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7 Charts That Could Convince You To Become A Vegetarian

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greens salad

Even if some of us never want to give up meat, strong reasons exist for sticking with vegetables only.

Global meat production almost doubled between 1980 and 2004, and the upward trend will only continue, according to a 2005 study from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). These numbers raise increasing concerns about land and water scarcity, health, and animal welfare.

The following charts lay out some good reasons for a vegetarian diet:

World hunger

Nearly 870 million people suffer from chronic undernourishment, according to FAO. About five million adults and 10.9 million children die from malnutrition every year.

Meanwhile, global food prices have reached near record highs and are expected to remain volatile. Places like India have even seen dangerous inflation.

Africa, the continent plagued the most by hunger, also has the least amount of arable land, according to the FAO.

acres of meat v. salad

As shown by this 1990 data from biologist Sir Colin Spedding (charted by Michael Bluejay via"The Food Revolution" by John Robbins), you can feed 22 times more people on land used for cabbage compared to beef.

Now imagine if farmers used all of the land dedicated to meat production to produce vegetables and grain instead. Although increased production would only solve part of world hunger, it would be a big step.

Now, cabbage only has 0.3 grams of protein per 23 grams, while beef contains 3.2 grams. Cabbage, however, is high in Vitamin C and fiber, and you can reasonably supplement your diet with other forms of protein, like legumes and leafy greens. Indeed, a vegetarian diet can be very healthy, as we'll discuss later.

Water scarcity

Water scarcity could pose an even bigger problem in the coming century. Already, it affects 2.7 billion people — nearly 40% of the world's population — for at least one month every year, according to waterfootprint.org. Global scarcity will only get worse.

Once again, meat represents one of the least efficient uses of water to create food.water useBased on data from the International Water Management Institute, this chart shows that producing one kilogram of beef uses 77 times as much water as producing one kilogram of potatoes does.(According to other studies, pork uses about 30% as much water as beef and chicken uses 15% — still far more than vegetables and grain.)

In regions suffering from water scarcity, meat production is hard to justify.

Carbon footprint

The carbon footprint of meat is also much higher, as you can see in the following chart from the Environmental Working Group. For example, producing one kilogram of lamb meat produces nearly 40 times as much carbon dioxide as the equivalent weight in tomatoes.

carbon footprint foods

Aside from the energy required to produce beef, livestock flatulence creates methane, another contributing factor in global warming.

Yes, growing vegetables requires pesticides and fertilizers, which could potentially harm the environment or people, but growing legumes, like soybeans, provides the most energy-efficient source of protein when compared to other vegetables and meat, according to study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Factory Farming

factory farm

Facilities that rear livestock using intensive methods, called factory farms, exist all across the country.

This map, created by Food & Water Watch, shows the distribution of livestock on factory farms in each county. The dark red marks "extreme areas" with more than 4,200 dairy cows per operation; or 17,4000 beef cattle; or 48,500 hogs; or 2.75 million broiler chickens sold; or 1.25 million egg-laying hens. (Click here for interactive version.)

Anti-factory farm organizations accuse these facilities of animal cruelty. Livestock often live in tiny containment areas where they can barely move. Notably, farmers sometimes remove the beaks of chickens and other fowl to prevent them from pecking each other out of frustration.

Factory farms could also threaten human health. They pollute the air and water and even make people living nearby sick. Farmers often feed livestock antibiotics and hormones to kill diseases and maximize growth and profit, according to Food & Water Watch. Some of the bacteria present on farms then becomes resistant to antibiotics and infects humans through meat consumption.

Factory farms have also been found to cause excessive pollution.

animal distribution on factory farms

As you can see in the chart of average animals per site in three different years (which uses a logarithmic scale), animal density is increasing in the U.S.

Nutrition And Health

The graph below shows the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index for various foods. Dr. Joel Fuhrman created the system on a scale of one to 1,000 by evaluating an extensive range of micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and antioxidant capacities.

The most nutrient-rich foods are all vegetables, like mustard greens which score 100. One cup has 1.6 grams of protein, 1.8 grams of fiber, 65% of your daily Vitamin C, 33% daily Vitamin A, among other nutrients.

The highest-rated animal product on the list, fish, scores only 15; red meat scores only eight. While animal products are high in protein and iron, they lack other vital nutrients.

vegetarian chart screenshot

Finally, let's look at the personal benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. Although it's hard to separate the other positive lifestyle habits of vegetarians from their diet, studies suggest that vegetarians might live longer.

Researchers from the American Society of Clinical Nutrition found that "current prospective cohort data from adults in North America and Europe raise the possibility that a lifestyle pattern that includes a very low meat intake is associated with greater longevity."

And the longer you eat only vegetables, the better. The chart below shows shows how long-term vegetarians (17 or more years) live 3.6 years longer than short-term vegetarians.

vegetarian longevity

In conclusion, many good reasons exist to adopt a vegetarian diet. Of course, you don't have to go full-veggie to help the world and your health — these also serve as good reasons to reduce the amount of meat you consume, which could be a reasonable compromise for bacon and steak lovers.

