By Kate Sheppard29 March 2013 (Mother Jones) – The EPA announced this week that it will study the health and environmental risks of 23 chemicals, with an emphasis on chemical flame retardants that are found in many common products. [cf. Blood levels of flame-retardant chemicals doubling every few years in North Americans] Even though they […]
By Jonathan Kaiman26 March 2013 BEIJING (guardian.co.uk) – Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China’s insatiable thirst for energy. On Monday morning a group of Ecuadorean politicians pitched bidding contracts to representatives of […]
By Ian Simpson26 March 2013 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fifty-five percent of U.S. river and stream lengths were in poor condition for aquatic life, largely under threat from runoff contaminated by fertilizers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday. High levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, runoff from urban areas, shrinking ground cover, and pollution from […]
By Michael Marshall 22 March 2013 The lawyers will be as busy as bees. The long-running row over insecticides linked to declines in bee numbers is going to court. Beekeepers and activists are suing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), saying it should have banned neonicotinoid insecticides. Neonicotinoids are relatively new chemicals but have already […]
By Nicky Phillips, Science Reporter24 March 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Endangered species experts plan to save the mountain pygmy possum from becoming the continent’s first climate-change victim. A rapidly warming globe has contracted the Snowy Mountains’ blanket of winter snow that serves as a possum refuge from freezing temperatures when it hibernates for six […]
20 March 2013 (Practical Fishkeeping) – A study has found that, weakened by microscopic borers, the world’s coral reefs will erode more rapidly as the oceans warm and acidify. This phenomenon, combined with a slower growth of coral reefs due to ocean acidification, may make reefs more vulnerable to storms and cyclones, says Ms Catalina […]
By Gary Stokes, Coordinator, Sea Shepherd Hong Kong18 March 2013 BANGKOK (Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) – The room erupts in cheers and applause as the result of the vote is announced, the Oceanic white tip shark is now safely listed on the CITES Appendix II. Shortly followed by the three Hammerheads, the Porbeagle Shark and […]
By Clifford Krauss19 March 2013 NEW ORLEANS (The New York Times) – The chief executive of the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig acknowledged in court on Tuesday that his crew should have done more to avert the 2010 oil well blowout that left 11 dead and soiled hundreds of miles of beaches […]
By Leone Lakhani14 March 2013 Lake Zakher, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – In a remote corner of the United Arab Emirates, a blue lake shimmers amid the sand dunes. It’s not a mirage, but a man-made oasis — an unintended byproduct of the UAE’s water management practices, which has sprung from the desert in recent […]
By Meena Menon17 March 2013 OSLO (The Hindu) – The rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice has rejuvenated interests in the region, ranging from oil and gas and mineral exploration to the possibility of shorter sea routes and increased tourism. But all this poses fresh challenges to the survival of the Inuit and other […]
