We’ve been conned: The deal to save the natural world never happened

The so-called summit in Japan won’t stop anyone trashing the planet. Only economic risks seem to make governments act. By George Monbiot, www.guardian.co.uk Monday, 1 November 2010 21.00 GMT ‘Countries join forces to save life on Earth”, the front page of the Independent told us. “Historic”, “a landmark”, a “much-needed morale booster”, the other papers […]

Illegal logging rampant in Vietnam

www.mongabay.com November 01, 2010    Illegal logging is rampant in Vietnam, according to a new report from the the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s General Forestry Department. As reported by Viet Nam News, there have been 2,463 illegal logging cases across Vietnam so far this year. Action to address logging has resulted in 44 forest […]

Pacific fisheries face collapse by 2035: study

Wellington (AFP) Oct 27, 2010 – Pacific island fisheries face collapse in the next 25 years as overfishing, population growth and climate change threaten one of the region’s main economic resources, a study warned Wednesday. The report, [pdf] published by the Noumea-based Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), said the two billion US dollar a […]

Jellyfish ‘may benefit from ecosystem instability’

By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News 29 October 2010 A team of researchers have been trying to identify how jellyfish may benefit from marine ecosystems destabilised by climate change and overfishing. There is concern that a rise in jellyfish numbers could prevent depleted commercially important fish stocks recovering to historical levels. However, […]

China’s soaring demand for luxury wood fuels destruction of Madagascar’s forests

By Staff WritersNagoya, Japan (UPI) Oct 26, 2010 China’s soaring demand for luxury wood furniture is fueling the destruction of Madagascar’s forests, says a new report launched Tuesday at the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Nagoya, Japan. The report from Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency shows that about 98 percent of […]

UK insect decline caused by loss of wildflowers in countryside

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent27 Oct 2010 Butterflies and bees are declining because of the loss of wild flowers in the countryside, according to a major Government report. A team of researcher from the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (CEH) monitored 500 plots of ‘semiwild’ land across the UK between 1990 and 2007 on the […]

Starving Russian bears treat graveyards as ‘giant refrigerators’

A shortage of bears’ traditional food near the Arctic Circle has forced the animals to eat human corpses, say locals By Luke Harding in Moscow, www.guardian.co.ukTuesday 26 October 2010 15.32 BST From a distance it resembled a rather large man in a fur coat, leaning tenderly over the grave of a loved one. But when […]

Ocean acidification a lethal threat to krill

By Natalia RealFriday, October 22, 2010, 14:10 (GMT + 9) The Australian Antarctic Division has conducted study on ocean acidification and found that increased levels of carbon dioxide kill krill embryos. Krill is one of the main types of plankton, itself the basic food source of nearly all animals in the ocean. Krill were exposed […]

Microbes may consume far more oil-spill waste than earlier thought

Study near Gulf of Mexico spill site finds surprisingly high methane uptake by microbes Contact: Steve Bradt, steve_bradt@harvard.edu, Harvard University 20 October 2010 CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 20, 2010 — Microbes living at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico may consume far more of the gaseous waste from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill than previously […]

Ministers plan huge sell-off of Britain’s ancient forests

By Patrick Hennessy and Rebecca LefortPublished: 8:30PM BST 23 Oct 2010 Ministers are planning a massive sell-off of Britain’s Government-owned forests as they seek to save billions of pounds to help cut the deficit, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, is expected to announce plans within days to dispose of about […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial