Not cool: ACs will make world 0.5 degree Celsius warmer by 2100

NEW DELHI: Increasing incomes and urbanisation will see increase in room air conditioning units from 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion in the world by 2050 when Indiaalone may account for one billion units, posing a serious challenge to the global community which is fighting climate change and rising temperatures.

India will, in fact, see a phenomenal growth during the period - from 26.3 million installed stock of room air conditioner (RAC) units in 2016 to over 1 billion in 2050.

Dead sperm whale in Indonesia found with 6 kg of plastic in stomach

JAKARTA: A sperm whale has been found dead in Indonesia with 115 plastic cups and 25 plastic bags in its stomach, raising concern among environmentalists and throwing the spotlight on the country's rubbish problem. The items were part of nearly six kilograms (13 pounds) of plastic waste discovered in the 9.5-metre (31-foot) carcass when it washed ashore in Wakatobi National Park, in Southeast Sulawesi province, on Monday.

Booze delivery

Mumbaikars take home delivery for granted .Almost anything can be delivered home and most would assume that alcohol is another such item but it is still illegal.
The sale goes pretty high on days when there are cricket matches ,most wine shops still provide delivery personnel who even buy cigarettes and snacks for their customers .

Now ,the excise is pretty strict these days they impose heafty penalties on the violators .Remember the Duzo app in Bangalore which offered similar services .
Liberalizing alcohol sales has many things in its favour from preventing dangerous drinking and at the most basic level -  treating citizens like adults.

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Current climate models underestimate warming by black carbon aerosol

Soot belches out of diesel engines, rises from wood and dung burning cook stoves and shoots out of oil refinery stacks. According to recent research, air pollution including soot is linked to heart disease some cancers and in the US as many as 150000 cases of diabetes every year.

Is Antarctica becoming more like Greenland?

Antarctica is high and dry and mostly bitterly cold, and its easy to think of its ice and snow as locked away in a freezer, protected from melt expected around its low- lying coasts and floating ice shelves. But that view may be wrong.

Presence of textile microfibers from washing machines in marine floors

A study quantifies the presence of textile microfibers in south European marine floors. Researchers analyzed the amount of these colored fibers, which vary between 3 to 8 mm but are extremely fine, with less than a .1 mm diameter, and which come mainly from washing machines. The results show the dominance of cellulose fibers over synthetic polymers, and highlight several oceanographic process pile and transport microfibers to marine hollow. 

Evolution: South Africa's hominin record is a fair-weather friend

The fossil record of early hominins in South Africa is biased towards periods of drier climate, suggests a study of cave deposits. This finding suggests there are gaps in the fossil recors, potentially obscuring evolutionary patterns and affecting our understanding of both the habitats and dietary behaviors of early hominins in this region. South Africa highest concentration of early hominin fossils comes from the cradle of humankind caves northwest of Johannesburg.