They say the balance of power shifts with the control over natural gases and oil reserves. It might be the right notion with Russia, US, Canada and Denmark staking their claim over the region that falls north of the Arctic Circle.

These countries would get back to staking their claims as scientists from the USGS in collaboration with international researchers have revealed that the Arctic may hold twice the oil previously found there. Not just the oil reserves, the sedimentary basins in the area, also house natural gas reserves.

(more…)

If you're new here and you like our articles, how about subscribing free for our updates via RSS feed.

On show recently at Designers & Agents Green Room, Aurora Robson’s unique artwork has been a refreshing combination of intricate patterns and colours. Her work uses recycled materials that are stylishly highlighted with solar-powered LEDs.

Aurora Robson, hailing from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a contemporary artist who works with installations, works on paper, paintings, sculpture, video, photography, and performance art. She would like to describe herself as being primarily a sculptor.

For her recent show at Designers & Agents Green Room, Aurora made use of about 20,000 plastic bottles from the landfill. She uses recycled materials in her works of art to such an extent where she enjoys receiving junk mail because “it gives her new material to create her work.”

“The language and costly graphic devices and fancy printing used in junk mail gives it a persuasive, positive and personal flavour, making it great fodder for my work. My practice is ultimately about recognising and embracing new possibilities and displays and encouraging others to do the same,” she said.

Some of Aurora Robson’s outstanding pieces of art included works involving plastic bottles carved, cut and twisted into what one critic described as “romantic, unrecognizable forms.”

In short, like all good artists using recycled materials as their medium, Aurora Robson transforms the trash into things of beauty shrouded in mystery.

Quite inspiring, isn’t it?

[via Inhabitat]

Canada’s scientists are busy mapping the underground water supplies across the country. The scientists want to provide policy makers with info to develop water conservation laws.

Image by esprit-de-sel

Canada is, for the first time, using such advanced tools as:

• computer modeling
• satellite imagery
• airborne geophysical surveys.

The last national mapping study of aquifers was in 1967.

The group has been at it since 2003. There are some 30 major aquifers across the country and 12 have been surveyed so far. At this rate, by the time they are finished it will be long past time to start over. Kind of like painting the Golden Gate Bridge.

So far the study has found some 100,000 cubic kilometers of water hidden in aquifers across the country.

I wonder if we can find water in other places across the globe this way, only faster.

Designed by Seattle’s LMN Architects, the green roof on top of the west expansion of the Vancouver Convention Centre is all set for its grand opening. Large in size and packed with green features the very special roof deserves a huge mention for its planet-friendly message that it shouts out loud and clear.

The largest of its kind in Canada and the biggest non-industrial living roof in North America, the 1.2 million square feet top is covered with over 400,000 indigenous plants, which make for a real awesome sight.

Apart from the obvious fact that the coastline structure helps immensely in cleaning up the air pollution with all those plants on top, it also features black water and a desalinization system that is expected to cut potable water use by 60-70% over other typical convention centers.

With energy efficient fixtures inside the building, usage of seawater for temperature regulation, maximum utilization of natural lighting and an integrated marine habitat restoration program, the new Vancouver Convention center is quickly becoming one cool place to meet. Quite literally! [via JetsonGreen]

A monster predator with a circular jaw and a pair of claws on its head has been discovered in old collections of the Smithsonian museum in Washington.

Monster predator with a circular jaw

Fragments of the monster were unearthed in 1912 somewhere in Canada’s 505 million-year-old Burgess Shale site. Researchers are first thought they were part of a crustacean-like animal.

When researchers discovered more complete specimens in the 1990’s they realized fossils that were previously classified as jellyfish, sea cucumbers and other anthropods were more likely an entirely new beast.

The new monster – Hurdia victoria – has a segmented body covered with gills and a huge three-part carapace, or shell, that projects out from the front of its head, according to the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science.

Allison Daley has been studying the fossils for three years as part of her doctoral thesis.

“The use of the large carapace extending from the front of its head is a mystery. In many animals, a shell or carapace is used to protect the soft-parts of the body, as you would see in a crab or lobster, but this structure in Hurdia is empty and does not cover or protect the rest of the body. We can only guess at what its function might have been.”

A team of researchers from Canada, Britain and the United States reclassified the fossils after studying several hundred specimens found in the Burgess Shale.

Hurdia and Anomalocaris are believed to both be early offshoots of the evolutionary lineage that led to arthropods -spiders, crustaceans, insects, millipedes and centipedes.

The things scientists can determine from looking at rocks continues to amaze me.

Really.

I’ve tried doing that. I look at the backs of people and wonder what their fronts look like. I NEVER get it right. How can these folks determine what the skin on a rock looked like? I don’t get it.

Really.

image by WYGD

Daniel Burd is an 11th grader from Canada, that wants to turn his school science project into a dream come true. The guy is certain that if a plastic bag takes 1,000 years to decompose it’s because of the microorganisms behind it, and Burd thinks he has a method that will cause them to decompose in just three months.

The young scientist searched for those “guilty” of decomposing plastic bags and found two strains of bacteria that work together; the primary bacteria is Sphingomonas while the other one is Pseudomonas. Creating an industrial solution for plastic bags that would only last for three month is extremely simple. “All you need is a fermenter . . . your growth medium, your microbes and your plastic bags,” Burd said.

Though it doesn’t solve the pollution in the Pacific, this guy’s idea is a simple enough that it might just work well enough to change the world (at least a bit). He deserves congratulations and some money to continue his research and make it a real solution, instead of a project.

You might also be interested in:

Naked Bike Riders Protest Car Pollution

Lycra-trimmed, ultra-mini Salmon-Skin Bikini. Are you serious?

Source: The Record