New species of sea snail named in tribute to the lead singer of the Clash

Alviniconcha strummeri. So if calls one of new species of sea snail discoveries recently. Due to the nature of this "hard" marine snail that lives deep in warmer and more acidic Ocean, close to hydrothermal vents, the scientists decided to compare this animal the Joe Strummer, former lead singer of British punk band The Clash, and gave him his name.

The new species of snail â€" one of five new discoveries through DNA sequencing â€" lives in the Pacific and Indian oceans at about 2,000 meters deep. The study with the discovery of the new species was published in the journal Systematics and Biodiversity.

"These snails seem punk rockers the years 70 and 80, have purple blood and live in an extreme environment. As such, we decided to baptize one of the species in tribute to an icon of punk rock, "explains Shannon Johnson, a researcher at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, cites the Time.

This isn't the first time new species of animals are baptized in honor of music figures. In 2013, a team of scientists named a new species of lizard named after Jim Morrison of The Doors. Another team named a new species of parasite in tribute to Bob Marley and this year, a new fossil hippopotamus was baptized in honor of Mick Jagger, of the Rolling Stones.

Foto: Dave Smitham/Creative Commons

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Rotterdam: waste floating Park opens this week

Rotterdam will have a park garbage floating in the middle of the river Nieuwe Maass, which will prevent the plastic and other debris to reach the North Sea.

With opening scheduled for this week, the Park is initially a mechanism that collects the trash from the river and joins in a kind of artificial island. The collected garbage will be increasingly used to build the Park, which will be later modified to allow plant life.

The aim is to prevent construction gets increasingly plastic to the oceans and create fertile ground for the proliferation of aquatic plants and native mussels, feeding a new healthy ecosystem on the river. If the pioneering project was successful can be implemented in other rivers of the Netherlands, writes the Inhabitat.

The initiative for the construction of the Park started from Recycled Island Foundation and featured collaborations from the municipality of Rotterdam, of Wageningen University, the WHIM Architecture and the SK International.

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Pope says that all animals go to heaven

Last week, the Pope Francisco stated that all animals can go to heaven. The statement was ugly in the Vatican, in the weekly address in St. Peter's square, for consoling a boy who was upset by the dog died.

"One day we'll see again our animals in the eternity of Christ. Heaven is open to all God's creatures, "said the Pope, cites the Inhabitat.

To the Catholic faithful the affirmation of the Supreme Head of the Catholic Church can be a kind of relief relative to the destination of the animals, the statement is to foster the debate for both animal rights activists and theologians.

Previous popes to Francisco never confirmed if the animals would, according to Catholic belief, to heaven. Pius IX, for example, argued that the animals lacked consciousness and as such could not go to heaven. Since John Paul II stated that animals have souls, but never defended the possibility of an afterlife for these beings.

Technically, the Pope Francisco made no doctrinal statement, but many may consider the information as a clear indication that the paradise is open to all the beasts of the Earth.

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File: countries agree to measures against global warming

The participating countries at the UN Climate Summit, held in Lima, Peru, agreed last Sunday to approve measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and combat global warming.

The final document adopted at the Summit, entitled "the call to action of Lima", decrees that the 196 Nations participants will have to submit to the United Nations, before October 1, 2015, quantifiable commitments, ambitious and fair "for the reduction of greenhouse gases, writes the Inhabitat.

The climate Summit this scheduled end on Friday, but the lack of consensus made that the works were extended until Sunday in an attempt to settle the terms of the outline for the new environmental agreement should be concluded at the Summit in 2015, in Paris, and that will replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Foto: No More of this/Creative Commons

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Australia: one in five homes uses solar energy

If there is something missing on Australia's Sun. as such, the price of solar power in this country has been decreasing over the past few years. The potential of this form of energy in Australia is such that nine out of ten Australian homes are considering replacing conventional ways by this solar energy.

The latest data of the Statistical Office of Australia reveal that one in every five homes in the country, i.e. 19%, has already installed a solar energy system â€" whether you are a collector, a photovoltaic panel or both. When decomposed this value, the solar collectors represent 5% of the photovoltaic panels and systems 14%.

In 2011, when the Statistical Office started to analyze the presence of solar energy in the country, the houses equipped with some kind of solar system accounted for only 5% of the total households in the country, writes the TreeHugger.

Is in Southern Australia where there are more homes equipped with some kind of solar system. With prices of equipment of this renewable energy decrease the tendency will be a growing implementation of this type of systems.

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Quercus moved 450 technicians for the efficient consumption of resources

Between September and December this year, Quercus toured all districts of Portugal with the EcoConsumo Project-support tools for the sustainable consumption of water and energy, backed by the consumer Fund, the Directorate General of consumption.

In total 19 awareness sessions were held which reached more than 450 technicians, among employees of joints and Social security authorities, IPSS, water distribution companies and teachers.

The training focused on information and awareness-raising for more efficient consumption habits, referred to the Quercus said in a statement, providing quantitative data on the possible return with the application of more efficient water and energy consumption, wants fewer consumers equipment of these two features.

Foto: Anton Fomkin/Creative Commons

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Israel: massive oil spill in the nature reserve will take years to be cleaned

In early December a rupture in the pipeline from Eilat-Askeon, in Israel, provoked an oil spill for Desert reservation of Evrona near the Red Sea. Consequently, three to five million gallons of oil have spread for about 81 hectares of the reserve.

The oil has accumulated in ravines, but if there is no heavy rainfall may be possible that the crude oil does not reach the sea. However, the ecologists of the Israeli Government indicate that the spill will take years to be cleaned. The Inhabitat writes that cleaning work began, with teams vacuuming the oil and build barriers to prevent oil from spreading further.

"How do you take care of a deer running and limp because of oil? How do you clean the vegetation? This is a very complicated subject, "says the ecologist the nature and authority of parks, Roey Talbi. "We don't have experience to handle a disaster of this scale. The cleanup could take months at best and at worst years ", he adds.

The spill occurred while a section of the pipeline was undergoing routine maintenance. The section between the city of Eilat, on the Red Sea coast, and the city of Ashkelon, on the Mediterranean coast, near the border with Jerusalem. Cleaning work allowed the removal of two million litres of petrol and 20,000 tons of contaminated soil. The cleanup is being funded by Eilat Pipeline Company who Asheklon is owned by the Israeli State.

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