Blogging the End of the World™
Images have been released showing a female whale fighting for her life after becoming entangled in a fishing net in the South Pacific. These heart-breaking images show the desperate plight of a whale trapped by equipment used in a controversial form of commercial fishing. The southern-hemisphere humpback became entangled in a long line and was […]
CHICAGO, Illinois, August 25, 2009 (ENS) – The common herbicide atrazine, known to impact wildlife reproductive health, has contaminated watersheds and drinking water throughout much of the United States, finds a new report released Monday by the Natural Resources Defense Council that raises concern about the chemical’s effects on human reproduction. The environmental nonprofit organization […]
ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2009) — The world’s last remaining “pristine” forest — the boreal forest across large stretches of Russia, Canada and other northern countries — is under increasing threat, a team of international researchers has found. The researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia, Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada and the National […]
Politicians cared little about the burning of East Africa’s largest forest – until the lights in Nairobi started going out. By Daniel Howden Under a slate-grey sky Francis Maina is hunched over a tree stump. He secures a rusted chain around it and signals for the tractor to start hauling. The blackened base of the […]
The worst drought to hit parts of north China in six decades has left nearly five million people short of water, while officials warn of another dry spell further south, state media reported Sunday. A total of 4.6 million people and 4.1 million head of livestock face difficulty accessing drinking water in the north, the […]
By BOB WEBER, The Canadian Press Climate change is already having a dramatic effect on plants in the High Arctic, turning the once rocky tundra a deep shade of green and creating what could be another mechanism speeding up global warming. In a new study to be published in the November issue of the journal […]
KODIAK ISLAND, Alaska, August 24, 2009 (ENS) – Billions of tons of carbon are buried in the frozen Arctic tundra, now heating up because of human-caused climate change. To measure which greenhouse gases are being released and in what quantities, government scientists are flying instrument-laden planes over the tundra from now through November. They say […]
At least 20,000 orangutans have been killed or captured for the illegal pet trade in the past ten years in Indonesia without a single prosecution, according to a report published by Nature Alert and the Centre for Orangutan Protection, groups that campaign on behalf of orangutans. The report, titled The Indonesian Chainsaw Massacre, blames the […]
It succors and drowns human life. And for the last eight years, oil — and the people and places that make it — was my obsession. By Peter Maass The canoe that carried me into the Niger Delta had an outboard engine that conked out several times before reaching Tombia, which was then the latest […]
Trends in marine fishery catches as a function of fish diversity. (A) Trajectories of fish and invertebrate collapses (i.e., falling below 10% of maximum historical harvest) over the last 50 yr (♦=collapses by year, ▲=cumulative collapses). Data are shown for all (black), species-poor (<500 species, blue) and species-rich (>500 species, red) Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). […]
