20 years left: Australia mammals plunge into extinction

By Ben Cubby ENVIRONMENT EDITORSeptember 2, 2010 AT DUSK, the dry savannah of the Kimberley was once alive with the scuttling and foraging of the burrowing bettong, a marsupial whose ”countless numbers” were marvelled at by early surveyors. Along with many species of quolls, bandicoots, possums and marsupial rats, the bettongs had thrived for millions […]

Critically endangered whales fleeing Russia oil and gas exploration

ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2010) — Russian oil and gas company Rosneft is conducting oil and gas exploration work that may have caused the critically endangered western gray whale to flee its main feeding ground. Tests and offshore installment of equipment by Rosneft for a major seismic survey began in late August, despite repeated calls from […]

Forest fires in Madeira threaten future of Europe’s rarest seabird

  By James Corcut Friday, 3 September 2010 Europe’s rarest seabird, the Zino’s Petrel, found only in Madeira, has suffered potentially devastating losses from a forest fire which struck the birds’ breeding area on the Atlantic island. The fire on Madeira’s central mountain massif killed 25 chicks – 65 per cent of this year’s young […]

One man’s desperate idea to save the rhinos: poison their horns

By John PlattSep 1, 2010 11:00 AM With rhinoceros poaching in Africa approaching an all-time high, one nature preserve owner has had enough. Ed Hern, owner of the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve near Johannesburg, South Africa, is experimenting with injecting cyanide into his rhinos’ horns. He believes the poison will not harm the rhinos, […]

Does Japan’s affair with tuna mean loving it to extinction?

By MASAMI ITO, staff writerTuesday, Aug. 31, 2010 Japan is known as the biggest consumer of tuna. Be it raw for sushi or sashimi or fried, broiled or canned, tuna is an important element of the food culture. But concerns are growing because tuna is disappearing, and this is putting Japan in a difficult diplomatic […]

Saving rare fish could cost utility $100 million — Federal warning about possible extinction is a first

By SAMMY FRETWELLSunday, Aug. 22, 2010 A push by federal biologists to protect a rare fish from extinction in South Carolina could cost the Santee Cooper power company more than $100 million and delay approval of a license the company needs to operate dams at lakes Marion and Moultrie. A federal study released last month […]

Google Earth animation shows Brazil plans to turn Amazon River into a ‘series of stagnant reservoirs’

www.mongabay.com August 30, 2010 The decision last week by the Brazilian government to move forward on the $17 billion Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu river will set in motion a plan to build more than 100 dams across the Amazon basin, potentially turning tributaries of the world’s largest river into ‘an endless series of […]

Early human ‘squatters’ drove cave bears to extinction

By Howard Falcon-Lang Science reporter, BBC News 27 August 2010 Last updated at 06:24 ET Ice Age bears may have been wiped out when humans began to take over their caves, scientists claim. A new DNA study shows that cave bear populations started to decline around 50,000 years ago, coincident with the time that human […]

Threat to polar bears worries Russian experts – 70 percent decline by 2060

By Kester Kenn KlomegahAugust 26, 2010 MOSCOW (IPS/IFEJ) — Environmental experts in Russia have warned that unless urgent steps are taken internationally, climatic changes combined with man-made factors could reduce the world’s population of polar bears by as much as 70 percent by 2060. The polar region — which includes the Arctic Ocean and parts […]

Graph of the Day: US West Coast Butterfly Range Shifts Northward

As climate warms, many species in the United States are shifting their ranges northward and to higher elevations. The map shows the response of Edith’s checkerspot butterfly populations to a warming climate over the past 136 years in the American West. Over 70 percent of the southernmost populations (shown in yellow) have gone extinct. The […]

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