Blogging the End of the World™
In this March 24, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE, damaged Unit 3 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan Photos shown are half-size of the originals. The 10 originals full-size: […]
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL and WILLIAM J. BROADPublished: March 28, 2011 The announcement by Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy that high levels of radioactive cesium have been detected in seawater near the crippled nuclear reactors raises the prospect that radiation could enter the food chain. Cesium 137 levels were 20 times the normal level […]
Contact: Taylor Chapple, Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology 8 March 2011 In the first census of its kind, research led by UC Davis and Stanford University found that there are far fewer white sharks off central California than biologists had thought. The study, published today in the journal Biology Letters, is the first rigorous scientific […]
[Background: The fossil fuel industries, notably the Koch brothers, are assaulting the U.S. political system with unprecedented quantities of money. The Republican party has been targeted for infiltration by the industry’s front organization, the Tea Party. Although the Tea Party comprises a small percentage of the G.O.P., the party’s leadership has been forced to pander […]
By Lewis SmithMarch 31 2011 Climate change is causing migrating salmon to die from heart failure in their millions as they stretch every sinew to reach their spawning grounds. Overheating is such a problem for the sockeye salmon that as they head for their traditional spawning grounds in the Fraser River network in Canada their […]
Contact: Tierra Curry (928) 522-3681, Center for Biological Diversity22 March 2011 KNOXVILLE, Tenn.— The Obama administration denied Endangered Species Act protection Monday to the Berry Cave salamander, a rare Tennessee amphibian that government scientists say needs federal protection to keep it from going extinct. The Berry Cave salamander is known from only nine locations in […]
While industrial disturbances have to date been largely concentrated in the south, expansion northward continues. According to a new report by the Pew Environment Group, Canada’s boreal forest contains the world’s largest and most pristine freshwater ecosystem on Earth. A Forest of Blue: Canada’s Boreal Forest, the World’s Waterkeeper Technorati Tags: deforestation,Canada,North America,freshwater depletion,biodiversity,habitat loss,ecosystem […]
By Leigh Coleman and Steve Gorman; editing by Jerry Norton25 March 2011 BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) – The U.S. government is keeping a tight lid on its probe into scores of unexplained dolphin deaths along the Gulf Coast, possibly connected to last year’s BP oil spill, causing tension with some independent marine scientists. Wildlife biologists contracted […]
By Ruth Dasso Marlaire, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.29 March 2011 A new NASA-funded study has revealed widespread reductions in the greenness of the forests in the vast Amazon basin in South America caused by the record-breaking drought of 2010. “The greenness levels of Amazonian vegetation — a measure of its health — decreased […]
By Kenichi Iwasaki and Tsuyoshi Shimoji, Asahi Shimbun30 March 2011 The prolonged crisis at the quake-stricken nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture is increasingly wearing down front-line workers, as the exhausting and dangerous work shows no signs of letting up. Companies supplying the workers say safety fears have grown, particularly since three workers were exposed […]
