Using public transport on hot summer days can be a nuisance, as can waiting for a fan or an A/C technician to arrive. But we are not the only ones not adapted for unusually long periods of heat. Nature’s creatures of temperate latitudes suffer from the sweltering summers even more.

The severe heat waves of the summer of 2010 took their toll across the Northern Hemisphere. While people in Russia tackled a spate of forest fires, the Mediterranean was invaded by the poisonous jellyfish Rhopilema nomadica Galil. The largest concentration of these sinister creatures was registered off the coast of Israel. New species of toxic jellyfish were discovered in the Black Sea off the Turkish and Bulgarian coasts. Poisonous jellyfish were also found off the Ussuri coast in the Sea of Japan, where over a hundred people were stung by highly venomous jellyfish Gonionemus vertens in the Russian town of Artyom.

The reason for the abnormal heat is global warming, due to which the average temperature of the Oceans is rising gradually year after year. Read more

The more phosphorus there is in the Baltic, the more active blue-green algae are. They bloom over wide areas, consuming all the oxygen, and turning large parts of the seabed into dead zones. Fish and other living things of the Baltic Sea suffer from the heavy impact of the algae.

The biomass of the blue-green algae in their blooming period is shown in the figure below. For example, in August 2010, in order to export all the algae from the Gulf of Finland, one would need 200,000 fully loaded ten-ton trucks!

Scientists are panicking: little time remains before the changes in the unique ecosystem of the Baltic Sea become irreversible. The Baltic subspecies of the gray seal are already under threat of extinction, as well as the Baltic subspecies of the ringed seal and various species of fish and birds. Read more

As the United States becomes a nation of 300 million, the country’s older cities face the reality of overpopulation, crumbling infrastructures, and the health concerns raised by both, especially those related to the availability of fresh water.

Eric Goldstein, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, has stated that the water distribution systems of cities such as Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and New York are in urgent need of repair.

The antiquated water delivery systems in these cities are comprised of nearly 1 million miles of piping, mostly made of iron. As the iron pipes corrode, clean water flowing through them becomes contaminated with rust. Over time the pipes also rupture, causing not only water loss, but the introduction of pollutants and diseases from the ground.

“Investigations conducted in the last five years suggest that a substantial proportion of waterborne disease outbreaks, both microbial and chemical, are attributable to problems within distribution systems,” said the National Research Council in a report released in December for the Environmental Protection Agency. Read more

1. Shower Timer

Did you know that a ten-minute shower consumes at least 120 liters of water? That sounds like a lot, especially if there are four people living in a house. If each of them is in the habit of taking a shower twice a day, that amounts to 960 liters used daily just washing. Reducing shower time by only two minutes would help a family of four save up to 192 liters of water per day. You don’t need a waterproof stopwatch to do this – a shower timer would work perfectly. You program your shower time, and when the time’s up, the timer lets you know with a nasty loud buzz. Read more