A fifth of the world’s mangroves gone since 1980

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com July 18, 2010 A new report by the United Nation Environment Program (UNEP) and the Nature Conservancy has found that mangrove forests are being lost at staggering rates worldwide: since 1980 one fifth of the world’s mangroves have been felled. Mangroves, which grow in saline coastal habitats, are disappearing four times […]

Rising sea drives Panama islanders to mainland

By Sean Mattson; editing by Catherine Bremer  CARTI SUGDUB, Panama, June 12 (Reuters) – Rising seas from global warming, coming after years of coral reef destruction, are forcing thousands of indigenous Panamanians to leave their ancestral homes on low-lying Caribbean islands. Seasonal winds, storms and high tides combine to submerge the tiny islands, crowded with […]

At Pass a Loutre, oil seeps deep into Louisiana marshlands as booms fail

By Karin Zeitvogel (AFP) – May 29, 2010 PASS A LOUTRE, Louisiana — Thick black oil hung in the water and stained the bases of the roseau cane at Pass a Loutre, a shrinking patch of Louisiana’s fragile wetlands where crude from the BP spill first hit land and began seeping deep into the fragile […]

Spill imperils a distinctive culture: ‘There’s a sense of doom’

By Drew Jubera, Special to CNNMay 25, 2010 1:25 p.m. EDT (CNN) — Talk to Jack Fillinich and you’ll hear it. It’s Sunday morning and he’s sitting in front of the single-story house in Golden Meadow, Louisiana, that he’s lived in his whole life. He’s 69. He’s wearing slippers, jeans and no shirt, repairing a […]

Sand dredging threatens Cambodia coasts

  Phnom Penh, Cambodia (UPI) May 12, 2010 – Sand dredging in Cambodia, fueled by Singapore’s expansion and land reclamation projects, poses a huge risk to Cambodia’s coastal environment, says a new report. In its Shifting Sands report [pdf], environmental group Global Witness estimates that as much as 796,000 tons of sand is being removed […]

Constant floods displacing Pacific Northwest tribe

By Patrick Oppmann, CNNApril 23, 2010 8:03 a.m. EDT Hoh Indian Reservation, Washington (CNN) — For the Hoh, life centers on the silver waters just off their reservation. Throughout the tiny Native American tribe’s history they have lived and fished on the westernmost point of Washington state where the river that shares their name meets […]

Graph of the Day: Projected Sea-Level Rise, 1990-2100

Projection of sea-level rise from 1990 to 2100, based on IPCC temperature projections for three different emission scenarios (labeled on right, see Projections of Future Sea Level for explanation of uncertainty ranges). The sea-level range projected in the IPCC AR4 (2) for these scenarios is shown for comparison in the bars on the bottom right. […]

Studies agree: 1 meter sea-level rise by 2100

New research from several international research groups, including the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen provides independent consensus that IPCC predictions of less than a half a meter rise in sea levels is around 3 times too low. The new estimates show that the sea will rise approximately 1 meter in the next […]

Bangladesh claims disputed vanishing island

By Staff WritersDhaka (AFP) April 10, 2010 Bangladesh claimed sovereignty Saturday over a tiny island at the centre of a dispute between Dhaka and New Delhi, despite claims by Indian researchers that it has disappeared under rising sea levels. The uninhabited outcrop — called New Moore island by India and South Talpatti by Bangladesh– was […]

Sixteen percent of the world's mangrove forests threatened with extinction

  By Sara Novak, Columbia, SC on 04.10.10 One of the fondest memories of my honeymoon was kayaking through the mangrove forests on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. The trees were mystical, something out of a fairy tale. That’s why I was more than a little saddened to learn that forests of this kind […]

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