By DAVID LESTER, The Yakima Herald-Republic8 January 2012 YAKIMA, Washington (AP) – Spectacular on a clear, sunny day, Mount Adams rises a scant 53 miles from Yakima. But the mountain holds what until now has been pretty much a secret. In the first comprehensive study of its kind, a Portland State University study has found […]
By RACHEL DONADIO8 January 2012 CHIOS, Greece – Nikos Gavalas and Alexandra Tricha, both 31 and trained as agriculturalists, were frustrated working on poorly paying, short-term contracts in Athens, where jobs are scarce and the cost of living is high. So last year, they decided to start a new project: growing edible snails for export. […]
By By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News9 January 2012 Human emissions of carbon dioxide will defer the next Ice Age, say scientists. The last Ice Age ended about 11,500 years ago, and when the next one should begin has not been entirely clear. Researchers used data on the Earth’s orbit and other things to […]
By Mark Tran, www.guardian.co.uk 9 January 2012 Governments in the Sahel and international relief agencies have been quick off the mark in acknowledging a looming food crisis. Last October, the government in drought-hit Niger – where almost 1 million people are in urgent need of food after a poor harvest – drafted a response plan, […]
By the CNN Wire Staff8 January 2012 (CNN) – A cargo ship that ran aground on a reef off the coast of New Zealand last year has split in two, spewing debris and triggering the possibility of a new oil spill, officials said Sunday. Hundreds of tonnes of oil have already leaked from the ship, […]
Projected annual changes in dryness assessed from changes in soil moisture (soil moisture anomalies, SMA). Increased dryness is indicated with yellow to red colors; decreased dryness with green to blue. Projected changes are expressed in units of standard deviation of the interannual variability in the three 20-year periods 1980-1999, 2046-2065 and 2081-2100. The figure shows […]
HOUSTON, January 7 (AP) – The National Weather Service says 2011 was Texas’ driest year on record as well as its second hottest. The agency said Friday the average rainfall for the drought-stricken state last year was 14.88 inches. The previous driest average total was in 1917 with 14.99 inches. The weather service says 2011’s […]
By Navin Singh Khadka, Environment reporter, BBC News6 January 2012 A rapid rise in air pollution from fossil fuels and biomass burning has worsened winter smog and extended its duration in many parts of South Asia, scientists and officials have said. In Bangladesh, India, and Nepal the temperature has plummeted and clouds of fog and […]
By Vicki Waterhouse, Fairfax NZ News7 January 2012 Four more penguins have been brought into Massey University’s wildlife centre in Palmerston North as oil from the stricken Rena continues to cause havoc on the Tauranga coastline. Staff from Massey University’s wildlife centre have been helping hundreds of oiled birds and animals in Tauranga since October […]
By Hannah Hoag11 December 2011 Ocean acidification — caused by climate change — looks likely to damage crucial fish stocks. Two studies published today in Nature Climate Change reveal that high carbon dioxide concentrations can cause death1 and organ damage in very young fish. The work challenges the belief that fish, unlike organisms with shells […]
