Environment
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The amusing dung beetles
Dung beetles belong to the scarab beetle family which also includes the rhinoceros beetle (buqarn kbir), the barbary bugs (busuf) and the emerald chafer (għawwar dehbi). About 33 species of scarabs are found locally. One species is the dung roller,...
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Warming increases storm surges
Katrina-scale storm surges could become 10 times more frequent with just a 2°C rise in global temperatures, a study has found. Hurricane Katrina was officially the most destructive storm ever to strike the US. An estimated 1,836 people lost their...
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Why roosters crow at dawn
Roosters have a built-in alarm clock that ensures they crow at dawn, a study has found. Scientists in Japan placed birds in continuously dimly lit conditions and discovered it made no difference to their timekeeping. They kept on crowing each...
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Polar bears 'hit by warm climate'
One of the most southerly populations of polar bears are being hit by a warming climate which is reducing the time they can hunt on sea ice, research suggests. The polar bears of Hudson Bay, Canada, migrate on to land in summer when the sea ice...
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Microbes flourish in deepest ocean
Microbes are thriving in surprising numbers at the deepest spot in the oceans, the 11-kilometre Mariana Trench in the Pacific, despite crushing pressures in sunless waters, scientists said. Dead plants and fish were falling as food for microscopic...
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Regulating timber in the EU
The world’s forests are in crisis. Earth’s forest ecosystems have experienced an unprecedented rate of destruction and de-gradation, most of which has occurred in the last two hundred years. According to the World Resources Institute, 80 per cent of...
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The queen’s butterfly makes a comeback
In recent days I saw several swallowtail butterflies in different localities, including a pair which I photographed at Pembroke. For the past four or five years I noted that there were fewer butterflies in the Maltese countryside than in previous...
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Earth is hottest it’s been in 11,300 years
Earth is warmer today than it has been for most of the last 11,300 years, new research has shown. Scientists studied fossils recovered from 73 sites around the world to track global climate to the end of the last Ice Age. They found that for 70 to...
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Canada’s glaciers melting away
A fifth of Canada’s Arctic glaciers could have melted away by the end of the century, pushing up global sea levels by 3.5cm. Scientists made the prediction using a new climate model which simulated the shrinking of glaciers in the archipelago. The...
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Experts bid for sunlight and CO2 fuel
Scientists are working to develop a reactor which produces fuel using sunlight and carbon dioxide as a widespread way of cutting carbon emissions. The international research team, led by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, will try to increase the...
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Red-letter day for marine education
Much headway has been achieved in recent years in terms of local marine conservation, particularly the designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). There are currently five such areas – Rdum Majjiesa, Dwejra, Filfla-Għar Lapsi, Mġarr ix-Xini and...
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Antarctic lake yields ‘new life’
Russian scientists believe they have discovered new life forms sealed off for millions of years in a subglacial lake deep under the Antarctic ice, the RIA news agency reported. After more than a decade of stop-and-go drilling, Russia pierced through...
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A symbol of heraldry and holiness
The southern dwarf iris is restricted to the southern Italian region of Puglia, Sicily and surrounding islands, including the Maltese islands. The plant, known locally as bellus, is rare and strictly protected in Malta. In the Italian territories it...
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Warmer climate could open new Arctic shipping routes
The quickest way to get goods from Asia to the US East Coast in 2050 might well be straight across the Arctic, where a warming climate is expected to open new sea routes through what is now impenetrable ice, a study reported. Most shipping traffic...
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Gardens where exceptions rule
Now that permits outside the development zone are not so easy to come by it appears that developers are turning to large urban gardens. This may increasingly be the case in some areas although private gardens and green enclaves in the south have...
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I wish to give up my car
I wish to give up my car, and I wish you would give up yours too. Dream on, some may say. But as more and more time is spent in traffic and driving becomes even more stressful than it already is, I think many will start to change their mind. When...
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Europe’s offshore wind facing €50bn shortfall – study
Europe’s plans for offshore wind power up to 2020 could be as much as €50 billion short of funding, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said in a study released last Thursday. European governments are looking to the technology to play a major role in...
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Scientists identify new owl species
An Indonesian whistling owl has been identified as a new species with a unique voice. The bird, Otus jolandae, is only thought to live on the island of Lombok. Although the owl has been known for at least a century, it has only now been recognised...
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The Maltese spurge
As its name suggests, the Maltese spurge is a plant endemic to our islands and belongs to the spurge family. It grows as a dense shrub usually about half a metre high, although in some places it can grow up to two metres. The Maltese spurge, known...
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A ‘Grand Canyon’ in the Red Sea
An underwater ‘Grand Canyon’ has been captured in state-of-the-art images created by a Royal Navy survey ship. HMS Enterprise discovered the 250-metre-deep canyon in the Red Sea during a nine-month mission to improve understanding of the waters...
