Blogging the End of the World™
Damascus, Syria, 7 August 2009 (UPI) – The drought that has kept Syria dry for three years has cost more than 800,000 people their livelihoods, Red Cross and Red Crescent officials said. The International Federal of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies this week said about $300,000 had been set aside for immediate assistance for […]
by Richard Harris Scientists say the world’s coral reefs could go extinct during our children’s lifetimes. Human activities are putting this beautiful ecosystem at risk. Some risks are obvious — such as global warming, which results in overheated seas. Others are more subtle. Consider the case of the damselfish: Looking off the coast from the […]
Air quality in Malaysian Borneo is worsening as large numbers of fires rage near the Sarawak-Brunei border, reports the Star newspaper. The Air Pollutant Index (API) reached as high as 197 in parts of Sarawak on Sunday, according to Malaysia’s Environment Department. Fires are set in Sarawak to clear brush and forest in and around […]
Dhaka (AFP) July 21, 2009 – A delay to Bangladesh’s monsoon season is posing a severe risk of drought in the impoverished nation and threatening food supplies, officials warned Tuesday. Monsoon rains normally sweep Bangladesh from June to September and the South Asian country gets more than 75 percent of its annual rainfall during this […]
Despite being accorded the highest level of protection under Indian law, soft shell turtles are regularly trafficked in Kerala for the restaurant trade, report researchers writing in in the journal Tropical Conservation Science. Conducting a survey in Punnamada (South India), K. Krishnakumar, Rajeev Raghavan and Benno Pereira found that Indian pond terrapins and Indian Flap-shelled […]
ScienceDaily (Aug. 10, 2009) — A study of oyster reefs in a once-pristine California coastal estuary found them devastated by invasive Atlantic Coast crabs and snails, providing new evidence of the consequences when human activities move species beyond their natural borders. Led by marine biologist David L. Kimbro, now of The Florida State University Coastal […]
Cumulative net balance of South Cascade, Wolverine, and Gulkana Glaciers (Josberger and others, 2007). Densities of snow and ice differ considerably and before glacier-average thickness changes in each material can be summed to the net balance, the changes must be converted to a common basis. By custom, the common basis is “meters water equivalent” (MWEQ), […]
Climate change could result in the catastrophic loss of wildlife, a report says. The National Park Service is called on to create a system to manage animals and plants. By Margot Roosevelt The federal government must take decisive action to avoid “a potentially catastrophic loss of animal and plant life” in national parks, according to […]
Despite violent protests by indigenous groups over plans to expand oil and gas exploration in the Peru’s Amazon rainforest, energy investments in the South American country are expected to increase to $1.5 billion in both 2009 and 2010, reports Reuters. Daniel Saba, president of Perupetro, Peru’s energy agency, told Reuters that the government will auction […]
From Calculated Risk: From Matt Padilla at the O.C. Register: Foreclosure wave gathers momentum “To say there is a second wave implies the (current) wave has receded,” [Sam Khater, senior economist, First American CoreLogic] “I don’t see that the wave has receded.” This graph is from Matt based on data from American CoreLogic. Khater said […]
