Blogging the End of the World™
This graph shows an overall decrease in the rate of calcification in Porites corals on the Great Barrier Reef since 1900. Since 1980, there has been a dramatic decrease in the calcification rate, which has been attributed to increasing acidification and increasing sea temperature stress. The light blue bands indicate 95 per cent confidence intervals […]
Atlanta (September 8, 2009) —Tornadoes that occur from hurricanes moving inland from the Gulf Coast are increasing in frequency, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This increase seems to reflect the increase in size and frequency among large hurricanes that make landfall from the Gulf of Mexico. The findings can be found […]
By TOM ARUP, ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT A LAST-DITCH effort to save the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat has failed, leaving the animal facing almost certain extinction. A dejected Lindy Lumsden from the Australasian Bat Society said a four-week trapping program to breed the endangered pipistrelle – endemic to Christmas Island – had failed to net a single […]
Hundreds of villagers have been forced to take shelter in camps in the Indian state of Orissa after repeated attacks by a herd of elephants. Seven people have been killed and several others injured in attacks by a herd of 12-13 elephants over the past few weeks in Kandhamal district. Over 2,500 people living in […]
Crops are wilting in the countryside, and the capital’s water shortage has turned dire as Mexico grapples with its worst drought in more than half a century. By Ken Ellingwood, Reporting from Mexico City – In the parched Mexican countryside, the corn is wilting, the wheat stunted. And here in this vast and thirsty capital, […]
By Josia Razafindramanana, special to mongabay.com A small group of crowned sifaka lemurs Propithecus coronatus have been located in the corridor d’Amboloando-Dabolava, Miandrivazo district-Madagascar, but are immediately threatened with local extinction. The small, fragmented, and isolated forest shelters a group of only six adults and one baby. Interviews with local people revealed that once several […]
ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2009) — Beginning August 26, 2009, and continuing into September 2009, a large wildfire in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles known as the Station Fire burned more than 140,000 acres through September 3. Carbon monoxide in the smoke from this large fire was lofted as high as 8.3 kilometers […]
From Calculated Risk: This graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in consumer credit. Consumer credit is off 4.2% over the last 12 months. The previous record YoY decline was 1.9% in 1991. Here is the Fed report: Consumer Credit. Consumer credit declined from $2,493.6 billion in June to $2,472.1 in July. Note: The Fed reports […]
By John Platt Well folks, it looks like this is it for the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus murrayi). This critically endangered species of microbat now appears to be doomed to impending extinction as last-gasp efforts to capture the few remaining bats and place them in a captive breeding program have failed. Eight scientists, along […]
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, Associated Press TUKTOYAKTUK, Northwest Territories — Caught between rising seas and land melting beneath their mukluk-shod feet, the villagers of Tuktoyaktuk are doing what anyone would do on this windy Arctic coastline. They’re building windmills. That’s wind-power turbines, to be exact — a token first try at “getting rid of this […]
