South Africa copter crash kills 5 soldiers while patrolling for rhino poachers

  By Faith Karimi, CNN 31 March 2013 (CNN) – Five South African soldiers died in a helicopter crash while patrolling for rhino poachers in the sprawling Kruger National Park. All aboard the flight were killed in the crash Saturday night, according to a government spokesman. The soldiers were conducting Operation Rhino, which aims to […]

Scientists plan to save Australia mountain pygmy possum as global warming melts snowy habitat

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 […]

Google urged to remove ads for ivory, whale products – ‘It is shocking to discover that Google, with the massive resources it has at its disposal, is failing to enforce its own policies’

6 March 2013 (AFP) – Conservationists have urged Google to remove thousands of advertisements promoting products made from endangered whales and elephants. Campaign group the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said it had written to Google chief executive Larry Page last month appealing for the removal of more than 1400 ads promoting whale products and 10,000 […]

Tuna population collapse fears fail to curb Japan’s appetite – ‘This is undermining Japan’s own national interests’

By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press28 February 2013 TOKYO (AP) – It is the king of sushi, one of the most expensive fish in the world – and dwindling so rapidly that some fear it could vanish from restaurant menus within a generation. Yet there is little alarm in Japan, the country that consumes about 80 […]

Shark kills number 100 million annually, research says – ‘They are not reproducing fast enough to keep up with the rate we are pulling them out of the ocean’

By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent, BBC News1 March 2013 (BBC) – The most accurate assessment to date of the impact of commercial fishing on sharks suggests around 100 million are being killed each year. The researchers say that this rate of exploitation is far too high, especially for a species which reproduces later in life. […]

Global poll reveals public concern for environmental issues ‘at record lows’ – ‘The public can see that the response of our politicians is completely inadequate to the threat scientists have revealed’

By Adam Vaughan 28 February 2013 (guardian.co.uk) – Public concern in environmental issues including global warming, the loss of species and air pollution has dropped to its lowest level in two decades, according to an international poll released this week. The GlobeScan poll, undertaken last summer before superstorm Sandy hit the Caribbean and New York, […]

Global warming study maps coral reef vulnerability – Reducing carbon emissions would delay annual bleaching events by more than two decades in 23 percent of the world’s reefs

By Bob Berwyn 26 February 2013 FRISCO (Summit Voice) – Using the latest data from the upcoming IPCC climate assessment, ocean researchers have concluded that about three-quarters of the world’s coral reefs could face annual bleaching events in just a short 30 years, and they’ve mapped out which areas will be hit first. “This study […]

Indonesia’s palm oil developers threaten the Congo Basin – ‘The Indonesians came here for the first time in September 2010 and started to destroy properties, farmlands, crops, livestock, and houses’

By Hayat Indriyatno 23 February 2013 (Jakarta Globe) – Major palm oil producers accused of destroying Indonesia’s forests and driving its iconic wildlife to the verge of extinction are now taking their practices to the relatively pristine forests of the Congo Basin, an environmental group has warned. In its report, Seeds of Destruction released this […]

As New England fisheries struggle, debate heats up over how to help – ‘I really just don’t see a way at the moment’

By JESS BIDGOOD15 February 2013 GLOUCESTER, Massachusetts (The New York Times) – B. G. Brown, a second-generation fisherman who chases cod and haddock from this port city, spent a recent morning rigging up his 31-foot commercial vessel to be manned alone. He had just lost his only crew member to the more lucrative lobster fishery, […]

Elephant poaching skyrockets in Africa rain forest zones – 11,000 Gabon elephants slaughtered in under a decade

By Jean Rovys Dabany and Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Pravin Char6 February 2013 Libreville, Gabon (Reuters) – Poachers have killed more than 11,000 elephants in Gabon’s Minkebe National Park rain forest since 2004, Gabon’s government said on Wednesday, with the massacre fueled by increasing demand for ivory in Asia. The densely-forested central African country is […]

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