A combination of bad weather and disease has damaged much of this year’s hazelnut crop.
Now people are worried that they will have to pay more for Nutella, the popular chocolate-hazelnut spread, and other products that contain hazelnuts.
Environment
Ancient Beetle Fossils Helping Scientists Understand Global Warming
Beetle fossils found in an ancient lake bed in British Columbia are helping scientists to understand global warming in the past and the present.
Fossilized palm bruchine beetles were discovered at the McAbee fossil site near Cache Creek, B.C., by scientists from Simon Fraser University.
Obama Wants Tough New Anti-Pollution Law
Coal plants in the United States will have to cut their production of carbon dioxide (known as “carbon emissions”) by 30 per cent by the year 2030.
Prize-Winning Architect Builds Shelters From Cardboard
One of architecture’s most important prizes has gone to a man who builds low-cost, recyclable buildings and structures.
Shigeru Ban is the winner of the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
For more than 20 years, Ban has been travelling to parts of the world where buildings have been destroyed by war or natural disasters like hurricanes.
This Famous Maple Tree Will Live… Forever
In 1867 when Canada was created, a towering Silver Maple tree standing in front of Alexander Muir’s house in Toronto gave him an idea.
He would write a poem and a song about the majestic tree, so common in Canada and so symbolic, to celebrate Canada’s confederation.
His song was called The Maple Leaf Forever and it has been the unofficial Canadian anthem to this day.
Great Lakes Almost Frozen Over This Year
The Great Lakes were almost completely frozen over by March 2, with 90.5 per cent of their total surface covered in ice.
The five connected lakes are located on the border between Canada and the United States, in northeastern North America.
Although some sections of the lakes freeze each winter, usually only about 50 per cent of the water is covered with ice.
In 2012-2013, only about 38 per cent of the lakes was frozen over, and just 13 per cent was covered with ice in the winter of 2011-2012.
Cleaning Up The World’s Tallest Garbage Dump
Imagine climbing all the way to the top of Mount Everest—the tallest mountain in the world—and when you get there, the summit is littered with garbage.
Over the years, exhausted climbers have left things like empty oxygen tanks, tent poles and food containers at the summit.
There are even parts from a helicopter that crashed on the mountain in 1974.
Experts say there are about 50 tons of garbage on the mountain.
Microplastics Threaten Marine Life In The Great Lakes
Tiny pieces of plastic – each about the size of a grain of sand – are posing a huge threat to marine life in the Great Lakes.
For the past two summers, researchers from an organization called 5 Gyres have been collecting water samples from the Great Lakes.
They used fine-mesh nets to skim the surface of the water.
When they looked at what they had collected, they found thousands of tiny plastic beads, each less than a millimetre.
At first the scientists didn’t know where these “microbeads” came from. Then they used an electron microscope to compare them to products such as face and body washes or toothpaste that people use to help scrub and polish our skin and teeth.
Canada Announces Protection For Endangered Birds
Environment Canada has issued an emergency protection order that will limit construction activity and loud industrial noise near the habitat of an endangered bird species.
The greater sage-grouse is a shy bird that lives in southeastern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
There are fewer than 150 adult birds left in Canada, and environmentalists believe the species could be extirpated (locally extinct) within five years unless it is protected.
The birds’ natural habitat is long prairie grass, but much of this grassland has been destroyed by agriculture and oil and gas development over the past hundred years.
In December 2013, Environment Canada – the government department responsible for the environment – issued an order that prohibits any activity that would disrupt the birds’ habitat during the spring mating season.
Scientists Find 60 New Species In Suriname Rainforest
Scientists have discovered 60 species of previously unknown plants and animals living in a remote rainforest in southeastern Suriname.
Suriname is a small country on the northeastern coast of South America, just north of Brazil.
It is located in a geographic area called the Guiana Shield, which contains more than one-quarter of the world’s rainforest.
An expedition of 16 field biologists spent three weeks in Suriname in 2012, exploring the remote, mountainous rainforest region.
Thirty indigenous men helped transport their food and equipment by boat and guided team through the forest.
