Blogging the End of the World™
By Andy Coghlan THE ongoing degradation of the Amazon rainforest has obscured the plight of its smaller sibling: the Atlantic forest in Brazil, which is a biodiversity hotspot. Once covering about 1.5 million square kilometres, the rainforest has been reduced to about one-tenth of its original area in the past 500 years, a new study […]
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (AFP) May 7, 2009 – An acute drought in Brazil has hit the famed horseshoe-shaped Igauzu falls which straddle two countries, cutting back the tumbling waters to reveal the rocky sides. Only a third of the usual volume of water is now flowing over the top of the stunning falls, which […]
Beijing (AFP) April 23, 2009 – Air pollution in China’s cities remains very serious, state media on Thursday quoted a minister as saying, amid an ongoing battle to clean up the skies in the world’s largest coal-consuming nation. … China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal and its appetite for the cheap […]
Following the loss of an ice bridge on the Antarctic Wilkins Ice Shelf, the northern ice front is now becoming unstable. The first icebergs broke off at this point on 20 April 2009. This was observed by scientists using the TerraSAR-X Earth observation satellite operated by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und […]
By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC News The wild ancestors of common domestic fruit trees are in danger of becoming extinct, scientists have warned. Researchers have published a “red list” of threatened species that grow in the forests of Central Asia. These disease-resistant and climate-tolerant fruit trees could play a role in our future food security. […]
From Calculated Risk: The first graph shows weekly claims and continued claims since 1971. The four-week moving average is at 623,500, off 35,250 from the peak 4 weeks ago. Continued claims are now at 6.35 million – an all time record. … Weekly Unemployment Claims Decline; Record Continued Claims Technorati Tags: financial collapse
Poor regulation of the international wildlife trade has increased the vulnerability of the U.S. to outbreaks of disease and alien invasive species, report researchers writing in Science. Analyzing Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS) data gathered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 2000 through 2006, Katherine Smith of Brown University and colleagues found […]
Chimp populations continue to decline in Africa. A new survey of our closest relatives in the Cote D’Ivoire found that the population fell from an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 individuals to a paltry 800 to 1,200, a decline that took place in less than twenty years. Perhaps most troubling about this new survey is Cote […]
By Gregor Peter Schmitz and Gabor Steingart The financial crisis in the US has triggered a social crisis of historic dimensions. Soup kitchens are suddenly in great demand and tent cities are popping up in the shadow of glistening office towers. Even drug dealers are feeling the pinch. … In the United States, the economic […]
The ecosystem of the Cape Gannet, a protected bird species, has gone haywire. As a result of overfishing, the birds are no longer able to find enough food to rear their young. Pelicans, kelp gulls and seals are becoming increasing threats – the lack of fish means that these predators are attacking Cape Gannet chicks […]
