In WWF’s eye-opening Living Planet Report 2012, scientists reveal the world’s population currently uses natural resources at a rate of 1.5 times the planet can provide. The report goes on to say that if we don’t change course, by 2030 the resources from two planets will not be enough to sustain our rate of consumption.

Other facts from the WWF’s findings include:

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• Biodiversity – the number of plants and animal species – has dropped by 28 percent globally since 1970, with tropical and freshwater species experiencing the biggest declines; the tropical freshwater index dropped by 70 percent

• The five biggest consumers of natural resources are Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Denmark, and the United States.

• As many as 2.7 billion people already experience a severe scarcity of fresh water at least one month per year

• Deforestation and forest degradation currently account for up to 20 percent of global man-made CO2 emissions

• The past few decades have been warmer than any other comparable period for at least the last 400 years

When asked why environmental groups continue to struggle with their conservation efforts, WWF International’s director general Jim Leape said: “We’ve built an economy over the last century that is built on fossil fuels and on a premise that the Earth’s resources could not be exhausted. You see that conspicuously in the case of the oceans, where we’ve been taking fish as if there were no tomorrow, as if fish would just always be there.

“Secondly, we’re doing it in the context of a marketplace that continues to send the wrong signals. So many of the costs that we’re talking about are not built into the prices you see … Markets can work well if prices are telling the truth but at the moment they don’t, in hugely important ways.”

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As well as outlining the world’s conservation challenges, the report also put forth ideas for solutions to living within the planet’s means:

1. Significantly expand the global protected areas of network: protect 20 percent of key ecological areas that are vital to sustaining biodiversity and implement adequate funding
2. Halt loss of priority habitats: eliminate deforestation and degradation by 2020, preserve freshwater systems, and increase the marine protected areas from 5 to 20 percent
3. Restore damaged ecosystems and ecosystem services: reverse the damage done to those systems that are vital for food, water, and energy security

Consumers can shop for labels that identify products produced with minimal or no negative impact on the environment or society. Organizations which certify products that bear the labels include: Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Marine Stewardship Council, and Forest Stewardship Council.

The Buddhist and Hindu religious groups have steadily increased in numbers, according to data compiled from the 2010 U.S. Religion Census. The greatest concentrations occur in the New York Metropolitan Area, and big cities in Texas, California, Illinois, and Georgia.

“Both Buddhists and Hindus, though still relatively small compared to the large Christian groups, have grown to the point that they are beginning to exert significant influence on the key issues that most affect their lives,” said J. Gordon Melton, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of American Religious History with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, who was in charge of assembling the data on both groups.

Both Hindus and Buddhists have temples in most states, and “the groups now regularly voice their opinions on U.S. relations with predominantly Hindu and Buddhist countries,” Melton said.

All religious groups in the United States have grown in numbers with the exception of some of the larger Christian churches, which have stagnated or decreased. Those Christian groups include Southern Baptists, which have seen a significant drop since 2000, United Methodists, and Evangelical Lutheran.

The groups that experienced the largest growth were Muslims and Mormons. There are now some 6 million Mormons and 2.6 million Muslims in the country.

You can read more about the results of the study published by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies at this link: http://www.rcms2010.org/press_release/ACP%2020120501.pdf

Now there’s new hope for Parkinson’s patients. Vitamin K2, which is produced in our guts by the conversion from Vitamin K1 intake (the component of vitamin K that originates in plants), has been demonstrated to reverse a genetic defect that leads to Parkinson’s.

“It appears from our research that administering vitamin K2 could possibly help patients with Parkinson’s. However, more work needs to be done to understand this better,” says Patrik Verstreken from Northern Illinois University.

Even though the cause of Parkinson’s is still unknown, several genetic defects have been identified, and this knowledge has been instrumental in helping scientists unravel the mechanisms underlying the disease process.

Vitamin K is found abundantly in fresh fruits and vegetables and helps with blood clotting, maintaining healthy calcium levels in bones, reducing cardiac risks, and prevention of cancer.

Debris that gets tossed overboard, such as packing bands and fishing nets, is finding its way around the necks of sea lions, sometimes deeply cutting or even killing the creatures.

Propolis, the honeybee hive resin used by bees to patch up holes in hives, has been used for centuries as a natural remedy for conditions ranging from sore throats and allergies to burns and cancer. But its use has not gained widespread acceptance in the clinic due to scientific questions about its effect on cells.

