Blogging the End of the World™
The disastrous coal ash spill that occurred a year ago at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee dumped a whopping 2.66 million pounds of 10 toxic pollutants into the nearby Emory and Clinch rivers — more than all the surface-water discharges from all U.S. power plants in 2007. That’s one of […]
Just 2 °C more and reefs stop producing a cloud-seeding gas, which could leave corals hotter still and rainforests drier Rising ocean temperatures might leave coral reefs in seriously hot water – without clouds for protection. Five years ago Graham Jones and his team at Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, demonstrated […]
By John Platt Hundreds of brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) have been found sick or dead off the coasts of California in the past month, the victims of a mysterious ailment that has scientists baffled. When found alive, the birds appear hungry and disoriented. But necropsies performed on dead pelicans found that they had been eating, […]
By Anjli Raval Published: February 18 2010 02:00 | Last updated: February 18 2010 02:00 Salmon prices are jumping after a sharp decline in global supply following the collapse of the Chilean industry following an outbreak of a fish disease. Since the start of the year, wholesale prices for Norwegian-produced Atlantic salmon have risen 20.6 […]
Mankind’s closest living relatives – the world’s apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates – are on the brink of extinction and in need of urgent conservation measures according to Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates, 2008–2010. The report, compiled by 85 experts from across the world, reveals that nearly half of all […]
ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2010) — The southern limit of permanently frozen ground, or permafrost, is now 130 kilometers further north than it was 50 years ago in the James Bay region, according to two researchers from the Department of Biology at Université Laval. In a recent issue of the scientific journal Permafrost and Periglacial […]
By Ulf Laessing SANAA, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Yemeni water trader Mohammed al-Tawwa runs his diesel pumps day and night, but gets less and less from his well in Sanaa, which experts say could become the world’s first capital city to run dry. “My well is now 400 metres (1,300 feet) deep and I don’t […]
February 17, 2010 PEOPLE are being warned to avoid contact with the Murray River for the second time in less than a year, as a toxic algal bloom takes hold in the river’s upper reaches. A ”red alert” has been issued for more than 150 kilometres between Hume Dam and Cobram, while the stretch from […]
By BEN CUBBYFebruary 18, 2010 EIGHT swamps inside a conservation area which provide habitat for endangered native animals are likely to be lost if BHP Billiton is allowed to go ahead with plans to develop giant coalmines on Sydney’s south-western outskirts. The company has conceded that the swamps – natural filters that keep the Georges […]
By Thomas Morton, Online Editor, Vice Magazine February 17, 2010 4:16 p.m. EST Brooklyn, New York (VBS.TV) — Back in the mid-zeroes, I remember reading a lot of stories about a buildup of trash in the Pacific Ocean so massive that it had formed a floating island of waste the size of Texas. Its colorful […]