SEE ALSO: This Test-Tube Burger Could Literally Save The World

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How To Pick Out The Tastiest Fruits And Vegetables

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peppers

We've all seen those people in the produce section — the ones who have to pick up every single piece of produce, hold it right up to their nose, and even give it a squeeze. It turns out the people that get a little too handsy with produce are onto something.

Mickey Davis, the produce manager at Greene Grape Provisions in Brooklyn delivered a presentation at the Brooklyn Brainery on how to pick the best produce.

To determine which peach is the best one, you really do need to get up close and personal with the whole bunch.

Here are three characteristics to consider when picking out produce.

1. The general appearance of the produce.

Every kind of fruit and vegetable has specific things you should look for, but here are a few examples:

For peaches you should look for sugar spots, like the one pictured below. Davis said that many people mistake these for bruises, but these darkened spots on a peach are places where the sun has hit the peach particularly hard and lots of sugar has collected, and it just means the peach is going to taste more sweet and delicious.

sugar spotAnother thing to look for in peaches is a stripe across the stem like the one pictured below. According to Davis, peaches with stripes like these were allowed to ripen longer on the tree and actually swelled up against the branch they were hanging from. Peaches allowed to ripen longer will definitely taste better.

peach stripeMelons have different characteristics you should look for. The first one is a well-defined ground spot like the one below. If a melon doesn't have a ground spot, it probably wasn't allowed to ripen long enough on the vine.

melon groundspotYou should also look for a withered stem on melons. This is a sign of maturity and probably means the melon is more ripe.

withered stemDavis also confirmed that knocking your knuckles on a melon really can give you some insight into how it will taste. If you knock on a melon and it sounds like you're knocking on your own forehead, then its under ripe. If it sounds the same as thumping your stomach then its overripe. The sweet spot of perfect ripeness should sound the same as thumping your chest cavity.

2. Timing matters.

Check to see if the type of produce you're buying is in season. Late summer and early fall is the perfect time for several kinds of fruit, but you should always check to see what's in season — it will taste better. Foodstalk has a chart that shows the best time to buy several kinds of produce in New York.

Davis also explained why some kinds of produce, like bananas, are OK to buy when they are not quite ripe. Bananas are climacteric fruits — which simply means they will continue to ripen after harvesting. Other kinds of produce, like strawberries, are nonclimacteric. That means no matter how long you wait, that green unripened strawberry that ended up in your batch will never be ready to eat.

Here's a list of which kinds of produce are climacteric or nonclimacteric, according to Postharvest Fresh.

Climacteric (will continue to ripen after picking):

  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Pears
  • Peaches
  • Plums
  • Mangos
  • Kiwis
  • Apricots

Nonclimacteric (will NOT continue to ripen after picking):

  • Most citrus
  • Most berries
  • Grapes
  • Watermelons
  • Pomegranates
  • Peppers

3. Consider where the produce is coming from.

As a general rule, it's better to buy local. Ask your grocery store where they get their produce from — you may be surprised how far it travels. Places that sell produce grown nearby usually get the ripest bunch of the harvest.

Davis said location can even affect the taste of some kinds of produce. For example, the level of spiciness in certain peppers depends on where they are grown. Peppers grown in hotter, more humid places will taste spicier than those grown in cooler places.

SEE ALSO: 5 Useful Apps And Charts For Choosing Seasonal Produce

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A New 14-Foot Oarfish Was Found In California

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oarfish

On Friday, a 14-foot oarfish washed up on the beach near Oceanside, California, The Los Angeles Times reports.

This was the second time in one week that the rare deep-water fish was found dead. The carcass of an 18-foot oarfish was discovered off of Catalina Island six days earlier. It took more than a dozen people to hold the silvery fish for a photo.

The latest discovery was collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) after being sliced up into sections, according to the LA Times.

Oarfish are the longest known bony fish in the world, and they are believed to grow to more than 50 feet long. Not much is known about their habits and life cycle because they live at great depths — up to 3,000 feet from the surface — making them difficult to study.

They likely come to the surface when they are injured or dying, according to NOAA. The cause of death in both events is not clear.

Recently, scientists captured the first video of a healthy oarfish swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.

SEE ALSO: 18-Foot Oarfish Found Off The California Coast

SEE ALSO: 18 Stunning Pictures Of Yellowstone National Park

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This Video Of A Platypus Getting Tickled Is Sweeping The Internet

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A short video of a platypus being tickled is trending across the Internet. It's so cute it may make you wish you had one of these strange-looking animals for a pet. 

The video, posted by Cute Creatures Great And Small, was taken at the Healesville Sanctuary in Australia. According to its website, Healesville was the first sanctuary to breed platypus in captivity starting in the 1940s with the birth of a platypus named Connie.

Today, visitors can pet and feed the aquatic animals. This one really seems to enjoy it. You can even take a dip with it for about $200. 

