10: Four-Dollar Gasoline
Before the financial crisis took the global economy down a few pegs, soaring oil prices were among the biggest stories of 2008. A barrel of oil topped out at $147.50 that summer and many forecasters found it fashionable to predict that $200 oil was just around the corner.
Sale of gas-guzzling SUVs and other fuel-inefficient vehicles plummeted in the United States in the face of expensive oil. Huge amounts of money were funneled into alternative fuels and politicians rediscovered a verve for "energy security," -- a convenient rhetorical two-step that allowed lawmakers to leave the words "global warming" and "climate change" out of what had become a purely economical argument for fixing our energy woes.
But oil is back down to about $70 a barrel, and the old 'energy security' line may be coming back to bite us. There are signs that Congress' climate bill is being diluted with provisions that encourage increased offshore oil and gas drilling on America's continental shelves. It makes you to wonder: If money (in the form of prohibitively high fuel prices) isn't going to deliver the kick in the pants necessary to get us off our addiction to dirty fuels, then what will?
9: Pharma at the Tap
The waters we and other animals depend on is getting demonstrably richer in estrogen-mimicking drugs, as well as BPA, flame retardants, phthalates, atrazine and many other chemicals.
The discoveries first came in the form of frogs and, most recently in 2009, fish changing sexes.
That new research found far more of these chemicals in our lakes and streams than anyone realized, from plastic water bottles to prescriptions, pesticides and other man-made chemicals.
And chemicals in the water might affect human health as well.
8: Rapid Evolution
When Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution, he was thinking in terms of evolution over geologic time -- tens of millennia at least -- to affect genuine species-level changes in animals and plants. This decade has seen some science that seriously challenges that idea.
Invasive cane toads in Australia were found to have evolved longer legs at the beginning of their invasion. Some of the native snakes the toxic toads have encountered have evolved smaller jaws so they can't eat the deadly toads.
Elsewhere, one of Darwin's famous Galapagos finch is showing signs of evolving.
The list of animals that are showing signs of evolving before our eyes has been growing, providing a ray of hope that perhaps some species may adapt to and survive such challenges as climate change.
7: The Species Shuffle
This decade has seen some species pushed over and others pulled back from the brink, while others are going invasive in new ranges.
In November, 2009, it was reported that more than 17,000 animals were near extinction.
Here are handful of other examples:
Polar bears: Whether they're going extinct or not, they have been iconic and arguably have created some momentum for acting to minimize human-induced climate change.
Baiji: This cetacean has been wiped out by China’s rapid industrialization.
Wolves, grizzlies, eagles: all are coming off the endangered species lists.
Meanwhile, the Pine bark beetle, emerald ash borer, cane toads, zebra mussels and even many reticulated pythons have found some very nice new homes and expanding ranges due to human activities and climate change.
6: Sichuan Earthquake
On May 12, 2008, the 19th-deadliest earthquake of all time struck, in southern China.
The 7.9-magnitude event was the strongest quake to rock China since the 8.5 Richter Magnitude Chayu event 58 years earlier, when China was a drastically different -- and certainly financially less able -- country than it is today.
The science of the quake and its thousands of aftershocks is still underway.
But the immediate reaction of the world was a dramatic reversal of the international animosity that had been building up regarding the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the issues it had raised about human rights, air pollution and even the independence of Tibet.
Many Chinese nationalist bloggers and radio personalities were startled by the outpouring of international support for the people of Shichuan.
5: Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake and Tsunami
Viewed from space, perhaps, or the disinterested bird's eye views of computer simulations, the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 2004 would've been a quiet, curious event; a seismic pebble dropped in the Indian Ocean.
To the small humans inhabiting this planet, the ripples that spread from Indonesia to the shores of East Africa were far more significant, a horrifying example of what Earth's tectonic twitches are capable of.
The magnitude 9.1 temblor and the massive tsunamis that followed claimed close to a quarter of a million lives, making it one of the worst natural disasters in human history.
In the aftermath of the disaster, tsunami research has enjoyed a renaissance of funding and media attention. It's common knowledge, for example, that the giant quake sped up Earth's rotation and changed wobbled its axis. Efforts to educate people living in tsunami-prone areas have been stepped up.
4: Hurricane Katrina
Katrina was part of the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record.
In 2005, there were 28 named storms, including Rita and Wilma, two more giant, intense hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Such a super-cyclonic season heightened public awareness and media interest in the possibility that global warming was making itself felt.
But does global warming mean more Katrinas? This question spawned several new investigations into a line of research that was first suggested by MIT meteorologist Kerry Emanuel in a study published a month before Katrina.
His data showed an increase in the strength of North Atlantic hurricanes in the past 30 years.
The final answer may not yet have been written, but the most recent research suggests while the number of Atlantic hurricanes may not increase, the warming ocean temperatures is leading to more powerful hurricanes.
