NOAA lists five Atlantic sturgeon populations under Endangered Species Act

31 January 2012 (NOAA) – NOAA’s Fisheries Service announced today a final decision to list five distinct population segments of Atlantic sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act. The Chesapeake Bay, New York Bight, Carolina, and South Atlantic populations of Atlantic sturgeon will be listed as endangered, while the Gulf of Maine population will be listed […]

Texas drought forces a town to sip from a truck – 13 public water systems projected to run out of water in 180 days or less

By MANNY FERNANDEZ3 February 2012 SPICEWOOD BEACH, Texas – The water that once nourished this central Texas community never traveled far: it came from a fenced-in well at the edge of Lake Travis, down a winding street next to the golf course. These days, the water that flows from kitchen and bathroom faucets takes an […]

January U.S. jobs report: Good news for the economy, bad news for the pessimists

By Massimo Calabresi3 February 2012 Some Obama opponents are struggling to find a cloud in the silver lining of January’s jobs numbers, which estimated that there was a 243,000-job boost and a big drop in the unemployment rate, from 8.5% to 8.3%, last month. Their biggest gripe focuses on the size of the labor force: […]

Second Gulf of Mexico dead zone stretches from Louisiana to Alabama

NEW ORLEANS, 1 February 2012 (AP) – A new study finds that Louisiana’s second Gulf of Mexico dead zone stretches at least from the Chandeleur Sound off Louisiana to Alabama’s Dauphin Island — and could be bigger. John Lopez, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said Wednesday that the foundation was able to […]

‘Most severe drought Mexico has ever faced’ leaves two million people without access to water, devastates cropland in nearly half of the country

By KARLA ZABLUDOVSKY30 January 2012 MEXICO CITY – A drought that a government official called the most severe Mexico had ever faced has left two million people without access to water and, coupled with a cold snap, has devastated cropland in nearly half of the country. The government in the past week has authorized $2.63 […]

U.S. CO2 emissions to stay below 2005 levels as coal use shrinks

By Valerie Volcovici24 January 2012 NEW YORK – U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions will be 7 percent lower than their 2005 level of nearly 6 billion metric tons in 2020 as coal’s share of electricity production continues a steady descent over the next two decades, according to new government data. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released […]

Graph of the Day: Water Levels of Anvil Lake in North Central Wisconsin, 1936-2010

Between 2000 and 2010, the worst drought ever recorded since Euro-American settlement hit the Colorado River Basin. Water levels in Lake Mead dropped to record lows. The drought not only threatened the supply of water to cities like Las Vegas, it also harmed the ecosystems and riparian areas that support countless fish, plants, and animals […]

Sea Shepherd declares Canada harp seal slaughter is commercially dead

By Captain Paul Watson29 January 2012 I have been fighting the Canadian seal hunt since 1974. It’s been a long hard road after nearly four decades. During that time I have taken ships into the ice six times, in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1998, 2005, and 2008. I’ve led three helicopter campaigns in 1976, 1977, and […]

Hundreds of scientists ask President Obama to halt Arctic drilling

By Margaret Kriz Hobson28 January 2012 A group of 573 scientists today released a letter (PDF) to President Obama asking him to stop oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic waters until experts can study the proposed oil development’s impacts on sensitive Arctic ecosystems and native subsistence activities. … “We want to make it a high priority […]

BP emails reveal company veiling spill rate

By Cain Burdeau of the Associated Press28 January 2012 NEW ORLEANS – On the day the Deepwater Horizon sank, BP officials warned in an internal memo that if the well was not protected by the blow-out preventer at the drill site, crude oil could burst into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 3.4 […]

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