The platypus is endemic to eastern Australian. The animal is a genetic grab-bag, recognized for its strange combination of features: the bill and webbed feet of a duck, the body of an otter, and the tail of a beaver. It is a type of mammal called a monotreme, but females lay eggs. It has two uteri. The males have venomous barbs on their feet during mating season which contain over 80 types of toxins similar to those from all over the animal kingdom.

The list of weird features goes on and on. But like many animals, it does love being tickled and pet:

SEE ALSO: These Are The World's 12 Ugliest Animals

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The Most Spectacular Wildlife Photos Of The Year

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53_Luis Javier Sandoval (Mexico) Dive buddy

The winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition were revealed last week.

A South African photographer won the top award for his stunning portrait of African elephants in Botswana.

For the competition, one-hundred images were selected from 43,000 entries. There were winners in 18 individual categories as well as an overall award.

Here's a selection of some of the best images, including a pouncing fox, a scene of gharial crocodiles, and the rare shot of a polar bear underwater.

You can see more photographs at the Natural History Museum website.

"Essence of Elephants"— Greg du Toit of South Africa won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for this shot of African elephants taken at a waterhole in Botswana’s Northern Tuli Game Reserve.



"Snow moment"— Jasper Doest of the Netherlands captured a Japanese macaque jumping on a rock in a hot spring.



"The Cauldron"— Sergey Gorshkov of Russia photographed Plosky Tolbachik, a volcano in central Russia, from a helicopter when it erupted last November for the first time in 36 years.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

These Massive Mirrors Will Bring Winter Sunlight To A Norwegian Town For The First Time

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Mirrors

Three giant mirrors that have been installed on a Norwegian mountainside are about to be used for the first time, bringing sunlight to a small town for the first time during winter.

Rjukan, located at the bottom of a valley floor in Southern Norway, does not receive direct sunlight between September and March because the sun's rays are blocked by the surrounding high mountains.

The mirrors, which cost around $825,000 to build, were mounted on the steep slopes back in July using helicopters. Together, the mirrors measure about 550 square feet, which is about the size of a two-car garage.

mirrors

Each mirror is equipped with sensors that, when turned on, automatically adjust to follow the sun, reflecting its rays down into Rjukan's main square and lighting it through the day.

"The square will become a sunny meeting place in a town otherwise in shadow," according to the project's official website.

Rjukan's roughly 3,000 people are already excited about the project — taking pictures in the sun puddle according to the Reuters video below.

PHOTOS: Tour The Gorgeous Florida Estate Where Thomas Edison Spent His Winters

SEE ALSO: 18 Stunning Pictures Of Yosemite National Park

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Expert Reveals What May Have Killed Those Giant Oarfish

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oarfish

We may never know for certain what killed two giant oarfish in Southern California within a week of each other. But one scientist suggests that an unusual ocean current may have brought the deep-water creatures toward shore, where they got trapped in shallow waters and died.

Oarfish, the world's longest bony fish, are rarely seen dead or alive. They live in deep ocean waters, up to 3,000 feet below the surface, and are difficult to study for that reason. Only recently have scientists captured video of an oarfish swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.

The carcass of a 14-foot-long oarfish washed ashore in Oceanside, Calif., on Oct. 18,  just five days after a dead 18-foot-long oarfish — among the biggest seen in two decades — was discovered off Catalina Island. 

The timing of the two events is very strange, says Russ Vetter, a director at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

The smaller fish was cut up into four large pieces, each around 60 pounds, before it was carted off in a pickup truck by Vetter's team to be dissected in the lab.

The fish seemed to be perfectly healthy when it died, says Vetter. It did not appear to be malnourished, diseased, or have any marks or indications of outside trauma from things like fishing gear or a boat propeller.

Because of the fish's apparent health, the cause of death may be due to an unusual ocean current that brought the fish close to shore, he said. Oarfish are not thought be strong swimmers. To swim they use a small fin that runs along the whole length of the body instead of moving their entire body. The fish may have not been strong enough to escape the unfamiliar shallow waters it was trapped in.

"Compared to tuna or salmon, the meat is very watery," said Vetter, who was examining an oarfish for the first time in his life. "The meat was also very white meat, another sign that it is not a strong swimmer." Meat that is made of muscles that are exercised often has a darker color.

This fish probably died on the day it was found because it was in such good condition.

DNA samples were taken from the fish to determine its closest living relatives. The gills, stomach, and ovaries will be studied by researchers in California, while the eyes went to an expert in Australia. "The whole fish got used," said Vetter.

Below are some images taken from Monday's examination at NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. 

oafish 4

oarfish 5

oarfish 3

oarfish

SEE ALSO: The Most Spectacular Wildlife Photos Of The Year

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A 'Silent' Rat-Infested Island Now Looks Like Paradise

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puffin

Five years ago, Hawadax Island off the coast of Alaska was a playground for rodents.

Formerly known as "Rat Island," the 10-square-mile site belonging to the Aleutian islands was "crisscrossed with rat trails, littered with rat scat, scavenged bird bones, it even smelled…wrong," Stacey Buckelew, an Island Conservation biologist, said in a statement, adding that "it was an eerily silent place," when she first arrived in 2007.   

