African elephants could be extinct within 15 years because of the illegal ivory trade, conservation experts have warned. By Amy Willis The population – currently 600,000 – is diminishing by 38,000 each year. These figures, calculated using the annual number of illegal tusk seizures, significantly exceed elephant birth rates meaning the species could face extinction […]
Pure doom goodness from Club Orlov: By Keith Farnish and Dmitry Orlov In September 2009 the latest global temperature rise projections released by the Hadley Centre, part of the British Meteorological Office indicated an average rise of 4 degrees Celsius (that’s a balmy 7.2°F) by 2055 given a business as usual scenario. Some places will […]
By Shanta Barley The world’s coral reefs “earn” $172 billion every year, but they’re on the brink of collapse, economist says The world’s coral reefs save us $172 billion every year, but they’re on the brink of collapse (PDF) because of political inertia, an ecological economist has told the global Diversitas biodiversity conference in Cape […]
From Treehugger: Last week it was house flies at the Mount Everest base camp, now it’s mosquitoes and malaria in the highlands around Mount Kenya that are in the spotlight, in this video clip from the UN Environment Programme. It’s a short clip, but puts a human face on the sort of changes already being […]
Dhaka (AFP) Oct 18, 2009 – When a cyclone destroyed her home two years ago, Shahana Begum joined the swelling ranks of Bangladeshi “climate refugees” who, experts say, could one day overwhelm the capital Dhaka. When a cyclone destroyed her home two years ago, Shahana Begum joined the swelling ranks of Bangladeshi “climate refugees” who, […]
The trees, which were already under duress, are being killed by insects that thrive as the climate changes. Scientists call it Sudden Aspen Decline. By Nicholas Riccardi, October 18, 2009 Reporting from Paonia, Colo. – From the hillsides of extinct volcanoes in Arizona to the jagged peaks of Idaho, aspen trees are falling by the […]
These geo-engineering “solutions” usually make my blood run cold. But the sulfate injection scheme is so badly conceived that I’m always reminded of the rather horrifying sequence in Animatrix, “The Second Renaissance Part II,” in which humanity’s plan to save the world from the robot apocalypse is to cripple the robots’ solar power by cutting […]
Malta is an important way-point for birds migrating between Europe and Africa. But the spring and autumn migrations attract illegal hunters, who pick off the birds as they fly overhead. There has been a huge rise in illegal hunting in recent years, prompting conservationist group BirdLife Malta to set up camps to deter illegal hunters. […]
During the last two decades, mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia has destroyed or severely damaged more than a million acres of forest and buried nearly 2,000 miles of streams. Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining, a video report produced by Yale Environment 360 in collaboration with MediaStorm, focuses on the environmental and […]
By John Gachiri, 14 October 2009 More Kenyans are in need of emergency food today than they were 20 years ago and the situation may get worse, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) says in a new report. The report, Global Hunger Index (GHI), that measures levels of malnutrition and hunger was released on […]
