By Ellyn Schwaiger16 November 2011 Sharks have been active in the clear, jewel-like waters of Western Australia (WA) in recent years. In fact, there have been four shark attack fatalities in the past fourteen months. This highly unusual number spawned a recent review of the region’s shark mitigation strategies by regional officials. In the midst […]
By David A Gabel, ENN28 November 2011 As Earth’s climate has warmed, one group of species that has not fared well has been corals, the sedentary marine species which lives symbiotically with algae. Warmer waters cause the algae to become heat-stressed, causing them to die or be expelled by the coral. This causes coral bleaching, […]
DURBAN, South Africa, November 28 (AP) – Global warming already is causing suffering and conflict in Africa, from drought in Sudan and Somalia to flooding in South Africa, President Jacob Zuma said Monday, urging delegates at an international climate conference to look beyond national interests for solutions [United Nations Climate Change Conference 2011]. “For most […]
November 27 (Telegraph) – More than 900 people have called for emergency help and 29 people were rescued from the floodwaters, which on Saturday claimed the life of a three-year-old boy who was swept into a surging storm-water drain. Officials said the northern New South Wales town of Wee Waa would be cut off for […]
Contact: Elisabeth (Lisa) Lyons, elyons@cell.com 617-386-212127 October 2011 As the planet continues to warm, it appears that seaweeds may be in especially hot water. New findings reported online on October 27 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, based on herbarium records collected in Australia since the 1940s suggest that up to 25 percent of […]
October 27 (AAP) – The NSW government is failing to protect koalas by allowing logging in remaining habitats, the opposition says. Environment spokesman Luke Foley accused Environment Minister Robyn Parker of breaking an election promise to protect koalas after logging went ahead at the Bermagui State Forest on the south coast. Logging also started last […]
[Update: Due to public outcry, Australia has backed away from this horribly destructive and short-sighted policy: Australia won’t cull sharks.] October 25 (Newstalk ZB/ONE News) – The Western Australian government has ordered any great white sharks spotted off the south west coast to be killed. The order comes after the third fatal shark attack in […]
By Bryan Walsh18 October 2011 Earlier this month, officials in the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu had to confront a pretty dire problem: they were running out of water. Due to a severe and lasting drought, water reserves in this country of 11,000 people had dwindled to just a few days’ worth. Climate change […]
By David Wroe10 October 2011 AUSTRALIA’S ski slopes could be completely bare of natural winter snow by 2050 unless concerted action is taken against global warming, according to a government-commissioned report that paints a grim picture of the effects of climate change on alpine areas. The report, Caring For Our Australian Alps Catchments [pdf], has […]
September 28 (AFP) – Academics from James Cook University in Queensland on Wednesday said there was mounting evidence of widespread and substantial declines in shark populations around the world, with some species now listed as threatened. [Population Growth Rates of Reef Sharks with and without Fishing on the Great Barrier Reef: Robust Estimation with Multiple […]