But after an aggressive eradication campaign in the fall of 2008 — which involved dumping buckets of rat poison from helicopters onto the island — colonies of seabirds are finally making a return after being wiped out by the invasive Norway rat. 

Island Conservation, which was part of the recovery effort, has posted pictures of black oystercatchers hatching, a green-winged teal taking a dip, and puffins breeding on the island for the first time ever.  

Hawadax wasn't always infested with rats. The large rodents, which are found all over the world, were brought to the island in 1780 when a Japanese ship ran aground. The decline of bird species coincided with the arrival of the rats.  

"The populations of the Norway rats ran amok, feasting on eggs and young chicks during the birds' brief nesting season," according to The Nature Conservancy, another organization that participated in the removal of invasive rat.  

By 2012 the island, which is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, was declared rat-free and its traditional Aleut name — Hawadax — was restored. 

Many birds have made a strong comeback since the removal program. A survey conducted this summer found 28 glaucous-winged gull nests, compared to nine reported in 2008. There were no song sparrows recorded in 2007 and 2008 surveys, but this summer, "hardly 3 minutes would pass without hearing a sparrow,” said Buckelew.

Unfortunately, there are few photos that accurately show how the island looked before the rats were removed. Although there was a lack of birds to begin with, the photos taken at the start of the eradication campaign were shot during the fall when any birds that did remain would have already migrated, said Dustin Solberg from the Nature Conservancy.

The image below was taken in 2007 and shows chewed bird shells from the rats. 

chewed shells

There are tons of recent images that show a remarkable amount of bird life on this island today. You can see the full set on Flickr, and see a sample below. 

bird

blackoyster

Snow geese

black-footed albatross

SEE ALSO: 18 Stunning Pictures Of Yosemite National Park

SEE ALSO: The Most Spectacular Wildlife Photos Of The Year

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China's Smog Is So Bad You Can See It From Space

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NOAA just published this satellite picture of China, which shows just how bad its smog problem really is. This week the smog was so bad it shut down Harbin, a city of 11 million people.

Small particulate matter (with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers) reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of Harbin. More than 300 is considered "hazardous," and the city has been forced to shut down schools, airports, and buses because of the air.

NOAA notes:

The heavy smog is caused by industrial pollution, coal and agricultural burning, and has been trapped by the mountains to the west and wind patterns. The thick haze of smog is clearly visible as the murky grey color in this true color VIIRS image from the Suomi NPP satellite, taken on October 22, 2013 at 05:30 UTC.

The gray areas on the image are the smog:

NOAA satelite picutre Beijing smog

SEE ALSO: These Photos Show Why China's Smog Problem Is Completely Out Of Control

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The Most Beautiful Places In The World [PICTURES]

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Bryce Canyon National Park Utah

Lonely Planet has published a new book, "Beautiful World," an image collection of the most stunning places on Earth. 

The book showcases 200 photos taken by travelers everywhere from Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah to terraced rice fields in China.

You can see a selection of photos here, and purchase the book for $39.33 at Lonely Planet.

Towering ponderosa pines are seen in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Chasms in the rock are formed when water freezes and expands, gradually pushing the rocks apart and creating alleys up to 200 feet deep.



Thousands of lanterns float to the night sky at the Thai festival Loi Krathong, which takes place during a full moon in November.



A panoramic view of The London Parliament, Big Ben, and the Westminster Bridge viewed from across the Thames river at dusk.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This Multi-Colored Corn Is Real And There's A Fantastic Story Behind It

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Glass gems originalGlass Gem corn, a unique variety of rainbow-colored corn, became an Internet sensation in 2012 when a photo of the dazzling cob was posted to Facebook.

Since then, the Arizona-based company that sells the rare seed, Native Seeds/SEARCH, has been ramping up production to meet the high demand.

A Facebook page devoted to Glass Gem allows growers to share pictures of the vibrant corn variety. It has nearly 4,000 likes.  

But the story behind Glass Gem is just as remarkable. It begins with one man, Carl Barnes, who set out to explore his Native American roots.

The history was largely retold by Barnes' protegee, Greg Schoen, in 2012, when the corn gained national attention. We've broken out the highlights.  

The story of Glass Gem corn begins with an Oklahoma farmer named Carl Barnes. Barnes, now in his 80s, is half-Cherokee. He began growing older corn varieties in his adult years (no one is exactly sure when this began) as a way to reconnect with his heritage.



In growing these older corn varieties, Barnes was able to isolate ancestral types that had been lost to Native American tribes when they were relocated to what is now Oklahoma in the 1800s. This led to an exchange of ancient corn seed with people he had met and made friends with all over the country.



At the same time, Barnes began selecting, saving, and replanting seeds from particularly colorful cobs.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Pollution In China Blamed For Increasingly 'Ugly' Sperm Counts

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china fish pollutionShanghai doctor tells local newspaper that two thirds of the city’s semen stocks are below World Health Organisation standards, as concerns over China’s toxic environment grow

Shanghai’s semen is facing an unprecedented crisis with experts labelling pollution as one of the “major culprits” for the mega-city’s increasingly dismal sperm quality, Chinese media claimed.

