By Jeremy Hance7 July 2014 (mongabay.com) – In the last four years the price of ivory in China has tripled, according to new research from Save the Elephants. The news has worrying implications for governments and conservationists struggling to save elephants in Africa amidst a poaching epidemic, which has seen tens-of-thousands of elephants butchered for […]
By Alemayehu Bishaw27 June 2014 (census.gov) – The Changes in Areas With Concentrated Poverty: 2000 to 2010 report [pdf] largely compares Census 2000 poverty estimates with those based on the 2008–2012 5-year American Community Survey (ACS). As 2010 represents the midpoint of this period, for convenience the remainder of this report refers to these 2008–2012 […]
By Dan Haefner, First Mate, RV Odyssey6 July 2014 (Sea Shepherd) – On the 20th of June, Pensacola was the recipient of yet another “present” from the oil-filled Gulf of Mexico – a 1000-pound tar mat washed up in Ft. Pickens Park. Tar balls wash up almost every day along the coast between Pensacola Beach […]
By Brian Brown6 July 2014 VEGA, Texas (NBC News) – While a high-pitched wind rattles the windows, and assaults a flapping, fraying American flag in the front yard, Lucas Spinhirne knows he’s staring into an abyss that many in Texas—and across the world—may be forced to contemplate. The once bounteous quantities of water that flowed […]
By Steven Siceloff2 July 2014 Kennedy Space Center, Florida (NASA) – A Delta II rocket blazed off the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California early Wednesday morning to begin a landmark mission to survey carbon dioxide gas in Earth’s atmosphere. NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, or OCO-2, is expected to provide insight into […]
By Angus Chen 30 June 2014 (Science) – Millions of tons. That’s how much plastic should be floating in the world’s oceans, given our ubiquitous use of the stuff. But a new study finds that 99% of this plastic is missing. One disturbing possibility: Fish are eating it. If that’s the case, “there is potential […]
By James West30 June 2014 More than 50 million Americans swim in the oceans every year (there are actual government surveys of such things). So if your summer plans involves stripping down and bathing in the sun and salt water of your dreams, read on, intrepid beach-goer. There’s something gooey and stingy that’s loving warm […]
24 June 2014 (Global Oceans Commission) – The widespread occurrence of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is caused by economic incentives enabled through a lack of regulation and enforcement, which result from global governance deficiencies. Each year that it is allowed to thrive, illegal fishing on the high seas is stripping oceans of fish […]
By Lori Montgomery 24 June 2014 NAGS HEAD, N.C. – The dangers of climate change were revealed to Willo Kelly in a government conference room in the summer of 2011. By the end of the century, state officials said, the ocean would be 39 inches higher and her home on the Outer Banks would be […]
By Evan V. Symon and Asgar Pathan 23 June 2014 (Cracked.com) – Right this second, there are men with AK-47s fighting a guerrilla war over rhino horns and elephant tusks. Everything about poaching in Africa is utterly insane, even if you put aside the fact that the poachers are quickly driving animals to extinction. We […]
