By Jonathan Kaiman26 March 2013 BEIJING (guardian.co.uk) – Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China’s insatiable thirst for energy. On Monday morning a group of Ecuadorean politicians pitched bidding contracts to representatives of […]
By Nicky Phillips, Science Reporter24 March 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Endangered species experts plan to save the mountain pygmy possum from becoming the continent’s first climate-change victim. A rapidly warming globe has contracted the Snowy Mountains’ blanket of winter snow that serves as a possum refuge from freezing temperatures when it hibernates for six […]
20 March 2013 (Practical Fishkeeping) – A study has found that, weakened by microscopic borers, the world’s coral reefs will erode more rapidly as the oceans warm and acidify. This phenomenon, combined with a slower growth of coral reefs due to ocean acidification, may make reefs more vulnerable to storms and cyclones, says Ms Catalina […]
By Clifford Krauss19 March 2013 NEW ORLEANS (The New York Times) – The chief executive of the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig acknowledged in court on Tuesday that his crew should have done more to avert the 2010 oil well blowout that left 11 dead and soiled hundreds of miles of beaches […]
By Meena Menon17 March 2013 OSLO (The Hindu) – The rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice has rejuvenated interests in the region, ranging from oil and gas and mineral exploration to the possibility of shorter sea routes and increased tourism. But all this poses fresh challenges to the survival of the Inuit and other […]
By Mark Stevenson13 March 2013 MEXICO CITY (AP) – The amount of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped 59 percent this year, falling to the lowest level since comparable record-keeping began 20 years ago, scientists reported Wednesday. It was the third straight year of declines for the orange-and-black butterflies that migrate from the United States […]
By Brad Lendon8 March 2013 (CNN) – A U.S. plan to give new protection to polar bears was voted down Thursday at an international conference on endangered species. The American delegation at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, had sought a ban on […]
By Dan Vergano3 March 2013 (USA TODAY) – Deforestation by early farmers likely kicked off an era of man-made climate change long before our present era, suggests a climate scientist taking a hard look at agriculture’s early effects. Chopping down trees with flint axes, planting peas and shearing sheep — those all sound like the […]
By Matt Bowen26 February 2013 (Fairfax NZ News) – Bilbo Baggins’ lush green shire could have the life sucked out of it after Waikato’s undeclared drought restricted Hobbiton’s water supply. It’s the region’s driest summer in five years and, with no rain in sight, Matamata’s best known tourist attraction may become three hectares of parched […]
By Bob Berwyn 26 February 2013 FRISCO (Summit Voice) – Using the latest data from the upcoming IPCC climate assessment, ocean researchers have concluded that about three-quarters of the world’s coral reefs could face annual bleaching events in just a short 30 years, and they’ve mapped out which areas will be hit first. “This study […]
