Climate change, pollution are suspects in rusty blackbirds' plummeting numbers

By RANDY LEE LOFTIS / The Dallas Morning Newsrloftis@dallasnews.com, 12:00 AM CST on Sunday, February 7, 2010   From North Texas to Florida, a high-pitched voice is strangely missing from the chatter of wintering birds. The rusty blackbird, a winter visitor to Dallas-Fort Worth, has suffered one of North America’s steepest and least understood declines. Since […]

Few remain in Pennsylvania coal town as 1962 fire still burns

By MICHAEL RUBINKAMAssociated Press Writer Standing before the wreckage of his bulldozed home, John Lokitis Jr. felt sick to his stomach, certain that a terrible mistake had been made. He’d fought for years to stay in the house. It was one of the few left standing in the moonscape of Centralia, a once-proud coal town […]

Arctic climate change ‘is happening much faster than our most pessimistic models expected’

By Rod NickelWINNIPEG, ManitobaFri Feb 5, 2010 7:32pm EST WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Climate change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice, scientists said on Friday in giving their early findings from the biggest-ever study of Canada’s changing north. The research project involved more than 370 scientists […]

Gov. Perdue asks Georgians to make water conservation commitments ‘that we have never asked of them before’

By Tom Baxter and Dick Pettys February 4, 2010 — Georgians will be called to a new “culture of conservation” under water legislation outlined Wednesday by Gov. Sonny Perdue, struggling in the twilight of his term to find a solution to the long-running water dispute with neighboring Florida and Alabama. At a news conference Wednesday […]

Michigan continues turning paved roads to gravel

Associated Press • February 2, 2010 More Michigan counties are returning stretches of previously paved roads back to gravel to save money. The County Road Association of Michigan said Tuesday that 35 miles were returned to gravel in 2009. Thirty-eight counties have combined to pulverize about 100 miles of pavement and lay down gravel in […]

Climate change causes wolverine decline across Canada

  By Matt WalkerEditor, Earth News The wolverine, a predator renowned for its strength and tenacious character, may be slowly melting away along with the snowpack upon which it lives. Research shows wolverine numbers are falling across North America. Their decline has been linked to less snow settling as a result of climate change. The […]

San Joaquin Valley water prospects ‘remain as if we are in a fourth year of drought’ despite Sierra snowpack

By Kate CampbellAssistant Editor Issue Date: February 3, 2010 As a panel of leading scientists convened last week to examine information used to restrict water transfers from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta on behalf of protected fish, the state’s water supply situation took on new complexities. Water districts and elected officials in the San Joaquin Valley […]

Colorado Springs cuts basic services

By Michael BoothThe Denver PostPosted: 01/31/2010 01:00:00 AM MSTUpdated: 02/03/2010 04:39:29 PM MST COLORADO SPRINGS — This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric. More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark […]

Storm runoff and sewage treatment outflow contaminated with household pesticides

ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2010) — Pyrethroids, among the most widely-used home pesticides, are winding up in California rivers at levels toxic to some stream-dwellers, possibly endangering the food supply of fish and other aquatic animals, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Southern Illinois University (SIU). Pyrethroid insecticides, […]

Officials fear another whooping crane die-off

Associated PressJan. 27, 2010, 5:58AM The world’s last remaining natural flock of endangered whooping cranes, which suffered a record number of deaths last year, will probably see another die-off because of scarce food supplies at its Texas nesting grounds this winter, wildlife managers said. The flock lost 23 birds in the 2008-2009 winter season, in […]

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