3: Emerging Diseases
New scourges from the animal world have been steadily slipping into humans and beginning fresh attacks, most notably in 2009 with H1N1, but also with Avian Flu, SARS, and Monkey Pox.
Also in this decade, tuberculosis has made a comeback with help from the HIV pandemic.
Even wildlife faced increased threats -- outbreaks of old and new viruses and even algal blooms began to cause huge die offs—hundreds of bodies covering the beaches.
Climate change is playing a role. Our impact on the earth: loss of biodiversity, dumping of pollutants, fertilizers into waterways, over-fishing the oceans -- all these factors have a role in the emergence of our oldest, and newest, enemies.
2: Oceans in Crisis
The idea that our oceans are too vast to be hurt by puny human activities died a terrible death this decade.
True, the oceans are vast, but human activities are anything but puny. Giant gyres of plastic have been found in every ocean, entangling wildlife and killing seabirds.
Excessively hot waters in the Caribbean and elsewhere have shocked scientists by causing coral bleaching. Overfishing is driving one species after another off our dinner plates, with one study predicting the collapse of most fish species by 2048.
If we keep adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, it could all get a lot worse because that gas enters the oceans and makes the water acidic, hostile to the shell-making animals crucial to marine ecosystems worldwide.
1: Glaciers Melt Down
When the 21st century began, scientists studying Earth's climate thought the gigantic ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica would melt slowly around the edges and lag behind the overall global warming of climate.
But this past decade, the warmest on record, proved the climate modelers wrong.
Glaciers have been melting much faster than ever expected and researchers have been playing a hard game of catch up trying to understand why.
The uptick in melting ice has not been restricted to the Arctic and Antarctic. Europe’s glaciers are now thought to be entering their final decades.
The famous snows of Kilimanjaro and other low-latitude mountains could disappear completely. The thick, perennial sea ice of the Arctic is fast disappearing, which will likely bring ice-free summers to the Arctic Ocean.
There are global consequences to this melting. Rising seas will make more cities and islands vulnerable to catastrophic flooding like that which nearly killed New Orleans. Mountain glaciers around the world bring fresh water to billions. Any way you slice it, an Earth with less ice is a less hospitable planet.
source: http://news.discovery.com/human/discoveries-of-the-decade.html
Before the financial crisis took the global economy down a few pegs, soaring oil prices were among the biggest stories of 2008. A barrel of oil topped out at $147.50 that summer and many forecasters found it fashionable to predict that $200 oil was just around the corner.
Sale of gas-guzzling SUVs and other fuel-inefficient vehicles plummeted in the United States in the face of expensive oil. Huge amounts of money were funneled into alternative fuels and politicians rediscovered a verve for "energy security," -- a convenient rhetorical two-step that allowed lawmakers to leave the words "global warming" and "climate change" out of what had become a purely economical argument for fixing our energy woes.
But oil is back down to about $70 a barrel, and the old 'energy security' line may be coming back to bite us. There are signs that Congress' climate bill is being diluted with provisions that encourage increased offshore oil and gas drilling on America's continental shelves. It makes you to wonder: If money (in the form of prohibitively high fuel prices) isn't going to deliver the kick in the pants necessary to get us off our addiction to dirty fuels, then what will?
 |
| Four-Dollar Gasoline |
9: Pharma at the Tap
The waters we and other animals depend on is getting demonstrably richer in estrogen-mimicking drugs, as well as BPA, flame retardants, phthalates, atrazine and many other chemicals.
The discoveries first came in the form of frogs and, most recently in 2009, fish changing sexes.
That new research found far more of these chemicals in our lakes and streams than anyone realized, from plastic water bottles to prescriptions, pesticides and other man-made chemicals.
And chemicals in the water might affect human health as well.
 |
| Pharma at the Tap |
When Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution, he was thinking in terms of evolution over geologic time -- tens of millennia at least -- to affect genuine species-level changes in animals and plants. This decade has seen some science that seriously challenges that idea.
Invasive cane toads in Australia were found to have evolved longer legs at the beginning of their invasion. Some of the native snakes the toxic toads have encountered have evolved smaller jaws so they can't eat the deadly toads.
Elsewhere, one of Darwin's famous Galapagos finch is showing signs of evolving.
The list of animals that are showing signs of evolving before our eyes has been growing, providing a ray of hope that perhaps some species may adapt to and survive such challenges as climate change.
 |
| Rapid Evolution |
7: The Species Shuffle
This decade has seen some species pushed over and others pulled back from the brink, while others are going invasive in new ranges.
In November, 2009, it was reported that more than 17,000 animals were near extinction.
Here are handful of other examples:
Polar bears: Whether they're going extinct or not, they have been iconic and arguably have created some momentum for acting to minimize human-induced climate change.
