Blogging the End of the World™
7 June 2014 (CBS News) – Southern California is already plagued by a crippling drought and wildfires. Now you can add a legion of seemingly unstoppable beetles to the list of threats facing the region’s forests. They’ve already invaded hundreds of tree species, and they are showing no signs of slowing down. “We have lost […]
9 June 2014 (BBC) – Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said Japan will step up efforts to resume its annual whale hunt in the Antarctic. “I want to aim for the resumption of commercial whaling by conducting whaling research,” Mr Abe said. In March, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the whaling […]
Damian Carrington 28 May 2014 Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (theguardian.com) – The proportion of polar bear females around the Arctic islands of Svalbard who gave birth to cubs crashed to just 10% in 2014, according to a small scientific survey of the animals. It follows a series of warm years and poor sea ice. The Barents Sea […]
4 June 2014 (PhysOrg) – Half of the world’s forest species are at risk from climate change and farming, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, as it called for “urgent action” to manage them better. In its first global study of forest genetic resources, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said woodland was shrinking […]
By Diana Marcum30 May 2014 HURON, California (Los Angeles Times) – The two fieldworkers scraped hoes over weeds that weren’t there. “Let us pretend we see many weeds,” Francisco Galvez told his friend Rafael. That way, maybe they’d get a full week’s work. They always tried to get jobs together. Rafael, the older man, had […]
By Jim Carlton 6 June 2014 SAUSALITO, California – Record numbers of distressed sea lions have washed ashore in California for a second straight year, the latest example of a marine mammal facing severe problems amid what biologists say is overfishing and other human-caused strains on the world’s oceans. From January through May, a record […]
Contact: David Stauth, 541-737-0787; Kristen Milligan, 541-737-88624 June 2014 CORVALLIS, Oregon (OSU) – Just in the past two weeks, the incidence of sea star wasting syndrome has exploded along the Oregon Coast and created an epidemic of historic magnitude, one that threatens to decimate the entire population of purple ochre sea stars. Prior to this, […]
By Adam Vaughan 23 May 2014 (theguardian.com) – Drilling for oil in a part of the Amazon rainforest considered one of the most biodiverse hotspots on the planet is to go ahead less than a year after Ecuador’s president lifted a moratorium on oil drilling there. Last August, Rafeal Correa scrapped a pioneering scheme, […]
By Lindsay Fendt31 May 2014 MOÍN, Limón (Tico Times) – It was February, and leatherback sea turtles had just starting arriving to nest on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast when Marielos Morice and I made our drive down the uneven dirt path along Moín Beach. When the road turned to sand, Morice looked up and yelled […]
2 June 2014 (Australian Associated Press) – Australia has experienced its hottest two years on record and high temperatures are set to continue through winter in a clear sign of climate change, a report warns. May 2012 to April 2014 was the hottest 24-month period ever recorded in Australia, but that is likely to be […]
