Blogging the End of the World™
Lukla, Nepal (AFP) Aug 30, 2009 – Over two decades, Funuru Sherpa has watched the lake above his native village of Dengboche in Nepal’s Himalayas grow, as the glacier that feeds it melts. The 29-year-old, who runs a busy Internet cafe for tourists visiting the Everest region, remembers his grandfather telling him that 50 years […]
Tsavo West National Park, Kenya (AFP) Aug 30, 2009 – Kenya’s persistent and bruising drought is having a serious impact on the country’s wildlife, one of its main tourist attractions, obliging the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to feed hippos to keep them alive. In Tsavo West national park, a vast expanse of shrubby savannah and […]
By Jeremy Hance Oil is leaking from an offshore drilling rig in the Timor Sea near Australia’s Northwest coast. Authorities say it will be weeks before the leak is plugged: they are awaiting the arrival of a drilling rig from Singapore to plug the leak. “This is a potential disaster for turtles, whales, dolphins, sea […]
By MALCOLM BROWN WINTER fires burning on the South Coast yesterday, threatening property and forcing residents to prepare for evacuation, sounded a grim warning for the summer, the Minister for Emergency Services, Steve Whan, said. ”People at the Fire Control Centre have told me that they have not seen this type of fire behaviour at […]
By William Laurance “THE best thing you could do for the Amazon is to bomb all the roads.” That might sound like an eco-terrorist’s threat, but they’re actually the words of Eneas Salati, one of Brazil’s most respected scientists. Thomas Lovejoy, a leading American biologist, is equally emphatic: “Roads are the seeds of tropical forest […]
By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent SANAA (Reuters) – Gentle showers temporarily damp the dust and cool the August heat of Sanaa, but cannot remedy a grim water outlook for the Yemeni capital’s 2 million people. Some residents receive piped city water only once every nine days and others get none at all. The sinking water […]
SOMEBODY was having a graph in Sandown last week after a mysterious image appeared on the beach.A County Press reader sent this photograph of what looks like a graph with a set of dates on it, plus a ‘you are here’ message.The graph attracted lots of attention from early-morning joggers and dog walkers, before it […]
By John Platt in 60-Second Extinction Countdown Urban growth is quickly driving one of the world’s most bizarre creatures into extinction. According to a new study, the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), a Mexican amphibian that never metamorphoses past its larval stage, has seen a 90 percent population drop in the last four years. Only an estimated […]
By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News Poachers are threatening the survival of the northern Madagascar spider tortoise, which only lives along a narrow strip of the island’s coast. The animal has disappeared from swathes of its habitat, taken by collectors to supply the exotic pet trade. Wild numbers of the tortoise may have already fallen […]
By AP / JUDY LIN (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is hoping that the “Great California Garage Sale” will turn government clutter like surplus prison uniforms and office furniture into cash to bulk up the state’s depleted finances. On offer as the state clears out clutter are nearly 600 state-owned vehicles and thousands of […]
