Video: Gulf still grapples with massive BP oil leak 2 years later

Watch Gulf Still Grapples With Massive BP Oil Leak 2 Years Later on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour. [Sorry for the ad.] 20 April 2012 (PBS) – Two years after the largest oil leak in U.S. history, the Gulf of Mexico region still struggles with its impact. Jeffrey Brown, David Valentine of the University […]

Rising sea levels put coastal communities at risk

By Arlene Martinez19 April 2012 Oil spills, water pollution, harmful pesticides: those are the types of contaminants that spurred environmental crusaders to initiate the first Earth Day in 1970. Damage from industries, businesses and agriculture was noticeable, from thick sludge in landfills that bordered homes to unnatural plumes of green smoke that were emitted from […]

Rising sea level and salt water intrusion threaten Mekong Delta agriculture

By Marwaan Macan-Markar 19 April 2012 BANGKOK – With Vietnam’s fertile Mekong delta threatened by rising sea levels and salt water ingress, the country’s future as a major rice exporter depends critically on research underway in the Philippines. Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are working with Vietnamese counterparts in the town of […]

Sahel: As likely malnutrition crisis looms, MSF prepares short- and long-term responses

30 March 2012 (Médecins Sans Frontières) – The annual “hunger season” seems likely to be particularly serious in the Sahel this year, and a few particular regions may face acute nutritional crises in the coming months. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is therefore expanding its nutritional activities to address the seasonal “peak” in malnutrition […]

Phenology gardens track ties between weather, nature

By Mary Beth Breckenridge, Akron Beacon Journal 20 April 2012 How strange has this spring been? Denise Ellsworth can tell you exactly. Ellsworth is one of the coordinators of the Ohio Phenology Garden Network, a patchwork of gardens that helps scientists track the timing of natural occurrences. The gardens supply data on when plants bloom, […]

Graph of the Day: Mean Sea-Surface Temperature Anomalies for the Australia Region, 1900-2011

Annual (line) and decadal (box) mean sea-surface temperature anomalies for the Australian region relative to the 1961–1990 average. The average value for the most recent 10-year period (2002–2011) is shown in darker grey. Sea-surface temperatures in the Australian region in 2010 were the highest on record, with nine of the months during 2011 ranked in […]

China, Iceland announce deal on oil-rich Arctic as sea ice recedes

REYKJAVIK, 21 April 2012 (AFP) – China and Iceland announced a deal on the oil-rich Arctic region Friday after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao flew in to Reykjavik on the first stage of a four-nation European tour. The deal was part of a package of six agreements signed on the first day of the Chinese premier’s […]

Senate testimony on sea level rise by Ben Strauss

By Benjamin H. Strauss20 April 2012 Good morning, Senator Bingaman and colleagues. Thank you for your attention to this important topic. I am Dr. Ben Strauss, coauthor of two recent peer-reviewed papers making an assessment of sea level risk to the lower 48 states, as well as the summary report submitted with my written testimony. […]

Drought forecast for U.S. Southwest and California ‘not optimistic’

By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com19 April 2012 Most of the Southwest as well as parts of California and the Southeast can expect drought conditions to worsen through July, federal forecasters said Thursday. “Overall, the current Drought Outlook is not optimistic,” the National Weather Service said in summarizing its forecast. Besides affecting farmers and ranchers, drought means […]

Fukushima Daiichi: Inside the debacle – ‘Failure at almost every level’

By Bill Powell and Hideko Takayama20 April 2012 FORTUNE – More than a year has passed since a massive earthquake and a series of tsunamis triggered the worst accident at a nuclear power plant since Chernobyl in 1986, but the epic debacle at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station remains front and center in Japan, […]

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