Amazon tribes driven out by uncontrolled development

‘Uncontacted’ tribes forced to flee armed gangs and bulldozers in forests of Peru, Brazil and Paraguay, says Survival International By John Vidal, environment editor Five “uncontacted” tribes are at imminent risk of extinction as oil companies, colonists and loggers invade their territiories. The semi-nomadic groups, who live deep in the forests of Peru, Brazil and […]

Iceland cod fished nearly to extinction

by Debora MacKenzie Fishing is causing cod to evolve faster than anyone had suspected it could, fisheries scientists in Iceland have discovered. This turbo-evolution may be why the world’s biggest cod fishery, the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, crashed in 1992 and has yet to recover. The Icelandic cod fishery, almost the only large cod fishery […]

Climate change and mosquitoes threaten endangered birds of Hawaii

As climate change causes temperatures to increase in Hawaii’s mountains, deadly non-native bird diseases will likely also creep up the mountains, invading most of the last disease-free refuges for honeycreepers — a group of endangered and remarkable birds. A just-published U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) review discusses the likelihood of a forthcoming “disease invasion” by examining […]

Graph of the Day: Case-Shiller Composite Indices, 1988-2009

From Calculated Risk: The graph shows the year-over-year change in both indices. The Composite 10 is off 18.6% over the last year. The Composite 20 is off 18.7% over the last year. This is near the worst year-over-year price declines for the Composite indices since the housing bubble burst started. … Case-Shiller: Prices Fall Sharply […]

US government awards millions to create “forest thinning” jobs

U.S. Department of the Interior will grant $15 million to 55 projects to “thin overgrown forests” [logging] and remove potential fuels for wildfires on public lands” [so the wood can be burned elsewhere]. The “hazardous fuels reduction” projects selected will create jobs in 12 states. The DOI press release on this program reports that “wood […]

Crisis spurs spike in 'suburban survivalists'

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer SAN DIEGO – Six months ago, Jim Wiseman didn’t even have a spare nutrition bar in his kitchen cabinet. Now, the 54-year-old businessman and father of five has a backup generator, a water filter, a grain mill and a 4-foot-tall pile of emergency food tucked in his home in […]

Large declines in European amphibian and reptile species

A fifth of reptiles and almost a quarter of amphibians in Europe are threatened with extinction on the continent, according to the European Commission. By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent The first European Red Lists of threatened species for the two groups of species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) shows 23 per […]

Amazon hit by climate chaos of floods, drought

BY ALAN CLENDENNING SAO PAULO — Across the Amazon basin, river dwellers are adding new floors to their stilt houses, trying to stay above rising floodwaters that have killed 44 people and left 376,000 homeless. Flooding is common in the world’s largest remaining tropical wilderness, but this year the waters rose higher and stayed longer […]

UK bird decline driven by farmland changes

People have been listening to skylarks singing in Britain for 10,000 years. But now they, and many other much-loved species, are vanishing fast. By David Adam, environment correspondent …the star attraction of the neighbouring fields has flown. Until a year ago, a clutch of woodlark nested there, one of Britain’s rarest birds with just 1,000 […]

Chemical in Yangtze River causes deformities in Chinese sturgeon

By Tan Ee Lyn HONG KONG (Reuters) – A paint chemical that is widely used in China is leaking into the Yangtze river and may be responsible for deformities and decreasing numbers of rare wild Chinese sturgeon, a study has found. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers […]

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