Study links fetal and newborn dolphin deaths to Deepwater Horizon oil spill

CHAMPAIGN, Illinois. – Scientists have finalized a five-year study of newborn and fetal dolphins found stranded on beaches in the northern Gulf of Mexico between 2010 and 2013. Their study, reported in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, identified substantial differences between fetal and newborn dolphins found stranded inside and outside the areas affected by […]

Growing inequality among children in high income countries, UNICEF reports – Japan and U.S. in bottom third for income inequality

FLORENCE/NEW YORK, 14 April 2016 (UNICEF) – A new UNICEF report presents evidence on how inequality affects children in high-income countries. Innocenti Report Card 13, Fairness for Children: A league table of inequality in child well-being in rich countries, ranks 41 EU and OECD countries according to how far children at the bottom of the […]

Islands nations face dry future – 73 percent of islands will become more arid as evaporation increases in warmer world

11 April 2016 (CU-Boulder) – Island nations could be forgiven for feeling slighted. They already face the brunt of the effects of climate change: Rising sea levels, dwindling resources, threats to infrastructure and economic foundations. But to add insult to injury, thousands of these islands are too small to be accounted for in the global […]

Over last 7 years, Amazon deforestation in protected areas totaled 467,000 hectares, destroying 233 million trees and killing or displacing 8.3 million birds and 271,000 monkeys

[Translation by Google.] 9 April 2016 (Imazon) – Creating Protected Areas (PAs) has been one of the most effective strategies to protect the Amazon rainforest, its benefits and the rights of use of the region’s people. Currently, PAs total approximately 112 million hectares, or 27%, of the territory of the Brazilian Amazon.  However, in 2013, […]

How Panama became a tax haven to the world – ‘This has been going on for so long, and is so obvious and problematic, that the question is, “How come nothing was done about it before?”’

By Alan Gomez10 April 2016 MIAMI (USA TODAY) – Anyone familiar with Panama’s economic history isn’t surprised by revelations of shell companies and hidden assets created by a law firm based in the small nation. “I’ve been screaming about it for decades,” said Jack Blum, an attorney and former U.S. Senate staffer who focused on […]

Populations of early human settlers grew like an invasive species, Stanford researchers find – ‘Unchecked growth is not a universal hallmark of our history, but a very recent development’

By Rob Jordan5 April 2016 (Stanford Report) – Bustling cities, sprawling suburbs and blossoming agricultural regions might seem strong evidence that people have always dominated the environment. A Stanford study of South America’s colonization shows that human populations did not always grow unchecked, but were at one time limited by local resources – just like […]

March ends a most interesting winter in the Arctic

6 April 2016 (NSIDC) – Low Arctic sea ice extent for March caps a highly unusual winter in the Arctic, characterized by persistent warmth in the atmosphere that helped to limit ice growth. Above-average influx of ocean heat from the Atlantic and southerly winds helped to keep ice extent especially low in the Barents and […]

Cascade mountain snowpack deeper than 2015, but threatened by warmer temperatures – ‘We can hear the streams running behind us right now, so it’s already releasing water out of the snowpack’

By Glenn Farley6 April 2016 STEVENS PASS, Washington (KING5 News) – April 1st is considered the peak for winter snowpack in Washington state. Last year as this time,  the snow monitoring site near Stevens Pass had  just a foot to 18 inches on the ground, as the state headed into a record drought.  Today at […]

Scientists blame El Niño and global warming for ‘gruesome’ coral deaths – ‘This is absolutely the most intense response, the most dramatic death of a coral reef from an El Niño event’

By Seth Borenstein6 April 2016 (ABC News) – The coral on the sea floor around the Pacific island of Kiritimati looked like a boneyard in November — stark, white and lifeless. But there was still some hope. This month, color returned with fuzzy reds and browns, but that’s not good news. Algae has overtaken the […]

Drought-stricken California misses water conservation target

By Scott Smith4 April 2016 FRESNO, California (Associated Press) – Residents of drought-plagued California fell just short of the state’s mandated water conservation target over the nine months that ended in February as they let lawns turn brown, flushed toilets less often and took other strict measures, officials said Monday. Residents statewide used 23.9 percent […]

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