Now, researchers have found that caffeic acid phenethyl ester, or CAPE, the compound isolated from bee propolis, halts early-stage prostate cancer.

“If you feed CAPE to mice daily, their tumors will stop growing. After several weeks, if you stop the treatment, the tumors will begin to grow again at their original pace,” said Richard B. Jones, PhD, assistant professor in the Ben May Department for Cancer Research and Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology and senior author of the study. “So it doesn’t kill the cancer, but it basically will indefinitely stop prostate cancer proliferation.”

Once proven safe and effective, it could be used alongside other therapies used to kill the tumor cells. But, more importantly, the CAPE experiments offer a precedent to unlock the biological mechanisms of other natural remedies as well, perhaps allowing these compounds to cross over to use in a clinic setting.

“A typical problem in bringing some of these herbal remedies into the clinic is that nobody knows how they act, nobody knows the mechanism, and therefore researchers are typically very hesitant to add them to any pharmaceutical treatment strategy,” Jones said. “Now we’ll actually be able to systematically demonstrate the parts of cell physiology that are affected by these compounds.”

So says Giora Proskurowski, an oceangrapher from the University of Washington, who recently commented on his findings from a 2010 North Atlantic expedition. During his trip, he and his team collected samples at the surface, plus an additional three or four depths down as far as 100 feet.

And on a more recent expedition in the Pacific Ocean, Proskurowski noticed something new: The water was littered with confetti-size pieces of plastic debris, until the moment the wind picked up and most of the particles disappeared.

The discovery that wind that was pushing the lightweight plastic particles below the surface meant that years of research that estimated the quantity of plastic debris in the world’s oceans was far below the true amount. Proskurowski and co-lead author Tobias Kukulka, University of Delaware, reported in the May 2012 journal of Geophysical Research Letters that data collected from just below the water’s surface commonly underestimates the total amount of plastic in the water by an average factor of 2.5. In high winds the volume of plastic could be underestimated by a factor of 27.

The areas of plastic floating in the ocean is no longer just a garbage patch but instead is made up of widely dispersed, millimeter-size pieces of debris, according to Proskurowski. “On this topic, what science needs to be geared toward is building confidence that scientists have solid numbers and that policy makers aren’t making judgments based on CNN reports,” he said, in reference to media stories about large isolated islands of floating plastic.

Plastic waste in the oceans is a concern because of the impact it might have on the environment. For instance, when fish ingest the plastics, it may degrade their liver functions. In addition, the particles make nice homes for bacteria and algae, which are then transported along with the particles into different regions of the ocean where they may be invasive and cause problems.

Proskurowski and colleagues are currently working with a model they developed that uses historical weather data to more accurately ascertain the relationship between wind speed and depth of plastic particles.

Earth Day, an annual event officially designated on April 22nd, was started in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson. This day in history was created in protest to the unbridled corporate and consumer activities that were contributing to excessive environmental pollution. Of special concern to Senator Nelson were the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.

During the ’60s, chemical spills, raw sewage, and air-polluting factories and plants were casually accepted as a normal part of life, but there were also many Americans who were deeply concerned about the high level of toxic waste pervading our environment and felt that raising awareness about the continued degradation was needed to reverse the damaging trends.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across the country demonstrated and held rallies in the streets, campuses, and large public arenas to send a message about the action needed to turn things around. Distinguished by its collaborative support by both political parties, this first Earth Day event led to the formation of the U.S. EPA, and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts. Earth Day is considered the beginning of the modern environmental awareness movement, and the month of April has in essence become “Earth Month.”

Now, more than one billion people and 192 nations will mark the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day to continue motivating grassroots efforts, raising consumer awareness, and reversing continued dangerous industrial trends.  The Earth Day Network, created by the founders of the first Earth Day, have a new campaign called A Billion Acts of Green. The organization hopes to reach one billion pledges to action by the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012.  They plan to present this accomplishment at Rio +20 and use it as a lever to address the UN’s inaction and inspire leaders to reach a global agreement at the Rio+20 Conference.

In recent years, Earth Day has snowballed in its scope of awareness and continues to gain credible momentum around the globe as climate change became a mainstream concern. The Earth Day Network continues its efforts toward education and support for organizations who wish to participate in the movement.

We all know that stress and anxiety have been clinically shown to be detrimental to one’s physical health, but what about the opposite? Can holding positive thoughts be an elixir for good health?

