Blogging the End of the World™
Study estimates a million birds were lost on two key islands Lovelace, the rockhopper penguin that answers life’s questions in the animated film Happy Feet, probably would be just as stumped as the researchers who reported Friday that the population of his northern relatives has declined by 90 percent over the last 50 years. […]
Argentina’s beef industry and wheat and corn production have been devastated by the country’s most severe drought since 1961- a drought which has also affected agriculture in neighbouring Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. REUTERS – Argentine rancher Gustavo Giailevra has seen 425 of his cattle, a quarter of his herd, die of thirst in the […]
Raw sewage and pollution from agricultural run-off polluted 83 percent of China’s coastal waters in 2008, state media said Saturday. China’s coastal waters last year witnessed 68 red tides, or algae blooms, which feed off nutrients found in excess pollution and sap water of oxygen, killing off large amounts of sea life, Xinhua news agency […]
Researchers have marked another decline in northern fur seal pup births in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, where most of the world’s population of northern fur seals gather in the summer to rest and breed. “We started seeing an over-all decline in the abundance of fur seals on the Pribilof Islands around […]
With four days to go until president-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated, history is documenting George Bush’s environmental record at home and abroad. By Suzanne Goldenberg, guardian.co.uk …"He has undone decades if not a century of progress on the environment," said Josh Dorner, a spokesman for the Sierra Club, one of America’s largest environmental groups. […]
By Zeke Barlow The black abalone that were once thick in the waters off the California coast earned a dubious distinction today when biologists took the final steps in putting the mollusk on the Endangered Species List. … The wording in the listing of the abalone brings up how global warming may affect the […]
Exodus of the resilient black crow follows flight of other wildlife from Iranian capital Robert Tait, guardian.co.uk Tehran’s notoriously bad air pollution has long been a health hazard for its 12 million people, but now the toxic mix of fumes has sent a different set of residents fleeing – the city’s black crows. Environmentalists say […]
Biologists have researched and described for the first time in Europe the spread of the invasive dojo loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) fish species. The fish comes from East Asia and was first discovered in the Ebro delta in 2001. Since then, it has occupied various parts of the river during its lightning spread, and […]
Via Ocean Acidification: Increasing atmospheric CO2 is likely to cause a corresponding increase in oceanic acidity by lowering pH by 0.2-0.5 pH units by the end of the 21st century [Royal Society, 2005]. In light of increasing acidity, there are growing concerns about the future health of a variety of marine organisms, particularly shellfish, which […]
By Beth Daley, Globe Staff Massachusetts and Vermont wildlife officials are asking for the public’s help to identify bats affected by the mysterious white nose syndrome. Bats are normally in deep hibernation this time of year in ice-encrusted caves and abandoned mines across the Northeast. But researchers say they are beginning to get calls of […]
