The historic agreement forged in Paris among 195 countries in December holds the promise of triggering a global shift to combat climate change – and harbors a hidden warning. Rutgers climate scientist Alan Robock has argued that trials in the atmosphere won’t show a significant climate response, “unless an experiment is so large as to actually be geoengineering” and lasts at least a decade. (Experimenters would need to confirm that any changes in climate were not just coincidental.)
Archives for January 2016
A little tomato advice for spring
I have received a lot of seed catalogs for vegetables. There are so many varieties of tomatoes that I do not know where to begin. I need advice as I want to have eating tomatoes as well as larger tomatoes. When should I plant the seeds for spring?…Th…
Prof. Barbara O’Neill Named Academic Editor of the Journal of Financial Planning
The Financial Planning Association announced that Barbara O’Neill, distinguished professor and Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s specialist in financial resource management, is the new Journal of Financial Planning Academic Editor, beginning a two-year term Jan. 1, 2016. A prolific writer, she has written over 1,700 consumer newspaper articles and more than 150 articles for academic journals and other […]
AgriLife Researchers at Uvalde examine nitrogen fertilization for olive tree establishment
Researchers at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde have completed initial investigations on nitrogen fertilization management for olive tree establishment in Texas. Dr. Daniel Leskovar, center director and Texas A&M A…
Dirty Little Secrets: In Your Fish
Standing on the bank where the Passaic River meets the Newark Bay in New Jersey, Oswaldo Avad reels in a small bluefish and a piece of a grocery bag. “One piece plastic and one fish,” Avad said in broken English. The Passaic River is one of the most contaminated bodies of water in the country. More than 100 companies are potentially responsible for dumping toxic waste in it for decades before that was outlawed. Fifty-four of the liable companies have formed a consortium and given Rutgers University $1.1 million to create a fish exchange program. Rutgers buys young tilapia from a fish farm in New Jersey and raises them in a Newark greenhouse. The waste produced by the fish is used to grow lettuce and herbs for a local food bank.
GARDENER STATE: Just a few cures for your cabin fever
Are you suffering from extreme irritability and restlessness during these post-holiday weeks with seemingly no one visiting and nothing to do? The tree is long recycled or boxed and the lights and decorations are all put away. And even your New Year’s …
Racial Discrimination Linked with Worse Mental Health
Discrimination has been linked with negative health outcomes among racial minorities, including increased rates of mental health problems such as panic attacks, generalized anxiety disorder, depression and suicidal ideation. “We find a direct relationship, and because the analyses were longitudinal, we have more confidence in the causal nature of the relationship,” study co-author Naa Oyo A. Kwate, PhD, an associate professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told Psychiatry Advisor. “Experiences with racism are stressors, and are chronic, unpredictable and uncontrollable — the worst kind of stress.”
Blizzard memories
Driving to work on the Schuylkill the morning of Jan. 7, 1996, was an experience similar to riding through a food processor that was shredding coconut. We had never experienced snow that heavy — and haven’t since, not even during the incredible snow b…
NJ Winter: El Niño fuels battle between mild, cold
Get ready for a tug-of-war this winter. There’s no question that December’s 60- and 70-degree temperatures are gone for good, at least until spring. But for the next few months, expect a battle in the east between mild air from the south and cold air from the north. And you can blame it on El Nino. We’ve entered into a period where we’re going to see more week-to-week and day-to-day fluctuations in terms of temperatures, storm threats and intervals where it’s dry,” said state climatologist David Robinson. “It’ll be a lot of volatility.”
All the Winter’s a Weird Weather Stage; Here Are the Players
Get ready for weather whiplash as powerful climatic forces elbow each other for starring roles in a weird winter show. The spine-chilling polar vortex is taking center stage in Europe and bringing persistent cold to much of North America — except in Hollywood, where soggy El Nino won’t give up the spotlight. “We have all of these large and unusual events happening all at the same time and I don’t think it has ever happened before,” said Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis.