Worsening electricity shortages fuel growing global crisis

By Tamsin CarlisleLast Updated: July 24. 2010 6:50PM UAE / July 24. 2010 2:50PM GMT Global electricity demand is growing again after a lull last year related to the economic slowdown. The result is more countries face electricity shortages. This is not just a matter of insufficient fuel or high energy prices as the world […]

Acidification: Threatening ocean life from the inside out

Carbon dioxide emissions are making the oceans more acidic, imperiling the growth and reproduction of species from plankton to squid By Marah J. Hardt and Carl Safina    “Slow sperm … now that’s a problem,” said Jonathan Havenhand, his British accent compounding the gravity of the message. “That means fewer fertilized eggs, fewer babies and smaller […]

Poaching threatens Amazon river dolphins with extinction

The pink dolphins of the Amazon are being threatened with extinction as fishermen kill them to use their flesh as bait. By Harriet Alexander and Rebecca LefortPublished: 4:07PM BST 24 Jul 2010 Scientists believe that 1,500 dolphins are being killed annually in the western Amazon to fuel a lucrative trade in catfish, which feeds on […]

Graph of the Day: Abnormally High Annual Precipitation in the Lower 48 States, 1895–2008

This figure shows the percentage of the land area of the lower 48 states that experienced much greater than normal precipitation in any given year, which means it scored 2.0 or above on the annual Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The thicker orange line shows a nine-year moving average that smooths out some of the year-to-year […]

The world’s ongoing ecological disasters

While it’s probably still too soon to celebrate, BP appears to finally be getting the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico under control. But many of the world’s greatest environmental catastrophes continue, with no end in sight. BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | JULY 16, 2010 Disaster: Oil spills Going since: Around 1966 Damage done: […]

Arctic Ocean full up with carbon dioxide

Loss of sea ice is unlikely to enable Arctic waters to mop up more carbon dioxide from the air. By Hannah Hoag As climate scientists watched the Arctic’s sea-ice cover shrink year after year, they thought there might be a silver lining: an ice-free Arctic Ocean could soak up large amounts of CO2 from the […]

Jordan River too polluted for baptisms

Jerusalem (AFP) July 21, 2010 – An environmental group on Wednesday called for a halt to baptisms in the Jordan River where tradition holds that Jesus was baptised, saying the waters there were dangerously polluted. “Friends of the Earth Middle East call on regional authorities to halt baptism in the lower Jordan River until water […]

The New Doom: A second wave of economic pessimism spreading outside Wonkdom

By Max AbelsonJuly 13, 2010 | 9:25 p.m “Life is such a fucking disaster,” a prominent New York hedge fund manager said recently. “We all live in some kind of world we create for ourselves. And I think that what happened is that built into that world were very enlarged expectations about what life was […]

Algae bloom in Baltic Sea puts marine life at risk

  By Tony Paterson in BerlinFriday, 23 July 2010 Record summer temperatures, farm fertilisers and a lack of wind have a gigantic carpet of evil-smelling weed covering large areas of the Baltic and threatening both marine life and seaside tourism, scientists warn. The 377,000 sq km of blue-green algae, covering an area the size of […]

At least 105 people treated for oil-related conditions in coastal Alabama

By Casandra Andrews, Press-Register Published: Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 1:50 PM MOBILE, Ala. — At least 105 people have gone to local emergency rooms, clinics and urgent care centers since May 14 complaining of ailments thought to be related to the oil spill, Alabama Department of Public Health officials reported today. That compares with 47,316 […]

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