Baiji: This cetacean has been wiped out by China’s rapid industrialization.
Wolves, grizzlies, eagles: all are coming off the endangered species lists.
Meanwhile, the Pine bark beetle, emerald ash borer, cane toads, zebra mussels and even many reticulated pythons have found some very nice new homes and expanding ranges due to human activities and climate change.
 |
| The Species Shuffle |
6: Sichuan Earthquake
On May 12, 2008, the 19th-deadliest earthquake of all time struck, in southern China.
The 7.9-magnitude event was the strongest quake to rock China since the 8.5 Richter Magnitude Chayu event 58 years earlier, when China was a drastically different -- and certainly financially less able -- country than it is today.
The science of the quake and its thousands of aftershocks is still underway.
But the immediate reaction of the world was a dramatic reversal of the international animosity that had been building up regarding the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the issues it had raised about human rights, air pollution and even the independence of Tibet.
Many Chinese nationalist bloggers and radio personalities were startled by the outpouring of international support for the people of Shichuan.
 |
| Sichuan Earthquake |
Viewed from space, perhaps, or the disinterested bird's eye views of computer simulations, the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 2004 would've been a quiet, curious event; a seismic pebble dropped in the Indian Ocean.
To the small humans inhabiting this planet, the ripples that spread from Indonesia to the shores of East Africa were far more significant, a horrifying example of what Earth's tectonic twitches are capable of.
The magnitude 9.1 temblor and the massive tsunamis that followed claimed close to a quarter of a million lives, making it one of the worst natural disasters in human history.
In the aftermath of the disaster, tsunami research has enjoyed a renaissance of funding and media attention. It's common knowledge, for example, that the giant quake sped up Earth's rotation and changed wobbled its axis. Efforts to educate people living in tsunami-prone areas have been stepped up.
 |
| Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake and Tsunami |
Katrina was part of the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record.
In 2005, there were 28 named storms, including Rita and Wilma, two more giant, intense hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Such a super-cyclonic season heightened public awareness and media interest in the possibility that global warming was making itself felt.
But does global warming mean more Katrinas? This question spawned several new investigations into a line of research that was first suggested by MIT meteorologist Kerry Emanuel in a study published a month before Katrina.
His data showed an increase in the strength of North Atlantic hurricanes in the past 30 years.
The final answer may not yet have been written, but the most recent research suggests while the number of Atlantic hurricanes may not increase, the warming ocean temperatures is leading to more powerful hurricanes.
 |
| Hurricane Katrina |
New scourges from the animal world have been steadily slipping into humans and beginning fresh attacks, most notably in 2009 with H1N1, but also with Avian Flu, SARS, and Monkey Pox.
Also in this decade, tuberculosis has made a comeback with help from the HIV pandemic.
Even wildlife faced increased threats -- outbreaks of old and new viruses and even algal blooms began to cause huge die offs—hundreds of bodies covering the beaches.
Climate change is playing a role. Our impact on the earth: loss of biodiversity, dumping of pollutants, fertilizers into waterways, over-fishing the oceans -- all these factors have a role in the emergence of our oldest, and newest, enemies.
 |
| Emerging Diseases |
The idea that our oceans are too vast to be hurt by puny human activities died a terrible death this decade.
True, the oceans are vast, but human activities are anything but puny. Giant gyres of plastic have been found in every ocean, entangling wildlife and killing seabirds.
Excessively hot waters in the Caribbean and elsewhere have shocked scientists by causing coral bleaching. Overfishing is driving one species after another off our dinner plates, with one study predicting the collapse of most fish species by 2048.
If we keep adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, it could all get a lot worse because that gas enters the oceans and makes the water acidic, hostile to the shell-making animals crucial to marine ecosystems worldwide.
 |
| Oceans in Crisis |
When the 21st century began, scientists studying Earth's climate thought the gigantic ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica would melt slowly around the edges and lag behind the overall global warming of climate.
But this past decade, the warmest on record, proved the climate modelers wrong.
Glaciers have been melting much faster than ever expected and researchers have been playing a hard game of catch up trying to understand why.
The uptick in melting ice has not been restricted to the Arctic and Antarctic. Europe’s glaciers are now thought to be entering their final decades.
The famous snows of Kilimanjaro and other low-latitude mountains could disappear completely. The thick, perennial sea ice of the Arctic is fast disappearing, which will likely bring ice-free summers to the Arctic Ocean.
There are global consequences to this melting. Rising seas will make more cities and islands vulnerable to catastrophic flooding like that which nearly killed New Orleans. Mountain glaciers around the world bring fresh water to billions. Any way you slice it, an Earth with less ice is a less hospitable planet.
 |
| Glaciers Melt Down |
source: http://news.discovery.com/human/discoveries-of-the-decade.html
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