Only one-third of the semen at Shanghai’s main sperm bank meets World Health Organisation standards, the Shanghai Morning Post reported on Thursday.

Li Zheng, a sperm expert from the Urology department at Shanghai’s Renji Hospital, told the newspaper he was “very worried” about how male infertility rates were “increasing year on year”.

“If we don’t protect the environment now, mankind will face a worsening infertility predicament,” Dr Li, who also runs the sperm bank, was quoted as saying.

A 2012 study, coordinated by Dr Li, concluded that over the last 10 years worsening environmental conditions had closely mirrored the falling quality of sperm. Low sperm counts and aspermia, a condition that causes a man to produce no semen at all, were among the problems.

“When the environment is bad, sperm becomes “ugly” and even stops swimming,” Dr Li said, adding: “To find out whether an eco-system is stable or not, just examine the sperm.”

The Shanghai Morning Post urged its readers to lead greener lives in order to protect future generations.

“In the view of reproductive health experts, loving the earth means loving oneself and, what's more, loving the next generation.”

Reports of a potential link between Shanghai’s semen crisis and air and water pollution came as thick smog enveloped China’s financial capital.

Shanghai’s air quality levels were around twice as bad than those in Beijing on Thursday, with city authorities urging schools to cancel outdoor activities.

Levels of the dangerous air-borne particle called PM2.5 rose as high as 312 in Shanghai on Thursday morning, according to aqicn.org, a pollution monitoring website.

Last December, state news agency Xinhua said that China’s infertility rate had risen to around 12.5 per cent of people of childbearing age compared to just three percent two decades earlier. Doctors said part of the blame lay with stress, street pollution and living conditions.

In September, three respected academic institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, announced that in 2014 they would launch a five-year study of the connection between female infertility and pollution.

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The World's Most Powerful Storm Slams Into The Philippines

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Super typhoon

Super Typhoon Haiyan — which is being called one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever— has slammed into the eastern Philippines, making landfall early Friday morning local time in the small city of Guiuan, according to the Associated Press.

The typhoon was packing sustained winds of up to 200 mph and gusts of up to 225 mph as it churned in the western Pacific Ocean, which makes it equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane, according to LiveScience.

This is one of the strongest wind speeds ever recorded on the planet, says USA Today, adding that it's "possible Haiyan could become the strongest storm ever recorded to make landfall, anywhere on Earth."

“Haiyan makes Katrina look like a run-of-the-mill storm,” Nate Cohn of The New Republic wrote. “It may be the most intense tropical storm in recorded history.”super typhoon philippines

The storm surge could reach up to 23 feet in coastal communities and rain totals could top 8 inches, according to AccuWeather.com meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski.

President Benigno Aquino III warned people to leave high-risk areas, and thousands of villagers were evacuated as the storm approached on Thursday.

"No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we'll be united," he said during a televised address.

On its current track, Haiyan should pass over the Philippines through Friday night — including an area that was devastated by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake last month — moving out into the South China Sea on Saturday, potentially threatening Vietnam and Laos. The storm is expected to bypass the densely-populated city of Manila, the AP reports. 

"There will be catastrophic damage," Jeff Masters, meteorology director at Weather Underground told the AP. There aren’t too many buildings constructed to withstand 195-mile-per-hour winds, he said.

Haiyan is the the fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines in 2013 and the year's fifth super typhoon — the term for a typhoon that reaches winds over 150 mph, according to NOAA

Here's a map of the storm trajectory:

typhoon haiyan

Here's how the storm compares to Hurricane Katrina:

storm comparison

SEE ALSO: Terrifying Images Of The Record Typhoon Hitting The Philippines

SEE ALSO: Stunning Picture Of A Tidal Wave In China Caused By A Powerful Typhoon

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Terrifying Images Of The Record Typhoon Hitting The Philippines

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A record-breaking typhoon smashed into central Philippines early Friday morning local time.

Haiyan — the fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines in 2013 — could be the strongest storm ever recorded to make landfall, with winds of up to 200 mph.

Below are some intensely-scary images and animations of the storm brewing in the western Pacific Ocean.

Here's the latest animation from NOAA. beige tbi
storm gif.gifSatellites from the Japan Meteorological Agency and EUMESTAT captured this image of Typhoon Haiyan approaching the Philippines on Nov. 7, 2013 at 8 a.m. EST.

typhoon

This image shows some islands in the Philippines as seen through Typhoon Haiyan's eye.

Typhoon

A far view of Super Typhoon Haiyan over the Philippines.

Typhoon

This image taken by the Japan Meteorological Agency on Nov. 7 shows the super typhoon as it approaches the Philippines.

super typhoon haiyan

NASA's Aqua satellite snapped this photo on Nov. 7 on Nov. 6 at 11:25 p.m. EST.nasa haiyan

SEE ALSO: Stunning Picture Of A Tidal Wave In China Caused By A Powerful Typhoon

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Here's Where Super Typhoon Haiyan Is Headed Next

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Super Typhoon Haiyan — one of the most powerful storms in recorded world history — made landfall early Friday morning local time near Guiuan, a small city on the Philippine island of Samar.

