Basra, Iraq (AFP) Sept 9, 2009 – Iraqis living alongside the ancient Shatt al-Arab waterway, the site local legend says of the Garden of Eden, face an environmental catastrophe because of massive dams built by neighbouring Iran. A vibrant fresh water lifeline teeming with fish has become a salty, polluted channel which is driving people […]
Advertisements on the Internet to woo buyers into taking “playful primates” from Cameroon into their homes have become one of the primary means of further threatening already endangered species. Such sales would be illegal, since dealing in primates is forbidden in the central African country. In the past three years, however, the Internet has led […]
(Penn State) “The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past,” says Eric Post, associate professor of biology at Penn State University. Post leads a large, international team that carried out ecosystem-wide studies of the biological response to Arctic warming during the fourth International Polar Year, which ended in 2008. […]
Lucknow, India (AFP) Sept 9, 2009 – Drought-hit farmers in northern India are resorting to selling their wives to repay debts to local loan sharks, activists say, as one of the weakest monsoons in years takes its toll. Poverty, poor administration and a lack of education means farmers in the rugged Bundelkhand region are taking […]
Figure 3.6. Graph of the acreage of piñon pine (Pinus edulis) and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) dieback from 1997–2004 in the Four Corners States of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Based upon annual aerial forest insect and disease activity inventories by the U.S. Forest Service. Thresholds of Climate Change in Ecosystems [pdf], U.S. […]
Guatemala City (AFP) Sept 9, 2009 – Guatemala’s President Alvaro Colom has declared a “public calamity” from drought and famine that have claimed more than 460 lives since the start of the year. “I have decided to declare a state of public calamity throughout the country,” Colom declared in a nationally-broadcast address Tuesday. “This will […]
By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Thousands of walruses are congregating on Alaska’s northwest coast, a sign that their Arctic sea ice environment has been altered by climate change. Chad Jay, a U.S. Geological Survey walrus researcher, said Wednesday that about 3,500 walruses were near Icy Cape on the Chukchi Sea, some […]
Untrawled L. pertusa interspersed with Mycale sponges standing erect to form a prominent reef at 200 m, Nordleksa, West Norway, May 1999. Lower edge of photograph ca. 2.5 m. Trawled L. pertusa grounds at a depth of 200 m in the Iverryggen area, West Norway, May 1999. Smashed coral fragments litter the sediment around a […]
BELLA BELLA, British Columbia, Canada, September 9, 2009 (ENS) – It’s called the Great Bear Rainforest, but few grizzly bears have been seen on British Columbia’s north and central coast this year. Conservationists and bear viewing guides are blaming the disappearance of the bears on the overfishing of salmon, their main food source. “I have […]
By Marlowe Hood and Richard Ingham (AFP) PARIS — Climate change will disrupt Earth’s precious ozone layer, boosting ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the deep southern hemisphere and reducing UV in far northern latitudes, a study warned on Sunday. By century’s end, UV levels in Antarctica could rise by up to 20 percent at seasonal peaks […]
