From EARTH Magazine  --  Afghanistan is one of the world's poorest countries, with an economy largely based on subsistence agriculture. Working in an arid climate on thin margins of profitability and sustenance, Afghan farmers depend on reliable, year-round sources of surface water and groundwater to irrigate their crops and water their livestock. Seasonal flows of streams and rivers fed by melting snowpack high in Afghanistan's mountains also recharge alluvial aquifers located in populated valleys and provide city dwellers with drinking water. But the arid

From NSF  --  Antarctica's Weddell seals have biological adaptations that allow them to dive deep--as much as of hundreds of meters--while hunting, but also an uncanny ability to find the breathing holes they need in the surface of the ice that covers the sea. Now, a team of researchers supported by the U.S. Antarctic Program, which is managed by the National Science Foundation, believe they have figured out they they navigate so well; by sensing the Earth's magnetic fields.

From EARTH Magazine  --  Methane is often found naturally leaking from the seafloor, particularly in petroleum basins like the Gulf of Mexico or along tectonically active continental margins like the U.S. West Coast, but such plumes were not expected along passive margins, like the East Coast of North America. Now, however, the discovery of hundreds of methane seeps on the seafloor along the U.S. East Coast suggests that such reservoirs may be more common along passive margins than previously thought.

From NSF Science Nation  --  From ocean microbes to clouds and climate--it all comes down to microscopic particles at the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment.

From NSF Science Nation  --  Local climatic changes impact algae living inside the sea ice, which may drastically affect near shore Arctic marine food webs

WHEN: January 17, 2015, 9:00 am  – 4:30 pm
WHERE: Tyler Arboretum, Media, PA (southeast PA)

Have you ever wondered how to green your school, but don’t know where to begin?  Do you want to save your school money?  Do you want to engage your students in active learning?  Do you want a healthier school?  Do you like free stuff?  Then this is the workshop for you!

From NSF Science Nation  --  Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site provides important clues for protecting & managing estuaries

From EARTH Magazine  --  When Francisco Pizarro landed in Peru in 1532, his band of Spanish conquistadors set off a chain of far-reaching consequences for the people and economics of western South America. The Chira Beach-Ridge Plain in northwestern Peru is rippled by a set of nine ridges — several meters tall by up to 300 meters wide and 40 kilometers long, and large enough to be visible from space — running parallel to the shoreline. The pattern, observed along at least five other Peruvian beaches, was thought to have formed naturally over the past 5,000 years.

Nearly two years ago Hurricane Sandy devastated communities on the New Jersey coast, leaving governments, scientists, architects, and citizens looking for innovative solutions to protect against natural disasters. This public radio story looks at the design and thinking behind the New Meadowlands Project in New Jersey. From the appeal of a new Central Park, to the protection wetlands provide neighboring communities from flooding, this story will get your students thinking about the benefits and challenges of implementing big environmental protection projects.

This story, about the discovery of a long lost ship, is a fascinating way to discuss early exploration efforts as well as global warming. In 1845 two ships led by Sir John Franklin left England searching for a northern route across the globe, known as the Northwest Passage. They never returned. 169 years later, a helicopter pilot found a clue that led the Canadian government to one of the missing ships. From sonar imaging to video cameras on submarines, archeologists have confirmed that this is one of the abandoned ships from the famous expedition.