Although the storm weakened slightly as it moved across the central Philippines on Friday, it remains a powerful and dangerous storm with maximum winds of 166 miles per hour, according to the AFP, citing the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Haiyan is forecast to leave Philippines on Saturday and move out to the South China Sea, where it could pick up strength before it hits Vietnam and Laos, Reuters reports.

Nearly 750,000 people were evacuated from their homes on Thursday ahead of the storm, but millions have been affected. The map below charts the Philippines' population density against Super Typhoon Haiyan's track.

The storm came ashore at peak strength — with winds of 190 to 195 miles per hour — making it the world's strongest storm to ever hit land, according to meteorologist Jeff Masters.

At least three people have been confirmed dead in the storm's wake.

After hitting the central islands of Leyte and Samar, the storm slashed the northern tip of Cebu province — affecting 2.5 million people in Cebu city — and continued to track northwest toward Boracay island, Reuters reports.

The central island of Bohol, which was devastated by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in October, was also in the storm's path.

super typhoon haiyan

SEE ALSO: Jaw-Dropping Images Of The Super Typhoon Heading For The Phillipines

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Here's What The Super Typhoon Would Have Looked Like Off The US East Coast

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Rick Kohrs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison created an image that shows what Super Typhoon Haiyan would have looked like if it were located off the eastern coast of the United States.

Check it out:

typhoon

Experts say Haiyan was the strongest storm to ever make landfall. 

For comparison, Haiyan was packing 195 mph winds when it slammed into the eastern Philippines. It was equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane. Superstorm Sandy reached top winds of 115 mph hour when it hit New Jersey last year and Hurricane Katrina was carrying winds of 175 mph.  

To jog your memory, here's a satellite picture of Hurricane Katrina (a Category 3 when it hit the U.S.) sneaking up on the Gulf Coast in 2005. 

katrina 08 28 2005

SEE ALSO: Missing Data Means We May Never Know The True Power Of Super Typhoon Haiyan

SEE ALSO: Terrifying Images Of The Record Typhoon That Hit The Philippines

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New Maps Show Where Earth's Forests Are Being Destroyed

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Forest change cover

The first high-resolution global map of changes in forest cover over the last 12 years shows which parts of the world are losing forests at an alarming rate.

Using Landsat satellite images of Earth's surface provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (this data had previously not been available for free) combined with cloud computing support from Google, researchers mapped global tree cover, loss, and gain between 2000 and 2012.

More than 650,000 Landsat images were used to build the map at a spatial resolution of around 100 feet, meaning that one pixel represents an area of 100 feet by 100 feet on the ground.

The study, published online in the journal Science on Thursday, Nov. 14, revealed many key trends about worldwide forest change.

Between 2000 and 2012, 888,000 square miles (an area roughly the size of Mexico and Arizona combined) of forest was lost, while 309,000 square miles (an area about half the size of Alaska) of new forest was established.

You can see an interactive global map of forest change here.

"Losses or gains in forest cover shape many important aspects of an ecosystem including, climate regulation, carbon storage, biodiversity and water supplies, but until now there has not been a way to get detailed, accurate, satellite-based and readily available data on forest cover change from local to global scales," Matthew Hansen, a professor at the University of Maryland and co-author of the study, said in statement.

Of the four climate domains — tropical, subtropical, temperate, and boreal — the tropics experienced the greatest forest loss with an estimated increase in loss of 811 square miles per year. Tropical rainforests accounted for 32% of the world's forest loss — half of which occurred in South American rainforests.

Although historically, Brazil has accounted for half of global tropical rainforest loss, the country has cut their deforestation rate in half over the last decade. Brazil's reduction in forest clearing (partly a result of stronger efforts to document trends in deforestation using Landsat data) was offset by increasing forest loss in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia, Angola, and other countries. 

The animation below shows forest loss in Sumatra's Riau province in Indonesia. The country is a major target of giant logging, mining, and palm companies and showed the greatest forest loss over the study period.

hansen1.gifIn boreal forests — spanning northern regions of Russia, Scandinavia, Canada, and Alaska — fire is the biggest reason for forest loss.

This animation shows forest fires near Yakutsk, Russia, between 2000 and 2012.

hansen2.gif

In the southeastern United States, an area of intensive forestry, 31% of forest cover was either lost or regrown. Fire, logging, and disease are largely responsible for forest loss in western North America, according to the study. 

Screen Shot 2013 11 14 at 1.54.53 PM

SEE ALSO: American Forests Look Nothing Like They Did 400 Years Ago

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Active Volcano Discovered Under Antarctic Ice Sheet

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volcano

Earthquakes deep below West Antarctica reveal an active volcano hidden beneath the massive ice sheet, researchers said today (Nov. 17) in a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The discovery finally confirms long-held suspicions of volcanic activity concealed by the vast West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Several volcanoes poke up along the Antarctic coast and its offshore islands, such as Mount Erebus, but this is the first time anyone has caught magma in action far from the coast.

"This is really the golden age of discovery of the Antarctic continent," said Richard Aster, a co-author of the study and a seismologist at Colorado State University. "I think there's no question that there are more volcanic surprises beneath the ice."

The volcano was a lucky find. The research project, called POLENET, was intended to reveal the structure of Earth's mantle, the layer beneath the crust. In 2010, a team led by scientists from Washington University in St. Louis spent weeks slogging across the snow, pulling sleds laden with earthquake-monitoring equipment. [Images: Trek Across Antarctica]

Sidley_Field_1Right place, right time

Two earthquake swarms struck beneath the researchers' feet in January 2010 and March 2011, near the Executive Committee Range in the Marie Byrd Land region of the continent. As the researchers later discovered, the tremors — called deep, long-period earthquakes (DLPs) — were nearly identical to DLPs detected under active volcanoes in Alaska and Washington. The swarms were 15 to 25 miles (25 to 40 kilometers) below the surface.

"It's an exciting story," said Amanda Lough, the study's lead author and a graduate student in seismology at Washington University in St. Louis. Though there were no signs of a blast, a 3,200-foot-tall (1,000 meters) bulge under the ice suggests the volcano had blasted out lava in the past, forming a budding peak.

"We can say with pretty high confidence that there wasn't an eruption while we were out there," Lough told LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet. "We had people installing [seismometer] stations and flying airborne radar over the ice. But from the bed topography, we can see there is something building up beneath the ice."

Scientists think that underground magma and fluids pushing open new paths and fracturing rock cause deep, long-period earthquakes. Many active volcanoes in Alaska's Aleutian Islands have frequently produced these deep earthquake swarms without any signs of impending eruptions. However, researchers also monitor the tremors because a sudden uptick in shaking was seen before eruptions at Mount Spurr and Mount Redoubt in Alaska.

A volcanic flood

If the volcano in Antarctica did erupt, it would melt the bottom of the ice sheet immediately above the vent. Scientists aren't sure what would happen next. In Iceland, volcanic eruptions can melt glaciers, causing massive floods calledjökulhlaups. But the ice above the Antarctic volcano is more than a half-mile (1 km) thick.

"How West Antarctic ice streams would react to an eruption a hundred or more kilometers [60 miles] inland from the grounding line is a yet-to-be-answered question," said Stefan Vogel, a glaciologist with Australian Antarctic Division who was not involved in the study. The grounding line is the spot where glaciers detach from rock and float on water.

"There is certainly a need for more research, both in mapping the distribution and monitoring the activity level of subglacial volcanic activity beneath ice sheets, as well as studying the impact of subglacial volcanic activity on the hydrological system of glaciers and ice sheets," Vogel said in an email interview.

I

t would take a super-eruption in the style of Yellowstone's ancient blowouts to completely melt the ice above the active volcano, Lough and her co-authors calculated. And if the volcano under the ice is similar to ones close by, such as Mount Sidley, there's no risk of a super-eruption. [Big Blasts: History's 10 Most Destructive Volcanoes]

Instead, the millions of gallons of meltwater might simply hasten the flow of the nearby MacAyeal Ice Stream toward the sea.

"People hear the word 'volcano' and get caught up in the idea that it will change the way the ice sheet works, but this stuff has been going on underneath the ice [for millions of years], and the ice sheet is in balance with it," Lough said. "Everyday magmatism isn't enough to cause major problems."

Hugh Corr, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey who also discovered a buried Antarctic volcano, said an eruption could have a big effect, but it's difficult to quantify.

"The biggest effect on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is still climate change — warming the ocean, melting the ice shelves. That's the most immediate risk, compared to if a volcano might go off," said Corr, who was not involved in the study.

A geologic puzzle

Signs of active and extinct volcanoes pop up all over Antarctica. Ash layers and lava indicate volcanoes spouted while the continent froze during the past 20 million years or more. (An 8,000-year-old ash layer sits above the newly found volcano, but it comes from Mount Waesche, a nearby peak.)

"The [West] coast of Antarctica is like a ring of fire," Corr said.

antarctica map 111010

The earthquake swarms line up with older volcanoes in the Executive Committee Range, suggesting the volcanic activity there is slowly migrating south by 6 miles (9.6 km) every million years. This migration is perpendicular to the motion of Antarctica's tectonic plate, so a hotspot or mantle plume is not feeding the volcanoes, Lough said. (A mantle plume should make volcanoes that line up parallel to plate motion, like those of the Hawaiian Islands.)

The big mystery is figuring out why the volcano and its forerunners even exist. "Antarctica is certainly one of the most fascinating and enigmatic of all of Earth's continents," Aster said. [Video - Antarctica: Solving Geologic Mysteries]

Let's set the scene. Antarctica is split by an incredible mountain range. Imagine if Utah's spectacularly steep Wasatch Mountains cleaved North America from Texas all the way to Canada. That's what the Transantarctic Mountains are like. In the West, the land dives off into a deep rift valley, where the crust has been tearing apart for about 100 million years. The newly found volcano sits on the other side of this rift, in a higher-elevation region called Marie Byrd Land.

