Of the many important results published during Desdemona’s second year of blogging, one stood out: a BioScience paper titled “Untangling the Environmentalist’s Paradox: Why Is Human Well-being Increasing as Ecosystem Services Degrade?” This question is central to the Desdemona Thesis. Essentially, the authors of this paper (Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, et al.) challenge us to reconcile the […]
The Associated Press November 17, 2010 ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (AP) — With its Macondo well dead and few visitors on the coast during the offseason, BP has launched its biggest push yet to deep-clean the tourist beaches that were coated with crude during the worst of the Gulf oil spill. Machines are digging down into […]
Nusa Penida, Indonesia (AFP) Nov 21, 2010 – Indonesia on Sunday declared the coral-rich waters around Bali — a popular scuba diving spot which is home to the giant Mola-Mola ocean sunfish — a protected zone. The 20,000-hectare (49,500 acre) area around Nusa Penida, Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Lembongan islands will be protected from destructive […]
By Rhett A. Butler, www.wildmadagascar.orgNovember 16, 2010 A biological survey in Northeastern Madagascar has turned up evidence of extensive logging in Masoala National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its biologically-rich rainforest. The findings suggest that harvesting of valuable hardwoods—including rosewood, ebony, and palissander—continues despite an official ban on the logging and export […]
By Lauren Morello and Climatewire November 16, 2010 Unusually warm ocean temperatures in the summer and fall of 2005 caused a mass die-off of Caribbean corals that is the worst ever recorded there, according to new research published yesterday in the online journal PLoS ONE. More than 80 percent of corals bleached and over 40 […]
By Peter Foster in Beijing 11:54AM GMT 16 Nov 2010 World leaders must pledge to more than double the numbers of wild tigers in the world by 2022 in order to bring the big cats back from the brink of extinction, conservation groups have said. Leaders from the 13 countries that are still home to […]
By Staff WritersNov 10, 2010 Penang, Malaysia (AFP) Nov 10, 2010 – Overfishing in Southeast Asian seas has left garoupas and sea bass in dire straits, searching for mates on denuded seabeds, according to experts alarmed by ever-declining catches. Marine scientists and fishermen say that popular fish species — especially the large and valuable ones […]
Between 1979 and 2008, first-year sea ice in the summer has been declining at a rate of 8.7% per decade, whereas the thick multi-year sea ice in the summer is being lost at an average rate of 6.4% per decade and over 20% per decade in some areas of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. This decreasing […]
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 8:56 PM Federal officials planning the recovery from the effects of the BP Macondo oil spill should remain on guard for signs of the collapse of fish or wildlife species in and around the Gulf of Mexico in the years to come, say more than 40 […]
Contact: Barbra Gonzalez, barbgo@rsmas.miami.edu University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science8 November 2010 MIAMI – A new study led by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science suggests that over the next century recruitment of new corals could drop by 73 percent, as rising CO2 levels […]
