Texas drought takes toll on wildlife – Sections of major rivers have dried up completely

By John Burnett26 August 2011 The unfolding calamity that is the Texas drought has thrown nature out of balance. Many of the wild things that live in this state are suffering. Sections of major rivers — like the Brazos, the Guadalupe, the Blanco, Llano and Pedernales — have dried up. In many places, there aren’t […]

China: Excessive radiation in marine life near Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant

August 24 (Xinhua) – Biological samples taken from waters in the Western Pacific region east of Fukushima, Japan show excessive radiation levels, said a statement from China’s State Oceanic Administration on Wednesday. The administration suggested that government agencies intensify radiation testing of marine products from the targeted waters to protect public health in China. According […]

Oil discovered floating near source of BP Deepwater Horizon spill

By Ben Raines, Press-Register 24 August 2011 MOBILE, Alabama – Oil is once again fouling the Gulf of Mexico around the Deepwater Horizon well, which was capped a little over a year ago. Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of small, circular patches of oily sheen dotted the surface within a mile of the wellhead. With just a […]

The great oyster crash – ‘I’m afraid the ocean will be dead long before we have to worry about the other implications of global warming’

By Eric Scigliano18 August 2011 In the summer of 2007, something strange and troubling happened at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery on Netarts Bay in Oregon, which raises oyster larvae for shellfish growers from Mexico to Canada. The hatchery’s “seed,” as the oyster larvae are called, began dying by the millions, for no apparent reason. […]

Graph of the Day: Western U.S. Trout Habitat Loss Projected to 2080s

Projected stream length of suitable habitat for trout under current conditions and climate change scenarios. Whiskers show 90% confidence intervals for projections. Abstract: Broad-scale studies of climate change effects on freshwater species have focused mainly on temperature, ignoring critical drivers such as flow regime and biotic interactions. We use downscaled outputs from general circulation models […]

Arctic warming unlocks fabled Northwest Passage

The Arctic may be the world’s next geopolitical battleground. Temperatures there are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, and the melting ice will have profound consequences on the roof of the world, opening strategic waterways to shipping, reducing the ice cap on Greenland, and spurring a rush to claim rights to the wealth […]

Australia agricultural pesticides destroying Great Barrier Reef: government report

By Timothy McDonald13 August 2011 The Queensland and Federal Government’s first report card on water quality in the Great Barrier Reef has found pesticides used in agriculture are causing significant problems for the reef. The report says some farmers need to be more careful with their chemicals, finding that nearly one-quarter of horticulture producers and […]

Dugong deaths way up off Queensland coast

By John R. Platt13 August 2011 More dugongs (Dugong dugon) have died in Australia this year than in all of 2010. At least 90 of the marine mammals, close relatives of manatees, have starved to death off the coast of Queensland after floods destroyed the area’s sea grass, the dugong’s main source of food. Another […]

Dole destroying forest in national park for banana plantation – ‘If there is no forest left, there will be no elephants’

[UPDATE: Dole responds to allegations it is illegally growing bananas in national park] By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com14 August 2011 Dole Food Company, a US-based corporation famous for its tropical fruit products, is allegedly destroying rainforest in Somawathiya National Park in Sri Lanka for a banana plantation, reports local press. The 4,700 hectare (11,600 acre) plantation, […]

Uncontacted Amazon tribes could be wiped out by drug traffickers and oil companies

By Gregor MacLennan11 August 2011 Brazilian officials fear for the survival of an isolated Amazon group after a remote guard post on the Peru-Brazil border was overrun by heavily armed suspected drug traffickers who crossed the border from Peru. The guard post was protecting the headwaters of the Envira river where stunning aerial photographs of […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial