[As always, apologies for the ad.] One man refuses to leave his home in Japan’s mandatory evacuation zone near Fukushima. CNN’s Kyung Lah reports. Japan exclusion zone’s lone resident Technorati Tags: Fukushima,Japan,Asia,infrastructure failure,pollution
LAGOS, Nigeria, 6 February 2012 (AP) – The burning inferno of what used to be a Chevron Corp. natural gas rig, the K.S. Endeavor, still stains the night’s sky orange more than two weeks after the rig caught fire, and no one can say when it will end as swarms of dead fish surface. The […]
By Philip Hoare4 February 2012 It has the biggest brain of any animal — a massive 18lb to our human 3lb — yet we really have no idea what it does with it. This magnificent predator — at 65ft long, the greatest that has ever existed — spends 90 per cent of its life in […]
For drinking-water, wastewater, and storm water, this figure presents past and projected spending (blue bars) and the capital gap that is likely to occur should future spending follow this path. … [T]he overall capital gap for water infrastructure—which includes drinking-water, wastewater, and wet weather—is already significant: $54.8 billion in 2010. If spending increases at the […]
[Desdemona admits to being very disappointed in Burt Rutan. Des was raised on Golden Age science fiction (“R is for Rocket”), and has nursed the romantic illusion that space exploration might somehow prevent humans from destroying Earth – maybe by moving industry off-world and mining asteroids, or something. But here we have an accomplished aerospace […]
2 February 2012 (Al Jazeera) – The precious marine resources of some of the world’s poorest people are being targeted by industrial-scale pirate fishing operations, to feed the seafood hungry markets of Europe and Asia. The problem is particularly acute in West African waters where fish is a vital – and often the only – […]
31 January 2012 (NOAA) – NOAA’s Fisheries Service announced today a final decision to list five distinct population segments of Atlantic sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act. The Chesapeake Bay, New York Bight, Carolina, and South Atlantic populations of Atlantic sturgeon will be listed as endangered, while the Gulf of Maine population will be listed […]
[Longtime readers know how Desdemona feels about most of these geo-engineering schemes: So the leaders of men conceived of their most desperate strategy yet.] By John Vidal, environment editor, The Guardian5 February 2012 A small group of leading climate scientists, financially supported by billionaires including Bill Gates, are lobbying governments and international bodies to back […]
By David McNeill 3 February 2012 TOKYO – Researchers working around Japan’s disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life. In the first major study of the impact of the world’s worst nuclear crisis […]
By MANNY FERNANDEZ3 February 2012 SPICEWOOD BEACH, Texas – The water that once nourished this central Texas community never traveled far: it came from a fenced-in well at the edge of Lake Travis, down a winding street next to the golf course. These days, the water that flows from kitchen and bathroom faucets takes an […]
