By Michael TennesenJune 21, 2010 The acid rain scourge of the ’70s and ’80s that killed trees and fish and even dissolved parts of statues on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall is back. But unlike the first round, in which sulfur emissions from power plants mixed with rain to create sulfuric acid, the current problem […]
By Michael Perry, ReutersJune 17, 2010 SYDNEY (Reuters) – The world’s oceans are virtually choking on rising greenhouse gases, destroying marine ecosystems and breaking down the food chain — irreversible changes that have not occurred for several million years, a new study says. The changes could have dire consequences for hundreds of millions of people […]
By Emily DuganSunday May 30, 2010, 1:46 PM The world’s most damaging oil spill – now in its 41st continuously gushing day – is creating huge unseen “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico, according to oceanographers and toxicologists. They say that if their fears are correct, then the sea’s entire food chain could suffer […]
Swaths of the gulf near Louisiana are oxygen-starved, or hypoxic. An annual surge in farm runoff, carried by the Mississippi into the Gulf, feeds algae blooms, which consume available oxygen as they decay. Fish leave the area and bottom-dwelling sea life is stressed or dies. The Gulf, Before the Spill Technorati Tags: ocean anoxia,dead zone,pollution,algae […]
By Jennifer ViegasFri May 7, 2010 08:40 AM ET Experts who assessed the Exxon Valdez disaster describe how the Gulf oil spill could affect birds, reptiles, shrimp, fish and other wildlife. An over 7,000-square-mile wildlife “dead zone” located in the center of the Gulf of Mexico has grown from being a curiosity to a colossus […]
By MICHAEL BURNHAM AND NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of GreenwirePublished: May 4, 2010 NAIROBI, Kenya — It’s the rainy season, but the sun is still baking the Mathare Valley slum. A half-million people live in this warren of shacks clustered amid 10 square kilometers of the Mathare River. When the rains fall, drops spill like marbles on […]
Posted: 12:13 am PDT April 19, 2010Updated: 12:18 am PDT April 19, 2010 OAKLAND, Calif. — Many of us see planet earth as durable and powerful, but human senses fail to recognize what a surge of new science now confirms: Rapid and serious damage from greenhouse gases, including vast dead zones, now appearing off […]
Human-size jumbo squid are growing thick along the U.S. west coast. Is climate change aiding their expansion? By Katherine Harmon April 8, 2010 Although many of the Pacific Ocean’s big species are floundering, one large creature of the deep seems to be flourishing. The Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas, also known as jumbo squid, owing to […]
The relationship between the size of the hypoxic zone in July (km2) and the May nitrate+nitrite N loading (kg N) to the Gulf of Mexico each year. A linear regression of the data is shown. The individual data points are in four chronologically-sequenced groups separated from each other when the data fall below the slope, […]
By Brandon Keim Email AuthorMarch 23, 2010 | 8:00 pm Scientists and policymakers are meeting this week to discuss whether geo-engineering to fight climate change can be safe in the future, but make no mistake about it: We’re already geo-engineering Earth on a massive scale. From diverting a third of Earth’s available fresh water to […]