While the torn crust may seem like the best explanation for Antarctica's many volcanoes, many of the peaks fit no obvious pattern. Rifting and volcanism in Antarctica could be like nowhere else on Earth. "What is going on with the crust in Antarctica is still puzzling," Lough said.

Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us @OAPlanetFacebook & Google+Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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The Most Irreplaceable Sites On Earth

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Canaima National Park

A new study published in Science identified more than 100 irreplaceable environments — regions where many animal and plant species cannot be found anywhere else on Earth.

A total of 137 sites were selected from 173,000 "Protected Areas." Protected Areas cover 13% of the Earth's land. These are some of the most biologically rich ecosystems in the world, but face continued threats and are often poorly managed.

The top sites were the result of two combined rankings: irreplaceability for threatened species and irreplaceability for all (threatened and non-threatened) species.

Each protected area was analyzed individually. But sometimes the regions overlap, effectively protecting the same species. For this reason, researchers combined adjacent or overlapping protected areas into 78 clusters around the world.

Here are some of the most irreplaceable areas — from 10 different clusters.

The flat-topped mountains of Canaima National Park in southeastern Venezuela are among the world's most ancient rock formations and were the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's adventure novel "The Lost World." Canaima is also home the world's highest waterfall, Angel Falls, which is 15 times taller than Niagra Falls at 3,212 feet.



The Wet Tropics of Queensland cover roughly 3,500 square miles of Australian forest. Thirteen mammals that live in the Wet Tropics are found nowhere else in the world. This includes the green ringtail possum and kangaroo rats.



The Palawan Game Refuge and Bird Sanctuary in the Philippines is home to the endangered Palawan horned frog, the vulnerable Palawan peacock-pheasant, and the critically endangered Philippine cockatoo. Unfortunately, the natural forest is being destroy by mining and palm oil production.



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Experts Say Nuclear Power May Be Our Only Hope

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nuclearPITTSBURGH (AP) — Some of the world's top climate scientists say wind and solar energy won't be enough to head off extreme global warming, and they're asking environmentalists to support the development of safer nuclear power as one way to cut fossil fuel pollution.

Four scientists who have played a key role in alerting the public to the dangers of climate change sent letters Sunday to leading environmental groups and politicians around the world. The letter, an advance copy of which was given to The Associated Press, urges a crucial discussion on the role of nuclear power in fighting climate change.

Environmentalists agree that global warming is a threat to ecosystems and humans, but many oppose nuclear power and believe that new forms of renewable energy will be able to power the world within the next few decades.

That isn't realistic, the letter said.

"Those energy sources cannot scale up fast enough" to deliver the amount of cheap and reliable power the world needs, and "with the planet warming and carbon dioxide emissions rising faster than ever, we cannot afford to turn away from any technology" that has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases.

The letter signers are James Hansen, a former top NASA scientist; Ken Caldeira, of the Carnegie Institution; Kerry Emanuel, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Tom Wigley, of the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Hansen began publishing research on the threat of global warming more than 30 years ago, and his testimony before Congress in 1988 helped launch a mainstream discussion. Last February he was arrested in front of the White House at a climate protest that included the head of the Sierra Club and other activists. Caldeira was a contributor to reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Emanuel is known for his research on possible links between climate change and hurricanes, and Wigley has also been doing climate research for more than 30 years.

Emanuel said the signers aren't opposed to renewable energy sources but want environmentalists to understand that "realistically, they cannot on their own solve the world's energy problems."

The vast majority of climate scientists say they're now virtually certain that pollution from fossil fuels has increased global temperatures over the last 60 years. They say emissions need to be sharply reduced to prevent more extreme damage in the future.

In 2011 worldwide carbon dioxide emissions jumped 3 percent, because of a large increase by China, the No. 1 carbon polluting country. The U.S. is No. 2 in carbon emissions.

Hansen, who's now at Columbia University, said it's not enough for environmentalists to simply oppose fossil fuels and promote renewable energy.

"They're cheating themselves if they keep believing this fiction that all we need" is renewable energy such as wind and solar, Hansen told the AP.

The joint letter says, "The time has come for those who take the threat of global warming seriously to embrace the development and deployment of safer nuclear power systems" as part of efforts to build a new global energy supply.

Stephen Ansolabehere, a Harvard professor who studies energy issues, said nuclear power is "very divisive" within the environmental movement. But he added that the letter could help educate the public about the difficult choices that climate change presents.

One major environmental advocacy organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council, warned that "nuclear power is no panacea for our climate woes."

Risk of catastrophe is only one drawback of nuclear power, NRDC President Frances Beinecke said in a statement. Waste storage and security of nuclear material are also important issues, he said.

"The better path is to clean up our power plants and invest in efficiency and renewable energy."

The scientists acknowledge that there are risks to using nuclear power, but say those are far smaller than the risk posed by extreme climate change.

"We understand that today's nuclear plants are far from perfect."

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