Go down to the beach today and you’ll find plenty of garbage among the sand — but that’s nothing compared with the continent-sized whirlpools of lethal waste out there beyond the horizon By WINIFRED BIRD, Special to The Japan Times Umbrella handles. Pens. Popsicle sticks. Lots and lots of toothbrushes. These are just a few […]
(Cell Press) By combining data from 48 studies of coral reefs from around the Caribbean, researchers have found that fish densities that have been stable for decades have given way to significant declines since 1995. The study appears online on March 19 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. "We were most surprised to discover […]
(Wiley-Blackwell) A new study published in the journal Soil Use and Management attempts for the first time to measure the extent and severity of land degradation across the globe and concludes that 24 percent of the land area is degrading — often in very productive areas. Land degradation – the decline in the quality […]
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that the world economy, reeling from financial crisis, was on track to shrink for the first time in 60 years in 2009, by as much as 1.0 percent. In a report prepared for the Group of 20 meeting of finance chiefs last week in Britain […]
by Abby Haight, The Oregonian Researchers were shocked when they counted breeding tufted puffins along the Oregon coast last summer. The numbers showed the charismatic seabird with the comical mask had become alarmingly scarce. From 6,560 tufted puffins in 1979 to a rough count of 142 found on Oregon’s cliffsides and rock islands last year. […]
As the cold, dry climate of the western Antarctic Peninsula becomes warmer and more humid, phytoplankton – the bottom of the Antarctic food chain – is decreasing off the northern part the peninsula and increasing further south, Rutgers marine scientists have discovered. In research to be published tomorrow in the journal Science, Martin Montes-Hugo and […]
by Pierre-Henry Deshayes TROMSOE, Norway (AFP) – Potentially fatal to the polar bear, global warming has already left its mark on the species with smaller, less robust bears that are increasingly showing cannibalistic tendencies. Top experts who gathered this week in Tromsoe in northern Norway to discuss ways of protecting the species sounded alarm bells […]
By AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer ETHONOLULU – Hawaii’s native avian population is in peril, with nearly all the state’s birds in danger of becoming extinct, a federal report says. One-third of the nation’s endangered birds are in Hawaii, said the report issued Thursday by the Interior Department. Thirty-one Hawaiian bird species are listed as […]
From Calculated Risk: The Dept of Transportation reports on U.S. Traffic Volume Trends: [T]ravel during January 2009 on all roads and streets in the nation changed by -3.1 percent (-7.0 billion vehicle miles) resulting in estimated travel for the month at 222.4 billion vehicle-miles. The graph shows the annual change in the rolling 12 month […]
by James Murray, BusinessGreen Food, energy and water supplies all under threat from combination of climate change and growing population The UK’s chief scientist will today warn that political and business leaders have just 20 years to prepare for a "perfect storm" of climate change-related impacts on food, water and energy supplies or risk public […]
