Reporting by Laura Martel; writing by David Lewis; Editing by Alison WilliamsSat Aug 21, 2010 11:11am EDT NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) – Mauritania has launched a tree-planting program aimed at protecting its capital from the advancing desert and coastal erosion, a project that could eventually extend thousands of kilometers across Africa. President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz on […]
By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News 20 August 2010 A study has measured the amount of plastic debris found in a region of the Atlantic Ocean over a 22-year period. US researchers, writing in Science, suggest the volume of plastic appeared to have peaked in recent years. One reason could be tighter […]
www.mongabay.comAugust 19, 2010 Lion populations across Uganda’s park system have declined 40 percent in less than a decade, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). “Conserving Uganda’s last remaining lions is a global responsibility,” WCS Senior Carnivore researcher Tutilo Mudumba said in a statement. “If we outlive this iconic African species, we will have to […]
By Steve Cole, NASA Headquarters, WashingtonAug. 19, 2010 WASHINGTON — Global plant productivity that once was on the rise with warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline because of regional drought according to a new study of NASA satellite data. Plant productivity is a measure of the rate of the […]
It has taken weeks for the trail of destruction in mountain villages to be starkly revealed, writes By MARY FITZGERALD Foreign Affairs Correspondent, The Irish Times Friday, August 20, 2010 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan — NESTLED AMID the fabled Karakoram range of the greater Himalaya, Kohistan has long been home to one of the most remote […]
This chart shows the percentage of the land area of the lower 48 states with summer daily low temperatures well above normal. The bars represent individual years, while the line is a smoothed nine-year moving average. Heat waves occurred with high frequency in the 1930s, and these remain the most severe heat waves in the […]
The Associated Press Published: Thursday, August 19, 2010, 1:00 PM WASHINGTON — A 22-mile-long invisible mist of oil is meandering far below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, where it will probably loiter for months or more, scientists reported Thursday in the first conclusive evidence of an underwater plume from the BP spill. The […]
By Kelsey Abbott and Justin Ries 8/8/10 07:42 pm The Gulf of Maine is and always has been an essential part of the coastal New England economy. Throughout history, the bounty of the Gulf of Maine has fluctuated due to fishing pressures, technology and species’ popularity. As these changes have affected some parts of the […]
By Staff WritersAug 19, 2010 Jerusalem, Israel (SPX) Aug 19, 2010 – How toxic, blue-green algae out-compete other organisms through a form of selfish “enslavement” – and by so doing proliferate dangerously in freshwater bodies – has been described by a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In general, the increasing occurrence of […]
By KATIE ZEZIMAPublished: August 17, 2010 ORLEANS, Mass. — Rising nitrogen levels are suffocating the vegetation and marine life in saltwater ponds and estuaries on Cape Cod, creating an environmental and infrastructure problem that, if left unchecked, will threaten the shellfishing industry, the tourist economy and the beaches that lure so many summer visitors. More […]
