Graph of the Day: Insolation and Global Surface Temperature, 1978-2009

The Sun’s energy received at the top of Earth’s atmosphere has been measured by satellites since 1978. It has followed its natural 11-year cycle of small ups and downs, but with no net increase (bottom). Over the same period, global temperature has risen markedly (top). Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States [pdf] Technorati […]

Tests suggest oil dispersant washing up on Alabama beaches

By Ben Raines, Press-RegisterTuesday, August 03, 2010, 5:00 AM  The stained, brown water seen washing up in pockets along Alabama beaches for the last two weeks appears to contain the dispersant widely used on oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, according to a preliminary analysis. The Press-Register collected samples from multiple locations along the Fort […]

Oil disaster causes persistent public health crisis: Large number of children with medical and psychological problems

  Washington (AFP) Aug 3, 2010 – Oil is no longer spewing from the ruptured BP oil well but the disaster is far from over for families who live along the US Gulf coast, and their kids in particular, a major study said Tuesday. Of 1,200 coastal residents surveyed last month by researchers at the […]

Russia wildfires: ‘Even the road seemed to be on fire. It was like descending into hell’

By Shaun Walker in Mokhovoye Thursday, 5 August 2010 “All around us, everything was on fire,” says Vladimir Anuryev. “Houses, trees, the ground itself – it was all in flames. Even the asphalt on the road seemed to be on fire. It was like descending into hell.” The 73-year-old has lived in Mokhovoye, a village […]

New garbage patch discovered in Indian Ocean — ‘The world’s oceans are covered with a thin plastic soup’

By Lori BongiornoTue Aug 3, 6:58 pm ET Scientists previously mapped huge floating trash patches in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but now a husband-wife team researching plastic garbage in the Indian Ocean suggest a new and dire view. “The world’s oceans are covered with a thin plastic soup,” says Anna Cummins, cofounder of 5 […]

Mediterranean bluefin tuna landings drop by a massive 32.3 percent

By Matthew Vella Wednesday, August 04, 2010 The volume and wholesale value of fresh fish landings dropped by 9.9 and 7.5% respectively in the second quarter this year when compared to 2009. Data from the National Statistics Office for the period April-June 2009 record fish landings amounted to 331,243 kilograms, a decrease of 9.9% over […]

Devastating Pakistan floods now threaten food crisis

  By Faris Ali; additional reporting by Asim Tanveer, Augustine Anthony and Kamran Haider in Islamabad and Junaid Khan in Swat; reporting and writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Nick MacfieWed Aug 4, 2010 9:43am EDT NOWSHERA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistanis facing life-threatening shortages scoured towns for belongings and food in several areas on Wednesday […]

Image of the Day: Smoke over Western Russia, 2 August 2010

Hundreds of fires burned across western Russia on August 2, 2010, but it is the smoke that conveys the magnitude of the disaster in this true-color image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Dense gray-brown smoke extends across the width of this image, a distance of about 1,700 kilometers (1,000 […]

Families kicked out of Mau forest still in the cold

By Wanjiru MachariaPosted Tuesday, July 20 2010 at 21:00 Settlers evicted from South Western Mau are still in makeshift camps one year later even as the government plans to move to the next phase of evictions. While some left the camps after realising that nothing was forthcoming, more than 1,000 families are still languishing at […]

Coalmine discharge fouls Australia’s Georges River

By BEN CUBBY, ENVIRONMENT EDITORAugust 4, 2010 CONTAMINATED water from a coalmine is flowing into the Georges River, south of Sydney, at levels that are toxic to aquatic life, an independent water quality report has shown. A plume of saline water stretched along the river for 15 kilometres from the discharge point of an underground […]

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