By KELLY SLIVKA14 August 2012 The Atlantic Forest in Brazil, which runs along the country’s southeastern shore near Rio de Janeiro, has been fragmented by centuries of human habitation. While the rain forest originally spanned over half a million square miles – an area comparable to the size of South Africa – almost 90 percent […]
Rome, 9 August 2012 (FAO) – The FAO Food Price Index climbed 6 percent in July 2012 after three months of decline. The Index, which measures the monthly change in the international prices of a basket of food commodities, averaged 213 points, up 12 points from June. That was still well below the peak of […]
Mountain pine beetle (MPB) is an insect native to the forests of western North America and is also known as the Black Hills beetle or the Rocky Mountain pine beetle. MPB primarily develop in pines such as lodgepole, ponderosa, Scotch and limber pines, and less commonly affect bristlecone and piñon pines. Symptoms of Infestation Popcorn-shaped […]
By arevamirpal::laprimavera 6 August 2012 As one of the readers noted in the other post, the radiation contamination in Tochigi and Gunma Prefectures (northern Kanto) has been little noted. The highest official measurement for wild mushrooms was last year, when 28,000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium was found in wild mushrooms in Fukushima Prefecture. The reason […]
Record drought across the United States in 2012 followed a year of record flooding in the Mid-West in 2011, producing two very different areas of hypoxia, or oxygen deficient water, on the Louisiana continental shelf. The 2012 area of low oxygen, commonly known as the ‘Dead Zone,’ measured 7,480 square kilometers (= 2,889 square miles) […]
RALEIGH, 2 August 2012 (AP) – North Carolina lawmakers have temporarily banned using a science panel’s recommendation to plan for rising sea levels, after the governor decided Thursday not to veto the measure. The measure has been lampooned by comedians and has drawn the ire of environmentalists. It blocks the state from adopting any rate […]
By KELLY SLIVKA2 August 2012 In yet another display of the inexorable interdependence of Earth’s ecosystems, a bad summer for Midwestern farmland has turned out to be a good one for life in the Gulf of Mexico. Researchers from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium have found that this summer’s hypoxic zone in the Gulf of […]
By Jill Treanor, www.guardian.co.uk31 July 2012 Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, prepared the ground for regulatory action in the Libor rigging scandal by admitting that a “limited number” of its staff had been involved. As Swiss bank UBS insisted it was not at the centre of the interest rate debacle, Deutsche said “action had been […]
20 July 2012 (CME Group) – September Corn finished up 16 3/4 at 824 1/2, 4 1/4 off the high and 25 up from the low. December Corn closed up 17 1/4 at 795 3/4. This was 16 3/4 up from the low and 1 1/4 off the high. September and December corn traded sharply […]
By Natasha Vizcarra24 July 2012 Arctic sea ice continued to track at levels far below average through the middle of July, with open water in the Kara and Barents seas reaching as far north as typically seen during September. Melt onset began earlier than normal throughout most of the Arctic. Overview of conditions As of […]
