LEETOWN, W. Va. — A distinct decline in horseshoe crab numbers has occurred that parallels climate change associated with the end of the last Ice Age, according to a study that used genomics to assess historical trends in population sizes. The new research also indicates that horseshoe crabs numbers may continue to decline in the […]
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) 31 Aug 2010 ISLAMABAD — It only took a few minutes on board a helicopter scudding across the wasteland that is the Pakistan flood zone for WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran to understand the full extent of the crisis currently facing the country. Hectare after hectare of prime farmland […]
By Will Lorimer1 September 2010 Rising sea levels are forcing the migration of indigenous peoples and threatening the freshwater ecosystem of catfish and piranha found in the Orinoco Delta near the coast of Venezuela The Warao are a river people. Found in the Orinoco Delta, they live between the expansive ranches ringing the upper delta […]
By Chris Mooney 31 August 2010 LAST September, David Barber was on board the Canadian icebreaker CCGS Amundsen (pictured), heading into the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska. He was part of a team investigating ice conditions in autumn, the time when Arctic sea ice shrinks to its smallest extent before starting to grow again as […]
Many locations in the United States are already undergoing water stress. The Great Lakes states are establishing an interstate compact to protect against reductions in lake levels and potential water exports. Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are in a dispute over water for drinking, recreation, farming, environmental purposes, and hydropower in the Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint River system. The […]
Antarctic cold snap kills millions of aquatic animals in the Amazon. By Anna Petherick27 August 2010 With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere’s recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country’s tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an […]
By Ray RingFrom the August 20, 2010 issue of High Country News Lander, Wyoming — Ask Tom Bell, the man who founded High Country News 40 years ago, what keeps him going these days, and he rattles off a list of pills for dizziness, blood pressure and cholesterol, plus a diuretic and an antidepressant. “Don’t […]
A dramatic rise in the surface temperature of Indonesian waters has resulted in a large-scale bleaching event that has devastated local coral populations. Following a report of a bleaching incident in May, WCS-Indonesia dispatched a “Rapid Response Unit” of marine biologists to investigate. Their initial survey revealed that over 60 percent of corals have […]
The ~250 square km Petermann floating ice “island” has drifted into Nares St. The drift out of Petermann fjord has been slow, as tides wash in and out and the berg was jammed in the fjord 20-25 August. Prevailing winds blowing toward the south will push the berg in that direction. Petermann Ice Island drifts […]
By Margaret Munro, Postmedia News August 28, 2010 Canada is home to plenty of ice, but the ancient, undulating ice shelves on the north coast of Ellesmere Island are something special. For starters, the shelves are “beautiful landscapes,” says earth scientist John England, at the University of Alberta, who considers the “majestic” shelves in Canada’s […]
