Environmental threat map highlights Great Lakes restoration challenges – ‘The Great Lakes continue to be degraded by numerous environmental stressors’

Ann Arbor, Michigan, 20 December 2012 (SPX) – A comprehensive map three years in the making is telling the story of humans’ impact on the Great Lakes, identifying how “environmental stressors” stretching from Minnesota to Ontario are shaping the future of an ecosystem that contains 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. In an article […]

Delaware closes out hottest year on record

State, nation also note low rainfall totals for 2012By Jeff Montgomery and Molly Murray 29 December 2012 (The News Journal) – When the New Year rings in at midnight Monday, scientists will book 2012 as the hottest and one of the driest on record for the nation and the Northeast – including Delaware and New […]

Video: Distribution of Cesium-137 contamination in the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima, modeled to the year 2021

Modeled distribution of radioactive contamination in the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima, to 10 years after disaster, by GEOMAR | Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel.http://www.geomar.de/news/article/fukushima-wo-bleibt-das-radioaktive-wasser/ Distribution of the radioactive contamination in the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima Fukushima – Wo bleibt das radioaktive Wasser? [Original] 09.07.2012/Kiel. Die Reaktorkatastrophe im japanischen Fukushima gerät bereits wieder in Vergessenheit. Große Mengen […]

Graph of the Day: Average Level of Fine Particulate Matter in Asia Air Pollution, 1993-2010

By Cornie HuizengaHong Kong, December 5, 2012. Improvements in air quality improvements in Asian cities that were visible in the last decade have stalled and the levels of fine particulate matter (PM10), the most important air pollutant in terms of health impact, are back to pre-2000 levels and still climbing in many of the cities […]

‘Peak farmland’ is here, global food crop area to fall: study

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Alastair Macdonald17 December 2012 OSLO (Reuters) – The amount of land needed to grow crops worldwide is at a peak and an area more than twice the size of France can return to nature by 2060 due to rising yields and slower population growth, a group of experts […]

8 companies ordered to stop illegal labor practice at Fukushima nuclear plant – ‘We knew it was illegal, but we had no other choice to secure profits’

By TOSHIO TADA10 December 2012 (Asahi Shimbun) – The government will order eight companies to end an illegal dispatch arrangement that allowed a subcontractor to instruct workers to labor under dangerous conditions at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. The labor ministry has already called on plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tokyo Energy & […]

Graph of the Day: Value of Logs and Sawn Timber Imports Into China From All Countries, 2000-2011

China is now the biggest importer, exporter, and consumer of illegal timber in the world. Its footprint impacts vital forest ecosystems ranging from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar to remote areas of Africa. With domestic forests incapable of meeting surging demand, China has a gaping and growing timber deficit that can only be filled by […]

Nearly 15 million U.S. households on food stamps

By Tami Luhby28 November 2012 NEW YORK (CNNMoney) – The number of American households receiving food stamps jumped nearly 10% in 2011. Nearly 15 million households were on food stamps at some point last year, up from 13.6 million in 2010, newly released Census data shows. That’s an increase to 13%, up from 11.9% in […]

Graph of the Day: OPEC 12 Crude Oil Production, 2002-2012

By Euan Mearns 28 November 2012 Executive summary OPEC is currently pumping at close to near term and historic highs of 31.2 mmbpd of crude oil. Outside of Saudi Arabia, the majority of spare capacity is deemed to lie in Iran and Nigeria. Iran could certainly pump more if permitted to do so by the […]

Rising seas, vanishing coastlines

By BENJAMIN STRAUSS and ROBERT KOPP24 November 2012 (The New York Times) – The oceans have risen and fallen throughout Earth’s history, following the planet’s natural temperature cycles. Twenty thousand years ago, what is now New York City was at the edge of a giant ice sheet, and the sea was roughly 400 feet lower. […]

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