16 June 2015 (Reuters) – Eastern cougars that once roamed North America from Canada to South Carolina are extinct and no longer warrant federal Endangered Species Act protections, US wildlife managers have said. The proposal to remove so-called eastern cougars from the list of endangered and threatened species comes nearly 80 years after the last […]
By Sandi Doughton15 June 2015 (Seattle Times) – A team of federal biologists set out from Oregon Monday to survey what could be the largest toxic algae bloom ever recorded off the West Coast. The effects stretch from Central California to British Columbia, and possibly as far north as Alaska. Dangerous levels of the natural […]
By Adam Vaughan18 June 2015 (The Guardian) – On Thursday the Vatican published Pope Francis’s long-awaited encyclical on the environment, which warns of ‘serious consequences’ if the world does not act on climate change. [English translation: LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore] Ban Ki-moon reacts: The secretary-general welcomes the papal encyclical released today by His Holiness Pope […]
By Charles Iceland12 June 2015 (The Guardian) – Every inhabited continent, to varying degrees, has areas where there is extremely high water stress. These are areas where more than 80% of the local water supply is withdrawn by businesses, farmers, residents and other consumers every year. These so-called stressed areas are also the ones most […]
24. To the last drop: an oilfield in California and the merciless overexploitation of humans. (Hefty) – Sometimes every word is superfluous. These pictures say more than a thousand words. [more] 27 images that prove that we are in danger. #7 left my mouth open. Technorati Tags: oil production,overpopulation,population,mining,global warming,climate change,deforestation,poaching,wildfire,forest fire,pollution
10 June 2015 (The Marine Mammal Center) – California sea lions aren’t the only pinnipeds in crisis this year. Guadalupe fur seals, a threatened species, seem to be struggling with the same food availability issues and have stranded along our coast at five times the record yearly rate. With their diminutive snouts, extra-long front flippers […]
By Vanessa Dezem15 June 2015 (Bloomberg) – After drought pushed São Paulo to the verge of severe water rationing, late summer rains gave the state-run utility Sabesp, Brazil’s biggest water provider, a second chance to fix infrastructure that city officials blamed for the crisis. With the dry season starting, it’s a rush against time to […]
By Julie Cohen9 June 2015 (UCSB) – A combination of drought, heat and insects is responsible for the death of more than 12 million trees in California, according to a new study from UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). Members of the NCEAS working group studying environmental factors contributing to […]
By David O’Reilly and Tom Avril 13 June 2015 (Philadelphia Inquirer) – On the day he was elected pope, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina stood before a line of his fellow cardinals to receive their blessings. “Don’t forget the poor,” whispered his Brazilian friend, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, as the two embraced in the Sistine Chapel. […]
By Gian De Poloni13 June 2015 (ABC) – Climate change could be responsible for humpback whales becoming exhausted during their annual migration to warmer waters, a whale researcher says. Janelle Braithwaite examined historical whaling data and says climate change may be depleting the Antarctic food sources whales rely on to store energy for their long […]