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers set out to find the answer to that question and came up with some enlightening discoveries that could have strong implications for the design of disease prevention and health intervention strategies.

Not only do positive emotions and optimism prevent the ravages caused by stress-related emotions, but they provide protection against cardiovascular disease (CVD) by slowing the progression of disease.

The Harvard researchers found that individuals who felt a greater sense of well-being derived from practicing optimism and holding positive emotions engaged in healthier behaviors such as exercising, eating a balanced diet, and getting sufficient sleep. Those individuals also experienced better biological function, such as lower blood pressure, healthier lipid (blood fat) profiles, and normal body weight.

“The absence of the negative is not the same thing as the presence of the positive. We found that factors such as optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness are associated with reduced risk of CVD regardless of such factors as a person’s age, socioeconomic status, smoking status, or body weight,” said lead author Julia Boehm, research fellow in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at HSPH. “For example, the most optimistic individuals had an approximately 50% reduced risk of experiencing an initial cardiovascular event compared to their less optimistic peers,” she said.

“These findings suggest that an emphasis on bolstering psychological strengths rather than simply mitigating psychological deficits may improve cardiovascular health,” Kuzbansky said.

Participants of a University of California, San Francisco-led study that blended ancient meditation practices with the most current scientific methods for regulating emotions showed less depression, anxiety, and stress, and increased feelings of compassion and awareness of others’ feelings.

Schoolteachers who practiced meditation in a short yet intensive program were part of a new study that was designed to create new techniques to reduce destructive emotions while improving social and emotional behavior. Previous research has linked meditation to positive changes in blood pressure, metabolism, and pain, but less is known about the specific emotional changes that result from the practice. The female teachers, who were new to meditation, were chosen due to their stressful work environment, and it was hoped they could immediately benefit from the practice and the benefits would spill over into their classrooms.

“The findings suggest that increased awareness of mental processes can influence emotional behavior,” said lead author Margaret Kemeny, PhD, director of the Health Psychology Program in UCSF’s Department of Psychiatry. “The study is particularly important because opportunities for reflection and contemplation seem to be fading in our fast-paced, technology-driven culture.”

The idea for the study arose after Paul Ekman, PhD, a UCSF emeritus professor and world expert in emotions, attended a 2000 meeting with the Dalai Lama, Buddhist scholars, behavioral scientists, and emotion experts for a discussion on the psychological benefits from meditation. At that meeting, the Dalai Lama posed a question: In the modern world, would a secular version of Buddhist contemplation reduce harmful emotions?

The Dalai Lama’s question led Ekman and Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace to develop a 42-hour, eight-week training program, integrating secular meditation practices with techniques learned from the scientific study of emotion. It involved three areas of meditative practice:

• Concentration practices involving sustained, focused attention on a specific mental or sensory experience;
• Mindfulness practices involving the close examination of one’s body and feelings;
• Directive practices designed to promote empathy and compassion toward others.

“The findings suggest that increased awareness of mental processes can influence emotional behavior,” said lead author Margaret Kemeny, PhD, director of the Health Psychology Program in UCSF’s Department of Psychiatry. “The study is particularly important because opportunities for reflection and contemplation seem to be fading in our fast-paced, technology-driven culture.”

The study involved researchers from a number of institutions including UCSF, UC Davis, and Stanford University.

For the first time, monster solar tornadoes several times the size of the Earth and swirling at speeds of up to 190,000 miles per hour were filmed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The $850 million spacecraft, launched Feb. 11, 2010, constantly gathers high-definition video and data about the sun to help experts better understand the effects solar activity has on the Earth.

The video was filmed between February 7 and 8 and shows cooler plasma material as darker spots on a bright background. The tornadoes, noted as swirling plasma erupting from deep inside the solar corona, are shaped by the sun’s powerful magnetic field.

“Prominences are tangled magnetic fields trapping cold and dense plasma in the solar corona,” says Dr Xing Li, a solar physicist at Wales’ Aberystwyth University.

“These often erupt spectacularly and fly out into space as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and large CMEs will impact our space weather and space technology in a significant way when they are heading toward the Earth.”

As humans becomes more dependent on sensitive technology, it is critical that scientists develop new and more sophisticated ways to predict the Sun’s future eruptions. And solar tornadoes may hold the key to predicting when the next coronal mass ejection will be launched.