Head of UN climate secretariat Figueres warns tackling climate change is critical to world peace (Business Green)

• “Speaking to Spanish policy chiefs and military leaders in Madrid yesterday, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, warned that if left unabated, the impact of climate change on water supplies, weather patterns and sea levels could cause widespread conflict.”

Fed Report: The troubles that led up to the BP oil spill stretched back years, not just months (MSNBC)

• “BP was aware of problems with Halliburton personnel and work product” as far back as 2007. Halliburton was the cement contractor on the well, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and causing the worst spill in U.S. history.”
• “A consulting firm issued a quality control report warning BP that Halliburton’s lab technicians ‘do not have a lot of experience evaluating data,’” the panel said, “and that BP needed to improve communication with Halliburton ‘to avoid unnecessary delays or errors in the slurry design testing.’”

Rising CO2 levels associated with global warming may affect interactions between plants and the insects that eat them, altering the course of plant evolution (Science Daily)

• “Plant defenses — and insect eating patterns — also respond to environmental factors such as rising carbon dioxide. This suggests that elevated carbon dioxide could affect plant evolution by altering the “selection pressure” that plant-eating insects exert on plants.”

“Some scientists estimate that a quarter of a million sea turtles are ensnared in fishing lines each year. ” (Oceana)

• “The circle hook helps prevent sea turtles from becoming hooked if they try to eat bait from the fishing line. If you’ve ever watched a fishing show on Saturday morning, then you’ve seen the underwater video of a fish swimming at the bait, grabbing it and swimming away. Now think about that pet turtle you had as a kid, remember how it stood in one place and chomped at its food. A circle hook takes advantage of this difference in eating behavior: The inward-pointing tip creates a flat surface that usually won’t pierce the turtle’s jaw while it chomps.””

UMass Amherst biologists use GPS to ‘map’ bats teeth to explore evolutionary adaptations to diet (Science Blog)

• “Using a method based on geographic positioning systems that allowed them to characterize the topography of the bats’ molars in a way similar to how geographers characterize mountain surfaces, the researchers calculated a measure of dental complexity that reflects how “rugged” the surface of the tooth is. They illustrate a trend from relative simplicity of the shearing molars in insect eaters and omnivores to high complexity of the crushing molars in fruit eaters.”