Blogging the End of the World™
From Calculated Risk: By popular request … The FDIC closed seven more banks yesterday, and the following graph shows bank failures by week for 2009. So far there have been 52 FDIC bank failures in 2009.It appears the pace has picked up lately (12 bank closings over the last two weeks). … FDIC Bank Failures […]
Extinction looms for amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds restricted to declining mangrove forests (American Institute of Biological Sciences) More than 40 percent of a sample of amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds that are restricted to mangrove ecosystems are globally threatened with extinction, according to an assessment published in the July/August issue of BioScience. The […]
By Michael Perry SYDNEY (Reuters) – Mounting loss of seagrass in the world’s oceans, vital for the survival of endangered marine life, commercial fisheries and the fight against climate change, reveals a major crisis in coastal ecosystems, a report says. A global study of seagrass, which can absorb large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide, found […]
By Matthew McDermott Hopefully you already are aware of the plight of orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra as logging and palm oil plantations continue to rapidly destroy their habitat. The rate of deforestation and habitat loss is so great that some scientists are predicting that the orangutan will be the first great ape to go […]
By Mark Schleifstein Even under best-case scenarios of building massive engineering projects to restore Louisiana’s dying coastline, the Mississippi River cannot possibly feed enough sediment into the marshes to prevent ongoing catastrophic land loss, two Louisiana State University geologists conclude in a scientific paper being published today. The result: The state will lose another […]
By David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Staples such as cassava on which millions of people depend become more toxic and produce much smaller yields in a world with higher carbon dioxide levels and more drought, Australian scientists say. The findings, presented on Monday at a conference in Glasgow, Scotland, underscored […]
Increased melting of the large polar ice sheets contributes to the observed increase in sea level. Observations of the area of the Greenland ice sheet that has been at the melting point temperature at least one day during the summer period shows a 50% increase during the period 1979 to 20086 (see figure). The Greenland […]
By Tim Hirsch Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has approved a controversial bill allowing Amazon farmers to acquire an area of public land larger than France. But the president vetoed some of the most contentious clauses that would have enabled absentee landlords and companies to benefit from the measure. Smaller parcels of public […]
By Matt Walker People and giant pandas are still coming into conflict. So concludes a report into the firewood collecting habits of people living in one of China’s largest panda reserves. It found that over the past 30 years, people living in rural communities have ventured ever deeper into prime panda habitat to collect […]
By Richard Black Mexico’s twin crises – swine flu and the economy – may derail a plan to save the world’s most endangered cetacean. Only about 150 vaquita are left, and about 30 are dying each year through becoming entangled in fishing nets. The government has cut funding aimed at taking fishing boats out of […]
