25 January 2014 (SSCS) – The Japanese whaling fleet has abandoned its plans to out-run the Sea Shepherd Fleet, with its factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru, slowing down to 12 knots after a 36 hour chase at full speed. At approximately 1300 AEDT today, the Nisshin Maru, flanked by the harpoon vessels, Yushin Maru and […]
The doom of the biosphere accelerated as expected in 2013: global warming dished up record floods, storms, drought, and wildfires; poachers slaughtered endangered wildlife with impunity; the logging industry razed whole forest ecosystems inexorably; the fishing industry stripped the oceans of biomass. The usual. What surprised Desdemona was a startling shift in public attitudes about […]
By Michael Hiltzik20 January 2014 (Los Angeles Times) – Aaron Carroll today offers a graphic depiction of the toll of the anti-vaccination movement. (H/t: Kevin Drum.) It comes from a Council on Foreign Relations interactive map of “vaccine-preventable outbreaks” worldwide 2008-2014. A couple of manifestations stand out. One is the prevalence of measles in Europe […]
24 January 2014 (Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians) – Pantropical Spotted Dolphins January 24, 2014 An entire family of Pantropical Spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) was obliterated this morning in the killing cove. Despite worldwide media attention on Taiji, the dolphin killers continue to hunt, kidnap and murder dolphins. The killing is not limited to just one […]
By Katie Rucke23 January 2014 (MintPress News) – The nonprofit organization Amazon Watch on Monday released a satirical video to draw attention to the threats Chevron has made to environmentalists, journalists, scientists and locals who have asked for the company to be held accountable for its destructive actions, and the company’s attempts to criminalize environmental […]
By GARY CHITTIM24 January 2014 SEATTLE (KING 5 News) – Northwest whale groups are outraged by reports that recently captured orcas may be on exhibit during the Olympic Games in Sochi. Paul Spong, Co-Founder of OrcaLab, a marine research facility in British Columbia, said there was a confirmed capture of seven orcas near Japan last […]
25 January 2014 (The Economist) – Since climate change was identified as a serious threat to the planet, Europe has been in the vanguard of the effort to mitigate it. The policies it has adopted are designed with two aims in mind: to cut European emissions drastically and to push other big emitters into adopting […]
23 January 2014 (Climate Science Watch) – Accusing a scientist of conducting his research fraudulently is a factual allegation that can be proven true or false, not mere hyperbolic opinionating. If it is false it is defamatory, and if it is made with actual malice it is actionable. So said DC Superior Court Frederick Weisberg […]
By John R. Platt 8 January 2014 (Scientific American) – Physically and emotionally demanding. That’s how Philipp Henschel, Lion Program Survey Coordinator for the big-cat conservation organization Panthera, describes the six years he and other researchers spent combing the wilds of 17 nations looking for the elusive and rarely studied West African lion. The results […]
By Candace Calloway Whiting22 January 2014 Below is the audio recording from the National Public Radio interview with State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. It is about three minutes long and worth listening to as they discuss Ambassador Kennedy’s fresh approach as Ambassador. This is the transcript of the press briefing, it is interesting in the […]
