The oceans are emptying fast

By Geoffrey Lean 20 May 2011 It was a shameful par for a very long course when European, Middle Eastern and North African governments met in Rome this month to decide how to save the fast-vanishing fisheries in their common sea. You’d think there would have been a sense of the need for urgent action […]

More and more, the boreal forest will burn

By Andrew Nikiforuk, TheTyee.ca 20 May 2011 Wildfires ripping through Alberta’s boreal forest or what government officials call “freakish” firestorms are really a snapshot of how warming global temperatures and intensified insect infestations will change the nation’s boreal forest, say scientists. In the last week nearly 100 wildfires, battled by 1,000 forest fighters, have shut […]

Brazil confirms big jump in Amazon deforestation

By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.com18 May 2011 New data from the Brazilian government seem to confirm environmentalists’ fears that farmers and ranchers are clearing rainforest in anticipation of a weakening of the country’s rules governing forest protection. Wednesday, Brazil’s National Space Research Agency (INPE) announced a sharp rise in deforestation in March and April relative […]

Sewage-derived nitrogen increasingly polluting Caribbean ecosystems

Contact: Maggie Barrettbarrett@american.edu202-885-5951American University (American University) A study published in the journal Global Change Biology finds that while fertilizer has been the dominant source of nitrogen pollution in Caribbean coastal ecosystems for the past 50 years, such pollution is on the decline. But now, sewage-derived nitrogen is increasingly becoming the top source of such pollution […]

Graph of the Day: Cesium-137 Contamination from Chernobyl Explosion

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine—The disaster at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, is currently ranked as the worst nuclear accident in history. Officially, tourism has opened up here, but areas remain that are too dangerous for tours. On the eve of the event’s 25th anniversary, Scientific American frequent contributor Charles Q. Choi traveled to Chernobyl and nearby Kiev […]

Fishing impact amplifies the sensitivity of exploited marine populations to climate variability

ScienceDaily (May 16, 2011) — Researchers from the IEO, the University of Oslo and the Institute of Marine Science Leibniz have recently published a study in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series showing why the effect of climate variations on Mediterranean fish stocks depends on its population structure. The lost of population structure may increase […]

Amazon deforestation increases sharply while forest code debated

By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.com16 May 2011 Deforestation has increased sharply in Mato Grosso over the past nine months according to information leaked to Folha.com. The news, revealed during a lecture last Friday in Cuiaba, is significant because INPE, Brazil’s space research agency that tracks deforestation has unusually not provided any updates from its rapid […]

Striking ecological impact on Canada’s Arctic coastline linked to global climate change

May 16 (Queen’s University) – Scientists from Queen’s and Carleton universities head a national multidisciplinary research team that has uncovered startling new evidence of the destructive impact of global climate change on North America’s largest Arctic delta. “One of the most ominous threats of global warming today is from rising sea levels, which can cause […]

Violent protests follow approval of massive dam project in Patagonia

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com16 May 2011 The wild rivers of Patagonia may soon never be the same. Last week, Chile’s Aysén Environmental Review Commission approved the environmental assessment of a five dam proposal on two rivers. The approval, however, is marred in controversy and has set off protests in many cities, including Santiago. Critics say […]

Greenpeace finds high radiation levels in Japan seaweed

[Reposted due to the Great Blogger Disaster of May 11th.] TOKYO, May 12 (AFP) – Environmental activist group Greenpeace said Thursday it had detected radiation far above legal limits in seaweed samples taken from the ocean off Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. Greenpeace, which sent its Rainbow Warrior flagship to take samples of marine life […]

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