Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon continues to rise; clearing highest near Belo Monte dam site

By www.mongabay.comJune 17, 2011 Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon continued to rise as Brazil’s Congress weighed a bill that would weaken the country’s Forest Code, according to new analysis by Imazon. Imazon’s near-real time deforestation tracking system found that 165 square kilometers (103 square miles) of forest was cleared last month, a 72 percent rise […]

Arizona blaze part of new era: more big wildfires

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer15 June 2011 WASHINGTON — The fires searing parts of the West are an eerie echo of the past, a frightening reminder of a once terrible danger that had been held largely at bay for decades. The number of large wildfires has been rising for roughly the past 25 […]

How the West was lost: The American West in flames

By Chip Ward 16 June 2011 Arizona is burning. Texas, too. New Mexico is next. If you need a grim reminder that an already arid West is burning up and blowing away, here it is.  As I write this, more than 700 square miles of Arizona and more than 4,300 square miles of Texas have […]

Graph of the Day: Earth Movement by Humans and Rivers in the U.S.

Earth movement by humans and rivers. Maps of the United States showing, by variations in peak height, the rates at which earth is moved in gigatonnes per annum in a grid cell measuring 1° (latitude and longitude) on a side, by (A) humans and (B) rivers. Hooke (1999) / EPA Surface mining and reclamation have […]

Graph of the Day: Progression of the Wallow Fire in Arizona

The human-caused Wallow Fire began on May 29. This progression map shows the daily movement of the fire, which remains 100 percent uncontained.  Wallow Fire Progression Technorati Tags: wildfire,forest fire,North America,drought,heat wave,global warming,climate change,habitat loss,ecosystem disruption

Frog faces last stand in Panama against killer fungus – ‘Modern equivalent of extinct dinosaurs’

By Sean Mattson10 June 2011 CERRO SAPO, Panama (Reuters) – The harlequin frog that hops and swims the rocky streams of a damp niche of Toad Mountain in eastern Panama’s dense tropical jungle has probably been on Earth for around 3 million years. Within a few more years, the black-spotted orange-and-white amphibian with dazzling green-tinged […]

Video: A link between climate change and Joplin tornadoes? Never.

An op-ed by Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org, narrated and illustrated by Stephen Thomson of Plomomedia.com Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Mo., you should not wonder: Is this somehow related to the tornado outbreak three weeks ago […]

Five largest Arizona wildfires on record occurred in the last nine years – ‘This does not foretell well for the future’

SPRINGERVILLE, Arizona, June 6 (MSNBC) — More evacuations were ordered Monday as Arizona’s third largest wildfire on record threatened new areas, including a New Mexico town. Officials also revised upwards their estimate of the burn size, now saying that it covers 365 square miles, up from 301 square miles earlier Monday. Those who hadn’t already […]

U.K. drought ‘may hit at-risk wildlife’

By Emily Beament, PA5 June 2011 Threatened wildlife such as water voles could be hit by the continuing dry weather across parts of the country, the Wildlife Trusts warned today. This year has seen an unusually dry spring, and despite some recent rainfall the dry weather is set to continue across much of the country […]

China faces ‘very grave’ environmental situation, officials say

By IAN JOHNSON3 June 2011 BEIJING — China’s three decades of rapid economic growth have left it with a “very grave” environmental situation even as it tries to move away from a development-at-all-costs strategy, senior government officials said on Friday. In a blunt assessment of the problems facing the world’s most populous country, officials from […]

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