By Chris Samoray 2 April 2014 (mongabay.com) – Every year, 20 million tons of plastic enters the world’s oceans. In 2012, the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development dubbed marine plastic litter “a major environmental issue that the world must address,” and asked for management action by 2025. One group of researchers started […]
By Tom Cohen2 April 2014 (CNN) – Another debris field, another new and so-far futile focus in the search for Flight MH370. More than three weeks after the Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared, one thing has been made clear: the ocean is full of garbage, literally. “It isn’t like looking for a needle in a haystack,” […]
By Saeed Ahmed31 March 2014 (CNN) – The International Court of Justice ruled Monday that Japan can no longer continue its annual whale hunt, rejecting the country’s argument that it was for scientific purposes. “Japan shall revoke any extant authorization, permit or license granted in relation to JARPA II, and refrain from granting any further […]
By Ariel Mark 24 March 2014 (mongabay.com) – Over the past 25 years, West Africa’s primates have been put at risk due to an escalating bushmeat trade compounded with forest loss from expanding human populations. In fact, many endemic primates in the Upper Guinea forests of Liberia and Ivory Coast have been pushed to the […]
By Frances Beinecke28 March 2014 (Washington Post) – Twenty-five years ago this month, the Exxon Valdez struck a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into the water. The public was shocked by photos of oil-soaked otters and reports that coastal residents had lost their livelihoods. The cleanup effort […]
By Arielle Duhaime-Ross24 March 2014 (The Verge) – Last December, scientists announced that dolphins in Louisiana were experiencing lung diseases and low birthrates in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that released more than 636 million liters of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Now, researchers have also found evidence […]
By Margot O’Neill20 March 2014 The dramatic ongoing loss of Australian animal and plant species has prompted influential scientists to call on governments to start making tough decisions about which ones to save – and which species should be left to face extinction. The proposal to triage Australia’s unique species comes from some of the […]
By Jeremy Hance28 February 2014 (mongabay.com) – Since the first of the year, South Africa has lost 146 rhinos to poachers or approximately 2.5 rhinos every day. This is a slight dip from last year’s poaching rate, which hit 1,004 for the whole year or 2.75 a day. South Africa is home to more rhinos […]
By Kashmira Gander20 February 2014 (The Independent) – Lemurs could “very soon” be extinct, some of the world’s leading experts on the primates warned as they unveiled a three-year plan to save them, on Thursday. A combination of the destruction of their habitat and bush meat hunting by impoverished local people, means that Lemurs are […]
By Jeremy Hance 12 February 2014 (mongabay.com) – Forest elephants have suffered unprecedented butchery for their ivory tusks over the past decade, according to new numbers released by conservationists today in London. Sixty-five percent of the world’s forest elephants have been slaughtered by poachers over the last dozen years, with poachers killing an astounding nine […]
