You are here: Home / Archives for Nature

Celebrate Spring

August 31, 2011 By

Wine and nature lovers, and families, can celebrate spring at the Botriviera Spring Festival, which features gastronomy, tastings and entertaining activities, as well as local artists and more.

The festival line-up this year begins with the Winemakers Selection on September 9 at the Kol Kol Mountain Lodge in Bot River.

Winemakers will showcase their wines alongside culinary delights.

Tickets cost R100.

Email info@kolkol.co.za

Throughout the weekend participating wine estates and restaurants will announce their involvement by placing pink barrels at their entrances. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Destinations, Nature, Tourism, Travel

Coal Mines Insurance, Servicing The Industry

August 22, 2011 By

In today’s mining industry, though working at coal mine indeed provides you with various benefits, but there is no doubt that working thereat was always a dangerous job for anybody. It is such an unpredictable work as no one knows what happens next in the day to day affairs. Well, it cannot be denied that it’s a hazardous industry, thus, the question is who’s insuring coal mines these days? Not a lot of insurance companies have the appetite to do mining risks. But Coal Mines Insurance can play a vital role in helping those in this type of job, especially in case of any untoward incident that may transpire and possibly rendering the principal insured physically incapacitated.

Nevertheless, Coal Mines Insurance will help protect the loved ones of workers in such coal fields, in case anything happens while the worker is in the performance of his job. They are committed to servicing the industry and meeting the needs of their customers, compensates worker in case of any injuries or damages happen while working and hence they are assured that their life is in protection during any such incidences. They operate a case management model integrating injury and claims management processes. Working together with employers, injured workers and service providers following any workplace injury ensures that optimal returns to work outcomes are achieved.

Filed Under: Coal Mining, Environment, Nature

Arctic Sea Ice May Be Melting Slower Than Thought

August 11, 2011 By

Danish researchers say the rate of melting in the Arctic sea may be slower than previously thought.

A team from the Danish National Research Foundation for Geogenetics at the University of Copenhagen developed a method to measure the variations in the ice several millennia back in time.

The scientists based their results on material gathered along the coast of northern Greenland, which experts believe will be the final place summer ice will survive.

“Our studies show that there have been large fluctuations in the amount of summer sea ice during the last 10,000 years,” Svend Funder, team leader of the study, said in a press release. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Environment, Nature, Research & Study

More Than A Third Of Freshwater Fish Threatened With Extinction

August 2, 2011 By

British scientists have warned that freshwater fish have become the most endangered group of animals on the planet, with more than a third threatened with extinction.

Among those at the greatest risk of dying out are several species from rivers and lakes in UK including the European eel, Shetland charr and many little known fish that have become isolated in remote waterways in Wales and Scotland.

Others critically endangered include types of sturgeon, which provide some of the world’s most expensive caviar, and giant river dwellers such as the Mekong giant catfish and freshwater stingray, which can grow as long as 15 feet. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Environment, Fish Farming, Nature

The Black Patch Quickly Gets Larger, Until It Darkness Half The Sun

July 25, 2011 By

 An eclipse of the sun is a strange and rather awe-inspiring sight. At first one sees a clean-cut patch of darkness at the edge of one side of the sun, just as if some one had taken a small bite out of it. The black patch quickly gets larger, until it darkness half the sun, and then the sun appears in the shape of a crescent. The dark shadow goes on spreading over the rest of the sun’s surface, until the sun is altogether hidden, and one can see only its rays of light streaming off round its edge. It looks like a black sun, with a rig of light all round it.

This is called a total eclipse of the sun. It has a very strange effect. The atmosphere becomes dark as it does at twilight; birds think the night is coming, and they stop singing and go to sleep in the trees. Some animals creep away into their hiding places as they do at sunset; while the night-birds and the beasts that prey at night, stir themselves and come out. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Environment, Nature, Solar System

On Experts And Global Warming

July 15, 2011 By

Experts have always posed a problem for democracies.  Plato scorned democracy, rating it the worst form of government short of tyranny, largely because it gave power to the ignorant many rather than to knowledgeable experts (philosophers, as he saw it).  But, if, as we insist, the people must ultimately decide, the question remains: How can we, nonexperts, take account of expert opinion when it is relevant to decisions about public policy?

To answer this question, we need to reflect on the logic of appeals to the authority of experts.  First of all, such appeals require a decision about who the experts on a given topic are.  Until there is agreement about this, expert opinion can have no persuasive role in our discussions.  Another requirement is that there be a consensus among the experts about points relevant to our discussion.   Precisely because we are not experts, we are in no position to adjudicate disputes among those who are.  Finally, given a consensus on a claim among recognized experts, we nonexperts have no basis for rejecting the truth of the claim. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Global Warming, Nature

Plant A Tree In The Fall For Shade In Years To Come

July 8, 2011 By

The hot summer weather may have home owners thinking about trees, but experts say now’s not the best time to plant them.

If you can, wait until fall because fall trees do better, said Brian Jervis, horticulture extension educator with Tulsa Master Gardeners.

A 3- to 6-inch layer of mulch and daily water are important to helping keep any plant healthy in this heat, he said.

Jervis recommends home owners plant trees in September, October or November.

If home owners or landscapers must plant trees now, Jervis said, keeping the root ball intact is critical. Trees can’t pull up the necessary moisture if the root ball is broken. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ecology, Environment, Nature