Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Toronto is banning plastic shopping bags in stores.
Starting in January 2013, you’ll have to bring your own reusable bag to the store to cart your goods away.
More than 250 million bags end up in landfill every year, never breaking down into compost, according to a report by CBC News.
Plastic bags can also clog drainage systems and, when they are washed out to sea, can hurt fish and other marine animals.
If you were sitting outside on April 16 in Eastern North America, you may have seen a wondrous site. That day, millions of Red Admiral butterflies flew in – or perhaps “blew in” – from the southern United States.
Drew Monkman is a local natualist (“nature watcher”) and writer, living in Peterborough, Ont. He tracks the habits of animals including butterflies.
He told TKN that the April 16 migration was “completely unprecedented. (The Red Admiral has) never been seen in these kinds of numbers.”
He said on that day there were probably several million butterflies, most of them Red Admiral, but there were other species as well.
Drew Monkman is a naturalist and butterfly expert living in Peterborough, Ont.
Why did this happen? This year in the southern United States like Texas, where the butterflies began their journey, the winter was “amazingly mild,” said Monkman. This allowed more butterflies to survive the winter and reproduce.
A team of Russian scientists in Antarctica has found an ancient lake buried under more than three kilometres of ice.
The lake – Lake Vostok – has been sealed off from the rest of the world for at least 15 million years.
Scientists think the lake may contain tiny organisms, like bacteria, which are not found anywhere else on earth.
If the organisms exist in the lake, it would be because they have been able to adapt to living in the darkness, saltiness and extreme cold of the hidden lake. In that case, they would likely have developed special features that no other organisms on earth have.
Scientists have discovered a chameleon so small it could sit on your little finger.
The chameleon, which is about three centimetres long, lives on a small island called Nosy Hara, off the coast of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean.
It is the smallest chameleon and possibly the smallest reptile ever discovered. It lives among rocks and leaves on the forest floor. At night it sleeps on plants, about five to 10 centimetres above the ground.
It is mostly grey and brown with an orange tail, and it doesn’t change colour like most chameleons do. The scientists say this is because it’s already the right colour to blend in with its surroundings.
Cycads, a very rare type of plant, are in danger of becoming extinct because of poachers.
Poaching usually means to hunt animals illegally. In this case, trees are being taken from the wild.
They are then secretly sold for a lot of money – up to $100,000 each – to people who collect unusual plants.
The first cycads existed during the time of the dinosaurs, during the Jurassic period. The kinds of cycads that are alive today have been around for 12 million years.
They look like a cross between a fern and a palm tree, and they can take hundreds of years to grow to their full size.
Some countries in Europe are experiencing a bitterly cold winter.
Ukraine, in eastern Europe, has been especially hard hit. More than 100 people have died there in the last week, as temperatures dropped as low as -30C. Many of the people who froze to death were homeless people living in the city’s capital, Kiev.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, there have been avalanches and strong winds. The country declared a state of emergency.
One woman in Croatia had to have neighbours help her give birth to her baby after the ambulance could not reach her because of a blizzard. She later named her baby Snjezana, which is Snow White in Croatian.
Thanks to zebra dung, cars could one day run on fuel made from old newspapers.
Today, we use mostly oil and gas to run our cars; oil and gas come from fossilized plants and animals. But fossil fuels are expensive, and there aren’t enough of them. Scientists are looking for cheaper and more plentiful fuels.
David Mullin is a biology professor at a university in New Orleans. He and his students are trying to make a fuel from plants. Plant-based fuels are called “biofuels.”
He knew that if he could break down “cellulose,” he could turn it into a fuel that could run vehicles.
Since the Italian cruise ship sank off the coast of Tuscany on Jan. 13, many new facts have come out.
As you may recall from TKN’s article about the disaster, the captain of the 13-deck Costa Concordia cruise ship steered the boat too close to an island. Rocks tore a hole in the hull and the ship sank.
There were more than 4,200 people on board; some said that while they were scrambling to leave the ship, they saw the captain already in a lifeboat.
Since TKN reported on the story on Jan. 15 there have been many accusations against the captain, Francesco Schettino, who is currently under house arrest.*
He is accused of manslaughter (unintentional murder), causing a shipwreck and leave the ship when there are passengers and crew still on board.
Rhinos are being poached in South Africa.
“Poaching” is when people (“poachers”) illegally kill a wild animal.
This year so far 341 rhinos have been poached in South Africa.
That’s the most, ever, for one year.
Rhino horns are believed by some people, particularly in Asia, to be able to cure ailments like nosebleeds and fevers.
No one knows if this is actually true.
Nat Atherton is a Canadian living and working in Thailand. He gave TKN a first-hand account of the day-to-day havoc this year’s floods have caused.
The flooding here has been horrible. It hasn’t yet come into the centre of the capital (Bangkok), where I live, but has affected many of the people I work with.
Many of the poorer Thais live in the surrounding areas, which are flooded chest deep (1.5 metres) in some places.
I know a great many people who have lost their houses.
Many others haven’t been able to go home to check on their homes since rivers of dirty water separate their work from their houses.
Many well-known tourist districts have also been affected, including the world’s largest outdoor market, Chatuchak.
