Blogging the End of the World™
The Arctic Ocean is becoming acidic so quickly that it will reach corrosive levels within 10 years, a leading scientist has warned. By Matthew MoorePublished: 4:33PM BST 04 Oct 2009 Waters around the North Pole are absorbing carbon dioxide at such a rate that they will soon start dissolving the shells of living sea creatures. […]
By Dan Joling, Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Trampling likely killed 131 mostly young walruses on the northwest shore of Alaska, according to an examination by an investigative team that included federal scientists. Young animals can be crushed in stampedes when a herd is startled by a polar bear, human hunters or even a […]
The catastrophic decline around the world of ‘apex’ predators such as wolves, cougars, lions or sharks has led to a huge increase in smaller ‘mesopredators’ that are causing major economic and ecological disruptions, a new study concludes. The findings, published today in the journal Bioscience, found that in North America all of the largest terrestrial […]
A freak tornado and floods last month may be a harbinger of a troubled future for Brazilian farmers, who worry that climate change could severely disrupt production in one of the world’s breadbaskets. Rising temperatures, a shift in seasons, and extreme weather in coming decades are likely to cut output in some areas and wipe […]
By Robert Waweru TURKANA, Kenya (Reuters) – Villagers in northwest Kenya squat in the sparse shade of an acacia tree and watch as aid workers slaughter their prized goats before distributing the meat to hungry people waiting for relief food. Goats are the economic lifeblood of the minority Turkana tribe, who live around Kenya’s […]
By Blake Morrison and Brad Heath, USA TODAY Outside 15 schools in eight states, government regulators have found elevated levels of a substance that — in a more potent form — was also used as a chemical weapon during World War I. Those findings, based on samples collected for the Environmental Protection Agency, mark the […]
The recent observed collapse in the population cycles of small rodents, shown here for lemmings in northeast Greenland, as a result of diminished snow cover in the Arctic [from O. Gilg, B. Sittler, I. Hanski, Glob. Change Biol. 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01927.x (2009)]. Eric Post, et al., Ecological Dynamics Across the Arctic Associated with Recent Climate Change, Science, […]
A virus brought on by loss of habitat is wiping out an Australian icon By Tanalee Smith in Cudlee Creek The koala, Australia’s star symbol, is dying of stress. The marsupial is found only along the coastal areas of eastern Australia where it feeds off the leaves of the eucalyptus tree. But, as more and […]
New Delhi (AFP) Sept 30, 2009 – India has suffered its worst drought since 1972, the official weather office said on Wednesday, with rains 23 percent below average at the end of the country’s four-month monsoon season. “India’s 2009 monsoon rainfall has been the worst since 1972,” a spokesperson for the Meteorological Department, P.K. Bandhopadhyay, […]
[Google translation] Once they were symbols of growth and prosperity, today many American shopping malls only ruins are left. For artists and amateur archaeologists are the spirits Center exciting playgrounds of morbid beauty. They document the disintegration of the American way of life. By Iris Hellmuth …What he saw when he first entered, took his […]
