Texas site points to earliest Americans
COLLEGE STATION, Texas, March 24 (UPI) -- Evidence from a Texas archaeological site proves people lived in the region as much as 2,500 years earlier than previously believed, researchers say.
Archaeologists from Texas A&M University say evidence found about 40 miles northwest of Austin is the oldest sign of human occupation in Texas and North America, a university release reported Thursday.
The evidence pushes back the date for the earliest inhabitants of North America to about 15,500 years ago, the researchers said.
The artifacts were found in buried deposits next to a small spring-fed stream, they said.
"Most of these are chipping debris from the making and resharpening of tools, but over 50 are tools," Michael Waters of Texas A&M's Center for the Study of First Americans said. "There are bifacial (two-sided) artifacts that tell us they were making projectile points and knives at the site."
Studies have shown the site is undisturbed and the artifacts give solid evidence of when early people arrived at the site, researchers said.
"This discovery challenges us to re-think the early colonization of the Americas," Water said. "There's no doubt these tools and weapons are human-made and they date to about 15,500 years ago, making them the oldest artifacts found both in Texas and North America."
U.N.'s Ban calls for world TB funding
UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (UPI) -- Unless more funds are dedicated to the fight against tuberculosis, millions could die from the largely curable disease, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says.
Additional funding is needed for research, improved prevention, early diagnosis and treatment to prevent a possible 8 million deaths between now and 2015, he said in a statement marking World Tuberculosis day Thursday.
"There is cause for optimism" he said. "The recent adoption of a fast and powerful new diagnostic tool promises to accelerate international gains against the disease.
"At the same time, our hope must be tempered by the sobering fact that multi-drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (MDR-TB) remain an ever-present threat that, if allowed to spread unchecked, could set back the steady progress made during the past two decades."
The U.N. World Health Organization estimates there will be more than 2 million new cases of MDR-TB between 2011 and 2015.
Ban cited major achievements by the WHO, including impressive improvements in the way TB care is delivered with well over 40 million people receiving treatment over the past 15 years, a U.N. release reported.
However, he warned, much remains to be done.
"This progress could be lost if we are not vigilant," Ban said. "Efforts to carry out the strategy are severely under-funded, as is research to develop additional, badly needed tools."
"In the 21st century, no one should die from this curable disease," he said.
Water waste highlighted as global issue
UXBRIDGE, Ontario, March 24 (UPI) -- A Canadian man says he wants to draw attention to water waste by living on 6.6 gallons of water a day, far less than the North American average.
Kevin Freedman says for the entire month of March he's using only those 6.6 daily gallons for cooking, drinking, cleaning and sanitation, Inter Press Service reported Tuesday.
"People in Canada and the U.S. have no idea how much water they use or how much they waste," Freedman told IPS.
The average daily water use in North American is around 80 gallons, IPS reported.
"Although people live on less, it is very difficult to use just 25 liters (6.6 gallons) a day. You can't shower or use a washing machine," he said. "I'm hoping to raise awareness that water is a finite resource."
Nearly a billion people don't have good access to safe fresh water, experts say, and that number could double in one generation as growing demand for water exceeds available and sustainable supply by 40 percent.
A recent study found "peak water" has already come and gone, as humanity uses more water than can be sustained, drawing on non-renewable reserves of water accumulated over thousands of years in deep aquifers.
"Water cannot be created, it can only by managed," Margaret Catley-Carlson, a director at the Canadian Water Network, said.
"Governments see their role as delivering water to the public and industry," she said. "This has to change to sustainably managing water resources for society and the natural environment."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged governments Tuesday to make investments in water and sanitation, particularly in urban areas where the need is acute and has grown by 20 percent in the last decade. This is "a crisis of governance, weak policies and poor management, rather than one of scarcity," Ban said in a statement.
Study: Climate change impacts Joshua trees
WASHINGTON, March 24 (UPI) -- Climate change in the U.S. Southwest likely will eliminate Joshua trees from 90 percent of their current range in 60 to 90 years, a U.S. ecologist says.
Ken Cole of the U.S. Geological Survey and colleagues used models of future climate, an analysis of the climatic tolerances of the species in its current range, and the fossil record to project the future distribution of Joshua trees, a USGS release said Thursday.
The Joshua tree, a giant North American yucca, occupies desert grasslands and shrub lands of the Mojave Desert of California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.
Joshua Tree National Park in California is named after the iconic species.
Cole and his team were able to reconstruct how Joshua trees responded to a sudden climate warming 12,000 year ago that was similar to projected warming in this century.
The study concluded the ability of Joshua trees to spread into suitable habitat following that prehistoric warming was limited by the extinction of large animals that had previously dispersed its seeds over large geographic areas, particularly the Shasta ground sloth.
Today, the researchers said, Joshua tree seeds are dispersed by seed-caching rodents, such as squirrels and pack rats, which cannot disperse seeds as far as large mammals.
The limited ability of rodents to disperse Joshua tree seeds in combination with other factors would likely slow migration of the trees to only about 6 feet per year, not enough to keep pace with the present warming climate, Cole said.
