Mysterious whale die-off is largest on record

By Jeremy Hsu, LiveScience Contributorposted: 29 March 2010 08:27 am ET Mass death among baby right whales has experts scrambling to figure out the puzzle behind the largest great whale die-off on record. Observers have found 308 dead whales in the waters around Peninsula Valdes along Argentina’s Patagonian Coast since 2005. Almost 90 percent of […]

Uganda says pollution of Lake Victoria worsening

Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Kevin Liffey KAMPALA (Reuters) – Pollution in parts of Lake Victoria is worsening so fast that soon it may be impossible to treat its waters enough to provide drinking water for the Ugandan capital, a senior official said Monday. The lake, east Africa’s largest by area, also supplies water […]

Waste water kills millions of children, pollutes sea

Reporting by Tim Cocks; editing by Ralph Boulton ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Human beings are flushing millions of tonnes of solid waste into rivers and oceans every day, poisoning marine life and spreading diseases that kill millions of children annually, the U.N. said on Monday. “The sheer scale of dirty water means more people now die […]

‘Massive and growing’ livestock industry will double burden on the environment

Global meat production has tripled in the past three decades and could double its present level by 2050, according to a new report on the livestock industry by an international team of scientists and policy experts. The impact of this “livestock revolution” is likely to have significant consequences for human health, the environment and the […]

Adding iron to sea boosts deadly neurotoxin

  By Staff WritersWashington (AFP) March 15, 2010 — Adding iron to the world’s oceans to capture carbon and fight global warming could do more harm than good, as the mineral appears to boost the growth of a plankton that produces a deadly neurotoxin, a study published Monday shows. Researchers led by Charles Trick of […]

Image of the Day: Phytoplankton Bloom in the Arabian Sea

By Rebecca Lindsey and Norman Kuring Phytoplankton swirled across the Arabian Sea on February 18, 2010, drawn into thin green ribbons by turbulent eddies. The bloom stretches from the shores of Pakistan (top) to the coast of Oman (lower left). The washed out appearance at the upper left of the image is due to sunglint, […]

The dark side of nitrogen

By Stephanie Ogburn, 4 Feb 2010 2:00 PM …To see nitrogen’s ill effects up close head to the mid-Atlantic coast and visit the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary. Once the site of a highly productive fishery and renowned for its oysters, crabs, and clams, today the bay is most famous for its ecological ruin. […]

Manure becomes pollutant as its volume grows unmanageable

By David A. FahrentholdWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, March 1, 2010 Nearly 40 years after the first Earth Day, this is irony: The United States has reduced the manmade pollutants that left its waterways dead, discolored and occasionally flammable. But now, it has managed to smother the same waters with the most natural stuff in the […]

China to release 20 million fish in lake to devour algae bloom

  By Staff WritersShanghai (AFP) Feb 23, 2010 Authorities in eastern China have said they will release 20 million algae-eating fish into one of the nation’s most scenic lakes that has been ravaged by pollution. Taihu Lake, which straddles Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, has been severely polluted by sewage as well as industrial and agricultural […]

Acidified landscape around ocean vents foretells grim future for coral reefs

By Robin McKie, science editorThe Observer, Sunday 21 February 2010 Huge vents covering the sea-floor – among the strangest and most spectacular sights in nature – pour carbon dioxide and other gases into the deep waters of the oceans. Last week, as researchers reported that they had now discovered more than 50,000 underwater volcanic springs, […]

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