By Laura Poppick5 August 2013 (LiveScience) – Seaweed could smother polar underwater ecosystems as melting sea ice exposes the seafloor to more sunlight, new research shows. Animals that dwell on the seafloor of the Arctic and Antarctic spend most of their lives in total darkness: Sea ice blocks rays during the spring and early summer, […]
By Nafeez Ahmed 5 August 2013 (The Guardian) – Debate over the plausibility of a catastrophic release of methane in coming decades due to thawing Arctic permafrost has escalated after a new Nature paper warned that exactly this scenario could trigger costs equivalent to the annual GDP of the global economy. Scientists of different persuasions […]
By Helen Davidson 5 August 2013 (The Guardian) – Rising ocean temperatures are rearranging the biological make-up of our oceans, pushing species towards the poles by 7kms every year, as they chase the climates they can survive in, according to new research. The study, conducted by a working group of scientists from 17 different institutions, […]
By Nathan Layne3 August 2013 TOKYO (Reuters) – Radioactive groundwater at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has risen to levels above a barrier being built to contain it, highlighting the risk of an increasing amount of contaminated water reaching the sea, Japanese media reported on Saturday. The Asahi newspaper, citing data from a Friday meeting […]
By WILLIAM D. RUCKELSHAUS, LEE M. THOMAS, WILLIAM K. REILLY and CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN1 August 2013 (The New York Times) – Each of us took turns over the past 43 years running the Environmental Protection Agency. We served Republican presidents, but we have a message that transcends political affiliation: the United States must move now […]
By Rhett A. Butler26 June 2013 (mongabay.com) – Peru had the largest extent of forest loss in 2012, losing 48,000 hectares, an increase of 15,431 ha or 47 percent over 2011. Venezuela (11,606 ha), Colombia (10,069 ha), Bolivia (6,975 ha), Suriname (6,569 ha), Guyana (3,713 ha), Ecuador (1,663 ha), and French Guyana (1,338 ha) followed. […]
23 July 2013 (EEA) – Grassland butterflies have declined dramatically between 1990 and 2011. This has been caused by intensifying agriculture and a failure to properly manage grassland ecosystems, according to a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). The fall in grassland butterfly numbers is particularly worrying, according to the report, because these butterflies […]
SHANGHAI, 1 August 2013 (AP) – It’s been so hot in China that folks are grilling shrimp on manhole covers, eggs are hatching without incubators and a highway billboard has mysteriously caught fire by itself. The heat wave — the worst in at least 140 years in some parts — has left dozens of people […]
By Jeremy Hance1 August 2013 (mongabay.com) – According to a new review of 27 climate models, scientists say the global climate is likely to experience a warmth as great as any in the last 65 million years, only much, much faster. According to the study published today in Science, the Earth’s land temperature will rise […]
By Lindsay Fendt and Zachary Dyer 31 July 2013 Two months after the 26-year-old turtle conservationist was murdered on a Caribbean beach, police conduct several raids on the Caribbean coast and have at least 6 suspects in custody. More arrests are expected, police say. MOÍN, Limón (Tico Times) – Shortly after 5 a.m. on Wednesday, […]
