Blogging the End of the World™
Al Jazeera’s Prerna Suri reports from New Delhi. 28 Feb 2011 (Al Jazeera) – Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister, has presented his annual budget, acknowledging that food inflation is still a major concern for the second most populous country in the world. On Monday, Mukherjee announced a food security bill for 2011 – 2012, a […]
Contact: Mark McCollough, 207-866-3344March 2, 2011 Although the eastern cougar has been on the endangered species list since 1973, its existence has long been questioned. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) conducted a formal review of the available information and, in a report issued today, concludes the eastern cougar is extinct and recommends the […]
March 2, 2011 (NPR) – In 1960, there were 400,000 lions living in the wild. Today, there are just 20,000. “That represents a 90 to 95 percent decline,” says National Geographic explorer-in-residence Dereck Joubert. “Unless we start talking about this, these lions will be extinct within the next 10 or 15 years.” Joubert and his […]
The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) rose for the seventh consecutive month, averaging 231 points in January 2011, up 3.4 percent from December 2010 and the highest (in both real and nominal terms) since the index has been backtracked in 1990. Prices of all the commodity groups monitored registered strong gains in January compared to […]
By Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 28 February 2011 Turtles and tortoises may not get the same sort of attention as the cuddlier and fuzzier animals of the world, but a new report from the Tortoise & Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group of the IUCN shows that these reptiles are in fact the most endangered group […]
By Staff WritersFeb 24, 2011 Sacramento (UPI) – Scientists say the water situation in California is “bleak” and the state needs to act to bolster its entire aquatic ecosystem. “Our assessment of the current water situation [in California] is bleak,” says Ellen Hanak, a Public Policy Institute of California economist. “California has essentially run out […]
By Jonathan Watts28 February 2011 One of the world’s most advanced rainforest restoration projects may be going up in smoke in southern China. A short while ago, I received a frantic phone call from Bulang Mountain in Xishuangbanna, where scientists and conservationists are fleeing 30m-high flames that, they said, were consuming trees in seconds. Witnesses […]
ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2011) — Lodgepole pine, a hardy tree species that can thrive in cold temperatures and plays a key role in many western ecosystems, is already shrinking in range as a result of climate change — and may almost disappear from most of the Pacific Northwest by 2080, a new study concludes. Including […]
By Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills and David Fogarty28 February 2011 BEIJING (Reuters) – China faces acute environmental and resource strains that threaten to choke growth unless the world’s second-biggest economy cleans up, the nation’s environment minister said in an unusually blunt warning. In an essay published on Monday, Zhou Shengxian also said his […]
By Victoria GillScience and nature reporter, BBC News The effective population of the critically endangered Amur tiger is now fewer than 14 animals, say scientists. Approximately 500 Amur tigers actually survive in the wild, but the effective population is a measure of the genetic diversity of the world’s largest cat. Very low diversity means any […]
