we asked his views on the cover. “They have Arjun, Saif and Yuvi and #8230; bas sab aa gaya.

Isse achcha kya ho sakta hai!” As the party fever soared, guests indulged in an elaborate fare of Brittany oysters and South African ostrich appetisers.

A proposed biological park in the Sajjangarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Udaipur is threatening the survival of the spotted deer, a wildlife expert said.

The spotted deer (cheetal) will vanish from this sanctuary when the proposed biological park comes into existence here, Hony. Wildlife Warden of Udaipur Raza H Tehsin said.

In a letter to the Forest Department of Rajasthan, Tehsin has suggested that the western side of Sajjangarh Wildlife Sanctuary be included in the present area of the sanctuary as it has the ideal habitat for cheetal, blue bull and four-horned antelopes.

The government is building a biological park, spread over 36 hectares, at the base of the eastern hillside within the sanctuary, which overruns the prime habitat of cheetal and blue bulls.

If sufficient habitat is not provided, these animals will not survive once the park is ready.