Blogging the End of the World™
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY GRANBURY, Texas — Firefighters assigned to the Texas Forest Service this year have grown accustomed to living away from wives and husbands, skipping family gatherings, missing anniversaries. PHOTOS: Texas battles wildfires They check in daily to the Forest Service’s command center in this north-central Texas town, no days off, waiting […]
New Delhi (AFP) Aug 16, 2009 – Crops are shrivelling as India faces the spectre of drought but economists say they are still upbeat about the country’s economic prospects. They are banking that a strong industrial performance will help offset the impact of the worst monsoon in years in Asia’s third largest economy. Analysts have […]
By ANNA M. TINSLEY As the hot days in Texas get even hotter, it may just be too much for some birds and fish. From the American goldfinch to the gray snapper, some species have been moving north for years, searching for cooler ground. And their quest may someday lead them to migrate out of […]
Features formed by melting permafrost provide clues to a changing Arctic landscape and climate By Lisa Jarvis There is a profound quietude north of Alaska’s Brooks Range, the string of mountains separating the boreal forest from the Arctic tundra. Traveling along the Dalton Highway, the one road to the Arctic Ocean, one sees little visible […]
By Mead Gruver, Associated Press Writer Cheyenne, Wyo. » Glaciers on the iconic Teton Range are shrinking, researchers say, joining a growing list of glaciers in North America and beyond that are losing their surface area and potentially reducing the water supply for nearby regions. Two of the Tetons’ biggest glaciers have lost more than […]
by Rahul Goswami The first reports of drought-related suicides have begun filtering in from the district press. Farmers in the eastern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh are taking their own lives – the toll is said to be 20 farmers over the last 40 days. The state is one amongst many which has so far […]
(University of Virginia) Massive burning of forests for agriculture thousands of years ago may have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide enough to alter global climate and usher in a warming trend that continues today, according to a new study that appears online Aug. 17 in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews. Researchers at the University of Virginia […]
Half of all weeds come to dominate the ocean island habitats they invade, a new analysis reveals. By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News Almost 400 invasive plant species have set up home as weeds on some of the world’s most distant oceanic islands. About half now dominate their new habitat, and hundreds more species are […]
By Nora Schultz You may have thought that the silver lining of rising carbon dioxide levels would be a boost in crop yields. But evidence is mounting that we may trade quantity for quality. The discovery that staple crops like wheat have less protein when grown in high concentrations of CO2 has already caused concern, […]
By John Platt Who stole 83 loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings from their nest on Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina? A $5,000 reward has been posted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the turtle-napper(s). Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) are protected as a threatened species […]
