Blogging the End of the World™
By SHAILA DEWAN6 January 2009 The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee in December 2008 was only one of more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States — most of them unregulated and unmonitored — that contain billions more gallons of […]
At 197 million acres, the surface area of Canada’s boreal lakes and rivers alone are larger than all but 36 countries. 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 […]
By Mujeeb Ur Rehman, VOA NewsMarch 23, 2011Washington, D.C. – In Pakistan, rebuilding efforts are still underway from last year’s devastating floods that submerged one-fifth of the country and displaced some 20 million people. Mujeeb Ur Rehman, reporter for VOA’s Pashto-language Deewa radio service, recently traveled to northwest Pakistan to check on the status of […]
26 March 2011 (Asahi Shimbun) — Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, crippled by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, has discharged more radiation than the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the United States, according to calculations by the central government. It has already reached a level 6 serious accident on the […]
By Jason Clenfield, Bloomberg22 Mar 2011 One of the reactors in the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant may have been relying on flawed steel to hold the radiation in its core, according to an engineer who helped build its containment vessel four decades ago. Mitsuhiko Tanaka says he helped conceal a manufacturing defect in the $250 […]
Glenda KwekMarch 21, 2011 Sydney has switched from its driest start to the year since 1965 to one of its wettest weeks in March after up to 200 millimetres of rain fell in 24 hours this weekend – 1½ times the monthly average, a meteorologist says. The rain is expected to continue until Wednesday morning […]
By KELLY DOHERTY, Associated Press23 March 2011 Up to 45 rare species of wallaby, bandicoot and other Australian animals could become extinct within 20 years unless urgent action is taken to control introduced predators and other threats, scientists warned Wednesday. Dozens of mammals, birds, lizards and other vertebrates in the remote northwestern Kimberley region are […]
By Thin Lei Win; editing by Katie Nguyen24 Mar 2011 BANGKOK (AlertNet) – Pakistan’s reconstruction following the worst floods in recorded history will take a minimum of three to five years, the head of the country’s disaster management body said, adding that more money should have been poured into maintaining dikes and dams. Massive flooding […]
Arctic sea ice extent appeared to reach its maximum extent for the year on March 7, marking the beginning of the melt season. This year’s maximum tied for the lowest in the satellite record. NSIDC will release a detailed analysis of 2010 to 2011 winter sea ice conditions during the second week of April. Overview […]
Hundreds of shards reveal the threat to wildlife from debris floating in our seas By Adam Sherwin24 March 2011 This collection of hundreds of coloured, jagged shards could be a work of abstract art. But the objects in the photograph to the right are the contents of the stomach of a sea turtle that lost […]
